Horse Back Riding on the Beach

Sari's riding instructor invited her to go on a camping trip at Pismo Beach where she takes the horses along and they go riding on the beach. As it turned out, the weekend of the camping trip was the same weekend as Tyler's last football game and his awards ceremony. So, Sari and I headed off to the beach by ourselves and left Craig home with Ash and Tyler! We had so much fun!!!

We headed over on Friday morning and once we got there and got all set up Sari got to go out and ride Chester (her favorite horse) out on the beach. Funny thing is, most of the horses love the water. So they actually go out into the water and ride and play on the horses. She had a ton of fun.

The next morning she had to get up early with the rest of the girls and go feed the horses. After we all ate our breakfast all of the riders headed out again to go out on the beach with the horses. From the time they leave camp, saddle the horses, ride to the beach and hang out, ride back to the stables, untack the horses, and make it back to camp it is about a 3-4 hour time frame. So once they got back from their morning ride it was time for lunch and a nap. Everyone pretty much did just that and then got ready for one more Saturday ride. When Sari got back from her 2nd ride we hung out for a bit and ate dinner then headed home about 9 o'clock that night.




We were sad to leave because we were having so much fun! Her riding instructor says its even more fun to go camping in the mountains with the horses. So I guess next trip we'll be heading to the mountains.

Ashlie's Trip To The Dentist

Ashlie is a very funny girl. Poor Sari always to have some issue with something, either dizzy spells, glasses, asthma, cavities, now braces. It's always something! Ashlie just sits by watching as Sari has all of this stuff "done" to her and medicine to take etc. Ashlie has been trying to need glasses for the past couple of years and the eye doc keeps telling her she has basically the most perfect vision you could ever have! She's never had a filling and is hardly ever sick. I think sometimes she fake coughs so we will give her allergy medicine.

About a month ago she started complaining that she had a tooth hurting on the bottom in the back. I took her in to see the dentist and after a complete exam and x-rays we determined that she has some permanent molars growing in that are causing her some pain. Poor kid couldn't even get a filling done! Until yesterday.

When she got up she showed us this spot on her upper gum that was all swollen and nasty looking. So I got her in to see the dentist. Once again, the problem is that she has 3 permanent teeth ready to push through and it is crowding her baby teeth right there. But that wasn't the end of it! One of the baby teeth that was being squished had a cavity in it. They had seen the cavity but since the tooth was getting ready to be pushed out anyways they didn't do a filling. Well, that tooth got infected and the swollen part on her gums was the infection attempting to drain. So, the doctor numbed her up and attempted to pull the offending tooth! Except we learned the hard way that infections don't numb very well :( It was quite the traumatic experience for Ashlie - to have to get her first shot in the mouth and have a tooth pulled and for it to not deaden very well :(




She did survive, although not happily, and we managed to make it home with a cup full of gauze, a tooth in a glittery holder, and a prescription for antibiotics. She laid on the couch most of the day with an ice pack relishing in all of the attention.

Today she is fine. She left a very nice note for the tooth fairy and was excited the tooth fairy left her some money in return and let her keep the glittery tooth holder :)




Translation of Letter:
Dear Tooth Fairy,
I tried to be brave at the dentist. When they pulled my molar out, it hurt so bad that I started to cry. Make sure that you get my note! I still believe in you! By the way, I got the sparkly tooth holder at the dentist. Cute, huh?!

Love,
Ashlie

Tyler Turns 4!!!

So even though I am very behind in blogging, Tyler actually did have a 4th birthday! And he asks us at least every other day or so if he is still 4 :) Tyler decided he wanted his birthday all about Batman. So I made a Batman cake and he got a ton of little Batman toys. He loves them, but within about a week he started asking where his Thomas cake was. We were wondering if he was leaving the trains behind, but as for the last couple of months since his birthday he still very into his trains.

He had a great time on his birthday. We got him a bike with training wheels. He loves to go on bike rides now.

He is such a fun little guy and we are so blessed to have him in our family. He definitely causes lots of messes and mischief but brings even more laughter and smiles. I love watching how his mind works. He loves to figure out how things work, especialy wheels! He can lay on the floor for several minutes just rolling a car or a train back and forth watching the wheels.

As you can see from the pictures he doesn't sit still very often, so for him to be still for any amount of time is quite impressive :)

Does Heavenly Father have a car?

This morning Tyler was sitting beside me and we were just talking about random stuff. Whatever 4 year olds like to talk about. He loves to ask questions and he always follows the answer with "Why?" but it comes out in this okey long drawl sort of way :) So this morning he says, "Mom, I have a question. Does Heavenly Father have a car?" I softly chuckle and respond, "Well, no He doesn't have a car." Before I can respond any further he adds, "Does he have a sleigh?" Little louder chuckle, "Um, well, no He doesn't have a sleigh either" "How about a truck or a motorcycle?" "Well Bud, Heavenly Father doesn't have any kind of car or truck or anything like that. He doesn't need it." "Why?" Oh no, here we go. Lucky for me Ashlie joined in the conversation and got him distracted so off they went to play. Once Tyler starts asking "Why?" it can seriously go on indefinitely! Oh the wonders of a 4 year old mind :)

The Family Proclamation

Each year at church we have an event called Craft Saturday. It is a day where the ladies can all come together and socialize and eat and do crafts. There are several different crafts that we can order and then work on that day or you can bring your own crafts from home to work on. This year we are doing a family book on the Proclamation to the World. If you aren't familiar with the Proclamation to the World you can view it in its entirety at www.lds.org. Basically, it is our beliefs on what a family is. The family book we are making goes through the different sections of the proclamation and allows areas to put pictures that correspond with the different sections. I made mine early to use as a sample. I was so pleased with the way it turned out. Such a testimony of how important the family is.

Funny Little Guy

Tyler is such a normal little boy and sometimes I get frustrated because he can be so ornery, and then I remember that little boys are supposed to be mischievous. Sometimes we just sit back and chuckle at the funny little things that he says and does. For instance this morning he was sitting at the computer and he was trying to load some program and it was taking a really long time. He says to me, "Mom, I think the omputer is frozen. It doesn't like being so ice cold. It gets all freezing and needs a blanket!" So funny, we talk about the computer freezing all the time, I just didn't realize what that sounded like to a little guy :)

His favorite new word is "Why?" He can ask that question endlessly, and I try to give a decent response for the first 50 or so times he asks it to any particular statement, but then, I just get impatient and use the dreaded "Just Because, okay!" I try to be a good mom, but sometimes, "Why?" just gets the best of me!

I love watching him play with his toys. He loves to see how best to destruct things. Whether it is by him taking them apart, sending them down the stairs, driving them off the table, or simply crashing them into each other. And the louder the crash and the more pieces that fly off the better :)

He still loves his trains and plays with them all the time, but they are having some competition with a new love of Tyler's! He has discovered Batman! The trains haven't taken second place yet, but Batman is definitely taking up some of his play time!

1st Day of School

Today was the girls first day back to school after summer vacation. We are all very excited for school to be back in session! Definitely ready for more structure in our lives :) Ashlie started 4th grade and now goes until 3pm everyday. Sari started 7th grade and moved to a different school than the elementary school! That means that for the first time the girls are at different schools. Weird for all of us. Things seemed to go good today for both of them. This is a picture of the girls this morning! I'm not sure what Craig was doing but that is his arm flying through the picture :)

Ashlie Turns 9

Wow! What a fun (and exhausting) time we had celebrating Ashlie's birthday. Several weeks before her birthday, Ashlie had her entire birthday planned. She knew who was being invited, what to eat, where to go, activities to do, decorations to put up, and even what kind of cake to make and ice cream to buy. It made it easy to pull it together last minute but we hadn't taken into account our exhaustion coming into the celebration! It all turned out fine, just very tiring! She had a good birthday and that is what matters! I'm just wondering though, why do they call it a slumber party when there is very little slumbering done???

The celebrating actually began the day before her birthday with the primary children singing happy birthday to her at church. It just so happened that there were 2 other children who shared the exact same birthday with her!

Her birthday fell on a Monday this year. Craig made her scrambled eggs (her request) for breakfast and then the 5 of us headed over to Adventure Park for some birthday fun. We went at lunch time so were able to all eat at the pizza buffet and then we played some games in the arcade area. After that we all went out and rode the bumper boats! It was especially fun because this was Tyler's first time riding the bumper boats. He finally hit the height requirement. Tyler rode with Craig in one boat and then each of us girls had our own. We were the only group on the boats and no one was in line so the attendant let us ride for a really long time. By the time our ride was over we were all pretty wet! Ashlie spent most of her time over by the waterfall, the rest of us spent our time trying to squirt each other! We all had a really fun time.


This is a picture of the kids after the bumper boats!


After Adventure Park we came home and straightened up to get ready for the slumber party. Ashlie had 3 friends over! We had tons of fun! They got to make their own mini pizzas for dinner, decorate their own cupcakes, make chocolates, swim, eat popcorn, watch movies, and play RockBand! At 3 am we had to finally put our foot down and make them go to bed! We're too old for 3 am parties!!! Especially since we realized that Craig had to work the next day :( The next morning Craig got up early for work and made pancakes at Ashlie's request. We had M&M's, whip cream, strawberries, chocolate chips, and sprinkles for the toppings! They all had a great time and were very tired to prove it!

The beginnings of the morning after the 3 am party!


And now they sleep!


There are 4 of them there! Can you count them all?



During the night they played with dolls, played games, played RockBand, and had a hair cutting party with the Barbies!


Breakfast condiments

This is the state of the kitchen table the morning after the slumber party :)


Do we really have to wake up???


This was her cake for the family party! She requested a waterslide cake. On each of the three layers there is a fondant wave all around the top. It didn't turn out as good as I wanted but I guess that is what happens when you are working under the conditions I had :( Oh well, Ash was happy!

July

Wow!!! I do not know what happened to the month of July! It just flew past us! That might have been because we were running constantly to something new and exciting!

Ashlie came home from Idaho after being gone for a full month on July 12th. We drove to San Jose to get her from Chris' house. We rang the doorbell and it instantly flew open and Ashlie totally attacked Craig! She jumped on him and was laughing and crying all at the same time. She was even excited to see Tyler. We took guesses as to how long we thought the euphoria would last. We were pretty sure it would only take just a few minutes in the car with Tyler and Ashlie would be ready to go back to Idaho. Much to our surprise it lasted a whole 2 days before she announced, "Tyler is annoying me!" She had a great time and we are still hearing about all of the fun things she did with Grandma & Grandpa.

On July 13th, I slipped down my parents porch and ended up bruising my tibia and tore a tendon in my ankle/foot. I am still recovering from that one. So the rest of the month has been done with my hobbling everywhere and attempting to keep my foot elevated!

On July 21st, we packed Sari up and sent her off to Girls Camp for 4 days. A little weird for me, I can't believe she is old enough already! She had a blast. I've had several comments from friends about what a sweetheart Sari is! All I can say is, "I know!"

The same day, Ashlie and I headed to Las Vegas for her dance camp. She danced for 7 hours a day on both Wednesday and Thurday, and for 5 hours on Friday. I was exhausted just watching her dance! We had a blast and learned a lot. She is already planning on next years camp. While we were there I was able to go to a Parents Meeting, yikes, if she wants a career in dancing there is so much to do and so much money to spend! This is beginning her 5th year in dance and she loves it! I'm not sure if she is thinking about this as a career or not but she is quite good at it and really has a lot of fun. I guess we should probably talk to her about it a little!

Sari got back on the afternoon of the 24th and Ashlie & I got back around midnight the same night. Craig & Tyler had spent most of the week living the bachelor life! Craig had to work a couple of the days so Tyler spent a little time with my parents and had a great time.

On Monday the 27th Craig and I packed our stuff and headed to Long Beach to go on a cruise to Mexico for 5 days. It was so wonderful and relaxing. I told him that I didn't care what we did as long as we relaxed (and I elevated my still sore foot)! And I think we did a good job of relaxing. Every day we got in at least 2 naps and one day we were able to get in a 3rd! Good times right there! Plenty of room service, lounging by the pool, and cool weather! We were in heaven! While we were gone cruising the kids stayed home with my grandparents (The Greats)! They had a great time. I think because Great Grandma spoils them!

We got back just in time to get our act together for Ashlie's birthday on Monday!

In addition to all of the fun times already mentioned I managed to fit in 2 wedding cakes and a couple of cupcake orders, Craig worked 2 jobs, Sari had riding lessons 2 days a week and 2 Gymkhanas, and we still got a little bit of laundry done :)

Unfortunately I left my camera at home during dance camp. When we got to the ship for our cruise I pulled out the camera only to discover it wouldn't work even with brand new batteries :( Luckily Craig has an iphone with a good camera :) This is what he got of the cruise.

This is a picture of the ship. In Catalina Island we have to anchor out a bit and then ride a tender boat to get to shore. This is on our way to the shore.

While in Catalina we went on a Glass Bottom Boat. It was so cool! You could drop little fish pellets into this tube and it would go into the water and within about 5 seconds hundreds of fish would be swimming under your glass area! Crazy!!!

One afternoon we were out walking on the deck and the horizon was so beautiful. You could see the sun rays shining down on the water through the clouds.

Every night they have a different show that we went to either with dancers or comedians or whatever. One night while we were waiting on the show to start they had music playing. If you look at the picture closely just about dead center is a little oriental lady wearing a white shirt. Every time a new song would start she would be sitting on her seat. As we watched you could send her arms begin to move to the music and soon she was dancing in her seat and before long it was like she couldn't contain herself anymore and would jump up and start dancing all over her little area there. She had a friend beside her and soon the friend would join her. At the end of each song she would sit back down. If you watched, she would soon start to move again and before you knew it she would be back up dancing. This is a picture of her dancing! It was sooo funny!

Sari Gets Braces

Sari is the proud owner of a new set of braces!!! Fun stuff huh!!! We've been seeing the orthodontist for about 3 years now gearing up for this fun event. Today was the day! Braces will only be on about 18 months, not too bad!!! She's mostly upset about the food she will miss out on. Forget the fact that I will be nagging constantly to brush more :) So here's to our new adventure :)