Rival Week

Traveler and Tommy Trojan
Smiley Hadley

Emily, Kyle and Hadley

I love this one because of the blurry victory "v" in the foreground

Brad and Shanell

This month's date night was a trip to the USC v. UCLA football game. It is always an exciting time when you're playing your rival, but the game was pretty boring...while we were there. After we left, sometime early in the 4th quarter, 3 touchdowns were scored and the Bruins rushed the field. Ha ha. I'm actually excited that we weren't there after the game because there would have been a lot of yelling and fighting among the fans. It was actually kind of chilly that night so that, coupled with a tired babysitter, led to our early exit from the game. Hadley, our neighbor's baby, was such a trooper. She lasted as long as I did at the game. Fun times!

Thanksgiving 09

 

 

 

 

This year we got together with a few couples in our building who also were staying around to have Thanksgiving dinner. And can I just say that it was amazing. My friends, Shanell and Emily, are truly amazing cooks and did such an awesome job with the turkey, potatoes, gravy and rolls. HEAVENLY! So my contribution was an awful fruit salad and stuffing, that did turn out...eventually. I had to redo the stuffing because we bought a brand that looked fancy but we had not had before, which turned out to be a big mistake. It tasted like soggy dog food. Not what you want to feed your friends for Thanksgiving dinner, so I had to borrow a stuffing mix and add in all the extra yummies that I thankfully had not wasted on the first batch. It just made everyone wait for dinner. Hey, I never claimed to be a good cook...

After the awesome food, the little girls ran around and around like wild monkeys, glad to be the center of attention and to have a new stuff to get into. The boys got in some good rounds of Mario Kart, so everyone was happy. It was a great day, I was grateful to be able to keep my food down, and to spend sometime with friends.

Happy Birthday, Stephanie!

 

Stephanie will always be one of our best friends. She is so sweet, funny and caring. She is a great teacher, friend, and a wonderful wife. We hope she had a fabulous birthday, we wish we could be there to celebrate with you!

Luna Nueva

I went with a group of girls from my ward to New Moon on Friday night and I have to say it was a lot of fun. I read the Twilight series back in 2007, so I couldn't remember much at all about the book, I just knew that it wasn't my favorite. So I didn't have high expectations for this movie, especially since I thought that Twilight was super cheezy (still liked it, but c'mon, "spider monkey"?!?). But I thought it was way better and am excited to read the book again. It was fun to get excited like all the 15 year olds around us, the squealing and screaming really does add to the whole experience. A fun night, I recommend the movie!

But most of all, the movie made me so homesick for Washington!

What's New??

So our family went through a huge change 7 weeks ago when we found out that our party of 3 would soon become 4!
The last month and a half have been the most difficult of my life, even harder than last pregnancy, because last time all I had to worry about was myself. I am so tired of the nausea and vomiting and fatigue. Sigh. It lasted 5 months with Lillie, I really hope it's shorter than that this time around. But it's pretty much been the same.
Lillie has had to raise herself, she has never eaten more unhealthily or watched more tv. Eric has had to take a lot of time off from school to help me and Lillie. He does a lot of the cooking, all of the grocery shopping and some of the cleaning. My house is a constant wreck, I never get dressed or leave the house, I am just trying to survive. I miss being around my family more than I ever have in my entire life. Sigh.
But really we are excited, I'm already a fourth of the way done. I'll be ecstatic once I'm done with morning sickness. Our new addition should be here in June.

Too Smart for Under Two

I just walked into our living room to see the opening credits for Bambi playing on the tv. I know for sure that Bambi was not in the dvd player, so Lillie had to turn on the tv, open the dvd player, and exchange dvds. She's getting too smart. I'm going to have to move her movies out of her reach.

One of Those Days

So today has been one of the worst of my existence. And I've kept telling myself all day that things will be resolved, the crisis will soon pass and this will all be a distant memory. But it is not ending.
Tuesday I went to get a prescription filled and when I went to pick it up, the pharmacist said my insurance had changed and that I was no longer covered for the meds. And the pills are WAY too expensive to just cover the cost til I get it figured out.
So I have spent the ENTIRE last two days calling my insurance company over and over, the pharmacy, my doctors office, etc. No I mean I've literally been on the phone so much that now I already have $77 worth of OVERAGES on my phone bill with 5 days left in the billing cycle and an unresolved issue. And I don't talk on the phone, I've never gone over. I still don't have my prescription filled and I now am no longer able to see my doctor under my current insurance plan. And I can't make or receive calls on my phone.
If this issue doesn't all worked out easily and quickly in the next few days, I will be needing a few MORE prescriptions. I am so sick of dealing with people who do not care one bit about my situation and cannot take two seconds to send a fax or fill out a piece of paper for me and won't return phone calls.
This is a nightmare! Can't wait to start it all over again in the morning.

Please ignore the previous post. I had no idea those pictures were going to be posted and there is more than one that I would have not allowed to be viewed publicly!

Carrie

My cute wife - the big 2-6.

Yesterday was Carrie's birthday and she is happy to say she has passed over the quarter century hump and is now 26 years old. She'll also tell you how much fun she had at Disneyland without our little rug-rat tagging along. She will also definitely tell you what a great husband she has for making the day so special.







But seriously, Carrie is the greatest wife and mother ever. She does so much for our little family and I want her to know how much Lillie and I love and appreciate her. Now here's some photos of Carrie through the years.

Halloween 09

This year our Halloween celebrating consisted solely of a trip to the ward trunk or treat. Lillie really enjoyed asking other people for candy as she is already a pro at asking her parents for it. That girl has got one sweet tooth, so yesterday was a trip to heaven for her. Bribing her with candy was the only way to get her to put and keep her costume on, so she consumed a lot of candy.
Being in dental school, I guess you probably gotta be dental related items once in your lifetime, so we went as a tooth, toothpaste and toothbrush, in case you couldn't tell. Some people couldn't.

 

 

Leap Frog Magic

When Lillie was about twelve months old, we wanted to get her a new toy, something that she could learn something from, and so we decided to get the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics, in hopes that she would learn the ABC song. Well, that has been one of the best purchases I have ever made, twice. Lillie used to have a garbage obsession and threw away the main piece of the toy and some of the letters, but because it is so good, I spent another $20 to get it again. Lillie now recognizes almost all of the letters of the alphabet and can also tell you what sounds some of them make, plus she can almost sing the ABCs by herself. I think this is pretty remarkable considering I haven't helped her at all and she's 21 mos. I just thought I'd quiz her the other day and she got almost all of them right! She likes to play with it while I'm making dinner and we're waiting for Eric to come home and other random times throughout the day. Love, love, love it! Just thought I'd share. Maybe you could get lucky and find it on craigslist, but if not, it's worth the full purchase price.

Labor of Love...Most of the Time

So for the last month and a half or so, this is what I've been up to. I made my first quilt! It is a twin size for Lillie's big girl bed. I can't say it was the funnest thing I've ever done, but I enjoyed doing most of it and I've learned a lot. I picked Freshcut by Heather Bailey for my fabric because it's so cute and I'd already made a couple of skirts and a dress out of some of this fabric. Lillie loves the quilt so that's all that matters.

In fact, today, Lillie was trying to go "potty" on her little toilet and ran off without a diaper on and went and sat on the quilt. When I rushed over to get her off, she had already left a little puddle of pee. Sigh. It hadn't even been finished for a day. Eric just said that he was sure that wouldn't be the last stain, pee, food, dirt, crayon, etc. I'm sure he's right.

 

 

 

This last picture is a preview of my next project. It's one of the things I am going to do with the left over fabric. It's gonna be cute!

I Don't Want the Swine to Hit Mine

I am sick of waiting for the H1N1 vaccine to become available for my daughter. I feel like Father Time's scythe is hanging over our family. We are currently on our dr's waiting list but we're 30th. I don't know how long we can dodge the H1N1 bullet.

LA Observatory

I took Eric out for our date night to the observatory this past week. We were able to see Jupiter and the Moon through big telescopes, the moon was really cool. It is such a beautiful building, but it was too dark to take pictures. There was also a great view of Los Angeles from the back of the building! So it wasn't the most exciting date, but it was interesting and informative and something to check off our list as seen.







BTW, we have had blurry photos for the past couple months because all of our photos were taken with our cell phones. But we finally got our camera fixed and so the quality of pics should get a little better.

Disneyland Pals

This is our pumpkin for this year--jk it was at Disneyland, cool huh?





Eric was nice enough to take me to Disneyland again and let me stand in line for an hour for the haunted Space Mountain and went on the Haunted Mansion with me and stayed late that night for the Halloween fireworks. Which were all really cool, especially the fireworks.

Aquarium

This month we went to the Long Beach aquarium, when Eric had a day off. It was a lot fun, Lillie would run from one exhibit to the next, squealing in excitement at each new thing she saw. This aquarium was great because there were a lot of places where you could touch things like sharks, rays, etc., and had a lot of exhibits. That particular day was also Southeast Asia day, so there were dances and musical numbers all day and tables set up with awesome stuff from countries like Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, etc. Fun day!



Eric's pirate face. Ha ha.

Hike and Fire

Every year at the end of the summer, SoCal has to deal with major fires and this year wasn't any different. But this September, the big fire was in the mountains close to where we live and so the air was smoky and full of ash for weeks!




Last June we went on a little hike in the mountains above where we live. It was so beautiful, we didn't know there could be such natural beauty and greenery in L.A. A nice surprise. I have been so excited for it to cool down so that we could go hike it again. But now I am wondering if it still exists after the fire!

 

 

 

 

Bargain Princess

 

 

Lillie loves to dress up and I have been wanting to get her disney princess dresses but they are so expensive! I was at Goodwill the other day and picked up this beauty for $5. I had to give it a good wash and fix a tear, but it is good as new! Gotta love a bargain!