Time, Where Have You Gone?

I can honestly say that this week actually flew right by. I remember everything that has happened, but it's beyond me how we fit everything into a seven day period. Well, actually it's not ENTIRELY inconceivable, but it was a very busy and fast week just the same. Monday my classes were cancelled for President's day so Craig assumed his classes were cancelled too. Wrong. He was on the phone getting his make up work for a while. We ate dinner at IHOP where we all enjoyed a lot of food, but Vash enjoyed more than anyone, eating five pancakes, two slices of bacon, and two eggs, all by himself. Tuesday, I went to the store because we fed the missionaries that night and my parents were over before that to visit the kids. Also Craig went to the career fair at ASU and lined up a couple of interviews. Wednesday was classes and things, one of Craig's interviews, and I had a YW meeting that night. Thursday, Craig had another interview and I had homework and a poster to make. Also, we had a play date with our friends, Kelly and her children Sam and Josh. I also went to the store. Twice. Well, two stores, once each... Anyway. Friday we had another play date with my friend Chelsea and her two children Maylie, and Timmy. Vash was having a hard time sharing toys, because ( I hate to say it), he's gotten spoiled from having his leg broken. So that night, I spent hours sorting the toys into three storage bins and left only a few things out for the kids to play with. I figured he'd share better if there were fewer things out to fight over. Saturday morning I went to a Relief Society activity to sew costumes for our Young Women's dance performance we're having in April. Afterwards, Craig and I took the kids to swim then brought them home for naps. I think we went and visited Nana and Papa after that for a while, but that might have been Friday night. Anyway, on Saturday evening my friend Cindy called and asked if I would prepare a 5 minute talk about my feelings on being a wife and mother to help her with her lesson the next day. So I spent a good portion of Saturday night trying to figure that out. I was please with the out come though because when I read it, almost every one was in tears. (Feeling the Spirit tears and not sad/upset tears, by the way.) So... after church on Sunday we officially got set apart as a young women's presidency while Craig had his meeting. Vash was being a bit rowdy so Brother Ryan Nelson let Vash play on his Iphone in the lobby, while we finished up. Funny story: When the Bishop introduced me to the Stake Young Women President he told her how much he enjoyed my talk from November and is looking forward to hearing more of my stories. I laughed and told him we'd talk. Everyone else then laughed, so the first counselor, Brother Pierce, says "Just not at the pulpit, uh?" Everyone laughed again, and I muttered that I'd speak again if they asked me to. Maybe you had to be there but it was humorous. After our meetings and stuff, I went visiting teaching, then last night we hosted the Elder's Quorum dessert social. I made no bake chocolate-peanut butter cookies and we had a pretty good turn out. Our only complaint was that people were having so much fun that no body wanted to leave. We eventually kicked everyone out around 9pm because the kids needed to go to bed.

Pictures of the week:

Rhyla has become very proud of her tummy. She lifts her shirt up and stares down at it while she walks around. If you tell her to put her shirt down, she's tug it down for just a second, then lift it back up again and smile at you. It's such a nice tummy though, I can't really blame her.

Vash can walk on his cast now and is much happier.

Although, you wouldn't be able to tell by his face in the pictures. This is just his camera face people! He's actually a really pleasant boy in real life.

This is a baby that's having trouble sleeping because she's getting 6 teeth in this week. The four front ones, and two molars. Poor thing! She actually does sleep a little... when we hold her.

Rhyla reading to herself. She'll read anything. Even grown up books. It doesn't have to have pictures, only pages and words and she's enthralled. Vash working on a puzzle. He's so orderly and neat when he plays. Lines and rows and groups and set places.But he's also very artistic when he colors. You can even tell when a face is a face and a pumpkin is a pumpkin. So Craig and I can't decide: when he grows up, will he want to be a story board sketch artist or a surgeon? 

This is the poster I made. Everyone was impressed by my super-mo scrap booking skills.

Be My Valentine

For the first time in our married history, I got Craig a Valentines day gift! It was an angry birds shirt and I thought he'd be so excited. He was... but it was a little overshadowed by what he got me. Yes, Craig outdid me, by a long shot, and made reservations at a hotel for us to go to Disneyland for Spring Break. YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!! To actually celebrate V-Day though, Papa watched the kids, while we went for a hike and got rained on! Literally, we hiked 45 minutes in to Hieroglyphic Springs and right when we got there, it started to rain. It was so fun and so beautiful! The clouds were low enough to touch the mountain tops and the rain washed the dust away so the cacti and plants were all vibrant green. I was pretty cold by the time we got back to the truck, though. Then we ate breakfast at Dunkin Donuts and for something to do with the kids, I made steaks for dinner and strawberry shortcakes for desserts. (The kids love soft meat, mashed potatoes and sweets.)

As for the rest of the week, we had our weekly play-date with the Barneys and found out that they will be at Disneyland the same week we will be! And we'll even be in the same hotel! Can you say serendipitous???? We're pretty excited to have some friends along. 

Then on Saturday, Papa and Nana invited us and Jen to attend the Renaissance Festival. I was hesitant because of all the boobs and booze I remember from previous times, but we decided to give it a try and actually had a lot of fun. It's really cleaned up, and there were hardly any women baring it all this year. We ate lots of food, watched a little bit of everything but not all of anything. The best part: we got pictures of ourselves dressed up as royalty. Nana, Jen, Rhyla, and I were princesses. Craig was the king, Vash the prince, and Papa... A jester. Hilarious.

On an interesting note, I received a calling to be the 2nd Counselor in the Young Women's Presidency! I didn't get to go to YW when I was young so I am super excited to have the opportunity to attend it now. 

Vash and Rhyla reading together. Rhyla somehow almost always has her book upside down. LOL

Vash is a master of shapes. A rectangle here, but he also does squares, circles and stars.

This is Sam. She'll be at Disneyland with us.

And this is her little brother Josh. He and Rhyla are about the same height, so they can keep each other company when the big sibling ride something they're too short for. 

Vash and Craig playing a smash the plates game. Vash lost but the girls running the booth thought he was so cute they gave him a prize anyway. It was a plastic bug. Vash is terrified of bugs and threw it back at them. Sad and funny.

Rhyla ate her way around the festival. She also sang along with the band when we watched the belly dancing show and Vash stared with rapt attention at the dancers. He was concerned and asking about their tummies. We told him that they were dancing tummies and he seemed ok after that. 

Rhyla loved these doggies. They didn't seem to mind her crawling on them either. 

The only bad part of the festival was when Rhyla fell in love with a bridge and kept running back and forth across it until she tripped and scraped her nose up. She's still so cute though and it's healing quickly.

Busy Busy Bee

This week was busy. Mostly because for some reason I've had to deal with some highly ineffective people. Monday morning I called the doctor that we had been referred to, to make an appointment to have Vash's splint replaced with a cast. Well, they can't make the appointment until I take Vash to his pediatrician and confirm that he has a break. Even though it's already been confirmed by the hospital with an X-ray. So I take him into the pediatrician. Well, he can't give me the referral, he has to look at Vash's leg, make a note in his computer and then give my information to his contact office woman, who will then call me and give me the information to make Vash's appointment with the first doctor. So, I get the call from her.... the next day, and she says that she's faxed the referral and I can now make an appointment. I call to make the appointment and they tell me that I cannot because they have not yet received the referral. What do I do? I ask them. Call your pediatrician and have them send the referral. She sent the referral. We didn't get in...on  and on and on. So I call the pediatrician. AGAIN. After putting me on hold for almost 30 minutes, the front office people transfer me to another office, who then transfers me to the woman who was supposed to have sent the referral. She tells me she sent it already and I ask her to send it again because the office claims they don't have it. She begrudgingly sends it again and I again call the doctors office. They still don't have it, oh wait here it is. Then the silly woman "helping" me on the phone, doesn't even bother to mute her end while she talks to another receptionist  about how funny it would be if they both got sick and how badly she wanted an Icee drink. EXCUSE ME? I ask. Oh, she's not talking to me she informs me, like I DIDN'T know. Well, they don't have a single appointment this week. Not a single one. Tisk tisk. NOW what? I am incredulous at this point. Well, they have just one, tomorrow... But we can't be late she tells me over and over again, because they're just squeezing us in. So we show up the next day and there is absolutely NO ONE waiting to be seen. We're half an hour early so we can fill out paper work and they still make us wait an hour longer, before we actually get in. Yeah, way to squeeze us in. I'm still frustrated. But at least Vash got his cast. And he chose pretty pink. Well, first he wanted orange, then green, but decided on pink. After it was on though, he changed his mind and asked for blue. Too late buddy. He rocks it though, don't you think?

Nana brought me some flowers to help brighten my frustrating day. It worked. It also helped that she came bearing gifts for the kids which helps Vash stay distracted enough to stay off his leg.

He obviously is feeling a lot better. Although, he's too smart for his own good. If he wants to get out of something, like say, eating his dinner, he'll grab his leg and say "Ouchee boo boo! Medicine? Food all done?" Yeah, he's definitely playing it to his advantage. 

Miss Rhyla has been eating well though. And while she's at swim, Vash whose cast in not water proof, hangs out at the swim school and plays. Actually, had a problem with the office staff there too. They originally dropped Rhyla from her swim class because Vash broke his leg. They called to ask what our new card number was, (the last one expired) and they, as always had trouble matching it up with a correct address because they don't believe me that the name of our street is just Udall and not Udall St or Udall rd. Anyhow, they said they were looking forward to seeing Vash in class on Saturday, so I explained AGAIN that he had broken his leg and couldn't take lessons but Rhyla would be continuing with them. Confusion on their end. Explaining on mine. It's finally worked out. End of story. I think that's about this for this week. Major things anyway. Doesn't Rhyla look cute in her Valentine's day dress? 

When it rains, it pours.

It's not been an easy week. I won't say it's been bad or terrible because I've had worse and I've heard of worse, so I simply say it's not been easy. My dad went to the hospital for unexplained bleeding, Craig was forced to file a complain against a woman we paid a large sum of money to write a professional resume that took the money but never delivered it, and among a few other hard things, Vash broke his leg. Well, he fractured the tibia of his left leg, to be exact.

 But I know Heavenly Father is mindful of us and I know things will get better. They're actually not even that bad. My dad's condition was diagnosed, treated without surgery, and he was able to go home today. The BBB has already contacted Craig and we'll supposedly have the resume by tomorrow. Vash's break was clean and will heal perfectly in 4-6 weeks. (Although he's still in a splint and hopefully be getting a permanent cast soon.) And while Vash is aching and laid up, Rhyla has not bothered his leg a bit and she doesn't seem at all jealous about the increased amount of attention he's getting as he can't walk or do much right now.

 We've had a lot of support from our families and friends which we're very grateful for. And we know that in every trial there is a lesson to be learned and these things are not punishment but for our experience.
My feel good phrases when my heart is breaking :Time heals all wounds. Love is spoken here. I know He lives. I know He loves me.