California 2010

We made a last minute trip to Cali due to timeshare availability and ended up having a blast. We started our trip with delicious pastries from an Argentine Bakery thanks to Steve and SJ (Steven James has now decided he wants to be called SJ). The weather was a bit on the colder side, but we got to enjoy everything we set out to do. Here are a few pics of our trip.


Not sure what is being said here, but Christian was on one this trip. Everything had to be comical.

I am now beginning to understand why little girls have short hair. Comb anyone?

KT is such a cute mommy! She is also pregers, but not showing nearly as much as I was. If only I hadn't gained 10 lbs right off the bat....

Laguna Beach is our new favorite beach in California. So kid and Caro friendly. Icecream shop was only across the street....a stone through away. The beach also had a playground for kids who get bored of the beach...as if that ever has happened.

Of course D-Land was part of our adventure. Call me a cheapo, but those 274 bucks hurt more than I can explain. We will only be doing this once in a while. I would be content with never doing it again, but can that be considered child neglect and abandonment?

This was merely for the 1 and a half year old who has already forgotten about this event. At least this proof will keep it alive in her mind for the rest of her life. All is not a wasted.

Look at the happy look on her face. That was almost priceless. I can only imagine what she was thinking. Going from seeing this character on TV to real life must be some what confusing to a one year old. Too bad Mikey was wearing some kind of crazy winter outfit. Where are the traditional red overalls?

The whole clan at Disney. Minus KT who is of course behind the camera. These guys were troopers.

Love these kids. Am I the luckiest Mom in the world or what? It was so fun being together with them. They were so gracious, it was so pleasant to be there with them. Christian even got a blister on his foot from walking around so much and didn't complain about it till we were walking out of the park at 8:30 at night (by far our longest stay at any park ever).

And of course, our Cali trip wouldn't be complete without Best Buddy. These guys are the best and so much fun to hang out with. Glad we could visit the California Townsends while we were there.

Democracy is No More

I have tried so desperately to stay out of what is currenlty happening in our country. I feel so helpless thinking about politician's who disregard the will of the people and make decisions for us. But I don't know that I can do this much longer. I'm astonished and shocked at the way the health care bill passed. No republican votes, yet democrats called it bipartisan? How can we even sit back and let something like this happen? This has only made me realize the importance of learning about candidates. Not that we had much of a luxury between Obama and McCain, but I do believe a more conservative President would have known better. This is what I'm currently confused about. I know Obama is a smart individual. He's got degrees and all sorts of accomplishments behind him, so what is he really after? He knows what a bill like this will do to our healthcare system. All he has to do is take one look at a state like California. Too many people on welfare (Such as this new bill) and not enough doctors = shortages on healthcare. We currently cannot afford great health insurance, so if something were to happen to anyone in our family, we would go to the ER and get treated. With this new bill, we can go to the ER, but we may end up dead because there will not be enough doctors to go around. Not to mention what it will do to the economy, or hard working middle class Americans who cannot afford health insurance, but now will pay a tax if they do not have it. How is this a democracy is we are forced against our will? I'm beginning to believe that we are no longer a democracy but headed toward socialism and fast.

So, we will all now have some form of health insurance with all insurance companies forced to accept pre-existing conditions. So, why not pay the tax imposed on individuals who do not have insurance and then get health insurance when I get cancer? It appears more economical that way. I feel I still have one foot in the door and one foot out because if things get bad-move to a country with a better democratic government, but is there such a thing? I think this post is to help me feel that this is country worth fighting for and to not give up. Maybe someone else who reads this may be inspired in some way. But I must say, at this point I feel that it is helpless. Maybe Obama should pass a law that everyone must purchase GM cars so his car company can make a profit (I'm sure you've heard this being said) but is this not as ridiculous as forcing us by a penalty to buy health insurance?

Sinusitis

I have a sinus infection and haven't been able to breath through my nose for three days now. Afrin is heaven sent, except for I just used it for my third time last night and cannot do another day. I heard you can only use it for three days before your nose gets dependent on it? Not sure, but I know it's only good for emergencies, which this was. I will now be using my sinus rinse more often. Anybody else have other ideas? I just started on a z-pack which has greatly helped with the pressure. I can't wait to feel well again. The sad part is I finally started working out this week and then my sinus crap just got too bad. I am determined to run the 10K in May. Okay, maybe I won't totally run the 10K, but dang it, I'm going to do something besides lay around and feel sick-that, I am determined about!

Belated Birthday Blog

My sweet Nico has a birthday on December 29th and every year we seem to shuffle through it as quickly as we can. This year was his first year having a birthday party with friends. I also made a cake for a family celebration we did. He wanted a Lego Cake, so that is what I came up with. It took forever to frost the marshmellows, but that boy was one happy lego lover. Anyway, Nico turned 6 and I'm so thankful for the little guy. He has some pretty gross habits that are not blog worthy, but his sweetness and cute voice absolutely surpass all those other things we work on with him. Nico at six years old loves to do the following:

• Play video games such as the Nintendo Wii and his DS (which he got from Santa-lucky kid)
• Play the piano. He is such a great Piano player. He started a year after Christian and has caught up to him (may have passed him, but we switched books for him so it wouldn't be an issue).
• Ride his bike around the "big block" all by himself.
• Give Izzy so many hugs and kisses he gets into trouble for making her cry.
• Getting Valentine's from his mommy (he got a belated one, but it was good! can't got wrong with candy).
• Playing with his cousins in Colorado Springs and his Utah cousins. He can't wait for the Arthurs to move here. He keeps asking me how many days the Arthurs are staying. He does not comprehend "moving to Denver".
• Loves to play Kid's Winter Olympics-he and his brother created olympic flags for their teams and they play hockey in my dinning room. I love this game!
• He's great at putting puzzles together
• Loves to play Uno Attack-I love to watch him play. He says the silliest things!
• Says great prayers and works very hard at coming up with new things to say each time.
• Loves to make Christian and Isabella laugh.
• Makes a killer Top Ramen. We call him "Our Little Chef"!

That is my Nico in a nutshell. Happy late birthday kiddo!

The following are a small glimpse of our Christmas. I had so much fun with the boys tracking santa on Norad's website. If you have not done it, it is very entertaining and my boys could not go to bed. They had to check every minute to see where Santa was and where he was going next. I finally made them go to bed late and promised to take a picture of when Santa was in Colorado Springs. So, here is the picture. The website was great because it even has live footage of Santa flying over certain cities. We had a blast watching some of those.

Santa is currently in Cedar City, Utah on his way to Colorado Springs, Colorado (pretty much as close as he gets to Castle Rock.

We just put out the cookies and milk and thought we'd take a pic. Christian and his wanting to be funny phase....could do without!

February thus far...

has been quite interesting and not boring in the slightest. My sister came to visit for one weekend for a Job interview for her hubby and they're moving to Denver! I'm so excited. She's waiting till school gets out to move out here in May. Seriously? May is never going to come.

My parents came out the following weekend and stayed for a week, which included my birthday. I was sick for most of their visit (morning sickness, yes I'm pregnant and due in September, baby looks great). Their visit was a blessing because I ended up on the couch for most of the days they were here. I think they felt bad leaving me in such a predicament, but I've done this before and I'm sure somehow I can do it again. How do people work out with morning sickness that lasts ALL DAY LONG! I keep hoping my second trimester will be less harsh and I can start to do some slight running. I had a dream about running the other night, so Jamie took a hint and bought me new running shoes and workout clothes for my birthday. The kids also had to say three nice things to me for my b-day and Nico says, "I like it when my mommy gives me valentines, but she hasn't given me one yet. I gave one to her, but she hasn't given one to me." It appears I'm also a slacker in the mothering department because not only did I forget to give him and all the other kids valentines, I also completely spaced the valentine boxes for school and the valentine's for their class mates. Yup, mother of the year at your service. Christian woke up in the middle of the night crying because the next day was the valentine party and he didn't have any valentine's for his friends or classmates. I didn't even get up for that part because I sleep so hard when I'm pregnant. My mom was there and was able to tell him that his Daddy had gone out that night to buy them for him. Nico just missed the school valentine party all together because Christian was staying home and I didn't have the energy to drive him to school that day. So he didn't get any valentine's from his friends. Guess what I'm doing today?

On to other news, Jamie partnered up with another attorney this month. Seems like people need bankruptcies more than ever. It's great news for us, not so good for everyone else who appears to be struggling to pay the bills.

That about does it. Isabella is teething like a monster and now has 4 molars-thank goodness, she can finally eat more than mushy foods! Am I really ready to deal with 4 kids? You bet I'm not, I think Jamie and I think having lots of kids is such a great idea, and then we have to take care of them....totally different story.

My Proud Moment of the day!

So Isabella got what ever Nico had last week and started throwing up on tuesday. It continued through wednesday. I cleaned up so much up chuck, I think I stopped counting at 15. In the mess of things, I went to do the plethera of laundry piling up and noticed some water under the washer. This worried me, so I pull the washer out, cleaned up the water and called for help. Jamie had clients, so my father-in-law (aka Raggy) suggest I google it. Yes! What a great idea. I had fixed my vaccuum from watching you tube videos, so I went to You Tube and found out that not only did I have a leak, but my agitator was broken. It must have just happened because I never noticed it not agitating. Anyway, I had done a bunch of loads and watched for leaks (as stated in the You Tube videos), and nothing. The water was not leaking from anywhere. My conclusion was that the bucket may have been pushed to the side and water was coming down the side of the bucket. Easy fix. The agitator was a bit more complicated, only because I'm completely ignorant when it comes to using tools. How was I to know that there is a metric and a US system of measurement in tools? I had pretty much stripped the bolt and was about to toss the dang washer when Jamie came to my rescue and got the bolt out. I quickly replaced the agitator dogs and my washer now works marvelously! I've been pretty proud of myself for doing such a task, but when it comes down to it, the hard part was getting the stickin' bolt loose and Jamie did that for me. At least we make a great team and we were able to save $200!

If anyone else knows of why I was leaking the water in the first place, I would love the input. It happened again today, but a very small amount. Of course, this was after I had fit my whole body into the bucket in order to unscrew that stinkin' bolt, so I may have done something to the balance of the bucket. Anyway, I'm still proud and hope that the washer keeps working. I've had it for 12 years and I just don't think it's time to call it quits yet. I want to get a nice front loader, but I've heard they are not as durable as the old school washers (I guess they break more frequently-according to a repair man), so I'm going to wait until the kinks get worked out, then maybe I'll splurge!

New Year's Resolutions

My friend Korby put her new year's resolution (or her resolution for the month) on her blog and I thought it would be fun to share what our kids came up with for resolutions for this year. We did it for family night and had a good time/laugh doing it. Our kids pretty much came up with these all on their own. We helped with the wording, but the ideas are theirs:

Nico’s Resolutions

1. I will try not to cry if I lose my video games
2. I will try to be a better brother
3. Help friends at school
4. I will be reverent in Class and Sacrament

Christian’s Resolutions

1. I will try to not be so bossy to Nico (be more patient).
2. I will not give Mom a hard time about piano
3. I will try to pay attention in class
4. I will be more reverent in church
5. I will try to be a better example
6. I will read for the scriptures for twenty minutes every Sunday

Obviously Christian has more because he has more issues. Then we also did some family goals that once again, the kids came up with. We gave them the topics and they set the goal and then they gave us ideas on things we could do to accomplish those goals. Overall I thought they did pretty well. Christian really wanted to use the word "perservere", so we went with it and this is what we came up with:

Townsend Family Goals for 2010

Church

1. We will try to help one family find the gospel this year

a. Invite friends to church
b. Invite friends to come over and hear the missionary discussion
c. We will pray to help us find a family to share the gospel with

Family

1. We will try to be more patient with each other and not yell at one another

a. Have more patience
b. Read the scriptures to have the spirit in our home
c. Use our manners saying “please” and “thank you”

Work/School

1. We will persevere

a. Work hard
b. Get better grades
c. Not give up

After reading this you may think our family has yelling issues along with bulling issues and just plain issues all over the place. We do. I went one day without yelling at my kids and realized that it's theraputic for me and that the yelling I do is actually releasing some kind of stress/tension. What am I going to do if I can't yell at them in the morning to "hurry up or I'm taking video games away for the weekend," "You have 5 minutes left and if you're not out of the shower you're going to have to skip breakfast" (ha! like that's ever going to happen-such empty threats) My personal favorite, "What were you thinking?" Wow! I got going and now I can't stop. Here are just a few of the things you hear being yeld around our house (before our new resolution that is):

" Do you really think Isabella likes it when you do that if she's cries the WHOLE time?"

"Quit killing your brother" (video games really turn you into bad people all together)

"If you tell on your brother one more time I'm going to spank you!"

"Don't tell me, tell your Dad" (this one is one of my favorites as well)

"Quit talking and eat your food!"

"Quit talking and get your shoes on, NOW!!!!"

"MOM, Christian hit me"

"MOM, Nico is telling on me!"

"NO Christian, it was my turn!"

"NO Nico, this is how you do it, you're doing it all wrong!!!!"

"DADAADAADAADADADA!" (even Isabella gets in on the action)

So may the new year erase all these old ways and bring new and exciting blunders to our home. I need to find a new outlet soon!