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 :)

Back from Italy

My brother just came back from his mission in Italy 2 weeks ago and we went to Fresno to visit and... forgot the camera!! No pictures, but we had such a fun time visiting again. It's funny, he was gone serving for 2 years and when I first saw him at the airport it was like a twlight zone feeling. Then after dinner and visiting it was like the 2 years was nothing! He is still my brother. Same personality with different ambitions.

The girls love him. When Kennedy saw his name tag at the airport she said, "missionary!" So smart.

Justin likes all the ties he brought home. I want to say he had at least 50 ties shipped home and about 30 more in his suitcase. We thought about stealing just one, like Benjamin would notice, but couldn't bring ourselves to steal from a missionary going through culture shock. Maybe in a few months :)

Jump, JUMP!!!

She's not afraid of heights at all... maybe she'll be daddy's lil' diver. Yesterday Kennedy decided to climb up the diving board, but it was MacKenzie that crawled right out to the edge and started bouncing! Couldn't believe it but I could at the same time. She is so funny.


"Look at me mom! I can do it!" And was I worried... no. The water is a whole lot more fun than falling off onto the cement.

Tagged

Okay I know Alyssa tagged me back in July and now that's it's September I am finally writing the 7 facts about be. I've been putting this off trying to think of something clever but that's just not happening. So here we go with the facts...

1. I get up between 6:30 and 7:00 am every morning even though I can't hear MacKenzie, and there she is... sitting in her crib just waiting for me to get her out of bed.

2. I take the girls swimming almost everyday more because it relaxes me than because they have a strong desire to be in the pool.

3. I currently live in the middle of nowhere and I kind of like it. It takes 10 minutes to get to Taft which has an Albertsons and Kmart. Other than that Bakersfield is a 45 minute drive away where we go almost once a week to go to Costco, Target and visit Kendra or my brother and sister in law.

4. Speaking of Target, I much prefer Target to Wal Mart. The thought of squeezing through the tiny isles of Wal Mart getting shoved by the other costumers gives me anxiety. Plus my favorite cheapest diapers are Target brand. So there you have it. I just wish Target had a craft section like Wal Mart.

5. I LOVE taking naps with the kids in the afternoon. If I can hold both of them off until 12:30 we can all nap for a good 2 hours!

6. After this baby is born Justin and I have decided to wait about 3 years to have more, or we'll be done.

7. We have not firmly concluded on the full name of this soon to be little boy. Christian ______ Pollock. I thought it would be fun to have the middle initial to be H. With Kennedy we weren't that funny, but MacKenzie's initials are MVP so the other night I thought, CHP. =)

There you have it and now I get to tag others.... how about Kendra, Erica and Tricia!

Sisters

These two did such a good job last month traveling in the car. No dvds and yet they made it 5 hours to the moutains for camping. Then they made it 6 hours to St. George for the night and then another 5 hours to Eagle Mt., Utah (near Provo) where we stayed for a week at my sisters house. After our visit to Eagle Mt. we went to Logan before coming back home. What a drive!! And here they are just after all that. All I can say is fruit snacks and candy can solve anything!

Kennedy's first boyfriend

Kennedy loves my dad's next door neighbor Stephen. It all started a few months ago when we were house sitting and she needed to go outside to play with the kids. Well Stephen is sooo good with her and she loved it. Now everytime we go visit she always asks where he is and if we see him outside we tell her and she runs to the door. Here he was trying to wash his mom's car and Kennedy took it upon herself to "help" him.

Camping in Mammoth

Here I am with the kids and Bruce and Kathy in Mammoth. They have been camping there every year for the past 10 years or so, but it was the first time I have joined them. I used to go back packing and camping years ago and didn't realize how nice it was to be back to visit the Sierra Nevadas for a little while. It was beautiful and relaxing up there and we will definately be going back now that I know the girls LOVE camping!

MacKenzie couldn't get enough dirt on her. She needed to have dirt all over her and in her mouth at all times!

Kennedy was "helping" to get wood for the fire. She also liked "helping" throw things into the fire.

Yes I am 7 months pregnant and camping which would not be happening if my in-laws didn't have a 5th wheel. It makes tent camping less desireable.

At the end of the day the girls needed some serious bathing. Nothing like a bath in a rubbermaid tub!

Watch MacKenzie swim

Both the girls are fish, but Kennedy wasn't cooperating with the camera. So here's Aunt Heidi demonstrating what the girls and I do out here everyday (except Sunday). They stand on the step.


Go for a swim.


And then I pick them up. People totally freak out when they see the kids swim, but what else would they be doing? Maybe some day I'll open a swim school.