You Say it's Your Birthday

The Holidays start in a rush around here. We had Charles turning 3 just before Thanksgiving and then we went up to Bremerton for Thanksgiving when a scant week later both Devon and I celebrated our birthdays. It has been a crazy few weeks and I haven't even sent out my Christmas cards yet! Ack! I feel like time is just rushing on and I'm trying to stay afloat. But I digress... So here we are celebrating the good times:

From Charles Birthday

From Charles Birthday

From Charles Birthday

From Charles Birthday

And since we are such nerds we just had to go to the Doctor Who 50th annaversary in 3d!

From Doctor Who 50

From Doctor Who 50

From Doctor Who 50

It was Amazing!

Things That Matter

I wax philosophical in my old age. To wit.. I have been thinking a lot lately about life and all it's abundance of beauty as well as it's dearth of ugliness. It is amazing to me to witness the pure joy of my children running, laughing as they chase around. Equally amazing is how often I am shocked at the crudeness of man. Hurting others for gain or amusement. It is at times like these that I am thankful for my knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  For I know that with faith I can not fear. And I do not. I understand that trials await me and I am aware that pain is inevitable. Losses to be had and tears to be shed, but I remain ever hopeful in the reality of my Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. For with His aide I can withstand all the buffetings of Satan. I can have hope for the future and Joy in the moments as they come. For they do come.

What's up with that?

So I don't know what is wrong with all my slideshows. Sorry, I hope to have it fixed soon. Bear with me!

Con-ical

We went Convention Crazy this month. On Labor day we attended Kumoricon really to see the Tip toe Through the Tardis panel. It was not at all what I expected. Mostly they just called up all the cosplayers to share. Don't get me wrong 3/4 of the reason I wanted to go was for the cosplayers, but I was hoping for a more whovian event. Alas. I think the origional song that was preformed was the best part. Then we strolled the park and took pics. I met Miss. Frizzle

From KamoriCon

and Suki from Avatar the last air bender.

From KamoriCon

That was fun.
Here's the link to my other pictures.  Then we went to our first Comic-con Rose City Comic Con. It was so fun. We took the kids and they had a blast identifying the cosplayers. The kids section was LAME, but the thai bowls were excellent. We had a great time and I took lots of pictures. My favorite was the cosplayers from the movie 9:

From Rose City Comic-con

And this super cute couple

From Rose City Comic-con

And here's the link for the rest of my rccc pics.

Photo Dump

So I have been way negligent on keeping up the blog. Ack! So "Let me explain. (Beat) No, there is too much. Let me sum up." Bonus points if you get the reference!  While we were on our way home, Devon joined the crawlers club and quickly advanced to cruiser. As of last week he is officially a free stander and I await his debut as a walker any minute now. 

From Aug

From Aug

Lizzy was stricken with a urinary tract infection which left her bed bound with a fever for 3 days.It was scary and exhausting for all of us. At the Doctors she was asked to give a urine sample. The collection "hat" scared her to death. She wouldn't go. For hours she wouldn't go I finally took it home to bring in a sample thinking that she would be more comfortable at home. She was just so scared that she wouldn't even try.  I felt pretty helpless pleading with my 5 year old to pee.  Finally she said that she had to go. It had been 6 hours. She yelled from the bathroom, "I did it!" I was so relieved, as I am sure she was as well! Then she said to me, "You know how I did it? I said a prayer and Jesus told me to take a big breath and it would be all right and it was!" I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for loving his little girl and helping her do something hard. She was so happy.
  After that, the next big thing is School! Lizzy is officially a elementary student. Where has the time gone? Her teacher has only been teaching 2 years and she is from this area and just the sweetest little thing. Lizzy really enjoys going. The first day we were so excited getting ready for the bus. She has a classmate who is at the same stop so she has an instant friend. Her bus driver is new too so that is fun. When the bus came Charles was right behind Lizzy on the bus, I had to grab him and he just cried and cried that he couldn't go to  school. Here everyone thought that I was the one who would beak down! I love having the quiet time. The boys are so easy now.

From School

You can just see Charles scrambling aboard. He wouldn't be consoled until I gave him a pickle, then he was fine. Now he is an old pro. He talks to the kids while we wait for the bus to come and he grabs my hand to go home as soon as they get on the bus. It's working out. We have only had 2 near death experiences in the 2nd week when Charles ran immediately across the road and cars had to stop for him, but other then that I think were are doing fine. Before:

From School

After:

From School

   That's life I guess. Pickles make everything better. So  we went to the zoo, the fair both here and in Kitsap and OMSI again, where we saw a crazy boat on the river:

From Aug

 We celebrated Charlies Birthday with exploding candles and had ourselves a grand old time. Stay tuned for more action! Same bat time same bat channel...

Regale --Away

Any hoo, hello! I have had some amazing events transpire lately which have now left me time to catch up on my long awaited blogging. Whew! Who's excited? This Girl! So on with the Show!
As I said before, (you may recall, or not that's cool too)  We left our house in search of easterner clime. We drove through the night to get to my brother's house in UT. I had had the brilliant idea of driving through the night~ Ha! Both boys threw up on me, Devon did twice. They had a continuous crying fest.(I'm louder then you, oh yea, listen to this!) then Daniel spilled root bear on my head. Not a good idea. Don't do it! So we made it to Sal's and crashed. Then we went to church. Afterward Charles took off and Daniel went to find him, but some neighbor had called the cops and it was all quite embarrassing, but amusing. We celebrated my niece's birthday and had a great time. Next we stopped in Limon for the night:
 
Aren't they cute? Then headed out for Kansas. It was a much better trip this time! I didn't get anything on me! Yea! I think we were all relieved to turn into The Bartholomew's culdesac. After a nice night to recover we set our sights to the Lego Experience! 

From Kansas

It was a blast! I hate to admit it, but this was my favorite thing we did on our trip. There were rides and slides and of course Legos! Lizzy and Grandpa made wonderful racing cars while Charles manned the button to start the races.

From Kansas

And how's this for a three generation shot?

From Kansas

 A love for Legos goes deep. Needless to say, if you get the opportunity to go Lego, do so! We celebrated the 4th of July at the Blacks home. Their neighborhood has a parade, complete with police escort this year, followed by an ice cream social and water fight. I told Daniel to bring another set of clothes because I just knew he couldn't turn down a water fight, but he said that he'd be fine.

From Kansas

 It was fun and the kids were worn out completely. Then we went to Monkey Bizness to play with the Markhams. Oh, you want to see a picture of Daniel flying? Of course:

From Kansas

I wonder it this was Daniel's favorite part? Hmm. Anyway Then we checked out, Kaliedoscope It was a bit chaotic. Charles kept running up to every man there and hit them before running off again. He keeps me on my toes all the time. Lizzy really enjoyed it. Then we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house for some excitement:

From Kansas

From Kansas

We had a great trip. On the way home we stopped to see my Grandmother.

From Kansas

We had a nice visit with her and then went to Temple Square and the Conference center. Daniel had never been there before. It was a great end to our trip.

First Things First

 O K, I know that I promised to regale you with the rest of our journey to the East, but I have been thinking a lot lately about faith. So I am going to interject here for a moment. I was watching my son get up on a chair to eat at the table and after he had enjoyed his meal he looked around and realized that if he wanted to play he had to get down. Even though he had spent quite a bit of energy climbing up to his vantage point, and he had enjoyed his time there, he was ready to continue his day by getting down and playing. His current situation provided little in the way of future enjoyment as it was a limited area. So his vantage told him that to run, jump, summer salt and play with toys he had to descend. So he began, He reached past the middle rung of the chair and not detecting the floor, froze. Clinging to the chair. Fear of falling and possibly hurting himself froze him in the awkward position of hanging to the side of a kitchen chair, legs desperately searching for purchase.
 So like anybody in this situation, he assessed his options and then cried out for help. I did what any parent would do when faced with a child dangling 2 inches from the ground, I told him to let go.
 From my vantage point and experience I knew that he could easily make it to the ground without hurting himself and then he could enjoy all that was waiting for him. He had to trust that by listing to me and letting go of what he thought was safe, would be better then staying in his now very limited position. It didn't take him long to make up his mind. (Thank goodness he trusts me!) And he dropped down and ran for his toys.  He spent the next few hours enjoying himself.
 I think that sometimes we put ourselves in situations like this. We get to a place in life that is comfortable, even enjoyable at times and then we realize that we have cut ourselves off from real freedom so we try to get out of the situation only to succumb to fear that what we are doing will cause more pain to us and we freeze. Often causing ourselves unnecessary pain in the process. So often we are dangling just inches from where we need to be and we can't see it. We need help. I know that if we put our faith and trust in the Lord then we can make it to that place we need to go. Just as I knew that if my son just let go he could have what he really wanted, some times we need to just let go of what is holding us back and accept that our Loving Heavenly Father has our best interests at heart. That's what Faith means to me.

A Martin Visit

We were privileged to have the Martins finally visit our new house. It was a fun weekend. We went down to OMSI and had a blast there. Then we were trying to go to The Old Wives Tales a supposedly nearby restaurant that had a family fun room, but my new phone's gps took us way out of the way so we ended up going to Ikea instead to pick up a few things like our new guest bed! Lizzy has graciously agreed to vacating for any guest. Her bed extends to a king size. We just ordered new bedding too, I am so excited! Anyway so we ate some Swedish meatballs and ice cream then headed home. Someday I would like to go there though. (If I can ever find the place that is.) Daniel, Charly and Taylor put the bed together while the rest of us got ready for bed. Jessica tried out the bed and declared it good! Oh yeah. The next day we went to the Vancouver Recycle Fare and checked out the amazing creations.  I especially liked the metal dragon.

From Martin trip

Afterwards we headed back to pack every thing up. The Martins left us for the North and we headed East to Utah, but that is a trip for another post. Stay tuned!

Firehouse Days

Our local firehouses hosted a special event to raise funds and awareness in the community. It sounded like fun so I got the kids ready and we headed out. I ended up at the wrong firehouse, but was soon directed to the right place. We walked over and enjoyed the festivities.

From 2013-06-02 Firehouse days

It was fun and much bigger then I had anticipated. We were able to ride in the old firetruck which was so fun. While we waited in line Charles kept helping these older girls. He was so chivalrous. It was sweet. A good time was had by all.

Where Did I Leave Off..

Oh yes! Lizzy's birthday! Lizzy turned the big 5 when was it. EEK, last month. Whew, I am so behind. Oh well. So she had been asking to do a princess party which sounded perfectly normal until she told us the details. See while everyone else would be dressed up a princess, she was going to be a witch who captures them. So wait, what? You want to lure unsuspecting 3-5 year-olds to our house so you can capture them and turn them into something slimy? I don't think that would go over to well. Back to the drawing board kid.
 Her next attempt was much more acceptable. She decided to go the fairy route. Wings, fluff and kids? Now that's what I'm talking about.  Plans went forward. Invitations were sent out. A pinata was purchased and  I bought mounds of fruits and veggies. (Fairy's = nature in my mind.) Then Lizzy threw me another curve ball. She didn't want a cake. She wanted cookies instead. Ok, I can deal with that. So the night before the  big event Daniel took Lizzy and Charles out on a ward Elders Quorum/primary camp out.  Devon kept me company while I stayed up till 1 AM making cookies, snickerdoodles, because the sugar dusting makes them sparkle like fairy dust. That was fun! I may have been a little distracted on the actual day. Oops.  Luckily my parents came down to help us celebrate. They helped a ton with decorations and just getting everything ready. Daniel and the kids came back exhilarated from their adventure and my Dad even got to ride the lawn mower! Then the guests started to arrive. We had a good turnout and even though Lizzy got stuck in her room when she put her outfit on, backwards, but other then that I think it went pretty well. Oh, and her frenzy of unwrapping. I don't think I have ever seen someone tare through presents quite so fast! Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate Lizzy's big day! It wouldn't have been the same without you!

You'll Never Guess...

So besides my crazy health issues, my life has gotten suddenly very busy. We finally closed on our house and were able to move in! We had some help from our church members. I really appreciated it. When we moved to Vancouver Daniel and a co-worker moved us in by themselves. We have a lot of stuff, as I'm sure you can imagine. Any way, as it was Daniel moved a whole truckful of things to the house alone. We had help for the second load. We have been here for almost 2 weeks now and it is starting to feel like home. I am still looking through boxes for random things and scratching my head on where to put everything and I don't even want to talk about where to hang the pictures! Ugh, but I do feel that things are falling into place. Then Daniel finds out that his company is selling. He shouldn't be affected too much, but he will have a new employer so we'll see all the new challenges that will bring. And most excitedly My sister was finally able to be sealed to her older children! Something that we have been waiting for with bated breath. They opted to be sealed in the Salt Lake City Temple, unfortunately Daniel was not able to attend so he kindly got a family to watch Lizzy and Charles so Devon and I could go with my parents.

   

It was a wonderful trip and Devon traveled like a dream. I saw my niece get baptized, I got to see my Aunt, Uncle and Grandma's new abode. And got to hold my newest nephew. I was very composed though out the ceremony for the sealing, but I broke down when I started giving hugs. I'm sure my youngest niece was traumatized. Well, that's what aunts are for right? All things considered I thought it was nearly perfect. I just wish Daniel could have been there beside me.
 After I returned home, its been non-stop. The Young Women helped me clean out the apartment. I went to book club and Lizzy's Kindergarten orientation. Ack!
I almost have a kid in school! It's a whole new world. Then the Bishopric came by to check us out. (I hope we passed inspection) Turns out the new Mission home will be down the street from us! Can you imagine? And I just heard that My Grandma had a stroke this morning. She is doing well; her right side is still numb, but she is teasing the staff so I guess that means she is feeling OK. I can't wait for this month to end!

Things

So I have had a relatively crazy few months, "why you ask?" Good I'll tell you. (Deep Breath) Well, since having Devon my body has been in revolt. I figured it was my thyroid rearing it's head again, so off I went to the doctor to have it checked. She did the usual questions and I mentioned that one of my symptoms was a near constant head ache. She decided to order full blood work and then if nothing turned up an MRI. So off I went to the lab. The following day I received the results. Everything is decidedly normal. OK, so why am I loosing all my hair and having dramatic weight changes? Classic Thyroid. So I opt to see the Endocrinologist. Well the Endocrinologist said it all looks fine, lets wait 6 weeks and see. Alright. Back to the MRI.  Apparently my prolactin levels were elevated. Normal if you are breast feeding.  So that was what warranted the MRI. My doctor was afraid that the gland was enlarges or has a growth. Yuck!
 I have never had one before and only seen them on television so I had no idea what to expect. It was rather like being at a rock concert. There was a constant bass line and then pulses and vibrations. Kind of like those massage chairs. Crazy. In the end here are my results:

“FINDINGS:

No restricted diffusion to suggest acute ischemia.
.
Ventricles are symmetric and normal in size. Extra-axial
spaces are normal in size and morphology for the patient's
age. No abnormal intra-axial or extra-axial fluid
collections seen. There is no midline shift or downward
herniation. The midline brain structures are unremarkable.
Pituitary gland is grossly normal. The basal cisterns are
normal." 

I love that I am "grossly normal" I think that beats Daniel's doctor comment of being "Medically Boring."

So there is no answer except that yes, my body is in revolt. Huzzah.

While the Cat's Away...

Daniel had to go to Virginia for 2 weeks of training so I decided to Invade my Parent's house in Bremerton! I was ready for some fun! I was not disappointed. Lizzy had been begging to stay at Grandma's for "This Many Days" which involved all her fingers. I was happy to oblige. Unfortunately I left the camera in the car so my pictures of these events are not of the best quality alas.We went  the Bug Museum and the kids museum in Bainbridge Is. called Kidimu. They have a free day each month and we were lucky enough to be there for it. The kids loved it! They have a new home since I was there last and they have made if a real fun space. it is located behind the soon to be Bainbridge Art museum. It's currently under construction.
 We had lunch at a cute little diner down the street called The Streamliner Diner. The food was wonderful and they obliged Lizzy's request for a pear. It was delicious! I would love to go back.

Nothing could be finer then to meet you at the diner....
Anyway, we went to the Art walk downtown Bremerton. Ate cupcakes at Bella Bella Cupcakes. Delish!  Then we played at the park with the cousins, experienced a DI meeting. Destination Imagination is a school club for gifted students. My sister heads up the one for her daughter's school. She had them make a cupcake cake sculpture that didn't quite work out. 
Frosting and fondant everywhere! They had a blast though. It was not all fun and games though, Charles did managed to wound Devon in a gunfight. But he took it well. All in all, A wonderful vacation. Lots of laughs and fun with family. Just what I needed.

Just for fun

Devon has started babbling and I have tried to capture it for your viewing pleasure, this is all I could get. For some strange reason he is a little camera shy. Anyway don't mind he music or Lizzy's "singing' in the background. It adds to the Charm don't you think?

From 2013-01-30 Devon

From 2013-01-30 Devon

Blessings

This weekend we had the privilege of having the Martins and my parents down for the weekend. We spent a wonderful day at OMSI Here we are excited to go in. Look at these smiles:

From 2013-02-02 OMSI

The favorite room was the ball room. I practically had to drag Daniel out to check out the rest of the floor. There is enough to keep anyone occupied for years.

From 2013-02-02 OMSI

I can't wait to return.

Then Sunday we went to church and Daniel blessed Devon. It was a special day. Devon looked quite dapper in his blessing suit that Grandma Bartholomew made for him.

From 2013-02-03 Devon's Blessing

Going to the Zoo

I love going to the zoo and since we got a membership this year I'm sure that you will be seeing many pictures of us around various animals. Rejoice! So now, on with the ZOO!
The Sea lions were my favorite. Also the huge fish. It's strange, you'd think a seaport town like Portland would have an aquarium, but at least there were fish at the Zoo. It was a bit rainy, but we're Washingtonians! Rain is part of the deal.  We all had a great time and I can't wait to go back!

Growing Pains

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, which I know is the cardinal sin for bloggers everywhere, I'll try to do better Honest! So in the spirit of penitence I humbly show you so much cuteness you will forget my little indiscretion. Behold! Bask in the cuteness of my little Devon rolling and Charles being grumpy:

From 2013-01-13 Devon

Here's a better one of Devon rolling:

From 2013-01-13 Devon

 Now for some stats! At 3 weeks he weighed 9lbs 8oz and was 21.5 in long. He is a strong little guy. He has been rolling from his second week and hasn't stopped! He is sleeping much better and is quite patient with us.  He witnessed the only snow we got last year. On the last day of the year... Lizzy and Charles had fun playing in it!

From 2013-01-13 Devon

And just for fun, here's some randomness: