Family pictures

Well here it is, a picture of my mom when she was 2 years old and a picture of me at two years old. Pretty funny how KK and my mom have the exact same hair. I on the other hand have even more than Aly did! Can you believe all of my hair. Please leave a comment and let me know who you think my children look like. Sorry, I don't have a pic of hubby right now, they are still locked in the safe and I haven't found a key.

Halloween in my teens

I thought some of you might get a kick out of an old picture I found from 1989 when I was only 16 years old. I had just moved to San Jose to live with my Dad a few months prior. When I moved there from WA I was so scared to go to school with all of the "cool" city kids. I knew where I grew up we were totally behind the times. I was so afraid that I would look like such a nerd due to where I came from.



Luckily, my friend Lia whom I met through church, helped me to feel at ease. I was so lucky to have met her and have someone to introduce me around. It really helped me in my transition. I will never forget her and will always be thankful for her friendship.



Anyway, here we are--me as a Hershey's Kiss and Lia as a farmer? Oddly enough we went out Trick or Treating that night. Look how young I looked! At 16 I looked like I was like 12!

Shopping with KK

Well I am finally feeling all better but for some reason I am still run down. I took some B12 to see if it would help me get my energy back. Hopefully that and a good night's sleep if that is possible.

On a positive note the last couple of times I have taken KK to the grocery store or Walmart, she has stayed in the cart the entire time without screaming. I feel like the pain and torture I put the both of us through to train her to stay in the shopping cart finally paid off! Yeah!

I went through pics and found one of each of the girls at around the same age-just around 2 yrs. I thought I would post it to see how similar they look. Aly has sooo much hair. KK is just barely growing hers now. Eventually I want to post pics of me and my mom when we were the same age but I can't find the keys to the fire safe where we keep my baby pics. Wish me luck!

Woo Hoo, finally getting better!

We are finally on the road to recovery. Hubby was able to return to work today and said he feels about 95% of normal. I feel about 85% which I am already so thankful for!

On another note, do you like my new background? My friend Annette worked really hard at getting the html code for it and I love it! We are such a frog family thanks to our daughter Aly.

I have to tell you a quick story about Aly. Sunday night somewhere around 3 a.m. Aly comes into our bedroom and says, "Daddy, can I sleep with you, somebody peed in my bed and it is all wet!" So Daddy says, "who peed in your bed?" She says, "I don't know?" The next morning I ask her if she ever figured out who peed in her bed. She says, "Mom, it was probably KK!." So I said, "But she was asleep in her bed, how did she do that?" Aly says, "She probably just crawled out of her bed, got in mine, peed, and went back to her bed!"

It was so funny because she was actually serious about it, like she thought that could really happen. My take is, either she was soo sound asleep when she wet the bed that she didn't realize it, or she was embarrassed. Very cute!

Muscle illness day 5

Waking up this morning there was a ray of hope that I was on the road to recovery. It was the first day in the last three days that I was actually able to walk down the stairs instead of scoot on my bottom. While I was still in pain it wasn't as severe as the last two days. Hubby stayed home from work today as he was still in some pain as well.

I certainly hope my girls don't get this nor anyone for that matter. It was the most painful sickness I have ever had. Especially with a 2 and 4 year old around that constantly need you to get things for them. The worst part is that KK thinks I am a jungle gym and constantly climbs all over me digging into my inflamed sore muscles making me cringe at her every move.

You know what else comes with being this sick? A completely messy house that once I am feeling better will probably take me a week to get it back to looking normal. I couldn't do laundry, dishes, sweeping, vacuuming, or any cleaning for that matter. It hurt too much. So now, I look at my dirty house in disgust and can't wait to get it clean again. Hopefully tomorrow I will regain some strength and begin the cleaning process.

The illness continues

Well today has been pretty bad as well. Couldn't walk down the stairs, lift a juice container or even put my own bra on. This is killing me whatever it is and it hurts quite a bit to even type this blog. In the interest of those checking I figured I better give an update.

I went to urgent care today, mostly because hubby was home and I could go without dragging the children along. I went and saw a physicians assistant that I didn't really care for. All he had to say was, it's probably a virus, who knows, don't know how long you will have it. I had to ask him if I could get a blood test done.

I went to the hospital to get the test done since they are the only lab open on a Sunday. I asked for a copy of the results--something my step-mom taught me to always do so you are in control of your results. It took over an hour but I was able to get them.

So far the small panel that was done shows me having low white blood cell counts, high red blood cell counts, and high HCT counts. Seams like that is pretty normal when you are fighting off infection.

This is really killing me to type right now. Still don't know what it is. Might go see my regular doctor tomorrow.

This illness is horrible

Oh man, this is my worst day of this crazy illness. When I got up this morning KK wanted me to carry her downstairs. I couldn't even lift her I was in so much pain!!! So I had to come up with a plan because hubby was not available to help. I rested KK on my lap and painfully scooted down the stairs almost crying at each stair I slid down. All of my muscles are killing me and the simplest task is still ever so difficult.

When I got downstairs I placed KK on the couch and went to make her a drink. It was all I could do to lift the juice container. Man I needed that ibuprofen. Even opening the ibuprofen bottle took all of my metal strength to pry the child lock open. It took over an hour for the meds to kick in and today it has only taken the edge off. I am still in pain.

Hubby seams to be doing better today, still in pain but not too bad. I am one day behind him on this sickness so hopefully tomorrow I will start to feel better.

I sooo hope the girls don't get it. I sure wish I knew what it was. Wish me luck feeling better!

Aly's little lies

Since Aly just recently turned 4 I find her little lies still "cute." I know, eventually they won't be but right now it is just so hard to contain myself from wanting to laugh. I guess the latest lies have just been so humorous because they were just so obvious.

Yesterday I made cupcakes for the girls. I left the nearly empty frosting canister on the counter with the spatuala in it. Well, last night she came into the livingroom with frosting all over her face. Here is how the conversation went:

Mommy: Aly, did you get into the frosting?

Aly: No, mommy, I didn't.

Mommy: Are you sure, because I see frosting all over your face. Would you like to start over and tell me what happened?

Aly: (BIG GRIN ON ALY"S FACE) Well, mommy, I went into the kitchen and I saw the frosting on the counter. I really wanted to lick it so I got it and ate some.

Mommy: O.k. Aly but you really shouldn't lie about it. Lying isn't good. Next time tell me the truth.

Aly: O.k. Mommy, I will.

Of course by Friday morning Aly is back into the frosting again and the converstation goes pretty similar to the previous only this time I tell her that she is lying and sneaking and when we sneak something we have to throw it away. So an hour or so later she sneaks the frosting and I have to ask her to throw it away in the garbage. The good news was that this time she told the truth the first time though.

Tv can sure teach alot

So I am sitting at the computer with KK this morning and she is counting coins. In English she usually can count up to 8. So I am sitting here listening to her count in spanish and do you know that she counted all the way to 10! Pretty funny that my daughter can count higher in spanish than english. I know it all comes from her favorite show Dora the Explorer!

Here are a few cute pictures taken of KK yesterday:

weird sickness

Well hubby and I came down with the weirdest sickness. Our muscles are so stiff and sore like we just lifted weights all day! It was so painful we could hardly walk up and down the stairs. The weird thing is we don't have a fever or really any other symptoms. This morning I took an 800mg of ibeprofren---oooh now I feel much better. That is a high dose for such a little body. The only bummer is it makes me sleepy. But, hey, I will take sleepy over pain anyday. Hubby came home early from work too and could barely walk up the stairs. I made him lunch and had him take some ibeprofrin as well. He is resting comfortably as we speak! Hopefully we will feel better soon. I don't want to be taking meds around the clock. I certainly hope the girls don't get it. Aly could probably tell us she is hurting, but I don't know if KK could.

The Reading Game

Just shortly before Alyssa turned 3 she knew all of her letters and sounds. Since then she has began reading three letter words. Well, I have been totally slacking as a mom and haven't been doing any type of reading activities with her. So, today I made a reading game. I wrote 3 letter words out on flash cards. I told her we were going to play a game. For every card she read correctly she got to keep it. If she couldn't read it, I got to keep it! We started out with 9 cards and she read them all! So she asked me to make 3 more and I did. She read those as well. I am so proud of her. When Daddy gets home she is going to play the reading game with him!!!

When Daddy got home she asked me to make more cards so I made 3 more. She played with him and got them all right! At times we do have to help her with the difference between lowercase b and d but once we tell her that she reads the rest of the word on her own!

I am hoping this game will help her learn to read sight words eventually and we can even start working on blending. I am so excited to see her progress. I am glad she is such a motivated learner.

Day 2 and still going

We ended the day with a trip to the beach for some beach combing. Both girls had a lot of fun. Aly loved looking at the tide pools and finding hermet crabs and starfish. KK was happy just picking up rocks and carrying them back and forth.

Here is a picture of hubby and the girls trying to find some sea shells.

After a very long day KK fell asleep in the car. I think she prefered sleeping in the car instead of the tent. Do you know that the next morning when the girls woke up the first thing KK asked for was to go to the car and put on her seatbelt! Both of the girls were so ready to go home. In fact, they both stayed in the car while we packed up camp. We were packed and ready to go by 8 a.m.!

Day2 continued--Ocean World

After spending time at Trees of Mystery we went back to the campsite, ate lunch, and then headed to Ocean World. This was Aly's favorite part ofour trip. When you first arrive you can stand on a surf board and pretend to be surfing. Check Aly out!

We you go inside you enter a giftshop where you need to pay for the tour. Of course they make you wait in the gift shop until your tour guide is ready for you. Wouldn't you know my luck, KK has a poopy diaper just as they are calling our group. I have to go change it so we miss our tour. The next tour is already filled so we have to wait for the following tour after that. We waited 45 minutes in that gift shop for our tour. Yes, we ended up buying the girls something from the gift shop. KK got a plastic dolphin which she calls dolspin and Aly got a stuffed pig. You might be able to see them in the pciture where they are looking at little sharks to pet.

The next parts of the aquarium we got to see different types of rock fish and sharks. Then we headed upstairs to pet somemore sharks. Here was some of my favorite photographic moments. I took some pics of Aly inside a sharks mouth. Check them out!

Finally Aly's favorite part of the whole trip was the seal show. It was a five minute show where they had the seals do various tricks and even slide down a water slide. Both of the girls loved it!!!

Day two, the tourist activities

We left our campsite shortly after 8 to go to Trees of Mystery. This is a place you can tour to see some redwoods and the incredibly large statue of Paul Bunyan. Here is a picture of hubby, Tim, and Amelia in front of the statue.










The next picture is of Aly on the shoe of Paul Bunyan.

During our tour we just had to take a picture of Aly infront of this big redwood tree. Isn't it amazing how small she looks. That is one big tree

Here is a picture of the girls walking on the trail. They had a great time running around. Aly had to always be the leader. KK wanted to run.

The next picture is me giving KK a shoulder ride down the trail. I just thought it was a cute mother/daughter moment.

We took a sky tram to the top. Do you know what was cute about that? Just before we went to the sky tram, Aly made a wish by throwing a coin into a wishing well. She wished that she could fly. When we were on the tram, she said, "Mommy, my wish came true, I am flying!" I thought it was so cute. Here is a picture of the view from the top.

Our trip to Del Norte State Park

Friday morning we left for a very long drive to meet my brother Tim at Del Norte Redwoods State Park which is located 7 miles south of Crescent City California. We left just before 8 a.m. and arrived at the campground at 4:30 in the afternoon. Around 12:30 we stopped for lunch at a rest area on HWY 299. Here is a picture of Aly and Daddy enjoying their lunch at the rest stop.


HWY 299 was a very curvy rd and I don't recommend it. In fact we drove a different route home just to avoid it!

When we reached the campground my brother Tim and sister in-law Amelia were already there. They got there at 2 I think. Anyway here are some photos of our campsite. We really liked the campground and our site that we shared was very private. My brother Tim has the motorcycle and they were doing a long road trip from WA.







I just have to include some photos of our 4 person tent and how crowded the sleeping accomodations were. If you can see the entire tent was sleeping bags with no room to spare. What was even worse was the second night we all ended up sleeping on the double airmattress with the kids sleeping practically ontop of us.










The next set of pictures is our campfire with hubby and Amelia roasting sausages over the fire. The fire was the only thing that kept us warm---it was freezing and I was underprepared!! The other picture is Aly trying to go to sleep in the tent.









If you click on the pictures you can view them larger. I will post day two in a seperate post.

Peanut Butter cookies

Last night we had Aly's friend Nick over for pizza and to help us make some Peanut Butter cookies. This is really the first time I have let go of my control and let Aly make the whole cookie batter all by herself. In the past I would get away with her putting a few ingredients in. Well, this time, Nick and Aly put all of the ingredients in by themsleves. I have to admit I was having control issues and had to seriously remind myself to "let go!" You are probably wondering, what did I want to control? The mess!!! I was afraid they wouldn't make things into the bowl and it would end up all over the place!



The good news is they did a very good job keeping the mess in the bowl. Aly didn't want to crack the eggs so Nick did both. He did a great job too, no shells. The cookies turned out great and of course the kids had too many of them;-)



Since Daddy was playing volleyball Aly had me read her a bedtime story and put her to bed. Apparently it wasn't good enough though and she had to wait up for Daddy. It didn't hurt my feelings, I thought it was cute. The past two weeks or so Daddy has been putting Aly to bed and she has really enjoyed this new routine. It made Daddy feel good when he came home that Aly only wanted Daddy to put her to bed.

KK slept till 6 a.m. in her bed last night. Very nice for me to finally have a complete night of uninterupted sleep. I know I haven't mentioned her sleeping habits for awhile. I was in the process of breaking the sippy cup of juice at night. She would drink a complete cup right before falling asleep, then wake up between 2-3 a.m. and drink a half to another full cup. This was causing her to wet through her dipaer and pj's and I was having to change her in the middle of the night each night. Since that was not working for me I had to change it and I did! It took between 3-4 nights. I just offered her water instead. She didn't like water so she wouldn't drink. Problem solved and I am getting much better sleep now!

FYI if you click on the pictures you can view them larger. Also, I made it so anyone can comment. I would love to hear what you think! It also helps me know that people are reading this. Thanks!

Big Brother 8 Evil vs Good

O.k., I am totally hooked on Big Brother 8. I think I have watched two or three seasons prior to this but this is by far the best!!! I can't believe how much drama goes on in this house. With the high amount of drama, it has me rewinding scenes and rewatching them. It also has me watching them at the time they are recorded instead of waiting until the next day!

Tuesday's episode was soo exciting to watch. Can you believe that Jessica ran right to Eric and blabbed Danielle's plan. I can't believe how the house is already splitting and turning on eachother. It is also amazing to see how people that couldn't stand eachother--Dick and Jen--are now actually having to work together to stay in the house.

After Tuesday's show it was pretty apparent that the house was split. Evil vs good with Zach, Jen, Kail, Danielle, and Dick on the evil team and Eric, Jameka, Amber, Dustin, and Jessica on the good team. This made me really sad because it appeared that the good team had the votes to send Kail home and leave Eric in the house. Personally I am not really a fan of anyone on the "good" team. They all annoy me in different ways. I am actually rooting for Danielle and wouldn't mind if Zach or Jenn won. Jenn, as annoying as she can be, impresses me with her ability to keep her composure during confrontation. I don't know how she does it and I wish I could be as calm and collected as she is.

After reading blogs on CBS I found out that Amber and Eric had a major fight due to trust issues and it appears that Dustin is the only one in the house that wants to keep Eric. So, it will be so exciting to see what happens on Thursdays show.

If you watch this show, please post a comment!!! Let me know who you are rooting for and what you like about this season!! I made it so anyone can comment, I just have to approve the comment before it posts, so please post a comment!

Long Day

Well, these past few days I have been forced to learn to enjoy my new car. The fear is leaving and I am starting to learn the car and the features I like and don't like. I will say, I really do like this whole onstar thing and the ability to make a phone call hands free through the car.

I had to bring my car in already to the dealer for a recall. The good news is they fixed the bolt recall, fixed the nail in my right rear tire, and even washed my car. I was totally stoked about the courtesy car wash because in the short two weeks I had my car, it had gotten totally dusty! Amazing how a clean car can make you feel sooo good.

My girls were not having so much fun at the dealer. I assumed they wouldn't. The children's room there is pretty lame. They only have legos, a bowling set, and a plastic horse. I don't understand why they would paint such a pretty mural on the wall and not have enough things for the kids to do. I knew this from when I bought the car so I had Aly run upstairs and pick a few things from the playroom that she didn't want anymore. Due to lack of time I couldn't put my input in so unfortunately we only ended up donating two "My Little Ponies," and some various small plastic figures. Next time I hope to bring some bigger toys. If they aren't going to supply them, we might as well donate them so that other children can enjoy them. Oh yeah, and they had a tv/vcr combo in the room with only two VHS vides. The Little Mermaid and some other none animated movie meant for older children. So, next time I hope to bring in some VHS videos to donate as well.

After the dealer I had to take the girls to Mcdonald's for lunch. Since my new car rule of no food in the car I had to actually take them inside to eat. The good news for them was that this particular McDonald's had a playland. Not so fun for me, but hey, they had just spent two miserable hours at the car dealers so the least I could do was give them an hour of fun. The hard part was that KK made me absolutely crazy. She kept climbing all the way to the top. Once she passed a few levels I could not see her anymore. So there I am just hoping that she is alright and that none of the crazy school aged boys running around like mad men knock her over. Boy, I tell you, once she is between 3-4 years old I might actually enjoy sitting back at a table and letting them play. In the meantime, it is absolute torture on me---I have no control over what is happening inside the structure and can't know what she is even doing!

See, you are learning more and more about my crazy personality with each post! I hope I am keeping you laughing!

Everyone needs an old car to drive around, don't they?

Well, I can't believe what happened today. Hubby, the kids, and I were in the backyard just playing and all of a sudden we hear one of our neighbors drive up to the house. We go and look and it is our next neighbor down the road named Ed. Anyway, he stops to ask us how we liked our Honda. We told him we liked it, we just outgrew it and needed an 8 passenger car. He asked if we were selling the Honda and we told him we were. To make a long story short, he bought our car. How amazing is that? We didn't even have a for sale sign on it and I had only had it listed on craigslist for a few days. Pretty lucky for me that I had such a quick sale. Hubby thinks it is just easier not to hassle and trade them in at the dealer. Of course I am Ms. Frugal and know how much of a rip off the dealers are so I insist on selling it myself. In the end it paid off because I sold it for 5K for than the dealer would have given me. Just goes to show you, it pays to do things yourself!

So selling this car on the spot like that got me thinking. Now I don't have an older car to drive around when I am going someplace where I know the chances of getting a door ding are huge. Like Friday night when I went to Carrows for dinner, I drove the passport because I knew that the parking spaces are tight and many of the customers have small children that will just push the door open and not be careful. Now I am really wishing I had my Toyota Corrolla back for times like those. I am going to be so nervous now trying to avoid that first door ding and that first scratch. O.k. I know it will happen sometime but you know how hard that first scratch/ding is.

What happened to all of the gentlemen?????

Yesterday after Cameron Park Lake I had to go to Costco. Unfortunately the lake tired the girls out and they both fell asleep on the drive. When I got to the parking lot at costco I turned the car off and rolled down the windows. They both slept for about ten more minutes until the noisy car next to us left. Then Aly woke up so I decided to go ahead and go shopping.

Unfortunately KK did not want to wake up. Costco doesn't provide those shopping carts with the infant seats so I had to carry my 25 lb girl around in one arm while pulling/pushing a cart with the other. This was o.k. for the small stuff, but when it came to the large items I was in for a battle.

I was in shock when I was trying to move a case of water underneath my cart with my little toddler on one shoulder, and my other arm and legs pushing the case of water under the cart. There was a family behind me waiting for their turn. After putting the first case under, I tried to put a second case. This one wasn't going so well. The woman behind me told her husband to help me with the water. He did after her direction but not on his own accord.

The next heavy item was the 40lb bag of dogfood. Once again my toddler was on my left shoulder and I am tugging with my right arm and pushing with my knees trying to get this bag to fit ontop of the water cases. Yes, you guessed it, when I was almost finished, another wife told her husband to help me with the dogfood.

Just so you know these weren't the only men in the area. Other men without their wives would wander by and not offer help. I know why. Becaue I am NOT a HOT GIRL!!!! I am telling you, if I was a hot girl, men would have been rushing to my aide. All I could think of was this would be a good test for one of those candid camera shows.

The candid camera show could put a "Hot Girl" with nothing in her hands--no sleeping toddler, and have her attempt to lift a heavy item. A few isles down, candid camera could show an average mom with a sleeping toddler in her arms struggling to get the heavy items in the cart.

How much do you want to bet that the hot girl wouldn't even have to actually touch the item? She would already have men flocking to her side lifted the item with a grin and probably asking to accompany her on the rest of her shopping trip to help with anymore heavy items. Or the drooling man will secretly follow her and just happen to be in the right place the next time she needs something heavy lifted.

Meanwhile, the poor women with the sleeping child is sweating trying to move the items into her cart in whatever crafty way she can manage. The only aide coming from other sensitive women, directing their husbands to offer a hand.

I will say, women rock!!! Do you know towards the end of my shopping trip, one mother left her cart with her husband and children and came and pushed mine for a few mintues until KK woke up. Just goes to show, women have more compassion over men---and actually "get" how difficult it can be to do a costco run alone.

Cameron Park Lake

Well, yesterday was an incredibly busy day for me. I am currently getting my Honda Passport ready for sale so I had a few "car" errands to run before taking the girls to Cameron Park Lake.

I left the house at 8:40 and didn't get home until 5:00 p.m. Way too many errands for these poor little girls, but with gas prices the way they are, and me living a minimum of 18 miles from most of these errands, I have to get as much done as possible.

The girls had a blast at Cameron Park Lake. We met a friend there who has two boys close in age to the girls. Her eldest son is Nathan who will turn four in Septmember. Her youngest son is Jordan who will turn two in January.

The minute we got to the lake part, KK started running like a crazy lady right to the shore. Before I could get all of my stuff down she was already thigh high deep in the water. This had me petrified so I am chasing after her with all of my clothes on. Luckily I had capris on and I just rolled them up. Once I got KK back I changed her into her swimsuit and changed myself as well. I put her in a lifejacket and got Aly in her suit with her waterwings.

Within minutes KK had her first headfirst plung on the day. Of course I was within arms reach of her so I pulled her out of the water. This pretty much happens everytime we go to the water. The good news is it humbles her and makes her more cautious around the water. So the remander time she spent sticking to me like glue.

It was really fun to watch Aly play with Nathan. It used to be that she was the bossy little girl that would tell everyone what and how they were going to play. She is learning to change this behavior and take turns. It was fun to watch her listen to Nathan's ideas for play and do what he wanted to do. I actually only heard him directing the play the whole time and her following. It was nice to see him in an assertive role as well. He used to just do whatever Aly said so I am glad he is sticking up for his needs as well. This is a good teaching tool for Aly to learn to get along with others.

I had a great time with the girls there. Unfotunately since Annette and I were so busy watching the kidoes we didn't get much time to chat. I would love to go back with hubby sometime. Hopefully he will be up for it before the lake closes in September.