12.24.2007

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well, it's almost Christmas. We are getting ready to do our Christmas Eve activities. I think we are going to make it!



MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY HOLIDAYS! WISHING YOU JOY
AND HAPPINESS WITH YOUR LOVED ONES!

12.21.2007

When traveling remember:

From Yahoo, WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN TRAVELING:

1. Mindlessly Stuffing Your Toiletries Kit in Your Carry-On

From now on, write this on your forehead: 3-1-1 for liquids and gels.

If your toiletry kit contains a family-size bottle of mouthwash and an oversize canister of shave cream, you can say goodbye to both at the security checkpoint.

No one bottle of liquid bigger than three ounces is allowed, and all the liquid bottles must fit into a one-quart clear, plastic zip-top bag. This is the most important rule to think about in advance, because it's the least intuitive one, and can cause your sundries to be tossed in the garbage bin if it's not followed.

The Transportation Security Administration maintains a Web site devoted to outlining this rule.
There are just a few exceptions to the 3-1-1 rule, according to the TSA Web site:
Medications, breast milk, baby formula, baby food and juice can be brought past security in amounts larger than three ounces, but they must be declared for inspection at the security checkpoint. "You just need to say it's for a child" if you bring those things, says TSA spokesperson Sterling Payne. (My comment: You can bring formula or juice BUT not milk or water, strange!)

Companies, meanwhile, are starting to make products designed to ease the difficulty of complying with the 3-1-1 rule. Businesses such as Easy Traveler, Tamperseal, Alltravelsizes.com and Family On Board, among others, offer products that can help make packing and traveling easier. (Again, let's make money wherever and however we can!)

Pictures

Had to post some pics of my extended family...

My nephews - Alex and Sammy. They belong to Merritt and Mandee. Aren't they cute?




These are my nieces and nephews at the VanOrden family christmas party - all of my dad's family.


L-R, Chase Bowman, Alex VanOrden, (I'm guessing my cousin Kelly's daughter), Abby VanOrden and Sammy VanOrden. Chase is Michelle and Todd's oldest son and Abby is Melissa and Shay's 2nd daughter.

Perspective

When I was delivering papers this morning, there was a card waiting at a house for us and addressed to the following:

Which made my day because it's been a LONG time since I felt like a girl, this 37 year old woman's body and mind sometimes doesn't feel so young! But it was surely a nice complement.

Getting ready...

I'm finally finally F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. starting to feel the holiday spirit. I've been able to do a little bit more shopping. I was able to get my little holiday scrapbooks mailed to my family this week, so I was happy about that. Yes, if you are waiting for a Christmas card from us, it won't be there before Christmas, SORRY! Bryan and I are just enduring until the end of the month between me working at the bank, him working his regular job and then doing H & R Block classes every night this week AND then us splitting the paper route, we are both very worn out! But the finish line is just around the corner and we are both excited for the new year to start. It seems like every time a new phase starts in our lives, we think, "Oh, everything is going to be SO MUCH BETTER!" and sometimes it is and sometimes it's not. So I say we are looking forward to the new challenges and adventures our lives will take come January 1 when we can get a little more sleep, depending on how are children sleep :) and maybe go away for the weekend. Of course, we are still not rich so we will go see friends where we can stay for free ;0 but it will feel nice to get away!

12.13.2007

Half-way through...

Well today is December 13 and I have accomplished NONE of my christmas tasks that I set forth to do months ago. Almost everything I wanted to have finished a couple of weeks ago, I'm in the middle of it. I don't even have any of our Christmas decorations up yet...

Part of the reason for this delay is that I have started working at the bank again, part-time. We (me and TPTB - The Powers That Be) went back and forth for about three weeks, finally settling on all the details of this "new" job that we both agreed upon. I am doing the same job I did before but I insisted and they agreed that I only had to work Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I was worried because I know what this job entails and I never dreamed they would agree to it. I was dreading having to work every day when I only need a part-time job plus it is extremely difficult to find daycare, let alone have to worry about half-days, full-days, etc. I was extremely lucky that this awesome lady in our ward wants to watch Carson and Morgan. Kimberly is a dream come true. She has a son Carson's age and a daughter Morgan's age. Her husband is in his first year of medical residency and she needed a little extra money so we were an answer to each other's prayers. They live in Rochester so Bryan takes the little ones to her house on the way to work and I pick them up afterwards. It is a little bit out of the way, but the peace of mind it brings knowing my kids are in a wonderful house is worth it. I don't mind driving the few extra miles...

I started working this week on Tuesday and let me say that the older three were not thrilled with this new schedule. It requires that I get them to school about 20-25 minutes earlier than they are used to, so we have to get up earlier, eat breakfast earlier, and they were not happy. On my first day of work, Cameron came home with a detention slip because he got in a fight with another kid at school at the bus stop. Yesterday when I dropped the kids off at school, Rylee was in tears because I had taken her AR book away. Jordan and Cameron were fighting in the back seat all the way to school. I had to go into the school and talk to a teacher so I hussled in with the kids behind me. As they all were walking into school, Jordan started screaming at Rylee and continued his melt down into the school which prompted Rylee to another round of tears for the morning. He was stopped by a teacher who then came in and told me what had happened, so I had to deal with that, talk to another teacher and try and make it to work as fast as possible.

Honestly, I don't even know if I am embarrassed anymore by Jordan's public meltdowns. It happens. However, I feel so helpless when he does that because I feel like I don't know how to calm him down. I pulled him to the side and told him he could not yell at other kids and if he was going to have a bad day at school, he would not stay. I also told him that he would have to go spend the day with Mark (his step-dad) because I had to work, his mom had to work and Bryan had to work. He pretty much calmed down after that, because he likes to be at school. I know 90% of Jordan's anger comes from interactions with Cameron but what do we do? They are brothers and they live together.

So hopefully they will get used to this new schedule. Tuesday nights and Wednesday mornings are always difficult around our house because Tuesday is church night and the activities don't start until 7 pm. Not that I'm complaining because for the past three years they started at 6 pm and that was almost more difficult trying to get the kids home after school, fed, homework done in an hour and a half before we had to head to the church. Now we have 2 1/2 hours BUT we always get home between 8:30 and 9:00 pm and that is so late. The kids are never ready to get out of bed on Wednesday mornings.

Concerning my job, I feel very lucky and also very torn. I am so lucky that this job just basically fell into my lap. Bryan and I had decided at the beginning of the summer that we would quit the paper route at the end of the year. I had decided that I was going to substitute teach to earn some extra money since we still need me to work some to get by. I did all the necessary steps to become a substitute teacher at the beginning of this school year and then I received little or no calls for the whole semester. I did get a call once when I was in St Louis at a drs appt for Morgan and then another time when Bryan was out of town on training. Both times I had to say no. Then the day before my interview for this job at the bank, I got another call to substitute. I just told them I was getting a job somewhere else... I need to make sure they take me off the roster. I thought that would work best for our family because then I would have my summers off and still feel like a stay-at-home mom. BUT that was not to be, so now I'm working at the bank. It will work well, that I still get some time with my kids but I won't get summers off and we'll have to find babysitters for the older kids when they are at our house (very expensive). However, it will allow us to stop the paper route with it's crazy schedule and to be able to take family vacations together or at the very least go spend the night in St Louis or at our friends in Charleston and not have to worry about the stinkin' paper route. Finally, I do feel like I have let my kids down since I won't be with all the time. I feel bad that I haven't been able to live so frugally that I can stay home with them. We have been living on the cheap side since we married, I mean have you seen our house and cars? BUT I have to remember that I have two wonderful happy children who are the light of my life and a husband who works incredibly hard for our family. It won't always be like this. Yeah, now I can stop my pity-party.

12.04.2007

Ice Cream

What flavor are you? I'm chocolate.

Click on this link and take the test...




Thanks Mandee for the great idea.

I LOVE ICE CREAM!

12.02.2007

Dishwasher


Morgan loves the dishwasher. As soon as he hears me open it, he crawls as fast as he can to "help" me out whether I need it or not...


Morgan's Hair

Well, it finally got to me so I gave in and had Morgan's curls cut. They were cute but he is so messy now and his hair would be sticky about five minutes after he woke up because he couldn't keep his hands away.

Here are some of his recent pictures:

We went to the Drown's house yesterday and Aunt Ashley cut Morgan's hair for me since I have no talent or expertise in that area.

Here is our new little man - all grown up. He made it to 13 1/2 months old without one single hair on his head being trimmed or cut.

Taking the kids to school

What has become a morning tradition at our house is about to change drastically. I just wanted to show what we have done for the past year and a half...

Most mornings the kids are at our house, Carson, Morgan and I take them to school. Many times, the younger ones go in their pjs. Sometimes we stop at Casey's and get a doughnut on the way home. They love them.



Cameron's 7th Birthday

This is a little bit late, but I wanted everyone to see Cameron's birthday cake. He wanted the funfetti cake mix and frosting. We ran out of sprinkles, so we used some of our own. If you look really hard you can see that the cake says - "Happy B-DAY". He loved it.



The kids were excited to have another birthday celebration.

Although at times it is difficult to get them to all look at the camera at the same time and smile.

Cameron was excited his presents were walkie talkies (real ones that have a 12 mile radius) and some Crayola Color Explosion books.

11.28.2007

Pie Pig Out

We started a new tradition this year, we invited several families from church over on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and asked each one of them to bring a pie. We ate pie, only pie, and talked and laughed and prepared ourselves for a wonderful feast on Thanksgiving day. I came across this idea in a Family Traditions book that my Grandma DaBell gave me. It said how one family always got together on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving and ate the pies - so they could enjoy them since it always seems like you are so full from the turkey and all the trimmings to actually enjoy the pie. So, we ate them ahead of time and it was wonderful. Especially after our hotdog fiasco , it was wonderful to have plenty of people accept our invitation. I think Bryan counted at one time and there were over 30 people in our house. It was fun.

Of course, I didn't make pumpkin pie because I thought someone else would bring it. Everyone must of been thinking the same thing because there was not one pumpkin pie to eat that evening. We also were asked several times if this was the first annual to which we replied, "YES!" So next year we will again have a Pie Pig Out the sunday before Thanksgiving and I will make the pumpkin pies and let everyone else bring whatever they want :)

Rexburg Temple Open House

I'm simply delighted that I am going to be able to attend the open house for the Rexburg Temple. The past few summers as we have visited friends in Rexburg, we always drive by the temple, envisioning what it is going to look like when it is done. My SIL Shireen called me on Monday and said they were getting tickets for all of us to go - yes all of us VanOrdens - I think she said that was 25 tickets. I'm sad that Bryan won't be with us. I am flying out to see my parents over New Years with Carson and Morgan. It won't be a long trip, but I'll get my cup filled (it's a large one) with family, hopefully enough to last me until June when I will be able to go visit again.

It's Never a Good Thing...

When you walk into a room and you can hear your three-year old but can't see her. As soon as you find her, she hides what she is doing and says....

"Mommy, you need to go away!"

It always spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E when I hear that lovely little sentence.

11.16.2007

Me and my kids...




These are the pictures we had taken at Target in October. Aren't they cute?

11.05.2007

More pictures

At the beginning of October, I had to take Morgan to St Louis for his quarterly check ups at the St Louis Children's Hospital. So afterwards, I took Carson and Morgan to the Zoo. It was the perfect weather to do so. We walked around for two hours and I got some really good exercise from pushing my two little ones in the double stroller. You should have seen the hill we had to go up to see the lions and the zebras - but it was well worth it. We had a great time.

As you can tell, the weather was perfect that day. I think it actually got into the 80's, no kidding! I just checked out accuweather.com and the high that day in St Louis was 83. So yes, it was a warm day especially for October. We were there on Wednesday, October 9. We did have one funny experience, when we were leaving the hospital and on the way to the zoo, it was dark in the parking garage so I turned on the lights and then forgot about them. I left them on the whole time we were at the zoo, so when I came back out to our car, the battery was dead! It was hot and Carson and Morgan were ready to go home and take a nap. The people who work at the zoo were so wonderful, (it must happen a lot, people with car problems). Anyway, they had us on our way in no time, it took them less than five minutes to respond to our vehicle and have it running.

Meeting our Neighbors (or cooking 200 hotdogs and only giving away 14)

WOW! Halloween night was just not as fun as it could have been for us. We, as a family, were really excited for Halloween. We had decided earlier in the month to invite our neighbors over to meet and greet and as a bonus, give away a hot dog. I know, I know, a hot dog is not the most wonderful thing in the whole world, but heck, it was free and gave people a chance to meet us. We passed out 150 invitations, to those we do on the paper route and then some of the streets nearest us. We were hoping for a good response. We had ONE person from the paper route come over with his daughter and we had ONE of our actual neighbors come over and get four hot dogs for her family. The rest of them were just random trick or treaters and also the a different neighbors' dog who couldn't resist the smell of the meat!

Hmmm, I don't know actually how I feel. Not overly mad, or even sad, maybe just disappointed. We just don't live in a very neighborly area. I know when Carson starts school, we will get to know a lot more people, but it is very lonely sometimes, not knowing but a handful of people in your town. For awhile, I have felt bad that we haven't reached out more to our neighbors, but now I'm deciding they don't want to reach out to us very badly either, or they would have done it already. Our one neighbor who did come over, it was wonderful to finally meet her and talk with her. Bryan is more social than I am and he has talked to them several times, I just wave. This was the first time that I really talked to her. At least now, we have someone to take treats to at Christmas and Boo next year for Halloween. I'm going to keep on trying to meet people, even if they don't want to!

I also don't think I'll be cooking 200 hot dogs ever again. I did get a great casserole recipe to share, to help use up the hot dogs.
This is the tent we had set up. Our good friends, the Vreelands, let us borrow it. They even came over and set it up and take it down. They were so kind.



Here are the kids, already to serve our neighbors. The weather was perfect to be outside on a fall crisp night.

Trunk or Treat

Every year, our ward puts on a Trunk or Treat. We all meet at the church, have a potluck dinner, the kids play a few games and then we "Trunk or Treat". It is always a super fun activity and the kids look forward to it every year.

Carson dressed up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Morgan was a Rooster. I got lots of good pictures of Carson; however, none of Morgan's turned out! I didn't want to stick him in his costume again, he was ticked off enough the first time; so it will be just a memory we have!
This was the only picture I got of Morgan, when we were getting ready for the Trunk or Treat. At least he is in his Halloween shirt.

I did a quick job on Carson's hair, but had to show that we were really able to get pony tails in her hair. Her hair is still pretty fine and not long enough to do much with.

Carson and her best friend in the whole world, Anna Headman. They spent the whole night together and had lots of fun. Anna was a kittycat.


Cameron came as a Boy Scout! The "Two C's" as Rylee calls them had a great time running around and trick or treating around the parking lot. Morgan wasn't as enthusiastic about the whole event but he sure loves his candy and anyone else's that he can snag while they aren't looking.

10.29.2007

Autism

Today, the American Academy of Pediatrics came out with a news release concerning autism. They are now recommending that ALL children are screened for autism at least twice before they turn two; once at 18 months and once at 24 months. YEAH! On the news release page, it lists "Red Flags" any parent will want to know if concerned about autism:

“Red Flags” that are absolute indications for immediate evaluation include: no babbling or pointing or other gesture by 12 months; no single words by 16 months; no two-word spontaneous phrases by 24 months; and loss of language or social skills at any age. Early intervention can make a huge difference in the child’s prognosis. “Autism doesn’t go away, but therapy can help the child cope in regular environments,” said Chris Plauche Johnson, MD, MEd, FAAP, and co-author of the reports. “It helps children want to learn and communicate.”

It's about time! Another great autism website, Autism Speaks, has a video glossary that parents can look at, that show developmental areas of a normal development and a child with autism. Every 20 minutes a child is diagnosed with autism AND 1 in 150 children will be diagnosed with autism. I have also read that in boys that it is 1 in 116, but I can't remember where that statistic came from.

Some other things to read: Family in utah that has six autistic kids; new autism; and "Being Autistic, Being Human."

Happy Family Home Evening

We are trying to meet our neighbors. We have only lived in this house for 3 1/2 years and know less than a handful of our neighbors. We decided to hand out hot dogs on Halloween and made invitations to send to our neighbors and to those whom we deliver the papers. We split up tonight, Bryan walked around a couple of blocks and I did those that were further away. The kids had a ball handing out the invitations. Here they are:

The missionaries are going to come over on Halloween and help pass out the hotdogs. Hopefully..., we'll get a good turn out. This is a big step for me and Bryan, going outside of our comfortable shells and meeting new people.