Emergency Preparedness

As I'm sure you may have guessed, Austin area (which was originally scheduled to be hit) was completely missed by Hurricane Ike. We feel VERY grateful and VERY blessed. I was so nervous, but in the end we didn't even get a drop of rain (and I felt pretty dumb). We did get some pretty gusty winds though. The kids actually went out the morning the Hurricane hit the coast and played in the wind. Dallin kept running around screaming "It's blowing me away!" and Kate just tried to stay upright. Their hair was just blowing all over and they were all giggles. It was amazing to me that just 3 hours away, our neighbors on the coast were being decimated. Some of them are still without power, homes, clothing, etc. We still have refugees here and when you go to the grocery store, it always looks sold out because they are just trying to keep up with demand of the basic items. Last weekend 400 men in our church went down and helped with cleanup efforts. They came back reporting that there was still so much to do. Our prayers are with those affected by this disaster.
Even though I felt silly being so worried and so nervous about nothing (for us anyway) I was grateful for the opportunity to become more prepared and really think about emergency preparedness and how important it is. If we had been hit, I was relatively well prepared. We would have been fine. However, it also brought home things I can do to be even more prepared in case of emergency such as making sure I have our vital documents together in something fireproof and waterproof, building up adequate food AND water storage, and preparing my children so they know what to expect in case of emergency(of different kinds) so they are not afraid. In this case, Dallin was WAY disappointed that we didn't get to stay in our bathroom/emergency bunker for the big storm. After all, I had packed food, clothes, books, flashlights, blankets, pillows, and a 2 lb bag of peanut butter M&Ms (we had to have our basis covered LOL...who knows how long we may have been in there :)
He was so into getting ready for the storm and watching me get the bathroom ready, that he made his own emergency preparations. LOL I had to take a picture of this. He put everything he considered really needed/important in case of emergencies in his closet. You can't see it all in the picture, but he has all his toys, his stuffed animal basket, clothing he pulled out of the dresser, all of his books, his blankets, his pillow, a 6 pack of Charmin toilet paper(behind him on the wall), and a package of pullups(on the left behind the wall). LOL He was set. At one point, he even took Kate by the hand and led her in there. They sat in there and played for almost an hour. After a while, I realized Dallin had left but had Kate locked in the closet with the rest of the emergency supplies. LOL It is kind of sweet if you think about it. She didn't seem too upset...after all she had all the essentials.

Preckles

Do You See That?
Look very very closely...do you see it now? You can see one under his left eye in this picture. They're coooommminnnng!
Just this summer, Dallin started to get his very first freckles (or "preckles" as he calls them) I first noticed it at the water park in June. I was trying to wipe what I thought was dirt off his nose and it just wouldn't let go. I looked closer and realized that I had been trying to wipe off his very first freckle! It seems like they keep popping up more and more every day. He has a sprinkling on his nose and a few are now appearing on his cheeks. It looks like he may be a freckly man like his daddy. He is very proud of his freckles and always tells me he has "brown preckles just like daddy". He will also point out other people's freckles (and if you don't think you have any...he will find them.) He found one in my ear last week. He is so much fun--my cute little preckle face!

Fun from Grandma and Grandpa

One of the things my kids enjoy most is getting a package from their grandparents in Utah-especially since we live so far away and don't get to see them often anymore. Grandparents always seem to find the stuff that is the most fun! Most recently, they sent the kids a froggie swimming pool! I think it is so cute and the kids ADORE it.
It has a little sprinkler on the front and Dallin kept jumping in and out of it over and over again. Kate mostly stood in the sprinkler and giggled.... or tried to catch the water as it was coming out.
This shot shows a pretty good view of our yard. The little play house was here when we moved in. Behind it on the side of the house is the garden plot and there is a big area that you can't see here because it is behind me. The best part is we have a free lawn service so we don't have to mow it! Super Rad!

Happy Birthday To Me!

29 For the First Time!

Well, I am 29 for the first time. Since it is the last year of my roarin' 20s I better live it up. I have had a super fun birthday. My mom took me, Tammy, Kate, and Maddie out on a girls' day out to JC Penney Labor Day clearance. It was super great! I needed some church clothes in a bad way. I ended up with 5 tops, 2 skirts, and a pair of pants!! Woot! Plus mom was buyin! WOOTAH! I am at my biggest that I have ever been, but at least I don't have to look frumptastic all the time. It was very telling when I wore shorts for the first time in ???and Dallin thought I was "naked" or when I tried on my skirts today and he thought I was "looking like a princess" . Leave it to kiddos to tell it how it is.
We had my birthday dinner at my mom's later on. She made my very favorites (all from scratch)--chicken strips, potatoes n gravy, broccoli and cheese sauce....mmmmm. It is a VERY labor intensive meal and NO ONE can make it like mom can! Thanks mom :)
I even got a surprise gift from my family to open (Michael wrapped it in Merry Christmas paper)--it was a sweet red sweater/jacket I saw at Ross and a cute plaque about daughters. It was so awesome.
Dallin was probably most excited about my cake. He was so stoked all day that it was my birthday because there would be cake. "Mommy, is it your birthday? Yay! It's mommy's birthday! Can I come to your birthday? Yay! Have cake and candles? Is that your cake? Is it ready? Is that your cake right there? Where are the candles?" He could hardly stand it. He DID manage to keep his fingers out of it since he was threatened with not getting any if he touched it. It was a delicious orange angel food cake with orange glaze cake (again from SCRATCH...my grandmother's recipe...my mom ROCKS!!) It was all so delicious I totally pigged out and felt sick for a while...like Thanksgiving.
It was so wonderful to celebrate my actual birthday with my family. I don't know how long it has been since I have been able to do that. They pulled out all the stops to make me feel special, and I did. It was awesome! Thanks guys! You ROCK!
(PS-Christopher did not forget about me, he took me on a date on Wednesday night for my birthday! Yippee!! What a rockin' hot stud :)

Curious Bedmates

Q: What do naked Ken, a Carebear ball, and MotherGoose Nursery Rhymes have in common?

Answer: They were all found in my bed when I tried to go to sleep the other night. (which is disturbing on a whole new level...especially naked Ken). I was exhausted at the end of the day and came to my room to find a Carebear ball on the bed. I chucked it off and flopped into bed only to get jabbed in the back. I reached around and pulled out NAKED KEN! What the!!?? What was he doing there? I went to roll over and suddenly.."Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall! ...." Are you kidding me? By this time I was laughing instead of being annoyed and thought I should capture this moment. Hope some of you find it amusing (as well as validating and familiar.) Ahhh...motherhood.

Tons of Fun!

(Look closely and you can see our little red headed boy peeking over the volcano edge in the middle)
One of the things I enjoy most about being able to be a stay-at-home mom is being able to plan and carry out all of those really fun sounding childhood experiences. So far, I have managed to have at least one "fun" thing to do every day (most of the time it is free cause we po')
I have joined my ward's playgroup that meets on Monday mornings. It has been a really good way for me to get involved with my ward, meet other moms with little kids, and get out of the house for some much needed interaction with peers for me and my kids. I love love LOVE living 3 miles from my family, but I also know that I need to have
my own friends, interests, and life. So far, I am really making that effort and we are having LOTS of fun and meeting some great people. On this past Monday, our playgroup went to Radijazz Indoor Playnasium in Austin (I actually drove all the way to Austin by myself, got there ON TIME, and got home without incident!! yippee! That is real progress since I have NO sense of direction AT ALL) Radijazz is hard to describe. It is all indoors. They have a regular playground type area with the tubes, a "seascape area" with slides and a squishy/bouncy floor and things for the kids to climb on like boats and ducks, and they have the volcano with slides down the sides and a big foam pit for lava. Guess which part my kids liked? Yep! We spent most of the time jumping in and out of hot lava--even Kate! Most people who saw her independence and fearlessness would immediately turn to me and say "she has an older sibling doesn't she" yep! Thanks to Dallin Kate is a feisty no-nonsense gal (she came with some of that honestly...he just helped it along). We had a great time playing with other kids and learning about new social situations. Dallin is really progressing with his social skills...still room to grow, but there is a marked improvement. I really enjoyed getting to know some of the other moms there as well.
Today we went and fed the ducks at the duck pond. Well...the geese mostly. Those suckas are nasty. They hiss and everything. They were pretty afraid of us today and didn't really stick around to eat for very long. It probably didn't help that Dallin and Kate chased after them with handfuls of mashed up bread shouting "Come back! Come back and eat!" Nana kept handing Kate the bread and Kate kept eating it--shoving in her mouth as fast as she could. She got really upset and started screaming and crying when the ducks ate some of "her" bread.



Funny girl. She did finally get it though and start throwing the bread at the ducks and into the water (mostly...she still snuck a piece here and there) Even Madison and Tammy came out with us and fed ducks/chilled in the shade. It was really fun. The best part was that when all the ducks swam off, all of these little turtle heads started popping out of the water and eating the rest of the bread. There were TONS of turtles. We started feeding them all of the bread that we had left and more just kept coming. There was one that was soooo huge that we thought it was a beaver at first...nope just a giant turtle. He even had little turtles riding around on his back. LOL We tried to take a picture of it, but I'm afraid you can't see it very well. It was super fun. I love being a full time mom!

Here I am pointing at the turtles in the pond. All of those
discolorations/rocks are actually turtles!

Oh No!

Kate is so adorable! She loves the book Llama Llama Red Pajama and when the Mama llama runs up the stairs she will gasp with her little lips in an "o" and say "oh no!" in a really cute Disney-esque voice. I captured a bit of this on video the other day while Dallin was sleeping and was lucky enough to catch her flipping through the book, pointing at the pages and doing it over and over. "(gasp- with lips in "o" and little fishy face) Oh No!" "(gasp- with lips in "o" and little fishy face) Oh No!" She cracks me up.