New Fish

Our new fish......

Optimus Prime the 2nd
Jennifer the 2nd

Hopefully they will live at least a month before they die. hehehe!! :o)

Optimus Prime

... has died. This morning. We now have no living fish. :o( The poor kids.

R.I.P.

I regreat to inform you that Jennifer and Bumble Bee, Avalon and Nolan's beta fish they recived as gifts on Christmas, have both died. Only Optimus Prime is still alive. :o(

Our Last Day of Christmas

Saturday, my in-laws came over and we celebrated our last day of Christmas. Usually every year we go down to Orange County and spend Christmas day with them. But this year we decided we are just going to stay home on Christmas for now on. It was just starting to be too much for the kids spending two days in a row in traffic going to other people's houses, sitting in traffic. They were always missing their regular meal times and naps and just get cranky. And with another one coming we decided it was just too much.

Saturday my mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law, Grandma-in-law, and The Kralich's all drove down (in traffic lol. figures) to our house to do our gift exchange and Christmas dinner. Holy moly! Between them all they brought so many gifts!! The kids eye's were popping out of their heads. lol. We got so many super awesome gifts!! Thanks everyone!!

For dinner we deep fried a turkey. It was all of our first time ever doing it and first time eating one. I thought it tasted really good. Actually, I think everyone liked it? But we totally over cooked it. Since we did not really know what we were doing. And we followed what everything said for how long to cook it. It was not ruined overcooked. But it was overcooked. lol. So, now i keep telling Dan we got to try it again! Everyone who does it says they will never eat turkey another way again. I thought it was good, but it wasn't like i would not have an oven turkey again. And of course everyone who came all brought amazing desserts!!! They were all so yummy!!

Sissy got to play barbie with Avalon in the new Malibu Beach HouseNolan got a priate fort. It shoots real cannon balls. He thinks its funny to launch the cannon balls at people. lol. Nolan spent all day asking if he could take a bath so that he could use his new Car's shaving kit. You can't tell, but that is Lighting McQueen Shaving foam. :o)

Afterwards we all played with the Wii. Mostly Tennis and Bowling. Even Gma got in on the action. Uncle Willy played golf. But, no one took any pictures of that. :o(

Learning to Read

Probably only me and the grandma's will get a kick out of this. lol. But here it is anyways.

High School Musical On Ice Tour

For Christmas from Gma and Papa, Avalon got tickets to go see High School Musical on Ice. I got to go along too. :o) And so did Gma and Sissy. It was really fun. Avalon loved it. Although near the end it got a little long and she was getting antsy. But then once we got home it was all she would talk about. She totally loved it. Now she wants to go see Hannah Montana on Ice. lol. I don't even know if they have that. I tried to get some pictures. But, as you can tell, it was hard. And the ones I got are blurry. So I quit trying.

Thanks Gma and Papa for the super cool show!!

Christmas Day - Merry Christmas

Avalon was the first one up on Christmas morning. She went and scoped out all the gifts and found Santa's before she came and woke anyone up. lol. Then she came and got me and Dan. Then we all went and woke up Nolan. He is always the last one up. Both kids were so excited that Santa came. And they were totally shocked that Santa filled up their stockings. They had not idea about that and it came as a complete surprise to them. I guess they don't remember their stockings last year? Since we got home so late they were still in their outfits from the night before. We didn't want to wake them to change them into their jammies. So, I know, but oh well. lol. They did not care.

First thing we all did was open our gifts from Santa. The kids got what they had asked for. Some Incredible Hulk toys and a Troy and Gabriella barbie doll. Dan was soooo shocked that Santa had a gift for me and him also. ;o) I was excited that he didn't have any idea that Santa was getting us a gift and that he really was surprised. We got a Wii. :o) The kids actually were just as excited as we were. I was surprised but both of them do really good at most of the games we got. They both love Mario Cart racing and they can both do really good at it. Although they both think it is hilarious to drive off cliffs are crash into other people. They are some pretty CRAZY drivers.

After we opened out Santa gifts everyone went and took showers and got dressed and had breakfast. Then it was back to opening the rest of the presents. Nolan just tore right through them. Then after he had them all opened he went back and looked at everything he got. Avalon opened each gift and played with each one. We had to keep telling her she had more to open. lol. She kept saying she had too many gifts. :o) We all got all kinds of really cool gifts that we loved!!

Nolan played with his Incredible Hulk gloves all day long. Then he fell asleep like this. lol. I thought it was so funny.

Later on My mom and my brother, his wife, and their daughter Savannah came over. We opened more gifts and had a really awesome Christmas dinner. I have no idea why we did not get any pictures. :o( I guess everyone was just so busy playing Wii. lol. That none of us remembered to get any pictures of anyone.

We had such a great Christmas!! The first one of many in our new house. :o) We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones too!

p.s. Every morning when Nolan wakes up the first thing he does is go out into the living room to check for more gifts from Santa. :o)

Christmas Eve

As we do every year, we headed out to Orange County to have Christmas Eve dinner and gift exchange with the Wagner's. Here is Avalon right before we left. She is so upset because even though she asked me to do her hair like this, she has decided she does not like it anymore. And she is walking around the house crying saying how ugly she is.

Now, here she is after daddy gave her her jacket. All of a sudden she loves her hair and can't stop staring at herself in the mirror and telling everyone how pretty she looks. I guess the jacket made the look. lol. Nolan had a cute little vest on. But he took it off because he kept saying it was making him too hot. He insisted he get to wear these suspenders. Which were to small. We bought them last year for a wedding he was in. But he thought that his "shoulder belt" was the coolest thing ever!! lol.

I just like this picture. :o)

And this one. lol. We had 20 people at dinner. Every year my father-in-law has to put up like 4 of five tables and make one giant table. It's crazy! lol. Luckily the grandparents have a room big enough to hold a giant 20 person table. Some years it's even more. I tried to get a picture of the whole table. But it is so big I could not get in a spot to get a picture of the whole table.

We ended up not leaving until 10pm or 10:30. I forget. It was late. Then we hit a little bit of traffic. The kids totally fell asleep on the way home. And as usual we forgot to pack them some pajama's. So, we put them to bed in their Christmas eve outfits. So, just so you know, that is why they are wearing them again on Christmas morning. We are bad bad parents. lol.

We hope you all had just a great of Christmas Eve as we had!! :o)

Merry Christmas

glitter-graphics.com

Merry Christmas to your family from ours! Have a wonderful Holiday weekend!!

Internet, baby, finger

Sometimes, i just have a hard time thinking of a title. lol. Do i have to have a title? With it post with no title?

My Internet at home was turned on at 6pm last night!! yey!! everyone was so excited. Even the kids. Because they have been begging to go online and play games for weeks!!!

I had another OBGYN appointment yesterday. I gained 6 pounds! Ahh!! lol. I wonder if it is because I ate the whole box of chocolates all by myself on Monday? Or the half bag of Oreo cookies over the weekend? Nah! I didn't think so either. lol.

I got my glucose test. Negative. Which i figured anyways. But my blood work came back saying I was anemic. So now I have to take Iron supplements. I never had to do that before. So, i don't really know why this time i am anemic? or what that does? Other then that, no updates. The heartbeat was strong and fast. and the baby never ever stops moving. Ever. The doctor even said wow, every time you come in here he is always moving. A lot. lol.

Dan's finger is ok. I think I am driving him nuts. No matter what he tries to do I run over there and tell him stop let me do that for you. lol. He was trying to light the fire last night and I kept asking him "should you be doing that?" lol.

Yesterday was the kids last day at their daycare school. They were sad, but they still don't really get it. Nolan thinks whenever he wants to go back he can. Avalon thinks all the kids are going to her new school. We try to explain it but they think we don't know what we are talking about. All the teachers were crying when we left. It was so sad. :o( Avalon I just know is going to do great at her new school. But I worry a little about Nolan. He is very shy and very reserved and takes a long time to warm up to people. So next week we will spend a few hours everyday with him at his new school and hope that helps. I definitely don't want to just drop him off on the 5th and leave. His first time meeting people. Poor guy. Avalon already got to go to her new school and be introduced to her teacher and her classmates and she is soooo excited.

Who Knew?

On December 11th A T & T cancelled my DSL for no reason and without even contacting me. Weird. SO i called. They said they had no idea why it was cancelled. There was no note. Just that it had been disconnected. They agreed it was weird. But that by the 13th I would have it turned back on. By 8pm. Well, at 8pm on the 13th it still was not turned on. So i called. They said I had till 8pm on the 20th to have it turned on and they don't know why anyone would have told me the 13th because that is impossible.

So, at 8pm on the 20th i called. No Internet yet. My account had not been turned on yet. They don't know why. Call back in the morning during normal hours to find out why.

Call back in the morning. Guaranteed by a manager that it will be turned on by 8pm on the 21st. Guess what? No Internet still. Told to call back in the morning.

Called back in the morning of the 21st. Told there are no service reps in on Sundays and i need to call back on Monday.

Call back Monday morning. Talk to several different reps and departments and supervisors. On conference call for one hour with 3 different people at once. Promised that I would have Internet by 8pm on Monday night. 8 pm Monday night? no Internet. Told to call back in the morning.

Called back this morning. Told my account is listed to be turned on by 8pm on the 23rd. They don't know why anyone would tell me any sooner because it is impossible. Supposedly according to her notes I am lucky I am even getting the 23rd. I should not even be connected until the 31st seeing as i just ordered it on the 22nd. Rep has no record of any of the calls i have made. Assures me that by 8pm tonight my Internet will be connected. Is unable to let me talk to a supervisor because they are all in meetings. But guess what? If it is not on by 8pm tonight then i should call back in the morning.

Another trip to the ER

Last night Dan was out in the garage cutting up some firewood. I was sitting at the kitchen table wrapping presents with Avalon. Then Dan walked into the kitchen and said:

"I think I just screwed up"

and holding his hand. I looked at his hand and there was blood on it. And blood dripping on the floor. And OMFG!!! I freaked out!! I do not do good in situations like this. I totally started yelling OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH!! Are you ok??? I started scaring Avalon. So then I tried to calm down while still asking Dan over and over again if he was ok. I was totally picturing a finger missing or something. He kept telling me hold on he was washing off the blood so he could see. And, I will point out at this time that there is not massive amounts of blood or anything. It was not gushing out all over the place or anything.

After he washed it off you could see a big huge chunk of his skin was missing. Like, if you were to get your fingerprints taken. Where the ink would be. That was gone. I don't really know how to describe it. Probably the size of a dime. And not all the way down to the bone. But about half way there. I was running around trying to find paper towels for him to apply pressure because the cut was still bleeding. And then Dan wanted water to drink and a chair to sit on because he was not felling good. And i totally lost it. I ran next door and got Dave who came running over. Of course me screaming "Dan just cut his finger on the saw!!!" probably freaked him out too. When we came back inside poor Avalon was hiding and crying. Dave went over to Dan to help him out and i went over to Avalon to calm her down and try to tell her everything was ok. Then I hear Dave yelling "Dan! Dan!" and i go back in the kitchen and Dan was totally passed out!! Not from blood loss or anything. Dan just passes out easily. I think from pain. Like even if it is a little bit of pain he passes out. I don't know. Just my theory. lol. He has passed out during 80% of his tattoos. So of course that really freaked me out. Dan was probably only passed out for about 5 seconds. But when you are the freaked out wife, that might as well be 5 hours. Then when Dan woke up Dave looked at his finger and said he did not really think Dan needed to go to the ER but he wasn't sure. Dan said he did not need to go to the ER. I was like I Don't care what you want. You are going to the ER. lol.

I realized that Dan and I have been together for almost 9 years now. And i had no idea if he had ever had a tetanus shot, was he a bleeder? What if the blood never stopped? What if it gets infected and falls off? And about 100 other things went through my mind that kept making me think Dan was probably going to die. Because that is how my brain works. So, Dan agreed to go with me to the ER. As soon as we got there they took him right back and looked at his finger. And the ER doctor (who by the way I had when i was at the ER. He is the one who found my gallstones. Just a side note. lol) looked at Dan's finger and kinda looked at Dan and looked at me and said "I can't really do anything with this?" and looked at me again. I think he knew i made Dan go in there. But still, that instantly made me feel 100 times better. He was totally nice and everything. It was not like he was rude. He just did not know what I wanted him to do. lol. So he sent Dan back with the nurse. And she cleaned the wound out really good. And while she was cleaning it out, Dan passed out again!!! So then she made him lay down and wait awhile until his color came back. Dan said it just really really hurt really bad when she was cleaning it out. She was using that red dye stuff. Biodine? or something? And she had like a jet stream she was cleaning out the wound with. But she said that was the only way to clean it out. Then they got Dan all bandaged up, got him his tetanus shot and discharged us. As soon as Dan sat up he instantly went pale. Again. And looked like he was gonna pass out again. But he didn't. I actually wonder if it had to do with the fact that he had not eaten anything in probably 12 hours or longer.

My mom texted me while we were at the hospital that she found Dan's big old missing piece of chunk of skin on the garage floor! So gross!!! I had to pick it up and throw it away when i got home. uck!! :o( I was totally gonna make Dan let me take a picture of it and show you guys. lol. One so you could see why the heck I was so freaked out!!! And so you could see that while it is very bad it was not a life threatening wound. But he said no. And honestly every time i looked at it I thought I was gonna throw up. lol. And it is just gross!

But, Dan is ok. yey!! I made him promise me not to use the saw today. He was gonna do a bunch more stuff around the house since he was home today. But I am way to freaked out still. He has to keep his finger all bandaged and wrapped up. The Dr said it will probably take 4 to 6 weeks to heal. But, thankfully, the Dr. assured me Dan's finger was not going to fall off and he was not going to die. So, i felt way better.

I think if i ask Dan one more time if he is ok or if he needs anything or how is he feeling he is gonna go crazy. Last night he actually told me to stop staring at him he was ok. lol

Car Seats

Arrr! Who knew that buying a car seat could be so hard? 6 years ago when i last bought an infant seat it was so easy. lol. I picked out the pattern i wanted that matched everything else i wanted. How nice it was to be so clueless. :o) Now, i don't care it it matches. I care about safety, and how long will it last, and reviews. And every single one i like has a ton of bad reviews. And good reviews. But how do you know which one to trust? It's driving me crazy! lol. So, all my new mommy friends out there.... What kind of Infant Carrier Car seat did you buy? Dan thinks i should just buy another Britix Marathon car seat. But then I have to either hold him all the time or get a sling or something. Sometimes it's nice that the carrier fits the shopping carts and stuff. Hummm.....The Marathon is nice because it is from birth to 6 years. And we had two of them before. They were the car seats we had when the kids and I were in the car accidents. I totally feel safe with them. But, I would rather wait until Logan is 1 to get one of those. I don't know.

St. Thomas

Yesterday Avalon was tested to see if she would be accepted to St. Thomas Catholic School. And yes i know just a week ago she was going to Adams and I went and got all the paperwork and everything done. Then the night before I was going to the CRC to register her Dan told me he thought we were taking her to the Catholic School and there was a huge argument and we just can't talk about it. lol. So, she is now going to St. Thomas. :o)

Anyways, she had to take a placement test. Since it is a private school they don't have to accept you. Dan took her yesterday since he was home. The test was supposed to be an hour long. And Avalon had to go in the room and get tested by herself. No parents allowed. Dan said after only 10 minutes they brought her back out and said that she did so good on the first few questions they did not see they need to continue with her testing. She obviously was going to ace the entrance exam. :o) The teacher told Avalon she was very very smart and she should be very proud of herself and that they are very excited for her to come to their school. Avalon was beaming. I have never seen her smile so big as when she was telling me all about how she was so smart she did not have to take the test. lol. I asked her what did they test her on? She said she had to name shapes and colors. That is totally easy. Heck, even Nolan could pass that test. I was so worried they were gonna give her math questions or geography questions or something hard. Since that is what they are learning in school right now. I was soooo worried she would not pass the test because they would not even tell us what they were testing her on. That way we could not prepare her they said. Which makes sense.

So to celebrate we took Avalon to go buy her school uniform yesterday. All she wanted to buy were the jumpers. She did not want any shirts or pants or anything. We told her its going to be cold. You cant wear a dress every single day! She disagrees. She thinks she will be ok wearing dresses to school every day. Then she had to buy her PE clothes. And she kept asking us what PE clothes were and what is PE. That was kinda hard to explain. lol. Because we don't know what they do for PE. Dodgeball? lol. She even has to wear a school jacket. Like, she can't just wear a regular jacket to school. It has to be their jacket. So, of course Avalon is super excited about having uniforms and special jackets and special shirts and a little plaid jumper.

Logan

Logan's very first anything. Given to him for Christmas from Sam and Becca. Awe!!!

Irvine Christmas Train

This is the 3rd year now that we have gone to the Irvine Christmas Train. The kids always love it. :o)

We went last Saturday. Luckily for us it did not rain while we were there. It was super duper cold. Which was also nice because it was not busy. There were hardly any people there.

We went on the train, got to see Santa, listened to Mrs. Clause read stories, decorated cookies, went on the jump house, and colored pages. Whew!
Afterwards we met up with Sissy and Wendi and went to Dinner where some guy came within inches of running over Dan and Nolan. It was so scary. We were at Ricardo's on Katella. And the guy was coming in the parking lot off that side street and he turned in going super fast then all of a sudden saw Dan and slammed in his brakes. If Dan had not been carrying Nolan, and Nolan had been walking, I just know that guy would have ran Nolan over. It was soooo scary.

To see all the pictures Click Here

Happy Birthday Lance

Happy birthday to my big brother! :o) You are so old now! hahaha!!! Hope you have a wonderful day!!



glitter-graphics.com

dentist

Since I had to leave work early today I decided to go to the dentist and get my teeth cleaned. Holy moly! I have 5 cavaties on 3 teeth.
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Internet

Well, I have no Internet until next Saturday or Sunday. Even though Vicki told me too, i forgot to verify my account within 30 days of getting DSL. lol. So, without even calling me first or anything, AT & T disconnected my service. And they wont come back out till Saturday to reconnect it. They suck. :o(

School Pictures

Dentist

This morning Avalon had her dentist appointment to get her registered for school. They suggested I bring Nolan too since 3 is the age they want to start seeing kids. We have a new dentist since our old one was in Orange. And he retired. But was so worth driving all the way to Orange to see. :o) a coworker of Dan's has a wife that is an RDA for a dentist right by our new house. So he recommended we go over there. First let me say that forever!! we were on my dental plan when i worked at Bp\Arco. When i started working for Hanson we started using Dan's insurance. But I could not remember who our dental insurance was with when i was trying to get set up with the new dentist. So, I went on the UP website and tried looking up who it is. Well, it took me like 4 days and 2 phone calls to Omaha before i finally figured it out. lol. I kept looking under Non-agreement benefits. And we are Agreement. So, i am a nerd i guess. But at least I finally found it. Ha!
They both thought the coolest thing ever was getting xrays and getting to wear the little xray apron. It was so sad for me because first they called Avalon back. And i stood up to go with her. And Avalon turned around and told me to stay in the waiting room. She has done this before and does not need me. :o( Then because she went alone Nolan told me he was a big boy and made me promise not to go back with him either. :o( You could tell he was a little nervous. But went back their all by himself. And the lady taking xrays was so good with him. I went over to the other door so i could watch him but he could not see me. And after a minute of talking with the lady he was totally fine and laughing and everything.

Both the kids got their teeth cleaned. They are still too young for any fluoride treatments. Both kids did great. Neither one of them had any cavities. And since their teeth were so good the dentist recommended we get them sealed. So, Avalon got her 8 pre-molars sealed. And they took out her loose tooth and put it in a special box. Avalon was so excited. Then of course Nolan wanted his tooth taken out and was so upset when he couldn't. Nolan got 6 of his pre-molars sealed. Then decided he could not take the yucky tasting gel anymore and clenched his jaws shut and refused to open them again. HE screamed and cried that he was done. And he was not going to change his mind. :o( So, now they want me to bring him back again tomorrow morning and see if he will let them finish up the last two. I sure hope he will. Although i guess it's not a big deal if he does not get the top last two done. But that will be were he gets cavities watch. lol Maybe if Daddy takes him tomorrow then he will let them finish.

Overall we were there for 2 and a half hours. It felt like forever! lol. But, the dentist and everyone in the office was so nice. And they were so good with the kids. She explained everything she was doing to the kids and let them play with the equipment so they could see what it did so they would not be scared. And the cutest part was Avalon holding Nolan's hand and rubbing his tummy telling him it was almost over and to let the dentist finish the last two teeth. Awe!! Too bad it did not work. lol.

Guess I should have taken the picture before dinner. lol

OMG! I like, totaly want one ;o)

http://tech.msn.com/news/articlecnet.aspx?cp-documentid=15737752&gt1=40000

Hahaha! I laughed so hard. Do you think less of me because I actually want one? lol. Too funny

Pictures

Avalon constantly carries Nolan around like this. They both love it. I am just waiting till she drops him or he knocks her over. But for right now they have a blast doing this.

When we moved into the house we saw about 10 rose bushes around the front yard and the back yard. But at the time they were not blooming. We did not really know if they were alive or not. Since we have moved in most of them have blooms. Some are a light pink, some a hot pink. But this one is my favorite!!

Weekend Update

On Saturday my sister Vicki and her family came down to visit for the day. We all loaded up adn went over to Nikol's to check out her new pad. And my little brother Anthony and my sisters Rose and Sara were there also. :o) And my mom came too.

We exchanged Christmas gifts between all of us for the kids since we probably wont see each other all at the same time again before Christmas. The kids had a lot of fun. And Aunt Nikol played Mall Madness:Hannah Montana with them. Holy Moly man. The stuff you have to buy is expensive. lol.

Later that night we all went (and met up with my brother Lance, his wife, and my niece Savannah) to Norco for the Parade of Lights. Avalon and Haley loved the cheerleaders. We walked next to them almost the whole time. Haley and Avalon were dancing with them and saying how cute the mini cheerleaders (5 year olds) were. It was cute. Then we went and played in the teeny tiny little patch of snow they had. lol. I really thought it would be bigger then it was. There was also a snow slide and you could sled down it. The kids got to do that once since the line was so long. But they still had a lot of fun. After about 10 to 15 minutes in the snow Haley and Avalon both said they were done and they were bored. lol. Savannah and Nolan though had a blast playing together.

Sunday we spent the day catching up on Laundry, unpacking some more, and going to the park. The park by us has a huge sand box. So the kids brought all their beach toys to play with in the sand. As soon as we sat down we were swarmed by 10 other kids wanting to know if they could play with us. Nolan was in heaven. He thought it was so cool and kept saying "look mom!! they all want to be my friend" and he was so excited that everyone wanted to play with him that he had no problem sharing his toys. And if another kid asked for the toy he had in his hand he would get so happy and hand it to them. It was really funny. Avalon found a little girl to play with her on the playground too. Then when it was time to leave Nolan was trying to give all his toys away to his new friends. lol. I had to tell him no, we can't let them keep them. All the kids asked when could we come back and play with them again. It was so funny.

I am trying to get Avalon registered for school this week so that January 5th she can start at her new school. I can't believe this but now you have to take them to a dentist and get an oral health exam and submit it to the school for registration. Like if they have to many cavities are they gonna deny us or something? lol. Avalon also has one tooth in the front that is growing crooked all of a sudden and making her other tooth crooked. And she was complaining it hurts her. I kept meaning to take her to the dentist anyways to see if we could figure out why it was happening and what was going on. Last night as we were reading bedtime stories i asked her if i could see her tooth again. I noticed it looked even more crooked. So then I wiggled it a little and totally shocked myself when it moved. lol. I could not believe it. I thought we had a few more years. When making her dentist appointment today I was telling the office lady about it. She said it probably was twisting in her mouth because the new tooth was pushing it out of the way or something. So, Dan thinks by the end of the week we will have our first official visit from the tooth fairy. So, I ask you, how much does the tooth fairy pay these days? When I was a kid I usually got a quarter. Maybe a dollar. Depending on who's house I was at. One year i put out a giant gallon ziplock bag with a note that said fill her up! lol. I got a bag full of pennies. But it was still pretty cool. But i don't know. I think our tooth fairy will probably just give Avalon $1.00. Maybe $5.00? $5.00 seems like to much for a 5 year old.

Support

I often think UP should offer a support group for the wives. Lol. Often, I find no one, not even Dan, realizes that sometimes supporting his career is hard on me.
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Santa

Today, Santa went and bought the kids their Xmas presents. And this year he even remembered to buy different wrapping paper and not use Mommy's wrapping paper since that caused some confusion last year. lol. The things Santa forgets. ;o) Santa even remembered to get different name tags so that his look nothing like mommy's.

Now, where is Santa gonna store the gifts at the North Pole until Christmas Eve? That is the big question??

This weekend I am taking the kids to the city of Norco's big Christmas parade and festival. They have a whole field of snow and sledding and stuff. And unlike the city's of Riversides, which is also this weekend BTW, Norco's is free. You have to pay for Riverside's. It's gonna be so much fun. The kids have really been looking forward to going to play in the snow again. I really hope this year Dan will find a weekend to take us all up to the cabin to play in the real snow. We have not been up to the cabin in 2 years. :o( boo!!

And we still have to figure out a day that we can go to the Irvine Railroad Christmas Train. Hummm... I am definitely thinking i will take them on a week night for that one. We went on the weekend once. And i am not doing that again. lol.

Growing up

Since we have just moved into the new house, the kids are still at their old school. I am waiting until after the holidays to transfer them over to their new schools. I just thought it would be nice to spend the Christmas parties and end of the year stuff with their friends before they had to leave. So, they have not made any new friends yet at the new house. Although, our new neighborhood has about 10 or so kids on the street. I am guessing from about 5 to 10 years old. I honestly have no idea. But everyday when i come home all 10 kids are outside together playing in one driveway or another. Usually until dinner time. Then you see them all go home.

Usually they are out there riding their bikes. So then when we get home Avalon and Nolan always go and get their bikes too. And they will ride around and almost go by the other kids. But Avalon always stops about 15 feet away and no matter what wont go any closer to them. And i noticed she just sits there and watches. And waits for them to come say hi to her. And whenever i go over there with her and ask her if she wants me to go with her to see the girls and say hi and introduce herself she says no. Then she takes her bike back home and starts crying. She cries because all the girls are older then her. They have two wheel bikes and she still has a tricycle. And she cries because she has no friends anymore she says. It's so sad. I feel so bad for her. Usually this is not her at all. She is always the one that will run up to the other girls and say hi first and ask if they want to be friends and play with her. Lately she is becoming very shy and timid. I don't know why or what is changing with her. I know since moving into the Kindergarten class at school some of the other girls are mean to her sometimes. But I am sure she is mean to some of them sometimes too. Its normal stuff she has to get used to. One day her best friend will want to play with someone else other then Avalon. And they will tell Avalon she can't play with them that day. Stuff like that. One girl is her best friend one week and then makes Avalon cry everyday the next week. Who knows. I have talked to the teacher about it and she says the girls all get along in class and play with different "clicks" on different days. Nothing out of the ordinary.

So, I told Dan, we really should try and get her a bigger bike for Christmas. Then maybe she wont be embarrassed of her little bike and will be more open to playing with the other girls. Plus once she starts at the new school in January I am sure she will make friends fast and have a ton of kids to play with. :o)

Talking with Nolan's teacher yesterday, we were talking about how much Nolan has changed also since starting school this year. They have been at school since January. So, almost a full year. When Nolan first started, for the first three months probably, he was very shy. And argumentative. And violent. And a loner. He was always fighting, kicking, hitting. He refused to play for months with any of the other kids. He would push them down if they even tried to talk to him or come near him. He had a problem with kids getting in his personal space. He cried everyday when i dropped him off and cried when i picked him up that i took to long. He would tell me all the kids in his class were mean and he had no friends. Working with his teachers and some of the other mothers he has totally turned around. He never gets in trouble at school anymore. He is one of the most social kids in his class. He will tell you he has 4 best friends. He does everything with these other 4 boys and he talks about them all the time. He talks more, plays more. And in general is just a happier kid all around.

It's amazing how much both of the kids have changed in just one year.

Baby update

Yesterday I had a pre natal visit. Oh my gosh! I gained 10 pounds since my last visit. lol. I totally don't care about the gaining weight. I am just really watching it because this pregnancy I have been way more active and am eating (most of the time) way more healthier. So, I am just watching to see how much weight I am or am not gaining. Although, I was a little disappointed to see I had gained 10 pounds in 6 weeks. But, oh well. I also ate all the persimmon cookies last night too. Ha ha!! Once you eat one you just cant stop. They are so good!

My due date apparently was changed from the 17th to the 14th. It's only 3 days. So, I will probably be early or late anyways. No biggie. I actually have to go in on the 24th and get my rogam (sp?) shot and do my glucose test. On the 24th!!! I totally tried to get out of it. But, I you can only get the rogam shot i guess during a certain week and they had no other openings for that week since it is CHRISTMAS!!! lol. I have never had to take the 3 hour glucose test thankfully. But still, that stuff is so gross. yuck!!

This visit the baby's heart rate was super fast!! And really loud. So, the doctor said he has a very strong heart. Good! ;o)

My Dr said I needed to hurry up and pick a hospital to deliver in. I asked if i could pre register at two hospitals. Since I plan on working all the way up until I go into labor. So if i am at work and go into labor (which I doubt) then i would go to Corona. If I am at home i will go to Riverside. She totally thought that was funny. I don't know why. But, she agreed to send my records to both hospitals. I am kinda a little sad. Dan, Avalon, and Nolan were all born in Orange County. So, I kinda wanted Logan to be born in Orange County too. I don't know why. Just because everyone else was. But really, it does not matter.

I am a little nervous. Hopefully Dan will be home when I go into labor. lol. Now that I have both the kids. If i am home alone do i take them with me to the hospital? I have to make sure someone has the spare car seats in case i do go into labor while the kids are in school and someone else has to go and pick them up.

With Avalon i was 10 days overdue. So I was induced. So Dan was able to take that day off and make sure he was home. I was induced at 8am and had Avalon by 12:30pm. At noon the nurse told Dan that we had tons of time and he could leave to go get lunch. So he did. As soon as he got downstairs they told me to call him and tell him to come back. Avalon was coming. And she wasn't going to wait. So he hurry up and came back. 30 minutes later Avalon was there.

Nolan came 3 days early. My Dr had been saying for 3 weeks that I was going to go into labor any minute now and not to go to far away from the hospital or be by myself or anything. After hearing that for 3 weeks i kinda stopped listening. My mom had been staying with me for those 3 weeks since Dan was going to Yuma every other night or so. Of course Monday morning she left and went back home to get stuff at her house done. I had no signs of going into labor or anything. Tuesday morning though Dan's work called him to come in and go to Yuma. And I was like ahhh... I don't think so. I am having contractions. lol. That was at about 3 or 4am. So, off to the hospital we went. And by 11:30am Nolan was here.

The Festival of Lights

Last night Dan and I took the kids to go see the Festival of Lights at the Mission Inn. It was a reward for the kids who both got really high scores on their last few tests and had been doing really good all last week and this week. We had wanted to go on Opening night but, lots of other people had told us it was just to crowded and not worth it. So we got there and walked around and waited to watch them turn on the lights. The kids thought it was sooo cool. I don't think they have ever seen so many lights before. Then we went over and found the carriages. Avalon and Nolan really wanted to ride on one of the two Cinderella looking carriages. But they are $25 bucks for the whole carriage. So, if you have 4 or more people its totally worth it. I think the carriage will hold 8 people. But, if you want to ride in the wagons it's $7.00 a person. Kids 5 and under are free. So, it was cheaper for us to ride in the wagons. So, that is what we did. :o) But, then we found out later that the Cinderella carriages take you all around the whole Mission Inn. The wagon ones take you all around the library. So, if we do it again we will definitely do the Cinderella ones. We all still had an amazing night. It was so much fun. Then afterwards we went and walked around and looked at all the vendor shops, visited with Santa, and watched people ice skating. Which we would have done, but i can't go and Dan wasn't up for taking both kids out there last night. So, we might go back another time and try again. Maybe. lol. Then we walked around and through the Mission Inn and looked at all their Christmas Decorations and finally ended the night with some super yummy funnel cake!! :o)

Afterwards, on the way home, we even stopped and parked at Chapman Place and walked up and down the street and looked at all the houses there. My mom always took us to do that growing up. And it was really cool to take the kids and tell them I did this when I was their age. Too bad when I was a kid every house was decorated. This year there were like 5 houses not decorated. I thought you had to sign a blood oath when you moved onto that street to participate in Christmas decorating? lol.


To see all the pictures click here. :o)

funny?

I got here early to my pre natal visit. And I sat here watching this one couple drive around for 10 minutes in the very small parking lot so they could get a parking spot up front. Then I watched them struggle for about 10 minutes to get the stroller set up and the baby seat in the stroller. Then it took them both a while to carry the stroller up the steps because our obgyn is on the third floor of a building that does not have elevators. Lol. Now they have finally made it in the office and are totally out of breath talking about how hard it is having a 6 week old to take places.

I remember with my kids we did take the stroller everywhere. But not to the doctors office and with no elevators. With avalon I carried the infant car seat with her in it. By the time nolan came I just carried nolan around or in the carrier backpacky thing.

Anyways, I wonder how many veteran moms found a little humor in me when I was a new mom. Lol. I know I was totally different with nolan then I was with avalon. I wonder how much I will change, if at all, when logan comes?
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Crash Tax

A few years ago I read an article very similar to this one. And I thought "No Way!" Why would you have to pay for the fireman? The police? When I was trapped in my car in my car accident I did not even have the choice to turn them down. And in my case, the accident was not even my fault. Why would I get a "Crash Tax"?

But, 3 months later came my bill. For the fireman to drive 1/16th of a mile to the accident. It was literally one block away from the fire department. They spent about 20 minutes there cutting me out of the car. Then they charged me $1000.00!!! And, as it turned out that was not covered by my car insurance or by my medical insurance. We had to pay that bill out of our own pocket. And, we did not get to claim it in our taxes either. Because you have to spend XXX amount of dollars before you qualify to claim it.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

For my family...

Here are the pictures of our Christmas Tree and the outside of the house. So far anyways. Hopefully we will get more lights put up. :o) Well, I tried anyways. It's really hard to take a picture of lights when its dark outside. lol. But, hopefully you get the picture.... hahaha!! BTW- 99% of our Christmas ornaments were handmade by my great-grandmother. Just a cool little piece of information.

Believe it or not, this is the first year we have really gotten to decorate for Christmas. So, its really exciting for us. It also means we have no Christmas decorations. So, The day after Christmas you know where I will be. Out buying more decorations.

Merry Christmas!!!