Sweet, Chubby Annaliese- 9 months

This picture is blurry, but I had to put it up anyway. My mom and my brother and I went to visit Alice Holland (Elder Holland's mother). She was a close friend of my great grandma Esplin, and she is almost 94. Annaliese has never shown any signs of separation anxiety, but it may just be starting. She wasn't really smiling in this picture, she was starting to get a little nervous.

I just had to save it for her so that she can know she was held by my favorite apostle's mom!

No, this is not Annaliese (Man how she's changed! That's what you were thinking, right?) This is Kalia at 9 months. For comparisons sake. It just dawned on me that I created a separate blog for Kalia to do these monthly updates. I even created one for Annaliese, then forgot all about it, and I've been doing monthly updates here. Oh well. I missed her 8 month mark too. So, it's been a BIG few months for her. She is on the GO!!! She learned to crawl, then pull to a stand, and then try to take a step (only one step, then she fell) all in a matter of about 5 weeks. It's so funny when babies first figure out how to pull to a stand and cruise around pieces of furniture. While we were in Colorado, I woke up to see Annaliese, standing there in the dark, going round and round her pack and play, standing and holding on to the sides. It made me smile.

She also learned to pick things up and put them in her mouth, and today I had to pull out skittles and a piece of tape. Actually, she choked on the tape and threw up, and got it out on her own. But besides the choking hazard, her allergies are still challenging us. We tried her on avocado, and it gave her a nasty rash on her neck. (My brother said he has an avocado allergy too!) I also tried her on fresh goats milk. She LOVED the taste and would guzzle it down. And for 3 days, all seemed well. But you know what they say...you need to wait 4 days! And that's when her constipation showed up, and the tiny rash (looks like baby acne) showed up all over her hairline. It got pretty bad, and stayed for about 4 days AFTER we took her off the goats milk. Dang it. If she's that allergic to goats milk, can you imagine if I let her have cows milk? I am on a mission to start making her baby food, and getting her on more solids. She just keeps chugging down that formula, and even though she's super active now, I swear she's just getting fatter. (I won't lie, I love all that fat.) She loves her prunes though, thank goodness since she needs them to help keep her regular sometimes.

It looks like she might have gotten the curly hair gene too. This is about when Kalia's started to curl, but mostly only when its wet:

Those bottom 2 teeth broke through! FINALLY! Those were some tricky little buggers.

Her eyes have a few more streaks of brown in them, but they are still mostly blue. I can't believe how long they are taking to change!! Kalia's were already hazely brown at this age. (See above picture...I cannot get it to move down here.)

She loves to mimic people, and does this funny slurping sound, or she shakes her head no while she smiles really big, or she tries to copy the tone and inflection of sounds that I make to her.

This is what she looks like when she does her slurping sound. Great comic relief.

And for some odd reason, everyone says she looks EXACTLY like her dad. I don't see it, but then, I can't see either of us in either our kids.

9 months...I really love this age.

Well, that was really long, but I needed a break from writing about all the craziness. Tune in tomorrow though, and I'll fill ya in on the latest. I think we've finally found a place to go, maybe even a house of our own.

Trusting

I guess I knew that a trial was on it's way. Several months ago I was feeling very happy and content with my life. It had been about 5 months since I'd had anything remotely "hard" in my life, and I guess my Spirit just knew it was time to grow again. Samuel was released from the Young Men's Presidency, and given a simple teaching job. So I figured it was time for me to finally have a calling, even though I still had a baby. I didn't have a calling the entire time we were in Vegas, and I thanked the Lord regularly for that, because I didn't really think I could take on one more thing. But the calling never came, and I slipped back into my easy happiness.

But one Sunday afternoon, I was taught a spiritual lesson that I will never forget. Annaliese had taken a major spill out of the bumbo seat, which I had placed on a kitchen chair. She'd gone face-first into the ceramic tile, and landed right on her mouth and nose, and a little bit of blood was trickling out of both nostrils. She screamed like I'd never heard her scream before. I threw Kalia in her crib (literally?) because she was whining and crying and making things very difficult. Then I called a 24 hour nurse hotline, who told me what to watch for, in case I needed to take her in to a doctor.

I spent the next 30 minutes trying to calm her down. The loud screaming quieted down into a sad, painful cry. I tried to feed her, but she wouldn't have it. I knew she was already really tired anyway, so I took her into the dark quiet room and rocked and bounced.

It seemed like I could hear her thoughts, wondering why in the world she was hurting so much, and not knowing when it was going to go away. I knew it probably didn't seem fair to her, there she was just sitting there, innocent as can be, and then all of a sudden WHAM! Major hurting going on.

I was so overcome with love for her. Watching her cry and suffer like that was almost unbearable. So I tried to talk to her, just in case she could understand me. I told her that I knew how much she was hurting. I told her I would take her pain in an instant if I could. I told her that this pain was a part of life, and that she would experience opposition throughout her life, and that it would help her know and understand the good and the sweet. I told her how much I loved her, and since I had a broader perspective of what happened, I asked her to trust me. I knew that the pain would be gone very shortly, and if she could just TRUST me, and be comforted, that it would all be over soon. I just told her over and over: Just trust me! Trust me! Trust me! Tears were rolling down my face.

Then I sang some primary songs to her. She would quiet down when I sang I Am a Child of God. If I tried to sing any other song, she'd start to whimper again, so I'd just go back to that song. Once again I realized how precious her little Spirit is, and that she must really know that she is a child of God.

As she was finally quieting down, I had an overwhelming lesson come over me. I realized that our Heavenly Father and the Savior are very aware of what is going on in our lives. They know that often....it hurts. It hurts like heck. And often we didn't do anything to bring that situation on ourselves. And we don't know how long it's going to hurt, and we don't know how it's going to get better. But they loves us SO MUCH. They would take away the pain if they could, but we have to experience these things if we're going to grow. But in the eternal perspective of things, that pain is just a blip in time. It will be over soon, and we will have learned from it. So in the meantime...we just have to TRUST HIM. All will be well. We will be better people because of it. At that time I had the impression that I would need to remember this in the future, for my own reasons.

And now here we are. I know that our last trial (with Annaliese being sick and crying for 2 months straight) was very very difficult. I got a little bitter and did NOT do a very good job of trusting then. But it all worked out and the answers came. So I learned a little about trusting then too. I'm going to do a better job trusting this time.

"Things will work out. They always do." That's my favorite quote from President Hinckley.

I don't know how long we'll be in this mess, or how we're going to make ends meet. But things will work out. They always do.

St. George

This week we are in St. George. We are in our 5th city in 3 weeks. Living out of suitcases...AHHH, the joys!

We had a nice few days in Colorado for the family reunion.

These are the only pictures I took the entire time, and it was when we had to stop and stay in Moab, because we were too tired to stay awake driving any longer. We stayed in this tiny cabin with bunkbeds at the Lazy Lizard Hostel. Good times.

:)

Durango, CO was fun. The air was cool and fresh and smelled like pine trees. I met a lot of Samuel's extended family. Samuel's parents gave us their room in the cabin so that we wouldn't have to spend money. It was an 8 hour drive from St. George, and I was dreading it so much. My girls have not always been the best of travelers, even with the DVD player that I've come to depend on so heavily. They both got yucky colds as we were leaving, which made from some crankiness and sleepless nights. But overall I guess it was worth it. We did the drive back in one day, and we only stopped twice. Kalia actually took a nap in the car twice! I couldn't believe my eyes. I hope it continues.

I took this clip of her watching Elmo and singing her ABC's. I can't believe she's turning 2 next month. I just love her little lisp. And she's starting to carry a tune a little too, which is fun for us to see.

Back in Vegas

Hello Friends. I apologize that I have been really bad at returning emails, calls, texts, etc. It's just so dang crazy. After spending a week in Phoenix with Samuel's family, we drove to San Diego to meet up with my family. They were there to basically tour my brother's mission, meet his mission president, etc. We tried our hardest to forget our troubles, but it's been hard. Samuel is seriously on the phone at least 50% of the day. He's formed a great relationship with this guy (Richard) who is his temporary replacement at the property. Richard has been great, very helpful (he's a member of the church) and a definite blessing. He will NOT be taking over Samuel's job though, as he has already seen enough to make him not want the job. Anyway, we think we may have finally found Judy's motive: MONEY!! If she really does sue the owners of the apartment complex, their insurance will probably settle, rather than go to a full trial. It's basically an easy win for her. And with the legal advice she's getting...we're thinking she'll probably do just that.

Anyway, I'm just going to start listing new developments, so try your best to make sense of it all.
1. Samuel's assistant (his name is Jose, he's about 23 years old) is really stirring up trouble on the property since we've been gone. We're really disappointed in him. I'll spare you the details, but he's talking really bad behind Samuel's back, and his cousins, who are members of a gang, have started coming around the property lately (according to Richard.)
2. Because of the increase in gang activity, including something semi-threatening written on the sidewalk (scratched with a rock), we haven't gone back for our stuff. We just don't have a good feeling about it right now, and our Bishop doesn't either. Thanks to our wonderful Vegas friends who were ready to go in and do it for us. We're just going to wait on that for right now, and then we'll do it with a police escort.
3. We are back in Las Vegas now, but staying at my uncle's empty vacation rental house. It's weird to be in Vegas but not be home. And we just keep washing and wearing our same clothes, over and over again.
4. Samuel has not been arrested. The detectives didn't even bother with the case, they passed it right on to the District Attorney. I am hopeful that it means they didn't think the case was worth their time.
5. Judy did move out of the apartment, but she keeps coming around asking for her deposit back. (YEAH RIGHT!)
6. The restraining order is in effect until August 20th. Samuel lost his concealed weapons permit and cannot carry any guns (at the time we need them most!) Another good reason to leave Nevada I guess.
7. We haven't heard anything about the status of Judy's jaw/medical situation.
8. Samuel is supposed to appear in court on August 19th. His case still shows a misdemeanor charge, and not a felony, but they often lay a bunch of charges on at the arraignment (that's when they'll set a trial date.)
9. No luck with the job hunt.
11. My uncle, the corporate lawyer, is willing to represent us if we want to file a lawsuit against the owners for wrongful termination. I was wondering if we're supposed to be all Christlike and forgive, and turn the other cheek, etc. etc. But then my mission president told Samuel to remember that Moroni (Title of Liberty) taught that you pretty much do whatever you have to do to protect and take care of your family. So now I feel better about (possibly) making their lives a little bit more miserable.
12. Poor Kalia is having the hardest time dealing with everything. She can sense that things are very wrong. And she completely falls apart if I am not by her side. She doesn't even want to be left with her daddy. It has really been a trial. She is just crying all the time. We really feel bad for her, since we can't just sit down and explain what's going on. So we just relented on the binkie thing (we were so close to weaning) and let her have her binkies a lot more to help comfort her. But she's having some major security issues, poor thing.
13. Annaliese has been SO good through all this, at least until we came back here. I finally forced her to learn to crawl. She cried through the whole thing (I have the funniest video fo it) but I told her she'd thank me when she's older. She just wanted to skip right to walking. These last two days though she has cried a LOT. I am (once again) just blaming it on those dang bottom teeth, that STILL aren't here yet. This is the fussiest she's been though, so if they're not here by next week, I'm going to pull them out myself. :)
14. I feel really peaceful about everything. Samuel and I both got an amazing priesthood blessing from his dad, and we were promised great things, but most importantly, that this was all working together for our good.
15. We are heading to Durango, Colorado tomorrow for Samuel's family reunion. All this driving...I really can't stand it, but we don't really have anywhere else to go. Our families are helping us with a little gas money or they let us stay in their hotel rooms and stuff. We are so grateful.
16. We are totally living day to day. We honestly look at each other tonight and say, Where are we going tomorrow? We have no idea where we're going after Colorado.

So, here's a few recent pictures:


She wants to stand all the time, or roll, or climb, or (maybe) crawl. I'm trying to discourage the behavior. It's like, now that she's figured out how FUN it is to be mobile, she doesn't ever want to sit still anymore. Dang it.
Kalia at the beautiful (AMAZING!) San Diego Temple. She's pretty happy, as long as I'm within 5 feet of her.

She had fun with Maddux and Malakai in the swimming pools. (I just love how swimming wears kids out.)

Annaliese is 8 1/2 months old. I just love those marshmallow thighs.

We had the best time at Sea World. Thanks to my family for helping us out so that we could go.

Today

Today it's bad news. Today Samuel lost his job. Judy is threatening to sue everyone, including the owners of the apartment building. Their lawyers have told them that they needed to terminate Samuel immediately, to protect themselves. So they did. Just like that.

I cried today, because I'm scared. Unemployed? In THIS economy? Seriously? It's like a bad dream. I look at pictures on my camera of the girls playing in our apartment, and I realize we are NEVER going back to that. Our life as we know it got ripped away from us with no warning, and we aren't getting it back.

We had already been praying about whether or not we should stay in Vegas, and/or stay at that property. We were starting to feel like it was time to leave Vegas. But getting "terminated" just feels so much worse than choosing to leave, on our OWN accord, on OUR OWN TERMS (and when we're READY!!) I am feeling a lot of different emotions, but mostly I'm just sad that the next time we go "home" to Vegas...we will only be there to pack up the apartment and leave.

We are so grateful that we don't own a home. Just a car payment, a student loan payment, and credit card payments. We're cancelling everything, including our health insurance. I hope we don't get sick. If we can get that minivan sold then at least we'll have something to live off of. The worst part is that we don't qualify for unemplyment benefits either. The future is so uncertain.

So let the job hunting begin. (Oh yay.) We are definitely leaving Vegas. I will miss our friends and our ward so much. They've been so good to us. We already have offers of free places to stay in Phoenix, so I'm imagining that most of the job searching will be happening here. Of course we would be willing to go anywhere, and we have faith that Heavenly Father must have somewhere in mind for us, and this is the route He's using to take us there.

This is a hard day, but we are still full of hope and faith, and most of all...trust. Trust. Trust. Trust. Next time I write I will you tell you of a very personal, special experience I had a few months ago that I think helped prepare me for this. But not tonight because I will just cry the whole way through it and not be able to type anyway. Thanks again for everyone's love and prayers.

Thank you SO much for your prayers everyone! THEY ARE BEING ANSWERED. Lots of little things keep happening each day, and things are looking up, but for now, here's the CRAZY INSANE STORY. I just copied it from an email that I sent to my family.

Hello family, I apologize I don't have enough cell phone minutes to call you all to tell you this, so I hope the email will do. It's a long story. In a nutshell, Samuel tried to break up a party around midnight on the 4th of July at our apartment complex. He had already made one phone call requesting police assistance, but they hadn't come yet. The tenants were drunk and the tenant throwing the party was extremely angry that Samuel was trying to end her party. (It had been going on for 8 hours.) He told her that if she didn't want to follow the rules or pay her rent (she hadn't paid rent yet that month), then he would start the eviction process. She pretty much snapped, telling him to F-off, and that he was a Mexican-hater and that he couldn't tell her what to do. She got in his face, started clawing at him, and her sister came up and started clawing as well. Then sister #1 slapped Samuel in the face once, and tried to hit him again. She also tore his shirt sleeve during this. Samuel tried to block their hands off, and then saw the rest of the group starting to circle around him (he was the only white person there by the way.) When one of the men (either a relative of the sisters or a boyfriend) started to lunge at Samuel and appeared to pull something (a weapon Samuel thought) Samuel pulled out his gun, which he always carries on him for an event such as this. He pointed the gun at the guy and told everyone to back off, which they did. He then held the gun in the air and called the police for the second time requesting immediate assistance. The tenants also started dialing 911 telling the dispatch that their manager had a gun pointed at them. 10 officers arrived very quickly, Samuel and the tenants were still out there waiting, except for the boyfriend/relative who took off when the cops were called. Samuel was suprised that they started roughing HIM up, since he was the one who called them first. They had not gotten Samuel's calls (a noise ordinance issue is not as urgent as a gun call, obviously) so the tenants calls were the ones that had gotten through first. While Samuel is trying to work this out with the officers, the 8 tenants got together and then all told the officers the same story: Samuel had punched sister #1 in the face. Because of these "witnesses" the officers gave Samuel a misdemeanor citation for Battery. They took his gun, and they let him go, but not before giving him a heavy warning that he was probably not safe in the complex, that he should NEVER leave his family alone there, and that he was in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. He couldn't sleep all night, he was waiting for bullets to come through our windows from these crazy tenants. The next day he called an officer to come assist him as he served the two girls eviction papers. Samuel took a camera and tried to take a picture of her face, as there was no obvious sign of a hit to the face, and no swelling. The officer didn't seem to believe the girls' story, (and as we later found out, the sisters filed a "complaint" against that officer for some crazy reason.) We were hoping that was the end of things, but unfortunately Monday night an officer showed up to tell Samuel that Sister #1 (her name is Judy) had medical proof of A BROKEN JAW. The night of the "scuffle", after the police left, she had an "ambulance take her away" where a medical doctor told her that her jaw was in fact broken and needed to be wired shut. Standard procedure says you wait 7 days before wiring (wae assume?) because as was noted by several officers, you could not see anything by looking at her besides a small bruise. Also, an important fact, it was her RIGHT jaw that was broken. Some officers told Samuel ("off the record") that Judy SWORE 5 times that Samuel hit her WITH HIS RIGHT HAND and on the RIGHT side of her face. As you think about that, you realize her first mistake. Anyway, because of the evidence of injury, Samuel's "misdemeanor" now became a felony charge that required arrest. The officer that came to get him was very calm, nice, and listened to Samuel's entire story. He seemed to be a really nice guy (we are grateful for that.) We hurried and called Samuel's friend Chuck, who is a cop that works at the jail. He came racing over to vouch for Samuel's character. But the cop took Samuel anyway (I guess he was bound by the 'evidence') and I cried as I watched my husband, in tears, handcuffed and put in the back of the cop car. Chuck called his lieutenant who said that Samuel would probably spend 3 days in jail before we could bail him out. I was about to throw up at this point. My girls were locked in the apartment asleep. I went home to call my mom (and Samuel's boss, who didn't answer) and Chuck went to the jail to see how he could help. About an hour later I get a knock on the door and it was SAMUEL (I about passed out). It turns out the officer had taken Samuel back to the station instead of the jail, to converse with his superiors and the officers who were there on the night of the 4th. They never went in or took Samuel out of the car. They came out and talked around the car. Then the sergeant came and told Samuel through the window that they had decided as a group that there was not enough good evidence to arrest Samuel that night, but that they would pass the case on to the detectives and let them make the arrest at a later time. (There is a small chance the detectives will decide not to arrest, we are praying for that, but more than likely he will be arrested and we'll have to bail him out.) They also told Samuel that Judy was causing ALL KINDS of trouble for them. Not only were there he complaints against officers, she had also spent the day at the courthouse fighting the eviction (she hasn't paid rent for July, but now she probably just bought herself another month of time). She (the sergeant) also told Samuel about the right hand/right face thing, and Samuel suggested that they take pictures of his hands right away to show that they are unmarked, which the officers did. The officers drove Samuel home and they also took Judy's medical papers back to her and told them she'd have to re-file/re-submit them. I don't know why they did this but it bought us more time, and hopefully it discouraged her a little. They told Samuel that he is NOT under arrest, that technically that "never happened". He told them that we had a trip to Phoenix planned for this weekend, and the sergeant just repeated, "You are not under arrest. You are free to do what you want and carry your guns, etc. etc. He said, "What will happen if the detectives come and I'm not here?" She said they would just come back at a later time. So, after consulting with my uncle Pat (a corporate attorney, but he can still help us out), for the safety of our family and also so Judy cannot make any other false claims, we packed up our family, all our important documents, and we left the state. We have been in contact with Pat and others who are helping us find a great criminal attorney. But Samuel did not hit her. He didn't make a fist. He did nothing besides do his best to knock away that hands that were slapping and clawing at him. He could not have possibly broken her jaw, even by accidentally knocking her hands out of the way. He most certainly would never hit a woman, he has never even been in a fistfight in his life. If you know him, you probably realize he's not the type to even want to fight. Several of our friends and family just laugh at the idea of Samuel hitting anyone. We know this, but we are going to need to make sure the detectives/judge/jury knows that too. We are hoping some of the "witnesses" will mess up their testimony, change their story, etc. We are praying for miracles on all sides. If he IS convicted, then he will be a felon for life, and could serve time in jail. We are hopeful, prayerful, and we know that the Master of the Universe is on our side and will help us, but there are lessons to be learned from this, and we are doing our best to learn them quickly. We are asking for as many prayers as we can get, because we have a testimony of their power, especially collectively. Please call the nearest temple and ask for our names on the prayer roll, and even for Judy as well, that her hard heart can be softened. This has been a blow to our family, overnight our life got turned upside down. Yet I already see how it has strengthened us and drawn us closer to each other and nearer to the Lord. And if anything, we will most definitely not have to live on that property from here on out; it is unknown if Samuel will continue to work there after this, I think it will be up to him. We'll keep you posted. Thank you again for the outpouring of love and support. We plan on staying away for about 2 weeks, and then if we have to go home and face an arrest we will. We love you all so much.

Update since I wrote this 2 days ago: The owner of the apartment building came down for a few days. He told Judy that he did not believe her story for a second, and that she could either move out, on her own accord, by Tuesday at 5 p.m. or he would proceed with the eviction process and he would make her life miserable for future housing issues. She claimed, "You can't do that! I've been to Nevada Legal and they said some of your forms aren't valid!" But he replied, "Oh, but some of them are. It's your choice." So now we know where she's getting all this advice on how to fight everything. The next great piece of news is that Samuel has found several other tenants who either saw or heard things and can testify for Samuel. One tenant said she saw the girls advancing on Samuel, and she said she saw that Samuel didn't hit her. Another tenant said she heard a screaming match between a man and a woman at around 11 pm and then later heard someone ask the girl, "Did he hit you? Are you okay," and then the answer, "It's nothing, It's nothing." From this we can deduct that it was most likely Judy, and she may have been hit that night, or maybe (since there was no swelling) she had been hit by this guy at an earlier time, and already had the broken jaw, and just found a way to blame it on Samuel. Either way, it's helpful enough to even be able to establish a "hitting incident" before Sameul ever got there. I know he was at home with me at that time. Finally, a 3rd tenant told Samuel that last month, Judy had coerced her into paying the balance of her rent for the month of June. She said that Judy threatened to damage her car if she didn't pay the last $300 for her. And so she told Samuel she did pay it for her, and by the way, she'd also like to get our of her contract and move, because she obviously didn't want Judy pulling this again. The last bit of good news is that a public defender who has experience with these kinds of cases, told my uncle that the 7 lying tenants will not have any credibility if it goes to court. He said those are the type that get in fights, turn on each other, and most likely have a record, and since Samuel is on record calling the cops twice for help, and plus he has no past record at all, he will have the Credibility Edge. WOOHOO!!! Great news. We still are going to have to move very soon, and Samuel may be completely out of a job (by his own choice) so I am trying really hard not to worry about that, since we are receving so many other blessings at this time. I really really appreciate your prayers, and I don't think things would be going so well if it weren't for all those righteous pleas that are ascending to heaven. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

We need your prayers

Friends, family, I don't have time to tell you much, I have just packed all our valuables and all that we can fit in our van and we are going to Phoenix. I don't know when we'll be back. There's been a very serious problem here at the apartment complex and not only is our family not safe here right now, Samuel could be facing a mountain of scary legal issues. We are facing similar things to what Joseph Smith faced before he got hauled off to Liberty Jail for 6 months. I can't believe how real that has all become to us. We've cried a lot and prayed harder than we ever have before in our life. I'll give you more info when I can, but I'm asking for your help. I believe in the power of prayer. I could literally feel people praying for me when I was on my mission. I know my mom felt the same when she was going through cancer and chemo. There is for sure a strength in numbers. I'm asking you to remember our family in our prayers, and to add our name to the prayer roll at the temple that is closest to you. Also add Judy Garcia. Thank you so much, I appreciate your help at this time.

D&C 121 is bringing us hope and comfort but the evil in the hearts of man has caused so much trouble for us in the last 3 days. That's all for now, thank you so much for your prayers.

San Diego Trip

Samuel and I got to have another little getaway last weekend. He had a Lifevantage business conference in San Diego. (Technically it was the Ribbon Cutting for the launch of the business.) It was so incredible. I was so glad I went. The weather was INSANELY gorgeous and such a nice break from the Vegas heat.
The first day we went over this awesome bridge to Coronado Island. This hotel is the Hotel del Coronado. I remembered it being in a scary/ghost-story episode of Baywatch years and years ago, so it was fun to see it in real life. We ate lunch there and Samuel tried to get his phone out of the picture so we could pretend he wasn't on a call for half of lunch. (It was one of his bosses so it was necessary.)The water was ICE cold, there's no way I would have gotten in. The sand was loaded with Pyrite (Fools Gold) which was so pretty sparkling in the sunlight. I wish it showed up better in this picture.


We had fun staying at the Westgate Hotel in downtown San Diego. (Priceline name-your-own price is the only way to go! It's a $180 room that we got for $72/night.) It was all old/classic/elegant. When we walked in the lobby (below) there were a few tables set up for afternoon tea, and a beautiful lady was playing the harp. I loved it.Here are a few other things I loved:

The hotel decor:

The nightly turn down service and the bathrobes. ( I LOVE wearing bathrobes in hotels!)
The carvings on the headboard-The square tub/shower- never seen one of those before. So I took bubble baths both nights.
The view from the balcony:
The conference was held at the brand new Hilton Bayfront. It smelled literally, brand new. It was decorated so cool, very modern. Here were my favorites from the Hilton:

I love this sliced-up picture thing + lamp. I want that in my house someday.

And for my mission companions that read this, on Sunday we were able to have breakfast and go to church with my mission president and his wife. They invited over the Senior couple that I served with (very closely, for 9 of the 18 months of my mission) and it was just wonderful to see them again. (Elder Kerby is not in this picture, as he was the photographer.)
On the drive home, Samuel's sister called to tell us that she was going to get sealed to her husband and kids....NEXT weekend. IN SAN DIEGO. So we're heading back tomorrow. And then two weeks after that, my family is going to San Diego AGAIN to visit my brother's mission, and meet all the people he taught. So that's me going to San Diego, 3 out of 4 weekends. Crazy huh! Luckily it's only a 5 hour drive. Too bad I can't just spend a month there.

Happy Fathers Day!!

When I was still single, I knew that I wanted to marry somebody like my Dad. I wanted that someone to be supportive of me. I wanted him to be willing to help me out (my dad always did the dishes in our house.) I hoped he'd be athletic and supportive of our kids getting into sports. And I hoped he could sing a little too. I also hoped he'd love kids. My dad loves to jest and tease kids (not in a mean way of course) and whirl and twirl and toss them around. And he comes up with the funniest nicknames for them too. I also hoped that my husband would be a great spiritual strength in the home, and lead and bless our family by honoring his Priesthood.

I try not to brag about Samuel too often on my blog. He gets so embarrassed when I put anything on the blog about him. And I mean anything. But he'll just have to grin and bear it this time while I wish him a Happy Father's Day in front of anyone who reads this.

After 3 years of marriage, 2 kids, and lots of drama brought on by me, I can only say I am one lucky girl to have him as a husband. He loves us so much, and he is so good at showing it. Before we had Kalia, he had very little experience with kids. I had no idea what kind of father he would be (I just hoped for the best!) I remember when we were going to the birth classes before she was born, and the teacher taught us to swaddle a little doll. His swaddle ROCKED. Mine was terrible. It was my first clue that he was going to be an amazing dad.

Then we had Kalia. She ended up being a c-section after a long and rough labor. (They mercifully knocked me out right after they showed me Kalia. I barely remember seeing her). Since she had some respiratory complications, they took her to the NICU, and he was the one who held her first and watched over her while I was completely out of it. He told me that his "Papa Bear" instinct immediately kicked in during those hours, and all he wanted to do was protect that baby girl. Then, when we left the hospital, we had no family with us-- it was just the three of us for those first few days at home. And since I was recovering from the labor and c-section, I couldn't do much. But he was amazing! Every time Kalia woke up to eat, he would get up and bring her to me. Then he would change her diaper so that I didn't have to get out of bed. He kept that up for weeks. And that was the beginning of fatherhood for him. This is one of my favorite pictures of his first day as a father:Mmmmm...that make me want to have another baby.

Anyway, fast forward to Annaliese, when we spent those months trying to help her stop crying. We'd rock and jiggle and bounce until we couldn't take it anymore, and we'd hand her off to the other. There is NO way I could have gotten through that without him. He had a special way of holding her on his arm that often did the trick, and even though I tried, I couldn't duplicate the results:Then, when I was sad about giving up breastfeeding so that we could give her hypoallergenic formula, he convinced me to do it, and he did that by telling me that he would get up and make the bottles at night and feed her. He still does that today, getting up every morning in the wee hours to get her the bottle.

He is a wonderful priesthood leader, and has given me and the girls so many blessings, and some have been very sweet and special experiences. He does his home teaching (he's so much better than I am at VT-ing) and he makes sure we have a family night every week.

For those of you who have heard him sing, he's AMAZING! And he is very athletic (see video below) and very adventurous. (He passed that on to daughter #1). And as the final icing on the cake...he is willing to share my workload. After working so many long and hard hours to provide for us, he still comes home and will change any diaper at any time. He will feed and bathe both girls and get them to bed while I slip out for some alone time at Target. The two times that Kalia was up every hour throwing up, guess who slept in her room on the floor? He did. And of course, the big whammy...he does the dishes Every. Single. Night. I don't know why I get to be married to such a wonderful man, but I hope he knows how much I love and appreciate him and all he does for our family. I also hope he knows how much his daughters love him. I am truly so grateful for our forever family.

I also want to thank my dad for setting the example of what a father (and husband) could be. He has blessed my life in a million ways, and I would not be who I am today without him.

Finally, since this post IS all about Samuel, I have to show off his wakeboarding skills. And when I say skills, I mean he pulls a back flip at the very end...and lands it. Sorry the quality is terrible. I had to send back my brand new camera because the video quality completely fuzzed out. I love you Samuel!! Happy Fathers Day. Thanks for being so dang wonderful!

Tonight It's About Me

Thanks Suzanne, I borrowed this from your blog. By the way, Jeanette Fry Garrett is the pregnant one, she's having twins in two weeks! Doesn't she look amazing? She had the coolest belly that stuck straight out.

I went to my 10-year high school reunion last weekend. It was really fun to see everyone, and not nearly as awkward as I imagined it. I was surprised by how much everyone looked PRETTY MUCH THE SAME! Except for a lot of the guys who had filled out, and I mean in the belly and in the faces, but just a tad of course. I put up a bunch of pictures on facebook, but here's one of me and my closest friends--my teammates from high school in Volleyball and Basketball. Maybe it's just sports, I don't know, but these girls became the best friends I've ever had, and when we get together, it's like we've never been apart. Katie, Suzanne, Genis and I (and the husbands) squeezed in an afternoon on the lake, and it was SO much fun. I know we were all sore from wakeboarding-- and Katie and Suzanne both got up for the first time- very impressive! (Samuel did the best trick that I got on video, but this post isn't about him, so I'll save that for later.)
:)

In other news, I keep losing things. I lost my wedding ring (2nd time it's happened) and it took about 3 weeks, but I finally found it in the bottom of the washing machine (WHEW!). And it was very sparkly. I was just so grateful for that prayer being answered.

I also lost my contact again (100th time it's happened.) I wear gas permeable contacts, (They are hard, not soft, and I only replace them once every few years.) Last time, Samuel took apart the drain to get it back. This time I dropped it on the ground and could just never find it. Samuel is so tired of all the contact issues, so he INSISTED it was time for me to get Lasik. YAY! I didn't think he was serious, but he is. So I went and got the exam and quote, and the only problem is that since I've worn hard contacts for 14 years, my corneas have changed shape, and so I have to wait at LEAST 6 weeks to get Lasik, and I have to wear my GLASSES for all that time. Very annoying, and they aren't cute either. They are just back-up glasses, they aren't stylish/trendy or anything. The Lasik place/people were so nice though, when I told them about my HS reunion, they ordered me a special pair of soft contacts to wear so that I could go to my reunion without feeling too ugly. They must really want my business. And they're going to get it.

Has anyone had Lasik? I'd like to hear about your experience. I am afraid I might only end up with 20/40 vision. I've had 20/15 with these contacts, and it sure is nice. The statistics online said that 67% of people have 20/20 vision or better...but I will be bummed if I'm not one of those 67 percent.

Finally, the one thing I'm NOT losing is WEIGHT. I was within 1 lb. of my pre-pregnancy weight, but somehow since Hawaii I gained 6 lbs back. Now I'm discouraged, and instead of working harder, I'm eating MORE ice cream and sitting on the couch more...GREAT! I have no desire to work out at all. I really need some motivation. Any ideas? Magazine pictures of rock hard abs on my fridge?

Annaliese at 7 months

Lately everyone is saying, "She's gotten so big!" And it's weird, because it's like all of a sudden she went from being a little baby to a ....big baby. Or something like that. She is 18.6 lbs and 26 inches (90th percentile). It's going to be weird when my girls are taller than me someday.

Last week I was realizing that her footie pajamas were all a little too small, and I better go dig out the bigger size. That's when it DAWNED on me that Annaliese is 7 months old, and still wearing 3-6 month pajamas. I have to blame this on Kalia. (Hear me out on this one). Kalia started crawling at 4 months, before she could even sit up on her own. And she started taking steps at the age that Annaliese is now (remember the video I posted of her last year, at 7 1/2 months? That movie blows my mind now that I see what a normal 7 month old baby is doing.) Anyway, since I don't know any better, my unconscious mind still thinks that Annaliese is 4 months old.

That was fun for a first-time Mom, but from here on out I know better and I want her to stay SITTING and not CRAWLING or WALKING for AS LONG AS POSSIBLE!! Especially because of her food allergies, I am going to have to keep my floor spotless which is a daunting job as you all know.

About those food allergies-- She is still very allergic to cows milk (thanks to Kalia, who dripped milk all over A's face, we know that she hasn't outgrown that one) and she still has her corn allergy. When ever I see her start spitting up a ton, (or sometimes it's a rash on the back of her neck) I know that I wasn't careful enough. She's on solids now, but several jars of fruit baby food have citric acid added to them. Citric acid is sometimes made from corn starch. And I forgot about that until the spit up started up again. So I have to stay on my toes with her. At least the vegetables don't have anything added but water. She really loves carrots and sweet potatoes. I am very cautious with any baby cereal, but so far rice cereal has been fine.

Here's a few other little things about Annaliese at this age:
1. I cut the mullet!
2. Her eyes are taking their sweet time on changing colors. They are still grey/blue with some brown streaks in them.
3. She has survived some pretty hard falls, one of which she landed face down on the ceramic tile and got a bloody nose (DANG THE BUMBO!)
4. She just started reaching out for people when she wants to go to them.
5. She's drooling again like crazy. And she started waking up at nights. Those bottom teeth better get in soon, PLEASE PLEASE!
6. She found out that standing is pretty cool, and when I go to put her on the floor in a sitting position, she locks her knees and tries to stand. Finally I just put her on her stomach which she HATES, and rolls over to her back and is just stuck there.
7. She's increasingly tolerant of Kalia who likes to hold her, squish her, roll her around, and drag her by the feet. But she does NOT like sharing the Exersaucer. (Sidenote: My mom has a picture of my older sister trying to get in a baby Walker with me, and I'm screaming my head off. I tried to find it at home but I couldn't. It's just funny to see K & A reinacting my old baby pictures.)
8. She gets REALLY UPSET when she doesn't get what she wants. She could be a real challenge when she's older. I usually see it when she's really hungry, and I'm trying to get her bottle ready, and she's reaching for it. and when I won't give it to her, she starts crying so hard it sounds like she's laughing.

9. She has a cute little voice and loves to say ba ba ba and da da da.



10. And for those of you who are wondering, she is still sleeping in a pack and play in our walk-in closet. I can't bring myself to move her in with Kalia yet. Annaliese wakes up at 5:30 for a bottle and then goes back to sleep. I can't bear the thought of Kalia waking up and STAYING awake at that hour.

11. Last but not least, she has a sort-of foot fetish going on. She will rub and scratch her feet on everything. She loves having them massaged. And sometimes when I give her a bottle, she holds onto it with her hands AND Her feet....kind of like a little monkey. I really need to get a picture of it.

"Rest time"

I think it is safe to say that rest time is "working"...and she does in fact, still need to nap. I'm not sure why she likes to take her clothes off, or tip over her playhouse every day, but I'm really not complaining. I couldn't get a good angle on this shot, so don't get dizzy trying to look at it.


When it got awful quiet during Rest Time yesterday, I peeked in and was surprised....because I couldn't find her! She wasn't in the crib, or even in the room for that matter. Oh wait, there she is. Sound asleep. I love her.

Ticket...dismissed

Well, for the most part. It really felt like a blessing, but just as I was leaving I found out about a judge who handles "friends and family" tickets (friends and family of cops...and anyone else who knows about it. It was in the newspaper a year ago.) This judge does it once a week for an hour, and you skip all other protocol, go straight to him, and just...try to work it out. It just so happens that the day and time that I showed up was the time he was there, so I tried to calm my beating heart (I've never been in a courtroom, much less in front of a judge, trying to get out of $1620.00) so I was NERVOUS! Then we had to "all rise" for the judge and he walked in, pretty cute and young actually, and smiley and friendly as you can imagine. He was joking with everybody and being all happy. I started to calm. He would call people up one by one and ask about their tickets. I heard him reducing the tickets down to $190 or $140, some got traffic school too. I was a little disappointed, I knew that if I took the time and effort to go all the way to trial I could probably get the whole thing thrown out entirely. But I decided to just see what happened. Right before I went up to talk to him, I looked down to check out the insurance card that I'd brought showing current insurance. My heart sunk to my toes when I saw that it was for Samuel's old Ford truck, and not the Pilot that I'd been pulled over in. I didn't know what to do. Beg for 10 minutes so I could run out and HOPE the right one was in the vehicle? So my heart started pounding again. So he calls me up, he smiles, asks about my ticket, I first hand him the insurance card, and he only looked at the dates on it, (which are the same dates as the Honda insurance) and that was it! He immediately dismissed that one. (HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF!) Then he asked for my drivers license. I gave it to him, and I'm still blond in it. Plus, I have to wear my glasses for a month (more on that later) and so he was kind of giving me a hard time telling me that the picture didn't look a thing like me (and it doesn't). (Heart pounding again.) But then he just smiled and dismissed that charge, and then he asked about the speeding. I told him it was my first speeding ticket ever. (I'm pretty sure that's true...I've had 3 accidents but no speeding tickets...weird, huh) and so he joked again, saying he'd just give me a $500 fine (the others in the courtroom are all laughing at his jokes; I was laughing too, probably too loudly because I was nervous). Then he wrote $140...and then he crossed it out and said, "I'll just make it a parking ticket, no traffic school, no points, just the $90 fee." And, I was done. I'd expected to spend half a day in the customer service line, and the whole thing was done in 55 MINUTES! I wanted to skip and cartwheel out of there. That was the nicest coolest (ahem...hottest) judge I've ever seen. I hope everyone in Las Vegas knows about this little Friends and Family deal. That being said, I still have the downloaded book on how to take your ticket to court and KICK BUTT (even if you're guilty) so I'm urging you guys not to just pay a speeding ticket. Everything I've read said that you are almost guaranteed some sort of reduction in points on your record, in fees, or whatever else, if you just show up to try to contest it.

It's over

Well, it's over. She's done with naps. I have to accept it. How sad. Thank you to the other moms who told me that their kid(s) gave up naps around two years old, somehow that makes me feel better. All Kalia's cousins (Maddux, Malakai, and Kyla) are older and still napping and I'll admit I'm a little jealous. Oh well. I don't know any child that has as much energy and excitement about life as Kalia. (Last Sunday a girl in our ward said to me, "Kalia makes Noah look calm (they are the same age)...and that's hard to do." I just smiled. I know. At least she's not like, ADHD hyper, just pleasantly joyful. It bursts out of her.

Anyway, after three days of easy, successful naps, today was a mess. She climbed out of her crib at least 15 times and just played in her room. One time she knocked, so I went to the door and she told me she was poopy. (That was one of the 3 times she had a messy diaper. I swear she holds it in until nap time.) Another time I heard a big crash, and she was crying. Another time I just walked in and she was up on the changing table getting into the hand sanitizer. (I didn't even know she could climb up there.) I will definitely still enforce some sort of quiet time, for my own sanity. And on the bright side, since she only gets binkies while in bed, she's slowly weaning herself off them. Today as I got her up to feed her lunch, I asked her if she wanted some pizza and her eyes lit up, and she said, "Yes!" and then I said very seriously and solemnly, "but after lunch you have to take a NAP!" and she starts nodding with a real serious face and said, "Nap." I think she just told me her first lie. And she was really good at it. But it did crack me up. So...as for bedtime, she used to go to bed at 6:30 or 7. Does this mean I put her to bed at 5:30 or 6? That seems soooo early, and it's still light outside. But she's pretty tired by then....so what else do I do? Anyway, that's where we're at with that.

Fight!

I am on my way out the door to fight a speeding ticket. I was cited for going 40 in a 25. I also got cited for not having a Nevada drivers license (supposed to get one 30 days after moving here) and also for having an expired insurance card in the vehicle. Grand total? $1620.00 (Yes you read that right.) They are desperate for money here or something, tripling fines and stuff!! I get the insurance fee thrown out as soon as I show them proof of current insurance, but it's a $300 fee just for going 15 over (and the place he claimed he clocked me was after coming out of a stop sign...I would have had to floor it!) I'm not the type to just roll over and take it, not to mention I haven't had a speeding ticket in years, SOOOOOO... I found an amazing book online about fighting tickets. It must have been written by a lawyer, it has all the tricks in it!! But you have to get to an actual trial. Most courts try to settle (give you a deal) before a trial to get you to go away. I kind of want to go to trial, cause I have info that would almost guarantee that the ticket would be thrown out entirely. Anyway, I'm probably just going to get a date for trial today, but we'll see what happens. Wish me luck. If anybody needs to fight a ticket, let me know, I'll send you some good info.