ARIN LORDS 

Trevor's Glasses

Trevor got his glasses today and I can tell you this boy did not want to wear them.  This first shot is me-holding his hands to prevent him from taking them off.

The trick, which someone told me-was to keep his hands busy.  Distraction is one of those essential tools that all moms have in their arsenal-so we went for a little walk outside-and then to the backyard to play some basketball!  Eventually it got cold and we came inside and dinner had to get on the table-and spelling tests practiced for, among other household stuff...so off those glasses came at first opportunity.  Oh well. At  least he had them on 45 minutes tonight.We will shoot for an hour tomorrow and keep increasing until he's used to them and starts begging to wear them. I think he looks super adorable!!

These are Miraflex glasses in case you are wondering-pretty indestructible for little hands..now just to keep those lenses clean enough so he can actually see out of them.......not looking forward to meal times.

Methinks he looks like my dad/ uncle Earl in the one to the right, anyone else think so?

Trick or Treat!!

  Pirate Trevor, Witch Whitney, Ice Dragon Amber and Fairy Brooke!

Happy Halloween Everyone!!

Okay so tomorrow is my favorite holiday-Halloween! I just love the Autumn and we've had a wonderful fall day today-it's perfect.  The kids are really excited to go Trick-or-Treating and get dressed up in their costumes and I'm even more excited because I finally have a working camera again!  So here are some pictures we've taken lately: 

On Monday we invited other families to do FHE with us. The missionaries gave our lesson
and afterwards we mod-podged pumpkins.  This one is Whitney's!

Here's the line-up outside our house!!

Every Year we rake our neighbor's leaves-the girls love this!!

He is getting so big-and soon will be wearing glasses, 

 I wanted to take a picture of him before his transformation

 into Clark Kent!..he he

Twilight -group costume

 Jakob Bella and Edward 

Jack-Whitney-Sam

I think they look cute!

There is one more picture I want to add once I get it.

On the Medical side of things.....

Wow-so October was our dr/dentist appointment month.  All kids had their well visits/flu/immunization and dentist visits. During the dr. visit  for Brooke we discussed how she walks and her flat feet and it was decided to get her fitted for inserts by a specialist-so that appt. was made.  We found out Brooke will need surgery on both her feet since her talus bone is dislocated and her heel bone is vertical-just a deformity she was probably born with.  Most children are diagnosed with this when they are newborns-because of the stiffness or non-flexibility of the feet. Brooke however has a lot of flexibility so this was not caught until the foot surgeon watched her walk and looked at her x-rays.  So Nov 14 is her first surgery-they will move the bones in place and put in temp. pins to hold them there until they heal and they will make incisions up and down her achilles tendon to lengthen it as well.  She will wear a splint to start with and when all swelling goes down will be fitted for a cast.  Then when that foot heals-they will do the other one.   On a side note-Brooke also gets to go see the Bowel clinic next week..oh joy! I cannot wait until she is accident free!
Trevor went to the eye dr and we now know that his right eye is nearsighted
(-9) and he will need glasses.  Later the dr. wants to do some patching to strengthen that eye and she thinks his eyesight will improve a little bit as he grows older. So this week we also get to try to get him in to pick his glasses out.  It has definitely been a crazy month so far and I hope there aren't too many more surprises around the corner.  I feel exhausted already just thinking about it.

Other news:  Last Saturday were the girls' last soccer games.  They both did great!  Whitney scored a goal and her team won finally for the first time 8-6 against a team they had previously lost to 6-1. She has worked so hard and it was so fun to watch the team work together. I was so excited for my team and so happy they won their last game!  Amber has turned into a real aggressive player and has scored 3-4 goals this season!! Way to go Red!

Holy no posting batman.....catch-up

Yikes it has been a long two months since I last posted.  Life has been crazy.  School started, soccer started, dr. appointments galore, surgery for Joe, etc.  Well now things are starting to slow down just a bit.  One more week of soccer and that is three evenings a week i will now have free!!  Whitney's has been trying really hard to do well on her team-but it's such a mixture of attitudes that they have a hard time working together. It is hard when she is one of the best players on the team-and she is doing most of the assisting.  I am looking into putting her into a more select/competitive league next year...guess i had better save up now.  Amber scored two goals her last game and she is pretty aggressive about playing. It's good to see her running up and down the field without getting too winded-but she's more motivated this year.  It really is fun to see them both progress in many ways.  Whitney will be playing basketball in the winter and we haven't decided if Amber will too.  Brooke started preschool last month-we do a co-op with her friends and she loves it. She went to see the foot/ankle surgeon yesterday and we discovered she will need to have surgery done on both of her feet.  She has vertical talus-so will get one foot done at a time to correct that.  She is off the charts on her height and i get comments asking me if she is two years older than she is.  Trevor started walking in August and since then has had a few head bruises to show his fearless efforts at running.  He likes to make noises and talk..he is looking like a toddler now.  I wish i could post pictures of all that's been happening and how my kids are growing, but our camera died on us while on our oregon trip and we haven't yet replaced it.  Besides being Whitney's soccer coach, I have been canning and trying to de-clutter the house a bit.  Right now I am busy with getting Halloween costumes together-it's one of my favorite times of year!!  I love the fall and sweater season-the crisp smell in the air and the glorious colorful leaves right before they fall.  This is the best time of the year-Autumn.  I even made some pumpkin pies on Wednesday to celebrate-and because Amber and Joe begged me to!  A fun Halloween Share:

Our 10 year Anniversary Trip to the Oregon Coast!

Okay so here's the story history behind our trip.  Ten years ago today Joe and I were married in the Portland temple.  On the way there,  my brother and his family were in a car accident and lets just say we were kind of in a hurry to get back to see how they were doing .  So we didn't ever do a honeymoon or anything.  And since we haven't been back to the Portland temple since then...well I was determined that to celebrate surviving 10 years with each other-we ought to return and create new memories on a 2nd chance honeymoon trip!! This is the first trip we have gone on that was just the two of us since having kids (unless you count the overnighter in Spokane for a job interview 4 years ago).  So Last Wednesday night we headed to my parents-where we dropped off our kiddos and then we were on our way.  Here is part 1 of our trip-I still have to upload the rest of the pictures...But these are days 1 and 2.  Day 3 will be in part 2 which I will add  later this week-so check back.  Some pictures weren't the best as our camera died on us after half way through day 2 and we had to use joe's ipad from work to take the rest...not the best quality photos..but at least we got to capture some memories!!

Create your own free picture slideshow My girls at grandma's house-basking in the sunshine! Trevor started walking last week too-I will post video of that too in the near future!

Massive Swag Share giveaway August 10th

Cuckoo for Coupons is giving away tons of free stuff...i mean tons..but it's only one day-Wednesday, August 10th.  So I hope you all are ready to be winning some fun things throughout the day.  Head on over HERE to check out more details about this totally crazy and massive giveaway.

Losing weight and winning!!

I have to apologize . I know i was going to be posting my weight loss journey on my blog and well

...it didn't happen. So to summarize it all, here is the break down in numbers:

April 2010

180-what I weighed when 9 months preggos with Trevor

June 2010

160- after I lost all my initial baby and water weight.

August 2010

145- 2 months of pushing myself pretty hard with exercise, drinking lots of water-eating high fiber and low fat.

March 18, 2011-started new diet-high protein, tons of veggies, no-low fat/sugars/carb/dairy.

May 29, 2011

130- 5 lbs closer to my goal!

So the last two months i haven't pushed myself to diet at all...so guess what-I am going to hit it again with hopes of shedding those last 5 lbs. In June I saw a cousin of mine and she was thrilled at how great I was looking and told me i needed to post bragging pictures. I am not really the type to do that kind of thing..but I did promise my sisters that I'd post pictures of 2 Shabby Apple dresses I won. I ordered smaller sizes on purpose-that was my motivation to keep on going with my diet. I wanted to fit into these dresses so badly. Here they are:

Now that I have been released from Young Womens and called to Nursery-
these dresses won't be seeing much church time,
 but I will find other occasions to wear them!!

What we've been up to lately:

Just a few pictures from the last two weeks

Idaho Falls Visit-fed geese with the cousins!

Went to the Zoo for Whitney's B-day..she got to bring 2 friends.

yep it was just me and these 6 little monsters!

Waiting to watch fireworks!!

And Last but not least: We adopted this black lab named Tessa

The kids love her!

Summer is here...

Joe finally got a job about three weeks ago and so I have finally been able to get a schedule going again. It is really nice because he comes home for lunch and so i still get to see him during the daytime. I was just getting used to the new change-when the stomach flu hit our house and cycled back to hit Brooke twice. Whenever my family is sick-it just puts everything on hold and laundry is the first thing to get backed up. I am so glad that it's finally over and we are all doing better.

The girls finished with Spring soccer and both did fabulous-Whitney scored an amazing shot! Amber's last day for school was last Wednesday and Whitney doesn't get out until this Friday. They will both have summer chores and summer school with mom to do before they get to play for the rest of their day-I think i will let them have one week break before I get started..and also give me a little extra time to prepare. I have so many goals this summer for my family:

• Finish losing the rest of my unwanted weight
• Get Amber 2nd grade ready
• Teach Amber to ride her bike without training wheels
• Teach both of the older girls to swim
• Have a second chance honeymoon in Oregon with my hubby for our 10yr anniversary
• Potty Train Brooke-we are making headway already and I am so excited!!
• Trevor walking
• Visit temple as often as we can (before it closes for work being done on it).

At the girls' last soccer games...Trevor just loved sitting in and playing with this box !