Easton Hats

Easton Jay Lopez was born and since it is snowing in Laramie, I hope he will have occasion to wear these hats I made.

We are going to the Las Vegas bowl (go Cougars!) right before Christmas... Merry Christmas to the Stevens family! Hopefully I find my camera battery charger before then...

Kara & Brooke will have a winter gymnastics program this weekend. If I'm really ambitious, perhaps I'll find the battery charger before then and I'll have pictures to post from that as well!

Not Much of Anything

I wish I had fun pictures of our long weekend in Utah to post, but I couldn't find the charger for our camera battery, thus no pictures. We had a nice trip and got some much needed rest. Jeff brought home an ear infection and Brooke brought home a stomach ache. We had a good time visiting with Grandpa & Grandma Stevens as well as all of the cousins. All the kids are getting so old... Kara & Brooke wish they lived closer to their cousins. Maybe someday they will live close to some cousins. The girls are eagerly waiting for Christmas now. Every toy commercial they see has something that they want on it. The sale ads are full of things they want. They are easy to shop for since they want everything. I'll be glad when the presents part is over and we can just enjoy the holiday.

Halloween, Pumpkins, Knitting

The last week has been filled with Halloween, Pumpkins, & Knitting. This was the first year Kara has carved a pumpkin from a pattern (and she did hers without help). Brooke drew her puppy pattern on and then cut it out (with minimal assistance). Jeff's again was very intricate this year. He complained all while he was carving that it would not turn out. When it was done and lit up he decided that it did work out (which he does every year as well). This year I decided not to be lazy and I actually carved a pumpkin from a pattern too. Mine is the witch, Jeff's is the raccoon popping out of the jack-o-lantern, Kara's is the bat on top of the jack-o-lantern, and Brooke's is the puppy. Kara also won a pumpkin from school that her teacher carved. It's a good thing that we waited until two days before Halloween to actually carve the pumpkins because they rotted and grew mold the day after Halloween. If we had carved them as early as the girls wanted to, they would have been a squishy mess by the time Halloween came.

The girls wore the same costumes for Halloween as they did to Trunk-or-Treat. Grandma Lopez took pictures of them at school for us.

I have spent a lot of my down-time (I have actually had a little, can you believe it?) knitting for various babies on the way (none of which are mine...). I made two sweaters for Jennifer's new daughter coming in 4 weeks, several hats for Ronnie & KaLee's son coming in 4 weeks, a sweater for Brooke's teacher's baby coming in just under 4 weeks, and a sweater for a lady at church (I'm not sure when she's due, but if the current trend continues probably in 4 weeks). The picture is of the sweater I made for Brooke's teacher. The sweater I made for the lady at church is the same, only made with in lighter blue. The two sweaters for Jen were white (newborn size) and Barbie pink (3-6 mos size depending on how big she is of course) - both of these sweaters were a lot girlier with a tie instead of buttons and lacy stitches instead of plain knitting. Ronnie & KaLee will have to wait to see what kinds of hats they get when I actually get the package in the mail to them (soon, I promise). Once they get it, I will post pictures of the hats.

Trunk or Treat

Tonight was Trunk or Treat at Church.... Here are pictures of the girls in their costumes (this is Brooke's second costume of the day, she was Tinkerbell earlier today when we went Trick or Treating in the shopping center near our house). Kara is Supergirl & Brooke was a BYU cheerleader. I think I used a strange setting on the camera because the color looks really weird in these pictures, but at least you can see what they look like mostly....

New Post, Finally

Brooke turned 5 on Saturday. She has told us that she is no longer a baby, but she'll always be our baby. Her party was fun -- she had quite a few kids from her class at school and the girls from her class at church come and play in the jumper. Grandma was there to provide entertainment by helping decorate goody bags and passing out snacks (since I chose not to bother with either thinking the jumper would be fun enough). Thank you to everyone who helped with the party - Brooke had a great time.

We went to see BYU play in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. The girls were pretty good at the game and in the hotel room (we had a kids suite with a NASCAR theme - we did not get a choice on the theme). The only fight between the girls broke out over who had the top or the bottom bunk for the girls. Kara won out and got the top bunk when I told Brooke we could make the bottom bunk into a 'tent' by tucking the bedspread into the bunk bed frame for her. Then Kara wanted the bottom bunk when she saw what we did. I had to rig the bedspread up on her bed with suitcases to make her a tent (which fell within 30 seconds, but pacified her anyway).

We stopped to eat at Big Boy restaurant in Baker (Kara has requested we stop there everytime we drive through that area now). It was a nice break from the car. Brooke didn't get carsick this trip (probably because we did not make her eat in the car this time.

I passed my life insurance license exam, but I have to wait for the license to clear through the state before I can make any money for Colonial. I can't legally go to an enrollment and be trained that way unless my license has cleared for compliance reasons. Until they decide to catch up (I'm 8 days behind where they are now) I'm stuck waiting. Good news is that the house is getting cleaner one room at a time. Today was Brooke's room. Hopefully I'll have enough energy to finish the whole house before it gets messy again. Brooke promises to keep her room cleaned. If we can keep her clothes off the floor we should be okay. She likes to change her outfits at least twice a day (sometimes not by choice). Sometimes she still sits on wet grass and needs to change. She hasn't tried to lie about it in awhile, but we can still pretend.

Kara is going through 'chapter books' like water. She earned a prize for her behavior contract to go to Barnes & Noble and pick out a book. She picked the second 'Dear Dumb Diary' and had it read by the next evening after school. She likes the sarcastic tone the girl in the book puts on everything in her middle school experiences. This book was about how her pants were haunted. Kara spent a lot of time reading passages out loud to me because she thought they were so funny. I could catch a few words in between her laughter.

The girls have both been 'finger knitting' scarves. I didn't think Kara would have trouble picking it up (which she didn't), but Brooke hasn't needed any help either. They're both doing a great job.

I can't believe it's already the end of October. It was 95 degrees here today. At least the wind died down and it doesn't smell like smoke too bad anymore. Maybe the girls will be allowed outside at school tomorrow (they've been stuck inside for both days so far this week even eating lunch at their desks and sitting in the classrooms for recess too).

I'm Home!

I have resigned from the Auto Club and will be working from home a lot now. I am excited to be able to help get the girls ready for school in the mornings now (instead of burdening Jeff with that each day - he stresses over the smallest things). Hopefully Kara will have an improved attitude at school (she has gotten in trouble for back-talking to the teacher and had to be placed on a behavior contract). I don't get it - I was not that way when I was little. I did not dare make a peep out of turn at school and wanted so much to have the positive attention of my teacher.... I have no idea where Kara gets this attitude from (although Jeff told me he was on a behavior contract when he was in school too). Maybe it's part of a newer generation... all the kids in my Primary class seem so outspoken and opinionated. I had to force myself to be that way after I grew up. I didn't even dare complain when an order was wrong before. Maybe Kara's just learned it from the way I am now, who knows. I'm certainly not nice to strangers. I should have a bumper sticker that says "Mean Person". I'm not priding myself in this behavior, but I am not trying to cover up the truth either. Merely stating a fact - Ronnie and Jeff can attest to how mean I am to strangers. I have no patience or tolerance for slowness, incompetence, or stupidity. I have a long ways to go before I can die otherwise I will be in trouble. Patience is a virtue that I no longer possess (if I ever did, I've buried it and fully welcomed the age of instant access to everything).

First Day & Week of School

The girls had a good first week of school - Brooke has afternoon Kindergarten (she is called a Late Bird) which means she gets to eat lunch at school. Kara kept saying she is an Early Bird & we can't convince her that in her grade there is no such thing as Early Bird & Late Bird.

We had to talk to Brooke about the difference between snack time and lunch time at school (I did not know she would have both). She wanted to take a lunch to school today since she did not like what was on the menu. However, she said that she was hungry at recess and ate the pizza lunchable we packed her for snack. We asked her what she did at lunch time - she bought lunch from school and only ate the muffin that came with it. She is very silly, but she wasted $2.25 off of her lunch card for a muffin (and she probably only ate a few bites of her lunchable at snack time). Tomorrow she will get a snack & will be sent a separate lunch. No wonder there is a problem with obesity for kids - they are cutting P.E. but giving the kids extra food breaks. Am I alone in thinking it's strange to have a snack break and a lunch break when they are only in school from 10 am to 2pm?

Kara is on the short end of her class (big surprise). There was one girl in line the first day who was at least as short if not slightly shorter. See the attached picture to see how much taller the average kid in her class is than Kara (that girl in the picture really is in Kara's class and she is not the tallest kid in class either).

Brooke & Her Mom

I'm beginning to think Brooke is a bit of a klutz.

A couple of days ago she stepped on a piece of wood at her friend's house (she is forever walking around barefoot, like her mother). The father of her friend cleaned Brooke's foot and told us that it bled a lot and was going to be fine. Grandma Lopez put some Neosporin on the cut and covered the area with a band-aid. In the middle of the night, Brooke woke up crying and her foot was a little swollen and tender. Jeff left work early and took her to the doctor. After examination, she was told to keep it wrapped, was given local antibiotics, and told that the wood that was left in her foot would work itself out eventually or it could be dug out (since Brooke is a daddy's girl, Jeff was fine with this and did not want Brooke to have any more pain than necessary... If I was there, the doctor would have dug the wood out right then and there - mean Mommy). She's been so funny with her foot all wrapped up for two days hopping around.

This morning Brooke had Kindergarten testing. Somehow in the ten minutes she was out of our sight, she managed to cut the ankle on her other foot and was bleeding before we got her back to Grandma's. Her nose has also has a raw spot on it (where that came from is any one's guess). She looks a little messy most of the time. Poor kid - takes after her mom too much.

On a brighter note, this weekend finals are due for Jeff and me after which I will start my last two classes before finishing. Jeff will be done in early Spring next year.

Did I mention Jeff is excited for football to start? He's watching it intently as I type. Fall could not get here soon enough for him. The Angels were a good filler from basketball ended until football started, but I know what he cares about most. I'm sure he'll still have fun at the Angels' game tomorrow night. Kara & Brooke have already put in their orders for food at the game - a hot dog at every stadium we go to - ask them which stadium has the best hot dogs, they know.

Pictures from Vacation

I've uploaded a few of our pictures from vacation on here. We all had a great time. After Jeff spent years telling me how a cruise would be a waste of vacation, guess who wishes he could go on another one soon? The girls both slept better than they ever have (I guess a pitch black room with no clock and the ship rocking us to sleep helps with that).

Hot Summer Nights

Now that summer is coming to an end soon (Kara & Brooke don't start school until the Wednesday after Labor Day giving us just under two weeks of Summer left), I really wonder where the time went the past few months.

I am grateful that my sister's wedding went off without a hitch and that it's behind us (I am glad it worked out as well as it did, but I am happy to be rid of the nightmares of the wedding coming with no dresses, stains on the fabric, dresses without armholes, and in one dream I made the dresses in the original darker blue fabric then forgot to even bring them to the wedding).

Our cruise went off without a hitch too. I had nightmares over Jeff & the girls getting to board the ship without me (since California is dumb and requires a notary sign an affidavit that I am allowed to request a copy of my birth certificate). We gave ourselves enough time to apply for passports and receive them before the trip, but the date on us actually receiving the passports came and went with nothing arriving. I frantically had to reorder all of our birth certificates and our marriage certificate (our original copies were sent in with our passport applications). Three weeks after coming home from Mexico, our passports arrived. The girls look so cute in their pictures! We'll have to plan another trip out of the country so we'll actually get to use them.

Jeff is practically counting down the minutes until football season starts. We are excited to be going to see BYU play in Los Angeles at UCLA, then in Las Vegas on October 13th, then at San Diego State, & finally we hope to see BYU play in Provo vs Utah Thanksgiving weekend. Kara wants to go to a game and get a hot dog after which she will be ready to go home (this all happens at least 20 minutes before kickoff). Brooke wants to be anywhere she can snuggle daddy.

The girls have both advanced in gymnastics this summer -- Kara is now in level 2 and is learning round-offs, cartwheels on the balance beam, and other gymnastics moves that are more complicated than I've heard of. Her coach wants her splits perfect before Christmas. She seems to be the most flexible in her class. Brooke is now in level 1 (she moved up from her preschool class into a class for 5-7 year olds a couple of months ago). It's nice that Brooke now has class at the same time as Kara, only one trip to the gym and only an hour and a half to kill each week. I'm glad Brooke has almost caught up to Kara in size too. They share leotards, shirts, socks, and shorts (some pants too, but Kara's legs are still a little longer than Brooke's).

School shopping will be interesting this year with both of them in school. Brooke is already hard enough to buy shoes that she will wear and she doesn't complain about. This task will be much harder shopping for school shoes that she can wear (no more sandals and the addition of socks into her wardrobe might kill both Jeff and me). They both have no interest in wearing clothes that match each other's at the same time, however if one picks out a shirt or a dress or a pair of pants, the other wants the same thing. Then they cry when they both want to wear their pink shirts that say "princess" on them on the same day.

I've been upstairs doing "homework" for the past 30 minutes. I probably should actually do some before someone finds out that I'm procrastinating by creating this blog.... Hopefully I will remember to do this more often. I like to think I can stay in touch and feel good about journal writing (kind of) at the same time.