Read it.....

That's all I have to say...it's something that I NEVER thought that I would even bother or care to read or "get into"....but I am SO hooked!! Read it....you will understand! I read the whole 4 book series in 6 days, watched the movie a dozen times, and am now "patiently" waiting for New Moon to come out!!

Read it!

Memorial Day 2009

We had a lot of fun at our BBQ! Lots of friends (old & new) came and we had lots of good food and fun! The kids had a blast on the triple row slip & slide, until it broke somehow....but the sprinkler did the trick!

This was Justin's "last hurrah" before he left. :)

Photo catch up!

A few weekends ago we went to "Military Appreciation Day" at the Barona Race Track. It was HOT, HOT but it was a lot of fun!!

Here we go again.....

...and if you can stand to hear my girls breaking down....here's a little video.

My little euntrapanuers!!

We participated in what has been labeled Lemonade Day www.lemonadeday.org
in Houston and brought it with us to San Diego. They decided that
they would donate their sales to the San Diego Food Bank. :). So proud!!

It's official....

I have hesitated on posting this. It's hard being on this end of it...you look over you life of the past 8 years and you wonder where did you go wrong? Is it my fault? Could I have prevented it? As a parent, and especially as a mother...I can't help but feel somewhat responsible. Like it's all my fault, I should have been able to fix it. Right? The clear answer...no. It's hereditary, and due to other contributing factors, almost inevitable. One uncle on each side has it as well.

Falyn has been diagnosed with AD/HD. How did we determine this? Plain and simple....She's failing the 3rd grade. We knew at the end of the 1st semester that she was struggling, and we took action to do what we could to prevent it, but despite our efforts, she continued to decline.

Here is an excerpt from an information organization her Dr sent us to...and you'll see...almost inevitable.

In instances where heredity does not seem to be a factor, difficulties during pregnancy, prenatal exposure to alcohol and tobacco, premature delivery, significantly low birth weight, excessively high body lead levels, and postnatal injury to the pre-frontal regions of the brain have all been found to contribute to the risk for AD/HD to varying degrees.

Despite all of that....this is the part that makes Justin and me go "huh?" She was tested for the GATE program (was also tested at the beginning of the year) and scored in the top 98%...yet will repeat the 3rd grade! We've always known she was brilliant, and I mean that whole-heartily...she's SO intelligent! She'll knock your socks off....she just can't stay focused long enough to prove it when it counts, like testing. :(

So, just keep her in your prayers (heck, all of us!)...this will be a lifelong journey, full of frustrations and aggravations, as well as I am sure, plenty of elation. It will be a long road.

Go Padres!

They lost, but we had fun anyway! :) Justin & Chandler got matching hats!! :)

I have babies!!

Baby carrots, baby broccoli, baby green beans, baby peas, baby tomatoes, baby spinach....everything has sprouted except the lettuce. :( We went and got our compost today and I transplanted all the babies that I thought looked hardy enough to move to their new "bed"...the others I will give another week and then put them in their new bed. The kids were so excited to see it coming together...Justin was kinda cute about it too. We're all really looking forward to our first "pick"...a lot of the ones we're growing have a 50-70 day maturity...whether anything is "harvestable" at that point, time will tell, but we're looking forward to it.

My little helper!
Squash...now don't ask me why, but this is how I read everywhere on how to make a "squash patch"

Broccoli

Green beans & peas

A veggie garden!

Sunday was HOT..HOT..HOT!! Ok, so San Diego isn't perfect ALL the time...but more often than not...and for the last few days we are in the midst of a MEGA heat wave...yes in April. It's HOT...and define hot....91 here on the BEACH!! That's HOOOOTT!! We don't have A/C here, b/c honestly, we don't need it but for maybe 30 days a year. So, yea...it's HOT!! I set up the slip-n-slide and let the kids play and Justin and I began our project of building a vegetable garden. We are actually really exciting about this. The seeds have already begun to sprout (we have the seedlings in the garage until the beds are ready)...but so far our seed that are growing are carrots, spinach, squash, tomatoes, green beans, peas, broccoli & lettuce. We also have some strawberries and plan on some blueberries as well. Very exciting! Here's the start...will keep you posted as we add more steps!

Chandler & Ben - Best Buddies

Knotts Berry Farm!

I could be a little mad at myself, but I'll recover....yes the photographer/scrapbooker in me is upset that I didn't get more photos, but my memory is long, and MAN, did we have a BLAST!!!

9am, the Woken's and us packed up the cars and made the almost 2 hour trip to Knotts Berry Farm! The day was just as gorgeous as the last weekend (sensing a theme here?)...and we played hard till we shut the park down at 10pm!!!

Here are a few photos that I did manage to get!

Savannah, Falyn & Faith

Savannah & Chandler (he wasn't too sure about this ride!)

Happy Easter!

The night before we colored eggs.






The "hunt"













We had planned on spending Saturday at Sea World, but it was still cold and gloomy, and just wouldn't have been much fun...but Sunday was GORGEOUS....so that's how we spent our Easter Day...playing at Sea World! The day really couldn't have been more beautiful!