Having an older sister....

A package arrived the other day..... it was an older sister, or a doggy, or whatever santa wanted to bring. (Lizzy's favorite game of the last two days... is you go to sleep and wake up to have a present from santa, look in the box and see what he brought you.) She really has had a ton of fun with this box. which is driving me crazy cause i have to be the one to put her in and out and make sure she doesn't fall on her face. But the smile is priceless!


This about says it all! Lizzy is very loving of her brother, but also has been smothering him. Either a tad jealous of the time he gets with mom, or doesn't quite remember he is still a baby, or just overly excited to give loves!???


Caleb has just been moving up in the world (literally too) he is crawling everywhere and anyday will be walking i'm sure. he has conquered crawling up on anything he can. tonight he crawled on the box (lizzy's fun box) and then onto this chair and just was sooooo happy and proud that HE DID IT himself! He also has a priceless smile, as well as some other faces he does on cue. i'll have to find a pic a post it soon! He has quite the personality and besides the biting is just as fun as can be. (unless mom walks out of the room... Definetly a momma's boy, which lizzy is not fond of cause she had the momma's girl thing going for quite some time before this guy came along. Now they have to share and neither like that much. Sometimes i just hold them both as they cry that they want to be held. oh well at least i know they love me!
Lizzy just loves and adores Caleb, for the most part. She is either doing his hair in bows and playing baby with him, or her favorite is puppy. I honestly won't be surprised when caleb thinks his real name is puppy. She follows him around the house saying," here puppy, or fetch puppy" as she throws something for him. the great thing is he really is just like a puppy, he bits, drools, fetches, makes a mess of everything, and loves to be held and petted! We get a good laugh out of it at least.

So, do boys do this, if you have an older boy what does he do to his little sister???





Lizzy has hit another stage... a testy one. For the most part she is so fun, very creative, and full of life. But a little firecracker, one wrong move and its an emotional breakdown. She is so sensitive, that its hard to 'correct behavior' w/o getting a huge meltdown. it may be contributed to the fact that she is still having trouble sleeping all night in her bed...or that may be my reason for emotional meltdowns. Anyway.. she is loving preschool and learning and growing in sooooo many ways. She can write her name, and learning other letters. She surprises me with songs all the time that she knows from school. It really is so fun to see her learning new things. One of the best things is her prayers. they are so tender to hear her talking to her father in heaven. When she prays that she is glad we can be together(as a family) forever. And when she tells me, "mommy, i love you so much" it is the reward and what its all for. I just love her and know she is a strong, but sweet spirit that i am blessed to have in my family. And even when its challenging, I'm so grateful she is mine and my best friend! (as she often says)

Snow in San Diego!

Well living in San Diego, we are very blessed to normally have great weather and even when its bad, some rain or cold, its no where near what many parts of the country are going through. However, this past week we had probably the worst and longest storm i have experienced while here. I have to admit, i do love the sound of rain on my roof. Maybe because i'm from Oregon and the rain reminds me of home. and there is some enjoyment to see a storm outside as long as i have a warm place inside. This first picture is of the ravine behind our house. Usually very dry even after some rain, but we actually had two fast streams going. So, after a week of watching the rain fall, our bathroom roof leak, Cj finishing our crown molding he started 7 months ago, and even buying a new car we were ready to get out of the house for an adventure, and we had to break in the pathfinder!

So our adventure only took an hour drive to Palomar Mountain. The storm ended, and the conditions were near perfect. The sun was breaking through, roads clear, unfortunately lots of people, and a tad cold, but then again we were in the SNOW!


Most of you probably live in snow, but I have not been in show since 2000. Its been ten years, that is hard to believe. Well lizzy heard or saw pictures of snow and has been asking to play in it, so i decided this was the best day to go, before it got old or melted. So we packed snacks and took off. Besides not having proper snow attire. Luckily Lizzy's cousin , whom she gets all her hand me downs from had a nice coast with gloves attached and boots. Caleb we just kept up and out of the snow, but i felt bad his little nose was red. (But thanks to our new car, we were able to open the back and the kids could crawl around and eat, and stay warm.
Lizzy kept saying "look frozen milk." We finally had her taste it and she loved it!
Of course you can't buy a sled in san diego, unless you want to spend $30 for a round saucer at the store on the mountain. So we took our boogie board and it was awesome! It slid fast. Totally took me back to the days i went in the snow as a kid. I couldn't help but laugh and smile to myself cause no one was there to watch, CJ and i took turns cause the kids wanted to stay in the car. Next time we are gonna go with someone else so we can go sled together.
It was such an awesome Day! Just able to get away and enjoy each other and introduce Lizzy and Caleb to snow, even though i wouldn't let caleb touch it cause his hands were already cold enough. But i did go down on a sled a couple times with him and he just loved it, he would laugh and smile! So, apparently the thing to do at the mountain was people would fill up there truck beds or the roof of their car with snow and drive home. Don't know if they just wanted to show it off, or see how long till it melted, but there were tons of people doing it. I couldn't help but laugh that only here would that happen, no where else would people want to take the snow home with them.

Making the Best of it...

So, i've kind of been having a hard time, perhaps a mild depression (not real serious) but i could not get out of having negative feeling, thoughts, or just plain feeling unappreciated and like i couldn't accomplish anything. I just felt like i couldn't smile or laugh. (I know, like my mom always tells me if nothing else gets done, the laundry will wait, the house cleaning will still be there its most important to care for my kids.) But once those feelings come, they are hard to get rid of without giving in to woe is me. Of course i love my kids to death and wouldn't trade them for the world, but Lizzy has been going through another tantrum spell, mostly in the middle of the night, so i have a serious lack of sleep. My usual angel baby has been sick with a bad chest cold and I need my angel baby to keep me sane. He has wanted to be held constantly, hasn't slept well, another contribute to my sleep deprivation. (actually it is 5 in the morning and i am up with him cause he won't sleep....see blog title) So I finally had enough and had my breaking point, prayed, went to the temple and then watching Monk of all things and the character Randy, one of the cops, was talking about an epiphany he had when he saw a bumper sticker that read," Happiness is a Choice" (of course i've heard this idea before, but I know Heavenly Father is guiding us and knows when we need to hear things again) It just hit me hard, So with praying to have a desire to change and trying to make that choice everyday, or 10 times a day, i feel i am doing much better. Happiness is a Choice and its not always easy with everyday life, when i look at my house everyday and see a TON of things to fix, clean, organize, and attend to. Or when my kids are screaming, whining, complaining, crying(and i don't know what to do to help). Or when my hubby is gone long hours, and its not easy I can still be happy, and Smile. And here are some pics from the month:

So hard to believe these to cuties are anything but that!Lizzy with her cousins- Always having a good time together.

We like to call them the OREO!

My little flower princess for Halloween, actually turned into a butterfly princess, (i think cause she didn't want to hold the flower.

Lizzy even won the cupcake in the cake walk at our ward Halloween party. She LOVES frosting.Oh and her mom won best chili! (sorry don't ask for the recipe, i've been swore to secrecy with it- unless you beg then i may give in)

Mom- a hawaiian dancer, of something, its what i had and Caleb my little all-star baseball player. Notice his glove, its a teething ring. I actually lost this for a couple weeks before Halloween and was so sad, i have to admit i prayed where to find it, i didn't think i was gonna find it and finally a few hours before the party i 'remembered' to look in the pool bag...there it was.

My mom is the greatest, i love her visits, she is so good with my kiddos, Here she is dancing with Lizzy. We even had a great girls trip (my mom, sister, and I) to Laguna Beach for the night. It was awesome, but another post, and i need to get pics from my mom!

Finally my two sweet (when they want) kids, we often sit outside and enjoy the nice San diegan weather. It is a blessing i admit, i hate to be cold. And this pic was october, but even last night, nov, it was so nice, i cut some rose bushes and the kids played. the only crazy thing is it drops 20 degrees within days or sometimes over night. it is a little hard to acclimate to but, i'll take it over all you people out there freezing in snow and wind.

Alright, 3 hours later, Lizzy bumping the keyboard and turning my screen off, thank goodness for autosave, and i finished this post, Caleb still has something going on, i keep expecting teeth, but we'll see. When Caleb gets upset, Lizzy is usually close behind. I admit i lost it again this morning, so it is obviously a continual battle, but anything worth having is worth working for right! HAPPINESS and DETERMINATION!

Hope you are all well, I know we all have struggles and issues we usually hide from the world, but sometimes it helps to talk or write it out. So Thanks to my hubby for letting me talk it out with him and Thanks to you that read this long post for your support. I know i'm not the best and keeping up with all you friends and family out there, but i cherish our friendships and the times we do and have spent together. They make Happy Memories for me! Thanks And thanks to a loving Father in Heaven that knows me and is providing comfort for me, and a beautiful knowledge of the importance of temples, making good choices, and the perspective the gospel gives me about this life and the life to come. With all these things I will make it and I WILL be Happy!

Just one of those posts....

I couldn't figure out how to copy and paste, (i know -but it wasn't working) so read the last 2 paragraphs first)


One of the many up sides of living in san diego is we wear coats for fun and dressing up, notice the shorts she is wearing! She just got this hand me down coat from her cousin, believe me i would not invest in something this warm, although it is adorable!

Here is my happy guy. I can just about always count on Caleb to be my happy camper. If he does cry, Lizzy will tell me, "You only have one happy camper right now"refering to her of course, it is something i have told her many times, when she is good, i'll say thanks for being a happy camper. and she often uses it on caleb. But it is not often becasue he is sooooooo fun, always on the verge of a smile. He is willing to anyone that looks his way, to give them a unforgetable grin.
Lizzy has also mellowed out a TON lately and been such a great helper, fun to be with, and so clever. i'm continually amazed at her comments and the things she remembers. She went swimming with her dad and aunt Ally the other day and as she was getting in the pool, said "hey look, i'm grandma Mary" and started moving her arms and legs like she was doing water aerobics as her grandma does. It was so random, but clever of her. they couldn't stop laughing. She got her cousins to join in too. She has definitely been challenging, but also so rewarding to hear her laugh and talk so grown up.
i had to take this pic of CJ and Caleb, they looked so sharp in their sunday best! Caleb just loves his daddy and laughs so hard when Cj makes faces and tickles him. And CJ just loves that they can already watch football (or whatever sport is on) together.
So the up side to having a motivated hubby is he gets things done. The down side is i get holes in my ceiling. I am not complaining at all, over the last few months, Cj has worked his magic and with trading services has gotten me all over head lighting in our used to be very dark house, as well as granite countertops in my kitchen and bathrooms, crown molding, and a whole house ceiling fan. (the crown molding and fan was all CJ, as the pictures show) He researched and figured out how to cut a hole in the ceiling and guess what. The roof is still in tack. We were just a tad nervous, but it all worked out! THe fan is designed to suck in the cool night air, that san diego so often has and blow out the hot air through the attic. The good news is, it works great, the bad news is we haven't needed it the last few weeks cause its been so cold. But i hear its supposed to warm again, so we'll see.

He would probably prefer to not have this pic up, but i think it is adorable!
Just one of those priceless photos. Lizzy on the way home from beach, fell asleep, hat and all!

Well its just been a while so i decided i'd suck it up and write. For some journal writing or blogging is a hobby and fun, but for me it is a chore. i guess i mostly don't like the time it takes to post. i somehow feel like i am wasting time and should be doing something else. or perhaps just go to bed, so i can make it through the next day. Anyhow this is probably why i don't post much, but since i don't keep a journal either, i figure i better do some writing somewhere! So here it is:


The last few months have had there ups and downs,but mostly just normal life stuff. A HUGE up is that Lizzy's joints are looking amazing. She was crawling the other day and i couldn't believe the difference and the range of motion she has now. she went from like a 45 degree to 90. She over all just seems happier, which could be the medicine itself, but i think more likely, it is because she doesn't have discomfort like she used to.
The down is that she just went to the eye dr. and now has to wear a patch for 2 hours a day. but after the first day battle, she has done amazing, doesn't even complain. she is amazing and such a strong kid.

i actually got the video to work...i think

Our summer fun... (part 1)

Donnie and Kira's Wedding!

We are so excited for Donnie and Kira, Lizzy had been asking all summer when was the wedding, mostly cause she knew she got to wear a pretty green dress and she couldn't wait. The day started out a little rough for us, Lizzy throwing tantrums all the way to the temple, and during pictures. But it was a beautiful day and lots of fun to see family! The best part (besides of course the sealing) i have to admit was the end of the reception when the dancing got going. All the nieces and nephews had the dance bug. I saw some of the best moves. I was impressed by all the moves, but just amazed how the body just takes over when the music turns on. Lizzy was coming up with some of the funniest moves. i'll try to post a video, but we'll see.

At least we are all looking at the camera

Lizzy with cousin Cami waiting outside the temple

All and All a great weekend to celebrate Donnie and Kira. It was so much fun seeing all the family as well as getting to know Kira's side. I especially was impressed with the dance her brothers put on at the reception!

Where to find the time.....

I really have a bloggin mindset, cause i constantly go through the day and think oh i could say this or post that, but then when i comes down to it....I usually decide to sleep, when i get a chance, However i know i sometimes need to sacrifice for the good of my journal and trying to remember everything that goes on in my life...especially with my sweet kiddos. I just wish i was better, but i've never liked journal writing, so its another thing i do cause i know i should.


Luckily, Caleb has slept through the night the last 3 nights. We moved him out of our room, which was a great thing to do, He seems to know i'm not right there and he is not going to get food, so he has slept great.

Lizzy continues to amaze and try my patience. But for all you moms of preschoolers out there. I read yesterday some comforting words, which said.. Enjoy this time when your preschooler thinks the world of you, wants to be with you all the time, do everything you do, because never again in your life are they going to want to be with you that much. And enjoy their excitement and energy to see, do, and try new things. They are learning so much so fast, don't get upset when they forget to do something you think they shouldn't. I know i've been loosing it with lizzy, but after reading some things from her viewpoint, i had a much better day today as i tried to enjoy some of those things i usually think are annoying.


Lizzy just loves Caleb and is really very helpful, its funny to see her interact with him because it so often is things i do or say and she is trying to copy. Like the other day she got up in his face and said, "Are you hungry? Cause i just want to eat you up!" Her version of something i probably say, like "you are so cute i'm gonna eat you up" We were sitting around at my brother in laws and she didn't think anyone was listening, but she said that and we all started laughing, although she was saying it very seriously cause she got very embarrassed and upset that we were laughing.