Is It Naptime Yet

Easter was a little odd for us this year. As I look at the pictures I took, I think of all the pictures I didn’t take. Like the eggs we dyed, or the girl’s baskets, the girls as they looked through their baskets, wait I wasn’t awake for that, or even one of the girls after the egg hunt. Yeah, it was an odd year for us, but I had a sinus infection and Lilah was sick, so I’ll use those as my excuses for why it was so off.

Saturday we went to my parents house to dye eggs. This year Glenn had his daughters so we were able to dye eggs with most of the cousins. (Minus Zarina and new baby Poppy.) Ajay is eleven, I think, and Kaycee is 8, but just barely. She gets her height from both parents, and is super tall for her age. She’s about the same height as Howie, who is 10 1/2, and if you look in the pictures and see how tall Howie is compared Lilah and Eden, you’ll get an idea of how tall Kaycee is, and she’s only 2 months older than Lilah, though Lilah gets her height from her short parents. (We’re both the shortest of our families.)

Eden waiting to dye some eggs, and those eggs in the cartoon have not been dyed. We were given some green eggs from Jon’s boss, and decided to try dying them. They turned out pretty cool. If only I had taken a picture…..

~

Sorry it’s dark, but that’s just the lighting. (Howie, Lilah, Adrienne, and then Kaitlyn.)

~

Kaycee, AJay, Eden and half of Howie.

~

Kaycee and AJay.

It was a fun little afternoon and I wish we had arrived earlier, or stayed later, but only because we weren’t able to be there on Sunday, but we wouldn’t know that till Sunday afternoon rolled around.

So on Saturday I was not feeling well. I was getting a sinus infection, and both girls were suffering from allergies. I slept on the couch that night because my head hurt, and wanted to be propped up. Lilah woke me up twice in the night, complaining of her stuffy nose and needing to use the bathroom. (I had a weird dream where I yelled at Lilah because she had gotten up like 4 times and I wasn’t getting any rest.) Some time in the early morning Jon came out and I moved to the bedroom.

So Easter morning both girls wondered out and checked out their baskets, I guess, because I wasn’t there! I was a little upset about this, but Jon wanted me to get my rest since I was feeling terrible. I’m thinking I’m going to make an Easter curtain, so they have to wait for me next year.

The girls were both suffering allergy like symptoms that morning and Lilah was not feeling well, so we had oatmeal for breakfast instead of cinnamon rolls. Jon went on a hike, and I had to teach a class, so the girls went to church that day. Lilah was not feeling well, but I thought it was just allergies, so after some convincing, she went to her primary class. I checked in on Lilah after that hour and she looked terrible and she was then running a low fever, so she was experiencing something more than allergies, and we all went home.

Once home we had the egg hunt right away, then lunch. Lilah got sick after eating an egg and since I wasn’t feeling well with my sinus infection, we decided to stay home rather than go to my parent’s for dinner and another egg hunt. We watched Tangled, which the girls got in their baskets, for the second time that day, and Lilah and I took naps on the couch, so really Jon and Eden watched Tangled. Cereal was our grand Easter dinner. Jon ate lots of candy, while the rest of us ate very little.

Eden poses for the camera.

~

Lilah charges out.

~

Ignore the dead bush and tall weeds. Just look at the cute girls.
~

~

~

Like I said, it was a very odd Easter.

(Monday I went to the doctor and got a z-pack, so my sinus infection is clearing up nicely. It was bad and tonight I might finely sleep in my own bed. Lilah felt better by Monday, though both girls had terrible runny noses and coughs that continued till Tuesday. Today we were finally able to join the land of the living and venture out, though we still have some stuffiness.)

I was just editing comments and got a laugh at the spam comments in my filter.

I think the writing is funny because it’s almost human, but not quite.

I actually wanted to post a simple message to say thanks to you for those pleasant information you are writing on this site. My considerable internet investigation has at the end of the day been paid with pleasant concept to talk about with my contacts. I ‘d admit that most of us visitors actually are truly fortunate to live in a magnificent community with very many wonderful people with very beneficial tricks. I feel rather fortunate to have seen your site and look forward to so many more fabulous times reading here. Thanks a lot again for all
the details.

and

I and also my pals ended up viewing the good tricks on the blog and then instantly got a horrible feeling I had not expressed respect to the web blog owner for those techniques. These young men are actually absolutely glad to read through them and have in effect in truth been making the most of these things. Thanks for truly being simply accommodating and then for having this form of fabulous subject matter millions of individuals are really eager to understand about. My personal honest apologies for not saying thanks to sooner.

It’s February.

I love February.

Reasons why I love February:
My wedding anniversary is in February.
Valentine’s Day is in February.
Auditions for the play are in February.

That’s pretty much it.

I am so excited to be married to Jon for nine years later this month. I really love being married to him. He’s so supportive and loving. He’s a wonderful provider and a hard worker. He also knows how to have fun, and makes sure to spend time with the girls and me. Rarely are our weekends spent at home, because he’s always wanting to go do things and enjoy family time.

While I’m not a huge Valentine’s Day person, apparently my girls are. They’ve made bags for us to put valentines in and have been hard at work filling them. Lilah keeps asking if I’ve made some for them yet, and she also keeps hinting that Girl Scout cookies would make great valentines. I really love her excitement.

Auditions for the play are coming up and I’m super excited and nervous. I know I’ll be in the play, it’s a matter of what part. I’m putting myself out there, like really out there, and I’m so nervous, but I figure I can’t succeed if I don’t try. My voice lessons are going wonderfully, I just now need to perform in front of people, so I can work on my nerves. Last week my voice teacher pulled in her husband, who is a high school choir teacher, and I was so shaky, and I sang a little too fast and I wasn’t aware of my movements as much as I should be, but overall I didn’t do as bad as I thought I would. Now to find some unsuspecting people and sing their ears off.

Today was busy.

I got up extra early for my Stake Relief Society’s woman’s conference. (6:45 am, and I don’t wake up till 8:30 am at the earliest, unless I have to.) They let us choose different classes or attending the temple. I chose to do temple sealings. I wasn’t able to proxy as a wife, but I did proxy as a daughter to a couple that may have been younger than me, or was right about my age. Then we had a wonderful speaker, Elder James B. Gibson of the area 70. I then raced out to get the lunch they were serving with my friend Sam, so I could leave early and met Jon and the girls.

Because, while I was having my fun, Jon took the girls to Science Saturday at the Natural History museum. They packed a lunch and we all met at the Springs Preserve so we could catch the 1 o’clock show of the Wings over the Springs, where they have a raptor bird show going on till the end of January on the weekends. This was the second time we’ve seen it and the girls love it.

Right before the show we spotted Jon’s sister Annie, she was there with her son’s boy scout troop, so Lilah ran up and said hi to her. I loved seeing Annie’s face as she realized who Lilah was, since seeing her was out of place and it took a second for her to recognize her. We enjoyed the show and then got to talk to Annie afterwords.

Then we tried to watch a lizard feeding, but there were hoards of people. Thankfully we have an annual pass and can come another day and hopefully see them feed ’em, since it’s only scheduled on the weekends. If not, it’s OK since we see it happen quite often at the museum.

For fun we paid to see a behind the scenes clinic of the animals. It was so much fun. We got to see the various animals they have there, since they have multiples of them and rotate the ones on display. It was our little family, plus one other family in our group. They had a little boy, only 2 or so, who wanted to hold all the tarantula’s, vinegaroons, and scorpions. Of course he wasn’t able to since the animals are wild, but she did let us hold something at the very end.

(I’m not sure if they regularly let you hold the cockroach, or if it was just our guide and the cute little boy enticing her to let him hold something. It was a giant hissing cockroach. They breed it and feed the babies to the animals.)

The tour was really fun, and I think it was very worth the $3 per person. ($5 if you’re not a annual pass member.) We did it because we thought Lilah would love it, and she did.

After the tour we did some more exploring and saw them feed the cottontail rabbits and the fox. The fox didn’t come out, but hopefully we’ll get to see him another time out and about. He’s usually sleeping in his den, which has glass, but it’s always more fun to see the animals moving and not just sleeping.

After the Springs Preserve Eden and I went grocery shopping. We all ate dinner and then enjoyed Planet 51 on Netflix. The girls were really into it when they watched it earlier this week and wanted us to watch it with them.

Now it’s bed time.

Yeah, it was a pretty busy day.

It’s funny to try to sum up my life for the past ten years. In all honesty 10 years is more than a third of my life, and it just happens that the last ten years have, and will probably be, some of the most eventful ten years of my life, at least I kinda hope my life is a little calmer for the next decade.

To start out with ten years ago I was still in high school, still writing my missionary and envisioning some happily ever after. I was enjoying my final 6 months of my final year in high school, dating, singing, and hanging out with friends. I began working at the law office my mother had been working at, and took over her position when she left. There I met one of my longest lasting friends, but wouldn’t know it till 10 years later.

I had met Jon Blake, but he was just some old guy that I saw at the LDS Institute, in fact he was Little Jon, due to being only 5’6″ and then there was Big Jon, who was much taller.

I graduated from high school and thus began my first summer of freedom, and ironically, my last also. I enjoyed institute classes and meeting boys, flirting, and then registering for my first college classes. I applied to only one school and attended UNLV.

I began school already dating Jonathan Blake and became engaged to him very shortly after. We had a longer than normal engagement, at least by LDS standards, of 5 months. He was no longer “Little Jon” and my missionary was Dear Jon-ed just six months before he was to return home. I thought I was so mature, but I now know I wasn’t.

Marriage happened, and so did the first apartment.

I’ve lived in four different places. We’ve bought our first house and bought a second car together. I’ve been laid off of work once and held two jobs. Jon’s had four different jobs, eight different positions, been unemployed, underemployed and is now the soul provider in such a way that it would take me another decade to match his worth. We both graduated with our bachelors degrees, and Jon nearly obtained his Master’s in this same decade. ( May, in May he’ll be done!)

I became a mother.

I went through my first pregnancy and gave birth to a healthy baby girl. I picked the name Lilah, and Jon could only say yes to his just-given-birth-to-her-first-baby, baby’s mama when I said, “She looks like a Lilah,” though now we both believe it. (He’s still partial at Aliyah.)

I had two teeth removed, wisdom, and then Jon accepted his first position at UNLV, and has been there ever since.

We were then blessed with a second daughter, who’s name Jon chose and I approved, Eden. We’ve had several nieces and nephews born to our siblings, not to mention the additions of brother and sisters-in-laws.

We’ve traveled to Utah countless times. I learned where Ely, Nevada was, and have even visited it 5-6 times. I saw the ocean for the first time in the past decade, and was also able to show the ocean to my girls for their first time. We’ve been camping numerous times, mostly with family, and have taken the girls to Disneyland.

I’ve lost touch with friends, only to find them later due to social networking, something I hated at first. I’ve gained new friendships because of marriage and moving, strengthened my relationships with my sisters, and have come closer to one friend in a way I never would have imagined when we met just ten years ago.

I started a blog, and have neglected it.

I sang my first solo in the past decade, performed in my first play, learned to sew, and started marketing my talents.

In my marriage I’ve had wonderful highs, like getting married and having our first daughter, despairing lows, like learning my husband no longer believed in God, and wonderful mediums which allow me to stay constant in my love for Jonathan and the girls.

Yep, I think that kinda sums up the last ten years.

What has happened in the past decade to you?

So just a mere week or more before Christmas we finally got around to getting our tree up. Life was pretty hectic and I had to get some cleaning done before we would have room for it. (It’s already down because we had guests over for New Years Eve and I wanted the room. Two weeks was time enough for me this year.)

The girls had fun decorating and being silly.

It was Eden’s turn to put the angel up this year.

On the 21st we celebrated the Winter Solstice. Jon chose the wonderful centerpiece we had on our table and even made dinner for us, since the girls and I were at Carolyn’s Christmas work party that afternoon. We enjoyed some yummy food by candle light, then Jon read us some Winter Solstice traditions. I wasn’t feeling my best so I was mostly on the couch. Earlier in the day the girls went shopping for one another, so they exchanged gifts and Jon got to open his Winter Solstice present. I had already received one of my presents, voice lessons, and will continue to receive them, so I didn’t open anything that night.

The centerpiece of evergreen, red, white and some gold pine cones that Jon painted. I think they’re rather cool.

I had a headache and was found on the couch for most of the night.

Lilah got Eden a Barbie and Eden chose a Zhu Zhu pet for Lilah. Now she has a toy hamster and a real one.

Jon decided he wanted a Nook, and that’s what he got.

Christmas Eve we spent with my parents and Carolyn and Derek. We had fun talking and then opening presents. Usually we only open one gift on Christmas Eve, but it seemed fitting to just open all the presents they had there. So we had our parents open the gifts we gave them and we opened what my parents gave us, and the girls, then the girls got to open the present the Svilars gave them, and the gift of pajamas from us. I also opened some pajamas from the girls.

Derek and Carolyn.

Grandpa and Grandma Harvey.

The Blakes.

An owl bag for my mom. (She collects all things owls.)

A nativity plaque for my dad. (He collects all things beavers, but I can never find any, and nativities.)

The girls in their pajamas.

So I kinda forgot I already posted about Thanksgiving, but I only had one picture, so I’m posting more. This post is really for my niece Shauntae, since she’s one of the few people who even comment, and because I know she’ll enjoy seeing the various pictures of her family!

Here’s some photos for your enjoyment Shauntae! 😉

OK, maybe this one is for my enjoyment. (Lilah took this picture.)

But this one is definitely for Shauntae. (Lilah took this picture.)

Annie, the host and one of the cooks. (Lilah took this picture.)

Me with one of my pies and a very silly Lilah. (Eden took this picture.)

Justin and his mini me, Daniel. (His son looks just like him.)

Tasia, her husband Danny and their son. (I can’t remember the toddler’s name, and their daughter Emily was hiding rather then wanting her picture taken. Emily is on Tommy’s lap for the large family photo though.)

Me and Jason.

Me and Dara.

The siblings. (Click to enlarge.)

The family who was there. (Click to enlarge.)

A very silly Lilah. Eden was the photographer for this one.

December we had the privileged of seeing the Parks early in the month. We only got to see them once or twice while they were down, but it was fun to let the girls play and visit when we could. I think they picked my busiest weekend ever, because I had madrigal dinners to perform at for my choir class and that took up each evening they were in town except Sunday.

We went over on Saturday afternoon to decorate the grandparents tree and let the girls play. Later we also saw Tangled with them, the Kemple kids, Carolyn, and Grandma and Grandpa Harvey. It was a fun, though short visit, and I had fun seeing Andrea and her growing belly. They’re expecting their second Park girl in early April and I can’t wait to see what she’ll look like. I wonder if she’ll fit in with the three amigo’s and look like them also.

Zarina, Lilah and Eden in front of grandparent’s tree.

Lilah age 2 years and Eden aged 2 months. I found this while looking through some old pictures and it amazes me how much I can see Zarina in this picture of Lilah. It also amazes me that they were once this small.

Later in December we were able to met Jon’s newest nephew-in-law, Tim, and visit with his niece, Adriana. Adriana is Kumen’s daughter, or Jon’s second brother.

We all met at Rawlin’s house and we brought the meal for the group to enjoy. It was just a short meal and some games afterwords, but it was fun to visit and spend time with family we rarely see. Adriana, Tim, Lilah, Eden, and I played the longest Uno game ever. We had to shuffle the draw deck five times until we finally decided a person only had to draw one card when they didn’t have one to lay down, rather then draw until you could lay something down. It was crazy.

After the game we took some photos. As I looked through the ones with Tim I realized he’s just a pretty fun and goofy guy.

The semi-newlyweds. They were married in June.

Rawlin and Adriana.

Grandma Blake and Adriana.

Us and Adriana.

The girls with Tim and Adriana.

It’s 1:15 in the afternoon. I’m still in my pajamas and so are both the girls. It’s actually been a very productive day so far.

Recyclables were sorted and taken out.
I tricked Eden into cuddling with me this morning.
I ate breakfast while the girls played with Sleepy, Lilah’s hamster.
We cleaned Sleepy’s cage.
I talked and planned this evening with my BIL.
I washed a load of the girl’s clothes.
I washed dishes.
We flushed Eden’s dead fish, Strawberry.
I cleaned out the fish tank. (Now what to do with two tanks when neither child wants to donate one.)
I had the girls fold their clothes.
I moved my sewing cupboard to make room for the Christmas tree.
I sorted through the pile of mail.
I swept.
I may have yelled a little at the girls when they were fighting instead of folding clothes.
Right now Lilah is emptying the dishwasher.
I’m finally having the girls get dressed.
Then we’ll put up our Nativity. (It’s a good thing the fish died because now I have somewhere to put it.)
I plan on mopping my floors, except the kitchen since I need to give Jon a haircut tonight.
I might pull the tree out of the shed and check for spiders, then we can put it up.
A shower is in my forecast.
So is going to Costco to pick up food for this evening.
Then I’ll help tidy Rawlin’s house for the visit.
We get to meet our newest nephew-in-law and see Jon’s niece.
They live in Arizona.

Making lists does make my life seem more productive. I should do this everyday. (Really a lack of productivity has not been my problem lately, it’s having too much to do.)

I’m pretty sure I’ve eaten more than my share of meals in the past week. With having both our families in town it means double the meals, and double for food, which means I eat a lot in one day, but this year we met for Thanksgiving on a different day for Jon’s family, so instead of one day where I eat an insane amount of food, we had two…so yeah, I don’t think I’ll be weighing myself on the Wii any time son.

It was kinda nice to be able to linger with both families this year. We were able to spend a lot of time with Jon’s family on Saturday. All the siblings were in town, and that hasn’t happened since Lilah was a tiny infant. Not all the nieces and nephews were gathered, but it was still nice to spend time with all the brothers and sisters. Sadly, Jon’s parents were sick and the missed the festivities.

I had all the siblings gather around for a picture.

(Conrad, Jonathan, Rawlin, Annie, Jason, Kumen. Then Dara and Elana are in front.)

It was at Annie’s house and Tommy and her fixed a wonderful meal, like always. I brought pies and rolls, and there was plenty of food. I told Annie I would bring 4-5 pies, and for some reason she was still amazed that I brought so many. Fortunately she could use the frozen pies she had bought for Doug’s family dinner the next week.

Of course there was lots of sitting and talking with some debating, but mostly we just enjoyed one another’s company. Jon’s niece Tasia was there with her family, which was so nice since she’s been stationed in Alaska and will be moving there before the end of the year. I can’t believe how his nieces and nephews have grown since we’ve been married. Many have gotten married and are now enjoying families of their own. There are still a lot who are not married yet, but it’s just so different from my family, where the oldest grandchild is only 10.

We celebrated with my family on Thanksgiving Day. I made several pies once more, something I haven’t been able to do since we always eat and then leave for Jon’s family dinner. I attempted to make a banana cream pie, but used cook and serve pudding. This wouldn’t have been a problem had I realized this before I added it to the dream whip. It did not turn out, but my cousin made a delicious peanut butter cream pie, so we still had a cream pie for the family.

My Aunt Robin and Uncle Mike came down this year for Thanksgiving and they brought two of their grandchildren. The girls had lots of fun playing with them, and I went over there again today, since we don’t see them often and Jon needed to get some studying done. Elana is 9 and Talon is 7, so the four of them actually got along really well.

Poor Carolyn was sick this year, and didn’t make it to the family dinner. We thought it was just an allergic reaction to some food with peanuts that she had accidentally eaten on Wednesday. We even had her over to our house on Wednesday evening, but with some of the other symptoms, it seems like she also has a cold or the flu. It wasn’t as much fun to not have her there with us.

I love this time of year and I am so excited for the holidays. I’m totally not prepared, but it’s been so much fun watching the girls enjoy this time of year and getting ready for Christmas. I could do without the long, long, looong wish lists, but it’s still fun. They love Christmas music, and singing songs. I even peeked in and found them making a manger scene where Eden was Mary and her stuffed animals were the animals peering into a basket with a baby doll in it. I don’t think they had turtles and lizards at the first Christmas, but it made for one cute moment.

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!