Sunday, November 22, 2009

Jordan

Ok, so alot of you have been asking about my trip and I know I've been home almost 3 weeks so I should'vr blogged by now, but I'm kindof having a blogging block (it happens often). My problem with blogging about this trip is I feel like it's hard to explain how cool it really was, it was a life changing experience for me and I have a hard time putting it into words. I'm starting with Jordan because that's the easiest for me to describe. Jordan is very different than Egypt and Israel for different reasons. You'll understand the difference when I get to the Egypt and Israel post. I'll just post some pics and hopefully it will sound half as interesting as it was.
This was one of the first stops we made in Jordan to eat lunch in the desert in a Bedouin tent. The Bedouin people are people who have lived in the desert off the land for thousands of years. There are alot of Bedouins in Egypt and Israel who still live in tents or basically shacks they built out of scraps of metal, wood, etc. (some of them have satelites on the outside!), but Jordan government has been trying to get the bedouins in Jordan to build houses and stay in one place so they can get an education. The bedouins in Jordan also have these tourist camps, like the ones we visited where people can come and camp out with them (you can see the tents are more modern) or come for lunch and a jeep ride (like us). They cooked the food underground that's why they are digging in the sand. The food was good, we just ate alot of the same foods most of the trip, pita bread, hummus, meat and rice.
Here's our jeep ride through the desert (basically we sitting in the back of pickup truck). Everyone was so nervous about me going on the jeep ride, but then when it was time to get in the trucks I was at the very end. The lower picture is Greg at the bathroom. We were all taking pictures of the guys because it just seemed so funny to us that we could see them while they were taking care of business. I guess some of us will just never grow out of thinking stuff like that is funny!
The jeep ride was beautiful, it actually reminded me of Moab and St. George, but it was all through sand. Lawrence of Arabia spent alot of time with the Bedouins and so they kept telling us the highlight of the ride was the face of Lawrence carved into the rock. I guess I had my expectations sortof high, because when we got out, I was thinking, "that little face! That's what we came to see?" Good thing Petra was the next day. At least the scenery was beautiful.
These next pictures are of Petra, which is one of the seven wonders of the world. It was seriously amazing! You hike through this cool canyon and there is this beautiful stone city that has been there for thousands of years. One of the temples is where they shot some of the Indiana Jones movies. For those of you who don't know Greg he loves talking to anybody! He made friends with a guy that was trying to sell us a ride on a donkey up to the Monastary (3 mile hike roundtrip), but ended up hanging out with Greg for awhile, notice another picture below of donkey guy. He also talking alot to some Bedouins who lived on the very top of the mountain and just sold stuff to tourists to make a living. It was so interesting to think of what there life was like just living outdoors all the time. Plus, to see the kids just playing on the edge of cliffs was just weird, but that's just how they live.
Here is a picture of a little boy and a pigeon. This kids was so cute and he just kept swinging this pigeon around and turing him upside down and stuff. It was pretty funny! It was probably one of those things you had to be there.
I don't know why you wouldn't want a picture of a camel drinking from a water bottle?
The top picture was a view of Israel from Jordan. And the bottom is of a girl making a mosiac, which are very popular in Jordan. We ordered a mosaic of Jesus' baptism in the river Jordan, but we still haven't gotten it. Hopefully it will turn out. The last picture is of Greg riding on the bus,obviously, we rode on the bus ALOT.
Stay tuned for Israel and Egypt.

Friday, October 9, 2009

1st Day of school and what the rest of us do at home

Scott asked me one day, "Mom, what do you guys do while I'm at school?"

Well, we do lots of fun stuff, like walk around with laundry baskets on our heads and play with playdough (in our diaper of course). What else would we do?


By the way, the playdough we are using is edible peanut butter playdough and it was soooo good. Greg thought it was disgusting (big surprise), but I loved it. It almost tasted like peanut butter cookie dough and it wasn't super sticky so the kids had a lot of fun playing with it and it didn't make a huge mess. Cleaner than real playdough! Here's the recipe, if you want it : http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/07/kids-week-peanut-butter-playdough.html


I know it's late, but here are Scott's first day of school pictures. So far, he has liked school. He had a couple of days the second week where he would cry and hold onto me right when the bus was coming and say he didn't want to go to school, but he always got on the bus! He says he has fun at school, but he can never remember what he does there! Some of my friends have told me that's typical with some kindergarteners and he's teacher says he's doing great at school! We miss him but it's so cool to see all the things he's learning! I still can't believe I have kids old enough to be in school!



Saturday, October 3, 2009

Poor Stacey


Here is a conversation I had with Stacey yesterday in the car.


Stacey: Mom, I won't like the new baby.

Me: Why not?

Stacey: Because he is a boy baby and I will only like a girl baby.

Me:I bet you will like him, you like Daniel and he is a boy.

Stacey: I KNOW MOM, but I will not like this baby because he's a boy, I will only like him if he's a girl. (pouty face)
Sorry Stace, this one REALLY is your Dad's fault!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Growing up too fast!

All the time I think my kids are growing up too fast! But especially my baby! They really just don't stay babies for very long.

And how is it that one haircut makes you realize that they're really not a baby anymore :(

Sunday, August 16, 2009

#4 Already?


No it's not April Fools Day! I really am pregnant again! And it's another boy (poor Stacey)!

Here's how the pregnancy has gone so far: I went to my midwife at about 14 weeks for my first visit, and they couldn't find a heartbeat, so A WEEK LATER I had an ultrasound and the baby is find and we were able to see that it is a boy. I went by myself to the ultrasound (since we didn't know if the baby was ok, I didn't want my kids there) so on the way home I called Greg to tell him the news. Here's what happened when he told Scott:

Dad: Guess what Scott? The baby that is in Mom's tummy is a boy! You're going to have another brother.

Scott: Yeah, that's awesome. (Pause) But when are we having a girl baby?

Stacey basically had the same response. Then we had to explain to them that this baby isn't coming out for a LONG time, and then we have to wait a LONG time again to have a girl baby and even THEN it may not be a girl baby.

Being the mom, I am happy with with a boy or girl, but I do feel bad for Stacey. I know she'd love to have a sister to play with. But I think it will be fun for Daniel to have a brother who is so close in age.

I'm feeling great now that the morning sickness part is over. I always forget how much I hate that part. I don't throw up alot but feel nauseated all day long! I would sometimes lay around in the morning and my kids would ask me, "when will the baby not make you feel sick anymore?" I have to admit, I felt pretty overwhelmed in the morning sickness stage with the fact of having four kids soon, but now that it has past and things are back to normal, I know I'll survive! You guys all know people who have suvived four kids right? :)

Monday, August 3, 2009

Budding Photographer and School Anxiety

Don't you love when you open your pictures and see your kids have gotten a hold of the camera? I remember Scott taking this picture of me but I didn't realize they had taken the other ones. My favorite pictures are the ones where you can see up Scott's nose and the one where he is posing for the camera. It takes real talent to capture those moments. My kids defintely aren't amatuers. But since Greg never takes pictures, I guess the only way to get pictures of me is to have my kids take them :)

Here are some pics of Scott's preschool gradutation. Two friends from out ward who have kids Scott's age took turns doing preschool at their house. They did so many fun, cute and of course educational activities with the kids, and of course Scott loved it! It is fun to see hime grow up and I am amazed at how much he has already changed this summer!
He will start school in a couple of weeks (sob) and I have mixed feelings about it. He is so excited to go to school and I'm excited for him! But in Texas they have full day kindergarten, so he will leave our house (on a bus) around 7:15 and come home about 3:08. Doesn't that seem like a long day for a 5 year old? The other moms I have talked to said the kids come home exhausted for the first month or so and then they get used to it. I think it just makes me realize that he isn't mine, he is going to have his own life. I'm not getting dramatic, like he's leaving me soon or anything, it just makes me realize that I don't have complete control over his development anymore, I'm turning over the some of the control over to his teachers and peers! It's kindof scary!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Inspiration and Good Ideas








Ok, so I've been out of the blogging world awhile and probably no one will even read this, but after blogging tonight I realized I want to do it more. I don't know why it is so hard for me to sit down at the computer and actually blog. Maybe because I worry it need to be funny or entertaining, etc. But I really want to start bloggin because when I was looking at some blogs tonight I realized how cool it is to remember how you were feeling that day and remembering the little things that happen. I KNOW I will forget the little things, and I really do want remember those and how it felt to be a mom at what ever stage of kids I'm going through. So thanks to those of you who have cool blogs who inspired me to want to blog more. (We'll see if I actually do it :)

Good idea #1: Fingerpainting in the bathtub! I found these bath paints at Wal-Mart and they were a blast and I didn't have to stress out that the kids were getting paint all over, I just washed it off of the shower wall after. Daniel even got to paint!




Good Idea #2: For Scott's party we had a Star Wars themed party and I went to Party City where light saber blowups were $6.99 each x 16 kids = not worth it! So I found the idea online of cutting pool noodles in half ($2 per noodle = $1 per kid), and covering the bottom with duct tape! The kids loved them, and I felt great that I threw a successful kid birthday party (that stuff stresses me out, but I love the internet, once I looked online I felt alot better, there were so many cool ideas! Plus, if you'll notice, Daniel is in his diaper in all the pictures. Seriously, what mom doesn't dress her kid for a party? A mom who has to put all of her mental energy into planning a party. The funny thing is that I do not get stressed out planning parties for adults, just kids.) So here are some pics of Scott's 5th birthday party!
Ok, so as I am posting this, I can't get my pictures to move down in the blog, so I just left them at the top. What's the deal? Does anyone else have a hard time dragging the pictures down? I'm just gonna leave them at the top for now, if any one else knows any blogging secrets, please share!
Ok, now for Scott! I love that kid so much! I really enjoy babies and toddlers, but I love also that Scott is older that we can have converstaions together and enjoy sports, coloring and watching him learn new things. He is a very sweet, loving boy and loves to spend time with the family. He makes me laugh and loves music and dancing. We have so much fun with him. He loves all sports and I worry he is going to have a hard time deciding which ones to play when he gets older. His first three words were mama, dada and football if that gives you any indication of how much he loves sports. I am so grateful for him! I would post a picture of him if I thought I could drag it down!











Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee

That really has nothing to do with the post, but my aunt (I think it's from a movie, Barbara Streisand?) always says that when she has done something wonderful, and I thought that since I am blogging twice this week it was fitting. I made a promise to my friend Andrea that I would blog more, and I always keep my promises (or at least TRY to). So what is this blog about (drumroll, please)?

DisneyWorld!!!


We went to DisneyWorld a couple of weeks ago and I ACTUALLY took pictures. Here are some of the highlights . . .







We DROVE!! Can you believe it? Everyone thought we were crazy, but it really wasn't too bad! The kids watched movies and played with the fun trip stuff our friend Kelly got for them, and slept. The worst part of driving was the first night when Greg wanted to drive until 2 am and Daniel was screaming because he was so tired and wouldn't go to sleep. We finally stopped at about midnight and crashed! But it worked out fine because we only had about 5 hours to drive the next day. It's about 16 to 17 hours from where we live to Orlando.




Heres' ALL of our pictures with the characters. We didn't really see that many out an about. You had to wait in line to see most of them, so we waited in line once for the princesses for about 30 minutes, and we were done with that. I don't know if they do it differently at Disneyland, but we saw alot more characters out and about. Scott was sad to he didn't see Buzz Lightyear, he loved him at Disneyland. One fun thing that happened was that Stacey was Boo in the Monsters, Inc. show. What do you think, does she look like Boo?


I love the picture of Scott with the CARS characters because there is another boy in the picture because you had to wait in line 30 minutes to take pictures with them too! So I just had Scott go stand over by the cars, I'm sure the experience was just as meaniful . . .

Above is some pictures of some of the rides and petting the animals at Animal Kingdom.





So what does a one year old who can't walk, do at DisneyWorld?







These were the highlights of Daniels trip. Playing with the 3-D glasses at the shows, sitting in the stroller, getting grabbed, poked, and loved by Stacey when she sat behind him in the stroller. And grabbing Dad's hair while he sat on his shoulders when we had to park the stroller to wait in line for a show. Overall, he was a pretty good sport.




I titled this picture ANNOYED because this was the moment that Greg decided he had ENOUGH of DisneyWorld. We were at Epcot, and he wasn't too impressed with the park in general. We had a five day pass, so we had done Disney for 5 days strait so the overload was understandable. Needless to say, we all had a really fun exhausting time. I was grateful to have some time with just my little cute family. I really even had fun spending time talking with Greg in the car! It's just good to get away from all the distractions of everyday life and just chill with the fam!




Monday, April 13, 2009

Making things way worse . . .

Ok, this is a random post, but I have been looking at other peoples blogs and I haven't posted in a really long time (ok, so that's an understatement), but I thought I shoud just post some random thought, since I get to overwhelmed with putting the pictures on (I'm a simple gal, ya know)

Ok, so I'm not a huge worrier, but I do worry sometimes. And when I worry, I tend to turn a ant hill into a mountain (is that how the saying goes?). Here's a couple of examples:

When I flew home from Utah with my kids on Sat. Our flight LEFT at 6:00 a.m. which means we had to leave the house by 4:00 or so. Trust me, I was not excited to first of all get my self up and then my three kids up and then sit with them on a plane for 3 hours plus airport time WITHOUT my husband. Plus, I started feeling sick the night before, so I was really thinking that I needed to get some rest so that I didn't fall apart the next day. So I went to bed about 11,to at least get about 5 hours. But guess what happened, I was so stressed out about getting some sleep that I COULD NOT sleep. It was driving me crazy! I would try and do yoga relaxation techniques to calm my mind, but then I would think of how bad the day would be so then I would get more worked up and not sleep! So basically what happened is I didn't sleep AT ALL, I got up and showered (I have to shower!) and got everyone else up and ended up sleeping for 45 minutes on the plane when we took off because all my kids fell asleep for a little bit.

The moral of this story is although I did feel like a zombie the whole next day (I did take a 2 hours nap in the afternoon), I didn't die. Believe me, the way I was stressing the night before, you would've thought that no sleep would kill me, but it didn't! So why did I waste my WHOLE night stressing about it?

The other thing I tend to stress about is my kids sleep. I feel like if they don't get enought sleep they are going to be terrible the next day, drive me crazy, blah, blah, blah. And sometime that does happen, but sometimes they SURPRISE me and act totally fine all day!

Is there anyone else out there like this? If, not then just give me the number of a good couselor.

One reason why I am asking is because Greg always says, Well if you can't sleep you must not be tired enough. But I swear that I get really tired, but if I stay up too long, I get more wired and can't fall asleep. I ALWAYS pay for it the next day! But I've never been the type of person who could fall asleep during a movie or with the lights on reading, I have to be in my bed with the lights off in my pajamas with my face washed. Is that just weird, or am I really not tired enough?

By the way, it's nice to see you all again :)