Man, was I in HOT water!

No, not that kind of hot water.

I took a bath.

A HOT bath.

Let me explain . . .

After a near mental breakdown Friday morning I decided Friday night to take a bath. I have not taken a bath in over 2 years because in the past I have had a husband, 3 kids, a dog, and numerous My Little Ponies and Barbies all trying to join me - not very relaxing. But last night the kids were in bed, Kurt was on his way home from another home show, and word had not reached the toyroom yet that a bath was happening. So I decided to indulge.

Now usually when I have taken a bath in the past I set the water to what I think is the just right temp. My body doesn't like really hot or really cold. (Yes, I am the person standing on the stairs for a half an hour trying to get into a pool - it's pathetic, I know). Anyways, what happens is that the water gets cold too fast and I end up getting out because I am cold. So last night I decided to really warm up the water. I set it for a lot hotter than I usually like because I wanted to really enjoy if for awhile. It was a bit hot and I had to slowly get in so I could adjust to the temp but I managed to get in.

Well, I was probably only in for 15 minutes and I heard Kurt come in so I decided to go downstairs with him while he ate his dinner. I sat up and realized that my head felt funny. I sat there for a minute and decided to stand up - bad idea. I managed to get out of the tub but when Kurt walked in to give me a kiss, the room was spinning. I told him that I thought I might pass out. I stumbled to the bed and fell over sideways trying to get on the bed. Kurt said that my skin was really red. I layed there on my stomach for about 30 minutes and I could feel every heart beat pulsate through my entire body. It was the weirdest thing ever!

When Kurt came up from eating his dinner, the water still hot enough for him to get in. He really likes HOT water so it must have still been really hot for him to enjoy it.

So basically I cooked myself. It took me more time to recouperate from my bath than for me to enjoy the bath.

So I think it might be another 2 years before I take a bath again! Haha!

Actually, the soaking part was really nice; just not the cooking part. I just need to turn down the temp next time!

A moment of Honesty

Okay, so a moment of honesty - I have been struggling lately. Struggling with having a good attitude, struggling with having energy, struggling with focusing. For those of you who don't know, we own our own business. It is a landscaping company and Kurt has always run the crews and I have always run the office. When our kids were little, the company was small and I could do all the office work during nap time. Well, as our family grew so did our company and just before Evan was born we hired someone to run the office so I could officially be a "stay-at-home-mom". Over the last 3 years we have had someone helping me in the office but I have always had a supervisory role in the office. Well, as you can probably imagine, landscaping is not a necessity and so in this economy, business has slowed waaaaaay down. We are doing okay but we have had to cut back and that means we had to get rid of the office staff. So it is all back on me to run the company.

My struggles have come from working what is a full time job and doing it in part time hours and then going home and trying to fill my responsibilities as wife, mother, homework helper, housekeeper, cook, etc. Honestly, I am just exhausted. Working and motherhood just don't mix! Trying to stay on top of everything in the office, Kurt's schedule, kid's school activities, calling, grocery shopping, cleaning . . . it is all very overwhelming. Lately I feel like I am in a daze, cloudy headed and I am starting to forget things, which has never been a problem for me before. Poor Kayla - her birthday was on the 10th and we still have not had a birthday party for her. I am still trying to get invitations out for a party on the 31st. What is wrong with me??!! Urgh! Sigh. Deep breathe.

Okay, I know that this is a phase and it will pass. I just feel like I am being pulled in 100 different directions.

I have been trying to focus on what I am thankful for, like: I am incredibly grateful for an amazing husband who tries to help as much as he can. I am grateful for my 3 amazing children who are always wanting to do what is right. I am grateful for my parents who help me with Evan and especially my mom who is always helping with our laundry (I can't imaging trying to do all the laundry too!) I am thankful for a job that I can work around my kids school schedule (I'm only in the office while the girls are at school, hence the part time hours). I am especially thankful for the jobs that we have been able to sign lately. I am thankful for my ward family and my friends there. I am thankful for the power of prayer and for the blessings that come from being obedient. I am thankful for our home and the love that is there.

See, now I am feeling a bit better. Thanks for listening and letting me vent. I better get back to work before my boss (Kurt) catches me blogging - again! He he!

Kayla's special day!

Kayla's baptism day was wonderful! She is such a sweet, sweet girl. She has grown so much over the last year! On her 7th birthday she didn't want to turn 7 because she didn't want to get baptized on her next birthday because she had a big fear of going under water. We reassured her and told her that she could have a "staying 6" party instead. During last summer her swimming skills took off and she was a super swimmer and decided at 7 1/2 that she was ready to be 7 and wanted to get baptized at 8. Whew! But we were still a little worried as to how she would react since she doesn't like to be center of attention and usually hides whenever the spot light is anywhere near her (she is just like her mother!).

She did GREAT! I just can't explain how she has changed, grown and matured over the last year. We are just so proud of her and thank Heavenly Father so much for her sweet spirit! Here are pictures of her special day:

I gave this white blanket to Kayla during my talk on the Holy Ghost. It was to represent Heavenly Father and Jesus' love surrounding us and that the Holy Ghost is always with us. She really enjoyed that analogy and loves to be wrapped up in love!

Rough'n it

Yes, we have been rough'n it here in Cali. While the rest of the country seems to be freezing we have been in the high 60's this week; today my car said it was 68 degrees - ugh! Man, life is tough!

Ha ha! I am, of course, just kidding! We have absolutely been loving it! It is gorgeous outside and lucky for us they just opened a new park next to the kids school so we have had beautiful weather to test out all the new toys and tennis courts. We are incredibly grateful for this beautiful weather. We do need some rain desperately but in the mean time . . .

We will just continue to try to function in this crazy weather. Sigh.

Special Trip

Kurt has a lot of cousins that live back east and when we traveled back to see his brother, Jared, we would always try to see his cousins too. Well the last time we were able to go back east Hailey was about 6 months old. So it is safe to say that it has been awhile since we have seen anyone from there.

Well, one of Kurt's cousins, Wendy, has a daughter that was married on Dec. 27th in Washington DC and she married a CA boy, Ryan. We were thrilled to see that they would be having a reception here in Cali. It was down in Merced which is about 3 or 3.5 hours from here so we planned on making the trip to be there.


We took Kurt's truck because it has the navigation system in it to give us directions; so off we went. The reception was from 7-9pm so it was dark when we arrived in Merced and the church was a-ways from the freeway and the navigation system was having us make all these turns down all these roads. Then it said "you have arrived at your destination" - except we were in the middle of a neighborhood! No church in sight so we drove around for a bit looking to see if it was close by. No luck so we called Onstar. Of course to get turn-by-turn directions we would have to upgrade our package so we upgraded. They downloaded the turn-by-turn directions to the truck and we start off again only to be dropped at the same location with the "you have arrived at your destination - good bye" voice. First we laughed (this is the 2nd time this has happened to us) and then we started stressing a bit because we didn't come all this way to get lost in Merced and miss seeing everybody. Long story short (too late - sorry) by 8 pm we finally found it by driving around some more.

We loved seeing Wendy, her husband, Steve, Kurt's other cousin Brett, the bride, Ashley and her new husband, Ryan. We appreciate everyone staying a bit late to spend time with us - we wish we had more time together.

Here is a picture of everyone: us and our exhausted kids (can you tell which one had too much fruit punch?), Ashley, Ryan, Wendy, Steve and Brett.

Here is my handsome young man

(trying to be serious):

And here is the real Evan - funny boy!

Kayla's Rite-of-Passage

Isn't she just adorable? We definitely think so!

Ahhh . . . the camera!

Man alive! You have no idea what I have been through to be able to blog again. I thought I had the right camera, turned out to be the wrong one. Then I found the right camera but could not find the cable to download the pics to the computer. Finally found the cable but Kurt took the camera to work again - but finally, finally I have downloaded the pictures. So be for-warned; this could possibly turn into a long post trying to catch up with photos.

Our attemps at a Gingerbread House

Christmas Morning:

Sister Love

Daddy's helicopter

Kurt has always wanted a remote control helicopter and he is having such a great time flying it in the house. He is getting so good at flying it - we don't have to duck for cover quite so much anymore! Ha ha - actually he is getting really good and starting to perform manuevers.

Evan

He shoots . . . He scores!

He made all 4 of his first 4 shots!

Kayla

Our little future mommy. Hailey loves baby dolls and

she does such a great job taking care of them

that we thought she could handle twins!

Uncle Paul's new camera

Happy kids on Christmas!

What more could parents ask for?

We had our friends over for dinner and for Christmas they had received a train cake mold. They were so thoughtful as to make one for the kids to decorate. It kind of went like this: put 2 candies on the train, eat 1 candy off the train, put 2 candies on the train, eat 1 candy off the train - but hey, at least they were making progress. It turned out so cute!

Well, I will have to post more later. I really should go and help the girls with their homework - I guess that is more important than blogging! Haha!

Home Show Pics

First off, I was so excited - I finally got my hands on the camera, got the pictures downloaded and could now post them. . . except our Christmas pictures are not even on this camera - urgh! Now I have to start my search looking for the other camera that apparently we had on Christmas day. It is probably in one of the guys trucks - so my hunt begins.

Anyways, on this camera we have pictures of the home show that Kurt just finished up. The pictures just don't do it justice - especially since the lighting in there was awful so the color is kind of wierd. Kurt kept playing with the settings so all the pictures have different hues to them but hopefully you get the idea.

Here they are:

This shot is looking all the way through the booth -

it goes all the way to the fireplace and the big green trees.

This is the water feature that Kurt did. Everyone loves his water features - they are like magnets and draw the people in.

The fireplace.

Looking in at the BBQ.

Hopefully I will find the other camera soon and get some Christmas photos posted before summer gets here!!!

Happy New Year!

First, I need to say that in my 2008 recap I forgot to include a wonderful trip that we took with our friends from church - we had 8 adults and 8 kids. We rented a cabin in Tahoe, right on the lake. It was so much fun. We were able to pull our boat into the dock right out the back door of the cabin. It was so nice! One of our friends brought up jet skis and a banana tube (you pull it behind the boat). Our girls had so much fun! They keep asking when are we going back! Sorry I forgot to include this trip in my recap - you guys know we love you!

Well, we have had a wonderful New Year week. Just about every night we have either had friends over or been invited over to friends' houses for dinner. It has been so out of our norm and so much fun! We are completely exhausted! For us 8-pm-lights-out-types, staying up to 10:30 or 11 pm every night gets to be quite tiring! I am desperately trying to get the kids back on school schedule otherwise next week is not going to be pretty!

Over the last couple of weeks we have been finding more and more of Kurt's cousins with blogs. It has been so much fun to see everyone's families. I come from a very small family. I have only 1 brother and 1 cousin. Thats it! Kurt has a lot, and I mean, A LOT, of siblings and cousins and we have absolutely loved finding each one. I am trying to get everyone on my "Loved Ones" list so if someone is missing, please let me know! Maybe we haven't found them yet.

I will try to post Christmas pictures soon. Our camera is a business/personal camera so Kurt usually has it in his truck. Not to mention that most of the time all the pictures are downloaded at the office so I have to find our personal photos mixed in with all the business photos and get them transferred to our home computer. So hopefully I will get them posted soon.

Exciting things happening at our house:
* Kayla lost her 2nd front tooth the week after Christmas. I told her if she had only lost it a few days before we could have sang "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth". I personally think she hung onto that tooth for a reason - smart girl!

* Kayla turns 8 on January 10th - you know what that means! Baptism time! We have been eagerly getting ready for her baptism. She is such a sweet girl and always wants to choose the right. We have truly been blessed with an angel with this girl! She was our shy, timid, dig her heals in, afraid of new things child but over the last year she has matured so much. She has bloomed into an easy going, happy to please, eager to help, willing to try new things girl. It has been amazing. I love watching these kids grow!

* It's home show time! Kurt is currently (as I type) at a home show in Sacramento. Home shows are how we generate most of our business. Much to our disappointment, landscaping happens to be a want, not a need (we just can't understand this logic, ha ha). So in this economy landscaping is not a priority on many minds right now. Jobs are tough to come by so this home show will be a major source of potential jobs. I worked the show until 4 pm today and was pleasantly surprised at the number of people and interest generated. Of course, we did have the best booth (I may be a bit biased but Kurt really does go all out). He has a 20' x 40' area and has: distressed wood arbors, L-shaped outdoor kitchen, overhead lighting, low-voltage lighting, pavers, Country Manor wall, synthetic turf, fireplace, plants, furniture, bark, music playing. He basically puts in a full landscape. People don't believe that we do all that work and then tear it out on Monday. I will have to post pics - just as soon as I get my hands on that camera! Pray for us that jobs will be generated from this show!