What a week! - Again! And Again!

Man, alive. I tell you what - March has been a crazy month! I have not been in the office for 3 weeks now. It is safe to say that it is officially a mess and I am way behind - yet again. 

From my last blog you will remember that Kayla was sick. Well, then Evan got it, then Hailey got it. With my mom's immune system compromised due to her chemo, I don't want her near our house when we have a bug so I stayed home during all the sick kids. Then last week Kurt got it. Poor guy has really had a battle with this bug. I ran around last week trying to get supplies for our crews and keeping things going. So the office has been completely neglected. 

But there is hope and she just crossed the California border about 1 hour ago.

As I type right now my sanity is driving closer to me. April and Rick have bought a house in Lincoln, about 15-20 minutes from our house. April is going to be helping me in the office. I can't wait and am so excited to work with her. It will be so nice to have someone I can trust in the office. Oh, happy day!

* * * * * * * * 

Last weekend I had Scarf Luncheon for my mom. I wanted her to feel loved and supported by her friends so I threw her a "scarf party". I had never heard of one before so it was all uncharted territory. It turned out amazing. April and Rick happened to be here that weekend so April was able to help me so much! I wouldn't have been able to pull it off without her. THANKS April! We had chicken salad croissant sandwiches, spinach salad, chinese chicken salad, potato salad, grapes, strawberries and a delicious chocolate cake for dessert. My mom opened gifts from all her friends and got the most beautiful scarves. It was amazing how she got one in every color - we couldn't have planned it any better!  I will post pics as soon as I get them downloaded. Thanks to everyone who helped by brining a salad or dessert - I greatly appreciate your help!

Well, hopefully I will get in the office this week to start training April. Poor thing is walking into a mess! O-well, one thing at a time!

What a week!

This has been one crazy week! 

It all started last weekend when Kurt had a home show to attend. During home shows he is basically gone all weekend so we only get to see him for just a bit in the morning and at night.

Then Monday he went to work, came home for about an hour - just long enough to pack - and then was off to Reno for a 2 day seminar. He didn't get home until Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, at home Kayla got sick with a cold on Monday and ended up running a 104 temp on Wednesday and Thursday.

Thursday morning I woke up with a flu bug. Luckily it wasn't too bad - mostly I was just completely exhausted with very achy joints and bones.

Thursday I called the doctors office about Kayla (she had a horrible, congested cough plus the high fever). The nurse I talked to on the phone thought she was starting to develop pneumonia - what??

Friday I felt a lot better - thank goodness! It was only a 24 hour bug - whew! I got Kayla to the doctor and it turns out that her lungs were fine but she had a double ear infection. Poor girl - at least her fever was only 101 today and tonight she is back to normal (knock on wood!)

All I can say is that I am glad this week is over!

Oh, one exciting thing - I got our new website hosted! Ya-who! The address is wrong but I am still working on that. Check it out and let us know what you think (just copy and paste this address into your web browser):  http://web.me.com/pilandscaping

Kurt's dream FINALLY came true!

Kurt has been dreaming about the day that he could take his kids skiing and Saturday his dream finally came true!

And yes, even 3 year old Evan was up on skis - isn't he just adorable. His skis were so little and cute.

He was just so proud and felt like such a big kid! At first we weren't going to purchase the ticket for him thinking that he wouldn't do it but not Kurt's son! Skiing runs in his blood just like his Dad!

Here is Hailey Bailey

Evan was so eager to just "take off". Notice that Kurt isn't quite ready to catch him.

Ready or not Dad, here he comes!

Miss Kayla

The Magic Carpet ride

Daddy and his ski buddy

Nothing tops off a great day of skiing like hot chocolate in the lodge!

The kids did amazing! At first they wouldn't go down the kiddy hill without Daddy right in front of them to catch them but after seeing Daddy ski down the hill, jump and spray them all with snow - they were ready to try it on their own!

Once the girls got the hang of the "pizza", we couldn't get them off the hill. Kayla was the last one off the kiddy hill when they closed the slopes.

I see many skiing days in our future!

Daddy couldn't be more excited!

Here is my first attempt at loading a video. Hopefully it works!

Notice how happy she is at the end!

(We didn't remember that the camera had a video feature so we only got 1 video. Next time we will video more of the fun!)

A Great Day

Today was a great day! 

Today is my mom's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! We celebrated by going out to lunch to Panera Bread - yummy!

Then we found out today that my dad got a new job! Yippee! After 30 years with a company they let him go last October due to the down-turn in the economy. After 2 weeks of meeting with and talking to this dealership, he finally got word today that they wanted to hire him. Thank goodness!

What a great birthday present for my mom!

Yes, today was a GREAT day!

Happy Night!

Last night was just a great night! The kids came home from school happy, they happily did their homework, I had a great time reading with Kayla while Hailey and Evan played happily upstairs (turns out they were scarfing down Valentines candy but, hey, at least they were happy), I happily cooked dinner (doesn't happen every night), Kurt came home from an appointment happy after signing another contract - GO DAD! (okay, this guy is always happy, so I should say he came home happier), we happily enjoyed dinner together. It was just a very HAPPY night.

One of the funniest things last night was that Hailey helped Evan finish his dinner. He has a hard time eating dinner so Kurt and I usually keep telling him to take a bite, etc. Last night Hailey had finished her dinner and decided to help Evan eat his so she was feeding him bites. Evan happily accepted every bite she gave him - GO HAILEY! It wasn't until he tried to speak that we realized that she had been feeding him too fast and he hadn't been able to swallow his previous bites. With his mouth stuffed full of food, he managed to get out "Wow Hailey, you are really good at this!". We all laughed so hard - it was hilarious! She did get him to eat his whole dinner - I think this may be her new job!

From across the table Kurt and I just looked at each other in total amazement of this amazing family we have. We still don't understand where they all came from or how they have grown so fast but we are totally in love with our family. Neither of us would trade this for anything!

We are truly blessed!

Only with kids

There are situations in life that you can only experience if you have kids. Those of you who have kids know what I am talking about. Those embarrassing, humbling, I'm-never-leaving-the-house-again experiences.

I had one of those today.

Now when your kids are little you kind-of get used to these experiences happening on a more frequent basis. I had learned to deal with them and "roll with punches". Well, as your kids get older, the experiences get few and far between and you get a "false sense of security" that your kids have outgrown them.

Well, today I learned that we haven't.

So, today was our Stake Conference (this is where our church ward meets with other wards in our area to hear from the local church leaders). Well, we meet in a building that has a huge area and there is a stage at the back of the room. They put chairs up on the stage for additional seating. We sat on the ground level about 3 rows in front of the stage. After a few speakers we all stood to sing a song. Evan was standing on the chair next to me. I was focusing on the screen with the words so I could sing along. Suddenly I felt Evan's hand slide down my back. 

Then I felt something slide over my, um, back side. 

I quickly realized that it was my skirt!

Evan was falling off of his chair and he was taking my skirt with him! The skirt had an elastic waist so it easily went with him.

Now the dilemma - save Evan or my skirt? Hmmm.

I grabbed for Evan with one hand and grabbed my slipping skirt with the other - I guess that's what they call multitasking. Well, I managed to get Evan up in his chair and pull my skirt back up. I am still not exactly sure how far my skirt went down (I think about mid-thigh)  - I don't think I really want to know - but I saw enough of my slip to know I was "exposed".

Now it wouldn't have been too bad had only the row behind us been able to see but unfortunately the seats behind us were empty so the whole stage had a direct view. All I can hope is that they were all so busy singing that they didn't see the "show".

Ahhh, the joy of kids! How boring my life would be without experiences like this! You just have to laugh and roll with the punches because what else are you going to do?

I just love this roller coaster ride called parenting!

Catching up

Okay, so I am so far behind in everything - shopping, cleaning, blogging. I am making a quick attempt at catching up on what we have been up to.

First let me say that I am at work and I should be dealing with this:

and not blogging but blogging is so much funner! This is my desk currently - it never looks like this. It is usually so clean and everything is put where it belongs. Anyone who knows me knows that I can't stand being disorganized - so this is very stressful for me. So my solution - ignore it and blog! I am sitting at the other desk so my blogging won't be slowed down by the mess. Ha ha!

Here is what we have been up to the last few weeks:

FINALLY, on January 31st our sweet Kayla was able to have her birthday party - it was 3 weeks overdue but she was patient and it turned out great! She had 11 friends come over and it quickly became apparent to Kurt and I that if we were going to survive the party, we needed some organized games before our house was completely destroyed! We had a great time playing a balloon game, pictionary, and pin/tape the balloon on the wall (it was too late to go get pin the tail on the donkey and we were desperate). Here are some pics of all the fun:

Here is daddy playing pin the balloon on the wall:

And here is where he pinned /taped it - right in the middle of Hailey's forhead.

Here is Kayla opening some gifts. She had a Webkinz party so she got quite a few new Webkinz!

Then last week was a crazy week for us. Kurt and I had a training certification class to attend in Concord so we left Monday night and returned Wednesday night. Thank you so much to my parents for watching the kids for us (this included getting everyone up and ready for school for 2 days - no easy task!). Kurt and I went to work on Thursday, did as much as we could and then we all left Thursday evening for a trip up to Portland, OR to visit family.

Kurt had 3 siblings that lived within 2 hours of us here in CA but within the last 6 months they have all moved away. His 2 sisters both moved up to the Portland area and his brother Paul moved to Cedar City, UT. We feel so abandoned! =(

April's oldest son, Kaulana and his wife, Michelle, were going to be blessing their baby in Vancouver, WA and we couldn't miss the opportunity to see everyone - so off we went.

Thursday night was a bit crazy driving in the snow. Luckily the kids were asleep so Kurt and I could concentrate on the road but Friday was a BEAUTIFUL day to travel. We arrived at Margo's house Friday afternoon. Here is a picture of Saturday morning and the kids making sugar cookies!

She is so brave - she let Evan play in the flour and make a mess - a big mess. He had a BLAST! Thanks Auntie Margo!

While all the family was together we celebrated Josh and Makana achievement of obtaining their Eagle Scouts.

We are so proud of both of you!

Here is sweet baby Madelyn

After 11 hours in the car, only 1 was still awake!

Our kids are amazing travelers! They did so good both ways. We were blessed with amazing weather coming home on Monday too. We love getting together with everyone and wish that we were still close. It was so hard to leave!

Well, I guess I should go tackle my desk.

Wish me luck!