What do YOU think??

What do you think about our new lawn ornament??

Here's a closer view in case you wanted it.....

JUST KIDDING!!!!

I couldn't help myself and had to share these pictures!!! Greg replaced the toilet in the spare bathroom because this one was leaking and making all kinds of weird noises when the water pressure changed.

MOVING ON....

Here's what I really want your opinion on....

Yesterday we had a company finally come out and diagnose our pool leak, it turns out it wasn't the pool at all!!! The culprit is the spa, in fact, it is leaking in like 2 or 3 places....and these aren't easy fix places.  This spa was tiled with 1 inch tile throughout the ENTIRE inside...and where the leaks are, we would have to take out tile to fix, and can't get more to match.

OR.....we came up with another idea....demo out this sorry excuse for a spa and then make the step in front of the pool a straight line, and now we have a HUGE place for kids to run, and a place for patio furniture.

This is our "spa" - if it really qualifies as that.  I have my foot there so you can see how big it is.  The spa is about 5 x 5 feet - barely enough room for 2 people sitting across from each other.  We have joked since we bought the house that it would be better suited as a Coi pond since it is so small. 

Here are a few pictures of the backyard, you can see how perfect the yard would be if we got rid of the area the spa is in and just cemented the entire thing!!!

In this bottom picture you can see where the step up to the pool will be, and with the spa gone we don't have to worry about taking the step around it, we can just make a straight cut in the cement between it and the pool and make the step straight across!!

So, what do you think....I'll put a poll up in the right hand corner of the blog for you to vote...

Should we demo the spa and add more fun space, or leave it there and fix it??

Just for giggles

Lately this has been the sight at our house after dinner and before bed (around 9pm)...

Greg climbs in to the "cage" and lets Freddie climb all over him (Freddie is ALL boy...Karyl would never do it!!). The last few nights he has also started to enjoy using Daddy as a drum. He gets excited and starts beating Greg's stomach like a drum.

Can't you see how excited he is?? Ah, what fun!!

Help Make a Miracle

Baby Daylon - Help Make a Miracle

This is the website for the cutest little guy ever!!

He has a very rare skin disorder called Junctional Epidermolysis Bullosa Herlitz-Type (JEB)

We only know part of his family, but they are awesome - and when you read about Daylon and his family you'll fall in love too!!

He and his family are in Minnesota right now preparing to participate in a clinical trial involving chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant from his hero of an older brother.

They have been having lots of local fundraisers to help their family with the costs of Daylon's medical bills and care and I just wanted to share the website with all of you to see. They were having a Spaghetti Dinner this Saturday that has been postponed for a month or two that we were planning to go to, so if any of you would like to go with Greg and I please let us know, it will be a great dinner and we would love to see some of our friends there and have a fun night out while the kids are with a babysitter!!

What we've been up to....

Things have been a little crazy lately...but here are a few pictures to show what we've been up to...

May 30 - We went with Greg's family to visit the cemetery where his Grandpa, Aunt and Great Grandparents are buried. The picture of the kids is with Grandpa B's headstone...why?? Because this is the great man that our Freddie is named after! So, we took a picture of our little Fredster with his namesake.

June 5 - This was the Rodeo....we had a great time minus the heat and scorching sun!! The kids stayed at with Greg's family and we went and hung out with a lot of Greg's coworkers. FedEx made sure we had plenty of food and drinks, and there is a picture below of Kraft's contribution to the day...unlimited cookies!!!!

Here's Greg driving!!! Woohoo!!!

And these were all of the guys (and even a few ladies) that came from Greg's station. They all did great and we had a blast hanging out with them!

I did pretty well I have to say....I put on sunscreen, wore a hat and only got fried on the top of my feet and toes since I was wearing sandals....that's a miracle for me!!

TODAY

Greg and David have been in the back all morning laying dirt and sand and gravel so they could put these pavers in front of the shed. Doesn't it look AMAZING!!!! They've been out there pounding with that rubber mallet all morning, but it looks great, and it's one step closer to the best backyard ever!!!

We did a MAJOR garage clean out yesterday and I finally have my exercise space back (yay!!) and Greg and David are going to put all the holiday decorations in the attic this afternoon! Our house is starting to look nicer and nicer!!

I have been slacking on my baking, and that's why nothing has been posted on my other blog for a while. Last week Greg wasn't coming home until after 10pm every night so I really didn't have the extra time, but this week I have some GREAT recipes I want to try so keep checking back!

Oh, and for good measure, here are 2 fun pics of the kids....the first is just Karyl and Daddy goofing off, but the second one is Freddie. He has started opening and slamming the drawers on his dresser, and now he takes the clothes out - this day he took them out and they ended up on top of him...and his pants fell halfway down...it was a funny sight!!

What is that noise??

This morning around 9:00 am 3 of the 4 of us were laying in our bed sleeping when I started hearing what sounded like pouring rain, and then it sounded like someone was banging on the outside of the house....and I knew what that sound meant....

HAIL!!!!!!!!!

One redeeming factor about living where we do is that we get hail, a lot!!! It was rare to see in the OC, but here we see it ALL the time!!! I still think it's neat since it's the closest I've ever been to seeing snow - but since we have a one story house it makes for a very noisy experience!

I opened up the front door and it was starting to pile up on the swing, as you can kind of see in the picture above, and I watched it bounce off the lawn. It hailed for quite a few minutes!!

Now, it's warm enough that Karyl and Greg are outside washing the cars...what crazy weather we have!!!

Saturday is a special day

This morning Karyl went to Lowe's and built a catapult - and if you ask her what she built, she will tell you (she has a thing for remembering long words!!). She had a blast and it is such a wonderful way for her and Daddy to spend some time together without Mommy around!

Then, tonight we had a "Minute to Win It" party with Greg's family (don't worry, I'm only putting pictures of Greg, Karyl and I....). It was SO MUCH FUN!!! Seriously, if you have never seen the show, go to their website and you can get all the instructions for the games they use on the show. GREAT party games!!!

This is the game where you put an Oreo cookie on your forehead and then using nothing but your facial muscles and some creativity you have to get that cookie in to your mouth....

For this one Greg and I went against each other....you had 36 cups....you had to stack them up without falling over, and then put them all back in a pile by sliding the cups down the side...It was harder than it looked on TV but fun to try.

And I won by 8 seconds....

For this one you had 15 cups on the table in front of you and using only the expelled air from a balloon you had to knock them off....it was fun, but I was out of breath afterwards!!!

This was the game where you have 6 nuts on a small stick...you have to stack the nuts one at a time on top of each other with only one hand...this was a god one!!

Even Karyl got in on the fun...we modified a few of the games so she could give them a shot. She stacked the cups and slid them down, and then she used the baseball in the nylons to knock over a few water bottles....we didn't even bother trying to get her to wear the nylons on her head like the adults had to do!!

I have some catching up to do....

Wow, I guess I've been so busy with everything else that blogging just hasn't been at the top of my priority list these past feww weeks....I think that's OK since the kids, husband and house are the things taking priority, right??

I have pictures....and I am just going to post them below with short, witty and possibly sarcastic commentaries for your viewing pleasure (and I'll try to get dates too....for posterity adn future reference and all that....)

April 17 -

Greg and Uncle David putting wood boards in the Attic for storage...I was told it was like 150 degrees up there. I know, you're wondering what on earth got David up there in the heat and messy insulation?? Note the pneumatic tool in the second picture - Offer Uncle David a chance to play with the nail gun and he's there!!

April 21 -

Day at Disneyland - We met Greg's cousin Jennifer and had a blast with her and her boyfriend Jordan for a few hours. We see her often enough there that everytime we mention we're going to Disneyland Karyl asks "Is Jennifer going to be there??" This time she was and she and Jordan definitely made us laugh...a lot. Thanks guys!!!

Yes, you're seeing it right....the trams have doors on them now!!! The funny thing....the doors don't "lock" per say - you just pull the handle like a regular door and could open them mid-ride. My question is, what moron actually fell out of the tram, prompting this interesting addition??

Look at those blue eyes!! It's rare that he sits still long enough to really look at those baby blues, let alone long enough to take a close up picture of them....they amaze me every time I see them!!!

As you can tell, there wasn't much sun out that day while we were there, but the boys being boys decided they wanted to ride Grizzly Rapids....one of those rides where you are guaranteed to get wet....and they rode it 3 times!! Boys will be boys....luckily I don't think either of them caught pneumonia!!

Karyl loves Minnie, she is the only character that she will actually get close enough to take a picture with....I still don't know what Goofy and Mickey did to tick her off, but for now Minnie has her sole affection.

April 26 -

That's right, just a few days later we were back....

Suddenly she wanted to be photographed with anything and everything...every few minutes I would hear "Mommy, take a picture of me with _______" we had fire hydrants, the "O", and lots of other things she insisted I whip out the camera for!!

May 8 -

The Lowe's Project for Mother's Day....I have some very pretty pink and white flowers in there now....

May 18 -

In 6th grade I broke my pinky finger with a handball - it snapped it all the way back so it touched the back of my hand....in High School I had knee surgery and about 3-4 days after the surgery I fell down a flight of stairs at home....About a year ago I developed gallstones and had multiple attacks....Each one of those pains seemed worse than the one before....until this...

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Please ignore the ugly toenails and dry skin...my feet have been in sandals for the past few days and I've been too lazy to break out any lotion...and the adhesive from taping the toes together has been leaving dirty marks anyways....

Now - I will be taking another picture tonight to post....

I wasn't going to because the bruising and swelling was starting to FINALLY go down and it wasn't throbbing and I was going to try to put on my tennis shoes today - and then this morning at about 12:15 am I got up to see who was sending Greg a text (Thanks David) and I hit my toe on a metal stepping stool we have in our bedroom (That's right...a step stool - without it I can't reach the stuff hanging in the closet). It hurt more than when I originally broke the stupid toe. It brought tears to my eyes, and a few choice words.....the really sad part is that I hit the stool so hard it woke Greg up and all he saw was me leaning over cursing myself for being so short and needing the step stool and trying to gain enough sense back to stumble back to my side of the bed.

Already it has swelled again and has new bruises...so later today should be interesting.

I'm seriously considering how important the fourth toe is....and whether or not I could function without it. I have a bad habit of stubbing my toes because I don't always look where I'm going when I'm in the house...and this was the second time I'd stubbed the toe since originally breaking it, but that time wasn't nearly as painful or forceful as this morning.

On that happy note - here are a few cute pics of Freddie from Thursday - he fell asleep in the Living Room for the first time (he had gotten up early) and I had to take the chance to get some cute pictures.....

Geez, is it May???

OK, so it's been a whole month since my last post - I know, what a loser I am, right??

In all fairness, up until about 3 days ago I had been through like 13 different stages of sick - all of them involving some VERY swollen tonsils, lots of headaches and generally just feeling like crud.

After the first week of misery I sucked it up the beginning of April and went to the doctor's - he laughed (as always) that I waited so long and suffered and wrote me a prescription. The pills were huge and I don't do well with even tiny old Advil...so now I was miserable and had to swallow a giant pill. I did it, but after 10 days I had dropped most of the hacking cough and still had the worst sore throat of my life.

So, what did I do?? All the moms out here will know exactly what I did - did I go back to the doctor's?? Nope, because that would require another copay and an extra drive in to Orange County that I didn't want to bother with - I just sucked it up and mentally threatened my tonsils to deflate. Did it work?? Yeah, right...

While the cough and generalized stuffiness were gone, I still had the nagging sore throat, and now I could feel lumps and after about 2 weeks of having to take Children's Chewable Tylenol before bed just to fall asleep (that's right - the chewable stuff, I told you, I can barely swallow Advil when my throat is in perfect working order) I gave in. I couldn't handle it anymore and I took a look - I think poor Greg thought I had a tumor - everything was raw and red and there were white patches everywhere (I know, ewwww....). So, I called the doctor and was reminded that sometime it pays to keep the same family doctor that you've had since you were 4 years old - he gave me a small lecture about waiting, called in another prescription and here I am, about 4 days later and no sign of a sore throat!!!

So, the reason for the detailed medical history - partly to make excuses for not posting, and partly because I'm out of work for the day and I'm still in Medical Transcriptionist mode....it's an evil place in my head that involves words like jejunostomy and cholecystectomy and I usually can't shut it off until 2pm, which is when I would be done with work.

Oh, and for those of you who made it to the bottom of this sad, sad post - In other news....

Our big screen TV died on Saturday, Karyl came in to tell me that the TV was broken and I thought maybe Freddie had reached over and pushed a button. When I went into the living room I smelled something burning and we just assumed it was the neighbors since we had all the doors open (we get an AWESOME cross breeze!!). Well, the TV picture was tinted blue (not an option I could find to reset in the menu) and I soon realized the burning was coming FROM the TV.

It was quickly unplugged and we were left with a burning smell that lingered for a day or two. We now have our old bedroom TV (I think it's like 17 inches) in the living room. It makes us giggle every time we walk in because where the King of all Big Screens used to reside is a tiny little TV...with a lot of wall showing behind it.

We have to squint to read the guide.....

And then on Sunday I noticed water dripping from under the sink - luckily I noticed it right before bed because I opened the cabinet and everything under the kitchen sink was swimming. Yep, the kitchen faucet had decided to quit too. Long story short - my amazing husband went in to action and last night not only did he replace the ENTIRE faucet (base and hose and pull-out head) but we somehow stumbled upon a wonderful employee at Home Depot who rather than making us order the part we needed, said if we brought back the old faucet they would do an even exchange for the new one!! So, we now have a BRAND NEW faucet, for free, and it looks beautiful!! The old one was corroded because the previous owner didn't take care of it but it had been there just long enough that I couldn't get it all off. Now I get to start all new - I can't WAIT to do dishes tonight. Even the water pressure is better....and this new one doesn't have the annoying ball joint to leak from.

Ah, the joys of home ownership - replacing your own leaking faucet and not having the money to replace your big screen when it gives up the ghost. Oh, and if ONE more person tells us that "now you can get a bigger and better TV" I WILL slap them. When we bought that TV we were both working and just about to get married - back then we had what I like to call unlimited big screen TV funds. Almost 5 years later and we have 2 kids, a minivan and a mortgage - that means no more big screen TV money....although we did get a great rate on refinancing, and we figure that makes up for the payments on the van....still, no big screen.

Now, I need to get the kids up so they can watch Spongebob at a much smaller scale than they are accustomed to...good thing they are too young to complain!!

Happy Easter!!

I'm finally getting the Easter pics on here!!

The Easter Bunny came and visited our house and left the kids each a basket and some toys...and he even left some eggs on the lawn for Karyl to hunt for!! Karyl got up and the first thing she said was "did the Easter Bunny come last night?" She was pretty excited when she saw the baskets in the office!!

She wasted no time looking through and then asking where he hid the eggs...so we headed out to the front yard to collect the eggs that were left out there....conveniently they were filled with Karyl's favorite snacks like Fruit by the Foot and Fruit snacks!!!

Then we headed out to our parent's places to have an Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma and Grandpa B's place, and Uncle David and Grandma M even came over to watch!!

It was a fun Easter and it was nice to spend it with family. Karyl was so much fun to watch this year because she's older and understands everything, and next year she will have to compete with Freddie for eggs....he'll be a monster!!!

Oooh, I'm Crafty....

So, I've decided to make an attempt at online selling.

Please note this is only an attempt, I make no guarantees as to the outcome.

Here is the link to my Etsy shop - there are only 2 "items" in there right now. I want to make sure people are actually going to BUY the things I make before I start spending serious time and money to mass produce.

Dee's Designs on Etsy

If nothing else I have learned something very important from this experience...I am NOT a professional photographer - and my camera is strictly meant to be taking pictures of vacations and children making silly faces. I wish I had better pictures in my store, but I don't - and somehow I can't justify having our personal family photographer come all the way down here to shoot my pillowcases.

I'm really enjoying the pillowcases and have LOTS of great ideas....if you happen to have a hankering for some fun pillowcases, I take personal requests!!!

Clean Bill of Health

Yesterday afternoon we had a follow-up appointment with Fredrick's neurosurgeon to check on his skull and see if he has healed up and if his head has continued to grow the way they planned after the surgery....

And he was given a clean bill of health!! Dr. Muhonen was so impressed that his head has grown so round since he had the surgery so late (usually it is done at around 3 months - Freddie was 6 months). His head has continued to grow to the side and everywhere else it should and he has been released with only as needed follow up. When he's about 4 if he still has a small "soft spot" in the back (where the 3 skull 'plates' meet) then they'll have to go in and put some "wood putty" in the hole, but that's a minor thing.

We feel so blessed to know that he is no worse for wear after all this and that he has had what Dr. Muhonen could only describe as a miraculous recovery and outcome from his surgery. Freddie is proof that with enough prayers and well-wishes and priesthood blessings, ANYTHING is possible.

Now he just has the nifty scar to impress chicks with later in life. Luckily his blonde hair covers it pretty darn well and you don't really notice it unless you know to look for it!! YAY!!!

Church Easter Breakfast and Lowe's

This morning we headed out early (for us!!) to have some pre-Easter fun. This morning our ward had an Easter breakfast and egg hunt.

I made the chocolate cinnamon rolls that I mentioned on my Life After Diapers blog a few weeks ago....I should have stuck with the tried and true recipe for cinnamon rolls I know is awesome. Chocolate is good with almost everything, except cinnamon rolls...

Anyways, we went to the church and had breakfast, then the kids went and hunted for eggs all around the building. Surprisingly, Karyl caught on right away and walked away with a decent amount of eggs!!

Each time she picked up an egg she had to stop and check out what was in it...

I don't think Freddie was quite as excited about the eggs as Karyl was....

Then after the hunt, we headed to Lowe's, where Karyl made a Kaleidescope...it's kinda nifty for a cheesy Lowe's project!!