Cycle of Life

My mom is down in San Diego right now with her oldest brother, my uncle Rob. He is in the hospital and has been fighting cancer. He was in remission for three years, but suddenly a month ago they found a brain tumor and the prognosis was not hopeful. Well, he is now having some bleeding on the brain and they think it will be a matter of days. Sad times like this always stimulate thoughts on the cycle of life and how short it really is. I wish it was easier to always stay in the mindset to cherish every single moment you have with those you love - the way it is when death occurs.
Uncle Rob's passion in life is music. He can play about every instrument. We will miss him and his unique, philisophical spirit!

INXS Concert Pictures

Here are a couple pics from our quick weekend getaway. Tucker & I, Katie & Ryan, and Tara & Bill all met for dinner at a restaurant in the Mandalay Bay called Rumjungle. It was pretty exotic and fun. I think the server was a bit dissapointed that none of us ordered any of their 150 rums (thus the name), but we had fun anyway. It was quick trip, but nice to have some quiet kidless time. Thanks to my family for watching the girls and especially my mom for taking care of Jordyn who was sick most of the time we were gone.

INXS

For those of you who may not know about INXS (in-ex-ess)...they are a band from the 80's and 90's. Their lead singer died late 90's and last year they did a reality TV show (Rockstar INXS) in which they were searching for a new lead singer. Well, Tucker and I got sucked into that show (not to mention that we both liked the band anyway). Sooooo, we are going to Vegas this weekend for the INXS concert! We're leaving our kids with my family Saturday and Sunday, so it's a weekend away for Tucker and I alone. We're excited. We're meeting one of my best friends Katie and her husband Ryan there, so that will be fun!

Sick Kids

It's amazing how all plans can be HAULTED by a sick child...or children in my case. Thursday mornings we usually run out the door to Harmony practice for a few hours and I was preparing this morning as usual, but both girls woke up with a cough and fountain-like runny nose - the persistant kind where the meds don't even stop it. Oh well, plans can change. So I'm sitting here with a box of wipes and a bottle of anti-bacterial gel next to me. I stand up once every 2 minutes to wipe a nose and then rub hands with the gel! Hope they get better soon.

No Luck Today!

Pictures did not go as well as I'd hoped today. Lexi was too upset and they didn't turn out. I guess the picture-angels were all busy today!

So, now I'm thinking of another option. We had family pictures taken on the beach in Hawaii, and there are a few that could possibly be cropped of JUST Lexi, so we could just use that for her 2 year old pics. The picture I posted is one of the possibilities (don't worry about the writing on it, it's from the preview-only CD from the photographer). What do you all think of it?

Photo Shoot Today

Well, today we're attempting to get Lexi's 2 year old pictures taken at The Picture People. Everyone needs to keep their fingers and toes crossed for us because Lexi has an adverse reaction to the camera!!! Every once in a while, a little angel will come down from heaven and help her smile! ha ha. Please let this be one of those days :-) We're going with Lindy getting Lyric's 1 year old pic taken too, so maybe Lexi will see her extremely SMILEY cousin and get inspired. We'll update after the event!

Universal Studios

While on a visit to California, you may as well visit one of the many exciting attractions, right? Well, Tucker took Maren and ker kids to Universal Studios on Saturday for the day and they had a blast. I stayed home with the girls because they're still a bit young to appreciate a park like that. Here are a few pics from their fun day...

Tucker and King Kong!

Shrek in real life!

and last, but not least, everyone's favorite picture of Jaden RIGHT when they started the huge drop on Jurassic Park the ride! He was NOT ready for it and Tucker was prepared with a camera at the perfect time! Jaden...hope you're not scarred for life! ha ha

Cousin Time!

We have visitors for a few days! Maren (Tucker's sister) and her two kids Jaden and Taylor flew in last night. We love having them here! The cousins all just have a blast together. We're off to see a movie and get some food right now. Hopefully the kids survive, since they wouldn't fall asleep till midnight last night!! Making memories, right?

More Aloha...

(these pics wouldn't fit in my previous post...enjoy!)

*my favorite town ever!

* Tucker got to scuba dive to a sunken ship

* who can resist Matsumotos Shave Ice?

*Lexi loves the sand!

Aloha!

We're back! We had a great trip! The girls enjoyed it much more than I thought they would, which was a nice surprise. They loved our "little house" (cottage on the North Shore Oahu) and our "new car" (our rental Ford Escape) and the "chickens" (all the little birds that eat scraps off the ground EVERYwhere). We spent most of our time on the North Shore, which we love so much. It was beautiful and we were able to go to all our favorite spots/restaurants and I was even able to drive by the "Linoleum House" (my home for a year at BYU-Hawaii 1998-99). Here are some photos of our trip...

*photo taken by Jordyn!


*Hawaii LDS Temple in the town of Laie

Smart Jordyn

This kid continues to amaze me. She has been extra determined lately to learn how to write her letters. I think the spark really started when one of her 4 year old friends wrote her entire name flawlessly...it really seemed to effect Jordyn's interest in writing letters. So, she practices all the time and gets really mad if it's not perfect (uh-oh). She's always saying "look mom, I wrote a _____!" And she does a great job. Anyway, tonight Tucker was sitting with her and telling her words to write - letter by letter. Soon she said "I want to write Tucker". He proceeded to tell her each letter in his name, and without any help or looking at any guide, she wrote his name THIS good! Isn't that cool? She isn't even four yet! I'm very impressed at her tenacity in learning this. Anyway, it was a proud moment for us :-)

(And by the way, we leave for Hawaii tomorrow night!!!)

REAL Mom

I feel like such a MOM lately. I'll give an example....today we were at Albertsons and the girls were in their "car" shopping cart "driving" while I shopped. They were reasonably good and there were no huge meltdowns, but the entire time I heard myself saying...

*keep your hands in the cart* *don't touch eachother* *stop touching the food* *stop fighting* *look the other way* *be careful* *sit down* *we're almost done* *did you hear me?*

And I could go on. It's just like an automatic mode my mouth goes into. The thing that made me notice it even more is that we kept passing this lady who was peacefully shopping alone and each time we passed her, I was saying something like this to my kids. I thought to myself how grateful she must feel to NOT be in my shoes! ha ha

I think I'm just beginning to understand how MUCH you have to repeat yourself as a mother. And I have only like 20 years left of it!! But in all sincerity, we have great kids and I feel so blessed - even IF it makes shopping more difficult!

(By the way, I typically go grocery shopping at night w/o the kids!)

Loungers

Well, Lexi's arm is totally better! Took a couple days, but it's back to normal.

Last night we had a nice celebration dinner with the family in honor of Mike (Lindy's husband) getting a job. He did it in record time having just moved here three weeks prior. He will be working for Odwalla (they make health drinks/juices), which is owned by Coca Cola. Big blessing for them!

Here's a photo of the girls in their little "loungers"...one of the Christmas items from my mom. They like to sit in them when they watch movies.

Updates...

On Lexi: She continued to not move her arm until the afternoon today. Now she is barely moving it, but doesn't wince at the slightest touch. I think it is slowly healing. Maybe a slight sprain or fracture? It has definitely improved from 24 hours ago though.

On my Christmas Decorations: They are finally in their home - in a box in our garage. I can't stand to put stuff away!! I am such a pessimest in this way that I almost don't want to put decorations up BECAUSE I have to put them away. Tucker helped me and we had things put away and cleaned up in about three hours. Such a relief.

On my recumbant bike riding: I still manage to motivate myself to ride 3 to 4 times per week. I've been doing that since September and have managed to keep a few lbs off and feel a little better overall. It's really the only exercise that doesn't hurt my arthritic ankle.

On our upcoming excursions: We have decided to go to Hawaii! We used our sky miles for a couple of the tickets and just the four of us are going for a short 4 day trip next Wed night. We're staying in a little cottage on the North Shore. We figured we needed a little family get away and what better place to be? I can't wait. Matsumotos, Kua Ainas, little white shrimp truck, pineapple stands on the side of the road, swap meet...here we come! OH, and our other little excursion is an INXS concert in Vegas end of January. I guess this is a month for travel!

Lexi's Boo Boo

Somehow today at church, Lexi hurt her little arm. We're not exactly sure how, but all of the sudden she was grabbing her arm screaming. Luckily, our friend Dane was at church and he is a PA, so he checked it out. We thought maybe is was dislocated (that happened before and was easy to fix) but no such luck. She basically didn't move for about 5 hours after church and cried every time we moved her arm. He stopped by tonight to check it again and put a little splint on it. She seems to feel a little more confident with it wrapped up. It's just so sad to see your little one in pain and NOT be able to make it all better!!!