Maryland loves Idaho

Help with Insurance companies and doctors offices

2012-02-16T13:02:00.004-05:00

I can't complain enough about our health care system and how it is entangled with insurance companies. Yes, I think it's great to have insurance for catastrophic events, but for the little stuff? I think high deductible insurance and a credit card with a $2000 limit would be better than paying an arm and a leg for cadillac insurance that covers everything so you don't have to worry about having any money for a doctors visit. This creates "spending sprees" where people don't price shop, or price compare, they just go to whomever and that whomever gets to charge whatever they want because who's really noticing. Then insurance companies get mad because the doctor is charging crazy prices, so they regulate and tell the doctor how much each procedure should fairly cost or what should and should not be covered at all. The doctor in turn subconsciously starts only doing procedures they will get paid back for from the insurance company because they know the patient will be upset if they do something that costs the person money out of their pocket. Do you see the bad spiraling effect?

But, since most of us have this "prepaid" insurance, we need to learn how to deal with all the craziness and bills we get from them.

Yesterday I had the strangest experience. The hospital sent me a bill with the amount I owed them, the due date and where to send the check, but no other information except that my insurance denied paying that amount. What was the bill for? So I called and they are sending me a detailed bill. Why didn't they send me the detailed bill in the first place? Usually I don't just hand people money without knowing what I'm paying for. Here are the reasons why you should never just pay a medical bill without knowing what it's for.

Jana's list of top Mistakes Doctors offices or Insurance companies make (in no particular order):

1. Bill the wrong insurance company

2. Bill the wrong procedure

3. Enter your personal information in wrong

4. Don't send the bill the the insurance company within 3 months- 1 year of the procedure

5. Bill something that isn't covered by your insurance company

6. Tell you they "accept" your insurance without telling you they aren't a provider for your insurance. This means you will have to pay "out of network" prices with are usually higher copays or higher percentages of the total prices (ex. you pay 60% instead of %20 of the bill)

All of these things can lead to the insurance not paying your doctors office and your doctors office sending you the bill. A good doctor's office would realized that it was their mistake and re-bill with the correct information, but a lazy office will just bill you for the amount owed. If you pay it, GREAT their work is done! If you call to find out why, they realize the mistake and re-bill for you and the insurance company pays. More work for them, but less money for you.

Things you can do to save yourself TONS of money!

1. Know your insurance info. What is the copay, how much do they cover? What doctors are "providers" of your insurance. If you don't know, call the number on the back of you card and ask. Just to be sure, call back and ask the same question to a different person and make sure they are telling you the same thing. Yes, even insurance companies can tell you the wrong info. Write down what it is and who told you it, the date and what time.

2. Keep logs of insurance calls. These people like to give you the run around and contradict themselves. Write down what it is and who told you it, the date and what time. I do this right on the bill or explanation of benefit that I have an issue with.

3. Always, always ask if the doctor is a "provider" for your insurance. Don't ask if they "accept" your insurance. I've done that before and got burned. Sure they accepted my insurance, but they weren't a provider so I had to pay out of network benefits, which is atleast 20% of your bill.

4. If they draw blood, or do lab work, make sure the doctors office sends it to the lab that your insurance covers. I've also been recently burned by that and was billed $300... You think the doctors offices should know, some do, some don't. I fought the bill and had the charges written off, no I didn't pay.

5. If you are sent a bill by a lab or doctors office because your insurance didn't pay, DON'T PAY THE BILL. Always look at your explanation of benefits from your insurance company and call your insurance and doctors office ask why they didn't pay. Most of the time the doctors office didn't do something right. It may also be that you are paying your deductible, but always check first. NEVER NEVER just pay the bill. I've been billed multiple times and 99% of the time I don't really owe the money and the bills get written off, but Drs will bill you without checking why your insurance didn't pay.

6. It's a pain, but when you do call insurance companies, have your bill and the explanation of benefits (EOB) that the insurance sends you in front of you. I usually staple these together and keep them for a few years. Go over the bill with the insurance company and write notes either on the EOB or on a sticky note attached to it. Always write down the name of the person you talk to and what time and day it was. Then follow up in a few weeks to a month to see if they actually did what they said they would do. Make a "to do" file and just revisit it later. It usually takes insurance companies as long as a month or two to fix something.

7. Don't hesitate to call more than once about the same thing. Different people will answer the phone and some are Way more helpful and knowledgable than others.

8. For any of you who get bills from doctors offices saying you need to pay because the insurance didn't, DON'T PAY THE BILL! Atleast don't pay the bill without checking to make absolutely sure that you actually owe them money.

Things that insurance companies and doctors offices need to do:

1. Make your bills easy to read. When some one has to call you to figure out what the heck you are billing them for, that should mean it's not easy to read. Perhaps Apple should consult with these people and make the bills user friendly.

2. Don't use words normal people don't know (ex. EOB, denial, provider, claim) or codes next to their denial that they have to look up on the back of the paper. Like your claim was denied *abc then you have to look up on the back to see what a, b and c reasons were.

3. Always check to see if you are a provider for someone's insurance before you see them. People don't know.

4. List your prices for things. If I want to get a strep test, how much does it cost?

Here is an example of a hard to read dental bill. All of my dental bills are confusing. They start with your account balance, either positive or negative and end up somewhere where you owe money.

ex.

Jana -28

insurance payment $100

office visit -$150

You owe $75

Say what?

Perhaps giving us something more easy to read with actual detail of what the charges are for. Like this:

Cleaning $50

Flouride treament $30

Doctor check up $50

Paper products used $20

Total Bill $150

Insurance payment $100

Doctor agreed write off

because they are a provider $50

Money owed to doctor $0

Insurance was billed and they paid $100 of your $150 bill, leaving $50 left for you to pay. Because I am a provider for your insurance and have made certain agreements with your insurance company, I have agreed to charge you less money than the above normal pricing. Because I am a provider for your insurance, your above visit was reduced by $50, which means that you don't not owe me anything. Have a great day!

Wouldn't that be nice!

Ok, I'm done with my soapbox. Hopefully this helps someone out and if you learned anything. Make sure you remember:

-Don't pay doctor's bill if you are not absolutely sure what the bill is for!!!!

-Always call and ask questions until you know!

-And keep records.

4th of July in Williamsburg 2011

2012-02-15T15:14:00.005-05:00

We had a great 4th of July. We celebrated in Williamsburg with my dad, Shana and some of our fun Family friends the Hardings. Williamsburg is only 2.5 hours from our house, so it makes for a fun little mini vacation. It also has a small town feel, and it's such a neat place to go on the 4th when you remember our countries fight for freedom. We drove up early on the 4th to watch them fire the cannons and march to the fife and drum players. Very cool and LOUD!

Berkeley brought his cap gun and got a tri-corn hat to complete the look. It's the only city around here where you can carry around a fake/real looking cap gun and get away with it.

After the cannons, we went to watch the live reading of The Declaration of Independence. It's fun because the people are dressed up and in character. They even have some loyalists spread throughout the crowd to give the opposing point of view.

Everett's favorite ride of the day.

Alyvia and Eve (both 8) talking to the basket weavers. They were told that if they grew up in Williamsburg this is something they would've done a lot of. Added bonus is the girls had both read Filicity, the American Girl Doll book, so going to Williamsburg was extra fun for them!

You can't go to Williamsburg without getting locked up! If only it was this fun back then :)

The end of the day ended with some loud bangs, but not fire works. There was a huge rain/thunder storm. We were trying to make it to the field to watch the fireworks, but got stuck under a bridge as we took shelter from the lightening and torrential rain. The men ran back to get the cars and as we were loading our children into the minivans we were almost arrested by the cops for pulling over on the side of the road. I guess all small towns need robocops to "take charge". :)

Went stayed in a hotel that night and headed to the Virginia Beach the next day. We lucked out and got to see fireworks at the beach the next night, so we didn't miss anything. It was a great 4th of July!

Happy Valentines Day DAVE

2012-02-14T07:34:00.003-05:00

This is a picture of us from our family photo shoot last year. I just love how it shows Dave's tenderness towards me. He is so sweet.

This is a picture of us after our 8 mile jungle hike in Kauai, I know, we look horrible compared to the picture above. But it shows that we're still having fun and enjoying the sunset on a cliff over the ocean. We've gone through some hard times, but always enjoy the beautiful vistas at the end together.

These are our footprints in the sand on the private beach we hiked to in Kauai. It was 4 miles from any car access and It was pretty cool to see only out footprints in the sand next to each other.

I just wanted to publicly say Happy Valentines Day to my sweet husband! He is so good to me, puts up with my mood swings, which happen to be more frequent when I'm pregnant :) He always tells me I look good even when I'm huge (pregnant) and just wake up :) He's such a good provider for our family and goes to work every day so we can live comfortably, even though I'm sure he could think of so many more fun things to do. He's so good with our children, always playing games, legos, jumping on the trampoline ect... with them. They all adore him. Everett's finally getting there, he's such a mommy's boy, but one day at the water park with dad going down all the fun slides seemed to tilt him in Dave's direction :) I don't know how I could go through life without you honey. Thanks for being my friend, my lover and my children's father. I'm so glad we were married in the temple for time AND all Eternity. I can't imagine a better man to spend the rest of this life and the next with.

I LOVE YOU!

Everett's 3rd Birthday

2012-02-13T14:23:00.003-05:00

Everett asked for an alphabet birthday, so I went with that. It's so fun that he likes the alphabet. Thank you learning leap frog videos :) He actually got really into his birthday this year and loved all the decorations and presents. It was really cute. He keeps insisting now, 5 month later that it's his birthday. It's hard to explain to a three year old that they've still got a long ways to go.

We invited one of our family friends who also happen have a three year old that Everett adores. His name is Paul. Everett and Paul have a lot of fun together.

Digging in for the present!

Berkeley gave Everett an umbrella, which Everett still loves. I thought it would be ruined by now, but he has actually taken really good care of it. Why do all kids just love umbrellas?

Having fun with Paul!

One of his favorite presents was the bunch of balloons Shana gave him. He carried those around for as long as he could and was so sad when they deflated. Why did we even bother getting him other presents, I don't know ;)

Our big three year old. He's just growing so quickly!

P.S. He chose to wear Berkeley's soccer shirt because it had numbers on it. How can I turn him down on his birthday! So sorry for the oversized t-shirt, he does have clothes that fit him. :)

Jana's view on childbirth in the US (sorry, long post)

2012-02-12T16:11:00.006-05:00

I should feel like a pro after giving birth to 3 other children, but this time around I felt like I didn't know anything. My first three births I put 100% of my trust in the doctors and anesthesiologists to do what was best for me and the baby and to kill the pain. They went to school for all of that right? Plus loads of people give birth every day and get epidurals every day and rave about the results. So I did what I thought best. I didn't read anything except about what to eat and do during pregnancy and left the birth part to the doctors. Who really wants to think about the epidural and how it's really performed or the side effects of different drugs and procedures? I felt like the doctors wouldn't do anything that would be bad for me or the baby and I wanted a pain free birth. I did have relatively pain free births. Epidurals do work amazingly well for killing the pain of contractions. But, two out of my last three births resulted in horrible spinal headaches, back problems and a lot of aftermath that I really don't want to deal with again. Apparently these spinal headaches only happen to 1% of women after getting an epidural, except in my case they happened 75% of the time... So I figured this time around I'd better go another route for pain relief during birth unless I wanted to risk yet another messy after birth experience, or possibly something worse.

Here is a picture of where the anesthesiologist has to place the medicine for an epidural. Looks pretty hard to me. Being a neuroscience major, it also worries me to see all the things that could accidentally get poked. Since they haven't had the best luck with my back (it must be shaped weird) I started to try and educate myself. What did I find out? That in the United States of America, the country with the best medical care in the world, does not offer any other pain relief for the later stages of birth than an epidural... What?? I was also told by the doctors that because I'm on my 4th birth, that I probably wouldn't make it to the hospital before the later stages of labor and that my only other route was to do it natural. Wow, this really surprised me. Tons of births happen every day. It's probably the most common reason people go to the hospital and there are no other options for pain relief.?? I even asked about other neural blocks (a procedure my mom had) and was told that it's old fashion and no one does it except some doctor in Africa (no kidding, one doc told me that). He said epidurals worked so much better that they just stopped doing the other procedures.

Here is a picture of all the different blocks that can or were done to help with child birth pain. the Paracervical, Pudendal and Caudal and Local (this one usually for episiotomies) are done by the OB and the others are done by anesthesiologists. Too bad they took those options away.

There is also another treatment called Nitrious oxide, which you breath in as you have a contraction, supposedly making the peak of the contraction more easy to bare. I've heard that they only offer this in 2 hospitals in the US.

So where are the options? Seems to me there is some money to be made for anyone who can come up with something better or at least comparable to an epidural that doesn't have to be put into your spine.

So, what am I doing this time around? The only option I have, natural. There are a lot of women who have had babies this way. Especially if you look at it from a world wide, all time view. Isn't this what my body is made to do? The first time I had a baby I told Dave that now I knew that every part of my body had a purpose and worked. And, growing up in a farm community, I also said I felt some what like an animal/cow with the whole nursing thing. But at the same time, it was amazing and awesome. We created this little person and I was feeding it!

I am also reading more on birth and delivery and what it entails and what I can do to help with the pain. It's really been interesting to read these books after giving birth 3 other times. I can see things that went right or wrong, and can see where I could've made better decisions along the way had I known some of this stuff. The main thing would've been to not let them break my water. I really don't see a reason for any doctor to do this. Perhaps if labor had been long and hard and things weren't progressing, but each time my doctors have offered to break my water I was sitting there comfortably, the baby was fine, the contractions were fine and there really was no reason to hurry things along except to get me out of a birth room so someone else could use it, or so they could have something to do. I'm sure not all OB's are like this obviously, but I would've at least ASKED what the medical reason was for them to break it. The only things that I have read so far that breaking the water does is increase stress on the baby by taking away it's cushion from contractions, it makes infection to the baby possible since it doesn't have this protective sac around it anymore, and increases pain for the mother due to friction. So if you don't medically need to do it, why do it?

With Alyvia's birth I would've asked them what kind of epidural I was getting and how long it was going to last. My epidural wore off in the end and I felt what seemed like the full pain at the end, other than that though, it went pretty good.

With Berkeley, when they came in and said, "Ok, we're going to break your water to speed things up, I would not have been excited and would've said, no until I had had my 2 hours of antibiotics (I was Group B strep positive). Because of this decision, Berkeley had to be monitored after birth for infection because he came before the antibiotics were in me. I would've also made sure they gave me the numbing shot before they stuck me with the epidural. Talk about feeling stabbed in the back! Not once, but multiple times as he tried to find the right spot. I also had a spinal headache after I went home and had to go back to the ER to get a "blood patch" to fix it. Not fun with a new born.

With Everett, I would not have let them induce me at 37 weeks. They had scheduled an induction that day because my water levels had been low the day before, but my water levels were fine that morning so I did not need the induction. I had however been contracting every 10 min, with out my contractions getting any closer and they weren't sure if I was in labor or not, but decided to "break my water" to "speed things along" anyway. I would've waited longer to make sure I was in full labor before letting them break my water. After a little pitocin, he was born 1 hour later. Everett had jaundice for a month after birth and had to be admitted to the hospital two different times to get it under control. It was a lot to deal with while trying to recuperate from giving birth and from the spinal head aches and back pain from the epidural. I feel like if he had cooked inside a little longer his jaundice probably wouldn't have been as severe. I can't say for sure that it would've been better, but at least I would've felt like he was suppose to come for sure if I had waited to see if I was really in labor.

So we'll see how baby number 4 goes. I have an OB because I feel like they have the best medical training in case something should happen or I need a C-section. I will probably get a doula, so I can guarantee that someone is there that can help me through the part of labor that there are no pain options for. I'm also going to keep reading and educating myself on my options, and on birth itself. It's actually pretty cool stuff. The human body is an amazing thing. I'm going to look at is like I did my half marathon. It's going to be hard, but I know there is an amazing end and I'm excited to have it end with a happy healthy Jana to care for the baby afterwards.

So again, if you want to be rich, think of a way to out perform the epidurals!!

Websites I'm loving right now

2012-02-11T08:55:00.002-05:00

As I grown larger and get more tired, I've been spending more time sitting and surfing the web. Some of my favorite sites I've found or heard about are:

pinterest.com

You have to be invited by someone, so if you want to join let me know and I'll send you and invite. I LOVE this site! It makes surfing the web so much more productive. You download a tool to your tool bar on your computer and when you see something you love while surfing the web you just hit the pin button on your tool bar and you can "pin" any picture, or website to a virtual pin board for later reference. It's so helpful for redecorating or planning parties or holidays. Now I just go back to my boards on Pinterest to see all the things I love when I'm finally ready to make a purchase or decorate a room. LOVE IT!

zulily.com

Just found this today, but I don't want to forget about it! Fun website to find unique, lower priced items. The website describes it's self as daily deals for moms. Has everything from kids furniture to house wares to clothes. Super cute stuff!

dmachoice.org

Do you hate junk mail and credit card offers? Go to this website! You can opt out of receiving all that junk that you have to sift through daily. It takes a few minutes, but will save way more time than that over the long run! I'm doing all of this right now and can't wait for all the time it will save me in the end.

Those are just a few that I'm into at the moment. Enjoy!

Atlanta Aquarium

2012-02-10T23:08:00.002-05:00

While we were in Atlanta, GA visiting Dave's family for Thanksgiving 2011, we went to the aquarium. It was amazing! They have a whale shark, see picture above. I love this picture! My kids love ocean life and they couldn't get enough of this fun aquarium. The aquarium had a lot of different types of fish and a lot of hands on stuff that the kids could touch and feel. So fun!

Alyvia and Berkeley posing in front of the wall of fish. Is it just me or do they look so grown up in this picture!

Berkeley touching a shark! He wants everyone to know about it. :0) Berkeley is probably our biggest ocean life fan, with Everett at a close second.
The Aquarium had a cute pop up window inside the penguin habitat. I thought this picture of Dave and Everett was so cute.

We will definitely have to visit the aquarium again!

Everett the charmer

2012-02-09T14:26:00.004-05:00

Everett has really captured my attention lately. I don't know if it's his age or what, but something cute, charming or hilarious comes out of his mouth more than once a day. He really does make my days happier.

Today, as I was teaching preschool, the kids were downstairs having a "free play" time and I heard some of them yelling/singing the ABC's. I could hear Everett was one of them because he has a pretty loud, from the gut type voice if he wants to. All of a sudden, Everett and his cute friend Paul run up the stairs and say, "Presenting Everett and Paul!" and proceeded to sing the alphabet to me with their plastic microphones, dancing and smiling the whole time. It was so charming and cute.

Everett also asks me all the time if he can go on the merry go round or the ferris wheel. He also has some obsession with flying. Once at the top of the stairs he said, "Mom, can I fly?" That scared me a little. If you don't already know, my sister Shana is currently living with us and has been a witness to his cuteness and said that when she put him to bed the other night that he grabbed her face looked her straight in the eyes and said, "Aunt Shana, I'm going to dream that I'm flying tonight! Good night!" and promptly laid down. So funny. So if he winds up being a pilot, or thrill seeker amusement park junkie, we'll know his interests started very early in life.

Everett also gets in there and plays Just Dance 3 with Alyvia and Berkeley and actually does a really good job. They will all three be dancing different parts and Everett will hit his move right when he's suppose to. It's so cute to watch a 3 year old dancing like that. We just love having little Everett around and can't wait to see what else he has up his sleeves.

A Post A Day

2012-02-09T14:22:00.002-05:00

Well, it's no secret that I've fallen off the blog wagon a little. Yet, life still goes on and I want to keep capturing it because some things are just so funny or cute and I know I will never remember it later on unless I write it down. Dave has been wonderful at printing my blogs out each year and I cherish those books. The only problem is I went from 72 posts to only 12 last year, so I'm repenting and am going to blog about the present, or whatever I have time for at the moment and not procrastinate because I've got 15 posts that I really wanted to do, but can't seem to find time to actually do them.

We'll see how this goes!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T22:44:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that your New Year is off to a great start!
I think one of my New Year's resolutions for this year will be to actually get a card out by Christmas...

This year seemed to fly by for us, so we're sending an E-card to all of our friends and family to let you know how much we appreciate and enjoy having you in our lives, and to give you a little update on what we are doing.

We had a fun and eventful year.

Alyvia turned 8 in July and was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She is growing up so fast! She enjoys school and friends and is doing well in all the different subjects. She still has her contagious laugh and enjoys her free time which she spends drawing, writing stories and making presents for anyone nearby. She's a good older sister and occasionally stops playing barbies and American Girl dolls to build legos or play wii with Berkeley. She also lets Everett play Barbies with her. Alyiva loves soccer and has defensive instincts. She also loves swim team and dancing. We're always surprised by the moves she does. She is currently learning to play the piano; daddy is her teacher. We enjoy her happy and loving spirit in our home.

Berkeley turned 6 in February and started 1st grade this fall. He's grown up a lot in 1 year and seems so much more mature. He's very into legos and beating anyone who will play him on the wii. He really enjoyed playing t-ball, swim team, and soccer and is currently doing well playing basketball. He also loves playing chess. He's a gamer like his father. He is a very determined and competitive boy who likes to do well at all he does, perhaps a little bit of a perfectionist. We enjoy his loyalty and honesty (this boy does not tell a lie) and are happy to see him doing well in all he does.

Everett is a monkey that never stops moving. He surprises us daily with how quickly he learns. He told me he wanted an alphabet party for his 3rd birthday (in September). He's tearing it up in the ABC, 123 department and we're excited to see what this little ball of fire does with his life. He does joy school twice a week and loves all his friends there. He's a dare devil and has told me multiple times that he wants to fly, once from the top of the stairs! He also LOVES merry-go-rounds and asks me almost every day if he can go on one. His constant motion and happiness keep our home laughing and having fun.

Baby girl is doing well and growing so big (I feel it ;). The doctor says all is well. When we had our ultrasound the tech and doctor kept commenting on how active she was. She sucks her thumb, kicks, punches, and does flips. We're excited to meet her at the end of March. We're just wondering if she'll be like Alyiva (brown hair) or the boys (blonde hair). It'll be fun to have another little girl in the house!

David's work is going very well despite the volatile world we live in. He teaches the 12-13 year olds at church and loves being with teenagers. He also recently started playing indoor soccer and has resolved to be more active this year. He loves playing with the kids, especially building legos with them for hours on end. He also enjoys playing wii with them. Berkeley now beats him on the Wii, so the torch is being passed to the next generation. He's a great dad and is doing a wonderful job supporting his family.

I'm also doing well. I'm still trying to figure out how to balance all the activities going on in the family with two children doing sports and school. I volunteers at the school doing Jr. Great Books (teaching groups of children about critical thinking during reading) and Art smart (helping with class art projects). I am also a co-leader in Alyvia's girl scout troop and enjoy spending time with the girls. I also teach Everett's joy school about once a month and have fun planning the lessons and teaching the 6 boys in it. At church, I taught the 4 year olds in 2011 and now teach the 9 year olds and have a lot of fun seeing them learn and grow. In my spare time... I like to take naps, read, clean, and blog. So if you see my house, or my not updated blog and circles under my eyes, you'll know I ran out of spare time that day (ha, ha!)

Dave and I had our 10 year anniversary this year, you can read about it in my last post!
We love the neighborhood and have made many wonderful friends here. We love DC, but look forward to our trips to Idaho and Georgia to see family and friends and hope to get there soon.

Happy New Year!
Love,
David, Jana, Alyvia, Berkeley, Everett and Baby Girl (coming in March!)

Ten Wonderful Years celebrated in Kauai!

2011-12-25T23:23:00.012-05:00

This August we celebrated 10 wonderful years of marriage! It hardly seems like 10 years have passed, but when I started counting all the things that have happened in the last 10 years, it did seem like a lot...

1. We both graduated from college

2. We moved to DC

3. We had our first child Alyvia

4. We bought our first house, a townhouse.

5. We had our second child

6. We switched jobs 4 times (throughout the 10 years)

7. We sold our first house

8. We had our 3rd child

9. We built 2 houses (currently happily living in the last one)

10. We are pregnant with our 4th child

Wow, that was amazing, it actually equaled out to 10 things for 10 years of marriage. A lot of life changing happy events and we couldn't be more thrilled with how it's shaping up.

We racked our brains about what to do for our 10 year anniversary. Dave's parents graciously offered to watch our three kiddos for a week, so we started planning for a wonderful, kid free, week of bliss. Dave planned a fun get away to Maine. I've always wanted to drive up that direction and see the north east. We were both very excited. Then the weather reports started to roll in... Hurricane Irene was projected to hit DC, as well as all the places we were planning to stop (NYC, Boston, and Maine)...

This made our plans slightly more complicated. Would Irene really follow the path? Would it really do the damage they were projecting? All I knew was that I didn't want this to ruin our vacation. To top it off, the house we rented in Maine called us to tell us that they were having septic issues and that they would have to cancel our reservations. Now everything was up in the air. So naturally I started looking into the Caribbean (wink, wink). Lets not forget that I was 2 month pregnant, tired and slightly nauseous. So the alternatives I chose were very low key and relaxing. Anyways, due to the short notice and timeline, all of the cruise ships had already left and plane tickets to the Caribbean were very expensive. Things were not looking good. So I decided to check Hawaii. I've always wanted to go there and thought, you never know... After a short 1 day investigation and some insight from family members who lived there, we were able to score some plane tickets and a cheap condo on the island of Kauai (the island where they film all the movies like Jurassic Park, Gilligan's Island).

We were super excited!!! The next morning, we drove the kids to GA as the hurricane was moving into the DC area, we skipped the potential mess of it all (really, there wasn't much mess in the end) and dropped them off with Dave's parents and headed to the airport. At the airport, we breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that we were actually on a real vacation and then almost fainted when we realized Dave had left his I.D. in DC!! How were we going to get on our plane!! It all turned out fine as the people at the airport called an mysterious person "in the government" and asked Dave a series of random weird questions which they somehow knew the answers to. We'll worry about that later. We were just happy to be getting on the airplane! Good bye reality, hello vacation with no kids (except for the baby, which did gets it's way a few times by making me nauseous!).

On the airplane, realizing that we might actually make it on the vacation!

Cool tree at Ke'e beach.

Dave discovering that real coconut does not taste the same as the sugary stuff in the bag.

Jana trying to curb the nausea with some amazing coconut electrolytes...it didn't work.

View of the coast from the light house on Kauai. We loved to see the beautiful water.

Kauai proved to be the perfect island for Dave and I. As we were driving around the island, Dave and I both commented at the same time on just how beautiful the island was. Then we noticed that we were both looking out different windows of the car. Dave was looking at the mountains and I was looking at the ocean. This island had a little of everything we both loved. We spent our days sleeping in, hiking, relaxing on the beach and snorkling. We hiked in the "Grand Canyon" of the Pacific.

Here is a picture of Dave and the "Grand Canyon".

We snorkeled and Dave body boarded on the waves. Dave even saw a sea turtle. That night I felt like my body was still moving up and down from the waves.

We went to an amazing Luau on a beautiful plantation. People thought we were on our honeymoon. They were shocked to find out we had 3 children.

The lady who was on fire! Ok, not really, the picture sure makes it look like that. They were amazing dancers and I was very impressed with their ability to play with fire.
The special dance for people on their honeymoon or anniversary. Dare I say I see a little baby bump!

We also hiked up the Napali Coast line (8 mile hike!) It is only accessible by foot, so we felt very blessed to be able to see it. The trail smelled like fresh guava fruit, which grew and fell to the ground along the trail. We hiked along sheer cliffs that plunged into the ocean, we got to walk along a private beach, hiked along boulders and crossed streams ending at a huge waterfall. Dave swan underneath it. I stayed safely on land. I had to watch out for the baby!

This is part of the trail we hiked. It was the same trail that the natives used to get from village to village.

The secluded beach. Too bad the waves would kill you if you got in the water.

See Dave just to the right of the waterfall. The waterfall was breath taking. Dave said the freezing water was also "breath taking".

We also had time to go spelunking. Kauai had some fun little caves to explore around the island.

As an ending note, I can't have a post about Kauai without showing you a picture of the "jungle chickens" that roam free around the island. This tells you how many predators are on the island. We did see one wild kitten, but no snakes or huge spiders, or even mosquitos to bother us. It was truly an 80 degree, mildly breezy wonderful beautiful paradise.

We enjoyed our time together there and more importantly, have enjoyed our last 10 years together! I love you honey!

19 Weeks and Counting!

2011-11-06T22:20:00.005-05:00

Baby number 4 is on the way and we are so excited!! I'm feeling so much better after a little bout of nausea in the first trimester. Nothing to complain about though, other people have it so much worse.

We just found out that we're having a GIRL! We are a little excited to even out the girl boy ratio in the family. Plus, I get to pull out all those little girl clothes again and not to mention all the cute little girl things that have come out since Alyvia was born! I love those cute headbands and shoes!

During the ultrasound, the ultrasound tech and the radiologist kept saying how active our baby was. She was moving all over the place. They could hardly get pictures. They did manage to get a few cute shots which I posted above. She might have more energy than Everett! We're excited to meet her!

Needless to say we are preparing the house and the children for a new little addition and are having a lot of fun doing it. Now we just need to think of a name....

Look who's 8!

2011-08-21T14:24:00.003-04:00

Our little baby turned 8 in July! How is it possible that I am old enough to have an eight year old?? Alyvia has grown up to be such a sweet girl. She still loved dresses and being girly. But, due to the uncoolness of princesses, has moved on to liking other things. So no more princess dresses, but she still loves baby dolls, Barbies, little pet shop ect.. Alyvia also loves animals and begs me to take her to the Reston zoo (a petting zoo where you can feed the sheep and pet the animals. ) Too bad she's not in Idaho, I'm sure someone would love to have Alyvia take care of some animals, and I wouldn't have to pay to take her to a zoo to do it!

Alyvia also enjoys swimming and soccer and dance. She is a girl of many talents. Some of which include touching her tongue to her nose, licking her elbow (yes, she can really do it), making her tongue into a 4 leaf clover, and rolling her belly like a wave. I need to figure out how to post videos here so you can see all of these special talents. She is also a great "babysitter" of little children. Give us your 2-4 year old children and Alyvia will have them dancing, playing and having a blast.

Here she is in her baptism dress.
Here is the crew. Alyvia, 8, Berkeley, 6 and Everett, 2 (3 in September).

Here is the birthday girl with her favorite present, Filicity, an American Girl Doll. Filicity is also from Virginia and loves animals.

Alyvia and Filicity wearing matching outfits. Coincidentally, Alyvia and Filicity look very similar, especially when they are dressed the same. I am so happy she is enjoying this overly priced doll. She loves to dress her and fix her hair and redress her and fix her hair again...

The mall near our house just got an American Girl Doll Store and restaurant, so of course we had to go check it out. Who knew reservations were so hard to get. It was fun to go see all the girls with their dolls enjoying a cute lunch together.

We took a few of Alyvia's friends to the restaurant. They were so cute. I had to laugh when they started to complain about their high heels... I guess "Beauty is Pain" starts early.

Alyvia, being the big 8 year old she is, decided to plan her entire birthday party by herself. It was great for me! I had to tone down a few things, like the menu. I didn't think we needed pizza, hot dogs, chicken nuggets and hamburgers. But the rest of it was pretty good. She wanted a Dance Party, so we made a fun dance mixed CD with the electric slide, the Macarena, the Chicken Song and a few other must have dance songs (YMCA!). The girls danced and had a blast! We played some games that Alyvia chose, like a hoola-hoop contests and freeze dance, ate dinner and had cake and ice cream. It wound up being a really fun party. The girls designed their own Rock Star t-shirts to take home. My Dad ironed on their shirts as they had designed them, while the party continued (Thank you Dad!). They also got to bring home a CD of the songs so they can practice for the next dance party. Honestly, we listen to the CD at least once a week when my kids decide to have their own dance party. Even Everett can do the electric slide now. Super Cute!
Here they are playing freeze dance in the yard.

It was a fun July. Alyvia's birthday party was on her Birthday and she got baptized on the 31st at our church. It was such a special event. A lot of family and friends were able to come and support her, which meant a lot to us. She's been trying to study the scriptures daily and do what she is suppose to do now that she is an official member of the church. I'm very proud of her decision and commitment and look forward to seeing the choices she makes in her life.

We Love You Alyvia!!!!

The House of Many Talents

2011-08-15T08:31:00.013-04:00

We are in the talent finding time of life with our two oldest children right now. They have been having a lot of fun trying new things. I'm going to tell you about what they've been up to in the last year.

Here is a picture of Berkeley playing t-ball. He was so good! He always had a serious look on his face and always knew where the ball was. He was very serious about winning! Pretty cute in t-ball where it was very normal to see kids running for 3rd instead of 1st and staring at butterflies in the sky while the ball flew past them. I was impressed with Berkeley's determination. Here is Berkeley's fun team, he had a lot of good friends on his team, which made it even more fun!
Berkeley with his trophy at the end of the season.
Berkeley having fun with his friends before a game. It was hard to tell them all apart once they had their uniforms on.Alyvia has completed 2 seasons of soccer and now loves it! Her first season was a learning experience and she was the child looking at butterflies while the ball flew past her. But, in her second season something clicked and she LOVED it! She scored 3 goals that season and saved quite a few for her team. She started picking up on the strategy of the game and it was really fun to see her playing hard.
I had to throw in my end of year soccer cupcakes. I thought they turned out pretty cute. The outside grass is made of coconut, which the kids actually liked!
Alyvia with her game face on, going after the ball.
Berkeley also did one season of soccer and loved it. He would run his little heart out. There wasn't much strategy going on at his age (5), but he could put it in the goal!
We also took the kids skiing this year! It was so much fun. Here we are on the snow coaster at Wisp ski resort.
It goes down the mountain and you control the breaks. It was so cold tears were streaming down my face. Everett didn't seem to mind and loved it!
Here the kids are snow tubing. There was a little icy rain that night, so by the end of the night they were flying down the hill!
Berkeley!
Everett! We didn't get any pictures of the kids actually skiing (bummer). But, Dave and I skied from 9 am-3pm while the kids took a ski class and then Dave took the kids up the hill on the lift and they skied down while I watched Everett. Both kids made it down the green run and had so much fun skiing. Berkeley begged us to go on the hill even though he had no idea how to stop. I hesitated, but finally let him go and he totally learned how to ski on the hill. I guess the bunny hill was too short. Dave and I had a blast skiing together. We hadn't been skiing for almost 10 years, so it was nice to know we could still ski!
Alyvia and Berkeley also took ice skating lessons and really enjoyed it. They learned some great techniques and had fun skating together. Berkeley would dance to the music as he skated around the rink, it was really cute!
Alyvia, I took the picture with my iphone, so sorry for the blurry picture.
The kids also went "bouldering" with their cousins at the Devils Den in Gettysburg. I think they could have stayed there all day. They had so much fun climbing on and under the rocks. I think I would've had more fun if I could've kept track of them better. Definitely easier with mom and dad there.
Berkeley and cousin Cameron on top of the boulder.
Here the kids are perfecting their dance skills with their cousins. Alyvia, Laurel, Tristan, Berkeley and Everett. Everett is in the background with a "dress" on. He idolizes his sister and wants to do exactly what she does. Unfortunately Alyvia is a very girly girl. :)

All of the kids really enjoyed painting. Everett painted for an hour and still hadn't had enough. He started off so timid and painted very carefully. By the end he had his hands all over in it and was smearing it around. Great to see the progression.
Alyvia is always writing, drawing and creating. Here she is making a pop up book.
Everett practicing his coloring skills.
More painting fun!
Alyvia and Berkeley were both on swim team this summer. It was so fun to watch them progress. Their times got better and their techniques improved at each meet. We were at the pool every morning in July and they had a meet every Monday night. It was a lot of swimming, they loved every second of it, as did Everett, and really liked competing and being part of a team. I was ready for the season to be over with by the end though. It's a lot of time at the pool.
Berkeley lining up. He has Dave's fair skin. This was at the end of the summer too!

Sorry, I can't figure out how to move this picture. Here is Berkeley making his own pop up book. I love the picture of the little guy on it.
Here Berkeley is showing off his hoola hoop skills. We played a hoola hoop game at Alyvia's birthday and Alyvia and Berkeley got 1st and 2nd place. Who knew they had such skills.
I organized a lego club for Berkeley this summer. He LOVES legos! Berkeley has had a lot of fun building with all of his friends. We just rotated houses and the boys built legos, had a snack and played together for 2 hours. A fun way to get them away from the Wii!
Berkeley getting ready to race!

Alyvia getting ready to race.
Berkeley and Alyvia making their own pizza. They both told me they wanted to learn how to cook this summer. It was very tasty!
Alyvia took dance this year. She did awesome. The girl has moves that you've never seen before. I wish I could add a video, but every time I try to download a video it doesn't work. She danced with the girls a year older than her (they accidentally put her in that group), but was able to keep up and did a great job!
Alyiva also did girl scouts last year and will be doing it again this year. I'm leading her troop and we've had a lot of fun learning and doing new things. Here is a picture of the girls at Luray Caverns exploring the caves! Berkeley and Everett also came and loved it!

Berkeley was the little blue bird in his kindergarten program. He was so cute, even though he was mortified by the hat. Ha Ha!Another picture of Alyiva at her dance performance.

I can't wait to see where these kids take their talents and what they do with their lives. I just hope I can keep up!

A 2 year olds thoughts...

2011-07-10T19:36:00.002-04:00

We've heard some pretty funny things from Everett the last couple of days and I thought I should capture some of them.

We were at a party at our neighbors house and Everett said the funniest thing. Our neighbors have a dog and as the dog came face to face with Everett, pinning Everett between Dave's legs and the dog. Everett yelled out, "Don't eat me!" We about died laughing. Poor kid. It's cute to hear a 2 year olds thoughts.

We also went to the beach and as Everett approached the beach for the first time, he saw the waves, stopped dead in his tracks and proclaimed," I can't go in there, it'll kill me!" Probably a true statement. Quite a change from the last time he went to the beach when he crawled into the ocean like a little baby sea turtle.

Berkeley's Indiana Jones Birthday! He's 6!

2011-05-14T19:43:00.005-04:00

Berkeley is an Indiana Jones enthusiast, at least during the month of his birthday, so I relented, having a liking for the movies myself, and planned his party around that theme. It was actually a lot of fun! The only bad part was that lego stopped producing Indiana Jones legos, which was the ONLY thing he wanted, so we had to pay an arm and a leg for a small Indiana Jones lego set. but he was super happy to get it and plays with his Indiana Jones lego figure all the time!

We started the party by showing the lego indiana jones movie trailer as the kids arrived. It was a little more kid friendly than the real trailers and helped the kids get the concept of the games we were going to play.

During the party, the kids went to three different places, competing in games to win special stones that opened up the treasure chest. The first place was the jungle, where they had to dodge the boulders (exercise balls). This was by far the funnest game. I rolled the ball towards them and they all jumped out of it's way. It seems so easy, but the catch was the balls would bounce off the wall behind them and get the kids from behind while they were watching me to dodge the next ball. The kids who were out had to sit on the stairs until the next round.

Next we went to Egypt where the kids had mummy wrap races. A few rolls of toilet paper and some excited kids made for some fun times. Here is Berkeley in his Indiana Jones hat!

Next we went continued in to the dessert where they used their archeological skills to uncover/dig out baby dinosaurs. I found these at the dollar store. They were eggs that came with tools to dig out the dinosaurs bones inside. The kids had a lot of fun. It was a lot dustier than I thought, though.

I love this picture. Alyvia and Berkeley hard at work.

I failed to get pictures of the cake and candles and all the kids together. Oops! I made a treasure chest cake that the kids loved (despite my horrible cake making skills). I think all the gold coins and candy on it did the trick. Berkeley loved the party and I had a lot of fun planning it. He's already planning his next....

We had a small family party later that night with Dad (his bday party was after school). Here is a picture of Berkeley's reaction after opening Alyvia's present, a lego atlantis "scary guy".

We love our Berkeley. He has grown so much this past year. He has learned to read and write and is doing very well in school. He loves math, to his daddy's happiness. He also loves getting books from the library, especially books from the "real" section. Some of his best were a book about shark attacks and one about world disasters (the plague ect..). Seriously, could he not get any more boy. Alyvia checks out fairy books and Berkeley, shark attacks!? Berkeley has also learned to play soccer, ice skate and ski. He is very enthusiastic and motivated to be the best and the fastest. He is also a perfectionist, sometimes getting discouraged when he isn't the best at first, but one thing he has learned is to keep practicing because that is how you become your best self. He first learned this playing Wii, now he can beat his daddy, but only after a lot of practice. Berkeley is also very honest, sometimes to his downfall or to someone else's, but regardless, it's nice to have an honest opinion. Berkeley filled out a questionnaire about me for mothers day and I was surprised at how well he knew me. He must watch everyone closely, taking note of what they like and don't like. He continues to impress and surprise me! We love you Berkeley!

Everett's first "substantial" prayer

2011-05-11T18:46:00.001-04:00

Everett has been saying a "Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, amen" prayer for a month or so now, but today it was A Lot more substantial. I just had to capture it. He started out with "Heavenly Father," then he started mumbling, but I made out "Choo Choo Train, Tom and Jerry and Help" then he finished "Amen". It was so stinking cute! He is a cutie and we so enjoy his fun little spirit in our home!

Weird, I sent this post via my iphone a few months ago and forgot about it and it just now posted yesterday. So, Everett's substantial prayer happened in March.

Ski Madness!

2011-05-08T20:46:00.006-04:00

Caution, watch out for Dave!! It's been 10 years since we've hit the slopes and boy was it fun! Luckily skiing is like riding a bike, Dave and I were soon following each other around the hill. We took the liberty of putting all the kids in ski classes from 9-3 while we enjoyed skiing together. Seriously, it was so fun! Dave's a dare devil, but I'm good enough to follow, so we actually have a lot of fun together on the slopes. Our last ski trip was when we were dating at BYU. This time we went to Wisp, a ski resort in Maryland.

Dave took the kids tubing on the hill the first night. The weather turned to freezing rain, which Dave said was awesome because they went really fast!

I think this was one of Dave's favorite vacations :)

The kids LOVED it too! Here's Alyvia on her tube.

Everett was too young to tube, but we dragged him around a bit and tried to help him feel included. It almost worked.

Wisp also had a snow coaster. It's kind of like a roller coaster that goes down the mountain. They have similar ones in Jackson Hole and Park City. Everett loved going fast! (must be his father's son). Even though it was freezing that day, he still finished with a big smile on his face and an "Again?!"

The girls ready to ride!

Everett trying to figure out why we were outside in the freezing weather during his nap time...

Berkeley wanted to go with Dave, Berkeley is such a "guys guy".

The kids DID learn how to ski. Their ski instructor informed me that Alyvia did really well. She knew how to stop and was working on her turning. Very cautious, but good at following his directions. He also informed me that Berkeley told him that he (the instructor) didn't know what he was talking about and Berkeley knew how to ski. Thus, he didn't learn very much from the instructor... We had to talk to Berkeley about listening to his instructor. :) Both kids did in fact make it up on the ski lift. I was hesitant to let Berkeley go since he could not stop. But he whined and begged and pleaded, despite me telling him that it was scary and dangerous on the hill if you can't stop. After a mommy daddy consultation, Dave took up the challenge and let Berkeley go and SUPRISE, Berkeley skied the best on the hill. Turns out he just needed a longer run to figure things out!

Both kids finished the trip feeling happy and confident about their first skiing experience. Everett behaved well in the nursery. He was the only child in there that day, but the lady watching him said that he was so smart and told her all of the letters and chatted and had a lot of fun with her. She even got him to take a nap. I couldn't have asked for a better first ski trip with the family. It looks like we're going to have to plan a trip next year!!! Maybe they'll get good enough to take them to Idaho and Utah where the real slopes are!

A Piece of History

2011-05-03T15:15:00.007-04:00

I didn't realize how good I would feel when we caught Osama Bin Laden. Sure, there are tons of terrorists out there and probably always will be. I'd actually given up on the fact that we would ever find him. But, when they announced that they had found and captured/killed Bin Laden, it actually felt really good. Our country accomplished something they set out to do 10 years ago. I felt proud to be an American. I wasn't the only one. Apparently there were people celebrating in front of the White House and at Ground Zero.

I think I will always remember exactly where I was when I learned about the attack on 9/11. I was at the 14th floor of the Swkt tower at BYU in a Neuroscience class. Needless to say class was canceled and we watch as the horror unfolded on TV. This picture is what I remember. I've got to be honest, I felt a little uneasy being on the top floor of the highest building at BYU. :) I had just gotten married a month before in DC, I had flown in and out of the same airports. So had my entire family. We were lucky we weren't on those planes. It was close to home. Because of Bin Laden's attack, all of our lives changed. The way we travel, what we could bring on an air plane, how we are searched. The whole TSA was born. It was a life changing event.

So, to have this man caught, knowing he isn't out there planning his next attack feels good. Way to go USA!

The Perfect Christmas... or so I thought.

2011-04-24T16:33:00.007-04:00

Christmas this year was amazing. We searched and looked and found the perfect tree. Ok, actually I went one night to Safeway and the kids picked it out, but look how happy they were! We found the perfect presents. It was our first Christmas in our new house. It was so fun to have a house of my own to decorate and get ready for my favorite holiday. Yes, Christmas is my favorite holiday. How could you not love the hot chocolate, snow quietly falling outside, warm soup, reading books by the fire, great movies and fun times with the family. I really could go on and on, but I'll spare you the long post.

Christmas Eve was so fun. We had Dave's brother and family over for soup and bread bowls. We reenacted the Christmas story. Check out Aubrey below as the star! Not the star of the show, but the actual star. I guess she was kind of both :) Alyvia of course had to be Mary and Everett just loved the hat. Berkeley was a wise man. He liked bringing presents to baby Jesus.

Fortunately the tree wasn't too tall and fit perfectly in the corner we chose for it!

Christmas Eve came and all the presents had been wrapped ahead of time. (That doesn't usually happen). I don't know what happened to the tree, it was ready to be done holding all of those ornaments.

The kids were excited, can't you tell. It really seemed like the perfect day. We even had snow "quietly falling" outside our window as we started opening presents.

Pillow pets were one of the favorites. How could you not love a pillow and a pet! Just a little plug here, they work great for car and airplane trips and they are washable!!

Berkeley loving "Dino".

Everett playing in the after math of it all! He got a doggy pillow pet, which we have a video of, but failed to get an actual picture of.

Everett's loot. We found a glider bike that doesn't have pedals. It was the only bike for a 2 year old. I love how it's suppose to teach kids how to ride 2 wheelers. We'll see, he's doing good so far and looks so cute gliding around.

Berkeley's Harry Potter Lego set and book. He's really enjoying anything Lego these days and has spent many hours with these legos. Dave has started reading the books to the kids and they all enjoy sitting around listening to Dave's best Harry Potter voices. He's got quite the talent!

Alyvia got the most amazing doll house. Barbie is no longer "homeless" as Alyvia had told us previous to Christmas. That was why she asked Santa for a doll house. What a charitable girl :)

This year was my kitchen/cooking year. After waiting for 3 years to buy anything for the kitchen, it was so fun to get some things! My favorite was my kitchen aid!

Dave got U2 concert tickets and floor mats. He was a little more excited about the first present. :)

What seemed like the perfect day quickly changed. In the middle of opening presents, my stomach started to hurt and within 5 minutes I was laying on the floor in shock from all the pain. We wound up calling an ambulance, not knowing exactly what was going on. Who do you call to watch you kids on Christmas morning? Fortunately there were some friends who so graciously let our children impose on their perfect morning while Dave and I headed to the hospital. I apologized to the ambulance paramedics and thanked them for being there for us. One quickly responded that he had volunteered to work that day. I was impressed. He even gave me the best IV I've ever had, I didn't even feel it. As we went through the hospital we saw person after person helping people in need. As I saw more and more of this my perspective on the "Perfect Christmas" changed. I had been focused on the material things, presents, what my house looked like and the snow falling outside. I hadn't been focusing on the real meaning of Christmas really. Sure I had my nativities set up, and we read the Christmas story on Christmas Eve. But why do we really celebrate Christmas? We celebrate the birth of the Savior, someone who served and helped people his entire life. In fact, the whole purpose of his life was to save each of our spiritual lives. How foolish I was to think that everything was perfect and how amazing it was to have my perspective change in a short 5 minutes. To be able to really see the true meaning of Christmas, to realize how relatively short and fragile our lives are. We can be seemingly fine one second and not so fine the next. How quickly all of the material things can mean absolutely nothing and how other peoples service and help can mean everything. Before you worry about too much about me, I was fine. After an ultrasound and a few blood tests, then told me that I had a cyst rupture on my ovary (I know TMI). It was really painful when it happened and the pain gradually subsided until I was feeling completely normal by the end of the day. But how grateful I am for that little scare. It opened my eyes to the "real" meaning of Christmas. I felt so blessed to see all the people at the hospital busy serving others. I also felt blessed to have such wonderful people close by who #1 were around, but #2 were so willing to let my children join in on their Christmas morning. I hope I will always remember this Christmas and that it will change how I do things next year and really every day. I want to remember to focus on what really matters, what really counts. My relationships with my family, my service to others and my testimony and knowledge of my Savior. I guess it's fitting that I actually did this post on Easter Sunday. How crazy life seems to get these days! I am grateful not only for my Saviors birth, but his Resurrection so that someday we can all have a perfect body like his, so we too can live again after we die and be immortal beings, surrounded by our family and friends.

What do you do to help your family experience the true meaning of Christmas?

MeatSteak

2011-03-03T16:39:00.001-05:00

Berkeley, "What would you like for a snack?" I ask, after he turned down the hershey kisses I offered him.

"I really want some MeatSteak mom."

OK, he seemed to think the beef jerky worked. What am I going to do with my little carnivore?

This is his mean carnivore face...

Caught Red Handed!

2011-03-03T09:26:00.001-05:00

Everett was a little slow getting out of the car, so I went back to the garage and found him sitting in the front seat eating all my gum! He happily offered me a stick (so polite) and showed me what all the buttons could do. I laughed when he turned on the flashers and said "clock". I guess he thought the "tic, toc" sound was a clock. :)

How can you be mad at a face like this, I had to take a picture. (see the gum evidence in the back ground. He put all the wrappers right back where he found them)

Thanksgiving

2011-02-26T12:39:00.003-05:00

Thanksgiving was a blast, it was so fun that I forgot to take pictures! We went to Georgia and stayed with the Millers. (Always a party there!) We also got to see mom and dad's renovation on their fixer upper they bought. Fantastic! They have done a fabulous job not only fixing it up, but moving in and decorating! They have skills and seemingly infinite amounts of energy. The last time we had seen their house was actually before they had ever seen it and it needed a lot of TLC. I like to think that if that house were living, it has taken a deep sigh of relief knowing that it now has two very good owners to take care of it. I think all their neighbors are probably breathing the same sign of relief :)

Very fun to see everyone. We also got the privilege to see Renee, Jeffery and baby Cordillia! She is gorgeous and Renee and Jeffery are natural parents. I need to start asking their advice now.

One highlight of the trip was the new zip-line Rick installed in their back yard. Even Everett got a turn. It was about 11 feet in the air, you had to climb a ladder, stand on a platform, sit on the zip line seat and jump off. It was an exhilarating little ride through their back yard and made Thanksgiving that much more fun!

Halloween Party

2011-01-30T13:51:00.009-05:00

Berkeley Begged me to have a Halloween party, he loves everything about Halloween. How could I not give in. He was so cute. He drew pictures of monsters to hang on the walls for 2 weeks before we had the party. It was a lot of fun. Shana came that weekend and was a huge help. We had fun decorating the garage where we did all the games and had the kids eat. We asked everyone to bring a "spooky" snack to share and people came up with some awesome ideas. Loved the watermelon face above by Kelley.

Decked out garage with smoking cauldren, disco ball and black lights. (can't really see the smoke or black lights in this picture though).

Witch Fingers Anyone?

Look at these cute ghosts, mud drinks and cupcakes!

Picture of the buffet line, the kids were very excited to eat all of the spooky sides.

Watermelon brain and edible arrangement, so pretty!

We played a lot of games. Shannon made some great "feeling" boxes. Berkeley remembers how "gross" the brains felt.

The kids got a kick out of the limb game.

Kylee brought the "Monster Stomp" game where the kids had to walk across the "swamp" on the lilly pads. She also brought an awesome pinata for me. It broke open too fast for a picture and there was a minor mosh pit, so we neglected to take pictures of that. Probably won't go that direction next time...

Shana the cute witch.

Dave as Indiana Jones. I thought he threw this together nicely. Berkeley thought Dave looked so good that he was Indiana Jones for the night of Halloween.

"Baby" Alyvia with her friends Taylor, Eden and Connor.

Me reading a spooky story during the present pass game. Don't you just love the new hair!

Kids eating in the party garage.

We had a blast this Halloween, thanks to all who helped me pull it together! I think Berkeley's expectations were met!

Cookie Exchange

2010-12-13T14:58:00.006-05:00

I had my first unofficial cookie exchange at my house. It was so fun! We just had everyone bring as many cookies and/or candy as they wanted to take home and it worked out really well. We ordered pizza for lunch and just hung out, ate, chatted, and ate some more. Here is a picture of the goods. We had homemade caramels, homemade peppermint marshmallows (didn't even think you could make those by hand), peppermint bark and amazing cookies. I can't even tell you about all of them because they were all awesome! Let the holidays begin!

Everett!!!

2010-12-02T15:10:00.005-05:00

I had to put exclamation marks after his name because, well, that's him! He's so full of energy and does everything, I mean Everything, with an exclamation behind it.

Our little baby turned 2 in Sept. so I thought I'd put a picture or two of his party (He's the third child, that's what happens with the third. I was the third/fourth child, so I can say that :). We just had a low key family/close friend party for him. The theme was "Blue Clues" because that is in fact his most favorite show right now. My mom gave him a few Blues Clues movies and he now knows all of the alphabet! I went to Target and he looked up at the pharmacy sign and said P-H-A-R-M-A-C-Y! (notice the exclamation mark!). I did a double take and then tried to remember how old my other children were when they did that and decided that, for our family, he has learned his letters on the earlier side of things. This is either due to his love of Blues Clues or it could be due to the fact that I've let him watch Blues Clues a little too much. You see, it's the only "go to" show when I need to do something.... Whatever the reason, he's our little smarty pants. :) He's also singing a little, saying very short prayers (while other people are praying), and loves to color. He is also the best snuggler. I call him a hug and go guy. He's gives me a quick hug/snuggle and then he's off to the next thing. We sure love this little guy and are so happy to have him in our family!! (exclamation mark!)

Modest Barbie

2010-11-13T08:19:00.003-05:00

While shopping for Christmas, I realized that it's pretty hard to find modest looking Barbies. I just wanted a wholesome looking family set for a doll house. Alyvia loves mommy baby type toys. My searches came up with 1 and they were recalled because the mom was pregnant and they thought it would make girls want to be pregnant! You can get them on Amazon for like $300!! Not really in my Christmas budget. There was another cute set (I can be married), but it didn't have a baby and the clothes weren't that modest. ($34 at Target). Which brings me to my next idea... I found some good ideas to help make your Barbies modest. Here With two boys, I think I'd better help them out by not having naked Barbies strewn across the playroom floor. This Ehow links tells you how to paint on underwear or swimsuits with nail polish. Cute idea! Don't know why I couldn't think of that! I just thought I'd share!

Also, if you want a great business idea and you can sew, make some cute modest Barbie clothes and sell them on Etsy. My search only came up with 1 site and she was sold out! Her clothes were really cute though. Here

Does anyone else know of another site?

Camping at Red Fish Lake

2010-11-04T14:32:00.007-04:00

We had soooo much fun this summer. We had a 2 week vacation to Idaho and Utah this summer and we packed it full of family reunions, camping and fun. This post will focus on the camping trip I took with my family to Red Fish Lake.

We were nestled up next to the Saw Tooth Mountains. They are gorgeous! I couldn't get enough of the view and the blue skies! My mom captioned this photo "Just horsing around" I thought it was very appropriate! Kenna (my brother Creed's daughter on the left) and Alyvia loved playing together. Kenna LOVES horses!

Kenna was a pro on her bike. Everett tried to be just as good, but his legs were a little too short. :)

The lake there has beautiful with sandy beaches and crystal clear "cold" glacier water.

It was about 70 degrees, and water water was pretty cold, but the kids didn't mind. I told them to "wade" and I turned around to find Berkeley waist deep in it. :)

Can you see the shelf in the water. You could wade out pretty far before it dropped off.

Saw Tooth Mountains, yes, they were really that big!

We loved hanging out by the campfire each night. Mostly because it was cold, but the smores and hot dogs were good too.

Alyvia and Berkeley playing. Berkeley always has to pull a face, it must be a boy thing. :)

We opened the camper door and found this. Everett had found the sugar bomb cereal and was enjoying every last piece of it. Really, does this count as breakfast. Coco puffs and marshmallows?? We were camping ok, I wasn't too worried about the nutritional content. Doesn't he look like he found a treasure!

Shana in the front of the boat trying to stay dry.

Kenna and Berkeley "swimming".

Berkeley enjoying the warmth of the towel after a cold dip in the lake.

My big brother Dustin. He's single for all you women out there!

Alyvia fishing.

Berkeley fishing. They didn't catch anything this time, but enjoyed it anyways!

Everett fishing for his own food. He's really good at "catching" all the unhealthy things.

Alyvia, Kenna and Berkeley having fun in the boat. See Berkeley's face again...

Dad showing off his funny grilling apron. He's always trying to get you to laugh.

Everett concentrating on the task at hand. Check out those "campy" hands.

Cute Kenna with her pet weasel at Alyvia's birthday party. They decorated their own cakes!

Alyvia turned 7 while we were there! She loved having a camping birthday!

Cutie girl! I can't believe she's 7 now.

Berkeley discovering cotton candy. Is it melting...

Everett coloring, check out that grib. He's a natural!

Kenna!

Red Fish Lake is a great vacation destination. It's close to Sun Valley, but not as commercialized and you can't beat the views or the crystal clear lake. If you go to the lodge, they have paddle boating and a great area to swim (if it's warm enough). It isn't very deep and the shelf stretches on forever. We will definitely be headed back when we can! If you plan to go there, call ahead because the camping sites book up fast!

Friend Weekend 2010!

2010-10-17T08:14:00.004-04:00

While I was in Idaho, I got together with some of my long time friends. I think I'll add right here how I met most of them. In 7th grade, I was sitting in my PE class. (This was the year that we combined with the country kids from Menan and Lewisville.) I didn't know anyone, and thought I'd better get to know some people so I leaned over and introduced myself to the girls that were all sitting next to me. Coincidentally, we all had last names that started with B because we had to sit in alphabetical order. Brown, Bramwell, Blackburn, Beesley. Although, Alynn, were you in that class? I think Tracy was and somehow we made friends with her even though her last name started with O. We thought it was pretty funny when she got married and now her last name starts with a B! Kari joined the ranks a little later, but we all have some great times to reminisce about. It was fun to have a weekend together with friends, kid free!

We started off with an awesome mexican dinner. Then we had fun catching up, sharing Rigby gossip, doing finger nails, ect.. Even though Kari and Tracy couldn't make it, we Skyped with them and Kari sent a chocolate care package. Such a sweet heart!

Angie glued her fingers together!

Singing in the car. One of our favorite things to do in high school. I have to say, we still sound pretty good!

Being dorks at the craft store. I can't remember the name of the store, but it was pretty cool. We all chose plaques that described ourselves.

Having fun at Anthropology. It's always fun to shop with your friends.

We also went to PF Changs for dinner. Soo good! We tried to hook Shana up with the waiter, but her was gay. :0) Just like Shana said. Ha Ha!

Lastly, we went to church with Angie. It was so fun to get together with my friends, without the kids, and feel like a teenager again!

DC Art

2010-10-01T20:46:00.000-04:00

Berkeley must be listening when we drive downtown. He explained that
the blocks going from left to right are the Washington Monument, the
Capitol, the DC Temple and the White House. For being limited to our
basket of blocks, I think they have a pretty good resemblence. He
even added people. You can't see DC without seeing people! Is that
the president?

Scary Berkeley

2010-09-23T00:40:00.002-04:00

Berkeley wanted a scary tiger face. He got so many comments on his face painting. The last picture is him with his eyes closed. He thought it was pretty cool that his eyes looked "scary".

He could have his face painted every day if I let him. He announced that his favorite holiday is Halloween. Dressing up, face painting, candy galore, I guess I can't blame him. I'd better be a good mom and get some fun decorations to help him celebrate his favorite holiday. Any tips on cute/inexpensive Halloween decor...

Alyvia's Favorites

2010-09-22T16:51:00.003-04:00

I got the cutest paper back from Alyvia's teacher yesterday. It was a questionnaire filled out by Alyvia.

1. Favorite Food: Watermelon

2. Favorite Subject: Seines (science)

3. Hobby: Art

4. Favorite Color: Blue

5. Favorite TV Show: Pocahontas

6. Favorite Book: Cat in the Hat

7. Favorite Holiday: My Birth Day

8. One word that describes me is : Loveabole (lovable)

9. One topic that I'd like to learn about this year is: Buffulose (Buffalos)

10. One goal I have for this school year is to: Help Others.

11. One of the best things about me is: I'm the oldist (oldest) chiled (child) in my family.

12. If I could change on e thing about myself, I would change: My hair

13. My idea of a perfect day is: Birth Days

14. Twenty years from now I hope that I: Get Maride (married)

It was so fun to read her answers. We must be doing birthdays right ;) I think she wants to change her hair because she's the only one in the family with brown hair. I love her hair color! I don't know where the Buffalos part came from. I totally had to laugh.

She is such a fun girl!! The picture is from when she got her face painted at IKEA. Free face painting from a real artist.

First Day of School!

2010-09-16T23:15:00.003-04:00

All dressed up and ready to walk to school!

They all decided to wear hats, even little Everett. He was a little frustrated because his hat wasn't fitting quite right.

My big 2nd grader! No more princesses "too babyish". She took a left over blues clues cupcake from Everett's birthday party to school for lunch and got teased. She wasn't too hurt, but didn't eat the cupcake. So sad! I guess I'm headed into a whole different world with her this year (roll eyes) :)

My big Kindergartener!! He has a great teacher this year and already knew two friends in his class. I couldn't have hand picked a better situation for him. I did feel some waves of emotion as I saw him hang up his backpack and head into class. I'm glad he has transitioned so well.

Siblings and friends! Alyvia and Berkeley always come out of the school together holding hands. I think it is just so cute. I need to get a picture of it because I'm sure it won't last too much longer. Alyvia already informed me that she no longer talks to boys... Not sure how long that will last.

New House

2010-09-10T15:09:00.006-04:00

We're finally in! After 4 years of building, selling and building again, it feels good to own again and call it home. I've added some photos of the house, but I'll give a brief description of the room flow for you. The main floor opens to a living or dining room (we're doing a living room), to the right is a half bath, to the left is glass doors that lead to the library. Straight ahead is the 3 sided fireplace. Beyond the fireplace is the dining nook. To the right of the dining nook is the kitchen (which faces the family room). To the left of the dining nook is the family room. Upstairs is one hallway, 4 bedrooms, three baths and the laundry room. The basement has a playroom, the playroom has two large doors that leads to renters half. Right now the doors are locked and we're renting out the other half of the basement. The renter's half of the basement has a family room/dining/kitchen area. We installed an Ikea kitchenette down there. The basement also has 1 bedroom, a full bath, storage room and a laundry closet. The picture order is kind of random, sorry. I just downloaded them in the wrong order.

Up close view of the hardwood on the main.

Master bath

Master bath other view

Master bedroom, see, lots of organizing to do. ;)

Shared bath for the boys

Family room

Pantry, Dave added pull out shelves. He's so handy!

Kitchen. Its so fun to cook in here! We have already used both ovens at the same time.

View from the family room. This is the kitchen and dining nook.

Downstairs play room. Any cute ideas for playrooms?

Library

View from front door, living room. We just got a cute little sectional to put in here and these chairs will go in the family room when the sectional finally gets here.

Piano next to the doors to the library.

Side view of house.

Separate entrance for the renter.

French/Garden doors in the basement.

Basement Family room area.

Basement dining room/kitchen area.

Basement kitchen. Dave also installed this himself!

Basement bedroom.

Basement laundry closet. I still can't believe how well the washer and dryer fit. 1 more centimeter and the door wouldn't have shut.

Basement bathroom.

I'll have to do updates when things get painted and decorated a bit more. I'm always open to decorating tips! We just so happy to finally have a place to call our own!

Stuck in a bad spot

2010-09-10T14:51:00.002-04:00

Dave called it the summer of the flies. They seemed to find their way into our house every day, and annoyed Dave to death. One time he swatted one and couldn't find it until he looked at the fly swatter. The poor fly was stuck in it, ALIVE. What a bad spot to be in. His little life didn't last much longer. Just long enough to snap this picture. Next time you're having a hard day, just think about this little guy...

Happy 9th Anniversary

2010-08-19T00:49:00.002-04:00

What a wonderful 9 years it's been!!

Flu season tips

2010-08-18T23:41:00.004-04:00

I'm feeling really bloggy lately. Is that a word? I just wanted to post a few things that have made my life happier and healthier.

Part 1

Yesterday I came across ZocDoc.com. So cool, you can surf through doctors in your area that accept your insurance, you can make appointments on their website, For Free, and it actually works. The doctors office called to remind me about my appointment and ZocDoc sent me an email reminder and a text message. I need all the reminders I can get. There are also reviews posted by other people who went to that doctor. I love it! The only draw back is that it only has the doctors that have subscribed with them on there. It's a free service for the doctors too, so tell your doctor about it! Especially if they are a good doctor so I can find them there!

Part 2

My kids had a lot of wheezing and colds when they were younger. They are just starting to "grow" out of them. But, I think there are a few things that I have changed that have helped keep their immune systems in better shape and I thought I'd share them with you since I did just blog about ZocDoc.

1. Get a Netty Pot, or sinus rinse. It's pretty cool, you put warm water into it, add one packet of NielMed Sinus Rinse (salt without preservatives) and pour it up your nose. Ok, you don't pour it up your nose, you sort of lean over the sink and pump it up one nostril and it comes out the other. I know, it sounds gross, but it has made our colds last 1/2 as long as they use to. They are great for allergies and for the general health of your sinuses. No one likes a sinus infection, this is a great way to prevent and treat them. I had a sinus infection for like 6 months and the ear nose and throat doctor told me to do this and it finally went away. Genius! Alyvia is a pro at it.

Even my doctor made a comment to me saying, Wow, your kids are doing a lot better, you used to bring them in a lot. I told him what I was doing and he said he loved the sinus rinse and said it was such a good natural way to stay healthy.

2. Exercise. I know, that sounds like a no brainer. Everyone knows exercise is good for you, but I read an article that said it will actually increase the cells in your immune system that fight off infection. Since I've made a conscious effort to get my kids 30 min- 1 hour of exercise a day and they have been so much healthier. We joined a gym where my kids can swim with me, so they swim a lot, walk to and play at the park, jump on the trampoline. They're all activities that insure activity. Sometimes when I drive to a park, the kids will sit on a swing the whole time we're there, not much exercise. Walking there insures at least some real exercise.

3. No milk or dairy when they get sick. This helps keep the mucus production lower and more thinned out. Thick mucus = breeding ground for bacteria and kids that wake up in the middle of the night because they can't breath through their nose. I give my kids soy milk and they think it's their special treat when they are sick. Also pump them full of fluids, water, gatorade, soups.

4. Spray bottle for fevers. Best way to bring down a fever is to spray their hair with a water bottle until is soaked. It sounds drastic I know, but Alyvia tends to get 104-105 fevers every time she is sick. We used to put her in a luke warm bath which she hated. Now we just spray her hair and give her otter pops and Motrin and her fever goes right down and we all get to go back to sleep faster. When her fevers are really bad we alternate Motrin and Tylenol every 4 hours.

5. Hand sanitizer in the car- I try to sanitize the kids hands when we get back in the car from school, a grocery store, anywhere we go. You can go crazy with hand sanitizer, but I'd decided that the easiest time for me to remember is when we all get back into the car and of course before we eat.

So, as the cold and flu and school seasons start, I hope your family stays healthy. It's impossible to dodge every germ, but these 5 things have helped us dodge more of them and get over the other ones faster.

Christmas 2009

2010-08-18T23:36:00.001-04:00

Yes, the Ferrel's did have Christmas this year. We were lucky enough to spend it with the Millers. What a beautiful home and family they have. Here are a few snippets of our day. The only tradition we have so far is wearing our PJs all day and being lazy. What a great day!!

Can you just feel the Rock Monster Love!

For OUR Fairy Tale Princess.

Everett sporting the Chilean Stocking hat.

The crew Christmas morning. Everett was so impatient. ;)

The beautiful tree and presents. I just love Christmas time! Only 4 1/2 more months to go!

Jana's big 3-0!

2010-08-18T23:33:00.000-04:00

Wow, never imagined what it would be like to be 30... Not that much different than 20 except the three kids and being married and living in DC part and the big hat... It's been a fun 10 years.

Me being a dork while we're singing. I guess you don't grow out of the dork phase..

Me admiring the decatant birthday cake Kathryn made for me, and wondering if the flaming torch my candles made on top was going to melt the ice cream. It was Seriously, sooo good. Alyvia wanted one for her birthday and I had to turn her down. We were camping and I do not have the baking skills that Kathryn has. ;)

We went out to eat at a great little mexican restaurant in Georgia. Berkeley loved the huge hat they made me wear while they sang to me. I thought this picture was cute. He can party with the best of us!

The beautiful pottery setting Dave got me. We're starting to collect place settings, my first collection. I guess you're never too old to start something new!

I had a fun birthday in Georgia. The Millers know how to throw a spectacular party! Thanks guys!

Berkeley's big number 5!

2010-08-18T23:32:00.001-04:00

Berkeley has grown into such a fun little boy. He knew exactly what kind of party he wanted, A Mario Party! I had a lot of fun planning it. I found a cute pattern for hats that I made. As I sat there making the hats I wondered, will the kids even appreciate all the time I put into these? I'm happy to report that 5 months later, I had one of his friends over for a playdate and he was wearing the hat!!! It was awesome! I was so glad that he appreciated it. Berkeley still has his and wears it regularly to "pretend play" mario with Alyvia.

Everyone piled on the couch to watch someone beat the pinata. The closest three are Jack (left), Truman (center) and David (top right).

Here is a picture of the party goers. We had just finished playing games. I put chocolate coins inside of ballons and we played "Coin Battle" to see who could collect the most coins. We also played hot potato, but replaced the potato with one of the bombs from the Mario game. The kids had a blast.

These are the 1 UP cupcakes we gave each kid. I was lucky enough to remember that someone had given us a toy Mario, so I dug around the toys and used it on the top of the cake. Perfect for the birthday boy. I washed it first in case you were wondering.

We had a family party that night so Dad could join in on the festivities. It looks like the day was a success.

Happy 5th Birthday Berkeley, you're a sweet heart and always say the best compliments. I have to give an example. He said, "Dad, your the best, you're like a coin.... and Mom I love you, you're like a dollar!" Gotta love that kid, he knows who's worth the most. Ha, ha! He must get that from his accountant father. ;)

Alyvia's 7th Birthday Bash!

2010-08-18T23:30:00.001-04:00

We were camping at Red Fish Lake in Stanley Idaho for Alyvia's birthday this year. It was so beautiful!

The only thing Alyvia wanted to do for her birthday was go to build a bear. So, we went to Bear World in Rigby, since we were in Idaho for her birthday and showed her what a real bear looks like. Fortunately they had a build a bear place there at Bear World, so she got her Build a Bear too! What a lucky kid!

She also got to have her cousin Kenna there, which was really fun. She is Creed daughter and can I tell you, she is such a daddies girl! Alyvia and Kenna were like two peas in a pod the whole time we were there.

Kenna sporting her weasel.

Alyvia enjoying the cotton candy Grandma gave her. Smart gift idea, Alyvia is all about sugar!

Berkeley trying to decide what happened to the huge ball of cotton candy he put in his mouth, did it melt...

Everett showing us his party "skills". I love the dirty hands. We were totally campy!

Bear World, can you tell!

Rides at bear world. These guys know how to have fun!

Berkeley with is Beaver. It looks like money can buy Berkeley's happiness. ;)

Happy 7th Alyvia! You're just as sweet as ever!

Happy Late Fathers Day!

2010-07-29T23:08:00.006-04:00

Dave is such a great daddy! The kids LOVE to play legos, Wii and any other game with him. He really brings out the kid in the kids (is that possible). We really appreciate all the fun and excitement he brings in to the house.

This fathers day proved to be eventful. Everett is a mama's boy and loves to be wherever I am. This particular Sunday, he was in the bathroom with me while I was putting on my makeup. As I put on my mascara, he found some fingernail polish on the window seal and proceeded to take off the lid and paint his own eye. This didn't last long as he started to scream from the pain of fingernail polish in his eye. Did I panick, no, I knew just what to do. Why did I know just what to do, because the day before he put chapstick in his eye and half way through the day it was still a little red and irritated so I called poison control to make sure my child wasn't going to go blind and they told me the best procedure to flush a child's eye.

So I grabbed Everett and wrapped him in a towel, held him over the sink and told Dave to pour warm water over the bridge of his nose. Dave was very confused and asked, "Where's the bridge of his nose!?" as he poured water straight up Everett's nose (definitely not the bridge). I handed the water boarded child to Dave and proceeded to show Dave exactly what I meant. Bridge of nose= the part of the nose between the eye brows. As I held Everett's eye open and poured warm water over the "bridge of his nose", it flushed the eye out really well without getting any water up his nose. You have to do it for 15 minutes. Everett fell asleep after about 2 minutes. Here's a picture of him sleeping. After we flushed his eye, poison control told us to use petroleum jelly to remove the remaining finger nail polish. It took a little while, but it all came off. Before we called poison control Dave was asking me where the paint thinner was....ummm no. Thanks to me and poison control and Daves "help" Everett has full sight and hopefully will have no recollection of his water boarding experience.

We were late to church and Dave missed the primary singing "I'm so glad when daddy comes home" but Everett was worth it.

We Love You Dave!!

No More School, No More Books, No More Teacher Dirty Looks

2010-06-25T21:10:00.001-04:00

Alyvia is done with 1st grade! Here is a picture of Alyvia pointing
to one of her "artsmart" art pieces. Can you see the Monet water
lillies? What a great year!

Here's a peek into our summer fun!

2010-06-21T21:11:00.007-04:00

Here's a peek into our summer fun. A hike we went on, some pictures from Frying Pan Park (a farm we visit), Everett eating dirt, sprinkler under the trampoline, swinging on a tire swing, pirate play, indian playdate... We're loving the sun and can't wait to get out of school on Thursday and have even more fun!

Mosquito Bites, UGH!

2010-06-19T04:53:00.004-04:00

With the beauty and fun of summer come the not so beautiful and not so fun mosquitoes. These tiny pests seem to ignore my boys and go straight for Alyvia and I. Five minutes in the yard without bug spray can yield 10 bites on each of us. The poem that says girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice must be somewhat true, at least in the mosquito world. I'm writing this blog at 4 in the morning, why you might ask, because I was awakened by hot, stinging, itchy, golf ball size mosquito bites. Like mom always said, "If you scratch them they will get worse" and well, quite frankly, when you're asleep and you scratch your mosquito bites, you wake up with your worst nightmare. At least I did.

I'm not just writing this post to complain, I actually want to share some information I found one day while surfing this very subject (Yes, I do surf for the cure of the annoying mosquito bite, I'm a science dork.) Anti-itching creams just don't do it for me, but the below method seems to be the best, Jana tested and approved, method for helping ease the symptoms of mosquito bites quickly so you can get back to your regular life, or (as in my case) back to sleep!

1. Take one or two ice cubes and wrap the edge in a paper towel so you can hold it without freezing your hand.

2. Rub liberally on your mosquito bite, you might even say "scratch" your mosquito bite. Doesn't that feel like you're being naughty! Your kids will think you're so cool, or maybe crazy. :)

3. As your child "scratches" their bite, their pain receptor pathways to their brain will be blocked by the nerve pathway that perceives hot/cold, creating the, "Hey, it doesn't hurt anymore" affect. (Hey, I'm using my Neuroscience degree!) Ice cubes work better than ice packs because the melted water on their skin continues the cooling affect. I know this because I just tried it. Have you ever wondered what the school nurse does to help all the kids who come in complaining of this and that hurting? We all know she can't give them drugs. She gives them an ice pack and viola! they feel so much better. Not only does the ice block that pain pathway, but it also takes the swelling away, reducing the actual size of the bite, the histamines/blood causing it to swell, and therefore reducing the itching and pain.

4. If it's really bad, which mine was, you can also give them some Tylenol or Ibuprofen/Motrin to further block the pain. Hey, you aren't the school nurse, help your kid out a little. :)

If your child doesn't feel better by doing this (highly unlikely), maybe they will be distracted and will stop scratching their bite because, if your kids are like mine, ice cubes are always a novelty, sucking on them and playing with them on a hot summer day, or night is always fun and hydrating.

So there is the cure, or at least the best method I've found to those pesky mosquito bites that I have thus far in my life not been able to avoid. (Even with 20% Deet bug spray!)

Everyone needs their grandma...

2010-06-12T14:45:00.004-04:00

House, House, House

2010-06-12T14:29:00.004-04:00

That's what's going on in our lives right now. The house is picking up speed and we're almost ready for dry wall. I've been so spotty with blog posts, I'm not even sure I've posted the fact that we're building again! Can I tell you, everyone should get a second try at building. It's so much less confusing the second time around. But, we are more picky this time. We're renting a mile away, so we get to stop by frequently to bug the contractor. Poor guy.

Here are some pics of the process:

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Back of house

Family room/dining area

Bay window in the library.

Baby is the Boss!

2010-05-13T21:17:00.000-04:00

The real ruler in the family!

Benefits of living in DC

2010-05-06T21:37:00.002-04:00

You get to go to Madame Tussuad's wax museum and pretend you've met famous people! Maybe some day we'll get to have a picture taken with the real president, this will have to do until then :)

Learning

2010-04-21T20:50:00.007-04:00

We've been doing a lot of learning this year. Here are a few things we're learning about:

Everett learned about Farms! His favorite books are Sandra Boynton's, Barnyard Dance and Moo, Baa, La, La La.

Alyvia and Berkeley are learning about Soccer! Check out that form, ok, don't check out the form. :) They're loving our ward soccer team. The coaches are awesome!

Alyvia is learning a lot at school, she reads like a champ, still enjoys drawing and has impressed us with her math skills. (that must come from Dave's side :)

We learned that Cherry blossoms are not only beautiful, but they are also a lot of fun to pick up and throw around like snow!

Berkeley learned that bubbles don't taste very good, even if they smell good.

We learned that Berkeley looks pretty good in a Bee suit. He is still afraid of bees, even after the hour and a half class he listened to from an experienced bee keeper. I guess no amount of talking is going to convince him that bees are nice. He's no dummy. He gets that from me!

We learned that Everett LOVES bubbles!

We learned that Berkeley really is a monkey.

We learned that Alyvia is a natural at riding aunt eaters.

We're learning how to swim. No really, they are taking swimming lessons and doing wonderfully. This is the closest picture I had. Can you believe they all fit in the tub. Alyvia and Berkeley had to get in on Everett's tub fun. Funny kids!

We're learning how to grow a garden. Yes, I said we. this is my first garden and so far, so good. It's only been a few weeks, we'll see what happens. One of the kids New Years Resolution was to learn how to grow a seed. I'm trying...

We're learning how to jump on a trampoline (Thanks Debbie for giving us your tramp, the kids LOVE it!). We're also learning about static electricity...

We're learning about cooking. Notice again that I said we... That was another one of their New Years resolutions.

Learning how to mix it with our hands.

Ta Da! Learning to make a shape out of the dough.

As you can see, we're Learning!

Chile Post is up, scroll down

2010-04-14T00:41:00.007-04:00

I finally added all the pictures and comments to my Chile post. Unfortunately, it posted down where I origionally started making it. So scroll down and learn a little more about our trip to Chile.

You can also see my post on Berkeley's preschool blog at: http://ourcoolpreschool.blogspot.com/ I taught a lesson on farms, we had a lot of fun! Berkeley has made a lot of friends in his class and really loves preschool!

Shockey!!!

2010-04-03T16:32:00.006-04:00

Work perks!!! Jana, Berk and I got to see the Caps take on the Senators. I have been a Caps fan since my brother told me hockey is the best sport, but they never have been better than they are today! They have the best record in the league and have the best player, Alex Ovechkin. It was a blast. FYI: This post was from last year, I'm just trying to catch up and document our lives. Berkeley looks so little.

Fun story, so we got to eat dinner in our box seats (what a way to watch hockey!) and Berkeley chose some meat balls. As he was walking down the stairs to go sit in his seat, he jerked a little, because the stairs were so steep, and the meatball launched right off his plate and flew over the edge! "On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball, when somebody sneezed. It rolled off the table and on to the floor and the my poor meatball rolled right out the door!" Sprang to my mind as I saw it falling. Berkeley looked at me like "What do I do?" So I peeked over and waved a sorry at the somewhat upset looking woman below. Dave and I had a good secret laugh about it though. It was just classic. Note to self. Don't eat meatballs at a hockey game, or at least secure them to your plate before attempting to sit down.

Despite the meatball incident we had a blast eating all we could and watching a great game of hockey. The dessert cart was to die for. It reminded me of the dessert cart in the Harry Potter books when they're on the train. They pulled up to our box and we could pick whatever we wanted. Wow! Berkeley was in Heaven. The guys sharing the box with us even bought Berkeley his own shirt! You can't get better than that. But it did, the game was exciting and fun to watch and we WON! Go Caps!

I forgot my good camera, so here are some pics Dave ripped off another site in case you were wondering who Ovechkin (means "little lamb" in Russian) is. He doesn't really act like a little lamb when he plays...

Toyota Update and Potporri

2010-03-16T00:10:00.004-04:00

We did practice and yes it slips into neutral at high speeds, it also turns off, we tried that at a low speed. We haven't gotten a recall letter, but will bring it in immediately if we get one.

I know statistically that my chances are very low that it will actually happen to me, but it never hurts to be prepared.
"If you are prepared ye shall not fear"

Since we're talking statistics, the riskiest thing you can do is text or talk while driving and I hate to admit it, but I have done both at one time or another, I'm sure throwing food towards demanding kids while signaling and turning and talking on the phone ups your odds as well. I'm not admitting to that one, but I think you all know the truth. :)

So, not only am I practicing safe Toyota driving, I have made a new commitment to pay more attention when I drive, to patiently remind my children that I am driving when they ask me for a 5 course meal on the way home from school, and to put the phone, makeup, and GPS (handheld) down when the car is in motion.

One last fun detail of the day. Everett voluntarily folded his little arms for family prayer tonight. It was so cute, no one asked him to, he just saw what we were all doing, looked around, put his little book down and folded his little arms. He didn't close his eyes or bow his head, we're not asking for perfection here, but he kept his arms folded for almost the entire time. He tackled Alyvia right before she said amen. Too cute. Oh, just so you can see the picture in your head, his arms weren't really long enough to fold, so he sort of pinned the one arm down with the other. What a fun kid! Oh, he's now 18 months old and he and we loved having him in nursery on Sunday. :)

What To Do

2010-03-11T20:54:00.004-05:00

Since my last frustrated Post, I've done a lot of research and found this info. for people to follow if their car should suddenly speed out of control. It's good to know because apparently this could happen to any car. I feel a little better know that I have a game plan, but am still unhappy with Toyota's handling of the situation.

Sudden Acceleration:
The scenario is terrifying: While cruising along, your car takes off like some mysterious invisible foot has floored the throttle. The odds that this will actually happen are infinitesimally small. We'd bet that the morning walk to your car has a greater likelihood of injury. But sudden unintended acceleration does happen. And if you're driving, you should know how to remedy the situation.

Step 1 /// Press the Brake Pedal, Hard
The first thing to do—immediately—is press as hard as possible on the brake pedal. Do not pump the pedal, but simply keep steady, hard pressure. Use all the strength your leg can muster. The brakes will require significantly more force than normal because when the engine throttle is wide open, there's no engine vacuum to power the brake booster. The car won't slow as quickly as normal, either, but it will reduce speed. In every car, the brakes are more powerful than the engine, so eventually the brakes will win.

Step 2 /// Get Into Neutral
The next step is to shift the transmission into neutral. If the throttle is stuck wide open, the engine will rev alarmingly high. Do not worry about hurting the motor, there's an electronic rev limiter that will automatically keep the engine spinning high enough to kill it. With the engine power now disengaged from the drive wheels, the brakes will have a much easier job.

Step 3 /// Turn Off the Car
You're well under control now, but just to be safe, shut off the engine. Since some modern cars have push-button starters, like many Lexus models, you may have to hold the button for three seconds to cut the engine. And you should be aware that the brake-pedal pressure may increase when the motor stops running. As safely as possible, pull the car off the road and call a tow truck. There's no sense driving the car again until the mechanical problem is found and fixed.

Performing well in any panic situation comes down to being prepared. So find an empty parking lot and practice these techniques. To simulate a stuck throttle, you'll have to keep the throttle pinned with your right foot and use your left foot to work the brakes. After a few go-arounds, you'll get the idea.

Good luck everyone, I expect to see everyone tomorrow in the church parking lot practicing their extreme car handling skills :)

Toyota Time Bomb

2010-03-10T14:42:00.003-05:00

Dave and I purchased a new 2010 Toyota Prius at the end of Jan, right before all this crazy stuff with Toyota started coming out. At first it was just floor mats that were the problem, and only in the Camry. Now, they don't know why the gas pedal sticks and most recently it happened to two Prius's. Did we make a bad purchase? Yes!

I drove to the church yesterday and on the way I kept wondering what I would do if the Prius started speeding out of control, should I run into that tree, into another car? It actually (and this may sound extreme so stay with me) reminded me of the DC sniper. We were here when that was happening. The odds were low that you would be the actual person to get shot, but no one played outside or went on walks during that time, and you always felt scared and vulnerable when you had to get gas. Owning a Toyotas is similar, no one knows who it will happen to next, or what's doing it. The odds are low that our Prius will speed out of control, but if I'm going 70 down a freeway and it suddenly happens, I'm dead. Not to mention if you're driving and someone Else's Toyota speeds out of control. Am I blowing this out of proportion? Probably. But, I wanted to vent as a new Toyota owner that I am not happy with the way Toyota has handled this problem. I'm not happy that I can't get a refund and I'm not happy that I have to send my husband to work in a time bomb. There are so many scary things that can happen when you drive a car, who needs to add a gas pedal that won't slow down into the mix.

When a baby rattle chokes some unsuspecting baby with a huge mouth they recall all of the rattles, people get refunds and it's over. When a car speeds uncontrollably out of control and kills people due to manufacturing problems, why can't you send it back and get a refund. It's not my problem that it happens, it's my problem that I bought a Toyota. I'm stuck with my 20K+ time bomb purchase.

We did however get our fuel efficiency plates in the mail this week and Dave got home in a record 20 min. compared to the 1 hour it usually takes him. Is it worth the risk of driving a Prius, No. You probably thought I'd say yes. No, I'd rather have a husband that's alive later than a husband that's home 40 minutes eariler. If you're going to buy a fuel efficient car, go American, pick a Ford Fusion. We've had two Fords that worked great and what did we get when we switched to a so called better brand? A time bomb.

Chile Lindo

2010-03-01T12:33:00.030-05:00

We had a fabulous time in Chile, Dec. 2009. The people there are warm and friendly and loving. We visited Santiago, we also drove south 12 hours to Osorno, Pucan, Frutillar, and then drove North to San Felipe, then we drove to the coast to see Val Pariso, Vapillar, and Vina Del Mar... I'm probably spelling all of these wrong, forgive my lack of spanish education.

This picture is taken at the beach at Vapillar. So romantic and beautiful there. It was literally steps from the water...

Ever wonder what the inside of tombs look like? Well Dave did and so got these wonderful pictures inside tombs at Val Pariso. :)

This is a famous garden clock at Vina del Mar, a beautiful coastal city. We drove up the coast along the ocean, there were beautiful castle like buildings, greenery, palms, heaven.

This picture is again at Vapillar where the beach restaurant was. The water was pretty chilly. Some kid dove right in, brrrr.

This is an awesome family Dave baptised that Dave reunited with in San Filipe. Her son also served a mission. The were so nice and served us fettuccine Alfredo, delicious! They also had fresh avocados and tomatoes that you put on fresh bread. Very good!

Dave grew to love, or not love dogs on his mission. There are a LOT of stray dogs living the life here. Here we are at the Conquistador Fort in Santiago. It's carved into a mountain in the middle of the city. Rock stairs, beautiful architecture, and people making out all over it.

Do you see the Volcano behind the cloud? This is Volcan Pucon (I think). Amazing to see these so close. This one even gives off little puffs of smoke.

This is the Osorno Volcano, it's very picturesque. We got to sit in a restaurant with all windows facing the volcano and see the clouds depart and the Volcano appear. Very luck and very cool!

This is a little German settlement in Southern Chile, Fruitillar. Very cute houses with cedar shingles. They apparently have a music festival down there every year.

We took a ferry ride to a little island called Chiloe. It sells a lot of wool and goods made of wool. The boat ride was really fun, we saw penguins and seals swimming in the water.

Back in Santiago we enjoyed one of Dave's favorite Chilean meals, a completo! A hot dog with everything on it. It was actually delicious. I also enjoyed the fruit juice there, the honey dew melon was delicious and they were always so fresh and pulpy. Chile has a similar climate to California, so they have a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables.

This was the view out of Dave's parents window while they lived in Chile. Really, isn't it amazing!

This is another beautiful building in Santiago. Maybe the town square?? Wow my memory is already fading...

Dave took me tracking to some of the areas he served in his mission Santiago Norte. We were so excited to find some of the people he baptised. They were always to happy to see him, invited us in and served us soda, or water in cute little cups. So hospitable.

This is the same picture of the town square, but at night. Down town Santiago had lights on the trees a lot of beautiful nativity scenes. Gorgeous.

Santiago sky line, some what smoggy.

This is a cell phone building, you know, back when cell phones were big and bulky.

We thought this chair was a little wierd...

This was a cute doll I got in Chiloe, the little island.

We bought a bunch of these cute hats to use as Christmas stockings

This is a very picturesque row of houses on the island of Chiloe, they are built on stilts and the tide goes in and out every day.

This is in Frutillar, a German influenced town in the south.

This picture has a story behind it, so here goes:
When we were in Ecuador in 2006, we were driving on the edge of a mountain in the pouring rain and fog, close to the jungle. The whole van was quiet. I was wondering if we would ever pull over and at what point we should. So to break the silence, I commented on all the signs that we kept seeing that said Peligo. "What does Peligro mean?" I asked. The entire van cracked up laughing, apparently peligro means "Danger". It was enough to break the silence and we icy atmosphere. Now we all laugh whenever we see a sign that says Peligro!

Love this song!!

2010-03-01T00:31:00.002-05:00

One of my young women from Quantico sang this song for her mom. It is amazing, she is amazing. Katie, you are awesome!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lww1PClG2Kc

I hope one day my little girl will sing to me!

Photos!

2010-02-28T22:08:00.003-05:00

I hardly know where to start. It's been forever since I've been able to download photos from my camera! Do I start with the latest and greatest, or start from the oldest and move to the most recent? I guess if I'm turning this into a memory book, I'd better go from the oldest to the newest. So this post will be photos from Nov. No, I didn't get any photos during Thanksgiving. Horrible I know. I did run my half-marathon in November with some great women from my church, Heather and Rebecca. A few other women I trained with ran the Baltimore half-marathon. I wasn't ready to run then.

Rebecca and I stayed at a hotel in Richmond the night before, Heather ditched us for her husband. I guess that's ok :) He was running the full marathon. What a great couple! After running 13K, I couldn't imagine going that distance again, like the full marathon. I know, I look like a dork in a hat and my face was still red, but hey, I did it and that's what I set out to do. No injuries, just some sore muscles. Note to self, park closer to the finish line. Rebecca and I walked what seemed like a mile before we found my car. A few Krispy Kreme donuts and some 5-guys fries later we were on our way to DC with a half marathon medal and t-shirt to prove our success. Would I do it again... yes! How long did it take me to run after the half marathon, only 2 1/2 months! :) But, surprisingly, I'm still in better shape than when I started training for the half. Would I recommend running, YES! Just go at your own pace and don't get injured, it's way more fun that way :)

Journal Entry about the Kiddos!

2010-02-22T21:10:00.005-05:00

I had to write a paragraph about my kids for church, as a spotlight and I wanted to document it here in the blog journal. One of these days when I'm not teaching preschool, picking out stuff for the new house and changing diapers I really will post some of our pictures. I even got the thingadebopper that transfers the images from the SD card straight to my computer since the downloading cord doesn't work. So, it shouldn't be to far away. I also got a new Mac laptop which I am thrilled about, so I can finally erase all the wrinkles in my pictures before I post them (ha, ha!) I guess for now you're just stuck with words. :) Hey, I added pictures!

Alyvia is such a joy to have in our family. She is so sweet and kind and has a contagious laugh. She loves to draw and draws beautifully detailed drawings of things she sees around her. She was an easy baby and could sit and play by herself for hours. She loves baby dolls and princesses and prefers to wear a dress wherever she goes. When Alyvia was little, she went fishing with her grandpa in Idaho. They caught a small fish and he let her hold it. Before we could stop her, she put the slimy fish in her mouth. She must've been hungry! We want her to know that we love her and that we are proud of the little girl she has become and look forward to all the wonderful things she will do with her life.

Berkeley has been a great addition to our family. He helped us realize that boys and girls are very different. He didn't really like dolls, but loved guns and swords and costumes. He loves to have his face painted and likes to pretend to be something scary~ He has made his dad proud by beating him in Mario Kart. Berkeley also loves to play sports and run around. Berkeley is very thoughtful and wants to make sure everyone is happy. He made sure to invite a few girls to his birthday party so Alyvia would have someone to play with. He likes to think and ponder life while he rides in the car. One day he said to me, "Mom, I try to be good, but sometimes I'm bad." I think that sums up Berkeley's earnest desire to be good and do what is right. We all will sin in this life, that is why Jesus came and died for our sins, so we could return to live with our Heavenly Father someday. I know Berkeley will continue to strive to do what is right, even if it's hard. I'm proud of all the things he is learning and accomplishing and want him to know that we love him very much!

Everett isn't in the primary class at church, but I'll write a paragraph about him too:
Everett has been our little ball of energy. He was our littlest baby and earned the nickname "pumpkin muffin". I don't know if it was because his birthday was the month before Halloween, or because he was jaundice for an entire month, but pumpkin muffin it was. We also called him little peanut. He's all about texture and touching, he's the first one to notice that I'm wearing a new shirt. He will reach out and rub it between his fingers. He was our fastest crawler, reaching top speeds and making me "run" after him. That's one of the reasons I decided to run a half marathon, I needed to be in good shape to keep up with this kid. Now he runs everywhere he goes, although he does trip and fall more than the other two did, but he's tough and hardly ever cries when he is actually hurt. He loves balls. He also loves Glory our cat, even if she pounces on him like a lion attaching it's prey. There's never a dull moment with Everett around, he's always moving, unloading, pushing and pulling, grabbing, reading, and throwing. He LOVES to be outside. He'll chatter and point out the window for 15 minutes. I can't wait to finish the new house, I think he'll enjoy a fenced in backyard with grass, balls and a sand pit. Everett watches what you're doing and does it. When I was teaching Alyvia soccer team, I put him in a port a crib to watch. When I was done, I got him out and put him on the grass. He had barely learned how to walk, but walked right up to that soccer ball and kicked it. He had been watching us kick balls for a half an hour, he knew just what he wanted to do. We love having his energy, his hugs, and his cute smiles in our family. It will be fun to see how he channels all of his excitement and energy. He keeps us laughing, and the entire family truly enjoy our little pumpkin muffin.

Worst snow levels ever recorded in DC

2010-02-11T23:45:00.005-05:00

We survived the deepest snow levels ever recorded in DC. There are 33 or so inches of beautiful fluffy white stuff out there. Two days of constant snowing followed a few days later by another two days of wind and snow made a great story for all the news channels to cover. I loved sitting inside and watching the snow fall. Dave did a great job shoveling all the snow from the sidewalks and getting the cars out. It was quit the job, the piles of snow he left were over 5' tall. I've enjoyed have the kids and Dave home. I love snow days! Games, hot chocolate, naps. Ok, Dave had to work from home, but it was still fun to have him here. We always have a great time together. The kids were out of school all week! I would post more pics, but I'm currently having download issues with my Cannon camera, but enjoy this shot I took with my i-phone. This winter has made up for all the wimpy snow less winters I've had since moving here. :)
We hope you're all enjoying your winter as much as we are!

Cat Napped

2010-01-10T18:27:00.005-05:00

Our vacation to Chile was awesome. We've had some camera battery issues, but as soon as those are fixed, I will add pics and do a post to tell you about some of the highlights of our trip. While I'm waiting, I thought I'd journal about our weird experience upon our return.

While we were gone, as many of you know, DC had the biggest snow storm in Dec. since the 30s. CNN Reported "Accumulation at Dulles reached 16 inches, breaking the old record of 10.6 inches set December, 12, 1964; 13.3 inches was reported at Reagan. The old record there was 11.5 inches set December 17, 1932." For those of you who are not from here, we are very lucky to get a dusting before Christmas. Most of the snow if any comes in Jan. and Feb. and doesn't stick around for long. Well, there are still piles left from that snow storm, which tells you it's been colder and snowier than it's ever been. I personally LOVE snow, so I was some what bummed to hear I missed it. We were concerned about our outdoor cat that we left behind. Our wonderful neighbors had been dutifully feeding her, but hadn't seen her much since the storm...We were hoping they had just missed her since she likes to roam around and come back to the house hear and there during the day. The food was always gone the next day, so we hoped she had found a place to keep warm.

Here's where the story begin,
So we get back, and notice the cats blanket is missing from her box we had set up by the front door. Whoever it was left the heating pad though. We're perplexed... and after a day or two decide that Glory (the cat) is missing. We make a flyer and hang it up around the neighborhood. I get a strange call the next day.
"I have your cat, and frankly, I want to keep her." Umm, what do you say to that... "I'm so glad she ok," I say. "I've had her for a month and we've grown very attached" they say. "Is her collar still on?" I say. "Yes, they say" then they proceed to tell me how she been so wonderful and how they're the best cat owners ever. I'm a very non-confrontational person and can't think of what to say now, so tell her that I will discuss it with my husband and call her back. "Could I get your name and phone number so I can call you when we've talked about it." Here's where it gets weird.

She won't give me her name or phone number and rattles off something like, I don't know what I'll tell the kids, we're so attached... She says that she'll call me back the next day. Um... Ok, what else can I say.

That whole day I am in turmoil. Who is this person holding my cat hostage. Will she ever call back? Why did she even call me? Why did she get attached if the cat had a collar. It gets weirder...

Well, Dave and I talk and of course decide not to give her the cat. I arm myself with some things to tell her when and if she ever calls me back. We decide if she doesn't call back that we'll call the cops.

This is the cat we rescued from a Wendy's in Alabama, who rode in the car, 12 hours, to DC with us, who has moved with us, who we've recently spent lots of $$ (in my mind) to spay and get her up to date on her shots, we've got a carrying case, leash, collar. She perches on Dave's shoulder. She is his cat. She has a great personality, likes to play. It's not like giving away some stray cat we feed once a day out of pity.

The lady calls the next day. I break the news, she's practically crying on the other end, but decides that she will give us the cat, since, it is our cat she says.
"But," she ask in a pleading voice,"why do you have her as an outdoor cat?? She's been in our house every day since the snow storm and never once wanted to go outside." I think to myself "Really, do you speak cat? Last time I checked cats were animals and enjoyed running and playing and being outside." But, I decide to let her down easy. I tell her I'm from Idaho, that I grew up with outdoor cats and they did very well out doors. I also assure her that we do make sure she is not left out on cold nights. But, couldn't do anything from Chile because our neighbors couldn't find her (because you had her). This seems to calm her down and she tells me that she'll have her kids bring her over after school, that she just lives around the corner from me. That the neighbors knew right away who's cat she was since she does roam the neighborhood.
"What???????? you knew the whole time that she was our cat, that she lived at our house and you still kept her and didn't say anything until we put up our sign?" Now I'm a little disturbed, more than before :)

She had her daughter bring the cat over, and leave instructions and stories about how cats freeze to death in the snow. I can't blame them, we did look like horrible cat owners from our month leave. I am thankful they took care of her and that she was healthy and happy and that they did have the decency to give her back.

The story isn't over. The next day, her daughter comes to our house again carrying the missing blanket. "We took her blanket so she wouldn't be scared at our house." "What, you took our blanket?" I think, but smile and thank her for returning it. I'm not sure where you draw the line between helping and stealing, but I think these people crossed it. But, we're glad they did the right thing in the end. We're glad Glory is ok, and the family enjoying her again. :) As you can see from the above pictures, the kids love playing outside with the cat. :)

Merry Christmas

2009-12-08T16:55:00.003-05:00

We wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas before we take our trip to Chile. We're leaving the kids with my brother and sister-in-law in Georgia and Dave and I are taking flying to Chile. We get to visit the place where Dave served a two year mission in Santiago. Dave's parents are also there right now, so we'll also do sight seeing with them around the country. It's summer there, so we're excited to have some fun in the sun! We'll arrive back in GA on Christmas Eve and spend Christmas with the Millers. It should be an exciting vacation!

Here's a recap of our year:
This year Dave got a new job! He is now the CFO of Bradley Holdings. He is enjoying his new job and having fun learning all the new things. He also passed part 1 of 3 of the CFA exam! We're so grateful for all he does for our family! Jana is volunteering at the school and is teaching in a coop for Berkeley's preschool. She's having a lot of fun teaching Berkeley's all boy class once every 7 weeks. She also starting running for the first time in her life and ran the Richmond half marathon in November. I guess that proves that anyone can run :). Alyvia (6) is enjoying 1st grade in her new school and has many new friends, she continues to love art and has really picked up her reading skills. Berkeley (4) is loving his all boy preschool, now he has all the rough and tumble energy he could ever want. He's growing taller and taller and continues to love anything that has to do with guns, swords,scary, and hunting. My mom laughs and says he must've inherited the Idaho gene. Everett has gone from infant to toddler. He keeps us on our toes with his constant energy and movement. He has a great smile and is generally a happy little guy. He's doing some sign language and can talk. He says Dad, Mom, cat, and recently, HO HO HO! Very appropriate for the season :) As a family, we're currently working on building a new house! It's in the same area as the last one. We close on the house at the beginning of Jan. after which we'll tear down the existing house and start building the new one. We should be moving in in July. That should keep us busy for a while. I don't know what I'll do with myself if I'm not packing or moving in or building a house. I might actually blog more :)

We feel very blessed. We're so happy to have three healthy, happy children, a job and a roof over our heads. We know our Heavenly Father is very mindful of each of us and is there to help and encourage us. We're thankful for the birth of our Savior, his ministry on this earth and his love for us. We hope you all have a wonderful Holiday season, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The Ferrels

Halloween?

2009-12-07T16:37:00.003-05:00

Is it still OK to post a Halloween pic? I think I'll be playing catch up with posts for a while. :)

Berkeley was Darth Vader for the Church Halloween party and a Storm Trooper for Halloween. How can a kid like Star Wars that hasn't even seen the entire movie once?? Go Advertising!

Alyvia wanted to be an Egyptian. She loves the story of Moses.

Everett was a little crab, but we never got a picture of him. He slept through Halloween and I forgot my camera at the Church party. Oh well, the third children always get the shaft. But hey, I turned out ok, so hopefully there won't be any permanent damage. :)

Brown Family Visit

2009-11-22T08:45:00.003-05:00

Having fun at the Renaissance Festival!

Riding together...

on an elephant

Free pony rides, the line was short, so the kids kept going back for more!

Dancing to the fun music.

More ponies! Don't you love the workers attire. You run into some interesting people at these things.

Kenna, Creed's little girl, came as well! Isn't she so cute. The girls are showing off their face painting.

Grandpa and Everett at the jousting event, one of the best parts of the festival.

The Knights in full armor.

Everett had no teeth, but wouldn't let go of this turkey leg. He must've gotten it from Berkeley.

Berkeley must've gotten it from Dave.

Dave the prime carnivore in the family.

Dustin came for 3 weeks. We had a blast. One day we went to the NRA museum. Check out this tiny gun!

Dustin and Everett, proud to have the right to bear arms.

Our BIG Boy

2009-10-25T23:51:00.004-04:00

I can't believe how much he's grown in only one year.

He's walking!

The boys! You'll have to excuse Everetts orange eyebrows, he really enjoyed his ravioli dinner.

Such a happy little guy!

Little Everett is getting so big. He turned ONE September 12. He started walking and got his first tooth or should I say teeth this month. We were wondering if he was ever going to get teeth and then we discovered that his top 4 teeth were all coming in at the same time. He's such a cutie! This little man has never ending energy. He's very content and happy as he takes all the Tupperware out of my cupboard, pulls all the dish clothes out of the drawer and toddles all over the house. He loves plants and toilets and pretty much anything dangerous. One hour of Sacrament meeting at church has my arms burning from picking him up putting him down and trying to keep him near our seat. Sometimes he'll stop to flirt with the people sitting behind us. He loves to turn the pages in a book and will sit and look at books for a good while. He enjoys watching Berkeley play Mario Cart Wii, but doesn't watch much TV. He makes the cutest car sounds and has the cutest curly strawberry blond hair. He's a skinny little guy, which we blame on his constant motion. He makes us all smile and laugh and he Loves to play with Alyvia and Berkeley. We love our little Big Boy Everett!
I'll post pics soon

Too Much Fun

2009-09-22T13:08:00.006-04:00

Alyvia is now in 1st grade! She has taken her first grade role very seriously :) and is doing very well in her studies. She comes home with a green (which is good) stoplight colored in every day and has even won a few prizes for her good behavior. She complained of all the boys chasing her at recess, but has made friends with the boys and now says she like "Star Wars" and boy things. She still very much enjoys baby dolls, dressing up and playing house. She also Loves animals. Here is a picture of her with her cat Glorye (she named and spelled it). Glorye is such a lovable, playful cat. We got her from a Wendy's parking lot in Alabama and she road with us all the way home. The poor little starving street kitten now has a nice comfy home with food and probably too much petting.

Georgia Family Reunion

2009-08-09T09:26:00.008-04:00

The fourth of July was great and low key. Can you tell it's hot and humid in GA? I like to think of it as a "healthy glow". :)

Cousins got to rekindle friendships. This is Alyvia and Laurel. They are only 1 month apart in age and just LOVE to play together. Both enjoy drawing, dress up and princesses. They had a fun time together on the trip!

Everett was so easy on the trip. I could always find one of the cousins to hold and love him when I needed a break. Here is Kate and Everett, she was so good with him.

Alyvia and Laurel pointing at the fireworks.

Cousin Renee, Mark (Dave's bro.) and his wife Lisa enjoying the festivities.

Kate and Everett, Allie and Amanda. They're growing up so fast! They were little flower girls at my wedding, I remember them standing in my line and skipping around. Now they're in high school!

Alyvia showing me the sparklers. This was the first time she's ever gotten to hold one. She was giving me her "serious" smile.

Berkeley checking it out!

Bottom is Cameron and Top is Grae. The colors in this photo are so cool. Side walk+ Chalk + bright colored clothes = 80's

Rick and Clay put on the fireworks show. I'm glad Clay is a doctor because they were a little crazy, can we say Piros. :) Here are the kids enjoying the fountains.

The adults having some fun after the kids were in bed. I love how the camera cut off Marks face?? This was a serious tennis match. Clay was so tall (6'7" I think.) that the Wii had a hard time registering his moves, it worked better with him on his knees.

Hiking up Kennesaw Mountain.

Alyvia and Berkeley trying to get as tall as Uncle Clay.

Secret hiding spot where the kids could go behind an ivy curtain and sit. The kids all loved it.

Mini trip to Destin Beach, FL. Dave and Everett, Aunt Kathryn and Alyvia enjoying the waves. Everett later got soaked by a wave and Dave had to come in. :) We all had fun boogie boarding and floating.

Berkeley on the white sands. It was a beautiful place to visit.

That's where we ran out of batteries for the trip. We had a great time and can't wait for the next GA vacation!!

Happy Birthday Dave!!

2009-08-06T12:09:00.003-04:00

Ok, his birthday was July 6th, but we finally found the camera cord, so here goes:

We celebrated Dave's birthday with his family in Georgia. The party started off with a dance performance done by Aubrey, Barbara and Emily. Soon everyone was dancing! Berkeley even surprised us by doing his version of the worm. Too funny!

Dave scored some great presents. Due to Alyvia's love of art, she made her dad a t-shirt with her art ironed on. It turned out pretty cool. She's a terrific artist.

Berkeley chose to give his dad a Wii game called Mario Cart. It has been a fun present. We all enjoy playing it, especially Berkeley and Dave. And yes, Berkeley has beat Dave a few times...

Thanks to Kathryn's wonderful baking skills, we had three beautiful cakes to feed the crowd. I think they would've been devoured if we hadn't had such awesome southern BBQ before that. It was a very nice dinner.

What's a party with out a pinata. Here are all the cousins lined up to take a swing.

We love you David! You're such a wonderful husband and father. I think you're even cooler than when we met if that's possible. I'm excited for another year with you!!

BEETOX

2009-08-04T10:03:00.003-04:00

As many of you probably know, I will be turning the big 3-0 in December. This has caused me to reflect on my life and to realize that I am super lazy in the exercise department. I also decided that I want to accomplish some sort of goal to memorialize this "special" birthday. So, I decided to run a half marathon. I couldn't quite commit to the full marathon since I've only ever ran 1 mile at a time. 26 miles seemed like way too much. A half marathon sounded like something I might be able to accomplish. As I started to look into running, I found out that a lot of women in my ward run every other day and are currently training for the Baltimore half marathon. Perfect! So I joined the group and have now ran 3 times. To my surprise have run about 4 miles each run (I'm a little slower than the group, but happy with my own progress). I'm also surprised to find that I'm actually liking it.

Well, today I got an unexpected surprise. As I was running a big bug hit my face under my eye. I couldn't see it, so I swiped it off and it stung me. "No way," I thought, "Did I just get stung by a bee?" So I wiped under my eye and sure enough, there was the stinger. Perfect, 1 mile from the car and no where to wash it off. So I kept running, stinging under my eye and all. Yes, I know, I'm so cool right. When I got home I took care of it and it hasn't hurt that bad. This is the second time I've ever gotten stung by a bee. So you see, I'm doing lots of things I haven't done for a while.

When I got home I had the funny realization, that as the stung area swells my micro wrinkles are disappearing.

So I just wanted to all let you know that running does make you feel and look younger, if you're lucky enough to get some "Beetox".

Sorry about the no makeup, but here's a pic. You can hardly tell where I got stung, somewhere under the right eye.

No More Teachers, No More Books!

2009-07-01T22:34:00.004-04:00

Summer is Here!!! And, I am such a slacker!!!

Alyvia officially graduated from kindergarten! We love having her home for the summer! Berkeley has his playmate back and she is such a great little helper around the house. We had some fun "stay up late" nights catching fire flies. That is one of my most favorite parts about living here. I just find fireflies so magical. They light up the trees like twinkling Christmas lights. They're also very slow and perfect for kids to catch and put into jars. Berkeley and Alyvia caught 30 or so. It keeps them busy for hours.

I'm calling this our summer of water. My goal is to have the kids become very familiar with water and swimming. We got a season pass to a cute water park near our house. It's great, has tons of slides my kids size, the water is 3 1/2 feet deep or less everywhere. One of my favorite parts is that they get free carousel rides outside the park. When it's time to leave I just say, "Lets go to the carousel!" and the kids run. No sad faces when we leave. You also get free boat rides around the little lake next to it as well and there are plenty of Geese to feed. We're really having a great time. (Hence the reason I have no posts :)

Our house is sold and we should close (cross your fingers) by July 15th. The buyers are going to rent back to us for a month of two after that (which is fabulous) so we have a little more time to figure out where we're going next. We are very relieved and happy that seems to be working out.

I'm super excited about the 4th of July. It's one of my favorite times of the year. I have yet to go downtown to see the fireworks. It's on my list of things to do when I don't have small children. I'm sad I won't be in Idaho. I still tell everyone that the IF fireworks are the best I've seen. And, you can't top the free chocolate milk at the Annis parade. :) But, this year we're driving to Dave's sisters house in GA. Almost all of his siblings and families are also coming (We'll miss you Putt family!). We'll have tons of fun in Atlanta and then head to Destin Beach FL. That will be my second time going to the beach since I moved here 7 years ago. Beach traffic is a bear! I'm excited to see what the kids think about it. And, I hope Everett doesn't eat the sand :) I have seriously seen kids gobble up sand. It must the the salt. It's so disgusting! Hopefully we'll have pictures when we get back.

Sorry, still haven't found the camera cord. We WILL find it by tomorrow so pictures are coming.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and I hope you have a spectacular 4th of July!

Oh, FYI my mom sent me this link to the cutest hair blog. I'm going to try some of these cute hair do's on Alyvia. Check it out!
http://cutegirlshairstyles.blogspot.com/

Groupon

2009-06-11T13:37:00.004-04:00

Has anyone ever heard of Groupon? http://groupon.thepoint.com/#city_selector
Look to see if your city does it. They send you 1 email offer a day with huge discounts to fun things going on in your area. I'm learing about a lot of cool stuff here that I didn't know about. Plus, if you see one you like, it's super cheap!

UPDATE...

2009-06-03T22:20:00.003-04:00

A lot has happened since my last post:

1. We successfully moved from Arlington to Vienna (15 miles apart) into our new house. It's sooo nice and we've thoroughly enjoyed it. We put sod in and I am loving it!! We're still selling it, but are enjoying it while we can.

2. Lost the cord to download pictures from the camera to the computer during the move. No worries, I'm sure we'll find it eventually...

3. We've caught every sickness we missed last winter. The 24 hour flu bug, pink eye, bladder infection, and horrible coughing/ croup colds. I'm waiting for the string of sicknesses to end. Isn't stuff like that suppose to go away in the summer!

4. The weather now feels like summer, humidity and all. I even think I got my first mosquito bite today.

5. Alyvia is almost finished with kindergarten. She's become a pretty good reader and enjoys telling me all the words she sees everywhere. "Hey mom, that says pizza over there, can we get some!" :)She writes in a journal to some future person. She told them to not ignore their mom and dad. I thought that was pretty funny.

6. Everett crawled the week before we moved. I think all the stuff on the floors and the packing bubbles were great incentives to start moving. I was hoping he'd hold off a week. :) That same night he was kneeling in his crib and Dave said," Hey look, Everett is kneel...." right at that moment Everett "popped" up into a standing position to every one's surprise. It was so cute and he looked very proud of himself.

7. Lowered Everett's crib to the lowest setting.

8. Everett is now crawling all over pulling himself up on everything and has now scaled the stairs (I was right behind him and wanted to see how far he would go) He went up about 10 stairs before stopping. Everett is 8 months and 3 weeks old now.

9. Berkeley is very into SSX snowboarding on the PS2 and thinks it's pretty cool when I whip out my gaming skills and show him a thing or two. Ok, at his age any trick I do is pretty cool :). He also likes to pick up Alyvia at school and see the baby tadpoles in her room. They have raised baby chicks, caterpillar/butterflies, tadpole/frogs and are now growing flowers. He has fun visiting her classroom and seeing everything there. Too bad he still has another year, I think he would love being in kindergarten.

That's all for now, I'll try and post some pics when I find that cord. Ta Ta for now!

Alyvia and Berkeley go to the Circus

2009-05-14T10:26:00.005-04:00

Alyvia here. Mom didn't go to the circus, so I'm going to tell you all about it. I wanted ice cream and candy at the circus, but we got an elephant ride instead. It was so fun!

We were being silly in the picture!

We were being funny in the picture.

The elephants were obeying the person and did silly tricks and put their arm out.

We took an elephant ride at the circus and it was wiggling, slow wiggling and I was a little scared. It went back and forth on the elephant ride.

I was a little scared when the guy took me off because there was a little crack and I thought he was going to drop me.

The little kid was on the very top and I thought it was a long way down. I thought it was a little freaky, but there was a blanket under them.

Mom thought this was a crazy half horse half lady, but it was really a horse that went around and around and went under the house and the dogs road on the horse and there were so many dogs it filled the horses back.

Who is Everett Alrik?

2009-05-04T22:18:00.003-04:00

He's 7 months 3 weeks old.

He's a very curious little fellow. "What's this, what's that, this feels cool, how about this, Whoa! Look over there, what's that?" If he could talk I bet that's what he'd be saying... all day long.

He's a happy little fellow. He now meets your gaze with a little laugh, Ha Ha Ha, a huge smile and eyes sparkling with adventure!

He's a thrill lover. Throw him in the air and he squeals with glee. Check out his first swing ride. That's pure joy right there. Not all kids love the feeling of being in a swing. Everett LOVED it!

He's a crawler. Yes, officially as of 2 days ago Everett can now cruise around the room. You know how some people have a spring in their step because they're having a good day. Well, Everett had a spring in his crawl. It's so cute, he almost looks like a prancing pony. I think he's very happy to get to everything he wants to explore. Unfortunately our snake plant has been his object of affection. I was hoping to move before I had to baby proof!

He's a little brother. He love his siblings and they love him. Berkeley will give him a little tickle, or play peek-a-boo and Everett just giggles and giggles, to which Berkeley giggles and giggles. I need to record it because I could listen to that sound all day long. When we walk up to the bus stop Everett gets really excited and starts looking for the bus. Seriously, he knows we're going to get Alyvia. He always greets her with some body bouncing and smiles when she gets off the bus. She's great at talking to him in a cute little baby voice that he loves.

He's not a snuggler. I can barley hold him on my hip because he's trying to jump off to touch the newest thing. When he nuzzles into you his knees go up and he turns into a ball. Not the easiest thing to hold onto.

He's a nature lover. He Loves to ride around in the umbrella stroller. Sitting up and looking at everything as we pass by. He's very content when we go for walks, or watching kids at the park.

Something funny I have to mention is that he's so active I nurse and bottle feed him. It's about 50/50. I haven't expected the nursing to last this long but somehow it has, so we're going with it. But, when he nurses he looks like he's a cowboy riding a bull. His will not hold still and has to look around every 4 seconds. His arm is in the air, like when a bull rider puts his arm in the air for balance. It cracks me up.

He's a listener. He listens really well and won't talk that much. But when it's quiet he'll sometimes just "talk and talk and talk" He says Da da very well. He's almost got a Maaam, almost. And today he almost looked like he had the sign down for eat. So we're going to ramp up the sign language teaching and see how that goes.

He's a little boy who's loved. We sure love this little guy. He's captured the hearts of every member of his family. It's been a lot of fun to have a baby in the house again. It's even more fun now that we have Alyvia and Berkeley there to adore the baby as well. It's really a whole different experience than when I had Alyvia and Berkeley. The were babies together. Now I've got older kids to help out ect...

We're having a ball with our little ball of energy.

Tenessee Wedding and Update

2009-04-30T21:04:00.008-04:00

Dave's cousin Renee, whom we dearly love, got married! The whole Ferrel clan decended upon Nashville, TN for some serious "Good Times". We missed Dave's parents who are in Chile and the boys of the Putt and Hargis family, but enjoyed all who came!

We all crashed Dave's Brother Marks hotel and let the cousins go swimming. There were a lot of kids in the small pool and it some how malfunctioned and stopped filtering the water, so we successfully shut down the pool for a while.

Next stop PF Changs! I'm sure the servers ran in terror at the sight of our group with all those kids. Of course they put us at the table in the corner of the restaurant closest to the kitchen. But, the servers were so surprised at how good the kids were they gave us tons of fortune cookies and made sure to say multiple times that this was the best group of kids they've ever seen :) They really were great together and just had so much fun with cousins. From the front right is Alyvia, her cousin Laurel (don't they look a lot alike, she's Kristins daughter), Mark (Dave's bro.), Kristin (Dave's sister), Lisa (Mark's wife), me, dave, Marks boy Cameron, Berkeley, Marks other boy Tristin, Kristins daughter Barbara, Marks daughter Aubrey and Marks son Josephs arm.

Renee held her wedding rehersal dinner at a great pizza place. Dave's sister Jenette joined us there. She came all they way from Utah by herself. The rental car place made sure to give her a black sporty car with a spoiler. We all had to laugh :) This picture is left to right, Lisa (sister-in-law, Marks wife), Jenette (Dave's oldest sister), and me.

The bride and groom, Daves cousin Renee and Jeffory. It was such a beautiful wedding. Renee had made everything so beautiful and didn't leave anything out. She was so thoughtful and had a table for the kids to color and do art at the reception. She even had a basket in the bathroom with mints and clothes pins ect.. if you needed anything. The only thing they didn't plan for was the tornado warning. Right after the wedding as we gathered in to the reception area they said there was a tornado close by. Luckily for us they went around us and the party continued! Renee is a woman of many talents. She's an OB surgeon, she is also very artistic, she is also a great cook. I don't think there's anything she's not exceptional at. She's even humble and sweet. Jeffory is amazing as well, he was so nice and welcoming and made everyone feel at ease. He's a statistics teacher at the college. They actually met when she was in one of his classes and started "courting" after the class ended. What a great couple!

Renne and her father. He's in his ninties and such a sweet man. It was very special to see him walk her down the isle. She is his only daughter and I'm so glad he got see her get married.

Everett is very inquisitive and is always on the move looking around and touching everything he can get his hands on. Feeling textures and exploring. Unfortunately sometimes the exploring gets out of hand :) Uncle Dick was a great sport about it and thought it was cute. Pictured left to right: Kathryn (Dave's sister, the identical twin to Kristin), Dick, and Marks son Tristin.

The Ferrel Clan. From left to right: Dave's oldes sister Jenette, Lisa and Mark-Daves brother (married), Amanda, Rick and Kathryn Miller (Amanda is their oldest daugher. Kathryn is Dave's sister, one of the twins.),Kristin (Daves sister the other twin), Dave and I. I'm not even going to try to list all the cousins. Lets just say there are 6 boy cousins, two husbands and Dave's parents missing from the group.

We all had a blast dancing the night away. We danced from 7-10 pm. Everyone had so much fun the DJ made sure to tell us to drive home "safely". Ha Ha! If only he knew we were the least drunk people there considering non of us drink. We don't need alcohol to act crazy and have a good time!

We toured the Hermitage, Andrew Jacksons home. It was beautiful and had some great painted wall paper. Things were done so much better back then. I thought it was interesting that he didn't have much formal education. He was just well read and had many many books. He also kept all the newspapers and bound them into books from when he was president. They were written on the same paper we use for dollar bills, so they've lasted this whole time. Petty cool!

Alyvia and I right before the wedding.

There was no shortage of lovin for Everett while we were there. All the cousins loved to hold him, which was nice for me :) He just couldn't get enough of Kate's glasses. This picture was too cute!

Here's a picture of the perfect family. Really, Dave says growing up was like being from the Sound of Music. They're so happy together and just have so much fun together. It's really been fun to be a part of their family. Doe a dear a female dea, Ray a drop of golden sun, Me a name.. :)
Dave, Kathryn, Jenette, Uncle Dick, cousin Renee, Mark and Kristin.

Kathryn's husband Rick with two of his 4 girls, Rachel on the left, youngest daughter Kate on the right. Everett was practicing his Vulcan greeting.

Dave and I with our sleeping baby. This picture reminds me of when we only had 1 kid. Life seemed so hard with one, what were we thinking. One is a piece of cake now!

Our new camera! I'm excited to get it in the mail. You'll have to tell me if the new pictures look better. I know it can't make me a better picture taker, but I'm really excited to try out the wide angle lense, the 10 optical zoom and the HD video.

Our house is offically done on the 8th and we are free to move in. I'm pretty busy packing, or atleast thinking about packing and blogging instead. We'll move in until it sells. If you know anyone who wants a nice house in Vienna, VA send them our way!!

New House

2009-04-13T23:13:00.008-04:00

We're finally posting pics of the new house. Things are happening so fast that even these pictures are outdated. Now they pretty much just have to touch up paint and do the landscaping. They should be finished by the first week of May!

We've been watching the market during the entire process and have thought about selling it to insure that we don't go under. Due to the economy, we're going to go ahead and sell it and hopefully turn around and build again when the economy isn't so shaky. We may still have to move in, so we'll have a little "vacation" in the new home. At least that's what I'll tell myself and try not to think about how we're going to have to move twice. :)

Here are some pics I took!

This is our back yard. It's pretty big for the DC area. We actually found some great flowers under all the brush. I love all the big trees!

This is the kitchen island. I added the cabinets on this other side. You can never have too many cabinets in a kitchen!

The is Alyvia and Berkeley with our new neighbor Annabell. She's been waiting for us to move in, I hope some more little kids buy the house so she still has some friends. They played hide and seek. They were so good that we didn't find them for about 20 min (wink, wink).

This is Berkeley at the Granite warehouse. It was really fun picking out the slab of granite, they look very different than the little sample at the design center.

I love the hardware!

The kitchen is open to the family room, which we love.

This is the bathroom in Alyvia's room.

We really like the carriage style garage doors.

This is the master bath

This is the fan in the master bedroom. It matches my comforter better than I thought.

This is Alyvia's princess light.

This is the master shower, I know you all really couldn't wait to see it. :) We had them cut the tile in half, we really liked how it turned out.

This is the large capacity washer and dryer. Someone is going to LOVE these! Apparently they use very little water and you can wash a ton of clothes at the same time. They would be perfect if they also folded and put the clothes away! Now there is an invention that could make some serious money!

I'll post new pictures as soon as I can, I want to show you the hardwoods, we love how they turned out. So there's our investment project that's been going on since the day after the baby was born. They actually started building it in Janurary and they're almost finished! I've really liked learning everything, it's been a fun expereince and hopefully we can do it again.

What the heck is the credit crisis?

2009-04-03T23:42:00.004-04:00

To understand the Financial Crisis, you could read the Wall Street Journal for the next 6 months or you could take the next 10 minutes and watch this video. Dave's been living and breathing the crisis for the last 2 years and he says this video does a great job of explaining what went wrong and it's pretty funny too.

Be sure to watch Part 2 which is only 3 minutes long.