Stinson Beach

A couple of Saturday’s ago Joel had a great Idea to take the girls to Stinson beach and have a picnic. The drive there is beautiful, however it has the windiest road that goes on and on and on for about 20 minutes. It really makes you dizzy. The day could not have been better, it was gorgeous weather, blue skies, no wind and was 65 degrees. The picnic area was great. We ate lunch then headed out to the beach. The girls had so much fun. They immediately ran toward the waves, Clark however, was a fready cat and every time the waves got to close he would run away really fast. A couple of times he was trying to run to fast he biffed it and ate the sand it, was really funny. We stayed for almost 3 hours just playing and all the kids had a wonderful time.

Clark found a pool of water on the beach and decided to take a dive. Good thing we were just about to leave. He was so heavy with all those wet clothes on, so we stripped him to his diaper and I took off running to the car.

Daddy made the girls into Mermaids and they loved it. Lily said" I am a Mermaid finally" then she broke free and stood up and said " and now I am human again."

KALEE'S BIRTHDAY

I finally got these pictures from Joel’s camera at Kalee’s birthday party back in October. It took forever to get them on the blog but I thought I would post them anyway since they are so cute. Kalee had a Hannah Montana party with her friend from school and the ward they had a great time.

When Joel went to go get the cake he was on the way out of the store and he tripped. There is a thumb print on the bottom, right smack in the middle.

A Very Merry Christmas

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you know how our holiday went. Christmas eve was wonderful. We spent the whole day together as a family, well almost. I had a few last minute gifts to pick up that morning, ya ya I know I waited till the last minute, but you all know my motto...dont do today what you can put off till tommorrow J/K. In this case there was no tommorrow. After I got home we ordered in some pizza and sat down played some games with the kids. After Clark went down for a nap we all made gingerbread houses. I think me and Kalee's is the best, but Joel disagrees, he thinks his is far more structuraly sound. I just told him that is not something engineers really consider in gingerbread land and its all about the display. Later that night we had dinner, ice cream and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Before the kids went to bed we let them open their traditional Christmas eve present. I dont think they have caught on yet that they get the same thing every year, pajamas. We wrote a note to Santa and left him some brownies and some carrotts for the reindeer. Joel told Kalee that Santa prefers brownies. You could tell the kids were pretty excited and it took them a while to get to sleep. Joel realized he did not wait long enough when Lily wondered in while he was watching TV and eating Santa's brownies. Joel just told her he was hungry and together they put some more on the plate and put it back by the fireplace. It was very cute.

Christmas morning was pretty much what you would expect. The kids were up an at em' at 0600 so we got a pretty early start on the day. We opened up stockings and presents and I made Joel his tradiotional waffle breakfast. Later that day we had Grandma and cousins over for our ham dinner. It was fun, but a lot of work. Don't you miss the days when Christmas was relaxing and all you had to worry about was what toys to play with in which order. We did webcam with Joel's family and the kids got to show off their toys. Kalee and Lily love their Geselle wedding dressups, karoake machine, Hannah Montana guitar, Easy Bake oven, and a whole lot more. Clark loves to destroy his train set and likes all his trucks and planes. We are considering Joel's lapotop he got for his deployments his Christmas gift and Joel gave me the sweetest gifts this Christmas when he did the 12 days of Christmas to me.

This morning we decided to get up early to get a new Christmas tree. We hit the stores early and found some good deals. I got my tree and Joel stocked up on a couple thousand more lights, and some lawn light up decorations. He is out of control. He told me he was going to buy more, but he is running out of outlets, so we should move to a house that has more. We are now just going to try and take it easy for a few days to recoup from the nonstop action lately.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and have a happy new year!!!!

Oh, and the story with the video at the bottom is that when Joel's family came out and visited us recently, Joel showed them all his plane. Terry having the Bragg family...problem, had to use the restroom and couldn't make it to the building, so Joel opened up the bathroom on the plane. We thought it would be nice to get her something to commemorate the event.

Its the most wonderful time of the year!

You know, it just comes quicker every year that goes by. It seems like just a year ago Joel and I were celebrating our first christmas together, and now we have a bunch of kids. As you can tell Joel has a bit of a problem. If there were a christmas lights anonymous group, I would sign Joel up. We all love this time of year, even though we miss the snow and ambience it creates. Quite a bit has gone on since I last posted. Joel's parents and Lindsay came and visited us. It was tons of fun and the kids loved having thier grandparents and auntie come and play. Joel's best friend Grant also came and stayed with us for a few days. Those two are a bunch of goofs. We celebrated Thanksgiving at Grandma's house here in California, we all had a good time and overindulged ourselves as customary. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to the midnight showing of Twilight with a bunch of friends. I didn't get home until 3 that morning...but hey, you have to make sacrfices for these vitally important events. The movie was good, but I think they could have made it better. Joel likes to make fun of me for it.

Here is a couple of pictures of us decorating our tree. After 8 years of dedicated service, I am proud to say that this will be the last year for this tree. Its been a wonderful tree and withstood many a batterings by overexcited children.

I forget to say that on the 11 of November I got to go up in a KC-10! The did a spouse flight and it was pretty cool...atleast when I was able to get in the cockpit and the sit in the back of the airplane and watch them refuel. I am amazed at what Joel does. I have no idea how he keeps all those buttons straight.

I found this in our camera...thought you might enjoy!

Halloween

It's a wee bit late! I hope everyone had a spook tackler Halloween! We went to a Halloween party hosted by our friends they did a wonderful job putting it together. We are so glad we were invited. Thanks for all your hard work it was amazing they went all out with decorations and food prep it was very cute and creative. We had lots of fun and way too much to eat. Then the kids went trick or treating with about 20 other kids from the party it was Hilarious to watch. I don’t know where kalee learned this song but as she and a couple other kids were walking they were singing “trick or treat smell my feet give me something good to eat, if you don’t, I don’t care I’ll pull down your underwear. I thought it was very funny. We had to have a little talk about how we didn’t say those things. After I stopped laughing that she was singing that in the first place. Kalee was the silver mist fairy I glittered her all up and she loved it. Lily was a cutest witch I have ever seen, then again I am biased. Clark was a pilot just like his Daddy and a cute one at that. Clark wore Joel’s work patches he was so hansom.

JOEL'S HOMECOMING

Joel got back from his deployment. The kids and I were so excited to have him come home. He was just about the last one off the plane, I guess pilots get off last anyway. I barley recognized him, his hair was buzzed and he had lost some weight (not that he need to lose any) but gained some muscles! I was so glad to see him walk of that plane. It is amazing knowing that we have the missing part of our family back. He looked really good, and he had the biggest smile, which made it so much easier not to cry. It was so great to see how happy he was to see us. I had imagined just running and jumping in his arms but that didn’t happen, his squadron was there to greet him and they were all lined up. He was about to shake the someone’s hand when the girls cut them off and ran and jumped in daddy’s arms, it was so precious. He got back on October 21St, I made his favorite cookies and had all his favorite meals on hand to make. We have adjusted to him being home and vise versa. Clark went to daddy but was a little skeptical at first, however after just 2 hours of being with him he is now attached and has been ever since. He loves his daddy very much! We have just been spending time together as a family and that’s why no blogging has been done. I’ll try to keep up from now on.

BIG 30!!!

Happy Birthday to me! Yesterday I turned 30! Everything changed overnight I have to wear depends when I go to bed. I have days of the week medicine holders, HOT FLASHES galore! Oh wait that's when you turn 50. Ha!Ha! I so crack myself up. Really I don't feel any different maybe a little more tired. One of my friends took me to lunch at Johnny Carino's Yummy! Thanks Ginger. Another friend watched my kiddos why I did that Thanks Kim. It was a great day Until 6:00 when Kalee threw up all over. Poor girl I hate it when the kiddos get sick. Speaking a medical problems everyone just knows how I just love throwing up.... well I had to do a colonoscopy and also do the one where the go down your throat. The Doctors thought I had an ulcer. it turns out that I don't have a ulcer which is good, I also don't have colon cancer which is even better, however my stomach did have some problems and they are waiting for the test results the Doctor is almost positive that I have some kind of bacterial bug and it will only go away with a double antibiotic that you take for 14 days. So if that is the case the problem with be fixed no more pain and no more throwing up all the time! Horray! Anyhow if turning 30 means all these medical problems I sure don't want to get any older. Oh and did I mention the prep part I had to drink 84 ounces of this salty tasting liquid in 4 hours it was disgusting I honestly don't know how I did it, then the rest of the day your in the bathroom every 5 mins. It was a good thing it was conference. I hope I never have to do that ever again. The procedure was cake I was in an out in an hour and a half. I will leave on a good note Joel's wonderful Grandma and His Aunt Jan Had a birthday party for me since Joel wasn't around. They made a yummy dinner of Stuffed potatoes, tri-tip steak so delicious, and jello, broccoli cassrole, garlicbread. It was all very good. Aunt Jan made me Boston cream pie my favorite it was so yummy! Thanks ladies!


My little cuties playing in the leaves at Great Grandma's House.
I couldn't get them to look at me at the same time! This is the only picture I could get of Lily she wouldn't sit still long enough to even pose. They all had so much fun playing in the leaves.

DOUBLE TROUBLE!!!!

We all know how Lily gets these great ideas! well last Thursday after Gymnastic we got home about 6:15 we have a buffet night because we get home so late. Lily wanted top ramen so I put it in the microwave. while It was cooking I was helping kalee with her last math problem I hear the timer go off and before I could even go to take it out Lily tries to do it herself she starts screaming bloody murder. The hot glass bowl is broken on the floor with it's contents all over the floor and Lily I had every emotion running threw me I was worried, panicked, angry, terrified. this all Happened in about 2 sec I grabbed lily, Clark, and kalee took Lily to the bath filled it up with cold water and ice while she is shivering like nothing else she soaked in that for about 15 mins. It is a good thing I had the burn cream from what happend with Clark I covered her in that from shoulders to toes. the next morning everything looked cleared up except her knee which was black with blister ect. and the lower part of her leg was a burn mark but not bad. It looked like a 3rd degree burn. I put more burn cream on it and wrapped it and have been doing that ever since the picture that you see I took today which is almost a week later. she went to the Dr today and it's healing well she will have a scare of course however it is only a really bad second degree burn which is a good thing. On a ligher note She made the Doctors laugh because she really is a talker and when they would ask her quesions she would answer them in her most serious voice and say I am 4, I want a dog, I burned myself, I am in double trouble, I quess you had to be there but she really is a cutie. Oh and another thing I haven't blogged about the Primary program was 2 weeks ago and it went splendid! the kids did great! they sang all the songs even the ones I taught them. imagine that me helping people to sing who would've ever thought. Until the next accident.......I am almost certain we will meet again very soon.