What a difference a year makes

I finally got out to Blake's soccer game and it just so happened to be the last one of the season. :-( I used to go to the majority of them last year (when Jack was in my tummy) but since he's been born, I haven't been able to make any. I know, bad aunt! I think it was a good thing that I didn't go to many because whew, let me tell you how stressful and mentally draining it was. It was a lot of fun but very intense. I think that it was more intense for me then the kids. I was screaming and yelling and getting mad at the ref (but definitely not as mad as my brother in law, who I think was inches away from "getting called out of the game" :-)). Blake is a stud. He is great at soccer and really gets in there and kicks the ball. I was very proud. Last year, the kids would all run up and down the field together kicking the ball any which way. It was pretty much chaos but super cute. When watching the kids this year, I couldn't help but think 'Wow, what a difference a year makes!' Here are some pictures from the game. I didn't want to include too many of Blake because I know my sister is going to post some.
Blake in an action shot

My sister, mom, and me

Amanda and Emily playing around

I'm finally caught up on my posts

Sorry to everyone that reads my blog and has been disappointed with my lack of posting. I've been busy and tired. On my list of things to talk about, I'll start with an update on my issues. I have pretty good news. The MRI on my brain looked great. I don't have any tumors or irregular looking things in my brain so that's good news. My headaches have decreased a lot in the last month (probably only about 5-6 in the whole month, which is down A LOT). I finally feel that after 15 months of struggling with a headache, almost everyday, that I finally may have a handle on it. On to the tummy issues. I met with my doctor a couple of days ago and he explained the different findings when he did the endoscopy. A lot of the terminology I didn't really understand but the gist of it is that I have a sliding hyatel hernia and some damage in my stomach and surrounding areas from acid. There isn't much that they can be done for the hernia. He wants me to continue taking Aciphex daily for the acid reflux problem and he said the medicine will heal the damage that is done. The good thing is that I don't have any ulcers but if left untreated that's were it would be headed. I'm glad that something is going on in my tummy and I'm not just crazy. After 2 horrible pregnancies and continued problems since Jacks birth, I'm glad that I found out some information.

On to something else. November 1st Matt, Bryan (my brother in law), Kody (friend), and Travis (preacher and friend from church) went hiking in San Jacinto mountains. They had an excellent time despite the REALLY cooled weather and rain! Matt came back with lots of fun stories and great memories with friends. He's ready to go back out and do it again, he seems to really like this hiking stuff.

Bryan, Matt, and Kody- camping in the clouds

Matt on top of the mountain

They made it... 10,834 feet.... Bryan, Travis and Matt (Kody taking the picture)

While the boys were gone and my mom was at the USC game, my dad decided to take my sister and I and all the kids out to dinner. We went to Islands. We had a really great time but it was loud and CRAZY (to say the least). It's great to have these fun family memories. My dad is such a wonderful and thoughtful man. We are lucky to have him in our lives! Oh yes, and did I mention that he made me a eggel (egg, bagel, bacon, cheese) sandwich for breakfast on Saturday morning (when Matt was gone). He walked over to my house and had a nice relaxing breakfast with the kids and I. It was like old times. We actually got to sit around and talk for a while. Those are the little things that mean so much to me.

Dinner at Islands

Anything else? Jack is really starting to talk a lot more. He is saying Hello, ByeBye, Mama, Dada, Papa, no, done, Don (for Donald Duck) and a whole lot more, mostly in his own little language. He is such a sweet boy. He can be grumpy but he has this soft, lovable side that I don't remember Emily having. He is very affectionate and caring. But he is all boy. He's rough, loud, strong, active, and did I mention STRONG! He's been sick for the last few days with a high fever but I think, I hope, that it is on it's way down. On Sunday night we were over at my parents house visiting with some old family friends in town from Washington and Jack got his little pinkie finger caught in the door leading out to the garage. It was terrible. He screamed and cried so loud and hard. Honestly, I have never seen anything like that. His finger was smushed all the way together. It was frightening. We rushed him to the ER and they did x-rays and luckily it wasn't broken. I swear, if it's not one thing, it's another around this place.

Emily..... she's just plain hilarious. The things that come out of her mouth. There are days that she is a constant battle but she is such a darling little girl. She is smart, beautiful, loving, and so, so funny. I can't wait to see what she is going to be like at 5, 10, 15, and dare I say 20. She's been up to the same old. Preschool, which is still a constant battle every morning. She likes it when she gets there, it's just hard leading up to it all morning long.

Well, I think that's about it. That's the family update and what's been going on lately. I think that I'm officially caught up.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Halloween 2008

I love all holidays. Halloween included. So does Emily. She talked about it for weeks leading up to it and we even had to make a little countdown ring thing that she could tear off everyday and see it getting closer. I don't like to waste money on a costume that is only going to get wear out of it once but I'm lucky that my daughter loves to play dress up so I know it won't go to waste.
We kicked off our Halloween at Emily's preschool. My mother was nice enough to stay home with Jack so that I could give Emily my undivided attention for a few hours, and undivided attention is heard to come by these days. Emily loved having me all to herself all morning long. They dressed up in their costumes and had a parade around the school. I was for sure that Emily would not participate in it because she can be a little stinker about those things sometimes but she was great. She marched and waved to everyone and had a great time. Then we went inside for some fun Halloween activities, games, and songs. Then we had a party with lots of yummy food and treats. The kids had a wonderful time and were definetly pooped out by noon. Emily decided a long time ago that she wanted to be a witch so I found a really cute costume and she wore that for her parade and class party.


Some kids in her class

That evening we went over to my parents house and carved our pumpkins. Jack and my pumpkins were those stick in Mr. Potato head pieces. That was fun because it was easy and wasn't messy at all. Emily went for the silly face and Matt went for the bat. Matt actually ended up doing most of the work on both of them because Emily refused to stick her hands in the gooey stuff in the pumpkin. She thought that was absolutely disgusting.

The finished products

Then my sister and family came over, we had dinner, and got the kids dressed to go trick or treating. Emily decided a few days before Halloween that she REALLY wanted to be a rock star. She has this guitar that we got her almost a year ago that she has taken a liking too. It has a couple of songs on it that she likes to sing and it is hilarious. She doesn't really know the words so the song comes out how she hears it and it is FUNNY. The day before Halloween I went over to Party City and I thought if I could find a cheap rockstar costume I would get it and they had this one for $5. Can't get much cheaper than that. Jack was Mickey Mouse. He loves Mickey Mouse and Disneyland so I thought this would be perfect for him this year. My sister had the costume from when Blake was this age so I thought it would be perfect. He was a little too big for the costume and uncomfortable the whole time. He looked cute when he kept the ears up and smiled but I couldn't really capture it in a picture. They both enjoyed walking up to the door and saying Trick or Treat and getting their candy. After they would give Emily her candy, she would say, "Thank you and Happy Halloween." If they asked her to play a song, she would sing and play the whole thing for them. It was very cute. We had a great night but the kids were beat after a long day of fun and candy.
The kids before going out trick or treating

School carnival

Blake and Amandas school had a carnival last weekend and it was actually really fun. They had lots of games, a pet zoo (with a camel), hay ride, police car, ambulance and firetruck that you could climb in and all over, and lots more fun stuff. All the kids had a great time. Here are a couple of pictures from the carnival.

Hopefully Jack is never on this side of the law. Behind bars in the police car.


Emily holding a Caterpillar. Yes, her lips are blue. She just got done with a yummy snow cone.