8/5/07: We had a really fun day at the bay yesterday. We headed out with our lunches packed to spend a great day in Newport Bay. The weather was wonderful, the kids behaved beautifully, and we all had a fun day enjoying eachother.
I had a great time this year in Rochester. The company took very good care of us and in addition to all the fun we had, we also had 2 days of business meetings. I always enjoy visiting my friends in the home office. They are so much fun to be around. It is great to have a few days to hear from the leadership of the company about the current and future state of the business. I really appreciate the quality of leadership that I work for. It is certainly good to be back home even though I had such a great time on this trip. The flight was long and I missed working out for 5 days, except for a game of golf on Sunday morning. Last year I lost 24 balls out on the course, this year I only lost 3. I still have a lot of work to do on my swing before midyear 2008.
8/2/07: Christian is home from New York now. He was gone for 5 days; he got home yesterday afternoon. While he was gone we were hardly home at all. I made plans to do lots of visiting to keep ourselves busy. We went to my friend, Kim's house to have a fun swim day with all our kiddos. (...and the kids did "band practice"). We went out to Corona to visit Auntie Tete recovering from her foot surgery. We went shopping with her and made "American tacos" for a yummy dinner. We did the playdate in the Murrieta area and we also drove the opposite way to visist my Mom and Dad in Agoura. We had a yummy dinner with them and then Papa took us out for frozen yogurt. We had a lot of fun traveling to all these places. I went through an entire tank of gas in just 3 days, Ugh!! We are happy Daddy is home; but actually we were sooo busy the whole time, it passed lickity split!
7/30/07: The BHP playdate was awesome!! I think everyone had a great time. The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast. It was so much fun to meet all the Mom's and put personalities to their kids faces. The moms all got to visit since Emily Ekman and Alexis Ward played "little mommies". They were both so great at keeping all the little ones entertained. As you can see by the pictures, the place we met was AWESOME!! Madeline loved the waterslide and Emma and Landon just loved being in the water with so many children to play with. I can't wait to do it again. Maybe next time we can plan it a lot farther in advance so maybe some of you could even take a little road trip to come see us....Even from Wisconson :)
7/28/07: Christian left at 4AM for another business trip to NY. He'll be gone until Wednesday afternoon.The kids and I have packed up our schedules with tons of fun stuff to do to pass the time more quickly. This morning I went to their VBS performance at the other church. It was really cute! They both did great and loved the VBS more than I thought they would.
I went to pay for Emma's swim lessons at the park and rec today to find out that the classes are all full. Bummer! I was really hoping to get her into this session so she would have more time for the rest of the summer to practice at other people's pools. I doubt I'll be able to get her into anything until mid-August now. oh-well.
This Monday is the playdate with the BHP mommy's. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun! It feels as if I know the ladies and children I will be meeting. I actually know more about them and their kids than I do about some of my friends. I go visiting specific BHP sights almost daily. So, I never miss a moment in their lives..strange? I don't know. I guess you can call my website and my web friends one of my hobbies. It's ceratinly less messy and time consuming than scrapbooking. Anyway, I can't wait to meet them! It's gonna be a hot one!
7/24/07: Ava is moving so much now. I can feel her all day long. Last week I could only feel her if I was sitting really still, but now I feel her little kicks even when I'm moving about. I love it! Christian felt her move on Saturday night. I have even seen my belly move with her movements. So fun!!
Madeline and Emma are doing another VBS this week. It's at a church right around the corner from our house. Last night was the first night and they both liked it (It's Avalanche Ranch). It is a small church with not a lot of kids attending VBS. That actually makes it kinda nice for the girls because they have Pre-K through 1st grade all in one class. So, the girls get to stay together the whole night. It is so strange for me to go and drop them off and not stay. I was so involved in ours', it's kinda nice to be just a "visiting parent" in this one. Landon is having fun getting all the attention at home while his sissies are gone.
7/21/07: Landon's arm is doing great. You wouldn't even know he had done anything to hurt it; he's back to his happy little self!
VBS is over now. We had an incredible week. It ran so smoothly. It was the biggest turn out that our church has ever had for a VBS. We saw over 200 different children come through our doors throughout the entire week. It was great! Our performance is tomorrow. The rehearsal was fabulous, so I have no doubt that they will be wonderful!
Ava is moving more and more every day. I think she's moving enough that someone else could feel it, but nobody has yet. It's pretty sporatic and not that noticable yet unless I'm sitting or laying still. But, it's great to feel her there!
7/19/07: As if this week isn't busy enough, today Landon had his first visit to the Emergency Room. Maddy and Emma were playing on my bed (which is a Cal King about 3 1/2 feet off the ground) and Landon wanted up to play too. He called up to the girls to help him up. Emma leaned over the bed and pulled on Landon's arms to help him up. Immediately he started screaming and crying. I knew something was terribly wrong. I comforted him for awhile and he didn't really stop crying. He wasn't moving his arm at all. I even offered him an Oreo cookie if we would grab it with his hurt arm and he wouldn't. Well, I loaded up the girls to take a trip to the E.R. Christian met us there. Landon was hysterical when we moved him, but he would calm down a bit when he was sitting very still. When we signed in at the ER and told them the cause and the symptoms, they said it would probably be a quick visit (Yeah right!! It's usually at least 4 hours just to wait for your turn we thought!!) They weren't kidding. A doctor came in and looked at Landon's elbow and said it had "dislocated his elbow". She put her fingers and twisted and pushed it back (while Landon was screaming) and said we should wait in the waiting room for 5 minutes to be sure that he begins using his arm normally. The wierdest thing- he did! He was totally fine instantly. He started saying and signing "all done". He was ready to go home. We were literally at the ER no more than 20 minutes. Crazy isn't it?? He is totally fine now; the dr. said we should just give him Tylenol for the next 24 hours, that's it!
I guess what happened to Landon is pretty common. They call it "Nursemaid's elbow". I read on-line about it. Here's some of what I found out:
Pulled elbow, a mild dislocation that occurs in children, is often called a ""nursemaid's elbow.'' It happens when a sudden yank on the child's arm pulls the two forearm bones out of line. It occurs most frequently in children 1 to 4 years old. Because the chances of the dislocation recurring are high for 3 to 4 weeks after this injury, it is important to avoid pulling the child's arm during this period.
Causes
The dislocation usually results from pulling the child's arm--even just to swing the youngster around. The problem is more likely in children with a birth defect that causes the elbow to pull out of its socket easily.
Signs/Symptoms
Pain and swelling of the elbow may make the child unwilling to move the injured arm.
Care
An x-ray of the elbow may be needed. Your doctor may then have to reset the bones by pulling on the youngster's arm. This will be painful until the elbow has popped back into place. The child's pain will be considerably lessoned or gone once this is done. In rare cases the child may need to wear a sling until the elbow has healed. A cast is rarely necessary. If the problem occurs repeatedly, the child may need surgery to fix the joint.
7/19/07: This week is going well. Vacation Bible school is continuing to be a great success. We have the big picnic and performance on Sunday. I think it's going to be great! The songs this year are really fun. On Monday night Christian met me at church and picked up Landon after he got off of work. On Tuesday he had Bible study so Landon had to go to the nursery. When I dropped him off he was screaming and crying saying, "Daddy's truck, Daddy's truck....!!!" He wanted Daddy to come get him. Luckily that was the only night that Landon didn't get to stay with Daddy. VBS week is "their week" together. Our VBS starts at 4 years old; so it won't be long before Landon gets to join in on the exhausting week. This is Emma's first year and she's loving it. Maddy is having a great time too! It's tons of FUN!!
7/17/07: OK, OK, I know I haven't updated much for the last week or two. The weeks and days leading up to VBS are the busiest, craziest, most stressful, and exciting days of my entire work year. I am the Director of Children's Ministry at our church. Most of the year it is a pretty non-stress job. I only work 9 office hours a week, plus I run the children's programs on Sunday mornings. But, VBS week is a BIG one!! We started VBS last night with an opening night of 156 children ages 4 - 12. It was a hit! We are doing Gospel Light's SonForce Kids and it has been really fun! We have 4 more nights and a performance, picnic, and water fun day on Sunday. As much as I love it, it is a lot of work! I will be back to normal after Sunday.
PS.. My anniversary date with my hubby was great! We went to Stubricks Steak House for dinner (de-lish!) and then we went and saw "License to Wed" with Robin Williams. It was really funny! 10 years- WOW!
7/12/07: Ten years ago today I married the man I love. I can't believe we have been married for 10 years now. It seems like our wedding day just happened. Christian is a fabulous husband and a wonderful daddy! I love him with all my heart. I love you forever and always Christian!!
Tonight we will celebrate our anniversary, but we aren't sure what we're going to do. I suggested Stubricks steak house and a movie. He's been wanting to try Stubricks for a long time and we've never been there. He suggested that we save the money from dinner and movie and take me out to buy some maternity clothes instead. We'll see... But, we do have Alexandra lined up to babysit, so I know we won't be celebrating at home. Happy Anniversary to us!!
7/12/07: For those of you who were curious, the other two names we were down to that I loved equally as much as Ava Claire were: Claire Elizabeth and Elizabeth Claire. I am happy with Christian's choice of Ava Claire. It suits our family well! We can't wait to meet her!
7/10/07: Our baby girl is making herself known more and more every day. I feel little movements here and there throughout the day. It's fun to actually feel her moving. That is my very favorite part of being pregnant. I love it!
The time has finally come to reveal the name of our little princess! Christian made the final decision yesterday because I was stumped between 3 names. He started calling her by name while we were in the car and I said, "So is that going to the name?" He said "Yep!" He picked this name a few weeks ago and we've tossed it around a lot. It's short and sweet; I love it! Stay tuned; it will be up before nightfall.
It will be held in Southern California area. All BHP mommies and their children are invited. Pack your own lunch and drinks for you and your kids. Bring swimsuits and towels and be prepard to meet these mommies and their kids that you feel like you know. We have been reading about eachother's lives for years, but have never met!! Now is the time... Hope you can make it!
There is a $3.00 charge per person for adults and children 2yrs. and older to admit entrance into the "neighborhood private beach area".
E-mail Julie at
torresluna5@adelphia.net
to RSVP and to get an address for directions to the location.
7/10/07: Before I was a mom, I was a 4th grade teacher. I always looked at the way the kids came to school wondered about their choices of clothing and shoes."Did their parents see them before they left the house looking like that??" I would think. Two things that I said about my kids were that they would always have matching clothes on and they would not wear those dumb shoes with characters on them! Well, eat my words!! My children love to dress themselves!! They do a pretty good job at matching their clothes, but every once in awhile, they go ary. When Maddy and Emma come out of their room with that "Oh So Proud" look on their face, if I know we aren't goign anywhere special, I will let them wear their dumb looking outfit. I don't have the heart to tell them how awful their choice was!
We were at a birthday party a few weeks ago for our friend, Adam. He got a pair of Cars shoes that blink. Landon went nuts!! He loved them!! He is now wearing his own pair. Maddy had princess shoes when she was 2 and Emma had Dora the Explorer at the age of 2. As much as I hated these type of shoes when I had no children of my own, I had no idea of the enjoyment they bring- so now I love them!!
7/06/07: The ultrasound went great yesterday. It took the tech about 3 seconds before she said it was a girl. We didn't tell the tech that we knew it was girl, but she could tell right away. She saw from the front, the profile, and the "3 lines" between the legs. There's no wondering here...she's definitely a baby girl! She said everything looks good: heart rate was perfect, heart looks good, brain looks great, everything looked normal. Praise God for healthy babies! I got the adorable profile picture I wanted. I have done a scrapbook page for all the other babies, so I wanted a good one for this princess too. We are VERY close to nameing her. We are down to 2 names (one of them most of you havn't even heard yet). Hey, I may even reveal her name before the Wards' do (hee hee!!).
7/5/07: We had a very fun 4th of July! We went with the Ross family to Tracy's brother's house for swimming and a BBQ. Madeline is an independent swimmer all over the place. Emma is swimming with her swimmies super confident! She can move just as fast as Maddy and she's in and out of the pool all day long. Landon wore "Swimmies" for the first time yesterday. Last year he went in a water ring with a seat. He did really well with the swimmies, but didn't go very far from Mommy or Daddy.
When we got home, the kdis were exhausted! We put them to bed, but the noise of all the fireworks everywhere kept Maddy up. We let her get up and watch Funniest Home Videos with us and then we went on our front lawn to watch all the firework shows. We tried to wake Emma to watch the fireworks, but that wasn't gonna happen. From our front yard we could see the shows from Knott's Berry Farm, Disneyland, Fullerton High School, and one that we wern't sure where it was coming from. It was very loud! At one point Maddy said, "I wish I had a million eyes." So that she could watch all the fireworks at once. She also said that the neighbors should have "put down their tree for the 4th of July". It was in her way. Hee, hee!
Tonight we have our ultrasound. I hope we get some cute pix of our little girl!
7/02/07: We had a very nice weekend the past few days. On Friday night Christian and I got out for a "date night". We got a teenage babysitter, Alexandra, to come over and watch the kids while we went out for the evening. We went to Newport Beach for dinner at the Blue Beet, a restauraunt with outdoor (top of the restaurant) ocean view dining. Then, we walked along the beach area for awhile. After that we drove around wondering what to do next. We checked a few movie theaters to see what was playing, but we ended up at a diner in the Orange Circle for desert. It was great to be out just the two of us.
On Saturday morning Christian went kayaking with a friend, Steve, then in the afternoon I went shopping and to lunch with my friend Laura. We had a great day together.
Sunday after church we headed out to Emily's 10th birthday party for a few hours. Fun, Fun, Fun! Then, in the night we went to our friend, Kyle's, 30th birthday party. It was in a Vegas theme with dinner, Poker, a comedy show by "Sammy", "Dean", and "Frank", and a "roast". Christian played Frank in the comedy show and he also roasted Kyle. It was fun to watch and be a part of the celebration. The kids had a babysitter for the party AGAIN. Luckily, they enjoy having babysitters... I think they are more fun than Mom and Dad.
The kids are all doing well. They are enjoying summer. It has been pretty hot lately (well, in the high 80's and and low 90's) so we have been taking out the pool quite a bit. Tomorrow we are going to go the movies in the morning to see "Curious George". For all you Mommies out there- Regal Cinemas offer free movies for families on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. They are movies that are already on DVD, but it is still a fun activity for the family. Pretty cool! Have a fun summer!!
6/29/07: Landon is certainly beginning to talk a lot! Here is a conversation we had this morning when I walked into his room to get him out of his crib:
Mommy: "Good morning Baby Boy!"
Landon: "I wahn waffos"
Mommy: "You want waffles for breakfast?"
Landon: "Yah, and a nana."
Mommy: "You want a banana too?"
Landon: He did sign language for drink (which looks and sounds like an indian patting his mouth)
Mommy: "You want a drink too?"
Landon: "Yah, wif ice."
Mommy: "Can you say 'please'?"
Landon: Signs please with a huge smile on his face.
He must have been dreaming of breakfast?!? What a demanding little guy; I thought it was pretty cute!
6/29/07: It took Madeline about 20 minutes to type this next paragraph. After she tied her shoes this morning (for the first time ever), I told her how proud I was of her. She said, "Are you going to write a story about this on the website?" I said, "yes, or you can do it if you'd like." She was so excited to do it! Here is Maddy's entry:
i did for the frist time ever i tided my shue with my mommy. for the very frist time ever I braded. and that was the coollist theing ever and so that was so coollist and i can evin brade my barby doll's hare doo now. i know how to brade and tie my own shues!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6/28/07: I havn't really felt the baby move yet. I have had little flutters here and there that could possibly be her, but I'm not sure. I think within the next few weeks she'll make herself known. We have our hospital ultrasound on July 5th, next Thursday. I can't wait to see our baby girl again. I'm hoping to get some good profile pix of her to post on the web and to scrapbook. The last ones we got were too skeletol to look cute on a scrapbook page. I love the profile ones; you can really tell what everything is.Also, I'm hoping the tech will get another good peek at the "girly goods" to be certain she's a girl.
No luck on the naming of this little princess. She still has 5 names that sound great to us both. Narrowing it down to our favorite one is the key. We're not coming any closer to a final decision. I've heard of some people that wait until they actually have the baby in their arms to name their baby- I hope that's not us! It would be nice to start calling her by name soon. Actually, there is a new name that has come into the mix as of yesterday- and it's ranking just as high, or higher than any of our others?? Hmmm???
6/25/07: I am back home from NY and it is good to be back. I missed my girls and my boy very much. Tonite, as the girls were saying goodnite, I told them that I would be gone at work in the morning when they wake up. Maddy asked, "When will you stop going to work?" I said, "Not for a very long time, probably when you have your first baby, I will stop working." She responded, "Wow Dad, that won't be for another 390 years! And it won't be for another 12 years after that for Emma! I will be like 34 when I have a baby!" Maddy surprisingly scored well in Math this year!
6/22/07: Yesterday didn't end up being as calm and relaxing as I had thought it would be. In the morning I decided to take the kids to the "Cat and the Fiddle" story time at the public library. I thought it would be a short and cute little story time to have something to break up the morning. Nope! It was FANTASTIC! There were puppets, music, stories, craft time, and get this- No moms allowed! The girls were in their fun class for an hour and a half while Landon and I got one on one time in the children's section of the library. The girls had a great time and so did Landon and I. We will definitely do that again. From there we headed to piano lessons (which I had forgotten about) and got home around two in the afternoon. The kids napped then went in the pool for a couple of hours then it was dinner, downtime, and bed. So much for the stay home and relax kind of day.
Daddy comes home tomorrow!! We pick him up from the airport at 1:30 in the afternoon. We can't wait to see him. Check ou the video that the kids made for him. Cute!
7/12/07: Ten years ago today I married the man I love. I can't believe we have been married for 10 years now. It seems like our wedding day just happened. Christian is a fabulous husband and a wonderful daddy! I love him with all my heart. I love you forever and always Christian!! 
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