Hoyal Happenings

"Whale" you be my Valentine?

2012-02-14T19:39:00.008-08:00

We had a whale watching field trip scheduled for Valentine's day, so we decided to make our annual school Valentine's party whale themed. We learned about whales, made whale cookies out of hearts,and made whale Valentine cards.And, of course, we passed out Valentine's to one another.These little cupids are just two cute!Julie and I are getting pretty good at these holiday school parties- this one was planned all via text the day before!

Today, we headed out to the Los Angeles Harbor for our whale watching tour. We spent some time at the Harbor Museum first before boarding the ship.It was a great little museum with a tour guide explaining everything along the way. The kids were very engaged even though it was mostly just listening. I was impressed with all that Tanner had remembered about ships from when we studied sea explorers three years ago!Since only ages three and up are allowed on the whale watching tour, Ladd took the day off to take the big kids! Julie and I stayed ashore with little kids. Apparently the sea was pretty rough and the trip was described as a roller coaster ride. (Good thing I was not aboard as it makes me queasy just thinking about it!) All the kids had a great time, except for Hunter who was scared of the big waves. I don't blame him-the boat went airborne over the waves! Since it is migrating season, the crew was hoping to see a gray whale, but all the whales must have been at some awesome underwater Valentine's party because they never surfaced! But, the kids didn't seem to mind that they only saw sea lions, dolphins, and the LA harbor lighthouse today!We hope you all had a WHALE of a Valentines Day!

Random Thoughts on...

2012-02-10T21:47:00.000-08:00

Charity
She turned 8 months this week. She thinks she is a big girl and can keep up with her brothers in her walker. It is her favorite place to be! When she is happy, she is very quiet and you'll forget she is even there. When she is not happy, she yells and you cannot forget she is there! This pretty much only happens when she is tired or when she is done eating and wants out of her seat. She likes her baby food but when she is done-she is DONE! She loves to play with toys, or anything she can manage to get into her mouth! I keep waiting to see two bottom teeth pop up-but nothing yet. Thankfully, her spitting up improved drastically this week. I guess her little esophagus just needed a little time to mature. We love her more and more each day!

Tanner
He teaches me great patience on a daily basis. He is full of energy and helping him to gear that energy in a positive way can be exhausting at times. Tanner is so intense and passionate about his interests- I know he will move mountains someday. I am just trying to make sure he moves them in the right direction! I love to see him with Charity, they seem to have a special bond. He would stop the world for his baby sister. I love my goose.
Hunter
He is blossoming. One thing I love about homeschooling is that I get to see the exact moment when my child gets it. He got reading this week. It is so fun to see the light in his eyes when everything finally clicks! He is my early bird so I get to spend my mornings one on one with Hunter-I love a Hunter-bear hug first thing in the morning!

Spare tire
I am sick of the spare tire I've been carrying around for the past 8 months. Between school, nighttime feedings (still), trying to keep some kind of order and cleanliness in my house, feeding little people three decent meals a day, and all the other stuff we've got going on, I have not left anytime for myself! I desperately need to take a little time each day to exercise starting now! This is the most sedentary I've been my whole life and I hate it! I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of the extra jiggle around the middle. Regular workouts start first thing tomorrow morning! Thank goodness there is no picture for this random thought-Yuck!

Thirty Something...

2012-01-31T21:39:00.001-08:00

Today I turned thirty-three but I don't feel a day over twenty-three because my darling girl has decided to sleep through the night for the last two nights! Thanks Charity-what a great present!

(I can't put enough pictures of her on this blog...)

We had a yummy dinner at Wabi-Sabi and then we celebrated my birthday and Mitt's big Florida win with the giant cookie cake Ladd surprised me with. Fun birthday night!

Here I am at age 33 with my 3 greatest accomplishments (although two of these accomplishments are in desperate need of a hair cut!)

Pine Wood Derby

2012-01-29T16:27:00.003-08:00

Tanner participated in his first Pine Wood Derby for cub scouts yesterday.

He made a police car and won "Coolest Design" award.

It was a fun race with lots of friends!

Finally, a post!

2012-01-22T14:48:00.000-08:00

Life has been busy lately! I will goes days without even turning on the computer which shows how busy my days are! But I thought I would make a quick post so my pictures don't get lost in the depths of my computer somewhere never to be seen again!

Hunter still LOVES his Lego class. I love picking him up early so I can see all the neat things he makes like, merry-go-rounds, spinning tops, and remote control cars. He always has so much to tell me about his creations.

The boys are doing basketball this month. Tanner says it is one of his favorite sports and Hunter is excited for dodge ball to start next month!

This little sweetie is growing cuter and bigger each day. She is officially an independent sitter now with no desire to crawl, which I am grateful for! She is really into her toys now, or anything she can get a hold of, and the boys really enjoy playing with her! She melts my heart daily and makes all of my worries seem to disappear when I look at that sweet little face.

San Juan Capistrano Mission

2012-01-06T13:33:00.000-08:00

Last week we headed out to the San Juan Capistrano Mission. If you ever want to see what fourth graders in California do on their Christmas break, go there! I think every group there had a fourth grader making a video of the mission. It was a beautiful mission.

I liked the audio tour that told about each area of the mission. It was very well done.

Little miss Charity is one educated baby with all these field trips she goes on!

Christmas Fun

2011-12-27T21:10:00.001-08:00

Wow, Christmas is exhausting! Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays and seeing the excitement on my kids faces as they walk downstairs on Christmas morning, but I have to say I am glad we can get back to normal life, including better sleeping and eating habits! Here is a recap of some of the fun we had this Christmas...

Gingerbread Day...
The boys made gingerbread houses that they were so PROUD of at the Bourgeous' house (Thanks Julie!) Tanner's was a two story house and Hunter's was an Indian longhouse. Later that night we were ding-dong ditched and a beautiful Gingerbread house was left on our door!

Hanging out at Bass Pro Shops while waiting to see Santa...
Only Hunter got to see Santa-Charity was sleeping and Tanner didn't want to wait in line. Hunter was cute and shy with Santa although he is pulling quite a face in this picture!

Christmas Eve at our house with my Dad, Grandma, and Monica...

I hope Charity grows up to be as beautiful and talented as her Aunt Monica!

Santa Baby...

Santa Came!...
We open our presents from Santa before heading over to my mom's for breakfast. Both boys must have been on the nice list because they got what they asked for!
Tanner makes for one skinny Santa in his Christmas jammies!

Christmas Morning at my Mom's house...

We also went to church (I wish Christmas always landed on a Sunday-I love to sing the Christmas hymns and be reminded what all this fuss is really about!) and went to Heidi's house for dinner. I somehow missed taking pictures of all the cute cousins but you can trust me that it was fun for all with all 15 grandkids there!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Feliz Navidad!

2011-12-20T16:07:00.001-08:00

We've been learning about the Spanish and Mexican history of California for school. So, when deciding what theme I would do for our Christmas Day Camp, I decided to do Christmas in Mexico. We read a Mexican Christmas folktale, learned about Three Kings Day, did a poinsettia craft, made galletas de Navidad,
ate tamales for lunch,
and had a pinata!

It was a fun day and I am so grateful for the traditions we've established with our homeschool friends!

Earlier this month I took the kids, with friend Bradley, to La Asistencia in Redlands. It was like a mini mission the padres built out here so they would have more land to graze their livestock. Who knew? It was a quaint little place rich with history!

In Charity's world, "field trip" and "stroller" are synonymous!

December, so far!

2011-12-12T05:35:00.000-08:00

December is always a crazy month! Here are a few things we've been up to so far...

Calico Ghost Town Field Trip

The boys love Thursdays because it's time for Hunter's Legos Engineering Class and Science Explorers (no picture) for Tanner!

Then it's off to PE, this month it's Kickball!

We also attended a live Nativity Program which was really well done!

6 months

2011-12-09T21:05:00.000-08:00

Can you believe this baby girl is 6 months old already? I can't! Charity is a little ray of sunshine in our crazy lives. I am so grateful for her! I love her to pieces and so does her dad and brothers. She loves the men in her life too, a huge smile appears whenever she hears Tanner, Hunter, or Daddy nearby!
Now that she has lived half a year, she is doing new things like playing with her feet and eating "solid" food. She loves avocados and just tolerates rice cereal. She somewhat rolls- I put her down one way and somehow she manages to move around the blanket by just rolling from side to side. Charity loves her Bumbo seat and Ladd and I ask ourselves how we managed without it with the first two babies. She is still waking up about twice during the night to eat. I am hoping as she gets more efficient at eating solid foods this will stop-because I am beat!

We love our baby girl and can't imagine our life without her! Happy half birthday Charity!

Bytheway, I get lots of comments on all of her cute headbands. Check out this site to see where they come from! Notice the cute baby modeling the "vintage baby headband"!

2011 Family Pictures

2011-12-02T20:50:00.000-08:00

Thanks so much to my dear friend Stacey for our family photos! Finally a good picture of our complete family of 5! Here are a few of our favorites...
I love Hunter's leg above, and his pondering expression on below...
Then there's this face... Thank goodness for a patient photographer!

Here's our stranded baby in the woods!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-02T09:41:00.001-08:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year at my dad's house. We had a great time, eating, chatting, and watching football. It was fun to see all great grandkids together, well sort of. The newest one, Cecilia, born November 18, to my cousin Kathy, was there via Skype. She lives in Brazil! Here is a picture of great grandma with her 6 cute great grandkids!

Three Little Turkeys

2011-11-24T07:56:00.000-08:00

I am so grateful for my adorable, sweet little turkeys!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Old Times

2011-11-15T21:13:00.001-08:00

How fun is this? A little high school friends reunion thanks to Adam and Stacey Bishop. I had GREAT friends in high school who made a huge impact on my life. These guys were so awesome, I chose the best one and married him! It is so fun to catch up with our old friends every now and then. I love seeing what everyone is like as adults and what their cute little families look like! Lots of laughter and memories!

Sugar and Spice...

2011-11-08T11:04:00.001-08:00

And Everything Nice!

Charity is 5 months old today!

Cricket in Times Square

2011-11-07T16:01:00.000-08:00

Boys Book Club for Cricket in Times Square was a success today! All the boys said they enjoyed the book- and I agreed with them, there is a reason this book is a classic! We played "Taxi Tag", held a book discussion with the help of my beach ball questions, ate fortune cookies, and created a cricket habitat. The boys were excited to each go home with a new little pet. Tanner named his Freddy and Hunter named his "twins" Big Boy and Wizard. Since the cricket Hunter got was missing a leg, we thought it was fair that he got two crickets.
Such fun!

Softball

2011-11-04T14:56:00.000-07:00

The boys have been taking softball this month. It has been a really fun sport for them to play and for me to watch. I love watching the little ones try to figure where and when to run. My favorite quote was from Hunter when, while standing near the pitcher's mound and his job was to catch the ball and throw to first, he said, "I like to let the batter get to base first before I throw the ball so I don't accidentally hit them." I am glad I have a compassionate, although not very competitive, little athlete.

Tanner has also shown his love, or lack thereof, for competitive sports. Earlier this week a group of boys were playing kickball outside. Tanner kept coming in and getting random things from the house. I asked what he was doing and he said, "I am going to be the water boy. It's more fun for me to give out water than play." He had a whole water station set up and gave out almost all of his Halloween candy as well. The neighborhood kids probably loved it and Tanner was quite proud of keeping his friends hydrated. This is the same kid who cannot understand why his dad gets so upset over BYU losing a game. "It is only a game! Who cares."

Halloween Fun!

2011-11-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Patch with Friend Bradley

Cop...
and Robber!

Ladybug Love!

Trunk or Treat at Church

School Halloween Party

Cute Trick or Treaters
Wishing everyone a Spooky (but not too Spooky) Halloween!

Powwow!

2011-10-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

We have been learning all about the Native Peoples of California. As luck would have it, Cal State San Bernardino hosted a real Powwow that we visited. The kids loved seeing all the fancy Indian regalia and watching the dancers get ready for the dance competition. We liked seeing all the authentic Native American beading, pottery and other crafts that we had been reading about. We asked this Native American to get his picture, but apparently both the models
and the camera man were having issues at that moment! Oh well.

The boys also loved the Fry Bread.

We celebrated all that we had learned at our own Powwow with friends. Each child taught us something about the Native cultures from their "expert" state. Tanner dressed as Camawait, Sacajawea's brother, and told the kids her story and a little about the Shoshone Indians of Idaho.
Hunter was "Speeding Cheetah" and taught everyone about how the Blackfoot Indians of Montana love to dance at Powwows.
We made Native American drums...

beaded moccasins,

made a hoop game from willow branches,

and then played the game.
There are two new papooses this year in our school group, so things have been more low key. But, the kids always manage to have a good time and hopefully learn something in the process! Notice which two kids want to be the dancers at our little mock Powwow. Yes, Hoyal kids have lots of energy!

4 months

2011-10-25T20:04:00.000-07:00

Our sweet little Charity turned four months earlier this month, but I never posted. Here she is with her doll:

She weighed 11 pounds, 6 ounces and was 23 inches long at her 4 month appointment. She LOVES to suck on her fingers. When Ladd gets home, she can't keep her eyes off of him and loves to smile for Daddy. Charity sure is a Daddy's Little Girl, and he couldn't be happier about it! Her sleep patterns have been off a bit this week since our trip, so we are hoping she starts sleeping through the night again-soon! We have gotten a few hearty giggles out of her, usually when her feet are tickled! She also likes to "sing" with me when I am rocking her before bed. It is a screeching, happy-yell kind of singing, but cute nonetheless. She is probably trying to mimic her mommy's beautiful singing voice (ha, ha!)

We love our little Charity! (aka: Muffin, Pumpkin Pie, Pretty Girl)

Adventures in Bishop, CA

2011-10-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

Ladd had to work up in Bishop this week, so we decided to tag along! We had never been there before and didn't have any plans, other than Ladd going to court, of course. So, it was all a somewhat spontaneous adventure, which ended up being a fun little vacation! It is about a 5 hour drive from here and we got there just in time to make it to a Railroad Museum just before it closed. This was a great find! It had a lot of buildings from the Gold Rush all the way until the 1930s. Most of the buildings you could go in and touch everything.
Fun+free+educational+totally unplanned= Awesome!

The boys especially liked the saloon with the WANTED posters on the outside.
Train with a bell that you could ring
There was a garage filled with wagons for all different uses. I think this was a freight wagon.
1930s house- the Train Masters Home, very fancy!
Old School house-We were all a little surprised to see that there was a bedroom in the school for the teacher!

The next day while Ladd was at work, we walked to a giant park that was right next to our hotel and played for hours, then walked across the street to a cute Danish bakery. There were all sorts of delicious looking treats and of course the boys chose regular old donuts! We needed a picture in front of this Indian statue with our sugary, fried goodies!

When Ladd was done, we found this random Native American Museum that was amazing and the one guy who worked there knew all there was to know about Indians and we learned a ton. This was a great find since we have been learning about Native Americans for school. It was a perfect little field trip, and might I mention also free!!

Grinding grain into flour
A model of a Toni and a cooking station. The boys are mixing and feeding the fire here...
The Museum was not too concerned with really old artifacts. This was a real arrowhead archeologists dug up that was out for people to handle. It was about 10,000 years old and used to hunt Mammoths, and my 5 year old is holding it! Yikes!
Hunter was quite affectionate towards this rock used to make the arrowheads...

The boys loved playing in these Toni's outside the museum...

After playing Indians for awhile, we headed out to South Lake, as suggested by our new friend at the Indian Museum. It was a great suggestion. The Sierra Nevadas are absolutely beautiful to drive through. The leaves were changing color and the weather was perfect. The best part was it wasn't a winding road, that makes me sick, like our mountain roads. The lake and its surroundings were breathtaking and it made me a little sad that we live in the smog infested desert!

When we got to the lake, Ladd decided to rent a little motorboat. I stayed back with this little sweetie...

while the boys took off for an hour on the lake.
When they got back from their little trip, I noticed Hunter was laying face down in the boat. I asked him why and he said it was less scary that way. I couldn't blame him. I am not a big fan of dinky little boats either. But, Ladd and Tanner both thought it was "Awesome" to be out on such a beautiful lake. We then headed home where Ladd and I had about two hours of all little people taking a nap at the same time! Ah, the simple joys of sleeping children!

I am so glad we were able to turn this little business trip into a fun family getaway!

Busy, Busy!

2011-10-10T06:44:00.000-07:00

Flag Football Fun...

Science Class-making Lego Robots!
Smiling...
Tummy Time and more Lego Fun!

Tummy time is a lot of work!

Loved...

2011-10-05T20:57:00.000-07:00

LA County Fair 2011

2011-10-01T20:38:00.000-07:00

We had a fun-filled Friday at the Fair with the Bourgeous Family.

Rug Making
Lasso Swinging

The kids love this part where they get to work on a farm,
then get paid for their hard work,

and then spend the money at a kids sized grocery store!
Waiting for Pig Races to Begin...

Tractor Pull Race- It is hard work!
My kids and I were all worn out by the afternoon! After a day like this, I am so glad Charity is happy in a stroller and that my boys are happy to take a little rest now and again so their baby sister can get fed!

Happy Birthday Hunter

2011-09-29T20:16:00.001-07:00

Today our baby boy turned 5. We love this sweet little guy!

We had birthday songs and cinnamon rolls for breakfast,
and a trip to Rain Forest Cafe for dinner,
where Charity was shocked that they let gorillas in a restaurant,but Hunter was impressed with a giant volcano cake!

The middle of the day was filled with a trip to the Lego store and passing out treats to friends at PE class. A fun, yet simple, birthday celebration!

Happy Birthday Hunter, We love you!

A Blessing and a Birthday

2011-09-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

We blessed Charity on Sunday at church. It was nice to have most of our family there. Ladd gave a beautiful blessing and Charity was an angel the whole time. She was awake and happily staring up at the lights during the entire blessing. She is such a sweet baby and words cannot describe how much love I have for her!

Charity looked so cute in her special blessing dress. Ladd's Aunt Virginia was visiting from Missouri this month and overheard a conversation I had with my sister in laws about borrowing a dress for Charity. The next time I saw her, she had handmade this beautiful dress for Charity. She said Charity deserved her own dress. This will certainly be something I save for Charity's daughter-it is beautiful! She is laying on the blessing blanket my mom knitted for her. All of my kids have their own blessing blanket. I am so glad people who love my kids are crafty and kind enough to do these labors of love that will be passed down!

I was so grateful that my sister drove down. She could only stay through sacrament meeting and then had to head back up to Pepperdine. Her MBA program keeps her busy, but we love to see Aunt Monica!

After church, our family came over for dinner. Since Hunter's birthday is this Thursday, I had to take advantage of this family gathering and make it a blessing/birthday dinner. We had cake and ice cream, and Hunter got some presents too! Fun and crazy times with all those cousins running around our house!

Hunter requested a Lego guy cake

and all he wanted for his birthday were "new Lego sets"! He was not disappointed!

Can't believe he is almost 5!

Our Happy Family

California Regions: An Hour from Everything!

2011-09-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

Our second unit for the year has been learning about the four major geographical regions of California: Coast, Desert, Mountians, and Central Valley. I told the boys we call this unit "An Hour from Everything", because from where we live, we are pretty much an hour from all the geographical regions of our state.

I took the kids to the California Science Center, next to the Coliseum at USC, becuase they have an awesome exhibit about Ecosystems, that covered part of what we were studying. This is a great museum, and it's free! There are lots of hands on things to do and see. We had a really good day.

The boys loved this Air Force jet right outside the museum.
This little one really enjoyed her first field trip too!
As part of our mountain study, we learned how mountains are made, which leads to Earthquakes. The boys were very interested in this subject. They got to make a marshmallow/toothpick structure and see if it would stand during an Earthquake. Jell-o works very well as the Earth's crust. The boys had a good time trying out varying strengths of Earthquakes. I think their structures lasted until the 10.0 earthquake.
As you can see by the picture, Hunter also had a good time eating marshmallows!

Ladd took the boys, along with their cousins and uncle, on a hike in the mountains nearby. He also took Tanner to the beach while we were studying the coast. I am so glad I have a husband who loves to spend time with his boys and give them some of these hands on experiences. There are certain things I try to avoid with a little baby, like sunny beaches and bumpy mountain hikes.

The boys also started their PE class. This month is soccer. It is fun that Hunter is old enough to join in on some of the classes now!

Adjusting to 3

2011-09-09T14:55:00.000-07:00

Everyone says adjusting to the third child is the hardest. There are now more kids than parents, more kids than you have hands, etc. Well, I say the third has definitely been the easiest. I was very prayerful about whether to continue homeschooling this year with a newborn, knowing that the last two times I had a newborn in the house I had a hard time adjusting. But, I felt strongly that homeschooling was still the right thing for our family. Charity has not altered our school day too much. Yes, it takes a little longer to accomplish things, and no, we don't just get up and go quite as easily, but for the most part life is pretty smooth around here. I am more tired than usual and my house isn't quite as clean as I would like it to be, but I kind of got used to that while I was pregnant. I also feel that each child is getting enough individual attention and that nobody is neglected. They do need to be patient at times, but that is a virtue that needs to be learned (and practiced, a lot) anyways! So, I feel very blessed to have three wonderful children who get to learn and grow together each day.

So , here is Charity at three months:
Charity is perfect, aside from the frequent spitting up. I cannot say how much I love this little one. She sleeps through the night most nights and is mostly happy during the day. She has an internal alarm clock that is set for every two hours. Every two hours during the day, on the dot, she wants to eat. I don't mind it as long as she keeps sleeping through the night! Cooing and smiling have become part of her regular routine. Today, she just started blowing raspberries which kept her entertained for quite awhile! She weighs 10 pounds and 10 ounces. We love our little muffin!

Go BYU!

2011-09-06T14:06:00.000-07:00

Charity was so excited that BYU won their first game on Saturday, she had to wear her blue and white dress to church on Sunday to show her school pride! Go Cougars!

Quotes and Question

2011-09-05T09:24:00.000-07:00

Here are a few kids quotes I wanted to remember:
"You are more precious than diamonds and sweeter than honey." -Tanner talking to Charity
"Is that the same baby or did you get a new one?" -6 year old nephew Braydon after not seeing Charity for a week
"Charity is cuter than Phoebe (my mom's dog), but Phoebe is more fun." -Hunter

And here is the question:
I was just asked to be the Cub Scouts den leader for the wolves. Anyone done this before? I would love any suggestions for fun activities, resources, and organization techniques for keeping all the boy's achievements organized. Thanks!

Fifty Nifty United States

2011-08-24T19:15:00.000-07:00

Our first mini unit of school was called The Fifty Nifty United States. Before focusing on the western states, we thought it would be good to get an overview of all the states. We learned the song "Fifty Nifty United States." What a great way to learn all the states in alphabetical order!
We made an American flag cake to celebrate the beginning of school...
The boys made topographical maps of the US...
We created a bulletin board of the regions of the US to post above our country map...
Learned about square mileage using square inches...
And managed to have some fun along the way!
We were even able to keep this little angel happy and clean!

These cheeks get lots of kisses throughout the day!

Westward Ho! Trailblazing Pioneers

2011-08-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

We started school two weeks ago and this year's school theme is: Westward Ho! Trailblazing Pioneers. It started off as a California History year, but when we found out the Christensens were moving to Utah (sob, sob!), we decided to turn it into a study of the western states. We introduced it to the kids by heading up to "Mormon Rocks"-a place founded by early Mormon pioneers in our area- and going on a little hike. As we hiked we stopped to tell stories of real pioneers and some of the lifeskills they needed to be successful on their journey.
Afterward, the kids each choose a western state that they will become an "expert" on by the end of the year. Tanner chose Idaho and Hunter chose Montana. We are excited to trailblaze through this school year!

The Big Boys

The Little Boys

I try not to be biased, but... These are my favorite two Trailblazers!

These trailblazers spent a day in the Channel Islands the day before starting school. Can't wait to explore more of California and the West this year!

Toothless Tanner

2011-08-13T10:13:00.000-07:00

Two Months

2011-08-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

On Monday, I turned two months old! I am such a good girl for my mommy. I have a very predictable schedule. I wake up, eat for about fifteen minutes, "play" happily for about 30 minutes, and then I fuss a little. My mommy soothes me by swaddling and rocking me for a bit, then I go to sleep. I sleep until I am ready to start the pattern all over again. At night I sleep about 4-5 hours at a time, although once I slept from 10:30 to 5:30 and my mom was really happy with me after that! When I am awake, I do spend a lot of time spitting up. I just want to make sure my mom doesn't slack on her laundry job and I get to wear all the cute clothes I have!

Look how big I am getting...

all 8 pounds and 14 ounces of me!

* On Friday at my doctor's appointment, I weighed 9 lbs, 3 oz and was 21 3/4 inches long. I am in the 25th percentile for both height and weight, which is not bad considering I wasn't even on that chart at birth!

Poor Baby!

2011-08-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry,this is a long post!
Thursday evening Charity was not acting like herself. She screamed when I changed a diaper or tried to give her a bath and wouldn't sleep well. At about 1 am she felt hot to me. I took her temperature and it was 101. Tanner had been sick earlier in the week with a viral infection- he had a slight fever and was sleepy. It only lasted like 12 hours. Ladd had also been sick with a sore throat and was on antibiotics for it. I figured Charity must have picked up something from them and figured it was Tanner's since it didn't seem like her throat was sore (she was eating OK). So, I didn't feel like it was an emergency but did take her to see the doctor on Friday. By the time she saw the doctor her temperature was down and she was not as fussy. I was certain she must have just had what Tanner had and was already getting over it.

Well, the doctor said I needed to rush her to the ER and have a lot of tests done-some of them sounded rather invasive to me. As I was driving to the ER, I was tempted to just go home. My baby was getting better so why would I want to expose her to the ER and all of those tests? But, I figured I better go and at least see what the ER doctor had to say about it. He told me that a baby that young who has a fever that high, could have meningitis, which could cause permanent damage or even be fatal. He said 10-15 per cent of babies that come in with a fever have meningitis so it is important to test them all. So, they did a million tests on my poor baby, the worst being the spinal tap. This is where they take fluid from the spinal cord to test for meningitis. I was still sure all of this would be unnecessary and we would be home in the morning. We were admitted to the hospital as we were waiting for test results.

When we got to our room, the nurse informed us that the Spinal Tap was positive and Charity did have meningitis. The room was on complete lock down, no visitors(except Ladd and I) and only the nurse and doctors were allowed in the room and they were all guarded with masks and gloves when they did come in. The nurse began to explain to us that Meningitis was a disease that people get when either a virus or bacteria enters the spinal fluid. It can put pressure on the brain and cause fevers, headaches, and stiffnecks. Bacterial Meningitis is more extreme and can cause permanent damage to the central nervous system. Babies can be exposed to a virus or bacteria and instead of fighting it off like we do, their body doesn't know what to do with it and the germ gets into their spinal fluid. Now that we knew Charity had meningitis, we had to wait to find out whether it was bacterial or viral. We had had a viral and a bacterial infection in our house that week, so it was very nerve wrecking.

By Saturday, the doctors were pretty sure it was viral-a relief-but that Charity's white blood cell count was super low, so we would probably still need to be in the hospital for 7 days. By Sunday they were certain it was viral and took her off of the antibiotics they had put her on to fight off a bacterial infection. Her white blood count was still super low but we were relieved it was a viral infection. They also started to let visitors come. The grandparents were grateful for this! By Monday, they were a little concerned about a urine test, but when she repeated it, it was perfect and her white blood cell count had gone back to a better level, so they let her go home! We were pleasantly surprised.

This weekend reminded us of just how blessed we are. Ladd and his dad were able to give Charity a priesthood blessing in the ER on Friday, Ladd's family and our ward fasted for Charity, and countless people prayed for her. I know that this is why everything was able to go so smoothly once we got into the hospital. We know that the Lord answered our prayers and blessed our baby girl. I knew that my boys were well taken care of while I was gone and I didn't need to worry about them at all. My mom even spent all day Monday disinfecting our house so that I would not have to do it when we got home. She even did all of our laundry! We are truly surrounded by people who are willing to go the extra mile to show their love for our family. I am so grateful for all the amazing people in my life and for the ever outstretched hand of our loving Heavenly Father.

Charity was all smiles when she was back at home on Monday night!

New Normal

2011-07-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

At six weeks postpartum, you are supposed to feel "normal" again. Well, I have never felt normal 6 weeks after having a baby and it used to get me down. This time I realized its a new normal. If I want the 2 kid normal feeling back, I would have to give the third one back and I am way too in love with her to do that. So, we are happily adjusting to our new normal. I have tried getting out of the house a bit more for my sanity and that of my boys. I am planning to slowly get back into a workout routine soon and hopefully back into a few of my pants. Here are a few things that helped us to approach our new normal this week:

Swimming Lessons!

Hunter loved his lessons, thought he was brave enough to go off the diving board on the last day, but decided it was a little out of his comfort zone and preferred the splash pad instead.

Tanner thought learning to dive was great fun and loved going down the slide on the last day.

They both enjoyed the hot shower after their lessons! And I loved that they were showered and in their jammies by the time we were home from swimming!

Circus

We were able to go to the Circus with Maquel, Chelsea, and kids this year. Don't worry, I didn't take my month old baby to stands with sticky cotton candy stuck to the seat and strangers all around. We had a box seat(thanks to Grandpa Hoyal!) all to ourselves. The circus was o.k., but the kids still had fun and it gave us some free air conditioning for a few hours.

Hunter excited for Circus to start before deciding that it was "too long". (Yes, 2 hours and 20 minutes is a bit of a long circus act!)

Another New Baby Girl!

My cousin, Kathy, is pregnant with her first baby. A baby girl due in November. We are so excited for Kathy and Leto and know they will make great parents. We are sad that they live in Brazil so we won't get to see her as often as we would like. I went to a shower for Kathy since she is spending some time here in the US before she becomes a mommy. Kathy is the one in the middle with the lay(sp?). I look more pregnant than her!
I realize this is one of those awkward newborn pictures, but I wanted to get a picture of Charity in her party dress she wore to the shower, because it just maybe the last time she fits in it! I love the pink fluff! She has been a trooper getting lugged around in her carseat as we attempt to be normal again. Her new normal includes lots of spitting up, more wakeful times during the day, and smiling!!

Well, I am off to bed as every minute of sleep is important these days!

"Lego Fun"

2011-07-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

The boys love their sister and Tanner, especially, is always trying to find ways to entertain her. His favorite is to do little shows for her out of his Legos whenever she gets a diaper change. If she is getting changed, he drops everything and says "Time for Lego Fun!" She watches with enthusiasm!

Charity has developed some very kissable cheeks!

Hunter gets in on the Lego fun sometimes too!

Love!

2011-07-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

I LOVE this sweet girl, I LOVE these beautiful pictures of her, and I LOVE my talented and fun friend, Stacey, who took them. (Click here for her photography blog!) Charity was 16 days old when these were taken. Enjoy the LOVE!

This one reminds me of what I looked like as a baby...

All worn out after all that sleeping during the photo shoot!

One Month Old!

2011-07-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

Our pretty girl is one month old today! She weighs 6 pounds and 15 ounces. She is awake during the day much more now and will sleep about 3 hours at a time at night. Here is a picture with her doll at one month...
And her she is with the same doll at one week...
What a difference a few weeks can make when you are so tiny!

Happy Fourth of July!

2011-07-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

We celebrated the Fourth by swimming, eating, and chatting at Heidi's house. Then we went home, where fireworks are still allowed, and the kids did sparklers and watched our neighbors Explosive Fireworks show. We all had a good time and are all very tired today!

Our sweet little "American Beauty" was very patriotic with her red, white, and blue tu-tu! She loved being held all day yesterday at the BBQ!

Happy Independence Day!

Truly Blessed

2011-06-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

We feel so blessed! Charity is three weeks today. She has been busy sleeping, eating, and spitting up. We are so blessed to have a healthy, happy baby, wonderful friends and family who have been so helpful these past weeks, and to have two boys who love their baby sister!

Sweet Little Charity

2011-06-21T21:57:00.000-07:00

Charity will be two weeks tomorrow and is doing great! We took her into the doctor today and her jaundice is at a normal level for her age and the nurse was quite impressed with her weight gain. She is 5 pounds 7 ounces, which is 10 ounces more than her birth weight. Most babies get back to their birth weight at two weeks, so she is gaining really well. She is a little more wakeful now and is content when she is awake. At night, she sleeps better than my boys did as newborns. She just seems happy to be here and we are happy she is here too!
I am doing pretty well. This has definitely been my best recovery, probably because it was my worst pregnancy and my body is just happy to not be pregnant anymore! We are all adjusting to life with a third child. The boys are making sure they still get plenty of attention, even though that attention is not always positive. I have been very grateful to those who have helped entertain my boys in the last two weeks-it has given me much needed breaks! I know we will get our rhythm again, in time.

Great Grandma and Aunt Debbie came to see Charity this week...

The Bow

The pink bow on Charity's head has been there since birth. They plopped it right on top of her head as soon as she was born. Some kind of surgical ointment kept it on until Monday, when we could give her a bath. I like bows, but this one was seriously smack dab in the middle of her head so I was happy to see it come off!

Charity's First Week

2011-06-16T22:02:00.000-07:00

What a week it has been! Charity has been such an angel baby and we absolutely love her! She had a lot of visitors in the hospital and then once we got home. We feel so blessed to have so many people nearby who love and support us.

These three got to see her more than I did right after her birth-I was jealous!

Cuddling with Grandma Hoyal

Grandma Cook has been very busy taking care of me and my family this week! Thanks mom!

Monica drove in from Vegas as soon as she heard Charity was coming. She has been here for all of my kids births!

Grandpa Cook is proud of his sweet granddaughter!

Uncle Brett and Aunt Chelsea came to see Charity in the hospital and have been super helpful throughout the week.

Charity turned yellow on us and almost landed back in the hospital with jaundice, but luckily we were able to get it out of her system before her levels got too high. Other than that, she has been a perfect baby. She eats and sleeps and looks around every once in awhile. She hardly ever cries and seems really easy going. Have I mentioned we love her to pieces??

In the Hospital

Family of Five-Home from the hospital

Our Little Muffin

Charity loves looking in the mirror during diaper changes and sponge baths!

Sleeping in bassinet. Tanner is always giving her toys so she can see them as soon as she wakes up.

Charity- One Week Old

A sister...

2011-06-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

The boys love having a sister. The day Charity was born, Tanner told his friends at Cub Scout Camp that he was the luckiest kid there because he was getting a baby sister. He also said holding Charity is more fun than playing the Wii. He is always asking to hold her and wants to be informed whenever she is awake.
Hunter loves her too, sometimes too much. He likes the job of trying to keep her awake while I feed her by rubbing her back or tickling her toes. He said "Charity is so cute, but I don't really like to play with her." He also informed me that he only likes to hold her when her clothes are on.

Surprise, Charity is here!

2011-06-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

Introducing the newest love in our lives...

Charity Ann Hoyal

June 8, 2011
9:44am
4 lbs. 12 oz. 17 3/4 inches

The Story...
I woke up last Wed. morning at about 4:30 feeling a little wet. I thought, this can't be my water breaking, I heard it was a lot more than that. Then another gush of wetness. Then I stood up-there went the big gush I always heard about! I knew that Charity would be here sooner than expected! My mom came over to stay with the boys and by 5:30 I was at the hospital getting prepped for surgery. I was having mild contractions and they gave me a shot to stop them. The baby was head down and since I wasn't in active labor, they were not in a big hurry to do my c-section. My mom and mother-in-law made it to the hospital to see me before I went into the operating room. The c-section went well, just a shaky (I shake from the moment I get into the operating room until they wheel me out) and emotional mother. She was absolutely beautiful and Ladd and I were both so happy.

They took Charity away to the nursery while I got stapled up and sent to recovery. Our previous babies were born at a different hospital where the baby never leaves the mother, so not having my baby with me in recovery was weird. Apparently it effected my heart because my blood pressure was super high while in recovery and didn't go down until they finally brought me our baby to the room!

After about two hours I finally got to hold my beautiful little girl! And she is beautiful. Very femine, big blue eyes, and a little light colored hair on top. Ladd was with her the whole time in the nursery and he kept saying how mellow and calm she is. He was right! Charity is a perfect, small, healthy baby girl. We love her so much!

More to come...

Boy's Book Club Party

2011-06-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

I haven't planned much for this summer-considering I will spend most of my time nursing a little one. But, I thought I would like to do one cub scout activity a week with the boys. So, when I saw that planning and implementing a party was something Tanner could earn a badge for, I decided to take advantage of it! I wanted to have a fun final Boy's Book Club, so we turned it into a party that Tanner helped plan.

The boys got to choose their own book to read this time and try to sell it to the rest of the boys as a book they should read this summer. It was fun to see the different types of books each boy chose. Tanner chose Kidpreneurs: Young Entrepreneurs with Big Ideas. He was so excited about this book and has already written a business plan for his chore business "Simple Jobs".

We made Shrinky Dink bookmarks for the boys to use for all the books they will be reading this summer.

Tanner chose to serve pizza, fruit, and root beer for lunch. All "dude" food I guess! Then, Tanner planned a Water Balloon Fight! Nothing to do with reading, but fun nonetheless! As part of the cub scout requirement, Tanner had to make a gift for all the guests at his party. He decided to write a book about Lego guys at Book Club. Each boy got a copy of Tanner's book as they left. It was a fun few hours.

I am excited to do Boys Book Club next year, and to start one for Hunter's friends. We are so, so sad that we will be losing one of our Book Club friends to Utah next year. We will miss Dallin, not to mention his whole family!

Did's and Didn'ts of last week

2011-05-30T04:05:00.000-07:00

I did manage to keep our last week of school much less stressful than years past. We did:
-go to our last day of PE class (soccer)...

-go to the Redlands temple grounds to talk about the importance of family history work...

-have a last day of school celebration at the park with friends where we reviewed what we learned through the year with a game of Time Detective Jeopardy and an ancient coin dig.

We didn't get in our annual Open House for school this year, but we did show off our school room and some of our work to grandparents who stop by!

Pictures of our completed school room:

Creation Board

Time Detective Journals

"Mount Olympus" and Time Line

Ancient Culture Lap Books

I didn't manage to sleep well all week. (notice time that this was posted!!)

I did make it to my 36 week doctors appointment. Here we learned that the baby is small for her gestational age and she is breech. I didn't seem concerned about a breech baby, since I will have a c-section no matter what. But, my doctor did seem a bit concerned, apparently it can turn into an emergency if your water breaks with a breech baby. I have been having irregular contractions all week, so my doctor did recommend getting an off work order (we all know mom's don't really ever get out of "work"), staying off my feet, and drinking lots of water to keep baby in for a little longer.

Ladd and I didn't have any kids with us when we celebrated our ten year anniversary with a nice quiet dinner out. :)

We did celebrate my dad's birthday with a yummy dinner, cake, and ice cream. We didn't manage to get any pictures though because my eldest child, who knows he is not allowed to play with Mom's camera but thought he could handle it, did manage to break our brand new camera right before the celebration. :(

The boys didn't seem to mind that school is over for the summer, and neither did their mom. We are ready for a little break before our life gets flipped upside down with a baby!

Words of Wisdom, by Tanner

2011-05-25T19:42:00.001-07:00

"I found out the key to happiness. Be nice to your brother and your mom will let you play the Wii longer. Oh, and it feels good to be nice."

"Now that I am 8, I need 'dude' food, like french fries and root beer."

Wii and junk food, we are off to healthy summer...

Nothing like...

2011-05-25T07:30:00.000-07:00

A Man in Uniform!
He wanted pictures of the entire thing:

Tanner started Cub Scouts this month. He LOVES it. He is always bouncing off the walls when he gets home from his meetings-he is filled with excitement. Last night was his first Pack meeting, where he got to wear his uniform and get some awards! He earned his Bobcat and a few other physical fitness awards. I even got a pin because he earned his Bobcat! I am glad the Boy Scouts organization recognizes that mothers have a lot to do with their sons achievements! Any Boy Scout moms out there have a creative way to store those pins?
His pack leader gave a cute lesson about the importance of staying physically active over the summer and the boys did an obstacle course against the parents. Good thing Ladd was there to represent us, because I am really not all that fit right now!

Hooray for Cub Scouts!

Family History

2011-05-18T15:05:00.000-07:00

Our final unit of our Time Detectives theme for school this year is Family History. We thought that after studying ancient history, it would be fun to study history that was a little closer to home.

We learned that the best way to learn about Family History is to talk to someone in your family who has lived for a long time. So, I took the boys to my Grandma's house today. Tanner had prepared an interview with her. He did a great job. And, it was fun for me to hear her stories too. I love my Grandma and am so grateful that my kids have such a wonderful great grandma in their lives. She has always been a great example to me. I am so glad we got the interview on video, as I know it is something we will cherish. Blogger couldn't seem to upload my video (maybe because it was too long?) so it's not on the blog. But, if anyone has advice on getting a longer video on the blog, please share!

I also taught a few genetics science classes to the kids where we learned about cells, chromosomes, and genes. It is fun learning about that with siblings who each show family traits, yet all have their individual look.

Making Model Chromosomes...

Getting Ready for Baby...

2011-05-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

My wonderful sister in law, Chelsea, had a shower for me a few weeks ago. It was for family and friends from church. Charity got so spoiled with tons of adorable clothes, pink blankets, and HAIR ACCESSORIES! I am so excited for bows and headbands and cute little dresses. Having a girl will be fun-although I will certainly need some instruction on how to do hair. Anyways, I wanted to post the pictures I took of the decorations before the shower started. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the guests as my hands were too full with yummy food or gifts and couldn't get any pictures. Thanks for a great time Chelsea!

The baby pictures in these picture frames are of me! Maybe a little preview of what Charity will look like? A friend in my ward provided a lot of the decorations. She has a boutique with the CUTEST girls clothes that you can check out here.

And here are a few pics of the soon to be big brothers. Now, what will Charity look like?

Sparkling Big Baby Blue Eyes?

Or Melt Your Heart Brown with lashes that never end?

Good thing they are both as cute as can be!

Beethoven's Fifth

2011-05-16T08:29:00.000-07:00

Preschool Graduation

2011-05-13T12:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Hunter's preschool did a little graduation program. It was super cute. The kids sang the songs they had learned throughout the year, wore graduation caps, and had cake. Sweet and simple, just the way a preschool graduation should be!

We have loved Miss Kristine and all that she has done to make this a great year for Hunter. She made cute little scrapbooks for all the kids, which I will treasure! Hunter was so proud to show me everything in it! Thanks Miss Kristine for all the patience and fun throughout the year!

Blah.

2011-05-11T17:33:00.000-07:00

Last Friday when I went to the doctor, she informed me that she would be out of town the week we had scheduled my c-section. So, she pushed it back a week. Now Charity is due to be born on June 22, the day before my actual due date. I really don't want to be pregnant an extra week, but I guess it's good to let the baby cook as long as possible. But, I have a feeling I will not make it that long. I'm pretty miserable and don't think I will be getting better in the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy. Not that there is anything wrong, I am just really uncomfortable with lots of swelling and my pinched nerve and pubic bone still hurt a lot when I do anything physical. I am not sleeping well and today had a miserable headache all afternoon. I've never gone into labor before, but I am really hoping this little girl decides on her own to come a little early!

Eight is Great!

2011-05-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my little 4 pound miracle baby turned 8! Tanner is no longer a four pound baby, he is an ever growing (and eating), eight year old bundle of energy and enthusiasm. He is constantly on the go and never stops moving. He is a very intense, passionate person who takes whatever he is doing seriously. He loves to learn new things, loves to talk, and can make friends wherever he goes. He thinks his purpose in life is to make people laugh, which can get him into trouble sometimes! I have grown so much as a person because Tanner is in my life. He really has taught me a lot and I know I have much more to learn from him. We love him and are so happy to have him in our family.
We believe that at 8 years old, children have reached the age of accountability and can grasp the meaning of Baptism. So, Tanner chose to get baptized yesterday on his birthday! We are so proud of him and know that entering the waters of baptism, and keeping the covenants made there, will bring him happiness throughout his life.
As a mother, there are so many things that only you can do for your child. I am so glad Heavenly Father has allowed a few things that only a father can do for his children, like the ordinance of Baptism and giving the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was so neat for Ladd to be able to baptize Tanner and bless him with the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I loved watching the two of them participate in these sacred ordinances together. They both were so handsome in their white clothes.

Tanner with Grandpa Cook, Aunt Monica, and a red-faced Mom
I had intentions of getting a lot of other family pictures after the baptism, but as I mentioned earlier, Tanner is a face paced person and didn't have much time to hang around taking pictures!

Most of our family were in attendance, and I am so grateful for all of this support. We let Tanner choose who did what at the Baptism, and it was cute to see who he picked to participate. He wanted Grandpa Hoyal and Uncle Mike to be the witnesses of the baptism, his Aunt Jayme to give a talk, Aunt Lawni to say the opening prayer and Uncle Brett to say the closing prayer. All of the willing cousins sang a song. Willing cousins translated to girls that are old enough, and Tanner. They did a great job, thanks to the help of Maquel and Jayme. When we asked Tanner how he felt when he got baptized, he said he felt good and warm inside. A quote from his journal says his baptism was "spiritual, and fun, and awesome." Spoken like a true 8 year old boy. It was a wonderful day and I hope one that Tanner will always remember.

The "singers" practicing at our house prior to Baptism

We had a Birthday Luncheon for Tanner at our house right before the Baptism. It was nice to have lots of friends and family there. All the kids had fun running around the house and eating the cute Lego cake my mom made.

Yesterday was a great day and we are so happy to have a new member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in our family!
Happy Birthday Tanner!

Trip to Sacramento

2011-05-04T17:49:00.000-07:00

Ladd is working all week in Sacramento, so we decided to go up for a few nights too! We all left early Sunday morning and the boys and I drove home all day today. I really felt horrible last week and was a little worried about going on vacation, but I thought not cooking, cleaning, or worrying about the BIG weekend I have coming up would be good for me. It was. I didn't even mind sitting in a car that much because it meant lots of time sitting! We had a nice, relaxing time.

On the drive up, we tried to be good and go to Church in Fresno, but it turns out they were having Stake Conference, so we couldn't find a ward to go to. But, we did get pictures in front of the Fresno temple and we did a little mini church service in the car. Tanner spoke about pioneers (because they traveled lots of miles and so were we) and Hunter spoke about the resurrection. Easter must have still been on his mind.

On Monday, while Ladd was working hard, I took the boys to Sutter's Fort and an Indian Museum. The boys each earned an arrowhead for completing a scavenger hunt at the Indian Museum. We saw this cute duck family in the pond outside of the Indian Museum:

Sutter's Fort:

I think these are a cool cowboy faces.

Tuesday we spent at the Capitol Building. We had driven by on Monday but the place was crawling with policemen on motorcycles, horses, on foot, millions of police cars, etc. Streets were blocked off. The boys were very impressed with all this police activity and played "Capitol Spies" the whole time we were in Sacramento. It turned out that there was a special program at the capitol honoring all fallen police officers. It was much easier to get to the building on Tuesday. It was fun seeing the assembly room and senate room. The boys were impressed with the two highway patrol stationed in front of the Governors office.

Protecting the Governor

Then, we headed over to Old Sacramento. We started at the Military Museum, as this was the boys first choice. They really got into taking pictures in front of the exhibits:

We also went to the Sacramento History Museum and the Old School House. The Old School was so cute. Tanner was appalled that boys would get lashing for playing with girls. We really liked spending the day in Old Sacramento!

After Ladd would get home from work, we would fit in time for swimming at the hotel's indoor pool, running threw the water at this cute little park near our hotel,

and of course enjoying a few meals out!

We hit two traveling milestones on the trip: boys shared a bed (we've never attempted this in fear they would never sleep, or kick each other so much in the middle of the night that they wouldn't get any sleep-but it worked out perfectly!) and only needing to stop once on an 8 hour trip. I usually try to break up long trips a bit more but with good books to listen to on CD, the boys did great! I guess they are getting easier to travel with. Good thing we are starting all over again with a baby!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-27T17:13:00.001-07:00

We hope you all had a nice Easter Sunday! I did not put a lot into it this year (i.e. decorations, activities leading up to it, coloring eggs, etc) so when I put my kids to bed on Saturday night and said, "You better get to bed so the Easter Bunny can come," my kids looked at me in shock. "The Easter Bunny is coming tonight?" So sad. Oh well, only 7 more weeks until this pregnancy is over and I will hopefully feel human again.
Here is what we did accomplish on Easter Sunday:
The kids woke up to a note from the Easter Bunny talking about how the empty Easter baskets they left out represented the empty tomb found on the first Easter morning. The Easter Bunny had taken the baskets and filled them with fun things so that we can always remember all the blessings we have because of the Atonement and Resurrection.
Then the boys found their baskets!
The Easter Bunny also left us yummy muffins that we enjoyed while learning about the Atonement.

We went to church and had a nice time. Although, later in this week I ran into a friend from church and she asked how I was doing. She said in a very nice way that I did not look good on Sunday. Apparently I am not hiding the way I feel very well. 7 more weeks-I can do this!

After Church, we went to my in laws for a family picture, a yummy dinner, and an egg hunt.
Can you tell who is missing from this Hoyal family portrait? Even on Easter, members of the Bishopric have things to do after church and don't always get to things in a timely manner. Good thing his little look alike was there:
I guess I could of stayed home too because I had a look alike in the picture:
I got one picture of the egg hunt before my swollen butterfingers dropped my camera and it crashed down onto the cement. It is totally broken and costs at least $160 to fix, not including shipping. I opted to just get a new camera for the same price instead of paying that much to fix an old one.

Happy Easter to all!

"My Heart is Overwhelmed with Excitement!"

2011-04-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

That is what I heard from the backseat as we were driving to the beach yesterday. And I think Tanner's anticipation was not in vain, as everyone had a great day at the beach!
Back in December, our school group won a pizza party at the Discovery Cube Museum's Gingerbread Contest. So, we scheduled our pizza party (which was at a pizza place in Santa Ana) and then headed to the beach. It was raining at home so I figured we wouldn't last long at the beach, but it turned out to be absolutely beautiful.

The kids built a giant sand castle that kept them busy for literally hours.

The three amigos were all cute on the blanket, but one of them hopped up and ran away as soon as he saw the camera coming shouting "No pictures!" It is so hard being such a cute four year old with a paparazzi mom.

We also stopped by my sister-in-laws new place in Tustin. Now all of Ladd's siblings live in So. Cal. We are so glad they are closer now and a little jealous that they are like 15 minutes from the beach! So fun!

Egg Drop Contest

On Wednesday we had an egg drop experiment at the park. Tanner's egg, wrapped in clay, then a diaper, then placed snugly in a plastic container with a plastic bag as a parachute survived all the drops!

Hunter was very adamant about doing his egg with no help. He put waxed paper in a plastic container and also used a plastic bag for a parachute. The wax paper didn't protect the egg as well as Hunter had hoped. He was heart broken when his egg cracked on the first drop.
Luckily Suzanne, who is always prepared for anything, presented Hunter with a scrambled egg award and all was well.

Showing off his award-Peeps to the rescue!

Budget Crisis

2011-04-15T10:43:00.001-07:00

I have been frustrated listening to the news about our government "leaders" trying to balance an out of control budget. I think most of us do our best to live within our means and not get in over our heads on purchases. Why can't our elected officials do the same? Ughh. It drives me crazy. Every time I hear anything about the budget crisis, I have a very strong feeling that we need to get our own house in order and be prepared for anything! Anyways, I got this email today from my sister in law and thought I would share:

This young Dr. hit the nail right on the head!!!

Pictured below is a young physician by the name of Dr. Starner Jones. His short two-paragraph letter to the White House accurately puts the blame on a "Culture Crisis" instead of a "Health Care Crisis". It's worth a quick read:

Dear Mr. President:

During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone. While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"!

During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.

And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.

Respectfully,

STARNER JONES, MD

Random Kid Comments

2011-04-09T08:29:00.000-07:00

Since Tanner is part of a publicly funded Charter School, he still gets to take the state standardized tests each year. He takes them next week so we have been preparing for it a lot the last few weeks. The other day, after taking a practice test, he said, "I feel like my head is swimming with school." Poor kid. No wonder kids are getting burnt out from school at an early age-it's these stinking tests! Luckily the tests will be over on Wednesday and we won't have to worry about test prep for awhile!

Before being set straight, Hunter said, "Daddy's have boy babies and Mommies have girl babies." Although I think that is a GREAT idea, I don't think there would be very many boys in the world if that were true!

When in Rome...

2011-04-07T13:41:00.001-07:00

We just finished our study of Rome. Tanner had to miss our Roman culture day we did with friends due to sickness, so we improvised at home! Here are a few more things we did to bring this ancient culture to life:

Learning about, and then tasting the Mediterranean triad (olive oil, which the carrots were cooked in, grapes, and wheat, made into flat bread here!)

Learning to play Knucklebones, a common game Ancient Roman kids played. The boys loved this game, it is very similar to jacks.

Tanner made a lapbook to display some of the things he has learned about Rome. Lapbooks are a great way for kids to show what they learned about a certain subject and make for a fun way to organize all their work.

We also added a few mini murals to our timeline as we went. Hannibal crossing the Alps during the Punic Wars, the birth of Jesus, Attila the Hun attacks Rome, and Mount Vesuvius erupts. Hunter likes to help with these murals, that is why we have a firefighter flying up to Mt. Vesuvius to put out the fire! Very creative and thoughtful.

The Wise Roman Soldier

What did you do this weekend?

2011-04-04T15:49:00.000-07:00

I got to relax at home with my family and watch General Conference!

Every six months our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, gathers together for a conference where our church leadership uplift and enlighten us through the good word of God. Of course this is a worldwide church so the gathering takes place at the church headquarters in Salt Lake City, and church buildings throughout the world, and in homes where the conference is broadcast. I always feel so good after conference and have a greater desire to renew my relationship with Christ.

I loved Elder Lynn G. Robbins talk about parenting. He gave great advice about teaching children Christ like attributes that I have already implemented today! I love getting inspired ideas that help me raise my children to the Lord.

For anyone who missed it, or would like to learn more, the following are highlights are from The First Presidency of our church, that I just took straight from the church website. Enjoy!

The President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and his two counselors, sustained by millions worldwide as prophets, seers, and revelators, addressed various gospel-oriented topics during the 181^st annual general conference of the Church at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on April 2-3, 2011. Here are some of the highlights.

President Monson

“My brothers and sisters, I thank you for your faith and devotion to the gospel, for the love and care you show to one another, and for the service you provide in your wards, branches, and stakes and districts,” President Monson said in his opening remarks, recounting the temple and missionary work, as well as humanitarian service, that has been done in the Church over the past few months.

He announced plans to build three new temples in Fort Collins, Colorado; Meridian, Idaho; and Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. This will bring the number of temples announced or under construction to 26 and, once completed, will bring the Church’s worldwide total to 160.

President Monson spoke to priesthood holders about their responsibilities, saying, “What will protect you from the sin and evil around you? I maintain that a strong testimony of our Savior and of His gospel will help see you through to safety.”

In his Sunday morning address, he emphasized the importance of temples, declaring, “The saving ordinances received in the temple that permit us to someday return to our Heavenly Father in an eternal family relationship and to be endowed with blessings and power from on high are worth every sacrifice and every effort.”

At the conclusion of the conference, he said, “We face many challenges in the world today, but I assure you that our Heavenly Father is mindful of us. He loves each of us and will bless us as we seek Him through prayer and strive to keep His commandments.”

President Eyring

President Eyring related some of the guiding principles of the welfare program, now 75 years old, saying, “great temporal needs of the children of Heavenly Father have come again in our time as they have and as they will in all times. The principles at the foundation of the Church Welfare Program are not only for one time or one place. They are for all times and all places. Those principles are spiritual and eternal. For that reason, understanding them and putting them down into our hearts will make it possible for us to see and take opportunities to help whenever and wherever the Lord invites us.”

In the priesthood session, he promised priesthood holders that they would be rewarded for their diligence and obedience in the priesthood, saying, “Treasures of spiritual knowledge will be poured out upon you. You will grow in your power to resist evil and to proclaim the truth that leads to salvation. You will find joy in the happiness of those you lead toward exaltation. Your family will become a place of learning.”

A week earlier, addressing a general meeting of the Young Women, the Church’s organization for young women ages of 12-18, President Eyring stressed the need to develop a strong testimony. Telling the young women that they are “the bright hope of the Lord’s church,” he said, “If that belief can become a deep testimony from God, it will shape your daily and hourly choices. And then, from what might appear to you to be small choices, the Lord will lead you to the happiness you want.”

President Uchtdorf

President Uchtdorf advised Church members not to “wait on the road to Damascus” by expecting “some dramatic event to compel them to believe.” Diligent seekers of Christ will eventually find Him as they take small steps of faith that allow them to draw closer to Him. As we do this, we will be given opportunities to share the gospel and to serve others, and these opportunities will, in turn, help us know the Savior. “Let us courageously move forward in faith, hope, and charity, and we will be blessed with the light we are all seeking upon the path of true discipleship.”

In the general priesthood session, he asked priesthood holders if they are living below their privileges regarding the “sacred power, gifts, and blessings” that accompany the responsibility of bearing God’s priesthood. He offered three ways that priesthood holders could live up to their privileges: study the doctrine of the priesthood, seek personal revelation, and find joy in priesthood service. “As bearers of the priesthood, let us never become hardened to the wonder and awe of what the Lord has entrusted to us,” he said.

The First Presidency, along with the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who serve under their direction, are sustained by millions of Latter-day Saints worldwide as prophets, seers, and revelators who receive inspiration from God to direct the affairs of His Church today. Their messages are intended not only for members of the Church but for all of Heavenly Father’s children throughout the world.

BIG

2011-04-03T21:46:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Tanner looked at me and said, "Your nose looks big." Yes, just like everything else about me, my nose has gotten bigger as well. I have had a stuffy nose for about a month now, this is apparently due to an excess of hormones running rapid throughout my body. It is so stuffy and I blow my nose so much that my nose is swollen. So along with the excessive oil that these hormones are producing, the pregnancy mask also caused by hormones, and a swollen nose, I am looking pretty hot these days. And the other day, somebody asked me if I was going to get pregnancy pictures done, I just laughed.

Luckily, there are two men in my life who tell me daily that I am beautiful (Ladd and Hunter), so maybe I will make it through these last few months with a little self esteem in tact!

Golf Tournament Number 2

2011-03-30T21:48:00.001-07:00

Tanner had his second golf tournament on Saturday. It was a cold day for golf-but it seems like all the kids still had fun!

Tanner's Foursome with their coach

We are so proud of Tanner-he tied for third place with a score of 30! His division only plays 5 holes, hence the score of 30. He has been practicing his golf swing and putting in the backyard everyday for the last few months and apparently it paid off! Since it was a tie and there was only one third place trophy for his division, they had a "card off". The kid who got the best hole first wins. The other kid got the best hole first, so Tanner did not go home with the trophy. But, he seemed pretty satisfied with the donut we got for him on the way home. To him, a donut beats a trophy anyday!

Warming up with Dad on Driving Range

Tee Off! Go Tanner!

Tanner's Cheerleaders!

It was a good day for Tanner and I am glad his practice paid off!

My pride and joy...

2011-03-19T14:17:00.000-07:00

Tanner

Tanner has been so self motivated this whole school year. He wakes up each morning, gets dressed, does all of his independent work like math review, calendar, piano practice, Rosetta Stone Spanish lesson, his morning chores, and reading without my EVER having to ask him. He learned that it makes the rest of the day go much smoother and he gets more playtime when all of this work is done up front. He is amazing and I am so grateful for his great work ethic.

Hunter

This little one lights up my life each day. "Mom, you are so beautiful" or "I love you, cutie pie" are phrases he will often say out of blue. Often accompanied by a hug around the leg or a kiss to my ever growing belly. He had a really long doctors appointment (just a check up) this week and he was so good. Lots of shots and blood drawn and waiting around involved and not a single tear. Such a brave boy. Here he is swinging (he can pump himself now with a good starter push!), one of his favorite activities.

My sweet boy

2011-03-10T19:34:00.000-08:00

Hunter was being really quiet this afternoon, so I went upstairs to look for him. This is what I found:
He was fast asleep in my bed!

Pregnancy Update

2011-03-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged much about this pregnancy so here it goes:

How baby is doing:
As far as we can tell, the baby is doing great and I can feel her dancing early in the mornings and late at night. I hope this is not a sign of when she will have her "wakeful" times once she gets here! She is not nearly as active as the boys were and am hoping this is a sign of things to come! We are naming her Charity Ann and the boys refer to her as Charity all the time. Charity because we think it is cute and hope she will develop that quality throughout her life, and Ann after one of the best Grandma's in the world, Ruth Ann. My C-section is scheduled for June 16. This will be my third C-section, but my first planned one. I really don't like being cut open and dealing with all that, but it is nice to know when we will have a baby! Currently we have a Hoyal-look-alike and a Cook look-alike, so we are very curious to see what this third one looks like!

How her mama is doing:
This has been my least favorite pregnancy. Nothing major, just inconveniences that are not fun. I don't know if it is because I am getting older, or because it is a girl. I was nauseous off and on with the boys the whole pregnancy, but this one has been worse. It is tapering off a bit though as time goes by, so I am grateful for that. I also developed a pinched nerve in my left leg. For about a month walking was quite painful and by about 5pm I was done for the day and could hardly move. I kept trying to do Yoga and water aerobics, as I thought a little exercise would help. But, it has gotten a lot better this last week since I stopped all exercise and try to limit what I do as much as possible. So, I am a lazy bum but at least I am not in as much pain anymore! I am already planning my workout plans after I have recovered from my c-section as I know I am going to need it! I have definitely gained some womanly curves that I never had with the other two, even while nursing! With every pregnancy I get a lovely pregnancy mask. Tanner's was barely visible, Hunter's was really bad (on my upper lip and eyebrows), and this time it is on spots on my cheeks and forehead. I look like a leopard. (Hence the reason I do not keep a photo journal of my pregnancies!) I haven't really been craving any food, other than juice, but even the thought of pizza makes me want to throw up! I am sleeping really well right now and hope that continues for a few more months!

So there you have it, my pregnancy in a nutshell!

Are you serious?

2011-03-03T21:29:00.000-08:00

All within a few weeks time, we have a leaky shower, a laptop that won't connect to the internet anymore, a copier that has just been making fat black lines through the paper, three tiles on our kitchen island decided to crack and then pop off, leaving behind a beautiful chunk of cement, and a few broken sprinklers. All week I've been feeling like our house is falling apart and then I walked into the kitchen tonight and our somewhat new dishwasher was making an atrociously loud grinding noise! I checked and couldn't find any culprit behind this noise, so who knows what the problem is. So much for a new van to fit our third child in!

Is this week already over?

2011-02-26T21:34:00.000-08:00

The weeks have been going by quickly lately, which I am grateful for! Here are a few pictures I captured this week:

Writer's Workshop
I started teaching a Writer's Workshop this semester once a week. There are only three boys in the class which is GREAT! All those things I always wanted to do for my students when I was a public school teacher, but couldn't because of time, class size, etc, I can do for my Tanner and his two friends. I love teaching it and I think the boys are excited about writing! This week we built a Lego creation together and wrote an awesome descriptive paragraph about it.

Then, the boys got to build their own creation and show me what they knew about paragraphs by writing their own paragraphs describing their creations. I was very impressed with the writing results!
Roman Builders
We have been learning about Rome, and I am trying to focus on the positive parts of this civilization, like the amazing architecture and technology they discovered. So, we built our own little aquaduct.
Mixing the dough...

Rolling the dough...

Shaping the dough...

And the dough cooked and barely able to stand up! I think giant cement aqueducts work better than clay made out of flour and salt!

We also learned about the amazing engineering feat of building the first real road. So, the boys put together these little packets to remember the steps it takes to build a Roman road, some of which have lasted for over 2,000 years! Sorry it's sideways :(
More Lego Creations
Tanner made "the most awesome Lego robot" and he just had to get a picture of it! Cousin Brayden supported him in his Lego building pursuit.
I feel so blessed that I can have all these learning adventures with my boys everyday! My house may not be as clean as I like it with all our little projects going on, but we sure are making good memories together!

Mike is Married!

2011-02-21T15:43:00.001-08:00

My super cool cousin, Mike, got married on Saturday! (This is the cousin who has climbed all the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest where he saved someone's life right after he summited, has been to the highest place in each state in 50 days, and inspires inner city kids by teaching middle school science-seriously one cool guy!) Ladd and I drove up to the wedding in Cambria, about 5 hours north of here on Saturday morning. It was a quick trip for us but so fun to see family from all over the U.S.!

Cambria is a beautiful place where the weather is usually perfect-except on Saturday. The wedding was supposed to be outdoors, but there was literally a downpour of rain and everything took place inside. It was still beautiful and lots of fun though!
Mike and Amber will have lots of fun together! Mike also has two beautiful daughters now. They make beautiful family. We are so happy for them!
These mullet wigs were passed around and the wedding couple wore them while eating their first dinner together!

Uncle John, Aunt Cindy, (they are from Florida) my cousins Mike (Colorado) and Bridgette (Ohio)
Cousin Bridgette and I before the wedding
Cook Girls-we did not plan to match! We must have similar taste!
My mom's life long friends Judy and Glen (Wisconsin)

Party Time!
We love that Dave Letterman and his super fun wife Kathy (also from Wisconsin) were at our table!

We stayed at the "Big Red House" with my mom and Judy and Glen.

Here is the view (on Sunday when the sun was out, of course!) from the house:
Congratulations to Mike and Amber!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T21:39:00.000-08:00

Hunter showing off his homemade Valentine's to share with friends at preschool.

Tanner's "sweetheart" letter to Dad.

Learning to shoot an arrow just like Cupid!

Passing out Valentine's to some of our favorite homeschool friends.

Wishing everyone lots of Love this Valentine's Day!

Inspiring Video

2011-02-12T16:52:00.000-08:00

Rob "freight train" Morris played football while I was at BYU. Not that I knew him or anything, but I do remember blowing a train whistle when he was playing. Anyways, this is a great video that got me all choked up. It doesn't take much to bring tears to my eyes these days-especially when it involves babies!

Love those boys!

2011-02-09T19:05:00.000-08:00

Seems like everywhere we go there are lots of boys. We will be at the park playing, I'll look around and notice that 90% of the kids are boys. If you take a peek into both of my kids classes at church you would see 100% boys in Hunter's class and about 89% boys in Tanners. Lots of boys everywhere we go! Makes for fun times. Here is a recap of the fun we've had with my boys and their friends this week:

Boys Book Club
Magic Tree House: Revolutionary War on Wednesday
The boys played an energy filled game of Patriots vs. Redcoats, drew George Washington portraits, learned about weapons of the Revolutionary War, and of course discussed the book with excitement. Have I mentioned before that I love doing book club?

Dodge Ball and Park Fun
Tanner is in a PE class that is doing Dodge Ball this month! He absolutely loves it! But what kid doesn't? Dodge Ball was definitely my favorite recess activity as an elementary student. It was also my favorite game to play with my class when I taught fifth grade. There must be a mean streak in me somewhere that really enjoys this aggressive sport!

While the big ones play Dodge Ball, we take the little ones to the Duck pond at the park. Hunter was looking forward to eating lunch with the ducks. He saved his sandwich all day so he could eat while he was feeding the ducks.
After we ran out of bread for the ducks, the boys found this cement slide that they played on and laughed on forever. They thought it was so great to slide down something that was not meant to be a slide.

After PE class was over, the big kids joined us at the duck pond but were more interested in catching fish than feeding ducks. They spent a good 4o minutes circling the pond as a herd of boys trying to catch a fish with no rod or bait. Good thing they didn't catch anything because I certainly wouldn't know what to do with it!

I love my boys!

First Golf Tournament

2011-02-06T12:20:00.000-08:00

Tanner has been working hard the last month to prepare for his first golf tournament! Yesterday he participated in Claremont Golf Course's kids tournament. He may not have inherited his dad's math skills (see previous post), but he did acquire the love of golf gene! Don't ask me why I am encouraging my child to pursue a super expensive sport that takes a ton of time! But, it is a sport he is excited about and can play with his dad, so I don't mind so much.

Warming up with a bucket of balls

Dad, Grandpa Hoyal, and Grandpa Cook showing him how its done at the chipping range

His coach, Ed (the most patient man I know), and the rest of his class.

Tee off time!

And he's off! They played 5 holes, and we only got to watch the first one. But he came back tired and content with his first tournament. He didn't win a trophy, but he said he had fun. He said trophies are fun too, though, and has set a goal to win one in the future!

Two Stories

2011-02-04T14:45:00.000-08:00

Two stories I want to remember from this week:

Hunter's Story
On Monday, we had a Family Home Evening lesson where we talked about missionary work and what we can do now to prepare for a mission. Hunter said he wanted to go to Greece and Egypt on his mission-the only exotic places he knows much about! Both boys seemed quite excited to be missionaries when they grow up by the end of the lesson. Afterwards, we went out for ice cream. When we were driving to Cold Stone (it was my b-day so we were going all out for our treat), we saw the missionaries riding their bikes. Of course we honked and waved and talked about how funny it was to see them after just learning about being missionaries. Suddenly we hear tears from the backseat. "What's wrong Hunter?" "I can't be a missionary because I don't know how to ride a big bike like them!" Then the tears exploded into full on sobs. We assured him that in the next 15 years we were sure he would learn how to ride a bike and he would grow so he could reach the petals on those big bikes. He didn't seem convinced. We better start working on riding a bike so he won't have to worry!

Tanner's Story
The other day I was all excited to teach Tanner about multiplying by 5's. He knows his 1's, 0's and 10's. So I do the lesson involving manipulatives to make sure he really understands the concept. Then, keeping the manipulatives out in front of him so he could use them to count it out, I ask him to answer 5x6. "30" he responds without blinking an eye. "How do you know?" "Because 6x10 is 60. 5 is half of 10, and 30 is half of 60." I would have never of thought of that. He obviously gets his logical thinking from his Grandpas, one who is a CPA and the other who has his undergrad in math, not his parents. Math skills must skip every other generation. I thought for sure the problems with odd numbers (5x7, 5x9) would throw him off but, he knew them all instantly. I am so proud of my little mathematical thinker!

Aargh! Pirate Adventure

2011-02-04T14:35:00.001-08:00

We went to the Pirate Adventure dinner theater in Buena Vista today for a field trip with Tanner's charter school. The school took up the entire place! This school almost doubles every year. The dinner theater put on a special educational version of their show for school groups. It was kind of an odd Christopher Columbus-pirates-explorers-pirate wench sort of deal, but the kids enjoyed it. There was some fun acrobatics at the end that was entertaining. We cheered for the orange pirate/explorer who was the toughest but my kids got the biggest kick out of the purple pirate who was the comedian of the crew. I would be interested to see what their regular show and dinner is like-probably better than the chicken nuggets we ate today. Perfect kid fare though!

Suggestions?

2011-02-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

Hunter really likes playing computer games. I let him play while I do math and writing with Tanner. We have been sticking to pbskids.org and starfall. He loves Lego.com as well, but we only save that for once in awhile special occasions. Just wondering if anyone has a suggestion for any other computer games? The goal is educational, age appropriate for a four year old, and free! Thanks.

Birthday Breakfast

2011-01-30T20:30:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up and went into the kitchen to make something for my "tarving" Hunter-bear. I was surprised to see Tanner, whom I thought was still sleeping, running around the kitchen, shooing me out. He said he was making me breakfast for my birthday. This really was a surprise since my birthday isn't until tomorrow! I told him how excited I was and that I would go back to bed until it was ready. About an hour later, Ladd and I were summoned to the kitchen. There was a beautiful table set complete with a candle, Lego centerpieces, and a fully set table. We were offered cinnamon toast and bagels, with a choice of milk or apple juice as a beverage. It was the best toast I ever ate and I was so pleased with my Birthday Breakfast!

Thank you to my sweet boys!

Our Big Fat Greek School

2011-01-22T08:19:00.000-08:00

We started off this semester learning about Ancient Greece. The boys have loved learning about the fantastic Greek myths and hearing about the waring city-states. We haven't done as many field trips this year partly because of our subject matter (can't quite make it to Greece!) and partly because next year will be full of field trips and we need to save up for it! Although, Tanner did tell me today some of things he was planning to do when we take our cruise around the Mediterranean Sea. I told him it might be a long while before we take that field trip. He asked why, I said because it costs much more than we can afford, then he assured me that he had plenty of money in his piggy bank and he would help out with the cost. I've tried to recreate Ancient Greece as best as we can at home since I am pretty sure his piggy bank can't pay for a cruise around the Mediterranean quite yet.

We had an Olympics with real Chariot races and everything!

Three Legged Race

Tanner's favorite event: Discuss Throw

We have been making lots of things they would have had in Ancient Greece like pottery, writing tablets, and even some of their armor. Tanner wanted to show his most serious face here since he is dressed as a soldier!
Making sugar cookies to represent the three styles of columns built in Ancient Greece.

We also took the boys to a Greek Cafe to try some authentic Greek food. They were a little nervous at first but ended up really enjoying their pita sandwiches and eating every bite of their Baklava!

We are really enjoying learning about Greece!

Cruisin' into 10 years

2011-01-19T19:12:00.000-08:00

Wow-it has been awhile since I posted. I blame it on the lazy gene I have developed with this pregnancy.

Anyways, Ladd and I went on a Cruise! We wanted to do something fun for our tenth anniversary and since I will be the size of the boat by May, we decided to do it in January. We went to Ensenada on a three day cruise. Our purpose was to relax and not worry about a thing and that is exactly what we did! On the ship we went to two comedy shows (Ladd's choice), two Musicals (my choice), miniature golfing, lounging on deck, and of course lots, and lots of eating.

We spent one day in Ensenada. Because of my "condition" we couldn't do any of the more adventurous excursions like horseback riding or kayaking, so we settled for a driving and walking tour of Ensenada and then a Mexican cooking class at a restaurant- Mango-Mango. It turned out to be very fun! I learned that if you keep the pit of the avocado in your guacomole, it won't turn brown! We also learned that salsa is called Mexican Sauce in Mexico because it is made of red, green, and white ingredients-the colors of the Mexican flag! Of course we spent some time shopping along the main street in town.
Our tour guide Brenda. She was great. Behind her is "las tres cabasas(sp?)". Three giant busts of men who really made Mexico a wonderful place for all of its citizens. Hmm... I am still pondering this...

A sweet art sculpture made out of whale bones found at the pier.

Aside from the giant heads, whale bones art, and unfinished buildings, Ensenada really was a beautiful place. There are a lot of gorgeous houses up on the hillside, colorful activity down in the city, and of course a beautiful bay surrounded by islands.

Ladd and I in "Paradise"

Christmas Celebrations

2010-12-27T09:12:00.000-08:00

We celebrated with my dad and his family at our annual Cook Family Christmas Eve dinner at our house. It was fun to see everyone, open presents, and try fried turkey for the first time!
We surprised the boys, my sister, and my dad with a present from the baby. It was a DVD of her most recent ultrasound where it showed what that SHE is a SHE! Everyone was excited. The boys were a little indifferent though. Tanner just said, "I knew it was a girl, we needed a girl." And Hunter had no comment.

Our attempt at a family Christmas picture-Hunter fleeing the scene!

Tanner gave a little Christmas piano recital while we were waiting for the turkey to warm up!

Present Time!

Cute little Bridget!

In the morning, Santa came bearing Legos for all. Tanner was relieved that the big guy made it to our house this year, because he was on the naughty list most of December until he changed his ways on Dec. 24!

We did take a few moments throughout the morning to remember why we have Christmas and what the greatest gift of all is- our Savior Jesus Christ.

We opened more presents and had a delicious breakfast at my mom's house. The boys certainly showed some self restraint as they choose to eat breakfast before checking out their stockings at Grandma's house!

The boys really loved these giant boxes their Star Wars backpacks came in!

Then we headed over to Heidi's house for more food and presents. (Are we tired yet-because I sure was!) We surprised Mike and Heidi with a poem hidden in their gift about our baby being a girl. Heidi totally cried. Mother like daughter-in-law! It was a great Christmas!

I guess I really was tired at Heidi's- I only got one picture the whole afternoon. Here is Hunter and his identical (in looks and mannerisms!) cousin Regan.

Merry Christmas to all!

Our Christmas Surprise...

2010-12-26T18:44:00.000-08:00

It's a GIRL!
And we are tickled PINK!

( I totally cried when I found out and was a little shocked!)

Create a little Christmas Cheer...

2010-12-18T22:27:00.001-08:00

December is always so busy! We have been celebrating this joyous season a lot this week...
Tanner's friend, Sam, made a Gingerbread house and wanted share it with us! Thanks Sam!

We saw Inland Pacific Ballet's Nutcracker with Hunter's preschool. Ms. Kristine's daughter was a cute bon-bon! This is the same company my sister danced with in her early ballet career, so it always brings back memories! Hunter's favorite part was Clara dancing with the Nutcracker (he LOVES Nutcrackers) and Tanner liked the Chinese dragon. Hunter wouldn't get in the picture, so here is Tanner and Hunter's friend, Cameron, after the ballet. (Sorry, boys, for making you smile with the sun glaring in your eyes!)

Breakfast with Santa

Today we had Breakfast with Santa at church.

They played a game called "Wrap the Counselor". (Mormon lingo: every ward (congregation) has a "Bishopric", made up of a Bishop and two counselors. The Bishop is basically in charge of the ward and he has two counselors to help him. Ladd currently serves as first counselor to our Bishop.) So, Ladd and the other counselor, Tyler, were in a race to get wrapped up first.

Ladd won! Fun times.

The kids sang and did a little Nativity reanactment. Hunter was too busy running around with his favorite person, Carson, to sing. Oh well. It was a battle not worth fighting.
Here are a handful of the cute pregnant ladies in our ward. At any given time, you can find five or six pregnant people at church. We really like babies in the Summit ward. There were 17 babies born the year Hunter was born. They will never be without friends their age!

I hope you are feeling very cheery this time of year!

My little Moses

2010-12-14T19:01:00.000-08:00

At the end of each school unit, we like to do a "closing day" to do some kind of a cumulative activity. Tanner needed to pick something he had learned about Egypt and write a report. He said he wanted to talk about Moses in Egypt. He wasn't sure if that would qualify because he said Moses was more like a scripture story than a school story. After talking about how the scriptures teach us a lot of history as well as about the gospel, he decided it would be appropriate to talk about Moses in a school setting. He wanted to dress up like Moses and do his presentation as if he were Moses. It was super cute and he remembered lots of details.
Hunter, Tanner, and I also made a diorama of the Red Sea parting for him to show during his presentation. I was very proud of my little Moses.

Wonders of the World

2010-12-11T07:48:00.000-08:00

For the past three years we have gone to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana to see their annual Gingerbread display. This year, as a homeschool group, we decided to contribute! We thought it would be fun to make a few of the Wonders of the World, since we are learning about ancient history. Each family made a basic structure, or two, then we all got together to decorate it. We included the Taj Mahal, Chichen Itza, the Dome of the Rock, the Parthenon, the Great Wall of China, and Machu Picchu. We were also supposed to have a Pyramid, but that didn't quite work out. Guess which family was in charge of the Pyramid? The one whose mom is deficient in creativity, especially when it comes to doing anything in the kitchen. The rest of the display turned out beautiful! Here is proof that I work with some of the most amazing moms and kids on a daily basis:
The Discovery Center hosted a party for anyone whose creation was on display. They had all sorts of Christmas related activities and, of course, an awards presentation. We won best display by a youth group! We get to have a pizza party! So fun! The kids were really excited. It was a fun holiday tradition we started!

We also got in free to the museum that day. We hadn't been since last Christmas, so we had fun exploring all the new things they had to offer.

Hunter lasted one puck being thrown his way and was done being a hockey goalie! I can't blame him!

Baby Update

2010-12-10T21:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had an appointment with the ultra sound technician. This was with the real ultra sound machine-not just the wheel-in one at the doctors office. And... Only ONE baby! I felt relieved and slept better than I had all week last night. I think twins are as cute as can be and only very special people can be mothers of twins. But, I am glad I am not one of those mothers!
It was fun to see my little baby's profile and watch him/her squirm around. Now, I can't wait to find out if the baby is a him or a her!

What a day...

2010-12-06T16:20:00.001-08:00

I usually don't use my blog to vent, but seriously today was a DAY! It made me ask myself, "Why in the world did I want to bring another sweet innocent baby into this crazy family?" Here are two reasons why:

1. We met Ladd at Costco today for lunch and while eating we realized Tanner had disappeared. As we looked for him, we see him at the soda fountain with a cup-that we had not purchased. Suddenly a worker comes around the corner and starts talking to him. Ladd rushed over to help manage the situation. Apparently Tanner was thirsty and thought it was a free for all on the drinks. The cups were just sitting on the counter and everyone was helping themselves to soda. So, he grabbed a cup from the cashier area. Luckily we got to him before he filled the cup so no harm was done. He thought it was crazy that you had to pay for the cup and then the drinks are free.

Later this afternoon, he hit a golf ball over the wall at our neighbors house. Lucky again, no damage done, but COME ON!

2. While making "Freckle Smoothies" for Tanner's Freckle Juice book club, Hunter managed to push the blender, which was on and FULL, over. It broke and smoothie went all over the kitchen! Sorry boys, no Freckle Juice smoothies today.

To top all this off, last week at my doctors appointment, my doctor stated in the middle of an ultrasound that she thought she saw another head and can't say for sure whether there are one or TWO babies in there. What? Oh, I don't think I could handle another Tanner and Hunter at the same time! If there are two, they have better be calm and less mischievous than the first two!!

Thanks!

2010-11-30T15:15:00.000-08:00

We had a busy, busy Thanksgiving week. We are thankful that we were able to spend time with friends and family we don't always get to see! About mid week Tanner said, "We've got to stay up late every night lately playing with friends we don't get to play with very often!" I didn't get pictures from very many of our fun nights, but here are a few from this week...

Brenda and Roland renewing their vows at their tenth anniversary party

My beautiful cousins, sister, Grandma, and little Brigette

My mom and I took the boys to Balboa Park in San Diego. I wanted to check out the ancient Egypt exhibit at the Museum of Man. It was a beautiful day, but isn't it always in San Diego?
The boys loved the childrens area where they got to dress up as Egyptians, sail the Nile, and trade goods at the store.

Tanner worked hard at building this pyramid!

The tree is up and that means Christmas is just around the corner!

And we spent last night learning how Candy Canes are made at Logan's Candies! The boys got to "bend" their own candy cane.

Thanks for all the FUN last week!

Now, it's back to our regular bedtime!

2010 Family Pictures

2010-11-27T21:10:00.000-08:00

Our super creative and talented friend, Sarah, took our family pictures a couple weeks ago. Here is a sampling of a few of our favorites:

Here is my favorite...

Thanks for putting up with my goofy family Sarah! We love our pictures!

Our Exciting News!

2010-11-24T08:58:00.000-08:00

We are expecting a new little Hoyal! H/she will be here in mid June and we can't be more happy! We have waited awhile for this little one but now we realize this timing couldn't be better! The baby is obviously excited too, as h/she has popped out already and I can't button any of my pants. Here are some answers too frequently asked questions:

Are you hoping for a girl this time?
We would love a girl or a boy-both would be fun!

How are you feeling?
Off and on yucky and always tired.

What do the boys think?
They are excited. Hunter tells people, "when we have a baby, then I will be big." And Tanner has lots of concerned questions about what the baby is doing inside of me, whether it can see or not, if it is bored, etc. His first concern was that his Legos will be a choking hazard. I guess he will have to do a better job at picking them up.

How far along are you?
10 weeks

Do you feel the same as you did with the other pregnancies?
So far, this one is pretty similar to Hunter.

Do you feel either way that it might be a boy or a girl?
Nope, some days I refer to it as a "he" other days a "she" and they both seem right. (It is only one though-no twins, we already checked!)

Mummies of the World

2010-11-19T06:59:00.000-08:00

We have been studying Ancient Egypt for school. So when we realized that the California Science Center has the "Mummies of the World" exhibit right now, we had to go! How often do you get to see real mummies when learning about Ancient Egypt? We spent a lot of time preparing the kids to see the Mummies, as it is not everyday you see dead bodies of people who lived thousands of years ago! The exhibit was amazing. I couldn't believe how well preserved some of these ancient people had been kept. Eyelashes, fingernails, and even some skin all in place! The further you went back in history, the smaller the people were. I would have been a giant compared to Ancient Egyptians! The kids did a great job and were totally enthralled, asking good questions and making appropriate comments. (Except for one little four year old who insisted the exhibit was "too long" and threw a total fit right next to the Egyptian priest. Really- I thought they were supposed to be out of the fit throwing stage by age 4! Ugh!)
Anyways, the museum was also showing a 3-D IMAX movie called "Secrets of the Pharaohs". I chose to skip that one and keep some of the younger ones (including my favorite 4 year old) entertained. 3-D movies give me a headache! But the kids loved it and it was a great hands-on learning experience for them.

While even with our group discount, the exhibit was a little pricey, but the rest of the museum is totally free and AWESOME! Everything is hands-on science and it covers every topic. It is great for all ages. We were there a good part of the day and probably still missed a third of the museum. If you are ever out near the USC Coliseum, check out the California Science Center. It is well worth your time and FREE!

Hooray for Science!

Legoland, again

2010-11-08T17:42:00.000-08:00

We just went to Legoland this summer, and I wasn't planning on going anytime soon. But when this homeschool deal came around, I decided to take advantage of it! The boys had to earn the trip with good behavior so it ended up being well worth it!
We got to go to an "Amazing Machines" class which was great. Both the boys got to invent a new ride for Legoland using gears and pulleys. They loved trying out all different sizes of gears to discover which would make the fastest ride.

Serious Lego builder at work...

Finished Product: "Dizzy Whizzy Ride"

Hunter was very original in naming his ride: Merry-go-round

Here they are at the reusable energy class where we met up with some of oour favorite friends...

After our classes, we got to enjoy the rest of day! No crowds and beautiful weather!

I was surprized when Hunter said he wanted to go on this ride. He usually wants nothing to do with any rides that look the slightest bit scary. He looks brave to begin...

But is gripping on with all his might and has the most frightened look on his face during the whole ride!
Hunter said that ride was not fun and he DID NOT want to go on it again!

Chocolate Fever-Book Club

2010-11-08T16:36:00.000-08:00

We had our second Boys Jr. Book Club Meeting today! The book this month was Chocolate Fever. So much fun! We played a "Feeding Henry" relay game, learned how to follow a recipe to make Chocolate Cupcakes, discussed the book with a fun game, and learned a little about how our food gets digested. What seven year old boy wouldn't love eating chocolate and talking about your guts! I love how excited these boys are when it comes to their Book Club!
Here is the one picture I got of two of these goofy club members:

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T21:11:00.000-07:00

We went with a Star Wars theme again this year! Tanner was the bravest X-wing Pilot you'll ever meet and Hunter was the cutest Ewok you will find on Endor! At our church Halloween party Ladd wore a shirt with a picture of Darth Vader saying "Soy tu padre mijo" and I was a generic Jedi Knight. So, in our simple way, even we fit the theme! My camera somehow did not make it to the church that night-so no pictures of the Star Wars family :(

Thanks to a super creative Grandma, Hunter looked like a perfect Ewok. People who know about Star Wars knew right away that he was an Ewok and people who are not familiar with the late 70's trilogy would say, "He is so cute, What is he?" Here is our little Ewok with his cute Preschool teacher and friends:
Of all the Star Wars characters, I am not sure why Tanner wanted to be a X-wing Pilot, but he loved it and all of his 7 year old friends thought it was "so cool".

The Hoyal's Hope you had a Happy Halloween!

Curse of the Pharaohs

2010-10-31T20:53:00.000-07:00

We have been learning about Ancient Egypt recently for school, so we decided to do a "Curse of the Pharaoh" themed Halloween party for school this year.

We ate mummy dogs, pyramid quesadillas, and intestine jell-o-straight from a Canopic jar (Yuck!).

We decorated super cute Mummy cookies...

The kids got to make Amulets to ward off any evil spirits...

and "Walk Like an Egyptian" while playing musical chairs!
We also played the Mummy wrap game. Can you guess who this cute Mummy is?

It was a fun way to celebrate Halloween with friends and celebrate some of the mystique of Ancient Egypt!