Creativity! February 21, 2010

I love the creativity and imagination! The kids left the shopping cart out one night, and I guess Mike likes to play as much as the kids, so here’s what we have.

Quaid’s imagination took over the last few days. He pulled the pillows cushions off the couch and was jumping around hollering and running holding the hose of an air pump. When I asked him what he was doing I caught something about chasing. I ask what he was chasing. “I chasing monkeys and tigers with the snake!” He thought it was great fun, and has continued play the same game for three days.

I’m proud of Mikiya for passing off her first Article of Faith the first week, and is now eagerly learning the second one.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! February 14, 2010

This is our stake conference weekend. Since I still don’t want Kambrie out, and she doesn’t go too long without needing to eat, Mike stayed home with the kids while I went to the sat night adult session, and then he took the other kids and went to the regular session today. Anyway, there is a little story that just hit home to me. Elder Natrice told a story of growing up and being frustrated with his mom always reading the Book of Mormon to the family at breakfast. He said one day he told her he wasn’t paying attention and wondered why she even bothered reading. Her response was remembering a quote she had heard in a conference, “If you read the Book of Mormon to your children every day, you will not lose one of them.” I love this! I’ve always felt it important, but have wondered if we should be trading off what we read every day. For me, this was the answer.

I asked Mikiya what she learned in stake conference, and we now have a nice FHE lesson. There was a Dad who played hide-n-seek with his kids. He hid up in a tree and when the kids couldn’t find him he made noises and dropped things so the kids would look up. They were all happy when they found the Dad. Our Heavenly Father wants us to find Him and like the Dad, is trying to get us to look up.

Mike’s mom came to see Kambrie last week. Then today we got to see Grandma and Grandpa Gallup, Uncle Wayne, and Aunt Jenna. The kids were so excited to see everyone and just had fun.

Mikiya and Quaid had a blast making their Valentine’s cookies. Quaid kept climbing up on the counter and probably had more flour on him than the cookies did, but we all had fun. They loved the bright pink frosting and dumping, yes dumping, sprinkles on the cookies.

We are also starting to get a bunch of smiles from Kambrie, it’s so cute!

Pictures February 8, 2010

The kids, especially Quaid is ready for outside rough and tumble summer play. Since it’s not quite that warm, and our back yard is just dirt, Mike set up a little circuit for them to get them running. They ran up and down the stairs, and when they reached the bottom they did jumping jacks, and then headed for the stairs again. They did this for quite a while and loved it! Quaid was hilarious doing his jumping jacks! They also added in tossing bean bags back and forth.
I don’t have any pictures of this, but here are some others from the week.

Yeah! January 23, 2010

As sad as it is that Quaid has a double ear infection, he’s doing well taking his “super juice”. The exciting part of the dr visits is that Kambrie’s bilirubin count is going down on its own. Yeah! She’s our first child to not have to have a bili-blanket and keep going back for a zillion checks!

This is drug free week at school. Mikiya comes home showing us her sticker for the day and telling us some of what she learned. Well, at dinner she started coughing and very worriedly exclaimed, “Oh not! I hope I’m not smoking!” I couldn’t help but laugh. I did my best to reassure her that she was fine. I love that she is innocent enough to not even understand something like that.

First Week Home January 23, 2010

I was thrilled that Kambrie was doing well and we were getting to go home and have our family together. Mike was so cute to point out the temple to Kambrie as we drove by. The kids were excited to have us home, but were careful to keep their distance as they both developed fevers the night before. It was just so exciting to have a baby in the house again! Mikiya loved watching me give Kambrie her little sponge bath, rubbing lotion on her, and getting her dressed. Quaid loved taking pictures of her and reading her stories. It is all so cute!

Mikiya wasn’t thrilled at having to go to school, but it was all better if grandma could go with her. It was so cute to watch during the week as Mikiya wanted grandma for so many things; one of the sweetest to me was her request to have grandma kneel with her for her prayers. Quaid is clearly a grandpa’s boy, just being together a bunch but especially for games, or driving his new Lightning McQueen car. I got spoiled having three other adults to take care of all the cooking, cleaning, laundry and taking care of the kids. I just got to do the fun parts like snuggles.

Family Visit January 19, 2010

I was so excited to have my Mom and Dad bring the kids to the hospital! Mike went out to meet them and brought the kids in so we could have a few minutes together. I laughed when Mikiya walked in and enthusiastically said, “She does have a lot of hair!” She just had to make sure Grandma knew what she was talking about. Quaid seemed a bit shy, but grinned as he said “My Baby!” Both kids climbed up on the bed to take turns holding the Kambrie. Mom and Dad came in a few mins later and got to love the baby as well. They also took a bunch of pictures for us. As nice as it was to have everyone together, the visit wasn’t too long. Quaid had a cold and Mikiya was antsy to get going to have her lunch date out to Wendy’s.

Kambrie Sheila! January 18, 2010

Without having internet at home anymore, I’ve found it difficult to keep up on the blog. I am making an attempt to catch up a little before moving on to more recent events. So for all the goings ons of the past few months scroll through the posts that are all dated February 19.

She’s finally here! I had contractions off and on all night and headed to the hospital this morning for our induction appointment. I had to have antibiotics for four hours, so they wouldn’t do much of anything to speed things along so the baby wouldn’t be born before that point. Things went fairly quickly and Kambrie was born at 2:05 pm. She’s 7 lbs 4 oz and 20 in long. She is just so sweet and of course we love her to pieces! Everyone around is amazed at her hair.

Waiting January 15, 2010

Both our other kids have been 9 and 10 days early. Not that I’ve been planning on it again, but hoping and here we are at that point and still no baby. I’m getting quite anxious for her to come. I keep having contractions, then something happens and they stop. We had a little flood in our utility area where water ended up getting down our heat vents and we had to borrow a shop vac to suck it all out. That was fun, but now it doesn’t smell funny when the furnace clicks on. Quaid has gotten a fever a couple times. He got over it fairly quickly, I started having contractions, he got a fever again and now a cough as well, the contractions stopped. Maybe I’m just making them up because they haven’t been real painful, but they weren’t with Quaid either. I’m just ready for the sweet baby to come, and to know when to tell my parents to come or what to plan for the kids. Now the plan is for my Dr. to induce me Mon morning so it should be all worked out.

Projects! January 7, 2010

I want to be totally prepared for the baby to come. We still don’t have a name for her, but I want everything perfect. We have spent hours cleaning to the smallest detail. We got out and washed the baby clothes. Quaid was impressed with all the pink, and Mikiya wanted to know if she wore all the jammies when she was a baby. Mike spent time working on an old bed with drawers in it for Mikiya. Now it doesn’t pinch holes in her clothes, and she can open and shut the drawers, yeah! Quiad was Mike’s little helper and helped paint the bed. While he was doing that, Mikiya and I painted the first coat of green on her bedroom wall. Thanks to Steve and Chelsea. What didn’t work for you looks pretty cute in the girls room.

Christmas Break

McKenzie spoke in church the Sunday after we got there, so we got to see a lot of the other family as well. It was a lot of fun, but then it was nice to have some quiet and one on one time with McKenzie. We also got to have lunch with the extended Gallup family which was fun. Mikiya got to go shopping with Grandma and Grandpa Gallup, she thought it was pretty fun to pick out a game for Daddy. An exciting week for her, Mikiya also lost her second tooth and happy to see that the Tooth Fairy found her at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Christmas Eve we visited my Walton grandparents and went to the Belnap Christmas party. This was the first time we saw Kason this break, and Quaid didn’t like being in a different room from him. He kept asking where Kas was and wanted to see him. Grandma had a couple little balls and a bunch of the little kids played with Kason and my Dad. When it came time for the program, I wished I hadn’t forgotten my camera. I’m really good at that. Mikiya got to play Mary, and Quaid was the cutest little Wise Man I’ve ever seen.

We had a wonderful Christmas and have been so blessed. The company Mike worked for closed in October. We haven’t been stressed about what would happen to our family, just praying that we would learn what we needed to and Mike would find work. We have felt quite blessed to have such wonderful family and so many other blessings in life. This is a wonderful time of year to reflect on all we have and the blessings of the Savior.

The rest of the break was filled with playing with cousins, in the snow, lots of games, swimming in Grandma Gallup’s hot tub, and just having fun. My sisters and I made beaded watches and Mikiya and Kaelie had a blast putting all our extra beads on strings so they could be a part of the craft day too.

El Salvador December 18, 2009

My sister McKenzie has been serving a mission in El Salvador and returned home on Dec 8. We couldn’t be at the airport when she arrived, which made me quite sad, but it was my choice to go for Christmas instead. Anyway, Mikiya got out of school for Christmas break on the 18th and we picked up Mikiya from school and was on our way. As soon as we left Mikiya starts cheering, “Yeah! No more school, it’s Christmas Break!!!” I found this especially amusing because she loves school. I guess everyone needs a break once in a while. She thought it sad that Grandma still had to go to school for a couple days. The kids both had naps in the car, which always makes the ride easier. As soon as Mikiya wakes up and often again until we get there, she starts asking if we’re to the trees yet. (The trees that line my parents’ road) She is just too excited to get to Grandma and Grandpa’s and to see Aunt McKenzie!

We made good time and were able to sneak in before anyone realized we were there. It was so fun to see everyone! McKenzie was also so excited, and terrible me, I got caught up in all the fun that I didn’t take any pictures. We got to see all the cool things Kenz brought back with her, and she surprised the kids with fun presents. She gave them each a cute little backpack and inside was an El Salvador soccer jersey. Quaid didn’t want to take either off. She also brought all the little girls dresses, including Twinkle Little Star (she got a jersey as well) and they are just so cute. Then they spent a while with Grandpa and McKenzie putting together a puzzle of El Salvador.

Helping Dad December 7, 2009

The excitement in our house was booming with the arrival of snow. The kids bundled up and played in the snow, went sledding down the tiny slope in our yard, and pulled each other around in the sled. That resulted mainly in Mikiya pulling Quaid, but they both had a blast. One of the most fun activities was pulling out their little garden tools to help Dad clean out the driveway. I thought they were adorable, and they didn’t seem to slow Mike down any.

Thanksgiving Break

We hadn’t planned to go anywhere for Thanksgiving, but at the last minute we changed our minds and headed to see the grandparents. The kids were so excited to get to see the cousins, play in the snow and have lots of fun. Mike and Tom took the kids bowling one day. They didn’t want me to come, but they were so thrilled to show me the pictures and tell me all about it. Mikiya even got a strike.

Pink Applesauce November 21, 2009

A family in our ward gave us a couple of big crates of apples, so we made applesauce. The kids were so excited; they have always loved helping to make applesauce. They were fascinated that this applesauce was pink. Mikiya, very impressed, informed us it was because our apples were red instead of the light green ones from Grandma’s trees.

Got Him! November 19, 2009

Without having internet at home anymore, I’ve found it difficult to keep up on the blog. I am making an attempt to catch up a little before moving on to more recent events.

Mike and the kids have remained diligent in their search for the gopher. Mike saw a cat spying around the area of the trap, so he went to check it out. Sure enough, they finally caught the gopher! Mike decided to wait until Mikiya got home from school before burying it. I thought it might be a little gruesome for the kids, but they were so excited. Funny side note, Mikiya thought it was a mouse or a baby gopher. The grown up gopher had to be much bigger than that. The only gopher she’d ever seen was on Winnie the Pooh, where the animals are almost as big as Christopher Robin, so we figure that must be where she’s getting her information.