Halloween and Fall Stuff

Well, I guess I'm done adding pictures--blogger won't let me add anymore.
These are from our ward trunk-or-treat on Sat, Oct. 30. I had bought a new storm trooper costume for Cory this year, and last minute he decided to wear his ninja costume from last year. Okay..... I told him I was NOT going to buy him a new costume next year. Hailey was a cheerleader, and Sophie was a hula girl.




This is Spencer, Cory's best friend, and Cory after a soccer game from this season.


This is Hailey with Brooke (Spencer's sister). They kind of like each other....just a tad.
So cute!




This is Hailey with two of her Joy School buddies. She's the only girl in our Joy School with 3 other boys. We went to a pumpkin patch for a fieldtrip right before Halloween. It was in the low 80's that day--we were hot!

Sophie eating our lunch at the pumpkin patch.

In early October, three of my sisters came out to San Diego for a sisters weekend. We stayed in a hotel for 3 nights in Pacific Beach. We went to Los Angeles one day and did Universal Studios Theme Park. After that, we went to the Chinese Mann Theater (pictured here), and saw lots of stars' handprints.

Some of the cast from Harry Potter.

The next day for our sisters weekend, we hiked Torrey Pines Preserve (the picture below this one), we played on boogie boards at the beach, then we went on a pretty intense bike ride along the hilly coast of La Jolla, California (just north of the city of San Diego.) So fun! It was an awesome three days away from our kids. (Between the 4 of us, we have 15 kids!!) I'd say it was a much-needed break. Here, Christy is pulling me on a boogie board. We also rode them coming in on the waves--the way you're supposed to!

Meditating in a rock cavity on our hike of Torrey Pines Preserve.

I'm actually not in this picture (below). That's Annette in the middle. I was taking the picture. Everywhere we went, people asked if we were sisters. 'Ya Think??

End of Summer

This is Sophie in our front yard. We had a few days this summer where it got up into the low 90's, and considering we don't have A/C, that felt pretty hot! Luckily, we had this little pool to cool off in, if we were too lazy to drive to the big pool.



Hailey on the first day of Preschool. I am doing Joy School with her and 3 other moms. (We take turns every 4th week to teach two days a week. She loves it so much! She's the only girl, and the other three boys are very "boy", but she's holding her own!

Cory on the first day of 1st Grade!! He looks pretty tired because we have to leave the house at 7:15 AM to get to school on time. (No buses in CA) His school starts at 7:45.

When we visitied my parents in Gilbert, AZ the end of August. This is Hailey hugging her cousin, Emma. She sure loves babies!

This is Sophie hugging her cousin, Emma. Sohpie loves babies even more than Hailey! (Poor Emma.)

Hailey playing dress-up in some dress- up clothes at my parent's house. I used to play dress-up in these clothes 20 years ago!!

This is Sophie with Laura Roe's little boy, Landon. They are about 7 months apart. I visited Laura while she was staying at her in-laws house in AZ, when I was there visiting my parents!

Me with Laura Roe at her in-laws house in AZ. Good times!

Weston, Cory's first best friend from the Univ. of Utah married student housing (The Village), Hailey, and Cory.

Hailey playing more dress-up at my parent's house. Good thing my mom saved all those ancient clothes, right mom?

One of our last trips to the beach before school started. This was at Del Mar Beach. It was one of the few very sunny, very warm days we have ever been to the beach. Of course Trent missed it--he was at work. But most of the time when we've gone to the beach it's either a little cloudy, all the way cloudy, and it's just breaking 65 degrees. But this day, it was actually in the upper 70's!

Cory had so much fun jumping in the waves with all his friends. (It was finally hot enough to want to jump waves!)

Hailey and Sophie with some friends at the beach.

This is the position our kids assume when we say "family prayer time". It all started with Sophie diving under Trent's frame to "kneel" underneath him and then all the kids had to start copying her, until now, it's turned into this. We do make Cory and Hailey at least kneel down under daddy. Sophie is still allowed to just sprawl about wherever.

Eating S'mores at our ward campout.

The view of Escondido from our campsite. Hailey is just a few feet from where our tent was set up.

The view from the other side of the hill at the ward campout. This campground was just a 30 minute drive from our house.

Trent grilling up some mean steaks and modeling his new apron I got him for Father's Day. (It says Real Men Don't Use Recipes.) Those were some of the best steaks he's ever done. They fed all 5 of us for 2 nights. (I think we made steak fajitas on the second night.

Play time with daddy on the floor.

After our many trips to Sea World this spring and summer, the kids collected everything they've gotten from Sea World over the last year. (We usually don't buy them souvenirs, a lot of this stuff was when we went to Sea World in April of 2009 before we had any idea we were moving to San Diego.) They put on the dolphin show for us using their stuffed animals and the Sea World Barbie that Hailey's holding. I was trying to sing the song that you hear during the show. It was pretty funny! (My attempt at singing a song I've heard just 5 or 6 times, not the show.)

The Cirque de la Mer set at Sea World.

The kids with a giant Shamu that someone didn't want and offered it to us. We took lots of pictures with it, and then left it on the grass and told some people no one wanted it. (Maybe if we had a giant, empty basement we would've taken it home with us!)

Cory lost BOTH of his front teeth within 4 days of each other, and then a couple weeks later, school started. What a great way to start out first grade!

This was one day when Hailey gave Trent very explicit instructions on how she wanted him to do her hair. He thought it looked pretty silly, but Hailey was so proud of her creation, and Trent wanted to document this hairdo, so he took a picture.

Sunday Walk on the Beach

Our family on Sunday evening at Pacific Beach in San Diego. This is 35 minutes from our house. (Without traffic!)



We went to Ryan and Julie's house (cousins) for Sunday dinner, and then we took a stroll at Pacific Beach at sunset. I can't believe we've lived here for 7 months and we've never done this!! (Probably because our kids ended up going to bed way too late that night!)

But it was still so gorgeous and so much fun.

The kids were just running around with their cousin, Sam, the whole time.

Sophie took a few minutes to warm up to wanting to get down from daddy's arms. The water was practically warm compared to what it is in the winter. (65 degrees compared to 59)

So the real question is, is San Diego worth the insane home prices, gas prices, and everything prices in exchange for this? I think it's all relative with how much money you make, and if you have family close by. So for us, it's great to live here while Trent's in school, but probably not for long after that.

SAHM Again!

When they ask me at work, "Why are you leaving?" The answer is simple. I will point to these three pictures.

I will be officially leaving my part-time job on August 6. I'm so excited! Which is strange because when I first got my job in March, I really liked it and I enjoyed the breaks it gave me in the mornings to step outside the home. (It was my first paid job in over 6 years.) But now that I've been doing it for over 5 months, now that Trent has a full-time job, and now that our student loans are finally coming, I'm happy about returning home.

Sophie is growing so fast each day, I miss her terribly, even though I get home by 1pm. Sometimes when I'm sitting at my desk, I imagine her walking around the corner with her pudgy, tanned arms outstretched to me and her unruly blonde curls, and I get all choked up! When I told them my time was up here and I wanted to return home to my kids, they asked me how much I would need to be making per hour to make it worth it. (They knew my daycare costs were the large majority of my paycheck. ) I told them $20/ hour, partly in jest because what company in their right mind would pay an HR Receptionist $20/hour and also because even if they offered that, I still wouldn't stay. Pretty much no amount of money would compensate for missing out on the 17th month of Sophie's life. Or the 42nd month of Hailey's life. Those months can never be re-lived. Once they are lived, they are gone for eternity. Why should my daycare provider get to see those moments, and not me? (Even though Shauna is amazing, like a sister to me, and my girls adore her--they always want her to hold them at church!) But she's still not ME!!

Working the few short months I did was nice because Trent didn't have a job for the first little while, and then I stayed because of the possiblity of helping Trent get a job at the same company. Now that he's working elsewhere at a good place for him, I can leave.

Money will always be there. Or NOT be there. Money is just money. My children's lives are my children's lives. The same children that I was blessed to give birth to, given the trust to raise them, and teach them, and love them. It's not hard to see which one is more important.

Of course we need occasional breaks from our children--a night out with girlfriends, dates with our husbands, or working out a few times a week alone. Even a special hobby we can work on a little each day. All these things make us better moms. But those quiet (or CHAOTIC) mornings when my husband is at work, and I am at home being my kids' mom (as Dr. Laura would say), are the moments that will get me all bleary-eyed when I'm 60 years old, and admiring my clean house and my quiet house, and missing them terribly.

(Unless of course, I'm like my parents, and every few months another one of my kids comes to live with me and brings their kids with them, so I get to see them and my grandkids every single day!)

Sometimes Kids Do Listen

Well, a couple months ago I posted about how difficult it was for me to convince Cory to do reverent, quiet activities on Sunday and how we've been teaching all our kids about how to keep the Sabbath Day holy. Hailey has been setting a very good example and telling Cory good things we can do on Sunday that will make Jesus happy and how we shouldn't play with our friends outside. It's been really cute to listen to her "preach" to him.

Anyway, so about 3 or 4 weeks ago, his friend came knocking at our door (even though we've told her in the past we don't play with friends on Sunday--I think she keeps "forgetting.") And I was in the kitchen getting lunch cleaned up and I heard Cory say, "I can't play on Sunday, but I can play on Monday!" And then he shut the door. I came out with my jaw dropped. I asked him what he just said and he told me and I just went up and gave him a hug and told him how proud I was of him for making that decision. I didn't make a big deal of it. I didn't even mention it again after that. (When you praise Cory too much or make a big deal with him, it seems to backfire.) So ever since then, he has stayed inside on Sundays. If he goes outside at all on Sundays(which is very tempting living here and how it's still been in the low 70's all summer), it's because he asked if we could go on a family walk or sit outside or something of that sort. Which we do, of course.
So I figured this would be a one-time thing, but pretty much every Sunday for the last month, he's been not playing with his friend outside. Before, when he would sneak outside to play, we wouldn't yell at him or punish him, we would just ask him if what he was doing would make Jesus happy and leave it at that.

I guess setting a good example, giving constant love, and consistent gentle reminders and lessons actually works!

Mothers Day Pictures

I finally have a kid with curly hair!



Sophie was not cooperating for these pictures. She kept running away.

Hailey and Cory were cooperating just great.

Sophie was happy at first.

Then....not so happy.

Happy again, but running away.

The Workplace vs. The Home

I have been working part-time now for 2 months. I really enjoy it. I get projects done, I'm learning new things, I'm remembering computer skills that I haven't dealt with for over 6 years. It's a very good company I work for, with a beautiful work setting and buildings. Anyway, it's all good.

I'm always amazed how happy people are every single Friday. It's a "Happy Friday!" here and a "Thanks goodness it's Friday!" there, etc, etc. They say things like, "This week's been exhausting, I can't wait to get some sleep!" Or, I'm so glad I can just relax this weekend or go to this restaurant or see this movie or go to this show or whatever it may be.

Well, a huge part of this may be the fact that I only work 25 hours a week, not 40 like everyone else here. BUT I don't look forward to the weekend NEARLY as much as everyone else, it seems. First of all, the term "sleeping in" whether it's on a weekend or not, left my vocabulary on Nov. 24, 2003 when Cory was born. And things like "getting away" and "having a fun night out" pretty much left my vocabulary as soon as we moved to San Diego where we don't have family to babysit our kids so we can go on dates. The going rates for babysitters (if you have 3 kids) is $12/hour here. Okay, so we've been out ONCE in 4 months.

Also, what exactly is relaxing about a weekend anyway? Is it our plan to purchase, cut, and hang 5 window blinds tomorrow? Or the fact that we're planning on making homemade pizza to feed the missionaries tomorrow night? And cleaning our whole house?

Or no, maybe it's Sunday, where we get to sleep in until 7am (during the week I wake up at 5:30 on the days I go running, 6:30 on the days I don't go running), frantically get 3 tired kids out the door for 9 am church, after preparing my primary lesson late Saturday night and gathering all my materials, object lessons, and treats for my 8-9 year-olds that I teach. Then attending choir on Sunday afternoon, only to be followed by trying to entertain my children by doing activities in the Friend, singing songs, playing games, reading books, and providing endless hours of stimulating, yet reverent Sunday entertainment in order to keep the Sabbath Day holy and try to keep them from wanting to play soccer outside with the neighbor kid. (Which lately, btw, I have been failing miserably at.) Why is it so physically (not spiritually or emotionally), but PHYSICALLY exhausting trying to get your kids to keep the Sabbath day holy?

Maybe because Cory's idea of a "regular day" is going to Sea World, the beach, the pool, or going to the park and playing soccer with mom for an hour, followed by a rousing kite-flying session with Hailey, followed by an exploration/walk with Sophie around our neighborhood, followed by playing with them outside until 7pm. So Cory's idea of a "down" day is maybe taking out one of those activities. He is so incredibly active and has so much energy that Sundays are SUCH a struggle. He actually does really well (now that he's 6) to sit still and make it through 3 hours of church. Mostly because his best friend, Spencer, is in his class. But after those 3 hours, he can barely sit down to eat lunch much less be expected to reverantly watch a movie (HA!) or quietly play games or read or do other appropriate Sunday activities. Seriously, am I expecting too much from him? Do I wait until he's almost baptized to really start stressing the importance of the Sabbath Day? See, I don't think I should wait, because children can learn when they're very young, but there is a reason they get baptized when they're 8, and not 6.

SO back to my point. What is more draining--emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Being at work where I get PAID, recognized for good work, and get to engage in competent, adult conversation? Or being a mother in the home, attempting to provide an emotionally, spiritually, physically-enriching environment, while at the same time providing healthy meals with lots of variety, a clean living environment, (which includes spraying Lysol on my kitchen tile counters 3 times a day to keep the darn fruit flies away-gross! We keep our doors open pretty much all the time here) and providing intellectually-stimulating lessons--all while engaging in a regular exercise regime, paying the bills, clipping coupons, dealing with occasional sick kids, teething babies, and nightly homework. Well, all I can say, is at least I love my children and Sophie is so dang funny (and adorable with her leg rolls), because that job is not paid. Well, at least not temporally paid anyway.

I do love my kids and being a mother, I'm just saying if people here can say "Happy Friday", then I think on Mondays I'm going to start saying "Happy Monday!"