Baby names, can't ever find one.

Girls are always so hard for me, but I couldn't stop laughing at this one:

Lakinzi. I guess it's not as bad as Kermilda. I haven't found a girl name I like yet.

The favorite boy names so far are Parker and Morgan.

Even if Morgan is also considered a girl name.

It's Christmas time in the desert

I finished these stockings just in time for Santa to come tomorrow.

4 days of my life for "real" Christmas stockings.

Manuel drove through crazy traffic to make sure we got our Christmas prizes from him and my mom before the 25th. Thanks!!! Do you love it Rebecca?

Grayson got a car track game and won't stop screaming from happiness.

Complete with his new Spiderman hat.

They are so lucky to have 3 sets of grandparents. This is just one of them.

They are so grateful for ALL their grandparents, and the gifts too!

Further proof that my brother has 4 older sisters

Justin would cut off his left foot before putting on a woman's shirt. He would die of hypothermia first. And that's what attracted him to me, because I come from a family full of people like this:

Thank the Lord he held off on the pink thong!

(Did I say that out loud?)

Don't worry he is married, to a woman.

And here's what happens when my oldest sister gets that pic combined with some photoshop;)

YW theme 2011

I've been stealing ideas from this lady at aLittleTipsy.com for Young Women's. Her latest great find I had to steal, I also had to modify. The 2011 mutual theme for the youth is the 13th article of faith, with what looks like an emphasis on what "we believe". Here's the inspiration. And here's what I came up with. It's SO easy to do and you don't have to sign up for anything! wordle.net Thanks lady I've never met, for putting this stuff in your blog.

(If you click on that little pic you can print it right on out.)

Baby update

Monday night I could swear I was experiencing the worst gas ever! After a chat with the midwife and my sister it sounded more like gall bladder problems. The midwife suggested trying a low fat diet. What? Who wants to cut fat from their diet when they're 6 months pregnant? Not me!

Then yesterday I had cramps for 5 hours straight. I thought I was going to die (again) and I made a trip to labor and delivery. Of course once I sat down I was magically fine. They hooked me up to the monitors and everything was totally normal.

Today I had my regular visit to the midwife, everything looks good. Especially my weight,

14 lbs in 7 weeks. Beat that! Or not. I might have almost cried when I found out.

But then... I got a date for my big ultrasound! December 21st everyone. AND... I will not be finding out if it's a boy or a girl. Are you so excited?! Justin doesn't think I can handle not knowing, which only adds to my reasons for not finding out. Okay, so I don't really have any reasons for not finding out besides the part where it ticks everyone else off that I don't already know. To be honest, it ticked me off for weeks a few months ago when an ultrasound was NOT scheduled when I thought it would be, but I finally got over it. And then I thought, "how many people in today's world don't know?" I can't name one. When I mentioned to the midwife I wasn't finding out she about peed her pants with excitement. She said it's WAY more fun to deliver an "unknown" baby because everyone looks to see what came out.

Hey Ben & Jessica, maybe I'll have a zebra;)

Piano duets with Grayson

I've been teaching piano over at our friends the Petersen's for a while now. Grayson and MacKenzie LOVE to go play while I teach the older kids. This last week Grayson and his buddy William got to playing a duet. Click here for the pic. Cutest thing ever. Maybe they'll actually pick it up one day;)

Rudolph mobile

It's not the best pic, but those are antlers on my partially rolled down windows. I bought this for my dad last year. He is the biggest grinch when it comes to Christmas, I thought a car costume would help get him in the mood. My stepmom LOVED it! My dad walked home from work. Kennedy can't wait to take a spin in her new ride.

The wall- that huge one with the retarded canvas painting above the piano

I took it down. I've been looking for replacements for a long time, but nothing. After my trip to Texas I began thinking about this and this.

I laid out my stuff. Once on the table I realized it needed a little Christmasication, hence the snowflake art. Funny how after taking the picture I could see it a little more objectively also.

And I threw it up on the wall. This wall is SO high.

Should I keep the pics going straight up to the top? And what color should I paint my $2 yard sale lamp? I have another matching that will probably take Santa's spot later.

And then that leads me to the curtains, now that I'm all sewing machined up I'm wanting to make some new ones. And slip covers for the chairs AND want to paint the walls again. I think the pregnancy is kicking in.

A little something to get you ready for Christmas

SO GOOD!!!

Setting up for Christmas, day 1

(Photo's by MacKenzie and Kennedy)

I finally got a deer for the front yard!

But this is about as far as I got with the assembly. The head and neck are inside the body. Couldn't get them out without ripping the whole thing to shreds! So it's goin' back to Lowes. Dang.

Meanwhile Kennedy was inside embellishing some Christmas decorations here,

here,

and here.

And while we're on Rudolph and Bambi, look what I found on someone's blog. How cute and easy is that for a little gift?!

Baby it's cold outside

This is what MacKenzie's idea of "warm clothes" are. I did have to put my foot down on this one, especially the rolled up skirt, but the boots and the shirt kind of go, yes?

Lampshades by Kennedy

She could open up her own line of original home furnishings.

Might have to share the title with her sister or whoever MaeKize is.

Everything is always reindeer. Looks like the fox-turkey didn't make it.

What makes me a little sad is I JUST BOUGHT THIS! Maybe I should give her markers for color and keep it. It's kind of cute.

Good thing Grayson got a train set for his birthday

The big 3 for Grayson

Motor skills: can take lids off markers

Can draw on face, arms and legs

Can decorate birthday cake (especially after attempting the Spiderman cake Khristie swore was so easy, it wasn't)

Loves fire

He's been a big boy climbing up and down from the top bunk where he loves to sleep. "I'm up on top, I'm up on top!" He's a clothes boy. Grayson can be found in 4-8 different outfits a day and not one of them dirty. He's still my sweet little boy. We're so happy he's in our family.

All for the sake of fire wood

Here's our trailer full of wood. You like my slanted backup job? I couldn't see in the dark.

Women just don't think to chop wood like this. I call this forest-fire size.

But don't get me wrong, I didn't go get the wood I backed the trailer into the driveway.

So while Justin was loading this thing up, with his wood gettin buddy, one of these "logs" rolled with all its weight into his knee. It bent his knee all the way in the opposite direction! Somehow Justin's knee popped back into place, but he found himself laying on the ground in pain for a while. Lucky for him his buddy is an EMT and checked things out right there.

Justin called me to let me know what happened and continued to drive himself the hour ride back home. Can't believe it!

2 different dr.'s agree it really doesn't look like the ACL was injured. His knee feels very stable, but an MRI is being scheduled and he's off work for 2 weeks doin' something like this:

The green balloons are for Grayson's birthday. To celebrate Justin got a fancy knee brace and new crutches from the ortho dr.

If you look closely you can see hairy legs and slight swelling. I'm considering this a serious blessing from the Lord (the lack of more serious injury, not the hairiness). Could have been a lot worse and the quick priesthood blessing afterwards didn't hurt either. Glad we said our prayers that day!

Jane Austen's Fight Club

So my friend Liz showed me this a while ago and I was thinking about it the other day and had to share. If you haven't seen the real fight club trailer click here. And then watch this one!

MacKenzie's Rapunzel Hair

and the "law enforcement" hangin on the wall in the back.

Mini MTC mission call letters

So here's what we're doing this week for combined activity and I hope it's good. I stole the idea from a parent, who stole it from THIS blog. Only I am even lazier and have asked the full time missionaries to take it over after I print out the mission calls. I took most of the wording straight from my own mission call and while doing so tons of memories came rushing back. I remember my WHOLE family crammed in our living room. I couldn't see a thing through all the tears. I think I cried a good 12 hours from the moment I heard my special mail had come to well after it was finally opened.

Anyway blah, blah, blah best 18 months of my life!

Here's the fake letter.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Office of the Parkview Ward

12860 Amethyst Rd, Victorville, CA 92392

31 October 2010

Miss Holly Evlyne Garcia

Address

Victorville, California 92392

Dear Sister Garcia,

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary. You are assigned to labor in the Utah Provo Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 1 hour.

You should report to the mini Missionary Training Center at Victorville, California on Wednesday, 3 November 2010. You will prepare to understand and preach the gospel.

You have been recommended as one worthy to represent the Lord as a minister of the restored gospel. You will be an unofficial representative of the Church. As such you will be expected to maintain the highest standards of conduct and appearance by wearing appropriate Sunday attire, acting in quiet dignity, and following the counsel of your leaders.

Great fun and refreshments await you this Wednesday evening. Please prepare yourself by learning all you can about being a missionary and the place you have been called to serve.

Please send your verbal response to Sister Pollock before you leave church today.

Sincerely,

YW/YM Combined Mutual Halloween Dance

Last year we threw a Halloween dance for mutual and invited the other 2 wards that meet in our building. The youth LOVED it esp. the 12 year olds who don't normally get to attend dances. This year they asked to do it again... heck no! But then, like always, I caved and started the planning process of 1. getting a DJ and 2. Inviting the other wards. It must have been in the stars because we have a DJ in our ward who was more than willing to do it AND the others wards about had an excited panic attack when I extended the invite. So there you have it, but I was NOT going to decorate.

So you really had to be there to enjoy the full extent of our not-decorating, because the pictures don't do it justice. The sad part, when we were finished I wanted 10,000 yards of black fabric to frame the DJ area. Wouldn't that have been awesome?! As it was I went to get cups and ice and got lost at Joann's instead of Costco. All the Halloween stuff was 60% off. And my good friend Sister Garcia let be barrow a bunch of things complete with REAL cobwebs! She also helped donate to the 25 milk carton ghosts waiting to make an entrance.

You know it's a Mormon party when Hymn books are included. Might I add, BEST DJ EVER!!! You couldn't help but to dance to every song played!

As you can see, no one dressed up.

Halloween costumes

MacKenzie picked this out from a magazine and let me know it HAD to be her Halloween costume.

After a little velcro and a few stitches it's not perfect, but it does look kind of cute on her.

As for Kennedy, she wants to be Rudolph. They say imaginations are good, but what ever happened to a ghost or witch? I can find those pre-made at Target.

My little boy

He "took a nap" in his sister's room this afternoon and came out happy as could be,

wearing his new found "piggy shirt".

What surprises does your husband pick up on his way home from work?

Justin usually brings home snakes or lizards. Last night it was a fox that had been hit by a car because you know, "We could skin him!"

The first thing Kennedy said when she heard the news was, "YES! I totally need a fox skin to hang on my wall! That's perfect Dad!"

And then it stunk. Really. Bad.

The skinning lasted about 10 minutes until Justin decided it was a little too decomposed. The tail and legs were falling off. Kennedy's comment, "Well, I thought Dad could get that skin off, but I guess it just stinks too bad for him to do a good job. Maybe next time." Cause you know, there's always tomorrow. You never know what might be on the side of the freeway tomorrow;)

The makeup artist & her model

And we don't discriminate here. Makeup goes on clothing and faces.

I made clam chowder and it was delicious!

I can't believe how good this turned out! My judgement may be swayed a little as I made it thinking "this is going to be a total flop". I'm so glad when I'm wrong. Even Justin slurped it up, bowl and all;)

I read the first 2 reviews for this recipe and this is what it produced. Little drips and all.

As for the kids 2 of them liked it. I take that back Grayson just ate his bacon pieces on top.

The other did not. I thought for sure this one would be all over soup in a bread bowl. First thing she said was, "I want a regular bowl" followed quickly by, "that looks disgusting!" I can always count on my kids to tell me what they really think.

What the kids do while I watch conference

First of all let me just say conference was totally inspired! I even prayed to feel the Spirit, and would you guess what happened?! I found my camera charger! Been looking for it for months. (Okay fine, I blamed Katelyn for stealing it. Same thing.)

Kennedy found the stapler.

MacKenzie jumped into all the markers, half of which I just realized are permanent. Oops.

I'm pretty sure that's the 3rd outfit Grayson's had on today.

Stuffed animal arrangements.

And a monkey. However if you're looking at the markings all over the beds, that was done a long time ago. Don't you remember drawing your name everywhere? And then insisting your 2 year old brother (who can't write) did it. Although pictured here really does look like Grayson's art. He can go to town with the scribbles complete with a sticker.