We moved our blog…

We have moved our blog, please follow the link to the right to our new blog site.  Thanks!

May 2010

Boy, a lot has happened since our last blog, but as our pictures can attest, we have been busy seeing the sites and enjoying life.

Raun is still studying hard hoping it will all come to an end soon, Lori is doing well and we are expecting another GIRL! Raun is hopelessly outnumbered in our house.  Emily and Rachel are both growing up so smart and happy. 

We are probably expecting some changes in our life soon (besides the new baby), but we will let you know when that happens.  In  the meantime, enjoy some pictures of what we have done recently!

Birthday time again!

Birthdays, birthdays all around!  We are all another year older (except Rachel who is only one year old, period) and enjoying our time in Monterey.  It looks like we will be here a bit longer, like, maybe next June, but we don’t mind.

Our family is doing well and loving life.  Summer in Monterey isn’t the warmest (and always a bit foggy), but it’s still nice.  We are looking forward to traveling to SLC for Christmas to see the family, but that is still a long ways away.  Lori and the girls will be out of town next week to visit Pennsylvania for a wedding and to see family–they are very excited about it.  Overall, life is good!

---

By the way, check out our newly-posted pictures!

Disneyland 2009

Well, we took advantage of the opportunity and went to Disneyland.  Ruth came with us and so did Jordan, so we had some help with the kids and everyone got to do stuff.  On the way down, we took the long way along Highway 1 (which is amazingly beautiful) and even though it took much longer, it was worth it.  Jordan met us down there and we spent three days doing everything we could to do as much as we could at both parks (Disneyland and California Adventure).  Those fast passes really came in handy…it seemed like we always had a bunch to use and the fast pass lines are much more manageable. 

 

Emily’s favorite part was Fantasy Land and she had the opportunity to meet Sleeping Beauty (Princess Aurora), her favorite princess; and Tinkerbell, her second favorite.  Mawmaw bought Emily a princess dress which she ran around in as much as she could.  She loved it.  Emily really has a "princessy" personality.  Of the rides she liked the "Horsy ride" (the Carousel), the "Elephant ride" (Dumbo) and the train; while Lori’s favorite ride was California Screamin’ and Space Mountain; Raun liked all of those too, including the Tower of Terror.  We feel that in three days we saw just about everything we needed or wanted to see.  I don’t know how you could do it in less time if you hadn’t ever been there before (I guess if you didn’t have kids it would go faster, but the kids’ expressions of joy and excitement are the point of going!).  Overall, it was a great trip.

March 2009

Like always, we have been busy… not much to show for it though.  We still do all the usual, play at the park, study hard learning Chinese, and many other daily time consuming activities such as eating and bathing and sleeping and laundry, but our family is still growing up nice.

Rachel is officially crawling and likes to get into everything she can, as often as she can.  She upgraded to baby food and easily gummed up food items, but I still see her as our little baby.  Still no teeth yet, but Emily was over a year before she sprouted teeth, so I’m not too worried.  Rachel did upgrade car seats though and smiles big every time we strap her in.  I think she thinks she is all grown up now in a car seat like Emily’s.  Rachel is already 18 pounds!

Emily is such a good big sister.  She is really good with Rachel and loves to give her hugs and drag her away from items she shouldn’t be getting into.  Emily did panic the first time we gave Rachel food though, because we had told her that because Rachel didn’t have any teeth she couldn’t eat any food.  Telling her this prevented Emily from sharing things like raisins and pretzels with Rachel that might choke her.  We had to explain that because there was a baby on the package it was food meant specifically for babies and so by default it was ok to feed her.   

Our family is happy and healthy – and those are the important things.  

Ah, we are slackers…

Yes, it is true.  It has been more than three months since we posted new pictures.  We just got involved with facebook and found it to be very addicting.  Let’s see if we can re-cap everything that has gone on in the last little while.  

 

Potty Training went well.  We mastered this in November and then had a spell of accidents and relentless crying which really was a UTI for Emily.  That was no fun, but the doctor got her all fixed up again and Lori couldn’t be happier!  Secretly she likes changing diapers about as much as Raun does, which isn’t much at all.  So this toilet thing makes her smile inside.  Now we just need to work on it with Rachel…

 

Thanksgiving was fun.  It was just the four of us so we decided to only bake up a Cornish game hen instead of a huge turkey.  It was really nice.  We are teaching Emily to say prayers all on her own and she is surprisingly good with beginning and thanking and ending a prayer, but needs some more work on asking for things.  She tells Heavenly Father that she is thankful for her family, and she is thankful for her binky and so on… it is pretty cute I do say so myself.

 

Christmas was really exciting because this is the first year that Emily really had a clue what was going on.  She asked Santa for a toothbrush, chap-stick and a magnifying glass.  He came through for her and she got a few extra things too.  Rachel didn’t have a clue what was going on, and just laid there looking in awe while Emily ran circles around her in excitement.  

 

Emily moved up into Senior Nursery at church.  She is a good little girl for the most part; she just has a lot of energy.  We keep her busy during the week by going to story time at the library and taking walks around the neighborhood and frequenting the play ground.  

 

Rachel is becoming more active.  She sits up now unsupported and rolls and scoots backwards.  Not forward yet, but that will come with time.  Unlike Emily at Rachel’s age – everything goes into Rachel’s mouth.  When Rachel gets excited her mouth gaps open as wide as it could possibly go.  She has a smile, but this is way beyond a smile and we jokingly call her a sardine because of it.  Rachel does have one of the cutest smiles and we may have to beat off the boys when she gets to junior and senior high school.  We think she looks exactly like Emily did at that age only with slightly darker hair.  

 

Raun is tolerating school, but is looking forward to being done.  (“Turkeys are done; People are finished” as Emily would say)  He is looking forward to a class break coming up in a few more months.  Disneyland anyone?!

 

Lori tries her best not to lose her mind during the day.  She was so excited for Emily to learn to talk a while back and now she NEVER stops talking.  Getting alone time is a joke because even when she thinks she is safely locked away in the bathroom by herself – little fingers start to poke out from under the door at her and then the knocking starts and then the inevitable “Mommy – let me in, too!”

Halloween 2008

October has turned out to be quite busy in our family.  MaMa was able to fly in and visit.  We Blessed Rachel at church and Raun was able to give her a name and a blessing.  Lori’s grandfolk celebrated their 59th year of marriage – YEA!  Raun and Lori got to attend the Air Force Military Ball, which by the way had a FABULOUS dinner and a rather disappointing dessert.  Lori finally finished her first quilt.  And we have spent a good amount of time supporting California’s Prop 8 for the upcoming election.

 

Rachel is doing well and growing like a weed.  She is well mannered and is trying to talk to us, but all we understand so far sound like gurgles and coos. 

 

Emily decided this Halloween thing is right up her alley.  This was a fascinating concept that people just hand out candy to kids dressed up in costumes.  We did the Trunk or Treat thing at the church Wednesday night and then the house to house thing around our block Friday night.  There was an obscene amount of kids trick or treating in our neighborhood and we were completely out of candy at our house in under a half hour.  We felt bad, but when we were out, we were out.  We have a sneaking suspicion that parents from other areas must bring their kids to our neighborhood to trick or treat because:

1. I have never seen that many kids around here

2. The houses are pretty close together so you can get a lot of them in a short amount of time

3. It is a pretty safe area

4. I have never seen that many kids around here. 

 

Lori, as stated above, finished her first quilt.  She has dabbled on a few others, but this is her first completely done quilt.  It was for her Uncle and Aunt’s anniversary.  She didn’t get it done quite in time, but close enough.  It had matching pillow cases and they said they loved it, so it made Lori feel all good and squishy inside.

 

Raun is doing well with his studies so far – but we are nearing the end of semester 1, and starting semester 2 it is supposed to get a lot harder. 

 

So as you probably know, we are LDS.  For the most part the church stays out of the political spectrum.  They just advise us to study up on the issues and candidates and do what you think is right.  This year four states have on the ballot propositions for gay marriage, and the prophet had come out and said, we need to do all we can so the sanctity of marriage is protected, so that is how we have been spending several evenings and weekends lately.  So if you live in California, VOTE YES ON PROP 8.  Opponents believe that it is only about love and the freedom to express that love… but if they would do a little more research on that matter they would see that if 8 does not pass, the rest of the populous will lose a lot of our freedoms too.  Gay marriage will be taught in schools (it already is in Boston and San Francisco to kids as young as first grade), Churches will be sued if they do not allow gay marriages, many churches will lose their tax exemptions, doctors will be sued if they are asked to perform invetro for a gay couple, even if they feel it goes against their personal beliefs and morals, and even if there are other doctors willing to do it… if they refuse, they could be sued.  All I can say is there is a difference between tolerance and forced acceptance.  Personally we do not want our kids exposed to this and taught that being gay is good.  This country was founded on Religious Freedoms, and now that is being taken away.  I have rights too. 

 Whatever your opinion, if you vote McCain or Obama, just be sure to vote.

Growing up so nice!

Rachel is almost 8 weeks old already.  She is a great baby and is in the midst of a growth spurt, demanding that she gets to eat way more frequently that she used to.  But this too will pass, and we’ll get back into a routine.  I think she is also starting to pudge up a bit, but I think that will be more noticeable in our next posting, after all, I just started to notice last night.  She just started to coo this past week, so we are so excited to hear her trying to talk to us. 

Speaking of talking – Emily can never seem to stop talking to us.  She just goes on, and on, and on.  But I think it is good for her to use her words.  Her latest thing is she LOVES Scooby-Doo.  She loves everything about the show, including the monsters.  Even the ghosts are called monsters according to Emily.  She goes around the house with arms and hands raised, as all monsters do, saying "Grooowl!"  Pretty cute. 

Lori is managing to stay sane, because Rachel has figured out how to sleep well.  It is still in 4 hour bursts, but when you don’t have to spend an extra half hour in the middle of the night trying to get the baby back to sleep, it is wonderful.  Now Rachel just lets us know when she is hungry, Lori can feed her, do a quick burp and lay her right back down and go back to bed…  Sleep is good. 

Raun likes sleep too, and wishes for more quite frequently.  His classes start early, and so he has to get up even before they start – imagine that.  And occasionally they have to get up even earlier, just so Raun and all his peers can stand around together.  They don’t even look at each other or socialize – they just look straight ahead, about an arms length apart from each other.  But at these early morning gatherings, they tell Raun things we ought to know, like when the upcoming Military Ball is, and when the next Commanders Cup will be.  Besides – these standing around sessions are mandatory.  Raun is doing well in his classes, and just got a new calling in church, so he is keeping pretty busy, but he still finds time to spend with the family!

Baby Rachel

Well, Rachel Laine arrived!  She was a few days later than predicted, but that was just fine.  August 10th, at 4:33 pm weighing in at 8 lbs. and 21 in. long.  Everything went great–Mom and Baby are both happy and healthy.  Lori was only in labor for 5 hours (not bad) and Rachel only needed 3 pushes to convince her to come and join us.  Anyway, we’ll keep you posted with pictures and the like–I’m sure there will be just as many pictures of Rachel as there are of Emily, although that is a daunting task; Emily has a ton of pictures.  The rest of us are doing great as well: Raun is still studying like crazy and Emily is talking more than ever and trying to be a good big sister.  Needless to say Rachel gets a lot of kisses from her big sis.  Lori’s grandparents came out to help for a few weeks and it has been nice having them around–they’ve been a great help.  Rachel is a doll and slowly Raun is being overtaken and severely outnumbered by the girls in the house.

---

Be sure to check out our newly posted photos!

Summer 2008

I can’t believe the summer is half gone already… and needless to say, A LOT has gone on since we updated this website last.  We moved to Monterey CA, where we are all still waiting for the summer to start.  It stays about 65-70 degrees year round and it feels like a perpetual spring.  We share a house, because it is a duplex, but it is in a great area.  I think the only thing we would change is the neighbors like to leave their garage light on ALL night EVERY night, and it shines right in our bedroom window, even with the blinds closed tight. 

Lori is due with baby # 2 any day now.  We are going to name her Rachel Laine, and we will be sure to let everyone know when that happens.  She is adjusting to not working outside the home, misses everyone in optical land back at ShopKo and is slowly enjoying spending time at home and going to the playground with Emily to fill her days instead. 

Emily just had her second birthday and instantly knew that she turned two.  She is usually a really good girl, but that one day she was just miserable the whole day.  She is doing better again, and enjoys filling her time with swimming, playing at the playground, pretending to drive everything and anything, including cars and tractors and bikes, and as she puts is – playing with the kids.  She is anxious for baby Rachel to come, but I think that she thinks Rachel is going to come out ready to play with Emily, and Emily may be in for a rude awakening.  We’ll deal with that when the moment comes…