Feeling Blessed

Life has not been easy over the past month, but despite the challenges we have been so blessed.

These are just a couple of our most recent experiences...

My dad had open heart surgery almost a week ago to replace a valve. This is the first major surgery our family has experienced and it was an emotional week for me. The fasting and prayers by so many family members and friends were felt. The surgery went well and now he is dealing with the long, painful recovery. I know the recovery will not be easy for him or my mom but we truly feel so blessed that there were not any complications during the surgery. He will be coming home this afternoon. It is so amazing that he had major surgery less than a week ago and he is coming home today. We are so blessed to have the technology and medicines we have now.

This past Thursday our house was broken into about 11:45am. I left my house at 11:00am, ran an errand, picked up Luke from preschool, dropped him off at a friend's house to play and then came home. When I got home there was a strange car in front of my house, but I didn't think too much about it. I drove down to the mailbox got my mail and drove by the car again. This time I saw what looked like a male teenager sitting in the driver's seat, he smiled at me, and I pulled my van into my driveway. I pulled into the garage and started unloading my girls. Katelyn was getting ready to go out to the driveway to get the newspaper and then I heard that car honk. I immediately felt sick to my stomach and grabbed Katelyn and put her back in the van and put Ashley back in her seat. Then I ran out to the driveway to see the back of what looked like a girl getting into the car and the car driving off. I went around my garage and saw that my front door was open. I was scared now and ran to my van and drove out of my driveway. I called Kevin and of course he said to call the police. The police arrived about 10 minutes later and searched my house with their guns out.
A rock had been thrown through my kitchen window and glass was shattered everywhere. They dented my refrigerator, stole my camera, and most of my jewelry. They tore apart my bedroom. Kevin had some guns up high in his closet and they had taken two of them but dropped them downstairs before running out. They stole a few other little things. CSI came and got some fingerprints and after about an hour and a half we were able to go back in our house and clean up all the mess.
It was scary and left me feeling so violated and really nervous that first night to fall asleep. However, we were really blessed. I am so grateful Luke was at a friend's house because it would have really scared him. They didn't take anything too valuable. (They were probably really disappointed with what they found.) The biggest blessing of all was that no one was hurt and the damages to the house were minimal.

Life can be crazy sometimes!

I Have a 5 Year Old Now

Turned 5 on January 16th

Really? How can he already be five? Five just sounds so grown up to me and I am having a hard time with it. :)

5 Things about Luke
1. He is such a good big brother.
2. He helps me out so much and usually does it without complaining.
3. He loves to ask hard questions and many times I don't have the answers.
4. He is very creative when it comes to playing.
5. He is so picky when it comes to eating.

We have decided to just have a birthday party for our kids on their even birthdays so this was Luke's year to just have a family party, but I don't think he was disappointed. He was so excited about his presents and got to go to Chuck E Cheese to eat and play. He wanted a Bolt (the disney movie) cake so I just made a chocolate cake and put a lighting bolt on it with icing. Nothing fancy, but he thought it was pretty cool.

(Opening a birthday present)

(Playing a game at Chuck E. Cheese)


Through The Years
This is for me and the grandparents. :) I love seeing how much he has changed.


I love my Luke!

Christmas Eve & Christmas Morning

Once again I am very late in posting about the holidays, but I wanted to get this documented anyway. I actually started this about a week ago and I am just now finishing it up.

Christmas Eve
We had a great time with Kevin's family on Christmas Eve! We did miss Sue and Wendy's families.

The kids decorated gingerbread men. Some were very careful about placing the candy while others couldn't get enough icing and candy on their cookie.

(If you look closely you can see the gobs of candy on Katelyn's cookie and the pile of icing on her cousin's cookie. )

We ate yummy food!

(The kids table)

(Enjoying some yummy food.)

We had a fun gift exchange with the cousins and the adults. I took some pictures but my camera was on a weird setting and they all came out blurry.

We acted out the Nativity. Most of those pictures were blurry also.

(A shepherd and a wise man)

(the other 2 wise men)

Before going to bed the kids opened new pjs from Grandma and Grandpa and wore them to bed.

Christmas Morning
This was such a fun year because both Luke and Katelyn were so excited. When Luke ran downstairs and saw the presents from Santa he said, "He really did come!! Mom, Dad, Santa really came." Later he had opened all his presents except one. I could tell he was looking around for another present. At the beginning of December he sat on Santa's lap at the primary activity and had asked him for a set of Bakugans. After opening most of his presents he still didn't have those Bakugans and he was concerned. Well, the last present he opened was the set of Bakugans from Santa and he was thrilled. I'm glad Santa remembered to get those. :)


Ashley was so happy with the balls she got from Luke and Katelyn. We could have just stopped with those, but she did get a couple other little toys.

It was a dress up Christmas for Katelyn. She got a Cinderella dress, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, a ring, shoes, and a tiara (sp?).

(Is that a smile?)

Luke got the Bakugans, a Transformer, and a Leapster.

(This is how he spent most of Christmas Day.)

I loved the rainy, cold weather on Christmas day,staying in my PJs all day, and the kids happily playing with their new toys. The kids were also spoiled with fun gifts from their grandparents. It was a wonderful Christmas with fun memories.

Well, it's about time!

I don't know what my problem is, but I am having such a hard time keeping up with this blog. I know I haven't been very good in the past, but this is pretty bad. Christmas is next week and I still haven't blogged about Thanksgiving. So here it goes...

We had a fun and adventurous Thanksgiving. It started Wednesday with most of my family coming into Vegas that afternoon (one brother stayed in Ohio with his family and their brand new baby and my other brother was in CA) and then another brother and his family arrived Thanksgiving morning. Wednesday night Luke and his cousin learned some ballroom dance moves and I think we might be looking at the next junior Dancing with the Stars champions. :) I have a video of it, but blogger isn't letting me post it. I will have to try again later.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at our house

(An idea of what Thanksgiving dinner looked like and a nice picture of my youngest brother. )

and then Friday morning we loaded up two vans and headed to CA for my brother's wedding.

(this is the brother that got married holding Ashley)

The drive down went well except for Katelyn throwing up after lunch because she was carsick. Sorry, no pictures, but I can assure you it was very gross and it was everywhere.

Friday morning we attended the wedding in the Newport Beach Temple. The weather was beautiful and so was the temple.
(Here's my brother with his beautiful bride)

Katelyn was a flower girl with her cousin Evie and Luke sported the plaid vest.

(I'm not really sure what Luke is doing and of course Katelyn is not smiling. It is a rare thing to get her to smile for a picture.)

Ashley just looked cute.

The fam!

The highlight of the day for Luke was the dancing at the reception. He said his favorite part was when everyone cheered for him and Evie as they danced down the middle. This kid is not shy.
I wish I had a picture of him dancing, but instead I got one of grandpa and Katelyn on the dance floor.
(Once again Katelyn looks like she is really enjoying herself.)

I Think the New Hairdo is Working for Her

We love her little mohawk.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN from...

Optimus Prime

Super Girl

and a Little Baby Horse.

Already?

Ashley is 6 months old now and I am having a hard time believing it has already been six months.

• She is sitting up and playing with toys.
• Just starting to like baby cereal mixed w/fruit.
• Loves drinking out of a sippy cup with some help.
• Still not sleeping through the night. (Lately she has been waking up screaming during the night. I think it is a combination of teething and her tummy hurting. She is having a hard time transitioning to solid foods.)
• Loves when we do Patty Cake, Patty Cake with her.
• Is a momma's girl and whines for me when she sees me in the room.
• Is now aware of strangers.
• Loves to hear herself make noises and can get quite loud when she is laying on her back.
  
• She is the best baby to take on errands and loves just looking around at everything.

• She weighs 17 lbs. 4 oz.
• She is 26.5 inches tall.
• She is my smallest baby and she still isn't very small. :) My other two were off the charts in weight and height as babies and still are off the charts.

• She loves to stick her tongue out. Here are several examples...
  

We love this baby girl and are so grateful she is part of our family!