A Rising Star

There was a radio ad for open Disney auditions this week, call this number and be one of the first....So, I called. They are looking for kids from 6 t0 16. Zander has mentioned in the past how cool he thinks that would be to be on a disney show. When I called they asked a few quick questions and then gave me an audition time and location. When we go we are supposed to take a head shot (boom!) and a body shot. I called my friend Jaime (a really good amateur photographer) to come and snap a few.


Here are the results.

You know it's HOT when...

- you're dangly earrings burn your neck
- after taking the windshield shade down, you still can't touch the steering wheel
- your legs sweat
- the unheated swimming pool is too hot
- you'd give your right leg to go swimming anyway
- the plastic sunglasses you left in the car (but not in the sun) burn your ears and bridge of your nose
- the plastic drink cup melts around the top when left in the car
- you step outside and are sweating before you hit the sun
- you can't walk down the driveway at 10 pm without burning your feet
- you learn (somehow) that nipples don't have sweat glands
- you set your thermostat for 78 and feel chilled when first stepping into the house
- it's 90 degrees at 8:15 am, and 96 at 10:45 pm while posting on your blog...

We have a guest room if anyone wants to come stay with us....
maybe in October or November. =)

My Girl (Part 2)

On Saturday Sadie turned 2!! She is getting so big! She talks so much and is saying so many different sounds. She fights with, and cuddles with, her brothers depending on her mood. And she has many. Michael just did a great post on her so now I'm doing the year in review of Sadie in pictures. Here are some favorites from the last 2 years!

'My Girl'

It's been awhile since I blogged. I guess I got out of the habit.

Sadie is getting so big. Yesterday while Keagan was going pee Sadie pushed the door open to watch. I went in and pulled her out (kicking and screaming). I explained that Keagan was going to the bathroom. Later on I was at my desk working on a client's project and Sadie came in with no pants and no diaper. Shocked (more that she got the diaper off) - I said what are doing nakey pants? She pointed to the bathroom which is next to my office and ran to the toilet. I asked if she needed to potty. She lifted the lid and then stood as tall as she could up to the toilet! I laughed out loud and then no little girls need to sit. I put the seat down and put the kids Dora seat on and tried to sit her down. She screamed in protest arching her back until I set her down; at which point, she stood tall up to the toilet to pretend she would pee. See never did.

An article recently published about how iPhones are the new busy toy for kids. When I read it, I thought, that is so true. Rachel and I have plenty of games apps on our phones and the kids play them all the time, car rides, church, in the house. One game Sadie loves most is a learn to read app. It has you match the letters and then says the word and a sound when you finish. Sadie has become pretty impressive with the game.

Today while reading to her she closed the book and pointed to each letter on the Peekaboo book and pronounced the letters (no coaching) impressively clear. B-A-B-Y S-A-Y-S. Needless to say I was pretty impressed!

Keagan is learning write and read. He knows he letters really well and can spell pretty well certain words like, Batman, Spiderman, Ironman, etc. He has demonstrated this as he is the king of downloading new movies through Netflix. All of them superhero movies. Though he can type pretty well he still needs work on his writing skills. Yesterday I was working with him on writing the letter K.

This makes me wonder...will handwriting become obsolete someday as texting and typing becomes more and more prominent? Ender

Here we are...

Zander: Do you know why Christmas is my favorite holiday?

Mom: Because you get to think about Jesus all the time? ;)

Zander: (thinking) Well, yes. But that's not what I was thinking.

Mom: Because you get presents?

Zander: Yes! And do you know why Halloween is my 2nd favorite holiday?

Mom: Because you get candy?

Zander: Yes! Two holidays where you get free stuff! It doesn't get better than that!

Man, is this my kid or what?! And is that good or bad??

In other news...

My job is still going great. I'm learning a ton every day and have decided it's probably time to start re-reading my textbooks now that I'm actually applying what I'm learning. The doctor is very helpful and answers all my questions. Still.

Michael has been looking for a job, with no luck so far. Until then, he's being a great stay-at-home Dad. As all you stay at home parents know, it can be exhausting fighting with kids all day, so I try to do my part when I get home.

Zander loves his new school. He's doing well. He got straight A's on h is report card a couple weeks ago. We've been able to see a few movies and go to a few activities here so Zander feels like he's been having "the best days ever" since we moved here. He's so cute.

Keagan is surviving being home all day with Dad and Sadie. He knows most of his letters, still loves to watch his Batman and Spiderman movies with Sadie, and play with his figurines, at which time he tells his sister it's a "one-player game."

Sadie will be 2 in January and is bossier than anyone in the house. When her poor brothers try to love and cuddle her, if she's not in the mood, which she usually isn't, she gives them the "straight arm." Still. Not sure that will change any time soon. But when she does allow her brothers to cuddle her THEY ARE SO CUTE!!

Texas has been good to us. The weather is colder than I thought, with temperatures this week ranging from the 30's to the 60's. It's cold in the mornings and nice fall weather the rest of the day. As for the humidity, when it's not hot out, you don't even notice it.

Our ward is great and we've made some good friends. We have new callings in church as the CTR 4 teachers, starting in January. So when Keagan moves up, we'll be his new teachers. We substituted in his Sunbeam class last week and there are 10 of them! Yeah, I said 10! It should keep us busy.

Another thing I love about Texas is the sunsets. I don't know if it's because there are no mountains to block the horizon, but I've never seen so many beautiful sunsets. One thing I hate about Texas is the traffic. the two freeways that I take to get to work are only 2 lanes! It's totally lame.

I don't think I have any great pictures of Texas, but here are some we've taken recently.

Our cute little family at our Halloween trunk-or-treat.

One of the beautiful sunsets. Not a great photo...taken with my phone while driving.

Dinner time. Don't ask.

Fall comes to Fort Worth.

Lighting of the town Christmas tree.

Zander got to be Joseph in our ward Christmas program. That's him with the scarf wrapped around his head. (I had done a better job before we got there, but someone "re-wrapped" him later.

To be a Mom

Last night Sadie woke us up at 4:00 am crying and covered in throw up. Michael and I tag teamed and got her and her bed cleaned up. Thankfully, he did the bed while I bathed the little one. (Throw up is one thing I don't deal so well with. Blood? No problem. Vomit? It makes me want to.) After getting her all cleaned up and in clean pajamas, I tucked her into our bed (with bucket nearby) and climbed in next to her. As I laid down, she rolled over towards me and put her little arm around my neck and patted my back, as she often does. I laid there being held by my little baby and was filled with warm fuzzy feelings about being a mom. There are few things that bring such joy as being loved by a child. My heart swelled and I fell asleep content, and nervous at the same time that she might throw up again.

One hour later we repeated the whole process. Minus the warm fuzzies. I was too tired at that point. And instead of falling asleep "nervous" that she would throw up again, I was sure she would and woke up with every stir and cough. Needless to say, I didn't sleep so well. But I would do it again because i love my children with all my big, swollen, happy heart. Even if I do have to pick vomit out of their hair.

My new job

Today marks one week at my new job. For those that don't know, I accepted a job in Fort Worth, Texas, at Rockwood Medical Clinic. I work with Dr. Guevara in his private family practice clinic. I've been working with him as I'm learning the ropes of the clinic and trying to feel comfortable practicing on my own. That may take some time.

When I showed up my first day, I encountered a number of surprises.

#1: MY NAME IS ON THE DOOR!! That's right. Look at that! I feel so important.

#2: This bouquet was waiting for me thanks to Dr. and Mrs. Guevara and the staff at my new office. Yes, it's as big as it looks. You know what they say...everything is bigger in Texas. =)

Here'a another shot the next day after it had started to bloom. It is an amazingly beautiful bouquet. And huge!!

This is the day after the Texas Rangers won the championship game. Everybody is so proud their team is going to the World Series for the first time ever! I came into work and Dr. Guevara was wearing his Rangers t-shirt and I said I was going to have to buy me one. He said he thought I might feel like that so he brought me his extra jersey just in case I wanted to wear it. Here's us in our Rangers shirts. And yes, he's only and inch or two taller than I am, and his wife is even shorter. =)

I love this new clinic. The MA's and office staff have all been so nice and welcoming. Dr. Guevara is so patient with my sometimes not so functioning brain. I love it here!!

My crazy kids

I've been writing down things the kids say that are funny and now need to throw away the scrap of paper as we're cleaning/packing.

So here it is:

Keagan: 1. (after Zander argues with me about something I asked him to do) "You got to listen to the mama!" in a sing song voice. So stinkin' cute!

2. When I was playing a game with him that works on his alphabet learning. He was getting tired of me asking and said, "Stop asking me questions. You're ruining my day."

3. After saying his first prayer that deviated from the norm, "I have a lot of words for Jesus!"

Zander: 1. He was playing on the computer with his friends and something wasn't working right. They started to ask me for help, then I hear this from Zander: "Here. Let me take charge. I know everything about this computer and how it works." I about fell over trying not to laugh out loud.

2. I was pushing the kids (all three of them) on the swings. I hadn't gotten to Zander in a few minutes and he says, "Mom, I'm losing altitude."

Where do they come up with this stuff?

And for Sadie? Her vocabulary is growing every day also. She now says: mommy, daddy, mama, mine, baby, doggie, hi, hello, bye-bye, yeah, owie, and probably other I can't think of right now.

I love my kids!

Keagan helping Sadie walk on the cement wall at the library.

Daddy giving horsey rides.

The kids weathering the heat on the way home from Arizona. This is a stop at the Marble Bridge (or something like that). It was so cool!

It's time...almost

We're getting ready to move. It happens ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!! We've been packing slowly, getting everything we own in boxes. It's tiring. We are picking up the moving trucks next Wednesday night, packing them Thursday, then driving Friday and Saturday to arrive at our new home in Fort Worth by Saturday night!

I've been reading my sisters blogs and they are so great (lately) about updating them and doing pictures, that I was inspired.

So, here's some random information for the last little while, with visuals. =)

A few weeks ago, Michael was on a business trip to Canada for a week. The first day he was gone, it wasn't even 9:00 AM yet and the kids were driving me crazy. I decided I didn't want to be mom and dad to three crazy children for a week by myself, so we took off and drove to Arizona to stay with my sister, so we could go crazy together!
The kids had a great time, of course. Here's some of the highlights.

We arrived about 2:00 AM. Because I wasn't planning on going, it took us a while to pack and get on the road. Then it's a 12 hour drive. The kids did amazingly well.

The play area/splashpad at the mall:




The pool:



The motorcycle:



We have a neighbor with a peach tree that needed help cleaning up her tree and yard. We picked 10 gallons of peaches and I canned 21 bottles!! And Michael even helped. Thanks Babe! =) Here's proof:



Okay, that's good for now. Enjoy!

WHEW!

Today was a big day. I took the PANCE (Physician Assistant National Certification Exam) which will give me a license to actually work as a PA. It is a forever long, 6 hour 360 question test. It’s broken down into sections of 60 questions that you have 60 minutes to answer, 6 times. Yeah, it was a long day. And it started with them making me empty my pockets and turn them inside out. I had to put my chapstick in my locker and put the barrette and clip in my hair before I went in. Had to take off my watch, and take the hair elastic off my wrist and put it in my hair! Not even that could be on my wrist. So I walked in with all three things in my hair and promptly took them out and set them on the desk. But I least I had them. It was crazy! The good news is I had 45 minutes of break time to take whenever. I started at 11:00, and took the first two sections back to back, then took a 15-minute snack and bathroom break. I went back, took sections 3 and 4 without a break and by the 4th hour of testing my head was swimming. I took a 25-minute lunch/rest/bathroom break and headed back to start hour/section 5. After that, I took my last 5 minutes to run a lap around the building and gear up for my last section. Then, WHEW!! I was done! I thought I would feel some great relief when I was finished, but I didn’t. Maybe when I find out I passed it will come.

I came home, my awesome sister-in-law Denise, who watched my kids had dinner ready and we all sat down and ate, then the kids and I watched the first part of Holes. Michael was busy with wedding stuff again tonight. He works all day at Curtiss Wright, then comes home and does wedding stuff. Thankfully he has now hired two very competent girls to help with wedding planning and that hopefully means things settle down eventually.

In other news, I’ve applied for a few jobs. The one I’m most excited about is at the Solitude ski clinic. That would be awesome! It’s a full-time, fully benefitted job, but seasonal. I’ve also applied with some agencies and got a call today about some openings out of state. I don't know, we’ll see how it all works out.

Zander started school yesterday and has Mrs. Baumgardner (Mrs. B) as his teacher and likes her. He seems pretty happy about school right now. That makes me happy. He's still the tall, skinny kid he's been still landing >97% for his height. And he's smart as a whip.

Keagan is itching to go to preschool and I’m itching to get him there. He's so ready to start having structured learning and play with friends his age. He always plays with Zander and his friends, which usually works out well, but I'll be happy when he's with his peers. It will happen eventually.

Sadie is getting as big as ever, starting to say new words and make new sounds. Tonight she told me that a frog says “bi-bi-bi” (like rib"bi"t) and that a cow says “moo”. She also likes to dance. Any time music come on she starts waving her hands and bouncing. She is so stinkin’ cute.

Now I’m ready to get me some ice cream, turn on a movie for me and just relax the rest of the night. Or maybe I'll sit here and read blogs. Something I haven't done forever.
And here are some recent pictures just for fun because everybody loves pictures!
Later!

On afternoon when we were swimming in our little pool. I don't have pictures of the kids in the water because I have to be there with them...=)

Some other lovely nature pictures. I love to take these.