Cleaning Day

Last night we had seafood pizza for dinner. It was a bad choice on my part... Anyway, Brad was up from 12:30am-2:45 am throwing up. We figured it was just the pizza and maybe he had an allergy to shrimp or something. Anyway, today we decided to clean all day. We did 6 loads of laundry, washing all car seats, high chair, bedding, and baby things like the swing and bouncy seat. Ken vacuumed both cars and we reorganized the garage.
We felt really great about everything being so clean. Brad had been fine all day, eating, drinking and playing normally. So, we decided to head out and run some errands tonight. As we're driving along, Brad starts projectile vomitting IN THE CAR! Needless to say, we turned around and headed home and Ken spent another hour recleaning the car and carseat. The joys of parenting!!!! I am soooooo thankful for such an awesome husband who is so hands on with the craziness of child rearing. Sorry-no pictures for this entry! I'll just leave it to your imaginations!

Announcing...Sky's New Hairdo!

On the way home from the beach we stopped to get Sky's hair cut. Lately it's been taking me 10-15 minutes to comb through and do Sky's hair every morning. So, this will be a nice change for summer and will also help after the baby is born and my time is more limited. I wasn't sure how Sky would feel about the hair cute since "princesses have long hair" but she seems to really like it. The hair dresser put flowers and glitter in her hair too. Sky loved that! Her mirror got a lot of face time today!

Day at the Beach

Today we met some friends from church at the beach. It's called Mother's Beach and it is more like a canal, there are no waves at all and it is very shallow. So far this summer Brad hasn't wanted anything to do with the water but today he had a blast going in the ocean. He kept saying, "Beach!" and splashing. Sky absolutely LOVED the water which is good because she starts swimming lessons again on Tuesday.

Preschool Open House

This bike thing is really cool and, as you can see, it goes really fast! I think this thing has helped her learn how to better ride her bike at home.

These sheep were adorable!

A really clever way to grow bean sprouts! Each one was labeled with the child's name.

There were beautiful crafts hanging everywhere!!!!

Sky's profile

It's hard to tell from this picture but the fish were made shiny with cds!

Cute caterpillar sprouts!

Tonight was a big night for Sky as her preschool hosted an open house. Lots of her wonderful crafts and projects were displayed and Sky was so proud of everything. I was amazed at all of the creativity that was represented! There was a farm section, an under the sea section, a plant section, lots of pictures that had been taken throughout the year, and so much more.

After we spent some time looking at everything in her classroom we went outside to the play area and the kids had a blast running around. We ended the evening with a doughnut and apple juice. Such fun!

There were lots of grandparents and families there and I so wish that Sky grandparents could have been there to see all of the things she has done this year!

She still has 1 month left of school. She "graduates" on June 17 and the last day of school is June 19. Unfortunately my camera battery died before I was able to take a picture of Sky with her teachers. We'll have to do that before the end of the year! She was in a class with 15 students, 10 boys and 5 girls, and 2 teachers, Ms. Kathy and Miss Stephanie.

Exciting News

I just wanted to thank those of you who have been praying that God would provide us with a house to buy. God is sooooo good and just this past Thursday one of our bids was accepted and we are now in the process of buying a GREAT house. There are a few miracles involved here and I would like to share them with you:
1. The house is a regular sale (not a repo) and there was a bid that was $25,000 over ours but the buyer chose us (we think they are Christians) anyway!!!!!! There were many, many offers-look at all of the realtor cards (above) left from when a realtor showed the property!
2. A good friend of ours (he is a professor at BIOLA in the music dept.) is also looking for a home to buy right now and we've joked about how cool it would be to live close to each other. On Friday they had an offer accepted on a house just 3 blocks away! They have 3 little boys and our kids enjoy playing together.
3. All along we have hoped to live in the Gardenhill neighborhood in La Mirada (close to Talbot) and this house is only .4 miles (that's 4 tenths!) from the Talbot parking lot.
4. We stretched a bit financially to make this happen and we still need to buy appliances. Our realtor told us she would buy the stove for us!!!! And we've had some other people tell us that they are sending a check to help defray the appliance costs!!!! Wow!

Needless to say, we are sooooooo excited and a little overwhelmed. We've had a lot of ups and downs in this house buying process that I feel like I can't relax until the keys are in our hands. We had the inspection done yesterday and everything seemed to go fairly well. There are a few issues, as would be expected from a house built in the 50's. There are a few quirky CA things like a stone roof (in good condition), a palm tree growing into the side of the house roof, etc. We'll have the appraisal done this week and find out what needs to be fixed before our loan can be approved.

The house is truly beautiful and so much more than I thought we could get! Most of it has been freshly painted. In fact, when we first went to see the house (a week ago Monday), we had Sky and Brad with us and had to read them the riot act about not touching the walls, etc. because everything had been painted the day before. When we found out that our offer had been accepted and told Sky she said, "If it's our house, can we touch the walls now?" Sky also really likes the purple tree in the front yard!

So, I am hoping that you could continue to pray for us and that we can truly get this house, that the appraisal would go well, and that we could move in before the baby arrives. Thanks so much! We really appreciate it!

Whittier Narrows Nature Preserve

Last Tuesday we went to the Whittier Narrows Nature Preserve with the MOMS Club. It was a really fun experience! They have lots of live animals for the kids to interact with: ducklings, turtles, snakes, owls, lizards, mice, etc. Sky made fast friends with a turtle named Stanley. Brad preferred the ducklings. We also went on a nature walk and saw some herons, egrets, etc. along the San Gabriel River. Brad was especially lucky that day as we got to watch the local fire dept. run a drill with all of their fire trucks along the the river. They also gave sticker badges to the kids. After visiting the preserve we ate lunch and played at a park across the street.

The ride home

The ride home was a perilous one. First we went up (and then down) 16 miles of steep, incredibly windy roads to see the view from Glacier Point. It was definitely worth the effort but it added that much more time on to our car ride home and it was pretty tricky driving.

On the way home we saw a terrible accident that had just happened (there were no emergency people there yet). Probably around 20 cars involved and a few dead bodies along the road side. Thankfully the kids didn't notice as they were watching a dvd. It was pretty horrible.

Then we hit some traffic delays due to the Santa Barbara fires which were right along the highway. The 2 right lanes were closed for a while due to the fires and it was hard to see, at times, due to the smoke.

Needless to say, we were very thankful to make it home safely around 6pm on Sunday. The first order of business was baths for the kids. They were filthy from head to toe (and we weren't much better). But, I guess that is a mark of a successful camping trip.

Yosemite Family Photos

Brad found a cone of a sequoia tree and carried it around for a bit. It takes the trees 30 years to produce a cone and the park prohibits people from taking them so Brad just held on to it for a bit. Apparently, it is very difficult for these trees to reproduce and it takes them a very long time to grow to the great majestic trees you see in pictures.

The 2 hour tour of Yosemite

On Saturday morning we took a 2 hour open bus tour of the valley floor in Yosemite. I was amazed at the rock climbers climbing up El Capitan, a sheer rock cliff. It takes the average mountain climber 3-5 days to get to the top and then they have a 9 hour hike down. They sleep, eat, etc. on the side of the cliff.

I also took a moonlight tour with Christine that night (there was a full moon) and we saw the climber's lights flashing all over the cliff. It was soooooo cool how the moon reflected off of these cliffs made of granite. I really couldn't capture the beauty of it in a photo. Christine took her son Sam out to see a moon bow. It's like a rain bow and it only happens once a year and we happened to be there that day! The moon reflects off of one of the waterfalls creating a moon bow with the entire spectrum of colors. They really enjoyed it!

We came to Yosemite at a great time because there were so many waterfalls from the melting snow. Sky said that the waterfalls were her favorite part of the trip.

Sequoia trees in Yosemite National Park

For Mother's Day weekend we went with our friends, the Jensens, to Yosemite. We left at 4am on Friday morning and arrived in Yosemite about 6 hours later. We first went to the Mariposa Grove, an area with many Sequoia trees. These trees are in the Redwood genus and they were enormous, magnificent trees. Many were thousands of years old. We saw the 5th largest tree in the world as we hiked about 2 miles. I love the picture in front of the uprooted tree. That tree fell 800 years ago I think they said. There was much more to see there but Brad and I could only go so far. So we went to our campsite and settled in. We stayed at housekeeping camp, which is a bit deceiving because no one did any housekeeping for us. There were 3 cement walls and 1 canvas wall and a canvas roof. There were bunk beds and a double bed and we brought our own sleeping bags. There was also a firepit and a table and chairs provided at each site. The Jensens stayed on the other side of the tent in exactly the same arrangement. We brought the pack and play for Brad but he wouldn't have any of it so I ended up sleeping with Sky and Brad in the double bed and Ken slept on the bottom bunk. What better way to celebrate Mother's Day?

House #3 Falls Through

We found out today that the third house we've put an offer on was given to another "superior offer". We'll just keep looking... Hopefully we can find something soon as it would be great to move before the baby comes. Please keep praying. Sorry if you are getting bored hearing about our housing troubles. This is just a good way for us to communicate what is going on with us to many people at one time. In a few months it will be all about the baby, I'm sure.

Housing Update

Well, we found out today that we did not get the house across from Gardenhill Park that we had an offer on. It was listed at $315,000 and needs a new roof. We offered $350,000 and apparently we came in fourth place. The first guy had cash but declined because he had found another investment, the next guy had 30% down but he decided the place was too small and the third guy is offering $355,000 and is putting down 10% (we are only putting down 4%). The third guy is taking the place and is very excited so we ALMOST got that one!!!
We went out looking at houses again tonight-2 houses in Whittier. Both are 3 bedroom, 2 bath and both have in ground swimming pools (although one had no water and was a disgusting mess). This would be a bit further from school for Ken but still definitely manageable. We will put an offer on the second house (the one with the good pool) tomorrow night. This would mean a different school for Sky too.
The realtor was told that the bank wants to make a decision on Monday and close within 2 weeks! Now, this is what the bank SAYS. But we have dealt enough already with how the banks say one thing and do another so we'll see... So, if we get this one, things could really get crazy! I would really like to move before the baby is born though. We would definitely have some work to do on the place and we would definitely have to put a security fence around the pool. We'll keep you updated as things progress.

Road Resurfacing

This morning we woke up to some serious machinery on our street-graders, street sweepers, dump trucks, etc. It seems we have entered the process of resurfacing our street. Our street really doesn't seem to need it (not by Connecticut standards anyway)-there are no pot holes-but apparently, as my grandmother always says, "men must dig". It provides great entertainment for Brad and his little friends that come over to play.
On another note, we found out yesterday that Sky got into the elementary school that we had hoped she could attend for kindergarten next year. It's a public school but it has a very strong BIOLA/Christian presence. This is, of course, assuming that we stay renting the house that we're in. If we move to another city we'll have to figure things out all over again. I can't believe that my sweet girl will be going to kindergarten!
I worry about all the things that I'm sure every parent worries about: is she ready? will she make friends? will she be able to handle an all day school routine? will she lead others or be a follower (she's had some trouble being a follower at preschool lately...)? will she enjoy school or loathe it? can we handle the homework? ETC.