My brother and his bride!!!

I just had to post about my brother and his beautiful new bride!! Aren't they just the cutest couple?! Congratulations you two!! And welcome to the family Allison!!!! Love you both.

Off to the wedding!!!

Well I know I have been MIA but we have been very busy with family coming down for the wedding and moving the rest of our stuff and getting everything ready for my brothers wedding which is Wednesday. So we are off to my brothers wedding today (monday) and we come back Wed night very late and then Thanksgiving Thur (of course) but then my brothers reception Friday. Whew, I can't believe how busy we are- oh and Alana is doing much better, she woke up the next morning just fine, oh and my awesome sister Dawn (from Alaska) will be watching her the three days we will be gone - I've never been without her so long, this is not gonna be fun :( Well that is about it for now hopefully I will be able to post pics when I get back. ~ Gail

Sicky baby

My poor sweet little Alana has been sick (just a tummy flu but you know how it is as a first time mommy). Yesterday morning we were about ready to walk out the door for church when she threw-up - all over David. Needless to say we didn't go. David showered and then went but I stayed home and Alana slept for 4 hours straight - poor baby hasn't been getting the sleep she needs lately. Mommy's falt - bad mommy, I'll try to do better. Then all day she was just lathargic and yucky feeling and at about 6 sunday night she threw-up again - all over David! Poor David got the brunt of it. But after sleeping again she woke up feeling better and has been playing for a couple of hours now (notice I am writing this at 12:30 monday morning). It's been a nutty day. But getting better.

Moved!!!

We are officially moved!! Well sort of. We have moved everything out of our house and the rest of our junk is in the Garage (and wood shed and in front of the garage) for the time being. We also found renters and they should have started moving in yesterday. We decided to rent to this really nice family cause they told us that they were really interested in buying the house but they can't until April and they were wondering if we would rent until then and we said yes after a lot of thinking, fasting, praying, and talking about it. It's a scary deal just cause we don't know for sure that they will buy the house but even if they continue renting it's not really a big deal - we'll deal with things as we go along and hopefully nothing will break or happen to our house. So yay for us!!!!

Corn maze and Halloween!

We had a lot of fun in the corn maze and then again on Halloween.
I couldn't help dressing up, it was a last minute thing and I may have
even gotten a little carried away - but, well you decide...


Contemplating pumpkins hmmm...




"Heeellllpp!!" Says my nephew Rylan



How can you not love that smile??





Me and Alana having fun in the corn maze





My nephew Pedro - "Um which way???"




What do you say to that face??




Anna as a sweet witch just like her sweet personality.




Jayden as a pretty fairy




Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin man, and Cowardly lion are on their
way to OZ (aka trick or treating.)



Hey who's got Toto??? Silly Daddy (can you tell she wasn't to happy with her costume?)



Hey is that the wicked witch of the west?? Hmmm...





Aaaahhh she's gonna get you all - run!! :)

COME ON DOWN!!!!!

Okay so we never were told to actually COME ON DOWN! but we were able to go and have fun watching other people get called down. If you want to see us in the audience of THE PRICE IS RIGHT check it out tomorrow morning at 10am. Anyways hope you enjoy!!


Oh by the way we are sitting to the left of the platform that is out in the middle of the audience ~ right in front of (but to the left a little) it.

A couple of birthday pics

Here she is, she was so good and tolerant of all that was going on.

ONE YEAR OLD!!!!

I can't believe my little girl is already a year old!! We had her birthday party at my sisters house on Sunday and for being sick with runny ucky nose, a fever and about a half hour nap I have to say that Alana did excellent! She did all the things expected of her like mashing her hands into her cake and ripping open her presents (yes she did actually rip some of the paper off her presents but it was more of a gentle cautious ripping) and that was all in front of about 50 people!! She even hit her pinata a little bit! When we were all singing happy birthday to her she about freaked out but then I held her and she was okay. She was such a doll and was so good. Pictures to come later.

Just couldn't resist!

I just happen to snatch this pic of Alana after church on sunday and I love it!

Camping and Parks

Jeramy and Alana were "sharing" food while we were camping. It was a lot of fun making tinfoil dinners
My Dad was telling bear stories around the campfires. The kids loved it.
Salvador and Charlene decided to hang out with me this week, we had fun walking to Riverside park.
Just a fun pic under the over pass.

Bambi's mom was in my back yard!

I know, I know - not really that big a deal up here in the mountains but seriously she must have felt very secure in my back yard to sit there for who knows how long and hang out. This picture was taken last Wednesday the 13th - the day after we came back from our trip (maybe she thought our house was abandoned or something?). The funny thing was we thought at first she was a male deer with a big rack but the "antlers" ended up being weeds - ha ha.

Pictures of our trip!!

First stop was the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield Ca - west of Sacramento.

We had a blast on the tour and at the end of the tour the tour guide asked us if we all wanted a free bag of Jelly Belly's and of course we all yelled "YES!!" but she said "that's not LOUD ENOUGH!!" So we all Yelled "YES" even louder. Unfortunately David was holding Alana and he yelled the loudest of us all - I think she screamed bloody murder for the next 10 min. Poor baby.

We all got free samples and the lady loved giving Alana gummy worms and of course Alana loved receiving them!!



This is a four generation picture with my mom and her mom. We had a great visit with Grandma B.











Alana with my cousin Angel













David tasting the Dates at the Date farm outside of Indio Ca.













Grand Canyon - what a view











Alana enjoying the view at Bryce Canyon National Park - It was really pretty.












I love this picture of my pretty baby. She is always such a ham.









Bryce Canyon - there were some pretty freaky drops.












Okay - this wasn't on the trip but we sure enjoyed riding my Dad's new trike. :)

Fun but crazy!

My Mom, Dad, David, Alana, and I had a lot of fun on our trip to California. It did however get cut a little short. Two things happened to make it different then we were planning in the begining. First of all my mom was supposed to get work done on her teeth at a dentist in Mexico but when she called to make an appointment she found out the dentist would be on vacation for two weeks so it was a no go for that.

But wait let me back up a bit. The plan at first was this - go to California and visit family - drive to Yuma and go across the border to mexico and have my mom's teeth fixed - go to my cousin's before wedding dinner in Tuscon - go to the wedding the next day in Mesa Temple - Drive to Prescott to my Grandma's and visit for a few days - drive to SLC to see friends of my parents - drive home.

Here's what really happened - We drove to California and visited with my Dad's cousins like we were supposed to, that was soo much fun. We had a blast - my Dad's cousin has a saltwater pool in his back yard and Alana had a fun time splashing her hands in it - I can't believe how much that girl LOVES the water! I guess she loves it as much as her daddy:) We also saw my dad's other cousin Amy who initiated all this contact and had a really great time talking with her and playing with her cute little boy.

Then we drove to David's uncle's house and David and I stayed there while my parents stayed in a hotel (his uncle has no AC and it was too hot for my Dad).

Then (because we knew about the dentist not being there) the next morning we got up at 4 am to go to The Price Is Right. We didn't get on (just in the audience) but it was a lot of fun seeing how everything worked. The worst part was waiting in line FOREVER!!!! It was quite the process to get 300+ people through everything. And when we got inside the studio you don't realize how small the studio actually is. It's really hard to see everything and it was sooo LOUD!!! When we first got in there Rich Field said to watch the guy with the que cards cause there is no way we would be able to hear him announcing people's name to COME ON DOWN!

After The Price Is Right we went to KFC cause we were STARVING after not eating since McD 7:30 that morning and it was 2:30 before we were done and 4 before David came and picked us up. This was on Tue, and we still had until Friday to get to Tuscon which is only like a 6 hour drive from L.A. So while in KFC we were trying to figure out what to do for the next 3 days or so. Well as soon as we got out of KFC my mom realized she had a message on her phone. It was my Uncle Roger telling us that my cousin's wedding was off. I was so sad for my cousin. My uncle said the groom got cold feet and couldn't go through with it. That's all we know. I was just sick for my cousin - what an awful situation, I could not even imagine.

Well we decided that we would bypass Tuscon - we didn't feel it right to visit during this hard time as you might well imagine. So we just headed strait up to my Grandma's in Prescott. After staying Tue night at David's uncle's OTHER house in Indio Cali (a very NICE house by the way) we drove up to my Grandma's but not before getting date shakes in a place near Indio. (ever had a date shake? do you even know what dates are? if you ever get a chance you should try them) My parents LOVE date shakes and dates and it always been a tradition to get them when every we go by an area that grows dates.

It was great to see my Grandma again, I've been really wanting to see my grandma cause she is not doing too well and I don't know when I will see her again. I also wanted to give her the oppourtunity to see Alana. and vice-versa. After two days at my Grandma's we left Sat morning and drove to the Grand Canyon - wow it is so beautiful there! David and I walked the Rim trail for about 1/2 mile and that was really neat. After leaving we were driving to Page, Az to try and get a hotel but had no luck after calling about every hotel in town, so we drove and hour and a half to the next town, Kanab, UT. It was a long day.

The next day we had a little time to kill so we went to Bryce National Park on the way to SLC. And after visiting friends in SLC we drove home and were home late Tuesday night. Over all it was a good trip but sad to cause of my cousin non-wedding.

Oh yeah on the second day we were out we went to THE JELLY BELLY factory near Sacramento - what fun!! we had a blast but we almost missed it cause the factory tours were over at 4 and we got there at 4:09 but they felt sorry for us (driving all the way from Oregon and such ;) so they let us join the tour that had already started. it was fun to go.

I will post pictures later seeing as most of them my dad has.

oh and the day we are on The Price Is Right is Oct 8th, see if you can pick us out:)

California Here We Come!!

Okay so maybe not just California but Arizona and Utah as well. Got lots of family and friends to see so it should be a lot of fun. Looking forward to the beach, to visiting with everyone and Price Is Right! Yup that's right we got tickets to go to the 1:00 taping on Wed the 5th - my Dad is so excited, well I am too, but I'm not really looking forward to the 5-6 hours of standing in line - yucky. David will not be there, he'll probably stay with the baby at his uncles in Anaheim. He said he's okay with that, sorry honey. Well I better go finish packing....

Yay!!!

I got my camera back - I missed my baby (he he) and the greatest part is Canon fixed it for free!!! Go Canon. I love warranties - I just barely squeaked in under the year mark so they fixed it and sent it back for free - Thank you Canon!!!!

I miss my camera!!!!

Yup that's right I really miss my awesome camera - I've had to resort to David's huge digital SLR which takes GREAT pictures but it's HUGE and hard to luge around with a little one. Some how my camera got broken (one of the other many things that have happened lately) But Canon said they would fix it cause it is under warranty - HOWEVER they also said that if it looks like it was my fault then it is not under warranty :( (of course) and seeing as I'm pretty sure someone stepped on it - that would make it my fault, right? hmmm... Hopefully they will fix it for free.


Alana is now standing up on everything and trying to cruise around on the furniture, but she is still pretty wobbly. Last wednesday for the first time she stood up in her crib and now I can't keep her from doing it, every time I put her to bed now she is standing, which is a little frustrating cause she used to go to bed so easily and now not so much.

UGG!!

Yup that's about how I feel at the moment - UGGY (interpert how you wish).

I can't even tell you how many times I have started this post - there is so much going on I just get overwhelmed every time I think of writing it - so I quit. I'll try and break it down a bit. So I'll start with Voc Rehab.

They basically told us no - but yesss... - Let me explain... David wants to be a Mechanical Engineer - and the Voc Rehab people don't like to put people through this program (any engineering program) because of the VERY high failure rate that is associated with it. And you have to be EXCEPTIONAL in math. So if he tried now and failed that would be it - they give you ONE try and ONE try only. No do overs - nothing!

So, seeing as he doesn't have a very good track record in math (he didn't pass his last college algebra class - 10 years ago) they told him to study up on his math and then take their test.

So here's our plan - For the next couple of terms David is going to take a math course each term to get caught up in his math. He will also either be driving truck or finding some other job to get us by until then. The Voc Rehab guy told us about a CDL certification school in Baker that lets Vets go for free (when we called to apply they actually told us everybody can get in for free).

Oh yeah, another thing Voc Rehab guy told us was that they will only put us into a college that is in our area (like EOU) so we have to move to the area where we want to attend school (that would be Cheney) for Voc Rehab to pay for it. So I'm not sure exactly when we are moving but we would like to get our house up on the market ASAP - the sooner the better. We will probably move out soon and live with my parents until the house sells then find a place up in Cheney to buy/rent. That would be one good thing about him driving truck - it doesn't really matter where we live and if he's taking distance ed math courses he can study on his down time. Buuut I would hate for him to be gone so much and that is a HUGE downside of him driving truck! Decisions, Decisions...




As for the other things going on in our life...

We had a little scare with our sweet little Alana - Last Friday we went to the Doctors for some goopy stuff in Alana's eyes - which ended up being pink-eye. But that's not the scary part - as he was listening to her lungs and chest he heard a clicking noise coming from her heart that concerned him - he wanted her to get checked out, so we set up an appointment with the hospital for her to get an electrocardiogram (utrasound of the heart) the following Monday.

Can you say a little stressed out all weekend?? Remember we had just found out about the Voc Rehab stuff so we had some MAJOR life decisions to make in that regard and then this!! And to make matters even worse, I woke up sick Sat (I am still not feeling 100%) and then Sunday night, my glasses broke! (not to mention stressing out about how we are going to pay for all this)

Okay so Monday morning we go in and the tech guy does the ultrasound of her heart and THANKFULLY there is nothing wrong and Alana did AWESOME laying there for 30+ minutes letting him look at her heart (the sucker he gave her helped a little, hehe). (oh and we also found out the hospital will pay for it due to our financial situation).

So many blessings... the Lord has a plan for us all.

We're off again!

Here we are back from our 4th of July weekend and we are leaving again, but no fear we will be back soon and hopefully with good news. We go to Boise tonight for a trip to the VA to hopefully see about the Voc Rehab program and hopefully they'll give us an answer while we are there and won't make us wait 2-3 weeks for a written response (wishful thinking I know). More than likely we'll still be waiting for a decision when we get back though. My parents will be traveling with us so we are looking forward to the company on the long drive. We shall see, wish us luck!!

Just stuff

Okay so I've had a lot of people asking what is going on with us moving or whatever we are doing, so here goes...

As most of you know David was fired a while back, so in looking for a new job for him we found out that because he is a disabled veteran he can (hopefully) get vocational rehabilitation and may be able to go into a different job field.

We believe this would be the best thing for him because within the last year or two his back has been progressively getting worse and continues to bother him. He has a herniated disk in his back which is aggravated by walking for long periods of time or whenever he lifts heavy objects.

So what he would like to ultimately do (when he "grows up" as he likes to say) is to get a degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology, which is a very hands on job and yet not the "grunt work" as my father so eloquently puts it.

That is where Voc Rehab comes in. They have to decide if David could potentially work in the same field he worked in at the hospital or if he needs to be trained in a different area. Basically they want to get him into a job with the least amount of money out of their pocket as possible. So they may not like the idea of putting him through 4 years of college when they could potentially put him through another program for cheaper.

So right now we have an appointment to talk with a Voc rehab counselor in Boise on the 10th of July and if all goes the way we would like, we will be moving to Cheney, Wa so David can go to school at Eastern Washington University. If we get the funding from the VA, David will have all his tuition paid for along with books, fees, and whatever else he needs (like a laptop that the program requires him to have) and we will get help with living expenses as well.

Hopefully all will go well... I will post when I know more. Just ask if you have any questions I am more than happy to answer :)

Our wonderful coast trip!!!

Wyatt on the porch at the beach house.

Me just chillin at the beach house we rented (actually the one that Tony and Sarah and Angie and Jason rented and they were nice enough to let us stay there. THANKS GUYS it was a lot of fun!!!)

What's a beach trip without diggin in the sand and water???

First time on Daddy's back in the back pack.



"Eww get that thing away from me cousin Matt!!"

What a cutie!!

Alana hammin it up at the beach house.

Me and Alana at Hatfield Marine Science Center
She loved checkin out the fish, she kept watching them going back and forth. (on a side note it was neat to see Terri Irwin and her two children there, Bindi and Bob. Terri even commented on my sleeping baby saying how cute she was, and she even had to have her son come over so he could look at Alana and told him "look at the cute baby". I thought that was sweet)

Alana lovin it on Daddy's back

My niece Addy was checkin out the pretty sea stars at seal rock

Me walking down to the beach from the beach house we stayed in.

The sea lion we saw at seal rock

David roasting some hot dogs at South beach

JR and Kylab have a fun albeit cold time at the beach (notice JR's red and very cold legs)

As you can see from the pictures we had a lot of fun at the coast, it's been a couple years since we went so we were definitely due for a trip there. Although I wish it had been a little warmer - I don't know what I was thinking either cause I packed Alana's clothes like we were going to a California beach or something and I forgot any coats - I guess I'm just excited for the warm weather (it's a little too warm now though, can't win can we?) Well it's late and I've been forever getting these pictures up - I'm going to bed.

Father's Day!

David's first father's day!! And might I say what a great and awesome father he is! I love you so much honey and so appreciate all you've done for our little family.


This is my dad and a couple of his grandkids giving him their father's day gifts. It was such a fun day and the kids all had a blast. Happy Father's Day Dad - I love you!!

This is my little brother, Scott and his daughter, Jaydin. She was giving him her father's day gift. Happy Father's Day to you too Scott!