Heads Carolina, Tails California!

Okay, so we didn't flip a coin, but we did go to California from October 10th-12th. It was a quick round trip. I finally decided to write about it, even though we don't have very many pictures. Or very many good ones, is a better way to put it.

On Friday, the 10th, we left early in the morning, at about 6:45 a.m. We made one stop at Ehrenberg at about 9:30 for gas (which we didn't really need, we just topped off our tank). Ehrenberg is right near the CA-AZ border on I-10. Then we drove on until we saw a rest stop about an hour later and stopped for lunch. We had sandwiches and then kept chugging along to Sun City, a suburb in the San Diego area. We stayed with some friends of Corey's from long ago: Noah and Melissa Bostwick. They have two boys who are right in between Westley, Caleb and Travis. The boys all played well together and had a blast running around. We enjoyed the evening chatting and hanging out.

(rest stop lunch)

(the boys playing the two birds at the Bostwicks' house)

On Saturday morning, we left the Bostwicks' and proceeded to San Marcos where we were going to visit with Corey's grandparents and aunt and uncle. However, G.G. (Grandma) had a fainting spell, or near-fainting spell, at the beauty college where she was having her hair done, so they called 911 and took her to the nearby ER, where she ended up spending that day and the next. Grandpa Bobby went with her, and Heather and Wally were there on and off. So, after driving around Oceanside and Vista so Corey could revisit his old haunts, we drove over to the hospital and visited with G.G. and Bobby. Not exactly the visit we had pictured. After an hour there, we headed up to Hesperia to spend the rest of the weekend with Nana (Corey's mom). We stopped at the Mormon Rocks Fire Station along the way, where Uncle Zach works/ed and the boys got to ride in the fire engine and try on the gear.

(in the hospital ER waiting room)

(on the fire truck with the sirens going...this was after they got to ride in it around the complex with the sirens blaring--uncle zach is in the background)

Then we got back on the road and drove the 20 minutes or so to Nana's house, where it was freezing cold (it was cold at the station too). We had forgotten to grab the sweatshirts on our way out the door Friday morning in AZ (where it was still up in the low 100's during the day), and we only had shorts and T-shirts, and the boys didn't even have socks! So Nana and Corey took Westley and Felicity (cousin) to the store and bought sweats for all our kids, which they put on promptly upon their return. We ate dinner with them for Caleb's birthday (Leslie, Felicity and Savannah were there for dinner) and then we put our kids in bed. Leslie and Zach and their little family headed into Palmdale for a visit with Zach's family overnight.

(eliza was jealous of savannah, as soon as daddy picked up savannah, eliza cried to be held also)

(westley and felicity--only 3 days apart)

(new sweats)

On Sunday, we went to church with Nana from 9-12 and then came home, ate lunch, and were on the road by 2 pm. We made it back to Mesa by 8 pm, with one stop at Ehrenberg to use the bathroom and one stop at In-N-Out in Tempe for dinner. The kids slept a lot of the way home, they were very tired from the trip, and Corey and I listened to the John Lund CD that my parents gave us for Christmas about the marriage relationship. Great stuff.

Fun weekend. Hope that we get to CA again soon.

The Trick to Picky Eaters

Find something they'll eat. I'm not talking food, though. I'm talking putting the food, whatever it is, in the shape of something they want to eat.

This is a "Mater" sandwich, you know the character from Disney's Cars. This was the first sandwich that Travis had eaten in about 3 weeks and the first lunch meal he'd eaten in about 2. He went through about 2-3 weeks where all he ate was breakfast and then nothing else the rest of the day. When I presented him with this, he ate the whole thing. So I did it again the next few days, and every day, he ate it all. But then I got tired of doing it, so now I vary it up. Sometimes it's a butterfly, or a train, or a semi. But he always eats all or most of the sandwich when it's cut into a shape.

Tagged Yet Again: Just Four Fun

I actually did something similar to this in April, ("I've Been Tagged") but I was tagged again, so here it goes:

4 Random Facts about my husband:

1. Corey has to cut his hair every 3 weeks or it's too thick and ruins the razor.
   
2. Corey listens to talk radio all the time in his car.
   
3. Corey goes through pants, shorts, and jeans faster than anyone else I've ever known.
4. Corey loves chocolate milk.
   

4 Movies I could watch more than once:

1. Sense and Sensibility
   
2. Legally Blonde
   
3. Where the Heart Is
   
4. What's Up, Doc?
   

4 Interesting Places I've been:

1. Mexico
2. Nauvoo
   
3. Boston, MA
   
4. Texas
   

4 People who email me regularly:

1. Candace
   
2. Maren
3. Mom
4. Allison
   

4 Favorite Foods:

1. Homemade bread (homemade anything like that--cake, pie, cookies, etc.)
2. Chocolate-covered strawberries
3. Pot roast with potatoes and gravy (even better if it's leg of lamb)
4. Fajitas, chicken or steak
   

4 Places I'd like to visit:

1. England
   
2. Germany
3. Hawaii
4. Italy
   

4 Things I'm looking forward to this year:

1. Corey getting promoted (hopefully)
   
2. Moving back to our house
   
3. Corey finishing school
   
4. Travis getting potty-trained (one can dream, right?)
   

4 People who are now IT:

1. Rachel
   
2. Maren
   
3. Melissa
   
4. Lindsey
   

Everyday Life

It seems like much has happened in the past several weeks and I just can't keep up with it all. We've been busy and have had fun just hanging out, so that's what these pictures show. We've spent time dressing up and just playing around. Every morning, Travis and Caleb accompany Westley to the bus stop, and then Corey or I follow a few minutes later, sometimes with Eliza, sometimes without. Westley also lost his second tooth a couple of weeks ago, just before we went to California. That night, I remembered at about 4:30 a.m. to be the Tooth Fairy! Good thing I remembered before his usual wake-up time of 6, he would have been disappointed!

Eliza caught in the act

Travis, the Pirate

Travis and Caleb on the way to the bus stop

Westley showing off his second hole from a lost tooth

Funny Little Trav

I took this picture as a record of the train track that the boys and I created, but I didn't notice Travis making his face until after Corey uploaded the photos to the computer. When I was looking through them, to see if there was anything good for the blog, I saw this and burst out laughing. He's always crossing his eyes and making silly faces.

Caleb is 4!

Today is my sweet Caleb Hansen King's birthday, and he's 4 years old! He has been such a joy from the beginning, just a happy little clown who loves to laugh and give big hugs and kisses.

Caleb at 2 months

Caleb about a week after turning one (pictured in CA in Nana's backyard)

Caleb at age 2

Caleb, the 3-year-old, just chilling, doing his favorite thing (watching TV!--he's so much like his daddy)

This was actually taken last week, so he's not quite 4 in the picture, but close enough!

What a happy boy! We sure do love you, Caleb!

Best New Toy

It seems crazy that I vote this little calculator as the best new toy, but it is! Three days ago, I gave it to Eliza to play with to keep her quiet while the boys finished their naps. When they came out, it was on the floor because she had lost interest in it. Caleb picked it up to give to me, and I told him that it was okay for Eliza to play with.

That's when Caleb decided to see what would be interesting about it. Since then, he has spent HOURS every day playing his "game". He thinks it's some sort of video game, and he spends literally hours pushing the same button over and over until it fills the screen, clearing it out, and doing it again.

Just goes to prove how mindless video games really can be.

A-Z Tagged

A-Z Tagged

A- Attached Or Single: Attached
B- Best Friend: Corey
C- Cake Or Pie: Cake first, then pie (love them both!)
D- Day Of Choice: Friday
E- Essential Item: Carmex
F- Favorite Color: The whole spectrum
G- Greatest Accomplishment: Birthing 4 babies
H- Hometown: Wherever, USA--I've never been able to answer this
I- Indulgences: Chocolate-covered strawberries
J- January Or July: July, I'm a summer girl
K- Kids: 3 boys and 1 girl
L- Life is Incomplete without: family and friends
M- Marriage Date: June 21, 2001
N- Number of Siblings: 5 brothers
O- Oranges or Apples: Oranges
P-Phobias or Fears: Heights, spiders, and something horrible happening to my kids
Q-Quotes: Smile, people will wonder what you are up to.
R- Reason to Smile: my 4 little cuties
S- Season: Fall
T- Tag five friends: Jen, Maren, Ruthann, Tiffany, Andrea
U-Unknown Fact about Me: I can't sleep without earplugs
V- Very favorite store: Any bookstore
W- Worst Habit: Knuckle cracking
X- X-ray or Ultra sound: Ultra Sound
Y-Your Favorite Food: steak and potatoes
Z- Your Zodiac sign: Sagittarius

No More Broccoli!

That probably isn't a line you hear very often when parents are talking to their children at the table. Yet, we heard it today at lunch. My mom cooked us a wonderful lunch of salmon, steamed broccoli, oven fried potatoes, and fruit salad. Caleb loves broccoli, and after eating a healthy serving of broccoli and polishing off his fruit salad, he wanted more broccoli. But he hadn't even touched his fish (a tiny amount, since he doesn't really like it) or his potatoes, we were all interrupted in our eating to these words, "No more broccoli until you eat your fish and potatoes, Caleb."

Now, that's not something you hear very often, using broccoli as the bargaining tool!