Aydri's Glasses

Aydri's glasses came earlier than I thought they would. I was anxious when we went to go get them fitted. I was afraid she would hate them. So far it hasn't been even close to as bad as I thought it would be. Coming out of the dr's office she was grinning and giggling. I couldn't believe it. I was relieved and excited too. Then about half way home she decided that she wanted to play with them. She tore them off her face and started twisting them and sucking on them. What could I expect from a 1 1/2 year old. I had to pull over and take them from her and she cried the rest of the way home. I wondered if she was old enough to have explained to her why she needed to wear them. I could tell that she knew a difference already when she wore them. I convinced her to put them back on to show grandma. She put them back on and when we got in the house Kendi had a friend over that wears glasses too so that helped. You can see the lazy eye in the pictures. The doctor gave her 2/3 of her perscription so that her eyes would have to work a little to correct the lazy eye. Just to remember her perscription is 2.50.

I can't get a decent picture of her. I'm surprised at how cute they are on her. I was a little worried because after I got contacts everyone decided to tell me that I looked bad in glasses. haha.

She keeps touching them and making them really dirty. I only took them off twice to clean them because I had to fight her to put them back on. After getting her to put them back on we kept her busy with activities like coloring, reading books and eating finger foods. After about an hour of leaving them alone I decided to let her play and see what happens. So far she has kept them on. Wish us luck.

Disneyland at Christmas

Last week, we took a trip with Jared's family. Everyone, but Jerika, was able to go with us to Disneyland. This was our kids first trip to Disneyland and it was so much fun.

The drive was around 6 hours which was a lot shorter than I was anticipating. We stopped in Vegas for lunch at In-N-Out. The kids were feeding the pigeons and Aydri was calling them puppies. I had to pack all of Aydri's meals to bring with us because of her food allergies. I was stressed about it at first, but always having her food with us was a convenience.

After we got to L. A. we checked into our hotel and decided to take the kids to see the ocean. Kendi had never seen it before and had been asking about it. We managed to get lost and didn't get to the beach until the sun was setting. It looks really dark in these pictures, but it was still pretty light when we first got there.

The mist was picked up by the flash of the camera. Sometimes the waves would crash really loud and scare the kids. Aydri was shaking. Poor thing. Some of the adults wanted to walk on the pier. Going out on a pier in the dark with two young kids that don't know how to swim was terrifying to me. Jared found some Filipino's that were fishing and talked Tagalog with them.
The next day was a beautiful day. The kids were so excited to be there. I think the funnest way to experience Disneyland is through the eyes of your kids. This was the first time I've ever been able to forget everything else going on with life and just enjoy the vacation. I guess I can understand why people like to travel now. In fact, it could become addicting.
We mostly rode little kid rides the first day. The kids especially loved It's a Small World. When I went as a teenager we hated this ride and thought it was the dumbest one in the park. At Christmastime they completely decorate it and sing Christmas songs. Aydri was dancing.

Kendi and Hope sang their little hearts out. I didn't get to record it this time so we came back on the third day. The kids were a little worn out and not so enthusiastic about singing. It was funny to notice how the excitement wore off as we all got tired. I don't think I could have done it for more than three days. It was still a blast though.

Aydri was a little trooper. The only ride she didn't like was Dumbo and we didn't take her on the big rides. So many people told us it would be a waste and hassle to take a toddler, but I was glad we had her with us. We've been so busy lately building the house that we needed some family togetherness time.

It was nice to have Jen and Justin there as our personal guides. Their kids are close to ours in age and they have done this a few times already. They really know how to have a good time at Disneyland. I would have been lost without them. Kendi had so much more fun with her cousins being there too.

Jen and Justin knew about this Animation Studio place in California Adventure. We got a lesson in drawing (fun for Jared) and we got to see which Disney Character we most resemble. Kendi was Nala, I was Jane (from Tarzan), Jared was Jafar (haha), Jen was Mrs. Potts, Hope was Lady (Lady and the Tramp), Halle was Ariel and Justin was Scar.

Aydri was good to sleep in her stroller. The adults took turns sitting with the kids. Aydri and Sydney are close in age and probably won't remember any of this trip.
Two umbrella strollers and a backpack was all we needed. I carried the old point and shoot camera with me all the time and was able to leave everything else outside the rides. Aydri had to have her diaper changed while waiting in line a few times. It took a team of three of us, but it was a quick change. She was a good sport.

We had beautiful weather the first day. The second day we woke up to fog and moist cool air. It was still nice weather to us. I put on a jacket because I was tired of people asking if I was cold in my t-shirt. We anticipated the last day to be the coldest so I put double layers of clothes on my kids, but it ended up being better weather then the previous day. We were lucky to get such nice weather in December. As far as crowdedness went it wasn't too bad either. The first day was pretty slammed and we ended up getting stuck in a huge crowd after the fireworks ended. We were able to avoid that on the next two nights.

We saw "It's Tough to be a Bug" in 3D. It was a short 9 minute show. We got sprayed by stink bugs and poisonous bugs and stung by bees. I couldn't wait to get out of there. haha.

Kendi's favorite Princess is Jasmin. We happened upon her on Aladdin's little house thing. The wait was only a few minutes. Thank heavens for that. We waited in line for an hour on the last day to see three more princesses. Cinderella, Tiana and Ariel.

The castle was gorgeous. The whole park was decorated for Christmas. It was unseasonably warm though. Kendi asked me if they celebrated Christmas in California. When I told her that they did she was confused about there not being any snow. She wondered if Santa even came to California. It really doesn't feel like Christmas to us without the snow.
Aydri didn't like the Characters and I don't blame her. People in costume have always freaked me out.

Jared's mom waited and saved spots for the parade. Some people got nasty about it and I began to wonder if the parade was worth fighting for. It was fun and Kendi got excited about seeing more characters. They did a lot of Christmas dancing and even had Santa Claus.
We convinced Kendi to ride Splash Mountain with us. In the picture she was completely ducking in her seat. After the end of the ride she told Jared, "I don't think I should have done that." She rode Thunder Mountain with us, but didn't love it. The only ride she wasn't big enough to so was Indiana Jones. We didn't push her to go on any more fast rides. Kendi absolutely loved Pirates of the Caribbean. It was fun to see it all redone. Kendi has been watching the movies almost everyday since we got home.

This picture doesn't do the castle justice at night. I just took it as we were trying to fight the crowd. There is a tree blocking the middle and it is a view from the side. It's a Small World was light up really well too, but I didn't have time to take a picture. The whole place really was magical.
On the second night, Jared and I left the kids at the hotel with Gma and Gpa. We spent some time in California Adventure with Greg and Jaelyn. We rode the big rides and had dinner with them. It was nice to have some adult time.

I rode Tower of Terror three times and Screamin' California twice. I would have done it more, but we just didn't have time. The Fast Passes were the only way to go. I don't know why anyone would not do the fast passes. Sometimes the wait to use the fast pass was shorter than the wait in the regular line.

The first day that we were there was busy I think because of the nice weather. The next two days were cloudy, but not busy at all. Most of our waiting in line was 5 to 15 minutes even on the busy day thanks to the fast passes on the big rides. We waited forever for the princesses and for the new Toy Story ride in California Adventure though.

The night that we got back home Kendi came crying into our room. She was begging to go back to Disneyland. We told her that we would try to take her when Aydri is big enough to enjoy it too.

November Projects

And some random pictures from November.

We made my sister a birthday cake. I will never do this again.

Aydri is a little helper.
It got messy for both of us.

Aydri dressed herself in daddy's work stuff.

For my birthday, Kendi and I tried to make a giant ding dong. The ganache didn't spread quite right so we only got fudge coating on top.

Kendi won the star brusher contest at the dentist's office and got a gift card to wal-mart. She got herself a zhu zhu pet. We made a little bed for it.
Aydri will watch a movie with Kendi for about 10 seconds.
November was a blur. I hope we can enjoy December a little more.

Flash Back

I couldn't believe that Kendi was Aydri's age when we taught her this. Now she is teaching it to Aydri. Go HERE to see Kendi when she was about 20 months old.

Jamberry Nails

One thing I really like is having my toe nails look nice. I love these nail shields from Jamberry Nails. They are doing this thing right now where you refer friends and for every for items they purchase I get a free set of Jamberry Nails. If you want to try them out go HERE.

Lost Track

If it seems like we're moving along slower than normal that is because we are. I've lost track of what day we're on and don't want to figure it out right now. We finished the roof last week. It was nice to put a finishing touch on something. We worked for four days in the wind and cold on the roof to get it done before the snow storm. We barely made it.

We had a couple groups of high school students come help on the roof. All I can say about high school students is that some are cool and hard working and other's are lazy and lame.

They started installing windows today. Here is the first one.

We All Need Something

I would be very ungrateful for all the help we've received on our house if I didn't pass this along. Please go to this link and vote for "My Dad's Eyes" in the humorus category. This family really deserves it. You can watch the video they made on this blog. It's really cute.

Day Eighty Six

I was very surprised to see this. I had been to the house at noon and they were still trying to fix the same problem that we had been trying to fix for several days. When I came back to bring dinner there were three more guys helping. One who had arranged to take off work to spend a whole day out there. Two guys who had just stopped by and decided to stay and help. True friends. We've been trying to get sheeting on the roof all week. I can't wait to do shingles.

Day Eighty Four

I seem to be consistently one day late with all my posts lately.

For an update on my dad, he is in rough shape. His back seems to be getting worse, not better with every day. He's been doing physical therapy for a few days now, but the physical therapist thinks he needs surgery.

I have been helping Jared full time now. It's kind of fun to think we're doing this on our own. Except we're not on our own. We've had some amazing friends show up and help. Just yesterday we got a phone call from a friend wondering where we were. Jared was still working at home so we hadn't made it out to the house yet. When we got out there, there was a huge crew of people working on our house. They did more in 2 1/2 hours than Jared and I had done all week. This picture doesn't even show half of the people that helped that day.

Today, we were struggling with how to trim the trusses to put up the fascia. A friend of ours who is a construction worker stopped by to see how we were doing. He got us back on track. It's nice to have people like that stop by.

Our goal is to have the shingles on by the end of the week. Wish us luck.

Cute Little Bugs

After watching Kendi wear her costume for three days straight Aydri finally let me put hers on her. She would only wear long enough to get pictures and go to the care center to see the residents.

Kendi has quite the poses for the camera these days. I can't get a normal one. We can't hide her personality anyway.

Aydri won't look at the camera let alone smile for me. Oh well.

Cousins on the Barnes' side.

One cousin on the Bulloch's side.

Budding Artist

Kendi spends a lot of time coloring, drawing and creating. Jared sits down and draws with her often and I still enjoy coloring in coloring books with her. Kendi entered seven different coloring contests this week. She had more pictures ready to hand in, but we just didn't have enough time to deliver them all over the city. We got two phone calls today telling us that she won third place at KB and First Place at Artic Circle. She was so excited. She's been asking me if they would call every day and it was fun when they actually did. She worked so hard coloring for hours.

She was especially happy about winning a kid's meal.

Without Training Wheels

Kendi learned to ride her bike without training wheels today. She surprised us by doing it without any help. I've been thinking about teaching her since spring, but I wanted Jared to be there. I decided that I would see how she did and then get Jared there to help when she was ready. I took the training wheels off a couple days ago and she tried to take off and almost fell over. It scared her enough to not try very hard. I didn't want to push her so I let her go at her own pace. We went out again today and all I did was show her how to balance with one foot and push the pedal with the other to get going. That was all she needed.

When she told me not to help her I thought about how I didn't bring any band aids along. I was not expecting her to take off right away like she'd been doing it forever. I think riding her scooter helped her learn balance.

Jared pulled up from working on the house while we were still out riding and she got to show him.

Aydri picked up on the excitement and was clapping and hugging me. We're so proud of Kendi. She's on cloud nine right now.

One Reason for Homeschooling

I've been reading a lot of homeschooling blogs lately to learn other people's techniques and experiences. We all seem to be passionate about the same reason's for homeschooling. Courtney from My Ordinary, Happily Ever After posted this on her blog:

We’ve seen the news stories about these new “sex ed” programs that teach all sorts of things that we weren’t taught in school under the guise of “preventing bullying”. But this report shows the true purpose of why the radical “sexual agenda” is trying to infiltrate our schools.

This report was created by UN Special Rapporteur Vernor Munoz who was under mandate from the UN as an “expert” to issue an unbiased report on “the right to education”. Based on the content of his work, he is clearly not “unbiased” nor is he an “expert”.

Among other things, this report claims that existing international treaties create a “Right to Sexual Education” (which they don’t) and that they only way to enforce this fabricated “right” is by implementing a sexual education program that not only undermines parental authority, religious convictions and traditional values, but also releases our children (and society as a whole) from any form of self control and gives them carte blanche to nearly any and all sexual behavior (except abstinence and restraint, of course).

The report discusses what helps young people “have better sexual lives”, as if improving the sexual lives of youth is a valid goal of governments, and it strangely states that the “goal of education for sexuality” (which is significantly different from traditional sex education) is “to develop a transforming role for men by going beyond the …physical aspect,” whatever that means.

REALLY? Since when does ANYONE want the government in their bedroom? Regardless of your beliefs on sexual orientation, I doubt that many people agree that it is the governments job to teach about technique in our classrooms.

Specifically, in the report Munoz states that he “considers that pleasure in an enjoyment of sexuality . . . should be one of the goals of comprehensive sexual education, abolishing guilt feelings about eroticism that restrict sexuality to the mere reproductive function. ”With regard to HIV the report declares that “restricting sexual education to the issue of sexually transmitted diseases . . . may create an erroneous association between sexuality and disease, which is as harmful as associating it with sin.”

To read her entire post go HERE.

They want to teach this to five year olds. I know there is a lot to be debated about why we should or shouldn't homeschool, but this is a big reason for me. Not just because of how the government is getting involved with Sex Ed, but because of what is becoming socially acceptable in modern society. And then not just acceptable, but expected among kids.

I don't think less of people who put their kids in public education either. I'm still open to all ideas of education and am not sure what I'll end up doing yet. I just feel like the battle between good and evil is getting more challenging and I want to know that I TRIED to do all that I could for my kids. If you have more information on what is going on with Sexual Education in schools, please share.

Ballerina Bugs

Our kids are going to dress up as Lady Bug Ballerina's for Halloween. I already had Kendi's old costume for Aydri and Kendi had been begging for one in her size since she outgrew it. So, I made one to match. Right now, Aydri absolutely hates her costume and won't let me near her with it so I don't have any pictures yet.

We decided to carve pumpkins for family night. It's fun to carve something that goes with their costumes. Kendi chose to carve a Ballerina on the front of hers and musical notes on the back that would cast a shadow. She poked all the holes and even did some carving by herself. She is getting so big.

Getting a picture of these two smiling and looking at the same time is impossible. This is the best I got.

I didn't have Jared there to draw the lady bug for Aydri so I had to do it. I know it looks kind of Alienish.

For some reason you can't see the musical note shadows behind the ballerina very well in the picture. I'll have to try again tomorrow when it isn't so dark.

We had a lot of fun. I used to hate Halloween, but when you have two little girls its all about pumpkins and princesses. A lot more exciting.