Is It Naptime Yet

Jon asked Lilah what tomorrow was and she enthusiastically replied “Turkey Day!!”

I’m excited for Thanksgiving. I’m not sure why.
I made some really good rolls to take to the in-laws tonight. Like really good. The last batch I made, just last week for Carolyn, weren’t as good as these.
I’m making pumpkin pie that unless I take a piece with me I may not get any since we won’t be at my parents house for desert.

Andrea and Brien stopped by after their dentist appointments today.
It was funny because the girls got to see Zarina and even got their picture taken before I saw her.
She was grumpy and needed to be fed so I took a quick peak of the cute girl and ate lunch while I waited for her to get a full belly.
She’s adorable and decided to poop or pass gas while I held her.

I really love that Andrea and Brien make time to visit us when they’re in town.
Often on there way out or in they stop by since we’re just a small detour off and back onto the freeway.
And they have dentist appointments twice a year so they visit after or before their appointments.
It makes me happy and I feel loved that they do this.
I’m use to many relatives always saying we traveled this far you need to come see us, but it was hard when we only had one car or I never knew when they’re going to be at the house.
Also since our house is so small about only 2 or 3 other people can fit in it comfortably, though we’ve had more, and is also seen as a reason to not stop by.

I guess I just appreciate the effort put forth by Andrea and Brien to see my family.
It makes me feel loved.

Thanks Andrea and Brien.
We love you.

Anyways, tomorrow is Turkey day and it looks like I won’t need the turkey to be tired since I’m up at 1 am and my body likes to nap in the afternoon anyways.Jon is also up so I’m not sure who will be more fit to drive tomorrow after we have turkey at my parents and have to drive the 45 minutes across town to his sisters.(They’re 33.3 miles apart. So fun.)

I just have a gigantic cold sore to start off my holiday week.
It started Wednesday and I’m pretty sure it won’t be healed by Thursday.
Oh well.
At least my family loves me, beautiful or not. 😉

In extended family news:
Jon’s father went into the hospital Thursday because his parents felt he had a mild heart-attack.
He’s doing well and is still there.
They ran test, I think Thursday but possibly Friday, and they still don’t have any results, I think that’s why he’s still there,
Dumb hospitals.
As an added bonus Mom’s knee cramped up on her so she’s been tied up at home and unable to visit him since she can’t get around or drive easily. She needed knee surgery a while back, but didn’t have it and now she’s the only capable one in the house. (At the time she first needed it Dad could drive, but they decided not to do it.)
Dad hasn’t driven for a while and he doesn’t cook or do anything domestic.
We’re hoping he gets home soon and that things get back to normal.
Life is crazy for them right now and with the Holidays this just brings added stress.

I really love my in-laws and it’s hard to see things go down hill. They are closer to the age of my grandparents than my parents and with that I think they show a lot of love towards us and are very patient. Not like typical in-laws.
When we saw them on Sunday Dad mentioned how tall Lilah was and how grown she is compared to Eden. Eden still looks like a baby, or toddler and Lilah looks grown up to him.
I had to agree with him.
Lilah and Eden are their youngest grand kids and the ones they see most often since we try to see them once a month, though it’s been hard with different sicknesses so it was more like August the last time we saw them.
When we were there on Sunday Dad mentioned how before his fathers death he didn’t visit him because he had a cold, and then he died the next day so it wouldn’t have matter that he had a cold.
Jon and I don’t know how to take that story. I feel like he’s letting go and he just wants to see us and the girls. Even if it’s just to watch them play and even if they’re sick.
But we still want to be careful because we don’t feel like he’s going to die tomorrow and we wouldn’t want to hide the fact that our little girl’s cold, or our own, gave the final blow to Dad’s immune system. That would bring some unnecessary guilt.

I’m still happy for the Holidays because it means seeing the family and being gathered together. We’re going to focus on Jon’s family this Thanksgiving. Not because of Dad but because we hardly see the rest of Jon’s family and we see mine fairly often. ( I’ve also been asked to bring rolls and I love making rolls.)
Andrea and Brien will be in town and I hope to see my new niece Zarina on Wednesday since they have a dentist appointment just down the street from me. (You guys better come over.)
I can’t wait and it’ll be nice to only fight my girls to hold her.
Ah family.
I can’t wait till Thanksgiving.

Today Jon is working from home. UNLV is hosting a Democratic debate and they asked that any staff who can work from home to do so.
It’s also a test run to see how it would work out if he was able to work from home. Something his manager is trying to do for him and her.
It would be Thursday. Lilah’s class day which means a guaranteed 2 hour time block of no kids and then the regular nap, which sometimes works out.
I’ll tell you the one thing that kills me is not having access to my computer when I want access and only having limited time.
I would love him home, though it would take getting use to. Not bothering Daddy can be pretty hard for our girls and even me.
Also how lazy would I feel if he was working and I didn’t want to do chores so I just sat on the couch or took my regular nap while he worked.
He said I should save the chores for Thursday so I can keep busy while he’s around and not need the computer as much.

It would be fun to have him work form home. Heck if it saves us just a little in gas money and gives us more time, theoretically, with him it makes it worth it.
But oh to have another person on my computer all day and infringing on my space, and not being able to lend a hand whenever I want. That’s a little tough.
I dream for the day where we have at least 4 bedrooms or an area for an office so he could be away from it all, but for now he’s the middle of everything while working.
I love him, but it’ll take some adjusting if he is able to work from home regularly on Thursdays.

My time is up. Lilah is lying on Daddy as he rest on the couch and Eden is yelling for candy.

So I’ve finally been able to get the picture files opened.
Here’s our family pictures from earlier this month.
Ones we ordered:

Some of these I like so I’m sad we didn’t get them.(Jon didn’t like the fake or forced smile, because Lilah doesn’t smile like that on her own.) But to reorder would defeat the purpose of using a $3.99 a sheet coupon because it would be like $15 a sheet plus a fee for reordering.

Ones we didn’t order:

The ones the send you online are fuzzy so a person isn’t tempted to print them, though you can but they’re just not high quality.

 How the girls have grown from a year ago.

Today was Lilah’s first primary presentation. I’m getting old. I feel even older knowing that Lilah will be in her second year of Primary come January.

It was a hectic morning. Lilah was suppose to be there at 8:30 am, in which I think they said 8:30 in hopes that the parents would get the kids there by 8:50. 🙂 I took the girls and let Jon finish getting ready on his own. (I made him help me so we could get there at a descent time.) We got there at 8:45 and while walking up to the building I realized I still had on my casual brown flip-flops! I didn’t want to return home since I was waiting for my parents and Jon’s mom and sister to arrive.
I had our regular phone line on call forwarding so I would get any phone calls, so I called my cell phone, I had his, and left a message. He didn’t get it so I wore brown flip-flops with my black skirt and green top. Oh well.

Back to the real post.
Lilah was great. She gave her line, even though it took a second or so for her to start, once at the pulpit.
“Jesus Christ was Heavenly Father’s first born son. I am also a child of God.”
It went by so quickly that I almost wish she had a longer part or another one. 🙂
She gave her line great, and even though she’s shy in certain situations, she’s always spoken well when she’s had to give a talk in primary or say the prayer in front of them. I think talking into a microphone helps.
She was also super cute in her yellow dress and curled hair and she sang, when she wasn’t yawning, all the songs.
She was in the second row of the stand and even though we knew she was standing while singing the songs, she’s so short it was hard to tell if she was standing or sitting.

She sat well during the program and her teacher told me that Lilah said it was soo long, when our primary president came up to to speak at the end. It’s hard to sit still for over an hour, even if you are singing a lot, when you’re a 4 year old.

I got a little choked up once it started and after Lilah gave her line. But since she was at the beginning I was able to control myself the rest of the program.
The primary did a great job and I’m happy we’re in such a great ward.

So I’ve finally gotten pictures of baby Zarina!
Brien sent them to a Lacy instead of Lacey on Wednesday night, so once I called today we got it figured out and I just received pictures.

In Brien’s e-mail he said:
She has Andrea’s eyes, nose and checks and my hair color, lips and ears.
we love her a whole lot.

While talking to Andrea she said how easy the birth was. She was a 5-6 going into the hospital so they gave her the epidural right away and then pitocin when her labor was not progressing.
(I can’t complain too much, my labor with Eden went pretty much the same way. I guess Harvey girls are just naturals at this child birthing thing.)

She is very cute, and not an ugly newborn. (Yes, some newborns are ugly, something every expecting parent should talk about. 🙂 )
Andrea said how she had cute chubby thighs, which you can kinda see in the photo’s, but when she lost her newborn weight it was in her thighs.

Congratulations Andrea and Brien! She is adorable and I can’t wait to met her this Thanksgiving!
(I’m kinda jealous of Carolyn being able to have you at her house, but just a little because she will have a newborn at her house. 🙂 )

New Mom with baby Zarina.

Andrea said how she keeps calling her baby girl because it’s weird to call her Zarina, since she was named after a friend, the friend who introduced Brien and Andrea.

After her first bath.

Under the heating lamp.

Daddy’s arm.

Lilah asked who’s arm that was. Was it Brien’s or Andrea’s? I hope it’s not Andrea’s with all that hair. 🙂

Baby Zarina Marie Park!

Zarina Marie Park
October 15, 2007
8:22 pm
7lbs. 9 oz.
19 1/2 inches
At least I think this is what Carolyn told me, and I think she has it correct.

Pictures to come when Brien E-mails me.

So they were going to break Andrea’s water today at noon.
I was at my parents house during the madness, well more like grumpiness, of them getting ready to leave.
I kept telling my dad that they baby would be there once he got there so it didn’t matter when they left. (Once he’s ready you must be ready because he gets grumpy, even if it took him a while to get ready.)
Heck if they get there early, they’ll just get to wait around anyways.

My parents also picked up some food from some Chinese restaurant, Payday or something that I’ve never heard of, for the mother and father to be.
I hope the lettuce wraps still taste good after 4 1/2 hours of driving.

It took me 6 1/2 hours to have Lilah after they broke my water, so I think my parents might have to play the waiting game once in Ely, though the left here around 1:30.

I hope the labor goes as smoothly as labor can go. I hope Brien doesn’t faint.

Yesterday I worked hard on Eden’s costume. I’m about 2/3rds finished. She’ll be Dorothy. As I cut the fabric Lilah asked if she could be Dorothy.

Uh, no.

I bought Lilah a wand to go with Glenda’s outfit and I think that will make her very happy, and it will probably make Eden jealous.
I made some dumb mistakes while sewing and I added a little detail that if I were to ever charge for this costume I would add another $20 to the price just so someone would know how annoying it was to do. I’ll explain once I get pictures of the finished product.

Today I went and bought some bows for our family pictures, plus some that I just wanted and some for Andrea. I went to the women’s house, since we have met before and it was on short notice, so she gave me a good discount. She had a five year old son that was way too friendly for Lilah’s comfort, but she got over it and they did play and have a good time as long as I was in the same room as her. Then we played at the park in the woman’s complex. The girls had lots of fun, but wondered where the swings were. It was a small park. I was happy there were no swings because then I would have been put to work pushing rather than just enjoying them playing together.

We took family pictures tonight. Finally. The pictures turned out OK, but my one complaint is we did not get a very good family picture, because she only took three, so we had just three shots to choose from and the first one was out of the question, so it left two mediocre shots. I miss my sister’s friend Marie doing our photo’s, but her photo company is just way to expensive for us now that she’s left Penny’s and has gone off on her own.

We were the last ones of the day so I’m sure that made her speed things up, plus she was working with 3 babies before we came. One thing I know is you just have to take a lot of pictures to get nice pictures when children are involved. If it wasn’t a 20 minute wait to view the pictures, so we could even order the ones we wanted, I would have insisted on more family pictures to be taken, but it was 7pm and we were all tired from smiling and keeping Eden from messing up her hair.

Lilah and Eden were cute. For once Eden was shy and Lilah was all about the smiles.
A little too smiley for Jon, but I thought she was adorable.

So I was sick like all last week. Well my throat was swollen and I started sounding funny Thursday and today, Monday or 5 days later, I’m finally starting to sound like myself.
At one point I thought I might get laryngitis, but the girls weren’t so lucky as to have a mom without a voice.

I’m so happy to start sounding normal. I hate having a sick voice, though nothing else was wrong with me, any stranger wanted to stay five feet away from me, and I’m sure some friends too.

So I’m hoping to begin cutting Eden’s costume today. I’ll be going to the store to get the rest of the materials later tonight before FHE.

I’m going to have Naia 3 days a week this month again, so I’m not sure what I will and will not get done.

I’m hoping my sister Andrea has her baby soon, though it may be a little bit still.
I’m so excited for her.

I’ve heard that there’s been a lot of funk feelings going around.
I sympathize with you all, in different ways though. I hope we’re all able to get over them.

For me making the girls costumes is exciting to me. I really enjoy making things and having the girls look cute is so fun. I do like praise after all. 😉
I am bummed that our trunk or treat is the night of Halloween. The other ward that we combine with for this party decided to do it the night of Halloween, and the youth are in charge of games and carnival type booths. Yeah, what youth wants to be at a ward party rather than trick or treating. Honestly as a parent I would let my 12-17 year old decide where they wanted to be since they’re old enough to take care of themselves.
Also our block and neighborhood is always so quiet that I feel like it’s my duty as one of the few people who participate in Halloween to be home and give out candy. Literally we had five house on our little block out of 20-30 homes be home and give out candy last year, which included our home. I also don’t like having to pick between a church function and my community.
So I may stop by the trunk or treat, but that’s it. Which makes me sad because I like the fact that the girls wear their costumes twice when we have the trunk or treat on a different night than Halloween. I may crash my parents or sister’s trunk or treat if they have theirs on a different night.
I guess if we do dress up for Lilah’s class they get to wear them that day also, but I just don’t like ward activities on Holidays even if it is just Halloween and the trunk or treat is suppose to help replace the dangerous going out and trick or treating. I think to do it on the holiday secludes you from your community and how many wanderers off the street are we going to get the night of Halloween. “Hey there’s a lot of cars giving our candy lets go.”
Totally a bad idea.
Anyways, I’m off to start cutting fabric. The girls are going to be so cute.