Thanksgiving in Monterey

This past Thanksgiving we were able to go to Monterey California to visit my brother Miles and his beautiful family. We had so much fun in such a little time. We had fun with our first child that got car sick!  Brody felt so bad.  We think that he had to much for breakfast and then we had a nice long drive down the crazy mountain road.  Our kids loved being able to play with their cousins.  

We were able visit Mikes Mission and a highlight was his mission temple, the Oakland Temple. It is spectacular!!!

 These are pictures taken from the temple overlooking San Francisco! I am not going to lie seeing the big city scared me a lot! It kind of gave me a little anxiety. So many PEOPLE.

Well Oakland and the that whole area was so big. And we hit rush hour which took HOURS!

We made it to Monterey and enjoyed going to a look out to see the ocean with the family.

We went to Pfieffer Beach also known as Purple Beach, because the sand looks purple. I did not think it look purple but Camilla really thought it did. It might have been purple is one of her favorite colors and she just wanted to see the purple.

 Playing in the water.

 We had to get a picture in front of the beautiful ocean.

Surprisingly enough Camilla loved the water and Deklin did not.  I really thought it would have been the other way around...  But I am glad Camilla is getting over her fear of water.

Deklin did love just playing in the sand and finding anything in it.

 Everyone trying to dry off and warm up after playing in the water...

Just the beauty of the earth!!!

We had so much fun going and seeing family! It was great!!! We are so thankful for the new adventures we are making here in little Susanville, CA. 

BOY oh BOY Baby #4

We are so excited to be having baby number 4 coming May 27th!!! This little boy has been showing his personality even in the womb.  He is also going to be a mover and a shaker... He seems to be non-stop at times, but he can really be stubborn.  He will be kicking and moving and jumping and Mike goes to feel my stomach and he will completely stop.  I'm sure Mike would not believe that I was pregnant if he had not seen the ultra sound.  He will try and kick the other kids off of my lap if he is remotely feels squished.  

We can't wait to hold our little one in our arms!!!

 Yes, that is his foot touching his forehead and his arms behind his head!!!

What's up with the Parents...

Well Mike and I are hanging in there... We are working on keeping our kids doing what they need to be doing! And also trying to do things for ourselves.  

Mike has become quite the reader. He has picked up reading many leadership books and he has enjoyed it. He has always told me he is not a reader and he doesn't see how I can just read for fun. I think he rather likes it now!!! 

He is also enjoying fulfilling his church callings and helping out where he can. He is the Sunday school teacher for the 12-14 year old, he is the ward clerk and also a stake auditor. So he stays pretty busy! He is also learning a lot of things at work how to deal with starting a new clinic which is also keeping him busy. 

I am enjoying staying home with Deklin and getting ready for this baby to come. It is a little odd to not be getting ready for summer camp.  I at times feel I am missing something, the funny thing is I still will see post on Pinterest or Facebook and post them for summer camp. It is probably good that many of the things I wanted to try for summer camp are good for the children this summer.

I also did something that I really had to step out of my comfort zone. I tried out for the Susanville Symphony, it wasn't too hard to get in, they need violinist.  But it has really helped me be more comfortable with playing my violin again. Guess I forgot how much I loved playing. It is hard to get practicing in, but I keep trying... I even started teaching violin.

I also stay busy with my callings at church! I am a cub scout den leader for the Webelos, a Relief Society teacher and the choir director. All things I love to do, well I am learning to love working with the scouts, well it is not the scouts themselves it is planning and figuring out what to do every week...

So we are having great times here in Susanville and learning to live in such a small town. 

Deklin

Figured I updated on the older children I would update a little on Deklin...  He is our non-stop two year old. He is our dare devil and is always trying something new. He's a climber a jumper and anything in between. He loves to be moving and into everything.  But I am grateful that he also loves to cuddle.  He will come over to Mike and I and say lap lap cuddle. Sometimes he will cuddle for just a short time, and others he will want to cuddle forever. He loves to be free to explore and enjoy the world around him.  Which is great, RIGHT??? I know I have more gray hair then I should because of him.  I do truly love that he can do so many things!!!

In January he turned two and we went to his neurologists and decided that he would have another EEG and if he was showing no signs of seizures we could start to ween him off of his seizure medication.  We are happy to report that he has been off his medication since February and he has had no seizures!!!! We are crossing our fingers that it stays that way.

The many faces of our sweet Deklin!!!
We sure do love him.

School!!!

Well, I realize that this is a little late but wanted to get the blog going again...

 

Brody is in first grade and loving school!!! He really loves to learn and have plenty of friends. He really makes friends easily. For the first few weeks he would come home and count how many friends he had made at school. We love that he can make friends so well.  He really would count his whole class as his friends because I truly believe he wants everyone to be his friend.  But now that he is over halfway through this school year he is recognizing those that are really his friends.
The schools here are a little different there are two elementary schools but are split up as Brody's school is k-2 and the other school is 3-6.

This year he was on his schools cross country team. He really loved the races! He did not really like the practices, I think it was because he just had to run laps around the play ground. The races where set up at parks that had trails to run. Guess he likes the variety.  He did great for his first time on a cross country team. He probably averaged 13-15 minute mile. I think the hardest thing was for me, it was hard letting him run the races knowing I could not see him the entire time and the coaches did not run with them. He did great and he always finished, even when he fell and really banged himself up! He didn't even come in last!!!! I was a proud mama at that time!!!!

Camilla is in her first and last year of preschool.  We started out that I was going to do home school for her pre-k.  We just didn't want to have to pay for it and really I could do it.  We had inquired about a few schools so we had people at those schools that knew we were looking... after a few weeks of doing home school at home the preschool at Brody's school called and they said they opened up their school to the general public and not just a special education preschool and that it was free. So really we could not pass up a free preschool that my little girl could be in an inclusive class. It has been great to watch her learn about differences in people and to watch her stand up for those children in her class when people try to make fun of them. Another proud mama moment.

Camilla loves learning and going to class. She is great at her numbers and has really picked up math quickly. It is funny that she could really careless about letters, well except for the ones in her name. So we are really working on letters now and making them fun.

I am so grateful for having children that as of right now love to learn and we hope that it stays this way!!!

Other things the kids have started this year is Brody started piano lessons and I think he is tolerating it. But he is doing very well at it.  Camilla really wants to start and I think she is ready so I might get her started also. They have also picked up riding bikes and want to do it all the time. I love they love it. Brody has started now on no training wheels, he is so cautious that this might take awhile but he is determined.

Making Memories

Here in Susanville we do not have a ton of "activity" type things to do. There isn't even a swimming pool here in town. That made me sad.... I heard that they are in the process of making one, that will be great! At least there are parks that we can go too.  

Luckily where we live we have such a huge variety of outdoor activities that we can do. So we are making memories where we are planted.  Things are so close that we get to take Saturdays and just play.  We have been able to visit many places.

First we visited Lassen Volcanic National Forest. The little we saw was awesome. We got to see the stinky pots. That just about freaked Camilla out. She was afraid it was going to bubble up and get her, so she would not get near it!!! What a funny girl, gotta love her!
 

Labor day weekend we decided to visit one of the many lakes that are only 30 minutes away! This on is Eagle Lake...Mike loved it at first name. It was such a beautiful lake! It was very clear that the lake was very low, but we still had fun. We had the beach to ourselves and it was great. Well we did have one visitor that stayed close by, that little bird at the end of the pictures.  

Our little ones really seemed to love the lake. Brody went right on in and Camilla was a little leery about it but then start having fun in the shallow water and even started splashing around on her stomach. Deklin loved the dirt, mud and rocks. He was fine walking around the water. 

One of the following weekends one of Mike's coworkers showed us a great family friendly hike and it was great. It was one that Brody and Camilla both could hike the entire time and easy enough for Mike to carry Deklin on his back. It ended up at a helipad with gorgeous views!!! Here are some of the pictures. Please pay attention to Camilla and her amazing outfit, she was so excited about it.

We also visited Burney Falls which is gorgeous!!!

It ended up being a little chilly when we visited, but it was still beautiful and fun.  It was a paved path from the top down to the bottom and an easy walk. There are other hikes that go all around the falls, but the little ones were a little cold. It was probably good we left when we did, because it began down pouring soon after we left! We still had fun...

We are having so much fun exploring and making new memories. We really live in a beautiful world!! We are so grateful that we were able to move to a place with mountains and hiking!!!