can you see me now

I found this post rattling around in my draft folder. Why do I ever leave things in there? I usually forget about them until it’s everlastingly too late or finally post after they are old news. Anywho…

A few months ago LaLa was complaining about headaches…everyday. Honestly, I just ignored it. Then she started complaining about being dizzy too. Still kind of ignored it because she had just had an ear infection. Yep, Mom of the Year should be in the mail to me soon. Finally after a few…no, not days…weeks of the same complaint I decided to take her to the doctor thinking her ear infection was back. Her ears looked fine and the doctor did just a routine eye exam…and the girly could make out the big E at the top of the chart and that was about it.

So I made an appointment with the eye doctor…and guess what?

She needed glasses.

She started the hunt for frames.

She finally found frames that she liked. And then we found out we have the most annoying insurance EVER. They covered our eye doctor for the exam at one office, but would only cover frames and lens at his other office. The office that didn’t have the frames she liked.

So we were off to search for frames that would be better than the ones she had already fallen in love with.

And luckily we found frames that she LOVES even more.

She is so cute.

My girlies are happy to be four-eyes-forever Sissies now.

Don’t you love a blurry picture in a post talking about glasses? But how could I not post a duck-face-peace-sign picture?!?

And if you were keeping track that’s now 5 out of 7 in the family with glasses. Thankfully our eye doctor is Big Daddy’s cousin.

 

all together

A couple of weeks ago Niece and her family made the trek through snowy winter weather to spend a little time with our family.

Originally they planned on coming on the 3rd of February but plans changed and they got here on the 1st of February.

It ended up being the perfect timing for an impromptu Superbowl party. It was a true house divided with fans for both teams. At some point the game was a little one-sided, and by one-sided I mean boring. It made me laugh when I looked around and realized everyone with a small screen was staring at it and ignoring the football game.

I’m not sure what made me more happy; the Seahawks winning or my sister being here.

Okay I do know…  Well, it was the first time the Seahawks had won. Ha!

We tried to get a normal sibling picture that night…and normal is just too dang hard.

As great as the Superbowl was, the real reason Niece and her family came to visit is because Elder Angle returned from his 2 year mission  in Virginia for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

It’s so great to have him home!

During that week was Big Daddy’s birthday and I got exactly ZERO pictures. Doh…

On the 7th of February Big Daddy and I went to the funeral of a dear friend of mine. She was a sweet, little lady that I served with in the library at church for a few years. She loved blingy jewelry, high heels and red lipstick. I can’t even tell you how ecstatic it made me when I saw her bright red casket!

After the funeral Big Daddy and I decided that we could use a little comfort from Pete…at Pete’s Fish and Chips. What are the chances that Niece and Kira would be there at the same time?
Great minds really do think alike!

That day also happened to be The American Heart Association “Go Red” Day.

The girlies and I always make it a point to wear red on this day.

It made it even more fun to have all 7 girlies in Red!

(sorry that your eyes are closed Roo, but at least YaYa is kind of looking at the direction of the camera in this picture)

And I loved that I was able to “Go Red” with my favorite sister!

Niece found the most awesome shirt at Target for the day. It says “I Wear My Heart On My Sleeve”

But technically her heart was tossed in the trash a few years ago so she wears someone else’s heart on her sleeve…Creepy

That night was also LaLa’s Daddy Daughter Dance at school.

Yes, it was a crazy busy couple weeks.

While Niece was here I had the “opportunity” to drive Kira’s Ford Flex (it was just easier than moving car seats). It also gave me the opportunity to confirm the fact that I’m a Chevy girl all the way.

It was fun having little ones in my house again. One of the few times Kira left the girls the Man-Child was holding YaYa while Niece went to get clean clothes for her. ZZ walked in and immediately asked him “Why you get her naked?” He was speechless…which doesn’t happen very often.

While Niece was here I found a picture of another visit from 7 years ago:

They all look a little different and Niece looks a lot shorter now.

On Sunday the 9th the whole fam-damily was together for McKay’s homecoming talk in Church.

Afterwards we got pictures of everyone.

This is almost my whole family.

We are missing 4 nephews and some of their family members.

This picture is missing just 3 nephews and it would be all my Dad’s Grandbabies (with 2 bonus great-grandbabies and we are missing a few of them too)… Crazy.

My family looks small missing my Mom and Brother. Sadness…

The 9th is also Morris and ZZ’s Twinner birthday…they are not the same age.

On Monday we celebrated ZZ’s birthday so she didn’t have to share her party with Morris. And since they came all the way to AZ it just seems right that it included a little swimming at Rowland’s house.

Even with a heated pool the fire felt much better.

ZZ blowing out her 3 candles. How is she 3 already?!?

She knew that her birthday should include Uncle Morris so she sat on his lap as she opened her presents.

On Wednesday it was time for Niece and her family to pack up and leave.

It’s always sad when these girlies leave. I miss having the toddler toys and noise around.

And I really miss having my sister around…

Good thing I already have a plane ticket to go visit her in May!

The kids miss having everyone here, but they had fun putting all the extra beds away.

As I look back through this post it’s weird who and what I didn’t get pictures of. If you look closely there are pictures of Uncle Kirk and Sergio. We are glad they came and visited too.

hair’s to today

I haven’t done a hair post in a few months.

Hair has been done, I just haven’t taken pictures and posted about it.

Roo has been patiently growing her hair out, including her bangs. Growing hair out is such a painful process…

Pulling her bangs back in a flip and then doing a messy bun has been her favorite go-to style.

It’s doubly nice because it’s quick and easy.

~~~~~

LaLa’s hair is finally grown long enough to embrace the ballerina bun or sock bun.

I saw this tutorial and knew we had to give it a try.

It’s a little time consuming for our usual morning routine, but the look is worth the time.

Of course with LaLa it needed a little bow and some glitter spray to be complete.

Super cute!

disneyland would have cost less

The last year has been kind of craptastic for the Chaos Clan. I didn’t really post anything about it because I know there are so many that were in the same boat that we were. Big Daddy’s hours at work had been drastically cut which meant his checks were drastically cut too. We were never without anything we needed, but there wasn’t money for very many extras.

Right after Christmas Big Daddy’s hours were back up to normal and even a few extra hours each week. It was such a relief.

Then last week there was talk about a little get-away to St George that didn’t happen, but Big Daddy and I felt like a get-away would be perfect for our family.

We live in the perfect place for a quick California trip. So we decided we would head to San Diego…on the cheap.

Big Daddy went to work on Friday morning and came home around noon so we could start a weekend of fun just a little early.

Hammie hadn’t ever been to California and the girlies haven’t been since they were little so it was exciting to see the “Welcome to California” sign.

Hammie was just as excited to see this sign soon after.

We had about 30 minutes to get to our hotel when we came upon this sign.

As we sat for about 20 minutes we started noticing a smell coming from the suburban…an expensive smell.

Do you smell that?

As we made it through the check point and started the final climb before we would drop into San Diego, the poor suburban gave out. We limped along I-8 hoping we would make it to our hotel.

With one slight detour to the wrong hotel we finally made it to the right one.

The next morning Big Daddy left in our poor crippled suburban to look for a transmission shop. It’s bad enough trying to find a mechanic in the town you live in, but even more stressful trying to find one when you are from out-of-state. Not long after he left he texted me that his phone battery was dying. At that point I freaked out got a little nervous when I realized that he was gone with all of our money and I had no way of reaching him and I was stuck in a hotel with 5 kidlets in a town that I am completely lost in.

A few hours later Big Daddy showed up back at the hotel after a lovely walking tour of San Diego along this trail.

So at least we were all together, but without any way to get around town.

A few hours later the mechanic called to let us know that they had found a rental car for us…but it would only be for a local rental and we would have to drop it off in San Diego. ummm…we don’t live in San Diego. Big Daddy and the boys headed back along the same 2 mile walk to pick up the rental so we would at least have a way to get around town.

After Big Daddy was dropped off at the rental car place he found out that we could have the rental until Wednesday and we could drop it off in AZ…WHEW.

Then as he was leaving the rental car place he saw this sign and realized things were finally looking up.

Finally it was time for the fun to begin.

We headed to La Jolla and got our first glimpse of the Pacific.

We headed to the sea lion beach by Scripps Park.

Sea lions weren’t the only animals that were there.

But there were plenty of sea lions around,

including a few babies.

It was nice to see smiling faces.

Big Daddy and the kidlets posed in a perfect spot…

To get splashed by the waves crashing against the breaker wall.

We walked down a little further where the kidlets could actually walk in the sand and get their feet wet in the ocean.

Hammie didn’t mind being in the sand,

But didn’t really like the cold water.

It didn’t take the Big Boyz very long to go from getting their feet wet…

to wading in the water.

Einstein realized at one point that his pants were soaking wet and it didn’t really matter if they were rolled up or not.

The Man-Child tried to see how wet he could get.

We stayed long enough to watch the beautiful sunset on the beach.

It was amazingly beautiful.

Even after a very stressful start to the day Big Daddy and I were still smiling.

I did make a couple of the kidlets strip down to their underwear before we got back in the car and even made them walk from the parking garage to the room without their pants…even past some team from ASU.

That night the shower in our hotel room looked like this:

Our hotel room was perfect.

There was a king bed in one room for me and Big Daddy.

And there was a set of french doors that led to another room for the kidlets.

Yes there were kidlets sleeping on the floor…which completely grossed me out.

And there were perfectly good bunkbeds in the room too.

On Sunday morning we headed off to do the Mormon tour of San Diego starting with the Mormon Battalion Museum.

It is a great tour that gives a very small taste of the march of the Mormon Battalion.

When they asked for a volunteer to wear the gear the soldiers wore, LaLa was very quick to raise her hand. I think she made a cute, little soldier.

After the tour the kidlets got to pan for “gold”.

There was even a little brick making going on.

The Man-Child was upset because his brick was chipped.

Einstein made use of the water pump.

Notice the results of the “gold” panning on LaLa and Hammie.

The kidlets were quick to give up the covered wagon

for our rental car.

After that we stopped by the San Diego Temple.

I think it is one of the prettiest Temples.

I loved the poppies on the Temple grounds. They are one of my favorite flowers.

It was time for us to finally head back home.

As grateful as I was for this rental car, I know that a Chevy Traverse isn’t the vehicle for us.

It was a little cozy in the back row.

As we left San Diego I really started missing my suburban. I am really attached to that silly vehicle, even if she did break down and leave us stranded. I don’t care that she is 10 yrs old. I think about all the places she has taken us, the laughing and singing…and dancing that has happened in that suburban. Not to mention the space.

But I could get used to the bells and whistles that come with a new car.

As we passed by the evil check-point that started all the problems I was just glad to be going home.

I was glad to see this sign.

We still don’t know how long it’s going to take to fix the suburban or how much it’s going to cost, but I am pretty sure that it would have been cheaper for us to go to Disneyland.