Freezer issues.

So one of the yucky parts of our trip (besides the fact that I had to make the 15-hour drive home by myself, without D, who stayed in Cali another week for a job) was coming home to find that for some reason, our deep freezer in our garage was turned off. The power got shut off, and I couldn't get it back on. I spent most of Monday and Tuesday cooking 10 pounds of chicken and lots of other meat trying to save it all. I did have to throw out some stuff, but luckily it mostly packaged food that didn't cost too much.

I am very thankful to have LOTS of friends who own crock pots and are willing to share them... and to a wonderful Home Teacher who picks up and delivers crock pots to me (without me even asking him too - THANKS JOHN!)!

Happy Birthday Haley!!!

It also happened to be Haley's birthday while we were there - the day after D's! (That's what I gave him for his 34th birthday after all!) Haley turned the big 5!!! Crazy!!! I can't believe she is that big! At 5, Haley loves her ballet class; she is going to start Kindergarten in the Fall; she loves being Reed's big sister and trying to take care of him; she loves her friends and always wants people to play with; she is VERY girly, and loves anything having to do with girly; she is smart and stubborn, and sometimes we have to catch her on it; she is a great helper, when she wants to be, and only when she wants to be, but we are working on that. We are very thankful to have Haley be a part of our family and wouldn't trade her for anything - not even a pony!!!

Lego-Size me.

After California Adventure, we wandered Downtown Disney for a while. Luke took this cute picture of Reed, just hanging out in one of the giant Legos in front of the Lego store.

Our California Adventure.

We had a great time at California Adventure. D worked at Disney when this park first open, and we got to go to an employee grand opening event, and I remember that both of us were not impressed. We had small kids at the time - just Chad and Luke - and there was really nothing there that they could do. What a difference a couple of years have made! We all had a great time!!! Sure... there are rides the little ones can't, or don't want to, go on... but there were still LOTS of things for them to do! They especially love all the shows... and the highlight for Reed was probably getting to "meet" Lightning McQueen and Mater - two of his all-time favorites!!!

Happy Birthday D!

Can you tell they were "womb-mates"?

Lots of birthdays for us lately! It appears that all of our birthdays (with the exception of Macy) take place in the Spring - early summer. Birthdays start May 4th (Luke), then continue on to get me, Reed, D and Haley, ending June 24th with Chad. Crazy!

Anyways, while we were in L.A., we got to celebrate D's birthday! We were able to go to California Adventure on his birthday, and while we were there I called his twin sister (it was her birthday too, ya know!) and kiddingly asked her if she was on her way to Disneyland (they only live about an hour away), and SHE WAS!!! Crazy!!! I was totally kidding! So her and D got to spend some of their 39th birthday together! They said it's been years since they spent their birthdays together - I think maybe on their 25th was the last time. So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY D & SHAM!!!! Love you both very, very much and hope that you both had a superriffic day!!!

PooPoo on the Potty - come on, sing along... you all know the song!

Ok, so he's totally gonna kill me for this photo someday... but as long as he's unaware, guess who went poopoo on the potty today? It was totally a fluke, and he has absolutely no interest in the toilet whatsoever, but I don't care. Gotta be a proud mom!... even if it takes months before it happens again!!!!

Doin' Disney!

And of course, the main reason for our trip (other than the fact that D has a job to do here) - going to DISNEYLAND!!! We got there when it opened and lasted til it closed! Granted, right now the hours are only 8am-8pm, but it was still a long day! Everyone had a great time and we got to go on all the rides we wanted to. It was a bit busy (apparently other parents are ok with pulling their kids out of school too!), but not too bad. I think the longest we waited for anything was only about 20 minutes. Ok, change that. The longest ride we waited for was Roger Rabbit, and we probably waited about 30-40. Not sure what that was about, but we were totally mis-led. The sign didn't show any minutes, and you could totally walk right in to the building... but then did you know that the line in there snakes all around the place? Well, we didn't. But we still enjoyed it! We went to Toon Town, someplace we haven't been in a long time, and Reed really enjoyed all the cars all over the place that you can climb in and play on. The hit, as always, was Indiana Jones, and we all loved finding the characters hidden in It's A Small World. A good day was had by everyone! Now, it's off to California Adventure tomorrow!

Happy Birthday!

Celebrating D and Haley's birthday at P.F. Changs with Uncle Billy and Grandma Paula. Thanks for the great bday dinner for all of us (and all the change!!!)!!!

Getting the urge.

Of course, In-N-Out is always a family favorite! This is a picture of the first one we saw. Somewhere near Sacramento. Not even open yet - due to the hour (it was like 9:00am), and also due to the fact that it wasn't even done being built! - but I still needed a picture!

And then of course, in Kettleman, where we, and many others, always stop. In-N-Out for lunch! Yummy!

On our way.

Driving to Cali took a bit longer than we planned. That's what happens when you make numerous stops. Many Targets and WalMarts along the way after all. And a son who won't stop drinking stuff, therefore has to make LOTS of potty stops. Ended up getting a hotel room Saturday night... but it was nice to stop and sleep.

Going back to Cali, Cali, Cali... going back to Cali... uuhhh, I don't think so!

Ok, so we're not exactly "going back"... but we are visiting! For the last two years, at the beginning of the school year we set a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon as a family. Most every school night we have sat down at 8:30, read about 3 chapters, had family prayers, and then off to bed. Pretty good. Not always easy, but we've tried. Well anyway, last night we FINISHED for this year! Yahoo! So, now what are we gonna do you may ask? Well we're going to Disneyland, of course!!! We leave tomorrow morning, drive all day, will spend a few days in L.A., and then me and the kids head home. D is teaching a class in L.A. the next two weekends, so me and the kids decided to join him for part of the time. We've been under a bunch of stress the past couple of months, and decided this was just what we needed... a little "Happiest Place on Earth"!

No guarantees that we will see anybody, our time is short this time, but if we don't, know that we will probably be back in the summer for much more time! Gotta go pack for Haley now... she's driving me crazy!

For me?

So Macy is headed off to a birthday party, her carpool shows up, she runs in the house to get the gift, and guess what? It's already unwrapped. Apparently Reed learned really well at his birthday how to open gifts!

All better.

Out with the old...In with the new. Isn't it pretty????

Cost for a super cool, unbended, beautiful new garage door: $739.


Cost for a great friend, who happens to be a garage door guy, who super rushes your garage door, which works perfectly, better than the old garage door EVER did! and then only charges you the actual cost of the door and a little bit of his labor: priceless!


Thanks Ken! You rock! (And Happy Birthday to Kris... a couple days late... but I love you!!!)

But the day went downhill from there.

So after coming home and being on my grocery shopping high, I decided to do a bit of house cleaning. There's a spot on our upstairs wall where someone (who shall remain nameless - but he's the littlest redhead in the house) drew (ALOT) with black crayon. I was trying to clean it off, and really needed some Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. I decided to go to Walmart to get some, and wasn't fully thinking straight. My car is usually headed down our driveway towards the garage, but because it was full of groceries, I parked it in reverse so that I could unload it easier. Well, stupid me, when I was pulling out of the driveway, out of habit I put the car in reverse and smashed our garage door. Lovely! So nice. The car got dented and scratched too, but it's liveable, the garage door on the other hand, no longer works. Luckily we have a friend Ken (Hi Ken! Hi Kris too! Happy Birthday if you're reading this!!!) whose a garage door guy. He came over and figured it out and is going to be replacing our garage door to the tune of about $1000 - again, LOVELY!!!! And that's just at his cost. As if that wasn't enough, Chad then came home to inform us that he still had Washington State Testing next week - we planned a trip to California next week wanting to give us all a bit of a break - so I'm now frantically emailing his teachers to see what happens if he misses it... and Reed decided to draw on our nice green coach with a not-so-nice orange marker (luckily, pretty washable, and we were able to scrub it out with OxiClean - love the stuff! Are you noticing a trend here with Reed and writing on things????).

Things always come in threes. So, life is a bit tense in our house right now. Everyone pray that tomorrow is better. Maybe tomorrow will bring three good things - if I pray really hard... deal????

My new obsession.

My "coupon organizing thingy" - definately the technical term!

So I've recently become addicted to grocery shopping. Really? Yep! Love it! Cutting the coupons, finding the deals, seeing how much I can get for how little... it's all a game. I used to cut coupons when we lived in LA, but when we moved here, I gave it up. They doubled all of my coupons in LA... but no such luck here. No doubling whatsoever, unless you got a special "double four of your coupons" coupon in the newspaper - and even then, they would only double up to $.50. Well, whatever, I digress. I've rediscovered my love for coupons and grocery shopping. And I've realized that you don't really need double coupons. I'm now saving more money by just paying attention to what's on sale, and what I have coupons for, than worrying about whether they'll double or not. Take my adventures today for example. I went to Albertsons, Safeway, Walgreens, Winco and Target (all while Haley was at school - 2 1/2 hours - I come very prepared!). (I'm not counting Winco in my grand total because they don't really do coupons, but other than them, wanted to tell you how I did.) I spend part of my Sunday afternoons going thru all the coupons and ads, and all these great websites that tell you about deals. My grand total (before coupons and everything) was $302.17. Oh my gosh!!! That's a LOT!!! After all my coupons, specials, register rewards, and whatever else I had, I got it all for $140.77, and got $30.00 in credits for my next shopping adventures ($10 Safeway, $10 Walgreens and $10 Target). Not bad at all! That's more than 50%!!! Target was my big dollar hit because I loaded up on diapers. And it's all name brand stuff that we use! Pretty cool, huh?

Pop Tarts, Huggies, Huggies Wipes, Gatorade, Powerade, Capri Sun, Tropicana OJ, Cheerios, Arrowhead water, lots of soda!, salad kits, Pasta sauce, Purel, Crystal Lite, lots of other random stuff!

Aloha!

Our niece, Tara, was flying home from college in Hawaii the other day and had a layover in our airport, so we were all able to go out to breakfast. Always nice to see some family!!!

The trains in town.

The aforementioned Geotrax train that Reed got for his birthday... taking over his room. Cool, huh? Everyone is really enjoying it!

A moment of silence, please.

We woke up the other morning to find all of the kids' fishes DEAD. All 3 of them! Crazy. They were fine the night before. The frog is fine though (he's hiding behind the plant - that's his favorite spot). I think he plotted and got away with murdering all three of them. I'm thinking of calling CSI in to figure it out. Until then, no more fishies for a while.

Happy Easter (only a few days late!)!

Letters, carrots, water and of course, hard-boiled eggs, left for Mr. Easter Bunny
Easter Egg Hunt in the basement, because of course, it's raining outside.

(Again, we're having some computer issues... so I'm playing a bit of catch-up right now! Seriously, we have like 4 laptops and 1 desktop. 2 of the laptops hardly work - we just got one back from the doctor though, and it's what I'm currently using. My laptop is just really slow on the internet and sometimes doesn't like it. D's laptop won't read my scan disks for some reason... so there ya go. The desktop is also having internet issues.)

So, back to the original topic. Happy Easter! Hope your's was great and that you were able to remember the true meaning of the holiday!

The Easter Bunny, as always, was very generous to all the kids. The kids had a great time, and we were able to have dinner at Heidi's house with her family and Bob and Susie's family. We love when we get to get together with family, and are very thankful to live so close to some of them.

Dying Eggs.

Love Easter. Love all the colors and the symbolism. Love dying eggs with the kids and seeing how they turn out. The kids really enjoy doing it too. Anything crafty, they are in to (gee... where do you think they get that from?)

After dying the eggs, we did a lesson making cookies that told about the Crucifixion of Jesus. Pretty cool. Made sort of meringue-type cookies. Would've worked better if we whipped the eggs for the full time though. Oh well. The lesson was still pretty cool.