BOSTON
Part 1

James and I headed to Boston to help celebrate the sealing and wedding of Neal and Rachael. While we were there we got to spend some time with the family and see the sites of Massachusetts.

Day 1 Thursday: After taking an all night red eye flight we arrived in Boston early Thursday morning. Right off the bat we got our first experience of Boston. We had to take the train/subway to met Mark, Lois, Neal and Rachael by ourselves. Luckily we figured it out, met everyone and headed back to the city of Boston to met up with the rest of the family. (Rachael's parents, grandparents, and brother from England). All eleven of us spent the day touring the historical sites of Boston. We rode a swan boat in the Commons, saw Paul Revere's house, a few old cemeteries, The Old North Church famous for the "One if by land, Two if by sea," and toured the USS Constitution (oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world). The best part of the whole day was just getting to know Rachael and her family. It was also interesting because we were touring American Revolutionary War Historical sites with a British family. All day we joked back and forth about Americans being traitors and "The British are coming!" Rachael's family are great people and very humorous.

Day 2 Friday: More History and more family time. Today we started out going to Plimoth Plantation. Here we got to see how the plantation and a nearby Wampanoag homesite were run in the year 1627. There were people there role playing what every day life was like during that time. You could even ask questions and they expressed 17th century viewpoints. After Plimoth we took a glance at the Plymoth pebble (Plymoth rock). For some reason I thought it was much bigger more like an unmovable rock formation but I was very wrong. The people of the town call it the Plymoth pebble instead of Plymoth Rock. Of course it did not help that people used to take chunks of it and it is now only half its size. Even then it was a lot smaller than I pictured. Right next the the Plymoth Pebble was the Mayflower II. The Mayflower II is a re-creation of the original. I was amazed to see how small of a space that so many people lived in for so long. My favorite part of the day was when I got to put my feet in the Atlantic ocean for the first time.

Day 3, 4, 5 coming soon!

CONGRATULATIONS NEAL AND RACHAEL!

My First Talk in Primary!
I Mean JOSHUA'S First Talk in Primary!

Because I know we are all children of God I will share the gospel with others. Everyone on earth is a child of God and he wants all of his children to return to live with him again. In order for them to live with Heavenly Father they must first hear the gospel. I need to help by sharing the gospel with others. The first thing i can do is to be an example by following the Lord's commandments. Then i can invite my friends to church and pass out copies of the Book of Mormon. It is important for me and you to share the gospel so that others have the chance to live with our Heavenly Father again.

(When he got his talk last week he was so excited! As soon as he saw me he had to show me and then wanted to go find Daddy. I was not expecting him to be so excited. During the day of his talk I could not get him to speak but once I told him he could go sit down, if he wanted to, he decided he really wanted to give his talk. He did great! I was a proud Mommy!)

Birthday Celebration at the Relief Society Camp Out!

Thanks to my Mom and my sister, Amber I was able to attend the Stake Relief Society Camp Out. It was so much fun! It gave me a chance to get to know a few more of the ladies in the Panama ward and spend some time with some of the ladies from the Silver Creek ward. Apparently we were the wild bunch because we were the last to go to bed. For most of the night we played a game call Sum. I think I hold the record for being the sum the most amount of turns. I guess I'm not very good at the game. Just before we headed to our cabin we stopped by the campfire to see if anyone was there. There was a camp fire but nobody around. We stood around it long enough to prove to everyone at home that we actually went camping, put out the fire, and then headed to bed. When I walked into the mesh hall the next morning I was greeted by a beautiful birthday bouquet of balloons and twigs on our table. Definitely camper style! I was also given a card from everyone in our little group. Somehow the night before they had passed this card around. I had no idea when or how they were able to pull that off. During breakfast I was given a cake which was consisted of two ding dongs. One had 2 candles and the other had six. 26! Other camper style touch. After breakfast we continued our game of scum up until we had to separate for mini classes. We spent the rest of the morning learning how to organize our lives so that we can have more time to relax, spend time with our families, and serve others. It was a great camp out. I loved the chance to get to know some of the ladies of the ward. We need to have another scum night! Lots of fun!

NEW POOL!

A couple of weeks ago the temp here got up to 107 degrees so my parents bought the kids a kiddy pool and spent the day playing in the pool. My kids are water bugs and they would be in that pool every day all day if I let them. They love it and its a nice way to keep cool on these hot summer days.

FUNNY STORY!

After spending half and hour to get the kids down for a nap there was only about 45 minutes left for them to sleep before we had to go and pick up James. I got Eliza and Aubrey up and in the car with no problems. Then it was Joshua's turn. I told him it was time to go and get Daddy.

He picked up his head and said, "I'm not done yet!" Then went back to sleep.

If only he had that attitude when I'm first trying to get him to sleep!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Happy Fathers Day!

Sorry this is a couple of days late! We didn't do much for Father's Day and James didn't even get his present until the next day. We had a nice simple meal and just spend the day together. The kids and I made James a picture puzzle to put on his desk at work. I can't tell you what I got my Dad because we have not given it to him yet. Here are some pictures of the puzzle. There is another picture on the back. The top and bottom say DAD and the sides say 08. I hope everyone else had a wonderful Father's Day as well.

Pictures

I have been meaning to post these photos for a while. They are just a collection of random photos I have taken over the past couple of months.

AUBREY IS 1!

Our little Aubrey is now a year old. I can't believe it. We had a birthday party for her at the Park at River Walk. The theme was ladybugs complete with red table cloths, a ladybug cake, and even our little lady dressed as a ladybug. Thank you to every one who came we had a lot of fun.

Aubrey is now 12 lbs and 13 oz and is 26 inches tall. She is learning how to walk and her longest stroll by herself is three steps. Her favorite words are Dada, Mama, and Duck.

PROUD MOMMY MOMENT!

I know my last post was also about Joshua but I was so excited about this next post. The other day I thought I would just let Joshua color. I told him that he could use anything to color with and he decided he wanted to use a pen. "A pen! Like Daddy!," he said. I left him for a few minutes to go and get something and returned to see that he had written his name all by himself. Up to this point I had been teaching him his letters. We had only done J and O but every chance I get I let him write his name. Normally I help him or let him trace it after I write it. This was the first time he was able to do it all by himself. I was so excited that I had to share!

Mommy and Joshie Time

We have not completely decided if we wanted to start Joshua in preschool yet or not but changed our routine just a little. Every other day during nap time he gets to stay up and spend some time with Mommy. On these days he sets up his fort and reads a few books while I put the girls down for a nap. Then when they are both sleeping the two of us work on learning his letters, colors, shapes, cutting, gluing and just spending time one on one with each. He gets so excited about it. When I tell him that it is time for Mommy Joshie time he grabs a few books and runs to his fort area. I have never seen him sit quietly by himself for so long and when we are working on a project I'm amazed at how long he can focus on something. I'm just loving watching him learn and his face light up when he gets something correct or done. I started teaching him about the letter J and how to write his name and now thats all he ever draws.

On Friday we talked about plants gowning and he got to plant flowers in a pot. He put the seeds in, covered them with dirt, and then watered them. Since then he wants to go out and check his flower to see if it has started to grow yet. I can't wait to see his face when he can see it for the first time. Also that day to give him another reason to practice writing his name he made a sign for his plant. I wrote out his name and then he traced the letters with colored markers. Then we pulled out the chalk and I let him go wild on the patio. Of course all he wanted to do was write his name but I have no problem with that. After a while we traced our hands and then I traced his whole body. He thought that it was so funny he had to trace Mommy as well. Here are some pictures I took of that day.

Having this one on one time seems to be helping a little. Not only can I get him to focus (which I can't do when I have all three at once or even just him and Eliza) but he is misbehaving less. I think he just felt that it was the only way to get my attention. Well if anyone has any good books or activity books that they would like to recommend about preschooling at home let me know! I wish I had more of a curriculum to go off of and I could always use more ideas and activities.

Another Product; More Opinions

I have another product that I need to collect opinions on. Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner. If you can just leave me a comment answering these questions that would be great:

1. What do you think of Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner?
2. Do you use the Automatic Shower Cleaner? Do you like how it works and its effectiveness?
3. If you don't use it would you ever purchase it? Why or why not?
4. Any other comments.

Thanks everyone!

AUBREY UPDATE

After yet another doctors visit and more blood drawn for test the cause of her being so small is still unknown. So far she is seeing her regular pediatrician and a GI specialist who has also now referring her to Endocrinologist. She has had test for a number of different things and some I'm not even sure what they are. Most of the test that were done were to see if she can absorb certain types of food like fat, iron, and protein, to see if her organs are all functioning properly, and also test for certain diseases like cystic fibrosis and celiacs. So far all have these have come back showing that there is no problem which is a good sign but still does not explain why she not gaining any weight. Currently the only test were are waiting for are the celiac disease test, immunoglobulins, and a thyroid test. She now weighs 11 lbs 3.7 oz which is 2 oz less than what she weighed a month ago. Despite being small she is a on the go little girl and has to always be in the middle of whatever is going on.

Joshua Birthday Party!

The plan for the day was to go up to Tehachapi right after church, celebrate Joshua's 4th birthday and my niece Evelyn's 1st birthday, watch the Super Bowl, and then head home. I should have known things were going to turn out differently when my parents called to tell us that we needed to take the back road in. The normal route had flooded over. We made it with no problems and even got to watch as it started to snow. My sister, Amber, got there about an hour later but had to take the low (flooded way) because when it started to snow the back road is not very safe. After dropping Amber off, Andy hurried home because he did not want to get snowed in. At that point we figured that we were staying for the night.

Mom made us a great dinner then afterwards the kids got to eat yummy cake. I made a small cake for each birthday kid. Evelyn's was Elmo and Joshua's was Larry from Veggie Tale's. Both were so excited to see their cakes. Joshua already knew what his cake looked like because he helped me make it but Evelyn got really excited and kept saying Elmo over and over again.

Then we decided to watch the Super Bowl. Half time had just started when all of the sudden all the lights went out. No power! That okay! We still had fun anyway. We let the kids open their presents and spent the rest of the night talking. The power came on again just after midnight or so. During this whole time it continued to snow. I still don't know what caused it though!

When we woke up it felt like we were kids again looking out the window in the morning to see how much snow we got. Sure enough everything was completely covered and it was STILL snowing. We turned on the news to see if we could figure out the cause of the black out only to find that the freeway to get home was closed. So we bundled up the kids and took them outside to play in the snow. I was not prepared at all for playing in the snow though. Luckily Mom still had a bunch of old snow clothes and a box of clothes girl clothes someone had given Amber. We layered those kids with so many clothes and grocery sacks that they could hardly move. They loved the snow. Kory gave them all rides around the yard on a sled, Grandma Nani (G Grandma Dansby) taught them how to make snow angles and then we found a small hill in the empty lot next door to go sledding on. We played outside until the kids got cold and then went in for hot cocoa. James and I went home just after that because James had a list of things he wanted to do at home. It was a fun two days and to think that it all started out as a simple dinner, cakes, and presents.

I NEED SOME HELP PLEASE!

As most of you know Joshua, my 4 year old, is a very active boy. James and I have been debating putting him in preschool. We think that maybe it would help him get some of that energy out (which he usually takes out on the girls in a not so nice way), teach him things he will need to know for Kindergarten, and get him ready for school. I'm still not sure how I feel about preschool. I never went to one but my husband James did. And he is the smart one in the family. I wanted to know what everyone thought and recommended. Also those of you who live in Bakersfield is there any preschools that you recommend or have heard good things about. I need help I don't know what to do!

Just When I'm About to go Crazy....

Just when my kids are about to drive my crazy and I think that they will never again listen to me they surprise me. One day when I was on the phone with my sister I noticed that all of the sudden my kids were just too quiet. I went looking for them to see what trouble they were getting into. Usually quiet means trouble. What I found was a complete surprise! They were both in the kitchen working together to unload the dishwasher for me. My heart just melted and I about bursted into tears. They were not able to do it all by themselves but they were able to put all the silverwear away and stack on the counter what they could not put away. For those of you who do not believe me I have pictures to prove it.

LOOK AT MY NEW FORMAL DINING ROOM!

Okay so its not new its just updated a little. We went from brown paneling to white walls. It sure brightens up the room and makes it look really nice. There are still a few more things to do though but all of those things seem small after building a wall and painting a room.