Sunday, October 31, 2010

October Week 4

October Week 4
10/24/10 - 10/30/10

More presents to open!
These came last week from Hamma & Hampa Sasha :)
but I didn't get around to posting the photos 'til this week.
Emily loved the princess gift wrap and it took some convincing to have her tear into it!
...but more princess goodies awaited her inside the package, so she was one happy girl!
bubbles!

Saturday (the 23rd) we went to Disneyland for a few hours in the morning.

We had fun... Em had a blast... but after a little while I started to feel sick so we went home.
Not until after we met Mickey though!!
By Sunday I was sick.
I stayed home Monday and Tuesday.
Went to my doctors on Tuesday and Thursday...
I'm quite sick, but the OB said our baby is fine.
By Thursday Pete and Emily were also sick.
Friday I started feeling a little better...
Peter started getting better pretty quick too-- no fever for him.
Em's fever is now gone, but the poor little girl still has a terrible cough.
Hopefully we will all be well again soon!
On Saturday we finally got around to getting and carving a pumpkin.
Despite being under the weather, we had a great day together.
Happy [almost] Halloween!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

October Week 3

October Week 3
Oct. 17-Oct. 23

This week the photos are all from Sunday, but that's fairly fitting since the whole week was one long birthday celebration as birthday gifts came in the mail and we at leftover birthday cake or ice cream every night!

10/17/10
HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY EMILY!!!!

We celebrated her birthday on Saturday, but today we spent some good family time together.
We went to church, played at home with her new CD player, had dinner and played games at Chuck-E-Cheese (the food was gross, but Em loved it) and then came home for more birthday cake and set up her new big girl bed!
This girl is all about her Disney princesses these days... and with her new birthday loot,
you can find these princesses and their many dresses often laying around. :)
Em dancing in her ballerina dress to the music on her new CD player
(that she knows how to use by herself)!

Her new big girl bed :)

Her first night in the new bed :)
Good night birthday girl!

October Week 2

October Week 2
10/10/10-10/16/10

10/10/10
Today was a travel day for us. We drove from Orange City to Omaha and then flew home to Long Beach via Salt Lake City. I was a nervous wreck about the flights, but all things considered, they went quite well. If you read my last blog post you'll understand why we won't be getting on another plane for a long time! Let's just say... it's GOOD to be HOME!!!

10/11/10
Today was an inservice day, so no kiddos to teach.
The day was split into three parts...
The first was working on our WASC Accreditation.
Secondly we met with our departments so I spent time with the other music faculty.
Lastly we met K-8 to discuss formative and summative assessment.
It wasn't necessarily 'fun', but beneficial, and any day when I can wear jeans and have a lower energy level (not teaching middle school) is fine by me. :)

10/12 ::10/13 :: 10/14 :: 10/15
It was back to our normal busy schedule for the rest of the week.
However, as busy as we may be, we are still able to find lots of family time...
especially in comparison to our crazy summer!

10/16/10
Today we celebrated Emily's 3rd birthday!
Michael & Jill came over for her "birthday party"... (dinner, presents, cake & ice cream)
We all had a great time.
Today I learned that as much as I enjoy the show "Cake Boss" I do not enjoy baking or decorating cakes, nor do I have a gift for it. I'll often see cakes other people (usually other moms) have made and think:
'hey, that's cute! i could do that!'
well, maybe I could...
but at this point, I don't really want to spend the time or energy! :)
Especially since Emily was perfectly happy with her imperfect cake!




Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!!!
We love you so much!!




Monday, October 25, 2010

October Week 1

October 3rd-October 9th
2010
This week (Monday-Thursday) was MUCH better weather wise... in fact we had a 50+ DEGREE drop over the course of just a few days. Last week it was 114 degrees... this week: in the 60s!
I am SO thankful!!

This weekend we went to Orange City, IA and WOW...
it was BY FAR the WORST travel experience of our lives!
Nothing Pete or I had previously experienced even came close!

If you don't want to hear about a bad and gross couple of travel days... please skip down to the next picture. :)

We flew out of Long Beach, and it was nice being so close to home, easy to park, easy to get through to our gate, but that was the extent of the good news for the day.
The flight out of Long Beach was a little delayed... maybe 15 minutes.
Most of the flight was ok.
It was a small plane... 12 or 15 rows, one seat on one side, two on the other.
As we started our descent into Salt Lake City though we hit some serious turbulence. We were coming in over the mountains... then it was as if we hit a secondary, separate storm system and all of a sudden, instead of the regular bad turbulence, the storm caught one wing of the plane and sent us falling through the air.
I took FULL advantage of the lovely little bags provided in the seat back pocket in front of me and had a heart to heart with God at the prospect of meeting Him sooner than I had expected. Just as we were closing in on the runway (maybe 2 stories up in the air) the pilot gunned the engines and we started back up in the air... back up into the storm.
The pilot told us that there was a plane on the runway so we had to wait.
We circled... (in the terrible storm), Pete joined in the barf bag fun... Emily grabbed hers and imitated (though not actually puking) and then not to be outdone, I had to 'borrow' the bag from the row behind us and make the most of it. It was awful.
We finally landed... I had tunnel vision, felt like I was about to faint, could hardly feel my legs or see straight, but because of our circling, we were now quite late and I had to take Emily and run to our next gate while Pete waited for the luggage.
Yes, CARRY Emily and RUN to our other gate (which of course was nowhere close!)
Need I remind you I was sick, and of course, pregnant too.
Well, I got to the gate at 7:37 and our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:45.
The jet bridge was attached and the gate agent was in the process of shutting the door. I ran up to her (the door was still OPEN) but she shut the door and simply said "I'm sorry, the flight is gone." I told her we had to get on the plane. She said "I'm sorry, you're late and the flight is gone, you may go over there and use the courtesy phones to call and reschedule for a flight tomorrow." I am usually an extremely patient person, but I told her that wouldn't work... we needed to get to the midwest TONIGHT. Could she get us into Minneapolis? Or Des Moines? Or even Chicago? Or anywhere tonight? She pointed at the phones. I started to cry. More people from our flight arrived and started to get upset. Eventually Pete came with the bags. We talked to the lady, realized we couldn't get out that night and started a long process of getting to Iowa. They put us up at a hotel, we had to go find a shuttle. We got there, it was an awful night. Emily kept asking when we were going to see Patches, Gpa & Gma patches. We ordered super expensive room service (with our $6 food vouchers, hmm.) I got sick again. Pete and I couldn't sleep on the sleep number beds. It was just bad. We got up early to wait for our shuttle. Went back to the airport, through security, then I spent some more time puking in the Salt Lake City bathrooms, onto another small plane and flew to Omaha (I of course had to test out these barf bags too), only to have a 3 hour car ride before we finally arrived in Orange City. I have never been so sick.

Our visit in Orange City was nice...
(Emily was spoiled with sweet early birthday presents!)
but short, and I was sick and nervous about the health of the baby.
I talked to my doctor on the phone. She gave me a list of about 5 different things to look for at a health foods store or pharmacy. There isn't a health foods store in Orange City and even though they have a great pharmacy, the pharmacy didn't have ANY of the items my doctor told me to get.
Fortunately though Pete was able to do the marching band stuff he went for and Emily had a WONDERFUL time with her Grandma and Grandpa Patches.
We had some fun too :)


Emily and her halloween inspired birthday cake.
"Hampa Patches" and his grandkids
I got to meet baby Maci!!
Cousins :)
...a LOT of marching band...

and then it was time to go home.
A good visit, but we will NOT be getting on another plane for a LONG TIME.
I guess it'll be time for Emily's first major road trip! :)


September Week 4

September 26th :: October 2nd
2010

We were all home this week, busy with our normal schedules.
Monday and Wednesday I have rehearsal for the musical, Tuesday I teach lessons, and Thursdays Pete teaches marching band. By the time Friday comes we are all ready to spend some time together and relax. Lately we have been going to the Valley football games where Emily loves to run around with her friends (and several of my students who love chasing her around).




Saturday morning was the BOPA Car Wash.
We all went and spent 4-5 hours there, helping wash a little but mostly doing other stuff like taking photos, talking to the people who came to wash their cars, catching up with former students, and helping a little to organize the kiddos while chasing my own little sweetie pie.
A few hours in she found her friend, Chloe.
Chloe is the band director's daughter and they're only one month apart.
They had a lot of fun running around imitating each other.


Monday, October 18, 2010

September Week 3

September 19th-25th

I had a really cute photo here, but decided to remove it as she was mostly n@ked... (just 2 pairs of undies.... one where they belong and one on her head!) She came out of her room Sunday morning and told me she was ready to go to church like that... yes, wearing her underwear as a hat. Where do kids come up with this stuff?

Drinking hot chocolate as we watch our pumpkin cookies bake.
Frosting the pumpkin cookies... pink of course!
Originally I wanted to give some of the cookies away, but Emily decided to lick her fingers while frosting so for health reasons we *had* to keep (read: eat) them all ourselves!
Putting her babies to bed on the couch and taking pictures...
The constantly messy state of our living room.