Manic Monday

It was Greg's day off today, so of course this morning Greg worked on the shed and our neighbor came over to lend a hand...we still joke that he's only doing it to make sure that his side looks good, but he has been a HUGE help and is such a great guy. Whenever he sees Greg out working he throws on some shoes and comes over to help out in whatever way he can!!

Yesterday Greg put the trim around the door and under the roof...now all that's left is some fill-in work and painting the thing. It's going to be two-tone gray and it will look great with the pool cover!

Next, we just have a few cute pictures of Fredrick...the orange jumper was from Sunday, and the other picture in red is him in his carseat yesterday. He is getting super-good with his hands and is learning to put stuff in his mouth!

Before anyone jumps to conclusions, this is NOT another car...I repeat, we DID NOT buy another car!!

We went to a Dr.'s Appointment today in Mission Viejo (it's official, my gallbladder's days are numbered) and as we went to park, this car caught my attention. Not because of the great color, but because this is my first car. No, it's not just the same model or color...this is actually my first car, same license plate and all. I had seen it driven around before, years ago after I traded it in, I even got to talk to the owner once. The reason this is so significant is because the dealer I traded it to was supposed to scrap it since the frame was bent (my dad crashed it once and it was never fixed properly...). I told the new owner that years ago and he didn't seem to care.

Anyways, this is my first car. I saw it and couldn't believe it..I had to take a picture and Greg thought I was losing my mind. I think if we didn't have to be in an appointment in a few minutes he would have gotten back in the van and driven off!

So, enjoy the pictures...it was a nice stroll down memory lane seeing it. That car was good to me and I can't believe it's still running. It's a 1992 Chevrolet Cavalier RS, it was a great car and a lot of fun in High School.

What the?? Now there are 4 dead??

OK, so we had our 3 celebs that died...Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson...

Then yesterday I get on the computer to check email, pull up MSN and I see in the headlines that we have another death. I think I was more stunned and saddened by this last one moreso than any of the other ones...Billie Mays died yesterday!! His poor wife found him dead at home! I loved watching his Pitchmen show on the Discovery Channel and his OxyClean commercials were a trademark staple of the past years!!

So, RIP to Billie Mays, and our family's prayers are with his family. He was a fun guy and seemed like a decent person. I feel sorry for his poor wife! I have never purchaed OxyClean, but I may go buy a small container just to try it out in his honor.

Oh, and this morning, Karyl was in the kitchen with me while I was filling up her water cup and in the other room was one of his commercials playing...out of nowhere she stops what she was saying and repeats the tagline from the commercial "KaBoom....the power to get out touch stains" or whatever it is he says in the commercial!! It cracked me up that she randomly decided to repeat that!! We do own some Kaboom, although it doesn't work that well....

UPDATE: So we completed our second trio of celebrity deaths this weekend....before Billie Mays we had an beautiful actress named Gail Storm and a comedian from back in the day named Fred Travalena.

Maybe this will be the end of the deaths?? It's the start of a new week so we never know!!

Lowe's Kids Clinic...and Saturday Shed day!!

YOU ARE WARNED...THIS POST CONTAINS LOTS AND LOTS OF PICTURES!!!

Uncle David got a new camera (a SWEET Nikkon D90) and he has been taking lots of pictures of the kids...because it's a more "professional" camera, he can get shots that we can't and they are awesome!!

Today at Lowe's they made pirate ships that even had a retractable plank for your toys to "walk the plank" on!!

Are these kids not the cutest...the last pic of Freddie was Uncle David's favorite for the day!!

We have such beautiful children...how could you NOT want to just snuggle up with them??

And here is a pic of the shed this morning...they got the window in and are working on the door right now. It looks like a little house with the twirly vent on top and the skylight!!

Last Saturday...and 4 months today!!

Alright, I know this is a week late, but it's been busy around here and I just haven't had the patience to sit and wait while the pics upload...so here are the pics of the shed from last week and some pics of Karyl and Freddie in their matching Hawaiin outfits...so cute!! Oh, and Freddie officially is 4 months today!! Where does the time go??

Here is the shed with the roof and all accessories on.

Greg and our neighbor working on the twirlybird vent thingy (and yes, that is the technical name as far as I'm concerned). Greg joked that the only reason our neighbor came to help was to make sure his side looked good!!

Here they are all cute and matching. Greg has a matching shirt and I have a matching dress (that almost fits me again!!) and even Grandpa has a matching shirt (see below) and we even found out that aunt Christine has a matching skirt!!

And lastly, this is an updated picture of Freddie from about 10 minutes ago. He is napping and pulled the burpcloth we lay under his head up over his head (my guess is he was snuggling with it!!), so precious...can you believe this little guy is 19 pounds and only 4 months old as of today!?!?!

Who's next??

Well, they say celebrities always die in groups of threes....

This morning Farrah Fawcett...

A few minutes ago Michael Jackson...

If I were famous I'd stay in the house and lock the door until someone else goes. At this rate it should be in the next few hours....

UPDATE
Someone brought to my attention that MJ was the third death, we had EdMcMahon the other day...celebrities can roam the streets freely again.

4 Month Stats

I wanted to post Freddie's 4 month stats now before I forgot too...I will post some more pictures (hopefully tomorrow) of the progress the guys made on the shed and of the kids.

Weight: 19 pounds 2 ounces
Height: 25 inches

That's right, that's 19 pounds!! I checked, and at this age Karyl was already above average and she was 16 pounds 9 ounces!!! He is officially off the charts with his weight and according to the doctor and every astonished nurse he is the size of a 9 month old, which would explain why people always guess he is at least 6 months old!!

Luckily, his height and general size is above average, so the weight is perfectly healthy and I have been told to keep doing EXACTLY what I've been doing...I was also applauded for the fact that he sleeps through the night. There is nothing better than hearing your Pediatrician tell you sincerely, "Good Job!!"

We are excited that he is so big and super strong (YAY!!) and can't wait to see how much bigger he gets. Although, I am about 2-3 weeks away from losing the convenience of the car carrier since his weight will put him over the limit...but we only used it for Karyl until about 5 months because her feet started sticking over, and his are too....oh well...a fair trade for healthy kids!!

This is What You Ought To Know

I am not a salesman...I could never hold a job that was dependent on me selling a product, no matter what it was. I never forward bulk emails to people, and quite honestly I hate it when people put me on their list when they forward some dumb email about rainbows or kittens or anything "inspirational" (sorry to be so blunt, but it's true!).

That being said, I want to preface this post by saying that I am not receiving any kind of compensation, points or other positive reward by posting this. Greg and I LOVE this website and their shows and because we really enjoy their webcast and we really like the guys involved, and we would hate to see them fail if there was anything we could do.

Please check out their website and watch a few of the videos...if you want some recommendations of which ones to watch please ask, I will tell you which ones are our favorites. Then, if you like them and they make you laugh, pre-order their DVD for $15 with shipping. They have to have 150 pre-orders to make the DVD and 650 to keep the show going through the summer. We are pre-ordering at least one copy, possibly more.

The guys that run the website are 2 brothers, the Brothers Winn....the camera guy and the guy in front of the camera. They live in the San Diego area and I think both are BYU graduates (at least one of them is).

So, please click on the link below and at least watch a video or two...they are only a few minutes long and I give you my personal guarantee that you won't be wasting your time.

http://www.whatyououghttoknow.com/

Thanks for reading, and remember that I wouldn't be promoting this unless I felt strongly about it and truly enjoyed it and wanted it to succeed!!

My kids are cuter than yours

Yeah, sorry, but it's true. Most of these pictures were taken yesterday in the middle of a whirlwind of snot and whining (some of that from me!!) and you'd never know they had colds (or whatever this is...). I am so blessed to have such great kids!!

In fact, Karyl was an ANGEL yesterday. I got practically NO sleep the night before so I was dead tired...on top of that I am getting over whatever cold mutation we all caught so I was tired from that. I was sitting in our recliner with Freddie on my lap and he had fallen asleep finally and wasn't snorting or wheezing or anything, just peaceful, and I didn't dare move...so I got tired and wanted to sleep. Karyl, being the big girl she is, agreed to stay in the family room where I was and I took a few short naps (every 15 minutes or so she would notice I was asleep and very gently come over, pat my arm, and ask if I was feeling better). She was so sweet and she stayed in the room, watched cartoons and played with her toys. I got some much needed recovery napping done and she had fun playing doctor and trying to fix me.

Now, here are a few cute pictures from the last week...can you believe how big Freddie is getting? He is about 3-1/2 months and about 17 pounds!!

Seriously, he is the cutest little man there ever was...and his giggle is just infectious. When he giggles and smiles you can't help but do it too. Honestly, there is something about when he smiles that just makes me feel like everything in the world will be OK.

And here's the big girl...we were in the other room getting Freddie ready for bed and we heard her walking down the hall, but louder than usual...this was what we saw. She had a HUGE smile on her face and was so excited she got to wear mommy's shoes. Little does she know that as she gets older those clown shoes will probably end up being just the right size.

Which leads me to a note for Karyl...that's not all mommy's fault...you can thank Aunties Christine and Carri for the foot size gene too!!

Oh, and on a side note....I want to thank my friend Nancy for cutting my hair on Thursday!! I LOVE it!! It was fun to have an excuse to chat with Nancy and to see her adorable little girl Sasha. This little girl is all feminine cuteness with her blue eyes and adorable face!! I cut my hair again to my shoulders and she did an awesome job with the layering, I actually would feel cute wearing it down and think I might on Sunday....

When I talk in Sacrament meeting....which also means I have to get a new outfit and pair of shoes to wear, right?? I just assumed that was one of the perks of agreeing to talk, especially on a Holiday (Father's Day). Besides, I don't have to feel guilty because I still have a gift certificate I won from work a few weeks ago that I still need to use.

Oh, and another side note...my brother came over this morning to help out with the shed again and he brought with him his new Nikkon digital SLR camera!! This thing is amazing!! I don't understand all the stuff about photography (shutter speed, filters....) but he took a few pics of Karyl just goofing off and it was awesome!! Now we can take family pictures =) For those of you who don't know, when David was in High School he won many awards for his photography and I can't wait to see what he does with this awesome new camera, I am definitely preparing for some amazing pictures to come from him!!

Slow night

Well, last night was not the best night....but I've had worse! Karyl got up kind of early yesterday and with all the fun she never took a nap. When Karyl gets over tired, it messes with her sleeping and she ends up waking up in the middle of the night screaming because she's just too tired to deal with going back to sleep. So after I had been asleep for maybe 45 minutes, she started in....then after getting her calmed down and back in bed after threats if she woke up Freddie I got back in to bed. Then listened to her whine for about 10 minutes before she finally went back to sleep. Then right as I had reached the edge of sleep Freddie started whining and snorting. He has his first "cold" and since his nose is kinda stuffy he can't suck his thumb, which frustrates him to no end!!

So he whined for a while and went back to sleep...then as I was getting closer to going back to sleep poor Greg moved around and jolted me awake, he kinda got the wrath of the tired mom at that point. Unfortunately he just happened to be the one to take the blow for everyone else keeping me awake. Luckily earlier that evening when we got home his Father's Day present had arrived, so I'm hoping that the gift softened him and he wasn't cursing me too much this morning.

Then as I got up to start working this morning Freddie decided to snort himself awake. And he screamed and screamed....no binky worked, he couldn't suck his thumb...and I attempted to threaten him if he woke up his sister but then realized that would do no good so I decided to try feeding him. That actually worked, sitting up he started to breath better and was able to eat. Then I put him in his swing and he whined for a little while but started reaching up and playing with the toys and at some point lost consciousness and is asleep, so I logged on and furiously started working as fast as possible to get as much done as possible while he is asleep. Now I'm out of work and just spent the past 20 minutes trying to find where they might sell refill filters for the humidifier we have. I had just about lost hope when Walgreen's came through, and there is one right down the street!! I ruined the last one by leaving it in the machine with water...I had no idea it would get all gross...

So, I'm tired....very, very tired...but that is all masked by the joy I realized this morning when Freddie was able to drink from his bottle, that's my fear with young kids and bottles, they get such a bad cold that they can't even eat. Luckily we're not at that point. If this is a cold...3 days coming, 3 days here and 3 days going...it's been coming for about 3 days, so now we have the whole weekend to let it hang around which is great because Greg has Monday off, then it should head back to the depths of viral hell sometime next week. He is definitely not quite as good as Karyl with sick, but better than most kids so he gets points for that!!

Now I am going to just putz around until more work shows up and the kids wake up...I don't dare leave my office for fear that I'll wake up Freddie, and that would be a tragedy!!

Saturday...Part III

Well, we ended our Saturday at home with the men getting all the wood on the roof and cutting out the hole for the skylight. Even though they were getting tired, that didn't stop them from having a few good laughs before they wrapped things up for the day.

No, he wasn't holding on to the power line for support....

Uncle David conquering a fear of heights...or maybe it's just a fear of being

10 feet up in the air handling power tools??

The end result for Saturday...from the outside and the inside. I think they are doing an awesome job and are getting close to finishing!!

And, since we're talking about all the testosterone that has been flowing here today, it seemed only fair that Freddie get in on this post since he falls into that category...so here is a super cute video of him talking to me while Karyl was taking a nap and the men were outside cutting stuff up.

And of course, I have to do something to add a feminine edge to this post...so here is another Twilight quote:

"You're awfully small to be so hugely irritating."

Lowe's Putting Green

On to the second adventure for our Saturday...we headed over to the local Lowe's and Karyl made a putting green. It was super easy to make so it didn't take long but she had fun and she is getting REALLY good at hammering with the hammer and nails!! Here are a few pictures and a video of her trying to put the ball in the hole...

Uncle David came with us and Karyl even let him walk her across the street!!

She'll be building these on her own in no time!!

Daddy really needs to work on her golf swing...

And last but not least, here is Karyl trying to get the ball in the hole...obviously she hasn't learned how to use a golf club yet!!

Oh, and we need a Twilight quote for today...

This one is more of a conversation, but it's great nonetheless!!

Alice: "I'll play you for it. Rock, paper, scissors."

Edward: "Why don't you just tell me who wins?"

Alice: "I do. Excellent."

More Manly Bonding...

Right now, as I type, Greg and David are out on top of the shed nailing the wood for the roof on. Here are the most recent pictures of them working...

I wasn't terribly nervous about them being up there, being that they are grown men and know their limitations....but Greg being Greg had to mention that they had already discussed it and if one of them was going to fall they were either going to aim for the pool or I could knock on the neighbor's door to collect the body.

May your Saturday be less stressful than mine!!

A few favorite Bella quotes

"I already know how strong you are. You don't have to break the furniture"

"I can't imagine how awful that must feel. Being normal? Ugh."

And a cute, quick conversation between Alice and Bella:

Alice: "No one will dare to call you plain when I'm through with you."
Bella: "Only because they're afrrain you'll suck their blood."

Oh Twilight...when will my addiction end??

Disney fun

We don't take nearly as many pictures of Freddie as we should...I guess with the second child you have less and less time to follow them around with your camera!! Here are 2 cute pics from the past week of our little man!!

Wednesday we headed to Disneyland to meet Greg's cousin, Jennifer, and her friends. We also wanted to meet up with John and Kelsi, but we just missed them before they went to dinner...hopefully next time we can get together! Here are a few pictures of us at Disneyland...let me tell you, taking a toddler and an infant to Disneyland is no easy task, especially when mixed with sun, a heavy stroller and a serious lack of sleep the night before!!

Thanks Jennifer and friends for hanging out with the old married lady and cute kids for a while, Karyl had a BLAST!!

Saturday Part II

Saturday after the Kid's Clinic David and Greg got down to business and worked on the shed some more. After lots of hammering and sawing and the use of many, many other loud power tools they got most of the framing for the roof up. Here are a few pics to show their progress, and to show that they were having a good time too!

Ah, boys and their "male bonding"...nothing else encourages manly bonding more than a yard full of power tools and building something.

And to avoid this post being filled with too much testosterone, here is another random Twilight quote...

"This hostage stuff is fun" - Eclipse, Alice talking to Bella