Sacramento Trip

I would say the most exciting part about going to Sacramento was visiting Janay AKA: Sister Koutz. We were companions on Temple Square during the Olympics and had SO much fun together. I think we knew each other in the pre-existance.


Here's Kennedy with "Uncle Ralph". We went to a Mongolian Bar-b-que restaurant with him, Quintana and Patricia. Such good food!! You fill up your bowl with uncooked meat, noodles, and whatever else you want in your stir fry and they cook it in front of you. Yummy! Here Kennedy was watching Ralph eat with chop sticks so she did the same... with straws:) For all she understood Ralph was eating with straws.

Bumbo Recall

The deal with Bumbo chairs according to Liz Pollock:

From what I understand the Bumbo was recalled because kids were falling out of them... Here are the facts:
1. If your child can stretch hard enough to fall out, they are TOO BIG to be in the Bumbo anyway
2. If your child is using the Bumbo as advised, stretching out and falling out would add up to a fall about an inch off the floor, not enough for any physical damage.
3. The box and directions say for use on the ground, not for use on 4 foot high counter tops above a tile floor.
4. NOTHING available at Target, Babies R Us or Wal Mart will babysit your kids. Believe you me if there were such a product day cares would be out of business.
So mom's out there... it's your own fault your kids fell. Just admit it and move on.

*I have made countless dinners with MacKenzie sitting in her Bumbo on the counter and not once had a problem. And Every time I put her up on the counter I knew I was wrong in doing so, however she never fell. I did however catch Kennedy's sock on fire because she was sitting too close to the gas stove. Opps! She's fine. Didn't feel a thing thanks to my super fast reflexes :)

**After reading this you may never want me to watch your kids... totally fine and I'm not offended.

Older Sisters

Who gets to have pink hand-me-downs... any little boy that has older sisters :) My brother has 4 older sisters which would explain his favorite pink snow boots he wore ALL the time and his pretty purple bike. Grayson may be able to relate one day. For now he has no idea he will be sitting in a pink bumbo chair for part of his life.


The girls love their baby brother. Kennedy wakes up in the morning and "needs" to see him first thing. Sometimes I get out of the shower and there she is lying next to him on my bed "petting" his head.

Reading level

I was just thinking the other day how much I enjoy writing and used to LOVE writing for my high school newspaper. I guess 4 years of college with no actual degree pays off in the long run. Now I can say, "no, I don't have my bachelor's, but my blog was rated genius". That'll show 'em!

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All locked up

The kids love getting in the dog kennel. Usually it's MacKenzie, but this evening she was happier shutting the gate on Kennedy:)

MacKenzie as we know her. I have not gone anywhere but to church these past few weeks.

And the kids look so cute all dressed up! Grayson is almost a month old can you believe it?

We're all a little creative

The girls are creative in their ability to locate and get into any form of sugar. At first it was MacKenzie getting into the actual sugar, now she goes for the chocolate! I thought the girls were watching a movie.. they were, just with a little refreshment:)

MacKenzie was the mastermind, but has learned from Kennedy that if you're gonna do something you shouldn't, invite your sister to join in.

About a year ago Summer Adams introduced my to vinyl lettering. It is sooo fun and now my step mom has a cutting machine!! At Thanksgiving I printed out a bunch of letters and here is what I put together this morning.

Blessing Day

Here we are on blessing day and we all made it to church early and all dressed although Kennedy's hair I thought would look better than it looked when she got out of the car. Oh well. Grayson is so lucky to have so many family members around him. There were 8 family members in the priesthood circle giving him the blessing. What a lucky guy to be surround by so much power :)


Auntie Katelyn and little Grayson. He loves his aunt and was a pretty good sleeper for her. The girls love her too and I love when she comes to visit and helps get them ready for bed when the day is over. Tonight she got them in the bath and in their jammies! Thanks Katelyn!

Just Grayson

He looks like.... well you tell me. He's just a cute little boy. He is very good. He took his first big trip to Fresno and then he went to Barstow with me to look for a house. For those who don't know yet, we're movin to Barstow!!! Yes I'm excited about it, but we've decided to live in Helendale. It's a little drive, not bad, and half way between Barstow and Victorville.

Anyway about Grayson, he sleeps pretty good so far. He does get up every 2 hours or so to eat and poops like a champ! That's about all he can do right now. We'll keep you updated!

Tea party

Kathy bought the girls this Disney princess tea set for when we got home from the hospital. She tried teaching them to hold their pinky up while pretending to drink. I didn't think Kennedy was listening, but the next day she brought me a tea cup and told me to take a drink with my pinky up! So cute!

Pennie's birthday was the day before Thanksgiving so we celebrated with banana cake.

The next morning she went digging for her other gifts. Her sister and brother-in-law got her a bag of rocks!!! Here my dad and Kennedy are showing how you dump them in the bucket of water to separate the heavy and lighter rocks...

Then you pick through the left overs to find sapphires! I just went out to take pictures, but it looked like so much fun. So now you know... the next time you don't know what present to buy for someone, just give them a bag of rocks! :)

Grayson Wood Pollock

So we changed the name a few days ago, but what's having a baby without throwing a curve ball at people once in a while. He came out at 1:49am Saturday, Novmber 10th. I had to be induced, but once they hooked me up he started coming. Guess he just needed a "jump start".


I am a HUGE fan of epidurals and anything else that gets rid of any type of pain, thus the big smile. Kathy took me into the hospital and Dad and Pennie were not far behind. Now I couldn't believe it, but my dad was there for the whole birth!!! He usually doesn't even come in the door of the hospital. He's turned over a new leaf in his new married life! That or Pennie threatened him with his life :)

Dr. Klis got to deliver Grayson. The delivery went something like this, "Ok push... ok stop!" That's as long as my pushings last, but this guy came out a true cowboy with his lasso wrapped around his neck. He was totally blue and purple, but Dr. Klis and the nurses got him breathing quickly and then the cries and the nice pink skin. What a relief to hear him cry nice and loud.

Here we are hours later. Grayson let us sleep for a good 2 hours or so and then off and on in the morning. What a good boy.

And he is sooo cute. One of these days he'll open his eyes!

9 Days over due

Thanks Khristie for the totally cute pumpkins!!! I got home from the Dr.'s office yesterday VERY upset that I was told the night before that I would most likely have the baby Thursday morning. Well it's Friday and still no baby. I wouldn't mind so much if the Dr. would've just told me out right "look, you're not having the baby until you are at least 10 days over." No instead everyday this week I've been told maybe tomorrow or probably tomorrow. Don't tease hormonal pregnant ladies!!! The truth is what we want to know!!! Anyway back to these cute pumpkins, they were waiting for me when I got home from the dr. MacKenzie can't hold enough at one time :)


Here we have Kennedy helping with the dishes. She is very good at taste testing all cupcake and cookie dough before it goes in the oven. Heaven forbid we give out treats that do not meet her standards!

Costume Party!

The witch invited the skunk and bumble bee to a costume party at one of her schools. The girls loved dressing up in their Halloween costumes or "cost-cooms" as Kennedy calls them. MacKenzie is such a ham even when she's not dressed up, but with her little bee on she was running around everywhere and it was soo cute. At one point of the evening I looked over and she was getting nachos from a total stranger! We're gonna have to watch that girl. She has no fear and loves to entertain others.

Victoria Beckham

... not a chance, but a friend at church asked me if I knew who she was upon seeing my new do a few weeks ago. Talk about feeling super good about myself! Since the baby has yet to come, and he's not due for another week but that's beside the point, I decided I could at least have my hair colored more fall-winter than summer. So my sister-in-law Laura came over to watch the kids this morning while I got my hair done.

AND... I have a great story about my new sunglasses you see here. I bought a pair of Smith sunglasses about 7 years ago mainly because I just liked them. I had them all through my mission and married life so far and finally decided the frames were fading in color and was going to throw them away and get a cheap new pair. UNTIL... Justin told me all Smith sunglasses have a lifetime waranty. I e-mailed them and asked what to do and here I have a fancy new pair of sunglasses for free!!! Moral of the story, by a good pair of sunglasses with a waranty and then don't lose them :)

Here's a side hair shot. For those of you who don't know my hair type it's THICK! I'm not kidding. It took a good 15-20 just to blow dry it in the mornings. Now I can fix it all in about 10 minutes or less!!! I love the spikey back and long front. Thanks to my sister Rebecca for guiding me into the world short dos :)

Cinderella

I read recently, "Cinderella is proof that a new pair of shoes can change your life." Now with our shoe story... MacKenzie has WIDE feet. I have been everywhere looking for shoes that fit her now that she's walking. I've been to Target, Wal Mart, Ross, Marshalls, Kmart and Payless Shoes and no shoes that are wide enough for her for everyday use. So I realized after all the looking I would need to go to Stride Rite. Well today was our big shoe buying day. I took MacKenzie into the store with only socks on because we were going to leave the store with a new pair of shoes that fit, and here they are...


Almost $50 later we found the cutest pair of leather shoes ever! I love them, but can't believe how expensive it is going to be to keep this girl in decent shoes... but what do you do? I guess I can pray summer comes soon and she'll love flip flops :)



Meanwhile, non related, but yesterday we carved our big pumpkin. Yes it will be gross by the time the 31st comes around, but Justin has to stay in Sacramento next weekend to get gassed... Don't know the specifics, but I'm sure we will find out later. This past Friday he experienced the feelings of pepper spray and for those of you wondering, he doesn't recommend it. Apparently you either laugh or cry... he laughed. Some of the other cadets in the academy didn't appreciate his laughter. Ask him about it sometime and you'll get a very entertaining story! :) All I know is when I picked him up in Bakersfield Friday night his eyes were VERY puffy!

Ahh, the spa...

Now that the pool is WAY too cold to get in, not to mention leafy from all the wind, we "need" to get the spa up and running. The girls and I feel very spoiled having the pool AND spa right at hand, but hey... we don't want either to feel unused :)


Here's Lucas and Kathy scrubbing out the inside making sure it's all clean. Lucas is from Germany and didn't quite understand when Kathy and Bruce told him it was time to go out and clean the spa. Kathy used other words like jacuzzi and hot tub and then he said, "whirlpool?" It's funny to hear the words he comes up with that help him understand English.


Kennedy was helping too which means she was walking around looking at everything. At one point she found some cleaning whipes and started cleaning the outside of the spa. Very cute.


We just tried to keep MacKenzie occupied so she wouldn't get into the cleaning supplies. She wants so badly to do exactly what everyone else is doing. The little car did hold her attention for a little while though.


"Hey Lucas, gimme some candy if you're gonna steal my toy!"

Baby Shower

I forgot to have pictures taken, but our foreign exchange student Lucas was there and happened to take a few pictures, so here's one. Anyway we had a baby shower out here in Derby Acres and I was going to be happy if a hand full of people showed up, but there were almost 30 people there! It was a fantastic turn out and all the gifts were totally appreciated and welcomed! One of the reasons I wasn't sure if anyone would come had to do with the invitations. We didn't get them mailed out on time and then last Monday was Columbus Day, so no mail was going out then either... I ended up hand delivering a bunch of invitations in Taft and mailed late ones to Bakersfield. My Fresno family may be sad they didn't get invitations, but it was largely due to the fact it would've been a 5 hour round trip drive? I wouldn't do it unless it was siblings. So there you have it. My big wish for the day was to get clothes for this little boy in my tummy.... turns out he now has his own dresser FULL of clothes! Thanks to all my friends and family. Oh, I didn't even mention the food... SO GOOD! Pennie, step mom, is a party food queen and come up with the perfect luncheon menu. It was all gone by the end of the shower. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by people who care and are just as excited as we are that this little boy in coming into the world! Thanks everyone!

Pumpkins

We went to the "pumpkin patch" and the girls loved it! Last year, you can look it up in the older posts, we got a pumpkin that was never carved :( We have higher hopes this year of actually making jack-o-lanterns.


Kennedy spots all pumpkins as we drive around town. She and MacKenzie were so cute the guy at the stand gave up 2 small pumpkins after we bought a big one.

Spiders and more

Yesterday I found a black widow in my bathroom. Scary, I do not like black widows. I don't mind other spiders, but I always think the black widows will bite me. I killed it just fine by spraying it with good old hairspray and then smashing it with the hairspray bottle. THEN... last night Kennedy told me she saw a bug in the bath tub as I was filling up the water. I knew she was telling the truth, but couldn't see anything so I ignored her. I put both kids in the tub and then I saw it..... a scorpion! Just swimming around in the water right next to MacKenzie! I calmy got MacKenzie out as Kennedy screamed at the top of her lungs. She likes bugs, just not in her bath. I called for Bruce and he came to the rescue with the Go Diego Go sippy cup. Very appropriate for the occasion. He scooped it right out and we went about our business. THEN... a dead bird was found at the neighbors house. Tested positive with West Nile virus! So if we don't get biten by black widows, poked by a scorpion we might get West Nile. So sweet dreams :)

Quick visit from Utah

My sister and her family came to California for the weekend and we met up with them as they passed through Bakersfield. We love seeing them even if it's only for a short time. Here are Sierra and Jordan.


And Camden. Justin loves that everytime he sees Camden he is informed of how old he is.


It was Roger's birthday and we even got him a present for the first time... ever. He especially liked the pink bag it came in :)


Here's Kennedy with her partner in action Hayden. She was so excited to see him, but didn't understand why we weren't going to his house after lunch.


Justin, Brenden and Hayden. AKA: our skin heads


It seems like I fix my hair, look in the mirror and then when I leave the house this is what I look like? Totally chubby and pregnant? Hmmm... Rebecca was totally fine with that :)


MacKenzie just wanted to drink everyones soda. You can't see it, but there were 4 sodas at her reach and she tested all of them for quality. They were good. I don't know why, but that reminds me of the time Kennedy was 4 months old or so and we went to Arizona with Roger. As I got in the car during one of our rest stops I found Roger feeding Kennedy french fries and a frosty I think. She loved it! First time moms don't think to do fun things like that.

A Day @ the Beach

We went on a trip to Ventura with the grandparents, foreign exchange students and Justin's academy buddy Starky. The kids got to play in the sand and find crabs while I lounged around and Justin kayaked and skim boarded. Beautiful weather!! Couldn't have asked for a better day at the beach. While traveling home we heard Utah received snow the same day.


Kennedy loves the beach. She was busy all day getting sandy and running around, but don't try to get her in the water! "It's too cold".


Justin and Starky went WAY out into the ocean and came back without tipping over once. They looked like pros... might be all that PT time in Sacramento.


Look at that little baby. She's soon going to be the middle child. Ohhh.. at least Justin and myself will be able to relate to her being middle children ourselves :)