A Little Girl & her Potty....And Her Weird-O Mom

So the past couple of days Rissa has wanted to pee-pee on her potty here and there. Yesterday, however, she wanted to Pee-pee on her potty pretty much all day long! She was soo excited to fill her little potty up with pee-pee and then dump it (with mommy's help :) in the big potty! I seriously couldn't help but laugh my head off the last two times that she went! She dumped her pee-pee in the big potty, leaned over the bowl and SPIT (she's just a young padi-won (need to get correct spelling for that from the Star Wars Dictionary!)...her aim will improve with a little practice)! The realization that she had totally caught me doing that a time or two, and learned from it was just too much!! I'm feeling a little torn with the matter. There is, of coarse, that little part inside of me that is feeling so proud that she wants to be just like mommy, but ..Hello!! On the one hand, I don't want her to grow up spitting in the toilet after she pees "...just b/c my mom did it". Would it truly have any meaning to her? What about when the day comes for her, that her good friend tags her and she admits that she spits in the toilet, to the entire blogging world? How will she explain that? She won't even know why she does it! Now one the other hand, How hypocritical is that, for me to tell her, "No, no, Rissa. No spit in potty" ...when my whole family knows that I do it. I've always done it. I always will. I have no idea know why I do it, I just do! It makes me happy. When it's all said and done, I think Rissa is going to be a lot like her mother.

.....I wonder if MY mother SPITS in the toilet.......do you?...Mom? ........Nana? ....do You?.....

"Joy"

Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full. 3 Nephi 17:20

"This is one of my favorite moments in the Book of Mormon. After stating this, Jesus simply spends some time blessing and interacting with the children, while angels descend out of heaven. In this piece, I wanted to depict our Savior in that moment of "full joy". I see Him smiling and laughing spontaneously, filled with so much love for those young people, to the point of weeping for joy (as it mentions in the record He did). If its human nature to manifest feelings of joy and love in that way... then I have to believe that would especially be the case for the One who is the embodiment of every good and righteous instinct of human nature."
~Dave Bowman~

I Love it!! www.bowman-art.com

Happy Birthday BRANT!!!!

11 years ago, our sweet. tiny little Pre Mature (by 8 weeks) baby boy was born!!!! He weighed in at 4lbs 1 oz, but had gotten down to 3lbs 6oz after birth. He spent exactly 1 month in the NICU and then had the joy of wearing an Apnea Monitor for about 10 months. We were extremely blessed! He never had to be on oxygen, just a feeding tube until he was big enough to learn how to eat.

...wearing his protective glasses
...enjoying a little snack via feeding tube
It was hard for me, at times, b/c I was recovering from Pre-Eclampsia and an Emergency C-Secton, but I remember sitting in the NICU with him for hours just about everyday! Marty would drop me off at the Hospital on his way to USC. My mom, with her wisdom, did put her foot down a few times, and make me stay home to get the rest that I needed. I just couldn't wait until we could bring him home with us!!
Peepa & Meema loved going to sit with him in the NICU!! Brant didn't facny the feeding tube too much!
Our new little family! So young...so nieve....so much thinner! I'll never forget the joy and emotions and love of our first baby!!

Yesterday we Brant wanted to eat at Golden Corral for his birthday feast! We had a great time being together for the day!!
This morning we started the day off with our traditional "Birthday Breakfast In BED!". His breakfast consisted of Cocoa Pebbles, Chocolate Milk, mini candy bars and Butterscotch Pudding that he's been wanting for a week!! Brant also got some gifts. Torpedo Battle Ship and a Portable Skateboarding Rail were the big presents he opened. He couldn't have been more excited...well, if it weren't Sunday he would have been more excited...but he's totally excited to wake up a little earlier in the morning to hit the rail before school!!
Brant, we love you so much!!! We are so proud of your accomplishments and are so thankful for your sweet, thoughtful, loving, fun personality!! We are so thankful and blessed to have you in our family!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!!!!

Easter 2009

Easter Egg Hunt At The Park~

A ton of families from our ward met at the park on Friday, after school, and had an Easter Egg Hunt!! It was half day for the kids, so many of us brought picnic lunches to eat as well. Marty was off work that day and the weather was windy and beautiful, so it made for the PERFECT day to hunt eggs!! And just for sake of journaling, We really did miss being at Myrtle Beach for the Giles Family Easter Egg...Money Egg Hunt!!! Let's just say that my Family EE Hunt's are the type that get the adrenaline running!! This really was, however, the next best thing to being with family!
Marty & Amy hiding eggs for the 'older kids'!! Marty probably would've climbed some tree's during this part of the event, but he was hurting from a car accident that he was in two days prior...(more about that later:).

This was the first Easter where Rissa really got the concept....of pick-up the egg, open the egg, eat all the candy inside!! She was loving it! For REAL...moms & dads just through eggs all over the ground with CANDY in them?!! ...and all I have to do is pick them up? ...and I can just EAT candy all day long?! WooHooo!!!

Jacob climbed up in a tree for this one!! He said, "There must be good stuff in that egg for it to be up so high!!".

We decided to picnic, so Marty & I drove around and got everyone their favorite lunch food before school let out. Brant had his favorite Chicken sandwich! Jacob-Cheeseburger Happy Meal w/no pickle and no mustard! Rissa-Chicken nuggets & fries. Marty & I hit Subway.

Brant & Tyler...two cool dudes! They spent a lot of time on the basketball court, playing hoops with Marty and riding skate boards. I think that everyone that went had a great time! Thanks, Brea, for instigating this fun afternoon!!!

Our Baby Chick is a Toddler!!

I think it's safe to say that our "baby" Chick, has officially made it to "toddler" status! I'm no farmer, nor am I a Vet, so I'm not sure excatly what qualifies as 'toddler chick', but I am a mommy and the signs are all there: Eating solids, walking (a little wobbly at times), spirtting out unrecognizable chirps & babbles & playing more!
Rissa, seriously, thinks that Fluffy is her little baby! She let's him climb all over her! She has to hold him first thing in the morning and last thing before going to bed! Fluffy loves her too! He loves to sit and snuggle with her....and kiss her on the cheek:)


In just about all of the pictures I've taken of Fluff, Rissa's hand is somewhere in the picture...the nurturing hand of a mother, protecting her chick!

The Taylors have chick sat for us twice now. Once for us to go out of town, and then yesterday, Dawn took him to school with her for all of the Kinders to see! He ended up having a sleep over at their house (where he was very spoiled by lots of little Mommy's!!). This morning, when Dawn brought him back, he cuddled up in Rissa's elbow and they sat there for a long while, enjoying their reunion! Thanks Taylor's for taking such great care of him!!

Marty & Rissa spent some of their 'Daddy/Daughter Date night' on the kitchen floor with Fluff!

OK- He rarely eats from her like this, but she gets excited when she thinks she's feeding him!

Max still isn't too sure about this new addition. He can sense the competition!! We love our Max, though, and have just tried to reassure him that he will always be part of our family!!

Brant & Jacob love Fluffy too, they just don't care to hold him as much as Rissa & I do. For them, it's mostly when friends are over that they like to hold him a lot. Skateboarding, drawing, baseball, building with Legos, modeling with Clay & video games-on the weekend, are things that they are enjoying the most these days.

A Few More Spring Break Pictures

Over Spring Break, I was really wanted to go hiking. The kids didn't want to go, "again", so Marty & I took off together on a hike one day. We went on a new trail and we loved it! We saw and Iguana, some snakes, lizards of coarse and some beautiful blooms!!

I LOVE the beauty of the desert at this time of year!!

I LOVE my wonderful, loving husband!!


I LOVE the Saguaro Cactus!! As you drive (or hike) through the desert, they just look like happy people standing there with their arms out waving!! Call me Artistic...or Crazy, but they each have their own little 'personalities' and I just can't help but smile when I look at them!! Don't worry, I don't go around talking to them or naming them or anything!!

After spotting a few snakes on/near the path, I suggested we each grab a stick to have 'just in case' we needed one. Mine didn't last too long! It was forked at the end and I chucked it after about two mins:)Marty thinks he's awesome here posing, b/c he found the cool stick! It really was the perfect stick to hike with! Even more importantly, it would was the perfect weapon to use against anything long and slimy that might get in our way!! After about three mins, he gave it to me:) We women always get our way:) haha...he really is thoughtful like that, but, in all honesty, I didn't make him give it to me! I think he just didn't really want to carry one! It was a fun date and I loved our time together! Thanks babe!

~~Bowling~~
I took a few pictures of us bowling over our break, too. This was Rissa's first visit to the Bowling Alley, that she can remember. This is always a fun family outing!

Blog Award!!!!

Brea & Angeline!!!

Here is the Blog Award for the two winners of the "Guess Which Egg Will Hatch" Game...Brea & Angeline!! Girls, You can post this on your blog to show what a winner you are!! Thanks for playin!!

I haven't had time to run to Best Buy to pick up a cord to download directly from my camcorder. Since so many of you are wanting to see the actual hatching, and for times sake, I played the video on our tv and recorded that with my camera so I could get it on here faster. I know, I know....LOW BUDGET FILM we're talking here..but at least you get to see it:) Actually, Can anybody say, Seinfeld?!! Yep, it's that bad...It's about like Kramer's Pirated Version's!! None-the-less, enjoy:)...oh, and be sure to take your motion sickness pills before watching! I was pretty excited and for the two seconds that the adrenalin was running, I got a wee-bit crazy, going in circles to catch every angle!