Good Friday!

The weather on Friday was great! 70+ degrees outside and the sun was shining, it was definitely a perfect day for a swim. The kids love the pool and I love it too because it is so much easier to do than the park. It's within walking distance and easy to keep my eyes on them. Poor Blake really wanted to swim, but he was content (for the most part) just sitting on the top step splashing in the water. I can't wait for summer when we can go to the pool every day!
As you can see, Luke is such a fish in the water, he would live in the water if we let him!

Later that night, we attended the special passport member preview at Sea World for their new summer night show called "Shamu Rocks." The kids were really excited, but so tired! We thought the show would start at 7:30, but it didn't start until 8:30. We sat down in our seats 45 minutes prior the the start of the show. We had really good seats, right in the middle, in the splash zone (even though we have actually never been splashed there!) and waited patiently for the show to begin. The kids were already exhausted and wrestless from their swim earlier, and we were having a tough time keeping them happy and excited to watch the show. So, Devon took Blake for a walk to get some snacks to keep the kids occupied and happy. While he was gone, two girls came and squished themselves inbetween me and the other group sitting 3 feet away from me. It was fine until some guy, who was with them, came and wedged himself inbetween me and one of the girls he was with forcing me to put Taylor on my lap and hardly leaving any room for Devon to sit when he returned. Once Devon returned, he just gave me this look like, "what happened?" All I could do was roll my eyes. Sadly, this beautiful spot we had scoped out and sat in for 45 minutes was ruined by these odd balls that decided to share it with us. By the time the show started, we felt extremely closterphobic because Taylor was on my lap and Blake and Luke were on Devons lap. Then, to make matters worse, one of the girls next to us would jump over us, towards the stairs, every time she thought she was going to get splashed! It was so annoying! Oh-well, thank goodness the new Shamu Show really did ROCK! It made it all worth it!
Here, we are trying to get a good picture of Taylor and Luke with the "Shamu Rocks" in the background. However, Taylor doesn't want her picture taken because she has food in her mouth and Luke is just being silly.

As you can see, everyone is so excited to be at Sea World that they don't want to hold still or be serious for a picture...0h-well, it turned out cute anyway.

Blake's Egg Ears

Doesn't Blake look cute with the eggs on his ears! I couldn't believe he held still long enough for me to snap the picture with both eggs on his ears!

The Infamous Eggs

My kids have a long history with Easter Eggs! It all began 3 or so years ago when my parents did an easter egg hunt at their house for easter. Taylor loved the eggs and they were the first thing she would pull out of the cupboard every time we would arrive at their house. I don't know what it is about the eggs that is so fun, but the kids loooove them! My dad used to put half of an egg on each of Taylors ears and have her walk around the house. I do have to say dad got really into it too and would put the eggs on his ears and nose to make her laugh. Then, Luke came along and joined in on the egg fun. My mom, however, would cringe every time the kids would dump out the basket of easter eggs. I would always think to myself, "gosh, what's the big deal? We'll just pick them up later." Well, history has re-written itself and now that Nanu and Grandpa live in Tennessee, there have been no more eggs to play with. So, the other day, I was at the store with Luke and he saw some plastic easter eggs that he wanted to buy and I told him I had some at home that he could have later. I thought he would forget about the eggs once we got home, but as soon as we walked in the door he insisted that I find the easter eggs. I went ahead and pulled them out of the easter container they had been stored in and gave them to him to play with. They have been a household hit for the last week, but I do have to say I HATE the eggs! I never knew what the big deal was, but I am finding egg halves everywhere! Just when I think they have all been picked up, I find more under the couch, in the couch, in the hall, the bathroom sink (yes, Luke has been washing the eggs and filling them with water), the stairs, under the kitchen table and behind the highchair--they are everywhere! Now I know why my mom cringed every time the eggs got dumped out! But, I do have to say that Blake looks really cute with eggs on his ears! Where's Grandpa when you need him?

American Idol Rewind

I was going through some old photos and came across a picture that Devon took of Robyn, mom, and I while we were watching American Idol 2 years ago. He thought it would be really funny to morph Taylors face onto mom's body. It almost looks real, except Taylor's head is really huge for the picture!

>

Anyway...I just thought this might give you a good laugh. Remember how much fun that was to watch the season finale of American Idol that year. Carrie Underwood and Bo Bice were so good. But, the best part of the show were those two guys that became best friends while auditioning for the show and the one guy was a huge fan of David Hasselhoff. Remember how they surprised him and brought David Hasselhoff out and the guy started laughing and crying. It was so funny. We kept rewinding that part and watching it over and over and laughing. I still laugh when I think about it. I never should have erased that off my Tivo!

My Celebrity Look-alikes

My cool celebrity look-alike collage from MyHeritage.com. Get one for yourself.


I saw mandy's and couldn't resist to do one for myself! Funny that I 90% look like Beyonce! How Irreplacable, "to the left, to the left..."

Well Visits

Today, Blake (9 mo.) and Luke (3 yr.) had their well-visits with Dr. Rubenstein. All was well. Blake was a wopping 24 pounds 4oz. and Luke was 35 pounds. It's hard to believe there is only an 11 lb. difference between the two of them. When the nurse gave Luke his shot, he thought she pushed him, and kept asking why she pushed him. Blake has so much meat on his thighs, that he hardly even flinched when she poked him with the needle. No tears at this visit--that was great! Blake wouldn't hold still for his bandaid shot, so this was the best I could get! He's turning into such a busy boy!

Just a shot of Morphine!

Sunday night, Taylor was complaining of a stomach ache and woke up throwing up an hour after going to bed. Cleaning up throw up is always really fun (can you sense the sarcasm?)! After we, finally, got her settled down, I went to bed, but was really cold and had a hard time falling asleep. I woke up at 3am with an upset stomach and couldn't go back to sleep. So, an hour and a half later, I went downstairs to lay on the couch and called my mom. I don't know why, I am 29 years old, and when I am sick, all I want is my mom. I called their house knowing they would be up since they are 2 hours ahead of us here in California, I guess that is one good advantage of having them so far away. Since, it was so early, I'm sure my mom was freaking out when she saw who was calling on caller i.d. She talked to me for a while and told me to make myself a cup of warm water with apple cider vinegar and honey. That is their latest cure-all for everything these days. So, I did, and it helped calm my stomach, so I went to bed. I woke up still feeling really yucky, but, as many of you know, mom's can't be sick! Devon had to go to work and life must go on, so I did my best. By 11:00 my body was aching really bad and I was really nautious and weak, so I called Devon crying and telling him he needed to come home. Poor Devon, I'm sure he hates it when I do that! He came home and played mom for the day. He kept telling me that since he came home he had been doing something every second. I just smiled, but that is how my life is every day. I kept thinking I would feel better and my stomach ache and aches and pains would go away, but it just got worse. At 10:00 my stomach was hurting really bad, so I decided to go on webmd.com and look up the symptoms of appendicitis. After reading through the symptoms, I really thought I might have appendicitis. I went on to tell Devon that we should go to urgent care. We woke up all the kids and put them in the car. Just as Devon was putting Taylor in the car, she threw up all over him. He ran into the house and quickly changed, and then we were on our way. The urgent care center was closed, so we decided to go to the E.R. Once inside the hospital, the kids became wired! Devon was trying so hard to keep them all in the room and pay attention to me. They checked me out and I don't have appendicitis. Thank goodness! They just determined that I have a really bad stomach virus and gave me a shot of morphine. Wow! This is a wonder drug! After 20 minutes my body felt totally relaxed and the pain subsided! We all went home and were in bed around 1am. I have never slept better in my entire life. Today, I feel much better and never want to experience anything like that ever again!

Sunday at La Jolla Shores

Sunday alwasy seems like the perfect day for a walk at the beach, so we try to take advantage of the opportunity as much as possible. The weather at home was warm and sunny, but when we got to the beach it was very overcast, windy, and cold. It's amazing how much the weather can change just 10-15 minutes down the freeway! Luckily, we had packed the kids jackets and blankets in the car. When we arrived on shore, the tide was really low, so there were a ton of tidepools to explore. We saw 3 starfish, shrimp, fish, sea urchants, crabs, and mussels. The kids were so wrapped up in exploring that they didn't even seem cold. In fact, I think I was the only one who complained about the cold and was ready to go home. All in all, it was a really fun outing and an enjoyable Sunday.

Happy St.Patrick's Day!

Taylor has been absolutely ecstatic about St. Patrick's Day. She has been busy helping her friends at preschool build a trap to catch a leprechaun. They heard that leprechauns really like fruit loops, so they've been putting fruit loops all over and inside their trap. She really wanted to catch one at home, but Devon told her they are really fast and really hard to catch. She woke up Saturday morning upset that we forgot to make a trap and didn't catch a leprechaun or his pot of gold. Devon promised Taylor that he would, however, make them all shirts to wear just for St. Patrick's day--she was so excited and bugged him about it all day until he made them. She also got a big kick out of pinching us all morning long because we weren't wearing anything green. Finally, Devon made their shirts and we got them all dressed up and went out to our favorite mexican restaurant, Las Olas, in Cardiff by the Sea. Mom and Dad, too bad you moved to Tennessee and miss out on all the good, yummy mexican food out here (they say Tennessee doesn't have good mexican food--too bad it's my dad's favorite)! We actually ended up running into some friends from the ward there and they said, "wow, you guys are really into the holidays." They didn't know we have t-shirt press and Devon does this for fun on the side. It was fun and the kids were great--they all stayed in their seats and didn't get up once to run around! Yeah, we'll see if that happens again...maybe it was the luck of the holiday!

Adios Lupita, Hola Kimberella!

Saturday is a special day....it's the day when we clean the DowDell Home! Until 2 weeks ago, Lupita was coming every other week to clean the house for me. I really miss her, but decided that since I no longer have the excuse of being pregnant or a newborn who is constantly breastfeading and keeping me up all night, that I should make an attempt to do the deep cleaning on my own. I recruited my own two little helpers, Taylorita and Luke, a.k.a, "Roberto,"(this is because he looks just like my Dad and whenever Devon needs a handy man to help him fix things, he used to always call my Dad, at least when they lived here, and would refer to him as Roberto), and Diego, although he was sleeping (that was just for Devon, poor guy, he really wanted to name Blake Diego, so I just had to add that in!) would have been happy to pitch in, but they were all more than happy to help do the work. Actually, they practically begged me to help!

Luke tends to get a little obsessive with the windex! He loves to spray more than wipe. Eventually, I had to take the windex away--the bathtub wall was really clean!

Taylor decided the kitchen window needed serious cleaning, which it did. She sprayed some windex on a paper towel, stepped up on the window seal and reached her arm inside the window to clean the area inbetween the screen and the window. She's so clever! One thing about cleaning the house together is that it teaches the kids the importance of having a clean house and knowing how to clean. If they watch me clean the house and setting the example, they are more likely to follow. However, I still liked watching someone else clean my house and seeing it all finished at once, rather than over a period of a few days. It took me almost all day Thursday to just straighten the upstairs, change sheets, put away toys, wash, fold, and put away laundry and iron Devons shirts. Then, finally, on Saturday, I got the scrubbing, dusting, and vacuuming done upstairs and downstairs! I remember my mom giving me Saturday chore assingments to do and now I'm the one doing the assigning--it's so weird, how did I get here?

Funny things kids do...

Devon often wonders how I have any time to work on my blog with the kids running around and getting into who knows what, but, obviously, they find very interesting things and activities to occupy their time. The other day, while blogging, I heard singing coming from the bathroom and found Taylor dressed up in her ballerina outfit with her dancing princess mat set up on the floor. She was dancing and singing in the bathroom with the door closed. I guess she wanted privacy and didn't want Luke to bother her. She had even made herself a snack of water and yogurt and had them placed neatly on the toilet seat lid with a towel folded to wipe her face, if needed. She was in her own world dancing and singing away. She continued to play, dance, and sing in the bathroom for at least another hour after I had finished posting on my blog.

Luke also found a way to occupy his time....he had dumped out the entire container of beads, which we had used earlier to make necklaces. He was totally content pouring them in my shoe and dumping them out. Not only were the beads everywhere, but his miniature legos and cars were dumped out all over the floor as well. When Blake woke up from his nap, I had to hurry and scurry to pick up everything really quick. However, picking up beads and legos is not a quick job to pick up. I had to place Blake in his walker at first, but then he became anxious to get out. Once I took him out, he was following me around as fast as he could to get to what I was about to pick up first. Luckily, my turbo speed was still faster than his!

Happy Birthday Michael!

Yesterday was Michael's Birthday! I have to say he is the cutest 22-year old boy I know! I do have to say, however, how totally unfair it is that I was born first and he has the privilege of being the youngest. My parents totally spoil him! For his birthday, they bought him a new razor phone. His new razor phone matches his new Nissan Versa that he has programmed to remember all of his contacts so that with the push of a button his car will call anyone for him. He also has an awesome lap top and ipod (thanks to me--you're welcome Michael :)) I think when I was away at school I got money for groceries and an occassional plane ticket home and that was it! Oh-well. I keep reminding Michael that the one thing I have up on him is having kids. He thinks it's so funny when I've been up all night with one of the kids or when I am so tired and want to take a nap, but I can't. I just remind him that by the time my kids are big enough to get up and make their own breakfast and turn on their own cartoons, he will have little ones that he's been up all night with and then I will get to call and brag to him about getting to sleep in. But, truly, he is the sweetest Uncle and brother. He is always thinking of others and finding creative ways to have a good time. He made a special effort to drive down to San Diego President's Day weekend with Robyn to spend time with me. We had the best time! All three of us went jogging together. With four kids it was a little tricky! Each of us had to push a stroller, but it was so fun to be out together jogging. We also went to the beach, the koi show, and the light house in point loma. It was a blast and would be fun to do again! Michael, Happy Birthday, and I hope your mocktail party was fun! Love ya!

Sunday Bike Ride

We are having the best weather here in San Diego! Yesterday it was so hot that we actually came home from church and turned on the air conditioning. Luke got a new superman bike for his birthday and loves to ride it! Taylor has had a bike for a year now and Luke is already faster and better at riding a bike than she is. Taylor is always so cautious in everything that she does. Her training wheels are a little lop-sided and every time her bike flips from one side of the training wheels to the other, she freaks out a little and screams. However, since Luke is so much faster than she is, it has inspired her be a little more adventurous and to be a better bike rider than Luke. She is always reminding Luke that her bike is bigger than his and she is older and bigger than him. I think she is trying to intimidate him or something. Anyway, since yesterday was such a beautiful day, we decided to put the kids bikes in the car and take them up to the parking lot at our new church building. It was fun watching them ride around the building while Devon skated on his roller blades next to them. Poor Blake wants to ride a bike so bad! He did not want to sit in the stroller and watch! So, when they were all done, we let him sit on Luke's bike for a minute and loved it! Luke did not want to share his bike with Blake and started to cry and told me his "feelings were just hurting." What a cutie!

Pajama Day!

My mom left this morning and, also,this last week, Blake has been keeping me up all night. I don't know if it's the ear infection, the gas he has from the ammoxicilin, or if he is teething, but it is driving me crazy!!! Last night when he woke up at 1am, he was so wired and did not go back to bed until almost 3am! Since I am so tired today and mourning saying good-bye to my mom this morning, I decided that we should have a pajama day! It's hard to be upset with him when he is just so cute! The kids love pajama day because we sit around and watch lots of cartoons, eat snacks, and make a mess of the house with toys, toys, and more toys! I'm sure I'll regret this tomorrow when I have a huge messy house to clean up, but sometimes it's nice to do nothing.

Blake and Parker

If you haven't checked out our Baby Gift Site website yet, you should because there are some absolutely adorable pictures of Blake and Parker modeling some very cute onesies. We took them down to the beach to take their pictures in onesies for the website. They are so cute together! It has been so fun for Robyn and I to have babies close in age. After the beach, we came home and gave them a bath. Blake and Parker both look so cute in this picture--especially Parker with his amazing big blue eyes!

Devon Loves KOI!

For many years now Devon has loved Koi! It all dates back to my Embassy Suite days and, while waiting for me to get off work, he would wait down by the Koi pond. Since then he has enjoyed attending the annual Koi Show at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. He would love to have a pond of his own in our backyard, but I have refused and so he lives his dream through the Koi show and convincing others to have ponds. So far, his dad and my aunt Penni have built ponds in their yards. He has also created an enthusiast out of Michael who also loves the Koi show. This year, Robyn and Michael were in town for the weekend and were able to attend with us. Taylor and Luke love going to the Koi show with their dad and admiring all of the fish!

Starpansie

I am often asked what Starpansie means....so, I thought I would take the opportunity to explain. It all started my first year home from college when my dad got the internet and told me to come up with a username. When I was in high school, my church leaders related the meaning of the flower, the Pansie, to my personality, and then my best friend at Ricks, who loved to listen to punk music, would play this one song over and over that sang "You're a little Star," and I really liked it. So, when it came time to think of a username I thought star and pansie sounded really cool together. It has been my username for quite a while now and when Devon started his onesie business on ebay, he used my e-mail account and swears that the name starpansie is the reason for all of his success--he even had a lisence plate made special for me!

Taylor

This afternoon, Taylor was in the backyard trying to teach herself how to jump rope. She has been watching the Berenstein Bears on PBS and saw an episode where Sister is in a Jump Rope contest, thus inspiring Taylor to want to learn how to jump rope. As I watched, from the kitchen, while doing dishes, I could tell she was really struggling, so I went outside to help. I first demonstrated for her and then tried having her practice without the rope. She became very frustrated because she wanted to be like Sister Bear and be able to jump rope good right away just like her. I tried to explain to her that we become good at things by practicing a lot. This was not a good enough explanation for her and she was very upset. I left it at that and thought she would stay outside and practice, but, no. Instead, she followed me around the house for 30 minutes crying to me about why it wasn't fair that she couldn't jump rope and be good like Sister Bear. During this time, I continued to tell her that she needed to practice to become good. Finally, I decided that maybe she would learn better if Devon and I held the rope for her. So, we all went outside and we practiced with her by first saying 1,2,3, jump. At first, she would jump too late or too soon. Then, finally she jumped over the rope. She didn't even realize it because the rope didn't touch or hit her feet--it slid smoothly under. We made a really big deal about it and told her she jumped over the rope. She was sooooo excited!!!! We continued to say 1,2,3, jump over and over and over and over and over and each time she would jump over the rope. She is so excited to finally learn how to jump rope and can't wait to be great at it like Sister Bear!

The Birthday Choo-Choo

For Luke's birthday, Taylor chose a Thomas the train birthday set to give to him. The reason she chose this was because one of the trains looked like a snow globe with birthday confetti in it. Since giving him this gift, she has decided that it should be hers. She carries it around the house with her non-stop and refuses to let Luke play with it. Whenever Luke wants to play with it she cries and cries and tells me that she didn't have a long enough turn yet. She also told me that Luke isn't being nice because the choo-choo train isn't just his--it's a family toy. Too bad her birthday can't get here soon enough.

Lukes 3rd Birthday!

Luke is finally 3, or as he says, "free!" His birthday was yesterday and it was a blast. I stayed up until midnight the night before decorating the dowstairs with balloons, a happy birthday sign, and crepe paper. He was so excited when he woke up to see all of the decorations. He is just like the rest of us, he can hardly believe he is 3. He keeps saying, "I'm 3 mommy?!" Last minute, I decided to throw him a party. So, I invited some friends over for cake and ice cream later that night. I always think these things sound simper than they really are. I had to clean the house, pick up the girls from pre-school, wrap presents, and bake a cake and decorate it. Of course, I couldn't just buy a cake or frost a simple cake. I've sort of made a tradition out of making special cakes for the kids for their birthdays and now they look forward to and expect it. Luke wanted a buzz cake--so I made him a buzz cake. I thought I could put Blake down for a nap when we got home from picking up for preschool and have a good 2 hours to decorate the cake and then clean the house. But, things never go as planned. Blake didn't take a nap and was running a fever. But, somehow I was able to manage and decorate a fabulous cake and pull together a great last minute party. Most important, Luke had a blast and loved turning "free."

Family

I am totally convinced, thanks to Robyn, that this blog thing will be a really fun and creative way to keep in touch with my family. My family is incredible! Taylor is so smart and creative. The other day, she was bored so she decided, for fun, to write out the alphabet on a piece of paper. I was definitely not doing that when I was 4! Often times, she copies me and writes little dots on the ends of each letter to make it look cute. She is so adorable! Luke just turned 3, or as he says "free." When he is not being a menace and overflowing the toilet with toilet paper, cleaning out his sand toys in the bathroom sink and putting sand all over the sink and floor, or stealing Blakes toys and blankets, he is such a sweetheart. He has the most catchy smile and laugh. He loves to cuddle and even when he is so busy, he often stops to say "I love you." Blake is our angel baby. He never cries, and if he does, we know something must be really wrong. He smiles to easily. All you have to do is look at him and he smiles. He is becoming mobile! He is pulling and rolling himself all over the room. He is so fun to watch. I can hardly imagine what it will be like when he is 2 and Luke is 4--TROUBLE! Devon is as busy as ever with work and his onesie business. He is so awesome! He is a great provider and husband and loves his family. He has been generating a lot of business with his onesies on Ebay and his new website, www.createaonesie.com. I am so proud of him. On Saturday mornings, the kids say "Daddy are you going to make onesies?" It's so funny that they know that word and so cute to hear them say it. They love to help him with his work. My life, although it sometimes feel like groundhogs day, is great! The kids make me laugh and sometimes cry on a daily basis! They are so fun to watch grow. My biggest goal for this year is to lose the baby fat! I have been running my butt off on the treadmill that Devon bought me for Christmas (which I totally love) and not patiently waiting for results! I hope by spring I can finally look cute in my capris! I often wonder why we are still here in San Diego when the rest of my family lives elsewhere. But, when my sister talks about jogging in a snowstorm and my mom tells me about their tornado warnings in Tennessee, then I know there is nowhere I would rather be or raise my family. Besides, where else can you go to the beach in January and February!