Home Depot

My new favorite store. Just call me "Debbie". My favorite time to go? From 9pm-10. Two words... No kids. Chris hates it when I run out the door at 9:00pm. I love it. FREEDOM! It's only 5 minutes away!

On the other side of the fence

Oh..... Hey Mexico! 

This was a picture I took when I was walking  one morning just a mile south of our house. That hillside is Tijuana, Mexico!! We live in the city of Chula Vista but we try not to tell people that. Old Chula Vista is scary. We live in a very new and nice area called Eastlake/Otay Ranch (pronounced o-tai). 10 years ago, this area was all dirt. And it's a big area(mile wise) not just a neighborhood. I wish we were our own city! The reason we chose to live here is that the houses are much more affordable than the rest of California. It might have something to do with the "Chula Vista" in our address. BUT I promise you that it is very nice here and anybody would love it!

When I was growing up in pasco, Wa there were a lot of Hispanics. Our schools were over 50%. Here in California, the % is even higher- plus there are other races. There are a lot of Phillipinos and quite a few African Americans. Growing up, there were Caucasians and Mexicans. Just a little diversity. And then we moved to Utah where there is no diversity at all- with ethnicity or religion. I really love Utah and I would be happy if we ever lived there again, but it's great for my kids to see diversity. We are the minority here. I'm guessing Addysin's school is less than 25% Caucasian. Well, we do live 5 miles from the Mexico border.

Addysin has made a friend here that she really likes. Her name is Miriam. She is in Addysin's class and they ride the bus together (and sit together). I've seen her when I drop Addysin off in the morning and she is a super cute girl. The one tiny problem is Miriam doesn't speak English- haha! Yesterday morning, when Addysin got to school, Miriam greeted her with, "Hi Amiga!" Addysin has been begging to have her over. We'll see what happens there. Addysin has also been begging me to buy a computer program to learn Spanish (like the Rosetta Stone program). I think it would be a great idea for our family to learn. We have the advantage of Chris already knowing so he could help. I know it's hard because I tried in high school for two years so I'm not jumping on the band wagon very fast.

The school has Spanish immersion but it has to be started in kindergarten. We signed up Caiden for the coming year but he might not get in. I'm hoping! Addysin is so jealous. Caiden is very smart academically so that would be good for him. I'm worried he is too smart for kindergarten.

Addysin reminds me once a week that California used to be Mexico. She loves that. A couple years ago when we lived on the farm, our next door neighbors were Mexican and their English wasn't very good. That's when Addysin became obsessed with Spanish. She told me one day (when she was about 4 or 5) that when she dies she is going to be Mexican and speak Spanish. Whatever your heart desires, little one.

Addysin's Bible stories

Addysin spent $5 of her own to buy a bible stories app. I was happy that's the app she wanted to buy! She has listened to all of the stories over and over. Caiden never does, but he got trapped into listening on the way back from Costco.
As Addysin and Caiden were listening and watching on the iPad, I hear Caiden say in fright,
"I don't want to get resurrected and get nails in my body!"
He was so scared because he knows we are all going to get resurrected and he thought that was part of it. I told him that Jesus was crucified and thankfully we will not have to do that.

The helper

Addysin is so smart. She loves to write and draw. I constantly find her sketches around the house and it makes me smile. This time she had written this for the babysitter to help her out. All her idea:)

Sickies

My poor babies. Dillon truly had the worst croup without having to be hospitalized, then Jocelyn caught the cold. When she gets colds, she gets ear infections. She WILL NOT take amoxicillin so I don't take her in to the dr anymore. And I just learned that something like 80% of ear infections go away on their own.
She has been in pain the last 3 nights. Last night was AWEFUL!! Then today her ear burst when she sneezed and all the liquid came out- hallelujah!! So now she's feeling better.
We've had sickness in our family for a month. Let's see if we can be done for a while.

Beach day #2

Our first day here was spent at the beach. My house was a real life nightmare so we left it. I have been so busy that we haven't gone back until today, 3 1/2 weeks later :/ The kids love the beach. It gives me such bad anxiety but I love the sand! I hate the huge never ending waves! I'm a river and lake person. I forgot to take pictures of the kids playing. It was adorable. Jocelyn slept the entire time in the stroller. One less to watch :) we went with our friends Roby and Brittany Clyde. Afterwards, we rushed home to wash the sand off the kids and went to their house for dinner. Summer all year. I love it. We'll see how much I like it at Christmas time :(

Addysins first day... Again

Addysin has had 5 first days at new schools since she started kindergarten a year and a half ago. She is always so excited and I'm the nervous and emotional one. I didn't cry this time! I'm getting better at this. We've been here 3+ weeks and she is just now starting because she was sick the first week and then the school had a two week spring break. So the big day FINALLY came. She's been out of school for 2 days shy of 4 weeks!
We live a couple blocks from our school but it's full- of course... So Addysin has to ride a bus from the school next to us to her new school. She is sooooooooooo excited about riding a bus! She doesn't care that she has to make all new friends next year when she starts attending her real school. I asked her what her favorite part of her day was and she said "riding the bus home." Did she have a bad day? Nope, she just loved the bus that much. I guess it's like a free carnival ride.
When I took her into her classroom, she was so excited, super anxious, and shy (as always). We were in the room when the students started coming in. She was standing beside me and as more and more kids filed in, she slowly hid behind me. It was really cute.
*Shocker* She has to be on the bus at 7:45!!!!! School starts at 8:15. Her last school started at 9:15 so we never ever woke up before 8:00. Our new waking time is going to be 6:45-7ish. Ah- I hate mornings! I'm too much of a night owl to go to bed before midnight!

Naptime

Jocelyn's naps are disappearing :( sad times. But she goes to bed much better and earlier at night when she hasn't had a nap. So it's a toss up. As I'm laying here with her to get her to take a nap, I told her to close her eyes. Now she is the eye patrol. She just watches me, waiting for me to open my eyes so she can say, "close your eyes Mom!"

Croup

Dillon has it. It is so sad to see a helpless baby so sick! He breathes fast and it's shallow and I can hear crackling in his lungs. His cry is so soft and muffled. And he moanes all day, not even a full cry. But he also sleeps a lot. He just passes out all the time. And he hardley eats. I was so engorged the first day and now I feel empty. I hope I don't lose my milk! He had a low fever off and on for 2-3 days. I think he is getting better today. He still seems the same, but he was smiling this morning for the first time this week. That's got to mean something good!
Amy was here Monday night- Friday morning while Greg was out of town. What a blessing!!! We got some more of the house unpacked. I spent a lot of time with Dillon and it was so nice to have a second "me" to take care of the other kids.

Jocelyn these days

Jocelyn is exactly 2 1/2. She likes to scowl for fun and laughs afterwards. She also likes to be disobedient. She is mischievous. If she sees you do something, she is going to do it. If you ask her not to, she tries to do it as fast as she can before you can stop her.

Sickness

I was thinking we would get sick less in San Diego because of the absence of winter. Well we have started our new lives with a bang. I got a sinus infection our second day here. Caiden and Jocelyn have a stomach bug. Jocelyn threw up twice last night. Today Caiden has the runs.
"Uh oh, I pooped my pants."
"Oops, I pooped my pants again."
"Mom, you know why I have dia-wea? Because Dillon won't stop cwying!"
Neither one of them are very sick, so that's great. Just no appetites.
BTW- I haven't been so tired day after day after day after day.... in a long time.

We've arrived in San Diego

...and if you wanted to torture me, this is the way to do it. The rest of the house looks a gazillion times worse than this. The furniture isn't even in the right places. It is chaos. I had a really hard time getting here yesterday and got here 3 hours after Chris. Him and his friends (bless them for helping) didn't have guidance when they unpacked the truck and so far I've never had a worse moving in experience. I honestly truly don't know how I'm going to unpack, especially with the kids. I feel defeated. I'm going to take a nap.... Or go to the beach.

Caiden's big news

"Mom, guess what? I have a girlfriend but I don't kiss her on the lips. We hold hands when we are playing at school and pretend we are going on a date. Her name is Reagan and she doesn't talk like any other human being. She talks kinda like a baby. She's cute. She likes the Seahawks, the broncos, and BYU."
All of this information was happily shared with me and Chris as we asked him questions. He concluded by saying, "you should come to my preschool and see her."
Preschool.
Oh my goodness!!
We are going to have problems. It doesn't help that Caiden is so good looking. Even if he doesn't chase the girls, they will be chasing him.
His friend friend Tyce, behind him in the picture, said "ewe!!" Yes, that is ewe Caiden. You are 5!!!

Favorite quote of the week

We started moving boxes out of the storage rooms and into the garage, preparing for our big move. That is literally all we had done and there was a mess all over the house from regular, daily life. Addysin then replies "our house is starting to look empty... (sigh…)"
I think she's been waiting to use that line, and apparently couldn't wait any longer. 😄

Sent from my iPhone

A Sad Day

I just sold one of my favorite possessions. The first baby thing we ever bought. Our crib. Actually my mom bought it for us. I'm about to cry. Really. I didn't sell it for the money... But the $450 is awesome. I sold it because 1) we're moving long distance 2) we might not have a baby girl for 5 years... Or ever again! 3) it will sit in the garage taking up space. A lot of space. 4) I could sell it in Utah (the Capitol of babies) for the most money and the easiest 5) we have a neutral crib that will work for either gender. Yes, we had 2 cribs.

I can remember so vividly when I saw it. We had walked around the entire crib section at babies r us. I didn't see anything I liked, then BAM! There it was. I hesitated because it was so girly but my mom said "let's do it!" And that she would buy it. It was the greatest gift and I've cherished it, but we need to simplify. We have A LOT of stuff! If we were settled in our permanent home out in the country, I would build a shed to store this kind of stuff. But we're not there.

I feel sick........

Teeth Fetish

I could be a dental hygienist. As long as I don't have to see nasty teeth, smell stinky breath, see blood, give shots, or drill teeth.

I love going to the dentist. I always have! Addysin takes after me. She begs to go. Literally. She won't leave me alone once I've told her we need to go get our teeth checked and cleaned. She had a gigantic molar pulled in November and it was a bad experience... And she still loves the dentist. I didn't get any pics of her because I was getting worked on. I didn't worry about being by her side. She has 3 cavities 😒 and she CANNOT wait to get silver on her teeth! I think that she thinks her whole tooth is going to be silver like a couple of her friends. She's going to be sorely disappointed.

Jocelyn is our most mature 2 year old ever. She didn't see anyone get X-rays or a cleaning and she was so amazing and adorable. Caiden saw her do everything and still covered his mouth every chance he could get. He was even shaking at one point. He takes after Chris. Chris hates the dentist.

Worst.Day.Ever

I had to go to Pocatello to meet somebody that had come from Washington. He brought all our tools that Chris was using to remodel a house in Richland. This was the only way for us to get them before we move. I only took Jocelyn and Dillon and I was gonna just pound it out and get it done. Anyways, I was almost to Pocatello and my accelerator started having problems. About every 10 minutes for almost 2 hours I couldn't accelerate all of the sudden and I had to pullover, turn the car off, wait a minute, and then I could go again. I stopped at a mechanic and talked to a Kia service place and found out it wouldn't ruin the car to keep driving it.
We left at 11 am to meet the guy with our tools at 2:30. Trip to Pocatello-awesome until the last hour. Then everything started going wrong. First the van problems.
My van magically stopped doing the wierd thing just as I got onto the busy freeway in northern Utah. Such a blessing!! Why does The Lord bless me so much? Maybe because he knew what was coming and I couldn't handle the car situation anymore.
It started pouring so hard I could hardly see. There was a wreck and it was rush hour. Chris flew back from California and was waiting at the airport for me. He changed his flight so he could come to a lee family dinner (that we missed). Dillon and Jocelyn were not happy anymore. I had to stop and feed him when I was only 20 min from the airport. Then I got on the wrong freeway. I was completely disoriented because of the rain. I could have been going north or east and wouldn't have known I was going in the wrong direction. Then I see that I'm empty but can't find a gas station for miles on this "legacy parkway" freeway that I've never been on! I drive all over, in the wrong directions, trying to find gas. It's amazing I didn't run out! My dumb phone that I rely on too much was not helping me. And all the while, I'm waiting and expecting my car to stop accelerating so I stay away from other cars, and as close to the shoulder as possible. I finally get Chris who has been at the airport for 2 hours and Dillon cries all the way home-still rush hour because of the rain. Sooooo stressful! We finally picked up Addysin and Caiden from their friends who didn't expect to have them so long. We got home at 7:30. So.....
I traveled for 8 hours today. Oh and I stayed up till almost 3:00am baking cookies last night for tonight's Lee party.
Chris and the older three went to the get-together. Me and Dillon stayed home to relax.... After I cleaned up his blowout he had just as we got home.

The Princess Ball

Addysin was so excited for this ball. It was a daddy daughter date at the elementary school. Chris made his flight back from California for the same day as the ball. The plane had problems and they cancelled the flight!! Chris knew how much this date meant to Addysin so he did everything he could to try and get a flight. There was nothing available until Sunday afternoon! He ended up paying a standby passenger on another flight $80 to give his flight to Chris and wait for the next one. Chris was willing to give more! Everyone had heard about Chris' situation and the princess ball. When he got his ticket and started walking down the tunnel to the airplane a group of woman started cheering for him :) so many blessings happened so Chris could make it back.
Addysin wanted her hair like Elsa on the movie frozen. And she wanted makeup, of course. I LOVED getting her ready. We had just bought her baptism dress for this coming December because they were selling them at Costco. It worked out so perfect!!

A new way to post!

I found out that I can post to my blog from my phone! Yes!!! It took me almost 2 hours to figure it out. It wasn't working.... Or I wasn't working. It's 1:30 am now so that's very likely. I'll be able to post pictures and updates so easily now!!!!!!!!!!! My life has just changed.

Sent from my iPhone

Me Growing Dillon

We had to plan this pregnancy so that I wouldn't have a baby during Chris' summer sales season. That was April 15-Sep 15. Yeah, so 5 months were blocked out. We were lucky to be able to get pregnant in February. We found out mid March. We had gone home to Washington to visit. I thought, or maybe just hoped, I was pregnant but didn't want to find out there. We couldn't wait another day and bought a pregnancy test on our road trip back to Utah. Yup, we stopped at a dollar store for a pregnancy test and while we were eating at McDonalds I slipped away to the bathroom. I came back out and I thought Chris knew what I was doing... but he didn't. I told him I was pregnant! Ok, yeah... kinda weird but VERY memorable!!! I started this pregnancy weighing less than ever before in my life as a 5 foot 6-er. And you bet i gained the most of any pregnancy. I always creep my way up to 170 lbs and stay there until delivery, not gaining very much at the end. 

I thought I was 6 weeks when I took these next 3 pictures....

...but I had just found out I was pregnant and I was only 4 weeks.

I went to the Dr for an ultra sound and she told me I was 2 weeks ahead of myself and that my real due date was November 22. I had gained 10 lbs by the time I was 8 weeks.... who does that?! Me. (picture below)

 See that joy written all over my face when I looked in the mirror? :)

 11 weeks (above and below)

 ... and I'm on the move- a week and a half later at 12 1/2 weeks. 

I think I ate too much that day. I'm huge!

 Swim suits dont lie! 

16 weeks.

 17 weeks.

 There's that shirt again that apparently makes me look like I'm carrying twins! 

18 weeks.

 Baby at 22 week ultrasound. 

This is when I would have found out the gender but we decided not to... Chris mostly decided, and I did it for him. 

 22 weeeks

 25 weeks (below)

 27 weeks

 35 weeks (next 2 below)

 36 weeks 

And then I was miserable for 2 more weeks until this little sweetheart came into the world 2 weeks early. Wait... What?!?! Yes, I had him the day after my original due date (calculated by me when I first found out I was pregnant. The Dr. changed my due date based off of measurements that are "extremely accurate" from an ultrasound at 8 weeks). Who knows? I'm just happy I was put out of my misery 2 weeks before expected

Too Long

You know how when you're entering a web address and the server finishes it for you if the address has been entered before? well, I just started typing in my blog address and at no point did it ever finish it for me..... wow, Its been too long since I've been on here. Every time I think of my blog, I get a sick stomach but I dont do anything about it. Here are my thoughts for today:

I hate bedtime
I hate being on my own without chris, which is what I do now. He works in California and I'm almost a single mom. I have money though:)
I feel sickly or starving most days because I dont feed myself properly. French toast and candy are my main food groups. Sick!
I'm supposed to be packing, but all I do each day is feed kids and clean the house.
I'm happy.... but its bedtime so you're getting to hear the worst of me.

There. My first post in almost a year.

Caiden-ism

Caiden is at a really funny age. It might just be me, but I think he is so cute and most of the things he says are worth writing down. I just cant decide which funny sayings to write down, and end up not writing any!

A couple nights ago, him and Jocelyn were playing an intense game of peek-a-boo in and out of his closet. She was screaming and having the best time. Caiden then says, "I think she likes me!" It sounded like he was talking about a puppy he just met. Then a few minutes later we were saying prayers. When it was his turn, his prayer went something like this....

Intro
Thank you for Jocelyn
Thank you that we had fun playing
Thank you that she likes me
Amen

He was a happy brother that night!

Caiden-ism

"Mom, play that song again because its my favorite song in the whole wide world!"
About We Are Never Getting Back Together by Taylor Swift. His other favorite is Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Poor Caiden needs a brother.

We've Moved!

We moved at the beginning of January to Lehi, UT. Our new address is

2754 Shady Hollow Loop

Lehi, UT 84043

So far, we are very happy. I have been so busy unpacking that I haven't had time to establish a schedule and a "normal" life but it seems like we are going to really like it here!

We moved so Chris is close to the corporate office for Vivint. He is managing another sales team this summer. It is much easier to recruit here in Utah, versus Washington. Utah is the capitol of summer sales! There are very good quality, experienced sales guys. The Vivint office is a great place to take recruits. Its really fun to visit Chris at work. There is an awesome cafeteria, free cookies for the kids, and the modern/contemporary style is something different for me and I like it! If we hadn't moved, Chris would have to continue to travel back and forth between WA and UT to recruit, and even with that he may not have been very successful with recruiting. A lot of the meetings he has are impromptu.  It just wouldn't have been as beneficial with this job for us to stay in WA, even though I dearly loved it there. 

Utah is a really fun place with LOTS of families our age, LOTs and shopping, and fun family activities. We live right ON the point of the mountain so Draper is 10 min. north in the Salt Lake Valley and Lehi/American Fork is 10 min. south in Utah county. It takes Chris 25 min to get to Work down by the Riverwoods in Provo/. I love living on Traverse Mountain. We get a little more snow (which I love) and we have a great veiw out our kitchen window. We live next to Cabelas, you'll see a picture below of a green tin roof. Thats taken from our kitchen window, as well as the picture next to it. 

We live 5 minutes from Kara and Adam, 10 minutes from our friends Tyler and McKendra, 15 minutes from Tony and Megan, 20 minutes from all our friends in our old neighborhood, 30 minutes from Jessica and Sara, and about 40 minutes from David and Kira. 

As you can see we have filled the space. There are 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 car garage, and a fully fenced in back yard! The empty room is going to be an office for Chris and (maybe) craft room for me :) The other bedroom (not pictured) will remain storage or a guest room . The kids say they like their new room better but they definitely miss Washington. I dont like bringing it up though because they just need to like Utah. I tell them all the amazing things about our new house. I'm afraid to visit my parents next month because I dont want them to want to stay.