I'm thankful for...

Ahhhh thanksgiving week ~ I love it so much for several reasons!

1.) A time to reflect on all of my blessings

2.) Most years we spend time with family
3.) The girls are off of school for a week

Just to mention a few. But this week we are in Orange county visiting Richard's sister and brother-in-law, Jennifer and Omar, and his mom Marian. We are having a fabulous week so far and it's almost over. It's going to be so sad to leave. We have been to the Natural history museum in LA, the children's museum in Santa Ana, the USC campus, up to visit Uncle Omar at his job (he is a police officer for LA county), and to the beach.

Thanksgiving dinner was awesome today! Jennifer made everything so nice and wonderful. Tomorrow we are off to Knott's Berry Farm amusement park. We will be joined by Grandma Marian, GG (Grandma Gail or Great Grandma), Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Omar and possibly Crystal who is Omar's sister. Should be big fun.

The girls love being in big cities. Everytime we come here we want to move here! It's such an amazing area. We love it. But something tells me it wouldn't be the best thing for our family to pay $2000.00 a month to rent an apartment. Crazy!

So that sums up thanksgiving week so far!

oh how they grow

It's hard to believe that Natalie is already almost 8 months old. She is such a little cutie! She has the best smile and it just melts our hearts. (she rarely smiles for anyone outside her family) I love how anytime she does anything all 3 of the other girls go "OHHHHHHH" in a high voice. She has recently started saying "DaDa." It'sabsolutely adorable.

We celebrated Halie's 7th birthday a couple of weeks ago. She is such a beautiful girl and brings so much joy and many laughs into our home. We took her to Applebee's (of course we did, the girls love it when they get sung to), and then Richard took the girls to see High School Musical 3.

What a different birthday from last year. Last year she had a round of chemo a few days before her birthday and was totally fatiqued on her big day. This year we ran, laughed, played, and just enjoyed each other! What difference a year makes.

Oh and FYI...Halie had an appointment with her oncologist yesterday and she is doing GREAT! She is getting better at getting her blood drawn, that is to say that she isn't freaking out anymore. She still cries at first but she's trying! What a champ. She is growing perfectly and her remaining kidney looks great. It's such a relief after each appointment to get the phone call saying that everything looks good. We kind of hold our breath until we get it!

A Rosalie????

What's up with that? When I think of Rosalie I think of a spoiled brat who loves only herself. How is that me?

Oh girls, girls, girls

Last sunday Richard and I were sitting on the couch when a little note was passed to us. It was a handwritten invitation to a "nail salon." It was adorable! We went and I got a manicure while Richard enjoyed a pedicure. They had a nail dryer set up (a fan), along with a nail station, a make-up station, and a hair station. When I was finished I tipped them all 2 quarters and the 'technicians' couldn't have been happier. This is why I LOVE having girls. They have such great imaginations and can play for hours with almost nothing.

change is in the air!

Okay so I'm going to do something out of the ordinary for me. I am going to make myself very vulnerable. I'm putting myself out there and am going to tell everyone of my biggest struggle since Sadie's been born. (okay not my biggest, but it's pretty up there on the list) After Sadie was born I had 20 extra pounds that I could just not get rid of. I tried everything and seriously nothing worked. I battled with self-esteem issues everyday. Well then I had my sweet little Natalie and was stuck with another 20 extra pounds on top of the already 20. Those of you who know me, know that I have always been relatively small weighing around 115-120, and athletic. So an 40 pounds of flub is just disgusting to me! So to add to this trial, I also suffered from Postpartum depression after Natalie was born. So all the extra weight was making my postpartum worse. And I am not a depressive person. I hate being down!

Anyways I am not one of those lucky women who loses weight when they nurse (actually if you are one of those moms please don't ever talk to me again!). Well the past few months I have been feeling more like me and getting past the depression. And Natalie decided to ween herself off of nursing and so I have decided to make a change. I am getting serious about this weight loss and started the slim in 6 program by beach body. I started Nov. 3rd and as of yesterday (Nov. 12th) I have lost 9 pounds. I am ecstatic! It is about time and hope to have lost at least another 10 by the time I am done with my program in 4 1/2 weeks.

So when I am done with the slim in 6 I will start the power 90. I feel liberated and am glad that this is working for me. I have been eating SO healthy and about 1100 calories a day. I am only eating fresh food (almost only, I have been eating some brown rice and stone ground whole wheat bagels), and although I am not strictly vegetarian but have been eating tofu and surprisingly loving it! So if anyone has any recipe ideas for tofu...bring it on please!

So there it is...it's all out there and you all know the embarrassing truth about me. I will keep you posted on my weight loss. And no way am I posting my awful 'before' photos.

Cutie Cousins

Oh my gosh we are so lucky to have my niece and nephew stay with us for a few days. Andrea had her baby on Monday morning (2:34 am) and since Luke is in school and they don't have any family around, we went and picked them up yesterday and brought them to Oroville. It is so funny to see how much Taylor and Sadie love each other. They play SO well and just giggle all the time. It's also fun to have a boy around. Andrew cracks me up! He is an excellent artist. Iam used to getting drawings of castles, ponies, hearts, and rainbows. Well Andrew drew a picture of iron man along with a detailed picture of his hand and glove. It was so cute. I have the best memories of my cousins Kathleen and Christy when I was young and now I get to watch my kids make memories with their cousins.

Sad day for America

It's a sad day in America. Americans have fallen for the smoke and mirrors and are expecting The Chosen One to make "change." How disappointed we will be when the only change he makes is to his stance on nearly every major issue facing our times. America will not be any better in four years. Only deeper in debt with increased spending on social programs, looser borders and higher taxes.

Mark my words!!

Should have elected Ron Paul.

on with the sugar high

So halloween marks our one year blogging anniversary! Yeah happy day to us. Halloween gets more and more fun as the girls get older. It was fun to see Sadie's excitement this year since she knew what was coming. When we were in disney world, we bought the girls really nice princess outfits. So McKenzie went as Princess Jasmine and Halie went as Princess Ariel. Sadie went as Strawberry Shortcake and Natalie was a lion cub. Richard dressed up as a vampire because he's awesome like that. He always tries to dress up with the girls. I dressed up as a devil for work but didn't think it was a wise choice for the ward halloween party so I changed it up and painted my face as a hillbilly. Anyways it was such a fun night and halloween is so great because it kicks off the holiday season.