Little Hensley Fam

Did we fall off the face of the earth?

2011-03-02T12:11:00.004-05:00

The answer to that is NO! But we did move to California, so it's bound to happen eventually right?? So here's a quick rundown of what you've missed
-We moved to Seaside, CA which is near Monterey in August of last year. Josh started school at the Naval Post Graduate School.
-Wyatt turned 3 on January 30 of this year. He loves Thomas Train and Cars. Those are his two favorite things. He also loves a show called "Chuggington" which we watch A LOT. He also likes the show Team Umizoomi.
-Eliza started Kindergarten (California cut of is 5 by Dec. 2nd, she turned 5 on Nov. 13th) she's the youngest child in her class, but she's doing well.
-Maddie turned 7 May 29, 2010. She is looking forward to turning 8 this year. She started 2nd grade and loves it. She misses her friends in Virginia, but has made some great new friends here. The big thing for her since we moved is she finally rides a bike with no training wheels, and she lost both of her front teeth.
-Jonas just turned 9 this year. It's amazing how fast 9 years goes by. He's had some struggles adjusting to the move, the new school. We're working on that. He has also made a lot of new friends here, and enjoys all the friends on our street.
Josh is busy getting a masters degree in something to do with Russian.. as that's his language, and Europe is where we'll go eventually. He's doing Cub Scouts at church. We're just glad to have him around all the time again.
As for me, running has kept me busy. I ran my first 8 K race last year, and it made me want to do more. California is a great place to run, because the weather is almost always perfect. So I stopped running on the treadmill, and started running outside. There are a lot of hills around here, so it was difficult at first. I've kept going, and am looking forward to running in my first half marathon race on March 12, 2011.
I'll try and get back to posting more! Promise!

Whirlwind...

2010-04-26T16:22:00.003-04:00

Josh returned to the U.S. from Kuwait on April 11. We were glad he did because my Grandma Verla Petersen passed away on April 8th at age 90. So instead of flying out to San Diego to meet him, we met in Salt Lake City, UT and drove to Idaho Falls, ID for the funeral.
We left from there to San Diego, and then drove one of our cars we had in storage up to Monterey, CA. We then returned home late Saturday night the 24th. Then yesterday we had Jonas's baptism! It was a really special day. It is amazing that my oldest is now baptized! My Dad and Josh's Dad spoke at the baptism, and they did a great job! Jonas is really growing up so fast. He was very excited to get baptized, and I know it's a day we will all (well except for Wyatt!) remember! My friend Tara made Jonas's cake, she did a great job!

8 years ago today...

2010-02-14T21:58:00.005-05:00

8 years ago today at 7:22p.m. Jonas made his way into the world. Its amazing how fast 8 years has gone by!
The reason I chose this picture below, was to show just Jonas with Josh and I. Really I think this was the last picture of the three of us because soon after Maddie was born. As you can tell I was very pregnant!Poor Jonas never really got Josh and I all to himself!

We love Jonas so much. He's brought so much joy into our lives. So today in honor of Jonas turning 8, I wanted to share 8 things that I love about Jonas.
1. I love that he's funny
2. I love how he likes to quote commercials, and that he's young enough that he believes everything they say. (right now I'm supposed to switch to geico for my insurance!)
3. I love how laid back he is
4. I love that he still likes to hang out with me
5. I love that he loves his sisters, and brother. (although doesn't act like it all the time)
6. I love that he wants to make good choices, and does try really hard to do that.
7. I love that he is excited about the changes that are coming in our life. It's a sign that he's getting older, he hasn't always been one to enjoy change.
8. I love that he thinks of Josh, his Dad, as his friend, and I hope they will always have a close relationship.
Happy Birthday Jonas! We love you buddy!

Happy 2nd Birthday Wyatt

2010-01-30T14:19:00.004-05:00

Where did the time go that Wyatt is two years old today!? They've been forcasting snow for days(which I was doubtful of), so to be on the safe side we took Wyatt yesterday to a place called The Jumpin Monkey. It has a bunch of large inflatable toys for the kids to get in and jump. They had a blast. Wyatt was even nice enough to sleep all night, and sleep in this morning! His siblings though were too excited about all the snow that we actually got! Wyatt didn't seem to like the snow. I decided to unpack the trains and our train table out of storage for him to play with, and he's been having fun with that all day.Anyway, I will post more pictures later of him with his cake and presents!

Seriously... I know...

2010-01-25T20:11:00.003-05:00

It's been over a month! Let's see what's going on with us. Instead of a big long post I'll summarize it:
> Mom came to stay with us, it was fabulous to have another adult around
>Eliza had her Christmas program at school, she did great!
>Wyatt got his first professional hair cut

>went to Milton,FL to hang with the in-laws for Christmas, had a great time!Loved spending time with cousins,grandparents, and aunts and uncles!

>Josh got accepted into the Foreigh Area Officer program, so he will no longer be a pilot. We will be moving to Monterey,CA in June of this year! We will be going to Europe, where exactly we don't know. I'll keep you posted! We're excited!
>upon returning home from our trip, the furnace was not working, it was freezing, got fixed fast thankfully!
>realized staying up until Midnight to watch the ball drop for New Years was difficult
>I turned 32. Went out with friends, got a pedicure. Had a great day, don't feel any older yet!

Dear Santa,

2009-12-06T18:50:00.003-05:00

The following Letter written tonight by Jonas:
Dear Santa,
I want for Christmas I want a psp a dis and The movie Star Wars Clone Wars the movie and a scooter, oh and get my sister a dsi to they need 2 one for Maddie and one for Eliza. Oh I want to tell you to go to Florida to bring me our toys there and bring my grandma a new laptop.

I had to post this letter because it's funny, and because a year ago you couldn't have bribed Jonas to write this much, he struggled a lot with reading and writing. (I know it's not really a lot, but for him it used to be). I'm so proud of how much he's improved just in the past 6 months of this year with his reading and writing. I think I just got the best early Christmas present from him, and he doesn't even know it!
Oh and here's a picture of him without his front teeth!

Good Intentions...

2009-12-05T13:15:00.002-05:00

It's amazing that I write a post, plan to write again, and then it is already the next month and I realize I haven't written on my blog for over 3 weeks almost! Can I claim life is busy for me? I know most everyone can. Being a stay at home Mom, being the only parent right now, kids in school... I could go on and on. I won't. We took a trip to Indiana for Thanksgiving. Had a great time, and my Mom came back with us. Jonas lost his other front tooth, so he can now wish for his two front teeth for Christmas. I will post more pictures later. I just wanted to write to say, we're still alive, and doing well.

Hello Nor'Easter

2009-11-12T17:30:00.002-05:00

Apparently we are having a Nor'Easter. The kids had school off yesterday of course, and then school was cancelled today. It started raining yesterday on Veterans Day. And it rained, and rained, and kept on raining all night. It has rained all day today. According to the neighbors, this is as flooded as it got when hurricane Isabelle rolled through. Thankfully we haven't lost our power as I know some have. I decided to take some pictures of our street, and on the corner. Although I didn't get a picture of people in their Kayaks, but trust me there were some.

Hensley RV Camping

2009-10-26T18:48:00.002-04:00

We took the weekend and went camping... but not in a tent, in an RV to several different state parks here in good old Virginia.The kids were pretty excited about going in an RV, in fact they liked it a lot. They liked the fact that they could watch t.v. or play the Wii. (We brought ours and hooked it up to the t.v.) Sleep inside, and on a little bed, and enjoy running water and a bathroom fairly close. (my favorite part was not having to stop to use the bathroom since we had one in the rv with us!)
Although I think the point of camping is to enjoy the outdoors, and take a hike. The trees are beautiful colors right now, and the weather was fantastic. Although they weren't excited about the hikes. If you heard them you would've thought they were being tortured! I hope that we created a fun weekend they can look back and enjoy!

New York City Trip

2009-10-18T15:18:00.006-04:00

Josh is home for his R & R (rest and relaxation) trip. He gets 15 days to be with us. So for his time home we flew Josh's Mom here to watch the kids, and we went to New York City. On Oct.15th we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. We arrived in the City on Sunday evening. We did a lot of riding the subway, ate a lot of really good food, and some not so great food. We went to a taping of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. We also saw a play Brighton Beach Memoirs, and a musical Phantom of the Opera. We went to the Museum of Natural History, went to Federal Hall where George Washington took the oath of office. Went to Central Park and got a row boat, and walked around ground zero. We went to China town, and were offered many fabulous deals. We also were offered many deals on purses and watches, although we passed on those! All in all it was a fabulous trip. I wasn't quite ready to leave, but we did just about everything we wanted to do. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Keeping the Tooth Fairy in Business...

2009-10-05T15:16:00.002-04:00

In the last month and half we've lost 4 teeth. Jonas has lost one on the bottom, and one on the top. Maddie lost both her two bottom teeth. (the two in the very front)
So needless to say the Tooth Fairy has been kept in business!
Here are my children with their holes in their mouth! Although Maddie's teeth have come in pretty fast, and so is Jonas'!

First Day Of School

2009-09-08T13:16:00.003-04:00

Today was the first day of school and it was pouring down rain so we only got pictures inside. Eliza had her first day of school, and I was worried about how she'd be to say goodbye. And, it seems I worried for nothing. We got her backpack hung up, then her lunch box put in her cubbie, and she hugged me goodbye and then went and played! I was very relieved! She's turning into such a big girl!
Jonas was funny on the way to school, and I quote: "I can't believe I'm already in
2nd grade!"
Me either, Jonas, me either!!
Jonas was also telling Maddie about stuff she'd do in first grade, so that was fun to hear. It's more than he tells me!
As a surprise I'm making them strawberry cupcakes for a snack after school. I hope it was a good day for them!

Its been real.. its been fun...

2009-09-05T16:51:00.005-04:00

Its been over a month since my last blog post. Some of you may be wondering why.We went on a primary temple trip on August 8th which was a Saturday and had a really good time. We stayed at my sisters house on Friday night, so the kids had fun seeing their cousins.
Then on Monday night (the 10th) my mother called to tell me my Uncle Wayne (one of my Dad's older brothers)had died. The rest of the week was spent getting ready to leave. So Wyatt and I (Jonas, Maddie and Eliza stayed here with my friend) took a flight back to Salt Lake. It was a bit like Deja Vu since we were just there. I'm glad I got to be there, and say goodbye to my Uncle Wayne. He was a great man, and I loved him greatly. So since then we've just been doing things to keep us busy. Here's a picture of the kids from our trip to the temple.

We start school in 3 days. Jonas will be in 2nd, Maddie in 1st and Eliza will begin preschool!

Reunion time

2009-08-02T17:59:00.004-04:00

We just returned home last night from our trip to Utah. I was worried about how the kids would do on the airplane. I was especially worried about how Wyatt would do. I really worried for nothing because they all did FABULOUS! Wyatt did cry a little there and back on the plane, but not long enough in my opinion that it would've bothered anyone. We flew to Salt Lake and we spent a few days there in a house we rented. It was huge! It was nice to have my parents, grandma, sisters and kids there without having to worry about being in someones way. It was also nice to have several bathrooms. We went to Heritage park I think is what it's called, where Brigham Young looked over the valley and said, "we're here!" Well not really, but he did say it was the right place. They have a little pioneer village that was fantastic, the kids had a great time, and the adults did too! Everyone agreed it was a winner. We spent time in the hot tub, had a little talent show, and played our family game Mormon Bridge. We also celebrated my sister Christine's 40th Birthday!

We left Tuesday for Beaver. We had a schedule for the days we were there which went breakfast at 8a.m. all three days, and we had activities in the morning, and some free time in the afternoon, and stuff in the evening. The second night was our Mormon Bridge Tournament. We had 13 tables, and 7 people per table. It was a lot of fun. We also had our usual family talent/variety show which is always good fun. We also had 2 family dances. At the last family reunion 5 years ago, my cousin Jean and I and some other family members got in the hot tub with all our clothes on in the middle of the night. I joked with her about doing it again. I didn't think she'd do it, but we were up playing Mormon Bridge and I think by 2:30a.m. all our senses were gone anyway, so we jumped in the pool and then got in the hot tub. We also recruited some younger cousins that weren't there last time to do it with us. It was so much fun! (thanks to my Dad for staying in my room with the kids!) I of course had my camera and got pictures!
The reunion went by way to fast!

Summer Fun *warning, tons of pictures!

2009-07-05T16:15:00.007-04:00

So I know most of you may be wondering what I've been up to since I haven't posted on my blog in awhile, so I will give an update!
School got out on June 16th and the next week my sister and her kids came for a visit. And that was spent going to the beach, to the aquarium, and just hanging out. We had lots of fun! We've gone to Busch Gardens a few times. Wyatt can ride some of the kiddie rides now, and he loves it!

We've gone to the Beach a few times. We went with my sister as I mentioned, and we went on the 4th of July. Then went to see the fireworks with Jenn, David and their girls.

We have gone to the botanical Gardens W.O.W. (world of wonder) area for the kids, which is fun because they can play in the water. Since we have a Botanical Gardens membership, we can go whenever we want, and so we've gone there a few times.

Jonas started summer school on June 29th, his teacher thought it would help him improve his reading and writing. Maddie started a summer enrichment program through the school on June 29th and thankfully they both are about the same time. I drop them off at school 8:20a.m. and Maddie gets on a bus to go to another elementary school, and Jonas goes to school. Then Jonas gets done at 12:30p.m and Maddie gets off the bus at 1:30p.m. and they both will be done at the end of July. Jonas and I went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We met up at Friendly's and got ice cream and then went to the theater to see the show. It was a lot of fun. Although not all children that attended made it through the whole movie, but if you're wondering Jonas made it, he's just like his Mom, a nightowl. We didn't get home until 3:30a.m. Needless to say, I'm tired!

I don't have pictures, but usually Monday through Friday we also go to the YMCA for a few hours! This next week we'll be busy getting ready for our trip to Utah for my family reunion! My neice will be flying up here to help me with the kids on the flight. I'm so excited to see all of my family!
On another note, we will be here in Norfolk until next May 2010. Josh has extended his time in Kuwait due to the fact he's applying for a different program in the Navy, that will take him out of flying completely. Because of when we find out whether he will get in this new program or not, I didn't want to end up possibly moving twice within 6 months, so we decided to stay here. We also decided if we were going to do that, Josh might as well stay in Kuwait and collect the extra pay he gets for being deployed. I'm very sad about this, but I know we'll survive. It helps that we get to talk every night via webcam so we do "see" him. He has 15 days of leave, and we will be seeing him in October, and we will get to celebrate our 10th anniversary together. So that's the bright spot in this deployment.

Happy Fathers Day!

2009-06-21T15:14:00.006-04:00

Especially to these three important men in my life, Happy Fathers Day!

My Husband Josh, thanks for being a great husband and Father! I love you!

My Dad, thanks for being a great Father to me, and for always being so much fun growing up and still being the fun guy you are! I love you!

My Father-In-Law Bill (sorry I couldn't find a recent picture around!), thank you for being a great Dad to my husband, you taught Josh to be the great and wonderful man he is today! I love you!

We'll always have Norfolk...

2009-06-14T20:36:00.005-04:00

If you've ever seen the movie Casablanca, they have a line in there that says, "We'll always have Paris." And here I think for anyone that has lived here in Norfolk our line should be, "we'll always have Norfolk."
Living here there always (it seems like) people coming and going. (kind of like us leaving and then returning!)
And today we had a goodbye party for some friends, the Vaughans (sorry no kids they were busy playing!),

but we also said goodbye to some others the Crandall's and the Rossi's. We of course got a shot with most of the girls there, although some people had left already.

And of course I had to get a shot with Jenna and myself. Which this is now being known as my "signature" shot I must add!

It's always nice to get together, but it's sad to say goodbye to people you've shared lots of laughs with. I'm so thankful for e-mail and blogs that keep us at least somewhat connected even though we're miles apart. I'm getting a bit sentimental, so I'll just add... We'll always have Norfolk and all the fun times we've shared.

Keeping me sane...

2009-06-09T21:10:00.007-04:00

My friends must love me because they will go see David Cook (even though they don't love him like I do) and get cold because it's on the beach at night.

And I must love my friends because I go to see The New Kids on the Block (NKOTB)
in the POURING rain, and honestly I stopped listening to them after the age of 13! (but it was a lot of fun!)

After the concert was over

And these things help me stay the (somewhat) sane person that I am!

Happy Birthday Maddie Mae!

2009-05-29T15:15:00.008-04:00

On this day 6 years ago at 8:38a.m., my beautiful little girl Maddie was born.

It's so amazing that 6 years have flown by! We decided not to find out when I was pregnant with her if she were a boy or girl. I wanted to be surprised. I was SO SURE that I was having another boy! So, when she came out, I will always remember Josh saying: "It's a Girl!" And according to him I looked very shocked, but I think the shock went away very fast when I thought of all the cute little dresses I'd be able to put her in! (ha ha)

I have to say I'm pretty lucky to have such a fantastic daughter. Maddie is so smart, funny,sweet,thoughtful, and caring of others. She has always been like a little mother to Eliza and Wyatt.

She's also very creative and I love seeing what she will come up with in her drawings and what she'll write next. I look forward to seeing her continue to grow and blossom. We were lucky my parents were able to come and celebrate, so we celebrated a day early and had cake (although it didn't turn out quite how we planned) we blew out the candles and opened up presents!

Today it was Maddie's turn for their "snack" so we brought in glazed Krispy Kreme doughnuts!
Tonight we're doing it low key by going to see the movie "Up" and going to dinner somewhere (we haven't decided where yet!).

The pictures

2009-05-26T10:46:00.013-04:00

Pictures from when we saw Wicked
Our little group was: Me, Jenn, her mom Karen, Jenna and Brooke. The show was fabulous! I would most definately go see it again!

Visiting my sister Marilyn

Here's a picture of Maddie and my niece Molly

My other Niece Emma

My Nephew Josh and Jonas were pretty much either playing nintendo games or playing on the computer together, or playing with the nerf guns. So we saw a lot of this:

Wyatt definately loved all the attention! I think Molly liked him too!

And here's me and my sister Marilyn

Then my parents came to my sisters and we left on Sunday after church and headed to North Carolina. We spent some time in the Outerbanks. We had a lot of fun! I forgot how much I love the beaches there, and all large seashells we collected. I think that was my kids favorite part. They also enjoyed the swimming pool at our hotel!
My parents are still there until tomorrow and then they will spend a few days here with us before returning home. So here's some pictures of our time there

Wicked/American Idol

2009-05-22T13:46:00.004-04:00

I will definately be posting more pictures of our night but wanted to post that on Wednesday night the same time as the American Idol results show was going on I was seeing Wicked, and it was Wicked awesome!!

As for American Idol I feel I need to post a comment about this. My friends and I are watchers of the show, and have discussed every week who we thought would stay and go.
First I have to say I would've been happy with whichever person

won because I liked them both. I wasn't a big Adam fan at first, but I grew to like him. Although, I did get tired of hearing from the judges how they LOVED Adam, and there were times that I didn't think he was all that great. He always got the praise, never any pointers or criticism. By the end of the season I got tired of his screaching and the thing he does with his tongue while he's doing it! I've been reading things about why they think Kris Allen won, a lot of them say it's because America thinks it's the "safe" thing. He's not doing crazy things with his looks, wearing nail polish, or earrings like Adam Lambert. I really don't think it's his style though. They think America went with the straight guy over the "maybe" gay guy. For me, it didn't have anything to do with his sexuality, it had to do with his singing, and would I buy his cd? Would I listen to Adam, or Kris? It came down to that for me, Kris is definately more my style. Sure a little Adam will add some spice when I'm in the mood. When it comes down to it though, he's the one I could and would listen to. I think he's very talented, and wouldn't have gotten that far if he hadn't been. either way, I'm sure both guys will do well. Okay that's the end of my rant... I'll post more pictures when I return home from my trip to see my sister in Maryland!

Sometimes you just have to slow down..

2009-05-19T21:21:00.003-04:00

This is apparently a lesson I needed to learn to slow down. As I was looking at my week ahead I had a list of things that I needed to get done, and places to go everyday, but that definately got thrown out the window.

It all started Saturday night Wyatt woke up and was crying and had a really barky cough. My first immediate thought was it sounds like Croup. (prounounced Cr-oo-p) None of my other kids had it, so I thought well it's probably nothing because he hadn't been sick when he went to bed. Sunday I could tell he wasn't himself, he was running a fever off and on, and had a runny nose and cough. Yesterday though he was wheezing, and by the afternoon sounded like he couldn't take a deep breath, was very lethargic not wanting to do anything except be held. It took me to go to my friend Jenn's house for her to convince me to take him in that night to the ER instead of waiting till this morning to go to the doctor. I called the nurse told of his symptoms, and told me to get him to the Children's hospital immediately. We didn't have a long wait in the ER either because I think of his symptoms. So we got in a room, and they said he had Croup, and he had Riders which is when you when they just wheeze and difficulty breathing without being active to have the symptoms. I hope that makes sense. They gave him some steroids, and some epinephrin that he had to breath through a mask, and they said if had to do it again then he'd have to stay the night. So, of course he had to do it again so we were admitted to the Children's Hospital. The worst part of the whole thing was when they tried and failed to get an IV in him to get fluids, his little veins weren't cooperating, and after 7 attempts they didn't try again. He eventually took fluids on his own and his fever was gone before we even left the ER room, and by this morning he was acting more like himself and wanting to walk/crawl around. So we were able to come home around noon. I'm so grateful to have wonderful friends that at a moments notice would come and help me out in this situation, even ones that found out after the fact I know I could've called. I am blessed to have great friends, and Jenn thank you again. I didn't move back to Norfolk thinking I'd have any situations like this, but I'm sure glad I was here when it happend. Wyatt is on the mend and doing much better. He's already up to his old tricks of finding things he's not supposed to, and is thankfully finally walking at 15 months! (which I was going to write about this week, I'll have to update with a video!)

Happy Birthday Jenn!

2009-05-10T21:28:00.010-04:00

My wonderful friend Jenn turned 35 yesterday.
So to celebrate we took her to one of her favorite places... Busch Gardens in Williamsburg,VA.
There were 6 of us girls, and we had a blast! We did get some rain.. but it didn't put a damper (pun DEFINATELY intended!) on our fun.

We made her wear this t-shirt that Nicole made. (great job on that by the way!) We also made her wear lots of goofy looking things as you'll notice in the pictures!

Because of the rain, the crowds of people left the park. So,some of us rode the Griffon 4 times in a row. For some (Jenn the birthday girl and Holly) the excitment was too much on their tummys which later caused some vomiting to occur. That though, still didn't stop us from going to IHOP after the park closed and spending time eating, talking and laughing. By the time I crawled into bed after I dropped the babysitter off and put the kids back into bed, it was 2:30a.m.
This morning came too soon, and I realized I don't function well on 4 hours or less of sleep.
My kids were very thoughtful for Mothers Day, they brought me my usual Special K with straweberries cereal, and a Mountain Dew. I guess after last night they thought I needed the strong stuff first thing in the morning! They also all made cards (even Jonas!) It was so sweet, and they did it all on their own this year since Josh isn't around. I was pleasantly surpised. It's just too bad Wyatt doesn't know how to let me sleep in until 8a.m. I could've used the extra hour and a half of sleep!

Bookclub and Birthday parties

2009-04-25T09:17:00.002-04:00

Last night was our book club, and this month we read the book called Undercurrents by Traci Hunter Abramson. We always meet to discuss the books we read, and last night we were fortunate to get to actually discuss the book with the author! Traci lives in Stafford,VA which isn't too far away from us. It was great to get to meet her and discuss her wonderful book! Here is a picture of our host of the month Vicki on the left with the author Traci on the right

It was also our friend Holly's birthday, (Here she is with our other friend Belinda)

We made plans (since she wasn't attending book club) to kidnapp Holly and take her out as a surprise to celebrate at Bakers Crust. So after book club we all jumped in our cars, and also kidnapped Traci Abramson to come with us! It was a fun night, and I think we might have converted Traci to our favorite Crepes too! We had a very large group of people as you can see!

I think people also thought we were being a little crazy because we were giggling a lot and playing with the camera.
Here are Jenn and Janice

Most of the pictures of Nicole I had to retake cause they looked like this, she's not very photogenic!

But they looked better when we did as you can see here

Holly,Tara, Brooke and Leann

Nicole giving her sexy look and me apparently trying to lick Heidi, although that wasn't my intention! ha ha!

Trying to take a picture of ourselves, and I was laughing too much... here's me, Stephanie and Nicole

Here's Jenna and Heidi both so photogenic!!

We had a fabulous time! I hope we can do it again soon ladies!

Easter Pictures

2009-04-19T20:37:00.008-04:00

Yes I know I'm a week behind! We've been on spring break, and literally during the day "if" we were home I never got a chance to use the computer till evening when the kids were in bed, and then it was spent talking online to Josh and then going to bed. We had a busy week! And I'm glad we had a break, but I'm also glad the kids will return to school and back to our schedule again tomorrow!
So we didn't get a great Easter picture of the kids, but we did get one, and that should count for something right?? We had a busy morning of talking to Josh, and coloring easter eggs so pictures were very rushed and we got to church late too!

I made the mistake of letting Jonas use my camera for awhile and told him to take pictures of our eggs we dyed, because I had just fixed my camera which had been on a weird setting so I din't get any of the kids coloring their eggs. Jonas took some after shots while we talked to Josh on the webcam and didn't realize he had touched the lens, so my pictures of the kids in their Easter outfits have a funny haze to them. I didn't realize it until we looked at the pictures, I couldn't see them well outside in the sunshine! I also could not get Wyatt to look at me! GRR! He did get some good pictures of our easter eggs though!

Here's Jonas saying Hi to Josh, he'd just moved to his new room where the guy he took over for had been. It has a t.v. and desk, and little mini fridge. He was putting his stuff away while he talked, usually he's sitting right in front of the computer!

Keys

2009-04-11T19:41:00.002-04:00

I was going to post about how we spent Thursday night and all day Friday (and I'm not joking) at Busch Gardens, and had a fabulous time. Then I was going to write about how we had a little easter egg hunt of our own with friends since we completely missed the one at church, and how we hung out and played at our friends house most of the day. Then upon our arrival at home I realized that my house key was no longer on my key ring. My key ring opened like it occasionally has, (it came loose, it's hard to explain) and it was in the car. So I'm searching frantically all over the front seat of the car and it's NOT THERE!
And the worst part, I have no spare key, and it's a Saturday at 5p.m. and no one is at the rental agency. So what do I do? Well, I wasn't going to bug anyone, but I did make a phone call to my friend Jenn, and I thought I might be able to possibly break into my house. Thankfully Jonas decided we needed "reenforcements" (as he called them) he went and got his friends and the neighbor sent her husband over to help and we "broke into" my house! Whew! What an adventure. So on Monday if the rental agency doesn't have a key I will be buying a new doorknob!

making some progress...

2009-04-06T15:41:00.003-04:00

Progress Report for March 2009

I think I mentioned that I joined our local YMCA. The 2 hour child care watch alone is worth it for me! (and the kids do like it, Eliza says the slide they have goes REALLY FAST!) I actually did work out more than this, it took a little while for me to get set up to work out on the machines to keep track of what I do, and keep track of the other things I was doing. I got this e-mail the other day, and thought it was good to have a visual to what I've been doing. I don't think I could lift that elephant, but I surely could eat those ice cream sundaes! Okay, Maybe not!

My personal G.I. Joe

2009-04-04T14:41:00.004-04:00

This is a picture Josh took for me while still in South Carolina. I'd asked him to get one of him in all his gear, and then e-mail it to me. So I thought I'd post this picture with the news that he made it safely to Kuwait. They arrived there at 2a.m. he said I guess on Saturday morning and then he said it took about 45 minutes to get all of their stuff. They had a lot of gear, and all of their stuff looked alike as well so I'm sure it took forever. Thanks to technology and yahoo messanger we were able to talk to him with our microphone and he could hear me and I could hear him. It was just about like talking on the phone. Now I need to locate my webcam so he can see us like we can see him on his webcam. It was evening when we talked, so he was very tired! We're just glad he's made it there safe and counting down the many days until he's back with us again.

Another round...

2009-04-03T15:47:00.005-04:00

Its been a busy week. We returned from our last visit with Josh in SC Monday night. It was a fun weekend, and one that I'm glad we did. Saturday night we took the kids to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D. They loved it, although I don't think Wyatt was too interested in it!

We took the kids to the Childrens Museum in the area. It was definately a good one. They had all kinds of fun things to do. The kids especially had fun doing the grocery shopping.

Since returning home we've been dealing with sickness still in our house, but this go round is with Eliza and Wyatt, Although I'm pretty sure Wyatt is just teething!I also started to feel under the weather. I've been dealing with a sore throat for over a month which has come and gone and keeps coming back, and after Josh was diagnosed with Strep throat I decided to go to the doctor. Wouldn't you know it, I have strep throat too! So now I'm on a healthy dose of antibiotics for the next 10 days, and definately feeling better!
Josh is now headed to Kuwait. They left last night at 1a.m. Don't ask why they left at that time, but they did. Their flight plan is Columbia, SC to Maine, to Germany to Kuwait. Fun times for sure!

The amazing adventures of a military spouse...

2009-03-27T15:36:00.005-04:00

What have we been up to this week? We took off last Saturday for a 6 hour and 23 minute car ride to Columbia, SC to see Josh. He only got 24 hours of liberty. And my sanity was questioned: "you drove 6 hours to see your husband for just one day?" my response.."I guess I really do love that man!" I do, and knowing that he will be gone for 8 months to a place very far away, of course I will drive 6 hours to see him! So we spent time swimming in the indoor pool at the hotel, played at a park in the area, walked around some of downtown and saw some historic landmarks, and we also went bowling.
We got home late Sunday night. The rest of my week has been spent going to the YMCA to work out, taking Eliza to the mall play area, going to El Azteca with the girls, and just trying to make it through this week!
We are going to see Josh again this weekend. We leave in the morning. Hopefully everyone will be feeling well. Josh has been sick this week, and Maddie wasn't feeling well last night and stayed home from school! It will be the last time we see him for 8 months, so we are definately making the trip. It makes me sad, but I'll be glad to see him one last time.

Funny Car Conversations...

2009-03-20T12:36:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we were driving to the YMCA
Jonas says, Mom you don't really use the boppy anymore for Wyatt.
Me-Yeah, it's because he doesn't really need it anymore.
Jonas-Well maybe you could keep it for me for when I have a son someday.
Me-Okay Jonas, we could do that, but maybe your wife will find something else she likes better someday.
Pause
Me- Do you know what you would want to name your son?
Jonas-(said without hesitation) Harry. Not Harry Potter, just Harry.
Me- Harry Hensley huh?
Jonas-yep. (big smile on his face)
So we'll see if this ends up coming true in the future!

Hair Cuts and new things...

2009-03-16T08:58:00.004-04:00

So I've been trying to let my hair grow, and found I was just bored with it. I could pull it back in a pony tail, but didn't really want to do that. I honestly feel like I've just grown out of that phase of my life. =)
So I went to my friend Nancy, also my hair stylist here, and told her I wanted to cut it and so we did. We also dyed it because my hair was dyed a lighter color, but my roots are dark, so we dyed it darker to match my roots. I'm definately going to get high lights in a little while. For now it's fun to do something different. I also really like that cut. It's super easy to blow dry and be done. Josh has been a little concerned so I'm posting this for him so he sees it's not soo short. Eliza also got her hair cut but she was not cooperating for the picture so this was the best we got.
Wyatt's new favorite word lately is No. The funny thing is, he definately uses it apporpriately. For example, when he doesn't want me to lay him back to change his diaper it's, No, No, NOOOOO! When I put him in his car seat, he will say, No, NO!
When I take something from hiim he's not supposed to have the No comes out. I figured out where he's learned the No from because one day Eliza started saying No Mom, and then Wyatt started saying No, No, no, No over and over. Oh the joys!
I decided to join the YMCA finally. They offer child watch included in the membership fee, up to 2 hours a day. That alone is worth it in my book. So I'm beginning today to go to the YMCA to workout. Of course my children have to be healthy to use it so I'm sure there will be times we can't go, but for now everyone is well thank goodness!

And so it begins...

2009-03-09T16:07:00.004-04:00

We said goodbye to Josh Saturday night. We actually did that twice because his flight got delayed. The second time wasn't nearly as difficult as the first time for me since we'd already said goodbye. He ended up spending the night in Chicago, but made it back to San Diego, where he'll be for a week before heading to South Carolina for a few weeks. We're keeping our fingers crossed that we can see him again on the weekends. Until then though our countdown until we see him again begins.
With the weather being so cold, and us definately not accustomed to it, we've (except for Josh) all been battling coughs, sore throats and fevers all last week. Which made it fun for Josh to be around us all. We seem to be on the mend thankfully. I had to remind myself that yes I really did want to be in Norfolk when the temperature was 29 degrees outside!
The weather has improved, but it will be cold tomorrow and be cold by the end of the week, I just hope for healthy kids for awhile!
So far the kids both like their teachers at their new school Larchmonth Elementary. Jonas has Mrs. Mitchell, and Maddie has Mrs. Kitterman. And they both knew kids in their class already from preschool, which I think is helping with the transition.
I'm still not done unpacking. I have to finish getting the girls stuff hung in their closet, and my stamp room unpacked, and then I can say I'm done!
I took some pictures before I left of Maddie with her class in San Diego. I know she misses them because we called one of her friends last week on the phone. The conversation for 5 minutes went like this...
Maddie: your funny
Friend: no you're funny
Maddie: no you're funny

We're getting back into our groove here and enjoying being back in Norfolk.

we've landed....

2009-02-27T23:19:00.002-05:00

We arrived here Wednesday afternoon after a very long journey from San Diego.
Its been an interesting time getting moved in! We had a pipe burst because apparently the heat wasn't always being used in this house which has been vacant for awhile, and its been VERY COLD here! We've had some issues with the washer hose in the same pipe as the dishwasher hose, oh yeah the dishwasher is between our washer and dryer, which makes it very interesting! We've had to mop up water twice already! Josh is working on it! We had to have the plummers return again to get the water running in our only full bathroom. So we think most of our plumbing issues are for the moment taken care of for the house! Other than that the house is perfect!
Jonas is happy to have lots of other 7 year old boys on our street, which we met within an hour of being at our house! There aren't too many girls that we've seen yet. The kids start school on Monday, barring any snow that could come this way. (Keeping fingers crossed that this doesn't happen as we need to get things unpacked without distractions!)

Hey We're moving today!

2009-02-18T13:12:00.000-05:00

Just thought I'd share one last thing... we're moving today! It's hard to believe today is the day! Josh will be helping us move then he will return to San Diego and then he will be doing 3 weeks of training before he leaves to go to Kuwait. Anyway, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we make this journey again across the country. Those of you that live in Norfolk... we'll see you soon!!

Weekend Adventures!

2009-02-18T13:11:00.000-05:00

We had a fun weekend while Josh's parents were here. On Friday we went to LegoLand, which if any of you get a chance to go, DO IT! It is especially good for children ages 5-10 in my opinion. Eliza was able to ride a lot of the rides, but there were some she was 3 inches too short to ride.

It was neat to see all the stuff made out of Legos, and funny to know that it's someone's job to build things out of legos... how cool would that be?? Maybe I should try and convince Jonas to do more stuff with is Legos! Oh and the bathroom signs had us all laughing!
Saturday we went Whale watching, we did see a few whales, but it wasn't like them jumping out of the water. It was them coming up for air and blowing a bunch out of their air hole and then going back underwater. We saw lots of dolphins, and that was neat. We all managed to feel a little queesey, but didn't toss our cookies thankfully! I don't think Jonas was overly impressed by the Whales!

On Sunday after church we celebrated Jonas's 7th Birthday with cake and presents! Its hard to believe he's 7... it makes me feel old! We had to improvise because we only had 3 birthday candles, so I wrote a big 7 on his cake with sprinkles... but he didn't seem to care!

He got some clothes, Lego Batman for his Nintendo DS, he got $7, some dinosaur eggs, and a lego land puzzle too.
Josh's parents had to leave on Monday, we are glad they were able to come and enjoy some fun times in San Diego with us before we head back to Virginia.

Little Hensley Zoofari

2009-02-13T01:31:00.002-05:00

Josh's parents came out to see us for a long weekend (the kids are out of school tomorrow and Monday). So we got Jonas out of school early and went to the San Diego Zoo.
Jonas and Maddie were too little to remember going to this zoo, so it was a lot more fun today to take them. They had a lot of fun seeing all the animals. Althought Wyatt couldn't have cared less, he slept a lot in the stroller about half the time! We saw some very PINK flamingos (see Eliza's pointing to them)

We saw the Giraffe's and the Elephants,
but unfortunately this is all we saw of the Orangutan's their exhibit was closed for remodeling.

This was about as close as Maddie wanted to get at the petting section in the kids zoo, and all in all we had a very fun time!
Tomorrow we're Legoland...more adventures lay ahead so stay tuned!

Thank you presents

2009-02-09T17:47:00.001-05:00

I decided to make something for Maddie's teacher as a thank you before we leave. If you haven't noticed by previous posts, Maddie loves her teacher. She will really miss him and her class. I had to do it in the next few days because I'm packing up my stamp room this week. (sniff sniff) So I made this little chalkboard clipboard, so I hope he likes it. I thought it turned out cute!

We have a house!

2009-02-07T12:54:00.005-05:00

So thanks to Heidi and Jenn we have a place to move into when we arrive in Norfolk! After looking on-line, I found a few places, and then the girls went and checked them out for me. It was nice to have someone that could say, there's no way you would like that, or yes you'd like that but it has this about it or that, but you can live with it right? I thought I'd found the house to rent in mid January, but it got rented out because it was too soon to send an application in. So I had to keep searching, and decided after everything that I wanted to live in Larchmont (which those of you that live in Norfolk know where that is), so Heidi and Jenn went and saw the house and said it was a yes. Heidi got to go inside with the realtor and got some pictures for me. We turned in our application, and it's going to be ours! It's no longer on line or I'd have you all go and view it. It's a 4 bedroom house with 1 and 1/2 baths. I'm just happy to have a home to go to! Here are some pictures, sorry I don't have labels for what each room is, but you can mostly figure it out! We will be leaving in 2 weeks! Wow, it's coming fast!

Maddie's birthday card to her teacher

2009-02-02T23:51:00.000-05:00

Maddie informed me the other day that today (Friday) was her teachers birthday. I asked her if she was planning to make him a card, and she said yes. Apparently they discussed what he was planning to do on his birthday. So this is what she wrote inside

which I will translate: it says:
Dear Mr. Lagarda,
Have fun playing and rolling around in the mud in a pig suit and in the hot tub on your Birthday. You have to give us no homework. Love, Maddie.

Then the other side is pretty self explanatory! I thought it was hilarious!

The Birthday Party Pics and a little side project

2009-02-02T23:35:00.007-05:00

Here they are... Wyatt had a good time with his cake as you can see, and so did everyone else. It was crazy having 11 kids (and just from 3 families too!) at our house! They all had a good time helping Wyatt with the little cars we got him and the other gifts he was brought too. He got a ball, some bubbles, and this cool rattle that can be annoying after awhile I must admit.
On another note this weekend we decided to get the kids all their own dressers at Ikea. We will put them together when we get to Norfolk.
Maddie and Eliza have been sharing, and it's definately not working. They have way too many clothes. So we're going to get rid of 2 dressers, but the one dresser Wyatt has had for his clothes I thought I could still use for me, since I need a dresser! It has really needed a new paint job.We bought it used on Craigs list in Virginia, and I just never got around to painting it. Whicn as you can see it obviously needed!
I finally decided to paint it today, and use the knobs I had bought at Target for Maddie and Eliza's dresser but never put them on. I think it turned out great! It's amazing what a new coat of paint can do! Here's the after photo:

Happy 1st Birthday Wyatt

2009-01-30T20:07:00.003-05:00

It's amazing how in just one year they go from this:

To This:

We're having a little party tonight with friends and having some Pizza, cake and ice cream! I'll post more pictures tomorrow!

Got to the breaking point....

2009-01-26T15:08:00.002-05:00

I've found that my children really seem to know how to push my buttons. As I mentioned my children have for some reason or another been difficult to get to bed. They get up there after we brush teeth, read stories, say prayers, and then give kisses goodnight. Then we hear them talking which is fine, but then we hear them out of bed, and then we hear someone crying, and then it's Mom, so and so hurt me. Which obviously wouldn't have happend had they been in bed. So last night we reached our breaking point. I told them they were going to lose t.v., computer, and the wii if I had to tell them one more time to go to bed. So they lost 2 days worth, and then were STILL acting out. So rather than take the entire week away... I tried something different. My friend mentioned her husband and her do this when they have trouble with their kids going to bed. I don't know if this is exactly what they do but this is what I did. I had them all come downstairs, they had to face the wall, and hold a book (it wasn't big) over their heads. They thought it was funny at first, but after 20 minutes they were crying to go to bed. They went upstairs, and Maddie and Eliza ended up doing some more minutes, but after that we didn't hear a peep out of them. I will definately try it again because it was definately more effective than a spanking ever was, and better than threats. Let's hope that tonight will be better for going to bed, and that they can behave to earn their favorite things back by Wednesday.

This is me trying to get the kids to bed lately...

2009-01-22T23:16:00.003-05:00

This is how I feel every night trying to get the kids to bed, either me or Josh is up trying to threaten the children to bed. It's no fun. It's like I just want to say: "I'll get you my pretty's.... and all your toys, computer games, wii, and any fun you want to have too! ha ha ha ha ha!"
Yep... that's me the wicked witch of the west!

30 days...

2009-01-16T13:08:00.002-05:00

This is what my downstairs playroom is starting to look like. We have 30 days until we plan to be fully packed and then pick up our moving truck to get it loaded. I should feel stressed, but I don't yet. We have a deadline, and have been doing a little bit each day. It has been surprisingly nice to pack, because it has forced me to go through things I haven't gone through in a VERY LONG time. When the military moves you, you don't really worry about how many boxes you have because it's their dime. But with us moving ourselves, it's a completely different story. We are having a yard sale with some friends next weekend, and if we don't sell it, it's all going to the goodwill. And I feel like we're getting rid of a lot. So it feels really nice! So as much as it is a pain to move ourselves, I will be shocked if we haven't gone down in the pounds category when the military moves us again!

Post Birthday Celebrations

2009-01-09T17:26:00.006-05:00

Not to be outdone by my Norfolk Girls... my California Girls Amy and Becca took me out last night for my birthday. It was a total surprise as to what we were doing. First we drove and got honked at (because they wrote on the windows of the car)to Coranado and took the ferry over to San Diego.
While on the boat I opened up my birthday present a Twilight T-shirt made by my friend Amy, and a Twilight movie poster!
Then we took a bike taxi to this wonderful place called Extraordinary Desserts... and OH MY GOSH it was awesome! (as you can see what we go from the photo)
But here's what some of their dessert display looked like... sooo yummy!

then we went back to the ferry boat, back to Coroanado then went on base and saw the Twilight movie! (yep I've seen it 4 times, but on base it was FREE!) We had a great time, and stayed up way too late! (I'm feeling it in my old 31 years today!) Thanks for the wonderful Birthday California Girls!!

Should I stay or should I go??

2009-01-07T22:18:00.002-05:00

So come on and let me know.... Should I stay or should I go...
I feel like this has been my theme song since Josh told me he would be deploying. After debating on should I stay here in Califonia for 8 months or not I decided I didn't want to stay here for 8 monhts. Not that I don't have good friends here I do. I just haven't been here long enough to form the bonds of friendship that were formed with my Norfolk Girls. So it is to the land of Norfolk I will return. To be within hours of my sister, and a days drive to my parents and inlaws. It will be a pain to move ourselves, but I'm excited to know that I will be among some of my closest friends and I know that they will help me get through it. =)

The Best 31st Birthday present ever

2009-01-06T17:35:00.008-05:00

I had a good birthday, aside from the fact during the day I started to feel off and spent most of the night in the bathroom if you know what I mean. Josh and I went and saw a movie, then went to Cheescake factory for dinner. But by the time we got home I felt awful!
I've spent today trying to rest and feel better. And Maddie unfortunately has what I have since she threw up last night and today too.
My girls in Norfolk told me they sent me a birthday package, and I was expecting a total gag gift, even though Jenn told me it wasn't a gag. Boy was I surprised! I was told I had to do a movie. I look terrible because I really wasn't feeling well. And ignore the messy house because you know when Mom is sick and Daddy's at work, the t.v. was my saving grace!
Unfortunately my camera cut me off so I had to do two movies! Thanks girls for the great birthday present! I will see you soon!

So I got gift cards to all the different places mentioned in the poem! And they made sure to only get gift cards that I could use in Norfolk. I definately don't mind!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T21:23:00.001-05:00

We got some new and unexpected news yesterday. Josh is getting orders to deploy to an Army unit for 8 months. The last couple years the Navy has been sending people from shore duty assignments to augment units in the Middle East. Lucky me- his number came up. Josh will be headed to Ft. Jackson, South Carolina in March for a crash course in how to be a soldier. Then he'll on to an Army base in Kuwait. Good times. Happy New Year to me and the kids!

11 months today

2008-12-30T12:12:00.003-05:00

For several months now Wyatt would crawl to the bottom of the stairs and stand there and happily stay at the bottom step. I've been waiting for him to finally pull up and start climbing. Yesterday out of the blue, he finally decided to climb up. Thankfully he has a very "helpful" big sister Maddie who came up to tell me immediately when he started climbing. So we tried to encourage him to keep going, and he got half way up before he got bored and started to get unhappy. It's still amazing to watch the changes that little baby's go through in their first year. And I can't believe my little baby is getting so big!

Wyatt {hearts} spaghetti

2008-12-28T20:34:00.006-05:00

I actually took this last week, but with all the business of Christmas I didn't get to post this. I couldn't resist posting this picture... he's just too cute!

Post Christmas

2008-12-26T18:10:00.003-05:00

We had a fabulous Christmas. I love going to visit family and friends, but I have to say it was so nice to just stay at home. On Christmas Eve we had dinner, then opened one present from under the tree, read about and tried to get the kids to act out the Birth of Jesus, and then read The Night Before Christmas. The kids were actually excited to go to bed. (gotta love that, and obviously my red eye on my camera wasn't working! lol!) It did take awhile for them to fall asleep since they were so excited, but they did. I didn't take any pictures yesterday sorry, they were too busy opening presents to pose. Jonas got a Nintendo DS from Santa, Maddie got an MP3 player from Santa, and Eliza got a play kitchen which had 22 steps to put it together! (thank you Santa for putting that together!) I was also surpised when I came downstairs to see that Santa brought me a new KING size bed, the exact one I wanted from IKEA too! Which also went perfectly with the two nightstands I bought Josh from Christmas from IKEA that match the bed! Wyatt wasn't too excited about the 6a.m. wake up call, when presents were done he immediately went back to sleep for a few hours! But he has enjoyed playing with all the new toys that he got and the ones his brothers and sisters got too!
We had the missionaries over for a Christmas dinner, and I made a turkey for the first time ever, and it turned out great! So it looks like we'll be eating a lot of left over turkey for awhile!

Christmas Programs... and threatening to call off Santa....

2008-12-20T13:19:00.007-05:00

My kids both had their Christmas programs on Thursday. The school is so big that they have to do the different program in shifts so everyone can fit in the mulitpurpose room. (which if they had P.E. we would call the gym, they call it the multipurpose room, I guess cause it has carpet. They also eat in there when it rains, or at least some of them do, the others eat in their classrooms!)
Jonas' class did all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, and they were very cute, they had his class combined with another 1st grade class.
Maddie's class Rudolph the Red Nose ReindeerMaddie's class has been practicing singing their song and dance now for a few weeks. They did a great job.
So yesterday didn't start off so well for me. I am getting up to head downstairs when Josh informs me that Jonas decided to cut his pajamas. He said he talked to him about it. So I figured okay. Well when I saw Jonas he hadn't just cut his pj's he also cut a chunk out of the front of his hair. This made me grateful he is a boy, so we could just shave his head, but alsoo made me mad. He is old enough to know better. So we talked some more, then we were hurrying to get ready as my friend offered to cut his hair before school. Then all at once, Waytt had a blow out poopy diaper (he was already dressed for the dat at that point too!), Maddie can't find her present for her gift exchange at school, Jonas unwrapped a present that was ripped in the front so he thought it was fair game I guess. All I could say to them at this point was... "guys, you've got to be kidding me!" I literally felt like I was losing my mind, and having a bad dream. Unfortunately it was real! But we made it to my friends, got Jonas' hair cut, which he also got grounded for, and I threatend that Santa wouldn't be coming for him if he kept it up. Josh actually said we should have him give the toy away to a worthy cause, which we might still do to teach him a lesson. But it wasn't from us, it was from grandma.
It was a better afternoon for me, Maddie's teacher explained that their homework packet was practice, so if they got it done great, if not it was really just practice. And my thought was ROCK ON!! So I was a happier person about her class yesterday, and Jonas did his this week so he's pretty much done! So the kids don't go back to school until Jan.12th. Wish me luck!

Gray Day

2008-12-17T13:26:00.006-05:00

This is the view outside my house today. I don't recall it raining like this when we lived here 5 years ago... I think it rained while we went back to Indiana over Christmas, and maybe it sprinkled once, but that was it. It has been cold and yucky today. This is what it looked like on Monday. When it gets like this, it makes me want to stay home and not go anywhere. Unfortunately I had to take my kids to school on Monday and got lucky today that I was swapping with a friend doing babysitting, and she took Jonas and Maddie to school for me. There is one downside to the kids school, for some strange reason they think that since they have a 3 week vacation, that they should be doing homework. Notice the date is Christmas day... yeah... I don't think so!
We got the homework packets this week, and Jonas will mostly finish his except for a few sentences this week. And Thanksfully he didn't get regular homework for the week. But Maddie got way more than Jonas did, she not only has homework every day, she also has the packet. I'm definately not happy with the school about this... who gives kids homework over Christmas?? I guess just our kids school! GRRR!
That's definately one way to kill my Christmas spirit... but here's a funny picture from the other day of Eliza. Enjoy!

Maddie's New glasses

2008-12-11T17:36:00.001-05:00

About a month ago we got a letter from the school saying that we should take her to an eye doctor to get her eyes checked after they did the usual eye test there. So it took me awhile to make the appointment because I honestly did not think Maddie needed glasses since neither Josh nor I wear them. Maddie kept asking me when we were going to go and get her eyes checked. So I finally took her in. We found I was very wrong!

She has a stigmatism in her left eye and a slight one in her right. So we (actually Maddie) picked out some cute glasses, and we went and picked them up. She was pretty excited about it. I think she looks pretty cute!

Some more photos

2008-12-11T15:24:00.006-05:00

okay I'm posting more pictures from our photo shoot on Saturday, because I love how these turned out and wanted to show them off! Amber sent me a ton of pictures from our shoot, because she knows I scrapbook! I am sending the black and white one of all of us that I posted the other day as my Christmas picture to Family AND FRIENDS! (okay Marie!)So if I have your address... then you'll be getting one in the mail!

Family Photos

2008-12-09T16:37:00.002-05:00

My wonderful and talented cousin Amber (please check out her blog here) http://www.amberkatrina.com/blog/
has started her own photography business, and lucky for me she just lives a few hours away! So this last Saturday we hired her to come and take our family photo for Christmas! We had a lot of fun, and she got some wonderful pictures! Thank you so much Amber! So don't worry family I'll be sending you pictures soon!

Dear Skinnier Jeans...

2008-12-03T12:58:00.003-05:00

Dear Skinnier Jeans,
Its been awhile since we last spoke. I didn't like you referring to my waist as a muffin top, nor did I like you mentioning the fact that I hadn't worked off much of that baby weight. It took awhile I really have been working on it, and even though I'm not where I want to be yet, I can now honestly and truly say I forgive you for it all Skinnier jeans. Today when I picked you up off the shelf I was hesitant, would I again feel the same rejection I felt before? Would I again put you on the shelf for another day? No, today I slid you on and buttoned you up with some room to spare. Thank you for waiting patiently Skinnier jeans, though I do have other skinnier jeans waiting for me, you were the one I missed the most. I missed you, and hope we can pick up where we left off.
Love,
Me

Surprising my Norfolk Girls!

2008-11-05T23:00:00.009-05:00

If you're wondering why its been a week since I blogged, it's not for lack of things happening around here! I have actually been forcing myself not to write about my big surprise until after it happend. About two weeks ago, I was chatting with my good pal Nicole about the Twilight premiere, and she and I had been talking about when I'd be able to go out to Norfolk for a visit. She convinced me (didn't take much really) to try and find a way out to Norfolk for the premiere and we'd surprise our other pals Jenn and Heidi. It was tough to keep it to ourselves, and before even getting the ticket working out the arrangements with the kids and Josh and my friend Amy. So for less than a week, we plotted and schemed. On Wednesday Morning Wyatt and I flew out and arrived in Norfolk at 8:30p.m. Wyatt was great on the planes, both there and back. I was amazed! Here he is waiting for our luggage in Norfolk
So we surprised Jenn the night we arrived, and she hadn't fully yet recovered from Sleep from her recent trip in Utah, but I think she forgives me for not letting her catch up on sleep! We kept her up till midnight (eastern time). Nicole kept me on a busy schedule. We went to a card exchange Thursday morning, where we surprised Heidi, her response on seeing me was to hang up the phone with Brooke by saying, "Holy Cow, Deborah's here I gotta go." It was funny. We had lunch at El Azteca (our favorite place to go!), then we got pedicures (which I REALLY needed), (this is Nicole's son Gabe, he was playing peekaboo with Wyatt who was sitting on my lap. We then went back to Nicole's and rested for a bit before the Twilight movie. I was a bit disappointed in the movie, but then again when is a movie better than the book?? I've since started rereading the book! Here's some pictures of our group that went and me and Jenn.

Friday was spent in recovering from the midnight showing! (we got home at 3a.m.) We went to lunch with Anna and Jenn, then Friday night

we had Karoke night and Dance Dance Revolution at Nicole's house with Anna, Jenn O. Jenn S., Janice, Stephanie, Heidi, Brooke, Nicole and me. We were up late again then too!
Saturday we went to a baby shower, then Saturday afternoon Jenn and I went to AC Moore, since we don't have one in San Diego. Then we spent a quiet evening at Nicole's making some Christmas cards. Sunday went by too fast, we went to church and then Wyatt and I had to go.
Wyatt had a lot of fun playing with Gabe, they definately played more than I thought at their age, it was more following each other around, but it was cute. They are about 3 weeks a part. It was a fun weekend, even though it was a quick trip, we packed in a ton of stuff. Today though I'm definately feeling the effects of staying up late, or I should say being in a different time zone. Thanks girls for a fabulous weekend! Josh says I can go again, when he's able to take leave which is soon! So Nicole have your spare room ready!!

Thanks Grandma!

2008-11-05T23:00:00.005-05:00

Today we got a package from Grandma in Indiana for Eliza's birthday, and since she can't be here to watch I took some pictures of her opening the box! We always love to get packages... thanks Grandma!

Turning 3 and being 9 months

2008-11-05T23:00:00.004-05:00

Eliza turned 3 today.

That just blows me away thinking about it. We went around all day in a cute dress she inherited from Maddie and 10 minutes before some friends arrived she got it all wet "washing her hands" in the bathroom! But here she is blowing out her birthday candles.

She enjoyed getting a little vtech laptop computer that plays sings, and teaches the alphabet, and a kid friendly digital camera and elmo movie. Our friends got her an elmo pop up book that also has musical buttons on the side. Fun times!
We went to the doctor today and it is fun to see how much she's grown! She's 36 1/2 inches tall and weighs a whopping 32lbs! She unfortunately was missing a shot, and got one, but didn't mind it too much as I bribed her with a toy which she picked out this little ballerina pen and a new Dora Book.
Wyatt also had his 9 month check up, and he weighs a whopping 19lbs! Yes our boy has put on some pounds! I'm amazed at how fast he's growing and changing. He's bigger than any of the other kids at this age, but I expect him to be right with everyone else at his first birthday! He only had to get one shot, so it wasn't a bad day. His new thing is pulling up on to his knees, he can't quite stand up yet, but he's trying!

Torrey Pines State Park Reserve

2008-11-05T23:00:00.003-05:00

A friend of mine here sent me the link to this park so on Saturday we went and checked it out, and took the kids on a mile long hike. It was a lot of fun! I think we are definately going to try and do it again. There are several different parks we can go to around us, which is nice. The kids will definately want to return here to go to the beach!

For Heidi

2008-11-03T19:16:00.002-05:00

Okay, if you're all wondering why I'm posting this picture (sorry I was looking for the picture of her in her bathing suit but couldn't find it!), Heidi (the gal on the right) is feeling slighted that I didn't post the link to her blog from my blog.. and YES I do read her blog, and yes Heidi and I are good friends too. So here it is Heidi, I've updated my blogs just for you... and added others that I read (so hopefully no one else will feel neglected!).
So I do read quite a few blogs... and if you feel I've neglected your blog and didn't put it on my sidebar there... LET ME KNOW!

Happy Halloween

2008-11-01T00:04:00.004-04:00

Eliza walked around all day in her ballerina costume (and we went to Target, Wal-Mart, the mall (long story but we ended up running around a lot today!) and then decided she really did want to be a witch which was the original plan! The kids got to wear their costumes to school, so I thought that was pretty neat!
Wyatt was not a happy guy most of the night, but was happy by the end of our Ward Halloween trunk or treat which was a lot of fun. I got this great shot of the kids, and this happy shot of Wyatt on his 1st Halloween!

Impromptu photo shoot

2008-10-25T13:25:00.004-04:00

Josh's brother Jon and his wife Jenny's little girl is 2 weeks younger than Wyatt and they sent me some adorable pictures of her and this is one of them:

and when I saw them I thought they were adorable, and then thought that looks a lot like the molding in my house I could do that too! I didn't pull out a costume for Wyatt, but here's what I got, and unfortunately Jonas was at school so I didn't get a picture of him, although I don't know if he would've let me take one of him anyway!

What time is it???

2008-10-24T10:58:00.003-04:00

It's time for this! After weeks and weeks of Maddie asking, it's FINALLY time for High School Musical 3 which comes out today! We have our tickets for the 6p.m. (pacific time) Oh and on a side note, my Dad graduated from East High School where they did some filming of this movie!

9 years and 1 day

2008-10-16T17:28:00.005-04:00

Our 9th Wedding Anniversary was yesterday. This is one of my favorite pictures from our wedding day of the two of us, and I've wanted to do a page with it forever and I finally did for an on-line scrapbook class I'm taking with Simple Scrapbooks, it's called Design your Life! You can click on the picture to make it bigger!

Adventures in Nursery

2008-10-13T17:02:00.004-04:00

So I got a new calling in my ward as the Nursery Leader. To be honest, I really wasn't that excited about it. Yes there are snacks, and all of that, but I get to be home all week with the kids, and hoped to have a calling with adults. But that's not how it ended up. So when I went in my first Sunday which was a couple of weeks ago, it was fun, and I think I'm going to enjoy this calling. It's a small nursery, only 6 kids, 4 girls, 2 boys. Two of the girls are fraternal twins. And one girl is only there some of the time.
Yesterday wasn't as fun, we had some issues with a little girl who doesn't always come, but was there and was being a bully. Then my friends little boy Christopher (not in the picture below) wasn't feeling good so we took him to his Mom.
I took their pictures yesterday which I plan to make with their names on our bulletin board.
Here's a picture of almost everyone at snack time.

We also did bubbles at the end, which they were mostly all excited about. (mostly being the one little girl that doesn't usually come was mad because we wouldn't let her blow the bubbles, so cried and cried about it, I guess she's not used to not getting her way.) The other kids had fun and we did too. We'll have to get a bubble blower I think for next time! =)

Writing

2008-10-08T13:18:00.004-04:00

Maddie is writing more and more every day. Most of it's spelled phoenetically, the other day she was trying to write six, but instead wrote s-e-x, which gave Josh and I a good chuckle. I'm just happy she wants to write and I'm so proud of how well she's doing in school. Last week she drew this picture for me, and it made me happy, and its been on the fridge all week.
Then yesterday Maddie asked me how to spell Eliza's name, so I told her but didn't think much about it until I came across this paper I found on the floor as I was picking up things after the kids went to bed. I thought it was so sweet. I hope that my kids will not only be siblings, but friends too. And sometimes they may not always get along, but for the most part Maddie and Eliza are good friends.

8 months

2008-10-04T20:56:00.002-04:00

Sorry this is a few days late. Wyatt is now officially 8 months old... and of course still the MOST adorable and sweetest little guy I know! And everyone else agrees he's so easy going!

Diet Macaroni

2008-10-02T12:54:00.003-04:00

Conversation with Jonas on the way home from tennis class yesterday:
Me- Jonas, what did you have for lunch at school today?
Jonas- we had diet macaroni
Me-You had "diet" macaroni? Did you have anything else?
Jonas-No just Diet Macraoni
Me- What does diet Macaroni taste like?
Jonas-It tastes like "YUK!" (and sticks his tongue out)
Me-Did you eat it?
Jonas-Yeah,I still ate it.

Japanese Friendship Garden

2008-09-16T22:58:00.008-04:00

Every Tuesday there are different museums at Balboa Park free to Military and people that live in San Diego. So today we went while Jonas and Maddie were at school and visited the Japanese Friendship Garden. I was expecting a bit more, it was pretty and probably much more relaxing to be at when you're not with a 2 1/2 year old, and a 7 month old. (though the 2 1/2 year old was the one being a bit more disruptive to the zen like feeling)
So here's a picture of Josh and Wyatt (Wyatt definately understands what to do when I pull out the camera now! He immediately smiled for this one!)Eliza didn't want me to take a picture

Here's a picture so you can all see how long Eliza's hair is, and I think very beautiful too!

Thought this snake sculpture was very cool!

And I thought Eliza and Josh looked so cute running to the car!

Tennis

2008-09-16T22:49:00.003-04:00

Several weeks ago we got a pamphlet in our mailbox about classes offered at Southwestern College here in San Diego, and as I was browsing it I noticed they offered a kids tennis class for 6 weeks, at a reasonable price. So we got Jonas signed up, and he loves it! Here are some pictures Josh took last week.

cards

2008-09-05T15:13:00.012-04:00

I love that if I am completely out of ideas on making a card I can look to the good old stampin up catalog and find an idea and either copy it exactly or change it a little and make it my own. I was flipping through my catalog and saw a card on page 6 of our catalog, and decided to make this card which is similar, but different as I didn't have everything they used to make the card:

I used a few different stamp sets: on your birthday, one of a kind, fresh cuts, true friend. Colors So Saffron, More Mustard, Old olive, whisper white cardstock,white grosgrain ribbon, small paper clip, close to cocoa, sahara sand, more mustard, old olive, so saffron ink, and bleach.
Then from the catalog I really liked the card on page 40, but didn't have the background paper so I made my own which looks like this:
I used the Big on Christmas Stamp Set Bold snowflake jumbo wheel, bashful blue, whisper white, and riding hood red cardstock. Then I used staz on jet black ink to stamp, and used a blender pen to color in bashful blue, basic black, and riding hood red on the snowman, and his carrot is pumpkin pie. Oh and I used 3 silver brads and the taffeta riding hood red ribbon. (love that stuff) I like this card!!
Then I had decided I wanted to start getting some ideas for Christmas cards and came up with these cards:

I played around with some of the stampin up hostess sets Deer Friends, Holiday Happenings Bundle, Many Merry Messages stamp sets. I used the circle scallop punch, and the curly label punch, and curly label stamp set
Also used the following colors cardstock pink pirouette, and cardstock and inks, close to cocoa, riding hood red, baja breeze and kiwi kiss. Also used silver brads, and linen thread.

Are you ready for some football???

2008-09-04T13:04:00.002-04:00

A little video to get the football season started and hope that this is where my Beloved Colts end up at the end of the year!! GO COLTS!!!

Quiet Weekend....

2008-09-02T16:01:00.006-04:00

This weekend was pretty laid back and relaxing, which is nice. Friday we went to IKEA and I bought some shelves for my scrapbook room. I had two shelves but knew I needed some more. I told Josh it's amazing how wonderful four shelves can make me feel.

It's nice to get my scrapbook room organized! I don't have everything where I want it yet, but I have my shelves on the wall and some pictures and magnet board and a dry erase board too. It's nice. Though I have moved things around more than once already! I'm sure I'll move things around more eventually. Josh spent last week getting pictures hung up for me, since that was really the last part of getting officially moved in. We still have more to put up, but it now seems like we actually live here and aren't just visitors!
Wyatt is now officially 7 months old. I at times wish I could slow things down, but then again it's so exciting to watch him grow and change every day. He really is a happy go lucky little guy. I love it, and I'm sure he'll be sick of me loving on him as he gets older. He'll do as Jonas does and say "Mom!" and then wipe his cheek off.

Over the weekend my blender that I've had for years got cracked, so I went and bought this new baby, what I love about it is it has a little spout to put cups up to and pour our smoothies or milk shakes in. We've been on a big smoothie/milkshake kick around here.
We have signed Jonas up to take a tennis class. There is a junior class for 4-6 year olds at Southwestern College here. It starts tomorrow, and he is very excited. Every Wednesday he will go for an hour for the next 6 weeks. If he likes it we'll probably get him enrolled in the next class. The nice thing about living in San Diego is he can take this type of class year round and play outside year around too! He's pretty excited to begin, and I can't wait to watch him. I think he'll have a great time. And of course I'll get some pictures!
And I saw this on t.v. the other day and it made me laugh! Only 2 more days until the NFL football season begins!

The toy that traveled thousands of miles....

2008-08-26T19:41:00.005-04:00

My friend Jenn in Norfolk and I we talk a lot on the phone, even more now that I've moved thousands of miles away, but got vonage to keep my local number. =) So anyway, I mentioned that I wanted to get Wyatt an Exersaucer, and said it was too bad I hadn't bought hers from her before we left since she hadn't sold hers in her yard sale. Well, she managed to convince Josh before he left to see if he'd try and fit it in the car. (since I told her there was no way he'd bring it all the way to California!) It fit, so he brought it! He complained about listening to the thing rattle for those 4,000 miles (I think it's less than that, but this is what he said!)This man must really love me!
But, isn't the smile on this cute little guy worth it??

First Day of School

2008-08-25T23:46:00.002-04:00

We had our first day of school today! It's hard to believe it's here already! Maddie has AM Kindergarten and goes until 12:45p.m. and Jonas is getting out an hour early this entire week, 2:30p.m. instead of 3:30p.m.
They seemed to enjoy their first day. Jonas informed me lunch was a Burrito which he said he ate and liked. It's amazing how if everyone else is eating it they will too!
He and his friend Jonathan from church are in the same class, so he seemed much more excited to go than he was when we talked about it yesterday. Maddie had a good time, didn't cry of course, although I guess there was one girl who did. Maddie has a class with our neighbors son, and they sit by each other. I wasn't even remotely emotional, I was so ready for them to go, and Maddie was very excited too. Eliza didn't seem to miss them too much, she happily played most of the morning quietly. Josh and I played Dr. Mario on the Wii, it was fun! So here are the kids first day of school pictures!

Family Get togethers

2008-08-25T14:40:00.005-04:00

We are lucky to live near some of my extended family, and my cousin
Kendall
and his wife Robin live two hours away. We got invited to a big birthday bash Saturday, and the kids had a fabulous time. We hadn't seen most of them since the last reunion in 2004, so of course no one had seen Eliza or Wyatt yet! And I got to meet my Uncle Glade's new wife Grace, who is so sweet! And my cousin Mike's new wife Lacey! It was also good for us to go out on a little road trip and pass the time before Josh got home. He actually made it home 5 minutes before we got home! We are so glad he's back.

Last Days of Summer

2008-08-25T14:27:00.005-04:00

We went to the beach last week, and enjoyed our last days of freedom before we became slaves to a schedule that's not our own! We had a good time, it was a lot of fun!

Big things are happening

2008-08-17T19:42:00.007-04:00

1. Eliza officially went potty on the potty seat yesterday all by herself without anyone putting the thought in her head.
2. Wyatt is trying to crawl for real instead of rolling all over, he's now pushing up on his knees, so I expect him to be fully crawling really soon!

3. Josh will be home for good in ONE WEEK! He officially hands over the aid job on Tuesday.

4. School starts in 8 days, I'm sooo ready! Maddie will be starting Kindergarten!

Registering kids in school = making all Mom's across america want to shoot themselves in the head

2008-08-11T18:25:00.004-04:00

School starts in two weeks on August 25th, and registration for late comers such as myself started today. One would think they would have several people in the front office getting people's stuff making sure they had everything. NO! I get there a few minutes after they opened registration stuff at 10:30a.m. and I got lucky number 7. I took the kids thinking it wouldn't take more than an hour right? So we were there an hour and a half and still only on number 4 so I called some friends begged and pleaded (just kidding they didn't hesitate to say yes!) to have them watch my older three, then dropped the kids off. So I returned to school and didn't leave for another hour! ARGH! They had one single lady taking peoples stuff, making copies and coming back. Then another lady was sitting there putting it all in the computer. The lady doing it doesn't strike me as being the nicest person in the world either.
I was just glad I didn't forget anything except for one date that needed to be added to Maddie's immunization card that thankfully I can get taken care of and show on the first day of school.
I'm so excited for school to be starting! I think I'm more excited than the kids are!

Here is a picture of the kids school

Hair Cut...

2008-08-10T18:12:00.004-04:00

Yesterday after swimming with our friends my friend Toni offered to give me a hair cut since she's a cosmotologist, and knows how to do these things. I really just needed a trim, since I'm officially growing my hair out again. Maddie has been asking me to get her hair cut too, so I finally let her do it after explaining it takes awhile to grow out, and she said that's fine.
Maddie before the hair cut

Maddie after her hair cut

She loves it by the way, and I do too! I think it makes her look older!

4 against 1.... update on us...

2008-08-07T18:18:00.003-04:00

Jonas, Maddie, Eliza and Wyatt. vs. Me that's how it feels sometimes.
The summer is going by fast, yet slow at the same time. Each Day different from the next. Some days are good, some are terrible. Some days I almost want to yell.... FINE then I'm going to MY ROOM and you guys stay downstairs and take care of yourselves! (YEAH RIGHT! Imagine the disaster I'd find when I decided to return.)
Then there are other days that aren't so bad. If you're wondering today has been a pretty good day. But Tuesday wasn't.. but we dealt with it.
Wyatt is rolling, all over the place, and sometimes he tries to crawl, but finds rolling is an easier way to get around, it's pretty funny. He rolls well!
We're making new friends, and getting out of the house. Both good things for all of us. We went swimming today with some of our new friends, and I didn't take any picture but sometimes I think that's okay because it can almost take away from the moment if you know what I mean.
I'm trying to finish A New Dawn by Stephanie Myers, which I stayed up till Midnight last night reading, and am still not done yet! Almost, I have just a few hundred pages to go.. so far I'm loving it!
Maddie is going to her friend Parker's tonight for a sleepover, her first one here, so she's pretty excited, they are becoming good friends. I'm sure we'll have her over here soon. Jonas is anxiously waiting his turn to go over to spend time with Parker's brother Connor.
Eliza I can say is definately Maddie's playmate. They play together a lot, and Eliza is usually Maddie's shadow, and she has now gotten into playing games on the computer. She knows exactly where to click on our computer to start Nick Jr. or Sesame Street!
18 more days until school officially starts... =)

If My Nose was Runnin Money...

2008-08-04T11:50:00.001-04:00

My friend showed me this on You tube... hope this gives you a good laugh to start your week!

Cards

2008-08-02T14:42:00.004-04:00

Many of you know that I'm a Stampin Up Demonstrator (I just celebrated my 5th year, and got a cute "5" pin to wear!) Anyway, back in Norfolk whenever I'd make cards I'd usually show Jenn, but seeing as she's a few thousand miles away I figured I better start posting some of my projects on my blog. So we got some new paper at Stampin Up that I love it's called Bella Rose and it goes along with some of our new colors.. which I love! (of course I say that EVERY year, but that's why I love Stampin up!)
So here are some birthday cards, some cards or sisters I visit teach, and a baby card I need to mail (once I get her new address) that I made recently... enjoy!
Oh and yes I was on a kick with my new scallop edge punch, and my scallop punch...love it!

Some quiet time...

2008-08-01T18:54:00.003-04:00

A new friend here in San Diego her name is Toni, called the other night and asked if I'd watch her kids and I said sure, and she offered in exchange to watch mine and Josh and I went out the other night on a date. It was so much fun. And she even offered to watch them today so I could go on a needed trip to the grocery store. I took Wyatt, he's so easy. As I was browsing the yogurt in the dairy section this cute old man asked me, "What Aisle did you find a baby at?" I just laughed and smiled at him and thought I wonder if you'd be saying that still if you saw me with ALL 4 of my kids, the usual comment I get is, "boy you have your hands full!" I think I'd love to create a sign that says, YES I Do so anytime anyone says that I don't even have to answer, I can quickly flash the sign and move on.
I have so say I really enjoyed grocery shopping, it was so easy and Wyatt fell asleep right as we were checking out! Then it was back to reality.
I don't want to leave this pictureless so I'm going to post a picture of Maddie doing her Model poses for me.. it was so funny to take these pictures!

6 months gone by...

2008-07-30T18:07:00.003-04:00

Can you believe 6 months have gone by since this little sweetie was born? I know I can't! Where does that time go! We go in for our 6 month visit tomorrow.

A video of Wyatt...

2008-07-29T00:08:00.002-04:00

Thought you might all get a kick out of this... Wyatt is at my favorite stage of being a baby, he's interactive with others (not just me), he smiles at everyone and likes to stare people down until they look at him so he can smile at them, he squeals a lot (everyone heard him on Sunday, our ward is very quiet compared to Norfolk), and he also giggles, and my favorite part: he's not mobile yet!

Time for some campaignin'

2008-07-28T12:52:00.002-04:00

This video is for my friend Heidi!

Money, Money, Money must be funny in a rich man's world... or so ABBA Says...

2008-07-27T17:28:00.006-04:00

This is what $2,000 looks like when you hold it in your hands...
it was really nice to hold it and imagine for a moment what I would spend this money on.
Unfortunately the money was essentially already spent! I had to get some cash to pay for the cars Josh's 1955 Chevy and his 2006 Pontiac GTO we had shipped from Norfolk to San Diego. I would've liked to have deducted $100 because they were supposed to have the cars here Thursday or Friday they told us, when really it ended up being Sunday. (I was trying to be sneaky and take a quick picture, so it's not the best, but you see what's taking place right?)
I'm just glad they made it here, but I have to admit that really I had an alterior motive here than just the safe arrival of Josh's precious vehicles. Josh put some stuff I ordered that got to the house after we'd left Norfolk, (and before we sold it) was a Kit of the month from creating keepsakes, the School Kit. I ordered one for each of the kids. So I really had a reason to hope the cars made it safe! lol!

Josh wasn't excited to see this big box that he was going to have to take with him across the country so he decided the trunk of his GTO would be better.. I'm glad he did, otherwise I'd have had to wait another month!

3 hour countdown.....

2008-07-25T20:16:00.005-04:00

We're no longer on days, we're down to hours..3 hours in fact until we go to pick up Josh at the airport.

I'm so excited to see him. It's hard to be seperated from him knowing that it is possible to see him, not like he's on a ship half a world away like deployments! After this trip he will be here for good! Yeah! We're all looking forward to a long weekend with Daddy! And I'm ready to give him a nice big smooch, that will probably look like this!

Have a wonderful weekend!
p.s. This is what happens when I blog too long...

Home

2008-07-24T15:05:00.003-04:00

Buying a House
by Vesta Nickerson Fairbairn
Not brick and plaster, tile, and stone,
Nor floor and roof and walls-not these alone
We buy. Nor is it land we own.
Home is the heart of all our days and nights
Where love provides security, unites
Us with the bonds of sorrows and delights.
This house becomes a sanctuary where
Togetherness enriches, where we share
Our hearthfire's warmth, our love, the strength of prayer.
My Mom sent this to me after we moved into our new place here in San Diego, now we're not home owners, but it still applies. It definately is something I needed when she sent it to me as it was right after we sold our house in Virginia. I felt sad about selling our home, even though it was the best thing for us to do. It was still difficult to sell the house we had made so many memories in, and to leave all of my friends there to go to a new place (that I'm still adjusting too, and missing all of my friends in Norfolk still) so this poem was fitting. I'm also posting this for Marie (see the my link of blogs I read, Marie's hectic life) as she is sad because of not being able to be home for a Family Reunion! I hope you'll be able to go to the next one! Miss you!

adventures...

2008-07-23T17:13:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we went to the coolest kids dentist I've ever been to, and they are called Super Dentists, there is an orthodontist office (the male superhero) and the pediatric dentist (female superhero) you can check out their site (for some reason the link didn't work so here's the address)
www.thesuperdentists.com
Jonas and Maddie both needed their teeth cleaned and a friend of mine told me this is where she takes her kids, and they love it. I wondered how much a kid could really "love" the dentist, and after going I see why. One side was decorated like a space ship port hub, imagine Toy Story and the Rocket Pizza Palace place, that's kind of what it's like, that's the orthodontic side then the other side is like a forest with trees and that's the pediatric dentist, and that's because the female dentists character is like a fairy super hero. Anyway, the staff was super nice, and the kids had a good time, although Jonas had some cavities between his teeth. I'll be the first to admit it's my fault for letting our flossing slip. So anyway they gave us a bit of a discount for coming in today to get them filled, and Jonas did great! He just complained about starving because he wasn't allowed to eat before the visit.
I meant to take pictures of their office but forgot about it! I will definately have to post some next time we go.
So my girls lately have taken to putting up their "tent" and putting their little green Ikea table inside and covering the tops with blankets. (thanks Aunt Marilyn for the tent, it's still played with even 3 years later or however long its been since you gave this to us!)

Then Jonas comes through and will push them over just to make the girls mad, which works, because Maddie instantly screams at the top of her lungs (which it echos in the room with high ceilings, I think she does it because of that) and say Jonas is tearing down their "Club House".
So every night we put it all away, and every morning it comes back out. Another favorite of course is playing dress up. We have MANY dress up outfits, and the girls especially love to take off all their clothes and dress up.

Don't you love Eliza as a cheerleader!
So we had not had our pick up yet of the toys last night and EVERYTHING was out and our neighbor that lives next door comes over to see if we had seen their kitten in our yard, so I let them in to see if they call it in our backyard that he'd come, he didn't. It's funny how you can have the house picked up, and then the one time you don't is when you get company... it's the story of my life! lol!

Like Father, Like Son

2008-07-22T23:15:00.003-04:00

I have this picture that Josh's Grandma Hensley gave me of Josh as a baby, and it's amazing how Wyatt gets older how much he looks like Josh! Josh has some pretty strong gene's! I took this picture tonight of Wyatt by the way!

4th of July Pictures a little late

2008-07-21T00:10:00.003-04:00

I know these are obviously late.. but I figured I'd post our pictures anyway. We had a fun time at the beach. Josh absolutely HATES the beach, so I was very surprised when he agreed to the idea to go to the beach. I told my friend Nicole this, and she said that Josh must really miss us to agree to it, and I think she's right! He didn't get in the water, but played in the sand with the kids, and held Wyatt so I could splash around in the water with Jonas and Maddie. Eliza would only really touch the waves, but didn't want to have anything to do with getting really wet. The water is REALLY COLD! Wyatt's shirt says "Red, White, and Cute".

Our house in San Diego...

2008-07-17T00:42:00.009-04:00

Yep this is what happens when I don't write with pictures the first time! So you are bombarded with pictures from me. So I've been busy unpacking and I was talking to my friend Jenn in Norfolk on the phone and she wanted to see pictures of our house... so here they are, I'll try and explain from first to last what they are and realize I'm unpacking and have 4 kids...
Kids Bathroom
Laundry Room
We call this the red room, for the obvious reason it's the guest room and the room with some of our extra stuff in the closet!
Top of stairs you look to your right you see the masterbedroom and if you look there's a closet on the right we have a bunch of stuff in there
This is looking from the bathroom into the masterbedroom, the first door on the right is where the toilet is (for privacy you know) Then the next door is to the walk in closet, but on the left is a full size closet too!) It's a long walk to the bathroom if you didn't notice!
My stamp room, but it doesn't look like this now but it's still not organized I took this the other day
This is the downstairs bathroom next to my stamp room
Upstairs hallway looking to your left if you were going up the stairs, the door on the right is the bathroom, and then the next is Maddie and Eliza's room, straight down is Jonas and Wyatt's room, and across from the girls room is the laundry room
Maddie and Eliza's room and we're so glad it is purple!
Jonas and Wyatt's room, I love the stripes!
Here is the front of the house
This is the formal living room, which we call the toy room, and you'll notice the VERY HIGH ceilings and the front door
This is our family room which is where we spend a lot of time and it looks right into the kitchen which is nice too
Here's the kitchen, it's nice and open and big too

Here are the stairs going up if you look you'll see there's a little hallway (bottom right) they call that the butlers pantry area, but we call it the place to store games and crafts!
So there you have it, the place we now call home. Obviously I still have some unpacking to do, but the major stuff is done. We do really like this house a lot. I'm still trying to get used to all the noises that happen at night when the kids are asleep... you know what I mean I'm sure like the sound the ice maker on the fridge makes, etc. And getting used to walking in the house at night without worrying about tripping over anything... I still turn on a light! So I hope you enjoyed the tour of the home... and got an idea of it, sorry it's in an all mixed up order!

pictures as promised

2008-07-17T00:17:00.004-04:00

I thought I should post a picture of our car from our trip so you see how much we took with us, but thankfully we get paid for the pounds we move! So our trip went like this if I remember correctly...We drove all night and made our first stop in Oklhoma, and I took some photos at a rest area while there, and thought the sign on the trash can was quite amusing. Then Our next stop was in Albequerque, NM (might have misspelled that!), then we stopped in Phoenix, and then arrived at our destination of San Diego. While driving through the desert I took a picture of the tempeture gauge in our car that tells us how hot it is outside... and yes it really was that hot, we had our AC going strong!

Tagged...

2008-07-10T00:00:00.003-04:00

My friend Heidi tagged me, doesn't she know I'm still unpacking! But because she's such a good friend and I miss her I will do this... I guess the rules are I have to list 3 of my joys, 3 of my fears, and 3 of my goals 3 current obsessions and 3 random surprising facts about me..
and then I get to TAG 5 of my friends... so here it goes:
3 Joys:
My kids (especially when they are ALL getting along!)
Time spent with my husband
A clean house!

3 fears
Getting in a serious car accident
Ants, spiders, bugs! They gross me out!
Having someone break into our home while we're there

3 Goals
Exercise every day to get in shape and stay in shape (started doing this already, but am getting serious about it as of last week!)
Get my scrapbook room organized to scrapbook more
Become a better journaler again, I used to be good at it, and haven't been, so I've started again

3 current obsessions
reading blogs
reading in general I've read several books lately, and have really gotten into the twilight series by Stephanie Myers! (thanks a lot Jenn!)
Red vines... I love those things!

3 Random surprising facts about me:
I crack my knuckles and back a lot... it annoys Josh because I have to at least pop my back before I lay down or I can't go to sleep. He claims I will someday break my back. (I tell him at least he'll be there to take care of me when that happens right!?)
I like to eat twinkies by eating the top off first, lick out the cream and then at the bottom. =)
I love mt.dew but only from the can, I don't like it from a bottle or the fountain I just don't think it tastes as good.
Okay so many have already been tagged... so hopefully I can get some new folks!
So here I'm tagging
Jenna (my sisterinlaw!)
My Mom (Toni)
Gina
Jenn (because you need to be tagged two times)
Suzanne

One week..

2008-07-05T22:57:00.003-04:00

Its been a week since we moved into our new place here in San Diego. We just got the internet hooked up..but it's good that I haven't had it hooked up so I didn't have anything to keep me from unpacking. I'm still upacking. I will hopefully get some pictures posted soon of our trip across the country, our new place, and the 4th of July. Josh is just here for the weekend and has to go back to Virginia. (big frowny face) He will be back in two weeks. So until then it's me alone with the 4 kids, but we've been managing okay. I'll write more later... my brownies are done.