Luke's 1st Grade Picture

I cannot believe that my little boys are going to be 7 this year! And I really love this picture of Luke because it shows off one of the passages of childhood- losing those front teeth! Luke lost one of his teeth in line at school. His teacher very kindly taped it to a piece of paper and sent it home for the tooth fairy to pay up. Lucky for Luke, the tooth fairy decided that losing your tooth in line at school was so awesome that she paid up and left the tooth for safe keeping. Luke was a bit disappointed that the tooth fairy did not leave him his expected $20. I think Luke needs to get a fair market appraisal on what an individual tooth is really valued at. Cause I have it from a very reliable source that the tooth fairy's fair market estimate is substantially lower than that!

My Say

One of the purposes of my blog has been to post items about my kids and try and keep everyone up to date on the happenings of our family. And for all intents and purposes, I am well aware that for the most part, this blog is really mine and my kids journal.

This post is going to be a little bit different. I feel the need for myself to put into writing some of the thoughts I have about the past few years and the effect it has had on me and my children. Never in my wildest dreams did I think fifteen years ago when I married my husband in the San Diego temple, that I would be faced with one of life's biggest challenges- to accept and move on after your supposed eternal companion lies, cheats and ultimately betrays all promises made. 

But even more so than that challenge has been to feel the betrayal and the hurt that comes with it from friends and family who you thought would be supportive and sensitive to a situation which they would never want to find themselves in. Would you like your husband of fifteen years to cheat on you with someone that you have grown up with and loved like family? That betrayal is hard to deal with. But even worse is to read comments and congratulations to the recently engaged happy couple. What is there really to celebrate about a relationship that is based on destroying a family. That had it's beginnings in betrayal, deception, secrecy and lies. I find it hard to see where the happiness is for two children who have to deal with a broken family. Have we really departed so far from the path of right that as long as people "get married" and make it legal, then everything is okay?

I would love to believe in the cliche that cheaters never prosper or that somehow kharma etc. will come back to balance out the wrongs. But I am also a realist and accept the fact that people do not always get justice or fairness in a situation. That often times, people who do the wrong thing never really have to suffer the consequences for their actions. I get it. But I do hope at the very least that a guilty conscience will sometimes niggle at both of them for what they have done. Maybe, maybe not.

Life goes on and I have had my say. But I know that I cannot offer up my congratulations to them or any wishes for future happiness. Just can't. 

Holidays Are The Time For Family

No matter where I have been in the world, I have always looked on Thanksgiving and Christmas as a time to be with family. Sometime it is family you are directly related to, sometimes it is family you married in to and sometimes it is with people who connect with you in such a way that they become family.

Thanksgiving this year was held at my sister Kari's house. The following day, my sister Jenny and her family came down to Bakersfield from Sacramento. We try and take a picture each year of my dad with all of the grandchildren. 

 Another tradition which I try and keep going is honoring and remembering family who are not able to be with us during this holiday season. And may I record for those in the know..... it just would not be Christmas without walking up and down the rows of graves at Greenlawn cemetary with my Dad looking for his parents graves. After 40 minutes of looking, I now have the official map from Greenlawn in my possession. Next year is going to be a little different, I hope!

Merry Christmas Mom!

Adam 1st Grade Picture

Adam- Age 6. 1st Grade Picture. Little Red School House. I am not sure if this kid has ever taken a bad picture. He is cuteness inside and out.

My Luke

Why do I love this picture of Luke? Well, perhaps it is because it captures in a moment what Luke is somewhat about. He is a very conservative, careful child. He observes life and then decides if he will participate in it. He is reserved with new people in his life. I tell people to not get offended when he gives you the stink eye because that is just his way of assessing your importance to him. He is highly intelligent and his constant questions about who, what and why tax my ability to endure to the end. Sometimes at the end of a long day I put a temporary restraining order on question time until the following day.

You have to love a kid though who comes up with classic lines such as "Mom, when you have no birthdays, you are dead."

The Boys and Soccer

This year, Adam and Luke were adamant that they wanted to play soccer; okay so Adam was adamant, Luke is just along for the ride.

I made sure that they both got on the same team; they are the mighty Blue Sharks. Their coach is fantastic. His name is Bernardo and his wife Katie is the team mom. The team consists of eight little boys with Adam and Luke being the youngest two; the oldest boys are seven and in 2nd grade. The team puts in a great effort but have not been very successful on the "win" side. Adam and Luke are a bit tenative in going after the ball. Adam has turned out to be a great goal keeper. He is willing to sacrifice himself by placing his body in the way of an incoming kick. One ball connected with his upper body and I think people from two fields over heard the sound. Credit to Adam though, he did not have to come off the field for cry/breather. Luke loves to play the game but really does not see the value in practices. You can usually find him in the pack somewhere around the ball. He is a bit afraid of dribbling past defenders but is not afraid to give the ball a mighty wack to the sidelines. Luke requires a fair amount of "resting" during the game. I did catch Adam on the field during a recent game pulling the drawstring out of his shorts and trying to loop it over his head whilst still wearing the shorts. He almost got the job done because he does have a lot of string to play with as his shorts could probably fit both he and Luke in them. Needless to say, I did have to tell him that was not a good look for the game and might just hinder some play action. I don't think anyone plays well with their shorts up around their neck, do you?

So here are some pics of my soccer boys. Note Adam and his shirt 1/2 in and 1/2 out. It is supposed to be tucked in all the way!

1ST Day of 1ST Grade

Two posts in a row. See if I can keep this winning streak going. My little boys in 1st grade. Before I know it, I will be sitting at High School graduation and saying what all parents before me have said.... where has the time gone? I am trying my best to document the big moments; I often don't hit 100% but I try. I am trying my very best to just enjoy the little moments and the time together. Moments such as when Luke tells me yesterday, "Mom, when you don't have anymore birthdays, you are dead!" Profound thoughts coming from that little head. But Adam, not to be outdone, interjects this wisdom, "yeah, and when you are dead, you lay flat on your back and don't blink your eyes."

Luke's teacher this year is Mrs.Smith; and 7 days into the new school year and Luke is already seeing and testing what her boundaries are. This usually lasts the first month at school after which Luke becomes a model student.

Adam continues to have Mrs.Billiard as his teacher. At first (second and maybe even third, let's go there) his teacher seems to be a bit past the teaching thing; She can't be younger than about 75. But Adam loves her and is doing well in school. In fact, Adam is a constant surprise in terms of his academic level of achievement. Not that I thought he was remedial but I just had observed in the past his lack of attention to what was going on in the classroom. But osmosis seems to have won out in his case because apparently it is all getting through.

PS. Luke refused to stand in the grass in front of the school sign because there was a bit of dew left on it and he did not want it dripping on his foot. He continues his reign of high maintenance! Also note, no smile at his desk. He was not sure he was liking 1st grade. Mostly because he was not allowed to play his DS Nintendo there. The sacrifices that must be made for an education!

Adam Graduates from Kindergarten

I am always a little late in posting significant events. So here is Adam's kindergarten graduation picture. He was very excited to be graduating and moving on to first grade. Only Adam's school did a big graduation ceremony. They even had the kids dressed in cap and gown. The 1st grade class at Adam's school "hosted" the ceremonies. The 1st graders did the entertainment part of the program. So this year, Adam will be hosting the ceremonies and his cousin Bella will be graduating. Should be an interesting combination to witness!!

BTW. Mom thinks Adam is a little cutie. :)

Clifford's Sleepover

Luke's Kindergarten teacher has so many great ideas for motivating her students to read. At the beginning of the year, she allowed students to take home Clifford, The Big Red Dog, for a sleepover. Clifford comes to your house prepared. Mrs.Schafer has made him his own sleepover backpack made with Clifford material which comes complete with a Clifford book to read, Clifford's own blanket and pillow for bedtime and Clifford's journal of his many sleepover adventures. Each child adds to the journal and writes about what they did with Clifford at their home. We also added some pictures to our journal page which are posted here. You can see that both Luke and Adam welcomed Clifford into their nighttime routine. Clifford watched tv in the morning with the boys while they ate their cereal, he slept with Luke is his bed and Adam shared his gumballs with Clifford.





The boys were very sad when Clifford had to go to back to school for the next sleepover. But it was a very fun time while he was with us. :))))

Adam Hits The Front Page

This is a picture of Adam taken by Mr.Osvog, Norris Elementary School Principal. The school used this photo for the September 7th weekly Newsletter. Mr.Osvog said he chose this picture because Adam was working away and then looked up and gave him the perfect smile. I can't think when Adam has taken a bad picture! Adam was very proud that his picture was in the school newsletter. Considering that there are over 800 kids attending the elementary school, I would say he has reason to be proud!

Big School- The Boys Go to Kindergarten

August 24th, 2009 was a big day for Adam and Luke. The previous week, Adam, Luke and Mom attended Norris Elementary kindergarten orientation. The boys were very excited to meet their teachers, see the classroom they would be in and tour the elementary school campus.

Luke's teacher this year is Mrs.Schafer. She is the perfect teacher for Luke. She is very organized, has many years of experience as a mother, grandmother and kindie teacher. She is helping Luke to use words to express his emotions; something that Luke does not do very well. She is also helping him to be more socially interactive with his peers. Luke tends to try and direct people. To date, Luke is thriving in school. He loves to bring books home to read. Luke does not like eating in the cafeteria much; in fact he tells me in detail every night what he expects to see in his lunch bag the next day. I think that Luke's one unfullfilled desire about school is the fact that he does not get to ride the bus home. For some reason he thinks that riding the school bus is the pinnacle of the school day. I never hear the end of his requests to be in the school bus group. Sadly for him, this request will probably go unfullfilled this year.

Adam's teacher this year is Mrs. Ramey. She is the perfect teacher for Adam. She is young, pretty and very sweet. Adam fell in love with her the first day of school. He composed a love note for her his first week. Adam struggled a little bit the first couple of weeks in that he needed to figure out when he could be funny and silly and when he could not. Once he got that worked out and his teacher figured out how many times during the day he needs to go to the bathroom- then it was all good. Adam tells me he already has a girlfriend in his class. He is such a happy go lucky child it is no wonder that everyone loves him. Adam loves to eat in the cafeteria. He was also delighted to find out that you could buy extra milk. I am certain that he is helping other kids around him to eat their lunch as well :)))

There will be more on this chapter to come. For sure.

More Disneyland Adventure Stories

So I continue with my tales of our Disneyland adventure 2009. My friend at work wanted to go with us but could not at the last minute; because she is such a nice person, she got the boys $10 gift cards to McDonalds (one for each of them). The boys thought this was great because they got to "pay" for breakfast themselves. Handing the card to someone is a big thrill when you are five. The boys also tended to show alot of love for one another in McDonalds every morning (ie they could not keep their hands off one another).

My boys have also picked up or learned from someone the art of looking cool in pictures. Recently they seem to have worked out the cool pose with your hands look. I was surprised the first time they did it and now resign myself to the fact that this is part of "growing up". I am on alert for any hand poses that are not nice. Hopefully they won't pick up on any of that until much later down the track. It is amazing what they absorb and incorporate into themselves at this age.

Finally, I posted a picture here of the boys and Madison with one of the Disneyland characters who roam the park. We actually got quite a few pictures with assorted characters which is a surprise because often the lines to get a picture are quite long.

Luke and Merry-Go-Rounds

Okay, so here is a little blurb about my Mr.Conservative. Luke took all of the DNA related to personal safety and left Adam with very little or none at all depending on the situation. So when it comes to being on a moving object with both feet off the ground, Luke is not a very happy boy. The first time I attempted to "have fun" with him on Merry-Go-Round was in San Francisco. He cried the entire time, no make that screamed the entire time. The next try was in Sacramento where he refused to get on the horses at all (refer back to previous experience SF) and cried the entire time we were seated on the seats. So here we are, 2009, Disneyland and I thought let's try this one more time. It helped that his friend Madison and brother were both keen to go.

The first picture I took was just after I strapped him to the horse; he is checking everything to make sure it is firmly attached.

The next picture shows his facial expression regarding the upcoming experience. Note, we are not screaming or crying but not really that ecstatic either!

Third picture, the ride starts, the world does not end and dare I say it I think I see the start of a smile!

Final picture, yes miracles do occur in this modern day, Luke actually smiled at the end and told me how much fun that was. I really don't think Luke is going to be one of those people who jump out of planes or free jump off high rocks, just because they are there. Now Adam on the other hand is a different story. Yet another installment of the ying and yang of the twins.

Disneyland Part II

Second installment in the Disneyland story 2009.

As mentioned previously, our friends the Preston family met us at Disneyland. We had not seen them in over two years, so it was really fun being able to catch up at the happiest place on Earth! (apparently). (Note Luke sneaking into their family pic!)

Madison, their oldest daughter is about 4-5 months older than the boys but at the moment she is much taller than even Adam! She is a very sweet quiet girl. She and the boys got along really well and had a great time together over the two days. I even managed to get some great pics of them together. The Prestons also have a set of twins who are two years old-Jacob and Emily. The little twins really liked the Small World ride. Both Madison and the boys were not so sure about the 3D Bugs adventure. In fact at different parts of the show, the boys and Madison took off their 3D glasses. Adam was not game to go on the roller coasters with me this time around (last year at age 4 both Luke and Adam rode Space Mountain and the Runaway Railroad ride; this year they were more aware and not having any part of it!) Adam did go with me on the Indiana Jones ride and absolutely loved it. In fact he jumped out of the car and yelled to everyone at the end- That was Awesome! Yeah! And punched his hands in the air. It was very amusing for people waiting in line to see a five year old, who was barely tall enough to ride, so enthusiastic. I am sure as the years progress, Adam will be my roller coaster adventure partner. And probably by that time, I will be too old to want to go on the roller coasters!

Disneyland Part I

Okay, so here is my first installment of our recent trip to Disneyland. We stayed at the Fairfield Marriott which is right outside the main gate of Disneyland. Best place I have stayed to date in my journeys to Disneyland. Noting the close proximity to Disneyland and also that there is a McDonalds in front of the hotel, a Pizza Hut/snack bar inside the hotel , leads me to my four star recommendation. I am also a little particular about how clean the rooms are and what the bathrooms are like- once again passed the test.

So our first day, we hit McDonalds for breakfast. While there, I placed a call to my Australian friends, the Preston family, who had flown in from Brisbane Australia the day before and were staying at another hotel further away. They had flown nonstop 13 hours with 4 adults and three kids, a six year and two year old twins. They had told me the evening before that they were heading to bed at about 5pm, so I am thinking that my call at 7:30 am would be appropriate given that we were to meet at the Disneyland gates at 8am. Come to find out, everyone was still asleep and we rescheduled the meetup for 10am(and who could blame them for being a little tired!). So that left myself and the boys free for a couple of hours to enjoy some rides together. I decided to hit Finding Nemo first as it can be a lengthy wait later in the day. This picture of Luke and Adam are of us waiting in that line. It was overcast and very cool (lucky I brought jackets even though it was June!) but the wait was only about 30 minutes. Luke was scared and would not look out the window for the first few minutes. After Nemo, we headed off to drive the cars. I was not sure if I would be able to get us all in one car but it turned out great. The boys took turns driving and loved it!! I was in charge of the gas pedal. Then we headed back to the main gate to meet up with the Prestons. More on our time with them in my next Disneyland installment

Luke + Pictures

Is like oil and water. They just do not seem to mix well together. For some reason Luke finds it difficult to look natural in pictures. That is just him. So when I do get a great smile out of him and he looks great in a picture, of course it is in front of a sign advertising for Margaritas! Sometimes you just can't win in life. But he does look great in this picture. We were eating dinner at Chili's in Valencia on our way to meet our Australian friends at Disneyland. Of course the boys were very excited and just had to have some pictures taken at the restaurant. I think they ordered corn dogs, with apple slices and root beer. The picture of Adam (who by the way is very photogenic and almost never takes a bad picture) is us waiting in line to get into Disneyland. He took along some drinks from breakfast just in case he got hungry between McDonalds and Disneyland(note, this was all of a five minute walk, but it always pays to be prepared just in case you get hungry or thirsty!!) Also note Luke in the bottom of the pic doing one of his normal picture poses.

Parents With Daughters, You Have Been Notified!

Kodak Moment Captured

The boys love to pretend that they are superheros. This picture is the result of them "getting into costume" and pretending to be various superheros. Luke is Batman and Adam is The Incredible Hulk. After posing for this picture, they then proceeded to engage in a superhero wrestling match. Luke being at an obvious disadvantage decided to switch superheros and become the Incredible Hulk as well. This switch then enabled the boys to pound on each other at will. Pretty much any excuse to punch and wrestle with your twin brother will do. I just sometimes wish that I could confine those "wrestling, kicking, punching" moments to appropriate venues. Unfortunately those tendencies tend to come out at church, school and public areas. We are working on that but I really think it is a boy thing in talking to other parents. I feel successful when the boys limit their wrestling moves to one another and don't try it out on anyone else not related to them! We will see how that goes anyways.

Little Red School House 2008/09

This is Adam and Luke's school picture for the 2008/09 year at Little Red School House. Both boys absolutely love going to preschool, albeit for different reasons. Adam is all about recess and Luke is all about what happens in the classroom. Adam also loves popcorn day, ice-cream day, baking day.... I think the picture is clear in what those days have in common. Luke is currently working hard on trying to complete ten book reports by July. He is doing fairly well on reading and writing. Adam can also write his name. Both boys love to practice writing, so I have bought numerous little notebooks for them this year. Both Adam and Luke are VERY excited about going to kindergarten. They ask daily when they will be going to big school.

I asked Adam the other day if it would be okay for him to stay my sweet little boy. He told me no that he needed to grow big and strong like the Incredible Hulk. So I guess that means I can't make him stay little and cute forever. Oh well, I tried.

Just a few more snow pics

A couple more pics from the snow that I could not add to the last post!