What's Been Happening

Just some great Info

2011-01-06T10:50:00.001-08:00

With these crappy times in the economy I though this was some great info to those of you, for someone you know who has been laid off. No we weren't, my friend just posted about it and I liked it:)
Family Rocketship

Im on a Design Team!!!

2010-12-01T14:41:00.000-08:00

Yep that's right...most people say "wow that's cool, but what does it really mean?". Well it means I am one of 11 design team members chosen from a whole lot of other scrapbookers who applied for this design team, for a blog called Scrap Yourself. We are to make layouts for the Scrap Yourself blog and given a certain challenge for that month to scrapbook about. The term for this blog team is till February then I will apply again and hopefully be picked again. Our first challenge was to scrap from A-Z. The team was each given a couple letter and my first letter was "P" so check it out and let me know what you think.
http://scrap-yourself.blogspot.com/2010/12/purpose-of-my-life.html

Happy Birthday Veraty!

2010-11-16T15:13:00.000-08:00

Dear Veraty,
Happy Birthday my beautiful girl. 4 years ago today we were blessed with you. You make mommy and daddy so happy and proud to be your parents. You are such a good girl, and you make us laugh all the time. We hope that we can be the best parents you deserve. You are so good to your sisters and to us. You are just such a happy girl are we are so so grateful for you. Heavenly Father has blessed us greatly. We love you Vera! xoxoxoxo

Halloween Decor

2010-10-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

Okay so does anyone ever go to Value Village to look for something specific, knowing you are gonna get a great deal, well because its Value Village and that is what its all about. Ya well guess again! I was on the hunt for some glassware. I wanted some glass containers and a glass cake plate. Yes I found some but not for a good deal, did i end up buying them YES, but angrily! I knew they would be more expensive if I didnt get them here but I still didnt like paying as much as I did for them.

I just love to decorate for Halloween!!!

Mount Shasta...Conquered!!!

2010-09-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

Our climb to Cure Duchenne has come and gone. What an awesome expereince Micah and I had climbing this extreme mountain. Driving up to it was very intimidating, it was like looking at Mt. Rainier but this one I was actually climbing. Ya know Mt. Shasta is only 250 Ft. SHORTER that Mt. Rainier. So crazy!

This is the awesome team that climbed and unfortunately not all of us made it, but most of us did.

The next few pictures are of us making our camp at 10,000. We had to shovel out a wind breaker for were our tent would go and the put up our tent and get our gear organized and ready for the early morning accent and 3AM.
The picture with the guy in the red puffy is our guide, Neil, he was really cool and he dug out a cooking area and made a delicious dinner.
A beautiful picture at sun set with the other part of are team.

Yes, here we all are at the top!!! We made it, what an accomplishment for myself and those who made it!! And one of my climbing partners was my brother, how cool is that!! And of course my wonderful husband who talks me into doing these crazy things. I loved it and the experience is unforgettable!!!

Happy Bithday Xela!!!

2010-08-04T14:42:00.000-07:00

I cant believe Xela is 2! On August 3, 2010 was her birthday and she of course had no idea. I told her it was her b-day and she said, "yeah", that's pretty much her answer for everything. She was excited to go to Red Robin and eat and also to open presents. At Red Robin they sing to the birthday person and she stand right up on her chair and is clapping right along with all the RR servers with a huge smile on. She loved it.

Xela, our life is so much more exciting with you in it. We love you and your sisters adore you, I wouldn't want it any other way. xoxoxoxo Happy Birthday!

Good buy!!

2010-05-25T15:26:00.000-07:00

No, No, No, not "good bye" but "good buy". The English language is so weird. Anyhoo I was at TJ Maxx the other day and spotted this super cute table and chairs set. I've been looking for one for a long time to put out on our back deck but I could never find one I want and in my price range, but then I saw this and i grabbed it!! I found those cone shaped things and got those too. They are solar powered and one glows green and the other purple, at night.

Gives me the warm fuzzies

2010-05-25T15:20:00.001-07:00

Okay this may seem totally weird and crazy of me but....this is a stack of Ellie's clothes, which you may know is not my kid but my neighbors. I was doing a bunch of laundry today and I had a pile for Karma, Veraty, Xela (which are my girls) and there is usually one for Ellie too! Its weird but it makes me kinda happy having her clothes here and pulling them out of the clean basket to fold. Dont get me wrong, I hate doing laundry but is that weird or what??? It just give me a happy heart, I just love that little Ellie so much, just like she was one of mine.

Feels like Summer!

2010-05-19T16:38:00.000-07:00

Oh what a tease today was. It was so beautiful out and we all enjoyed it. The girls got to go in the sprinkler, thank you Julie, and they had so much fun. I just love the neighbor hood we live in. Even the Ruby had lots of fun. We discovered she likes to "try" to bite the water coming from the hose, she just loves it.

Cheezy smile!!

I tried to get the girls to run and jump at the same time, but honestly what was I thinking I know that would never work.

Here is a video of Ruby catching the water. And this ones is Xela and a fizzy skittle.

At Grammie's

2010-05-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day!!! This is Mother's Day weekend at Grammie's. We were able to spend lots of time outside in the beautiful Washington sun.

Xela loves to run back and forth on the deck, she thinks it's super fun!!

Xela helping Grammie rack, she is so helpful.

The girls sorta cousin, had a birthday party!!! They had so much fun running around and blowing bubbles. They are all so dang cute.

Birthday girl, Happy Birthday Mirah.

Say cheese!!!

Happy Mothers Day

2010-05-19T15:32:00.000-07:00

This is a little late but that is okay. We had a great Mothers Day weekend. We spent time with my mom and dad and also Micah's mom and dad. There are lots of pictures sorry. These ones are at my grandparents house.

My niece and nephew, Gabby and Braxton.

Dodge ball...watch out!!!

Xela's famous kisses!

Me and my girls!

My mom and I.

My mom and all her grandbabies.

My mom and her kids, that is a picture of my older brother when he was a baby, he had to go to work, so we used a picture of him for the picture, hahaha!

ahhhh...I don't know.

Micah and I

Mom and dad

My brother Matt and Xela, we are going a walk to the beach.

Such a corny picture, I thought it was going to be a little cooler than that.

RUBY!!!

2010-04-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

We have been wanting to get another dog for quite some time now and we found the perfect one. First off Micah has been researching dogs, trying to find a breed that would best fit our family. For those of you who know us we have a little Shitzu who is more of a cat than a dog and we really wanted a dog that could play and run and just have fun with, no offense Tiki but you are kinda a bump on a log, but we love and appriciate your lazyness at times, but we wanted a dog, dog. We really love Frenchies but they have to many health problems and we really like Rodeshian ridgebacks but they are to big for our small house and we want the dog to be in the house with us. Then Micah was telling me about Staffordshire Bull Terriers and I though this could be a good fit. Right size, good with kids, has more energy than Tiki, they are very cute, and very minimal health issues if any. So we looked into finding one, come to find out there are not many in the US. There are only a couple breeders in WA and we were lined up to get a puppy from Spokane but unfortunatly the mom only had one very large puppy and she had a c-section and lost the baby puppy. It was so sad for all involved. We were also keeping in touch with a breeder in OR who had a 2 year old staffy, they were trying to find a perfect home for her. This family has two girls that little Ruby always played with so it was important to them that she went to a home that had girls. Well ding, ding, ding you have a winner because we have three!!! We chatted back and forth and decided to make the 8 hour trek to OR and see if Ruby would be a good fit for us. Turns out she was perfect! Ruby is a little ball of muscle and to some she might be a bit intimidating looking but she really is so friendly and just loves people. We took Karma and Veraty to see her and they were a bit scared just because she jumped and licked and wanted to run and play with them and they are not used to that. But now they know how to handle her and they really do love her.
Just a little quiet time for everyone.

Ruby is so gentle with Xela and the other two, but especially Xela (Shayla). This breed comes from England, and she actually came from England as a puppy to breed to bring in a new line to their line but she couldn't so that is why they were looking for a new home for her, any way they are know as the nanny dog.

All three dogs eating in harmony, well except for Tiki she will wait till the unmannerly dogs eat then she can eat in quiet without all the scarfing sounds. Bowie, my sister-in-laws dog, is in the upper left of the picture he is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and black with his head in the bowl so its hard to see him.
So we welcome little Ruby Rainbow as Veraty likes to call her, to our family and we hope she loves it here.

Here is a little video of Ruby playing with her new buddy Baxter from next door.

Cure Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

2010-02-28T16:56:00.000-08:00

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) – it affects primarily boys and is the leading genetic killer worldwide. More than 1 in every 3500 are born with it. Generally speaking, children are diagnosed by the time they are 3 or 4 yrs old. Their muscles don’t rebuild meaning by the time they are 9 or 10 they are in a wheel chair. They usually don’t make it past their teen years because their hearts or diaphragms give out. As of now, it is 100% fatal.

Now for the good news! Organizations like CureDuchenne are making huge strides in realizing a cure. Now CureDuchenne acts as a venture philanthropist so to speak to give promising biotech companies the seed money they need to attract the larger pharmaceutical companies. ALL of the companies and researchers CureDuchenne has funded have been successful and a life saving treatment is actually within sight. Very exciting!

So, how do they raise money and awareness to find a cure? Through super cool events like the Climb to Cure Duchenne! Last year a group of 12 of climbed Mt. Rainier. They raised $170,000 that went directly to research!
Now, how are we going to top that? By opening it up to everyone. Our friend, Sean Marshall is organizing different climbing groups from around the country to pick a peak and climb for a cure. Micah and I are joining him and many others, to climb Mt. Shasta, 14,179ft. June 19&20 if you feel compelled please donate and pass this link on to everyone you know. We thank you for your support to help raise money to cure muscular dystrophy. We are excited to be able to climb such a great mountain and also do it for a cause.
Here is our link:
http://www.firstgiving.com/mtshastacrusaders
If you have a group that would like to climb to cure Duchenne please email or call Sean and he will get you all the info you need.
Sean Marshall- 949-872-2552 or sean@cureduchenne.org

Hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day

2010-02-15T21:11:00.001-08:00

We had a great Valentine's Day. We went to church in the morning and then came home and some pb and j's and took naps...a perfect day!

Well before the naps the girls wanted to bring their neighbor friends the valentines goodies they put together. So we stopped by each house and dropped them off. We also made some for our, what the girls call "The New Neighbors" even though they've been there for a while. We dropped those off and chatted for a bit. They are super nice and she has 3 girls of her own, cool huh! Anyways later that night they dropped off this wonderful V-day cake for us. It was super nice of them, thank you.

For dinner we had pink pancakes, yum yum, and then the cake.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Birthday to me...

2010-02-15T20:57:00.000-08:00

Okay my birthday was on the 2nd, yes groundhogs day, and no I don't know if he saw his shadow or not. I found the pictures and though hey this is my blog and even if its way late I can still post it. I got headphones for my phone from Connor and Chelsea and the fam pooled together $ for my hot yoga that I've been dying to start up again. In fact tonight I did my first one for the month! Thank you everyone!

Hang loose!!

Xela love to work out!!

2010-01-25T22:20:00.000-08:00

How cute is he, I mean she...she is obviously working really hard...don't let that thumb out!!!

Ready for the summer!!

2010-01-25T20:24:00.000-08:00

These pictures are from Christmas but I thought its still okay to post about them. Karma and Veraty got new back packs for hiking this summer. They are both super excited to go and well Xela had to try them on too!!

Uppercase Living 40% off sale!!

2009-12-29T15:25:00.000-08:00

40% Off Select Expressions, plus FREE Shipping on orders $50 or more!
The holidays are almost here and we have the perfect gift for you. 40% Off the Online Transition List!*

From December 10, at noon (MT) until January 4 at 11:59 p.m. (midnight) MT, all expressions featured in our 2009 Fall/Winter Online Transition List are 40% off!* This list contains over 200 designs that will not be available in the new catalog but will remain active and available online through a Demonstrator Website or the 2009 Fall/Winter Idea Catalog. Featuring designs for every style and every space, it truly has something for everyone.
View Online Transition List Here: http://valentine.uppercaseliving.net

Free Shipping on orders of $50 or more!**

Through January 4, we are also offering FREE SHIPPING on orders** of $50 or more! Now you can get all the expressions on your wish list - including items from the online transition list - and the shipping is on us!

New Urban Karma blog

2009-12-29T15:15:00.000-08:00

I started my new Urban Karma site. I guess I stopped using my old one and didn't renew it or something like that so here is the new one. Of course I'm still working on it.
www.valentinecrafting.blogspot.com

Dog, Dogs and more Dogs!!

2009-12-29T14:58:00.000-08:00

Micah parents house has so many dogs. They are not all theirs but...well let me just show you...

are we at a dog park...no we are not, but it looks like one. Micah's parents, Robin and Steve, the have 3 dogs, one is new to the family and needs to be socialized, hence then dog play date. Then Evan and Sara live next door and they have 2 dogs, and we where there with our dog Tiki, though she doesn't play she was still there and then Connor and Chelsea have one dog. And Steve had friends come by with their new Rottie so that she could be socialized too, so how many is that....what, 8 dogs...that's alot of dogs! So every human around decided to join in the socialization too!

Xela and Veraty playing in the playhouse.

Hey Evan, nice pants!

Ahh Christmas has passed.

2009-12-29T14:42:00.000-08:00

This Christmas was wonderful. My family had such a great time I wish it could be like this all year round. I love to go from family to family just hanging out talking story and playing games. My mom is so great, she has started having her family's Christmas the weekend before Christmas so that we can all get together and not have to stress about leaving and going to the next families house. It's great because we can now enjoy each family and the time we spend with them
For Christmas eve and day we stayed at Micah's parents house and that was wonderful because we didn't have to rush out to someone elses house. We stayed there the whole weekend and got to spend time with Micah's brother Lane who just got home on the 21st from his mission. Let me tell you he was surprised to see how is family grew while he was got for 2 years. He left when Karma was little and Veraty was a Baby. Then he comes back and Karma is a big Kid and Veraty is running and talking and he never met Xela, who is now 17 months. And Sara, his other brothers wife is prego with her second kid. Crazy what can happen in two years.

Be Prepared!

2009-10-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

So I am the worst person in the world about blogging... I know, I know I need to get back on the band wagon. My camera broke so that is my excuse for not posting. Any who I found this web site and thought it was great. I'm always worried about not having enough food storage and being prepared for disaster so here is a great link, check it out! http://preparednesspantry.blogspot.com/

4 mins. to being a better person

2009-03-09T19:37:00.000-07:00

I watched this clip on my friend's blog and I had to post it also. This is our beloved prophet who just recently passed, Gordon B. Hinckley. What a wonderful message, it warms my soul.

Master Cleanse

2009-03-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

What was I thinking! I know, it was the detox of all the gunk that is building up inside of me from all those Wendy's stops and delicious pizza and candy and all the "no" "no" foods. I'm on day 6 and I really don't want any of those foods right now but I could go for some fruit.
This is how it went down. I heard about the Master cleanse and i thought that i would look into it. So I talked with a few people who had done it and they said they loved it, they felt so great afterward and they lost 18 lbs. I thought, "well I'm in!" So I went to the store got my lemons, Grade B maple syrup and cayenne pepper, the next day i began my 10 day cleanse (that's right, 10 days of this lemonade mix and h20). Day one wasn't bad at all, I just kept myself busy and everything was fine. They say that the first three day are the hardest and if you can get past the first three days you are good to go. The second day was alright, it was hard to make the girls breakfast, lunch and dinner because you are so used to taking a bit here and there, and I couldn't. Also my friend Julie, who lives right next door, popped by and she smelled so good i could have taken her arm off. She said, "oh ya I just got done cooking fried rice, hahahaha." Ya real funny. I booted her out. That night i did a salt water flush and it didn't work. (it is supposed to make you go to the bathroom) Day three was the supposed to be the hardest, but it was actually really easy. I did the swf in the morning on an empty stomach and walla, it worked!! I will spare you the details. In the evening you are supposed to drink smooth move tea, so I did and i got major cramps for about 15 minutes and wammo. 4th day was fine same as the others. Then the 5th day was very hard. Everything i made for the girls I wanted to eat, all the goldfish crackers, popcorn everything, I just wanted it. I even called Micah and told him i was having a weak moment and i wanted to quite. That night I came really close to stopping. Micah was eating a yummy salad and i just wanted to crunch some food. But i told myself that it is the end of the day i tomorrow will be a better day.
So here I am on day 6, great job I say. Today will be busy, I have to drive down to my in laws and I'm doing an Uppercase Living party tonight so the day will go by fast. I just have to keep my focus on why I'm doing this. To rid my body of toxins and clean myself out, losing weight is a bonus. 4 more days left!

Night time fight!!

2008-12-17T21:00:00.000-08:00

Well snowball fight that is! We have this neighbor who likes to torment us. She kept throwing snowballs at our house, how rude huh! So what other choice do we have but to fight back. Eventually the whole neighborhood was out in the cul-de-sac. It was so much fun. Karma had the girls over for a sleepover (Ellie and Katie) and the had already put their pajamas on but the insisted on going out right now. So instead of taking 45 minutes to get winter clothes on, out they went in the jammies. Ellie was out in her nightgown, crazy little girl, there was a coat by the door for her to put on but nope she didn't want to. We played for quite awhile and then we went back in for some hot chocolate and Jo Jo's from Trader Joe's (which are delicious, you must try them if you have the chance. They are like oreo's but with peppermint filling, yum!) Now here the are watching a movie before bed which hopefully doesn't turn out to be 11 0'clock again! Julie thanks that was mucho mucho fun! Jessica and Kenny we missed you!

a couple more pics.

2008-12-16T15:26:00.000-08:00

Snow!

2008-12-16T15:20:00.000-08:00

The first snow of December!!!! Ya, the girls were so excited to wake up and see snow outside. The morning was full of snow angels, snow ball fights, snotty noses and cold wet hands. But the put in some hard snow play for a delicious cup of hot chocolate with marshmallow cream.

First food!!

2008-12-16T14:59:00.000-08:00

Well little Xela had her four month appt. the other day and she is doing just fine. I did ask our doctor about her eating habit. She nurses all the time and I wanted to know if she was getting enough to eat. She said that she is growing fine, but if she nurses and still feels hungry you can try rice cereal. Well I usually wait another month but we did it. She loves it. She has had it once a day for the past three days and she is doing just fine one it. I swear I just couldn't get it in fast enough. And the she passed out. So cute when she sucks her thumb.

A great weekend (this is old, i found it in my drafts) oops forgot! Oct. 26

2008-10-29T07:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend turned out so good. Our family came up this weekend for Xela's blessing. When Micah picked this weekend to do it, we didn't realize it was going to be the perfect weekend to have everyone come here. Almost everyone was able to come. We had Micah's parents, my parents (who stayed at my house) the Evan, Sara and Sobeida who stayed at Connor and Chelsea's house, who live not to far from us (Evan and Connor are Micah's brothers) then my brother Nick and his wife and kids stayed at my aunt and uncles house in bellevue. So we all got together on Saturday night for our Halloween Carnival and Trunk or Treat at the church. The kids got dressed up and there was good food and lots of candy of course. I dont have pictures because they were all taken on Micah's mom's camera. And then when that was over we all came back to my house and Micah ordered a pay per view fight, a gift for Evan's birthday.

Then Sunday morning came and it was pretty crazy, we actually got to church early which is just unheard of for just Micah and I with the girls to be there at 9 when church starts. And everyone else got there just in the nick of time. When it came time for Micah to give Xela her blessing he did such a wonderful job. Everything that he said was just beautiful we were all touched by his words and he couldn't even keep it together. The spirit was so strong at that moment. I'm so thankful for Micah that he is able to do that for our little girls. I'm grateful for all those who were able to come on Sunday, it meant a lot to Micah and I. And an extra treat for all that was there on Sunday, it happened to be the Primary Program. Karma did such a great job, I thought for sure that she wasn't going to was to go up there but she bravely went up and sang all the songs. When it came time for her age group to go up and recite the first article of faith she did great. They said it perfectly, "We believe in God the Eternal Father and in his son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost." Her and another girl were right up on the microphone so it was hard to hear the others over them. Then they each had one line to say which we have been practicing for awhile and with out being scared or running off the stage she said it confidently, " I can show kindness to all of God's children." It was so cute and I was so proud to see her up there.

Then we all came back to my house when church was over and had lunch and hung out. Even micah aunt and uncle flew in from Utah to see how Micah's dad was doing.

2 Girls gone

2008-10-06T20:48:00.000-07:00

My wonderful mom calls me up the other day and says "Tia, I have a favor to ask you." I'm thinking oh great what is it going to be, does she want me to go to my grandparents house for something, or does she want me to drive down to see her. No. "Okay what is it?" mom- "Can I have the girls this weekend and then I will bring them home on Tuesday?" Tia- (a VERY short pause) "YES of course you can!" Ahh instant relief and then my mind starts in on all the wonderful crafts I could do while they are gone. I have lots of project to so before the upcoming Holiday Bazzar in Elma. Well I didn't get as much done as I wanted because Xela was not cooperating of course. I sware they know when you want to get a bunch of stuff done, because as soon as you have time to do things they start acting up. I finish a couple thing for my mom, and thats about it. And the girls are coming home tonight, ohh well I am excited to see them. (these stars are much smaller and they were make to match another one I made for my mom its a large one like the star I made for myself.

Craft Club

2008-10-06T20:33:00.000-07:00

My awsome friend Julie started a Craft Club!!! I was so excited for it to start. Our first project was this beautiful star. It was quite the project for our first club meeting but I love to craft so I was very exited to make one. I picked out the colors I wanted and then I had to choose pictures, which let me just say was not easy for two reasons. Reason 1- there are so many cute pictures of the girls it was had to choose. Reason 2- I wanted to have a few pictures of Micah and I together and also some with the girls. The problem is that ever since we had girl numero uno I dont get in the pictures for a reason, I just dont like the way I look, extra poundage and all I just dont like it. And needless to say Micah supported me by gaining a few pounds with me. We are not ginormous or anything but its just not the same be for the girls. We will get there.
Anyhoo so I did scrounge up a few pictures of us. So hear it is!

I am absolutely in love with it. I think it turned out great. It now is on our wall in the entryway. Thank you Julie for hosting such a great project, I'm excited for what more is to come.

make-up bust!

2008-08-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

So my good friend Julie was so kind to take my kids over to her house to play. She has a little girl Karma's age and a boy who is 5. Well, little V was in Elle's room with Karma and Elle and the two girls come running out to Julie yelling "its an emergency, its an emergency" or something like that. So Julie runs in there and discovers this...pink lipstick all over her face. Its kid play make up so luckly it came off easy. She was mushing it around like it was lotion. Julie brought her back so I could take pictures of her before the mess was washed off. The funny thing was that when Julie went to go see what the emergency was, Veraty looked up at Julie and chucked the lipstick to the floor to hide the evidence. Little did she know she had guilt written all over her face.

oops!

The New Baby on the block!

2008-08-11T20:22:00.000-07:00

Well here she is, born Sunday August 3rd at 2:56pm. She weighed 7.9lbs. and was 20in. long. We named her, Xela (Shayla) Kahana Valentine. She is absolutely adorable. Well not so much the first week but going into the second week she is much cuter. She has lots of hair as you can see and seems to be quite the white baby, certainly nothing like Veraty.
Karma is totally in love with her and wants to be the mommy all the time.

Veraty is doing suprisingly well. I thought for sure that she wasn't going to let me take Xela home.

Ohh yes and i better address the spelling issue. Xela is a Myan word and in that language it is spelled Xela. The X makes a "sh" sound. It means beautiful thoughts. And believe me we have heard all about the mistake of it being spelled this way, so spare me.
This is her a few days old.

The Fourth of July!

2008-07-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

Today is the fourth of July!!! How greatful we should all be to live in such a great country. At times we all take it for granted but I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for the wonderful freedoms that we have.

Today we were at Micah's aunt and uncle's house on Black Lake in Olympia. We all had lots of fun full of great company, good food and awesome fireworks. They have this apple tree that had very tiny unripe apples that all the little kids pulled off and took bits out of. Veraty and Karma had lots of fun with their cousins, well I guess they would be second cousins. This is Veraty and Kelsie picking and tasting the apples. There are lots of pictures but it was so hard to pick and choose, sorry!

Ya, you pick a great apple!!!

They had a tire swing which was a big hit for Karma and Brody. Those two had a great time together. I think Karma fancied him very much.

Veraty picking her nose again. I have lots of these kind of pictures. She just likes to pick her nose.

She is just to dang cute.

Yes, you are too!

Her uncle Connor is always looking for some sort of creature. In the bucket they had a couple crawdads and bullheads. All the kids thought it was so cool. He also found a frog.

What a great picture.

Veraty and Sobeida, they both have to have things in their mouths.

Trying to get a good picture with me and the girls was pretty much impossible.

Bruce aways has a great display of fireworks. This year was really good.

Hard to see everyone, but this is Micah's family, well his cousins, brothers and wives anyways.

And the little ones.

Karma is ready for the firework show.

Veraty did not like the fireworks. She covered her eyes, she just didn't like the loud noise or the lights from it. She finally fell asleep.

Thanks Bruce and Linda for a great Fourth of July party.

Karma's Sleepover

2008-07-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

Karma wanted to have a sleepover soooo badly. So she invited her friends Ellie and Katie over. They had so much fun. First they made their dinner, which was pizza. As they put the cheese on most of the cheese went into their mouths.

After lots of playing they wanted to make some brownies so they did. They all took turns putting the ingredients in and and stirring. I defiantly had to remove a few egg shells.

And here they are enjoying the delicious brownies. Yes they were good.

And now it was time to wind down so they all agreed on watching Enchanted. After the movie was done they still weren't asleep. Veraty was already in her crib asleep but these girls wanted to party all night. We told them to lay down and go to sleep. Ha, if it was that easy. Micah and I went downstairs waiting for them to fall asleep. 10:30 rolls around, not kidding, after much threating of separating them into different areas of the house they were still up there giggling away. All I wanted to do was go to sleep, I was really tired, but I had to wait it out. Micah finally convinced them to go to sleep. At 11 o'clock they were asleep. Thank goodness!!

I got up in the middle of the night for one of my many bathroom breaks and here they all are sprawled out and Tiki too. In the morning they all awoke with giggles and quite talks. They had breakfast the some fruit for a snack on the deck. What a great sleep over it was. And they all took a nap that day, so did I.

2008-07-22T14:46:00.000-07:00

Karma's good friend, Katie, had a birthday party at the end of June and she had PONIES!!! Everyone was so excited. Katie had hats and bandanas for everyone and they all looked so cute.

Veraty really liked riding the horses, she wasn't scarred at all. She trotted all around the yard and just held on.

And of course Karma just loved it she wanted to go again and again.

Thank you Katie, Ann and Ken for such a great party, the girls had lots and lots of fun.

Smashed Toe!

2008-07-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

Okay so while we were on the Rogue River Trip my mom watched the girls. She had them over at her parents house and they have this little piano, 2 1/2 feet tall 2 ft. wide or so and really surdy. And Veraty always plays with it, well I guess is fell over and smashed her toe.

Here she is giving it lots and lots of kisses. And she shows it to you and says with big, big puckered lips, "Owww, Owww, Owww." It's so cute how she says it you just want to kiss those lips.

Karma trys to make it feel better too!!

Yes that looks like it is very painful.
Today is July 18th and the very last piece of her toe nail finally fell off. It got squished some time at the end of May.

Soccer and Summer Time Fun!

2008-07-18T11:39:00.000-07:00

Micah has a soccer tournament at the end of June, which he was very excited for. His brother Evan and his wife and little girl came up so he could play in the tournament with Micah. It was blazing hot that day and their tournament started at 930 and he had two games that day. The temp was in the 90's. We were all hot but had lots of fun watching the games. Their team didn't do so well, Micah and Evan did awsome though. They lost both games that day, then the next day they had two more and lost one and tied one. Ohh well.

After the game on Saturday this is what we did, which is a typical day in the life of the Valentine girls. If its hot and sunny out we are in the pool. We live in such a great neighborhood, we are all friends. We all have kids that get along for the most part and they play just about everyday together.

Here is Veraty and Shane, he is kindly sharing his pool water with her.

Miss Ann (as the kids call her), brings out the popcicles for everyone and they love it.

Katie, Elle Veraty, Lucas, and Karma.

The kids like it when we put the slide in the pool.

And of course Veraty just loves the water, you can hardly get her out of it.

Here is little Sobeida, Evan and Sara's little girl. She had so much fun playing with the kids and in the water. We loved having them here and wish they could come more often.

Start at the blog that says, Rogue river Trip

2008-07-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

It was so hot some even tryed to get a tan.

Yes there is a tree growing on the top of that rock.

See!!

And here we are at the end of the trip, now we have an 8 hour drive back home. Thanks to Spencer and Caroline for the use of their van, but no thanks to Dave's crazy driving!!
Also thank you to Steve and Robin for organizing such a great trip. We had so much fun. We love you both very much, thank you, we will never forget this awsome adventure.

Oh yes, and i finally realized I've been spelling Rogue River wrong, I now know its R-O-G-U-E. My bad.

2008-07-16T18:28:00.000-07:00

This is Blossom Bar, it is usually the second worse rapid, but today it wasn't bad at all.

Just having a little fun on this hot day.

We stopped for lunch and a certain spot were there is this natural water slide, this isn't it but on the hike up to the slide there are all these little pools of water and it was just beautiful.

Robin

2008-07-16T18:23:00.000-07:00

Ahhh breakfast, kish (sp?), bacon, potatoes, muffins, honeydew, hot chocolate and oj.

The main lodge. The next day actually stayed very nice all day. The first two days most of us wore wet suits to stay warm, today we didn't have to.

How cool is that.

Just beautiful.

2008-07-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

Mmmm, dessert!

The cool table!

A few people hiked a ways to look and see what we were up against the next day. The river eventually flows through these amazing rock canyons.

Our room. It had two twin beds in it, which was actually kind of nice.

2008-07-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

More Chillin'

Marial Lodge

They had chinese style tables with the turn table in the middle.

salad, ribs, corn broccoli, baked potato and home made bread. Delish!!!

2008-07-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

An old fire place.

The museum

Chillin' in front of the museum

Ahhh, Museum...

2008-07-16T18:05:00.000-07:00

There was this cool museum that we could go see, it was a mile and a half to get there, but we didn't have much else to do so we went.

This was a coffin, creepy!!!

I told Micah to pretend like he was cooking on this really old stove, he thought that was dumb but did it anyway.

Some old pics of people who used to live here.

I thought this was one tough motha!! shes holding a shot gun on her front porch.

2008-07-16T17:56:00.000-07:00

Okay now some of the guys were going to jump off the cliff that has the tree log on top of it. Matt decided he was smarter than everyone else and just wadded in the water.

There goes Micah!

And this is were we parked our boats for our last night. It was right on a small rock face and we tied all the boats to the trees.

This is our cabin here at Marial Lodge. I think the first lodge was called Black bear Lodge, but not totally sure.

2008-07-16T17:50:00.000-07:00

Ohhhh, and breakfast. Ham, eggs, pancakes, cantaloupe, and some oj to top it off.
A couple deer just walking around.
Happy are we.
Are you wondering how that log got on the top of the cliff? Ya the water got that high!

2008-07-16T17:46:00.000-07:00

The next day it started of sunny and beautiful, we all hoped it was going to stay, but it didn't. This is the main lodge were we ate.
At the lodge, what a beautiful sight to wake up to.

Playing a little frisbee before breakfast.

What it looks like empty.

2008-07-16T17:41:00.000-07:00

They had two long tables like this ready for us hungry travelers to eat.

They were playing some game while I stayed warm by the fire.

Here was our room, Micah is in the bathroom which as a curtain for a door. The bed was absolutely horrible. It had a big dip in the middle so we were both stuck in the center of the bed. Other than that it was really awsome to have a cabin to sleep in.

2008-07-16T17:35:00.000-07:00

The Rouge River is a senic trip so we got to see lots of wildlife. This is an eagle in this picture, we also saw a couple bears, turtles, ducks, a few other types of eagle's and crane's.

This part of the River is called Rainy Falls and is the worst rapid on the Rouge. We all got out of our boats and walked down to check out the condition of Rainy Falls. We decided to go around it. Good Call!!

This was our first cabin we stayed in. This cabin in particular was a split in two, like a duplex. So each side had a private room.

This was our dinner on the first night and it was soooo good. Pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuts, carrots, salad, it was great. Then we had cheese cake for dessert. They treated us very well.

2008-07-16T17:25:00.000-07:00

Sara, Robin, Me, and Chelsea
Steve giving his safety talk

Micah's boat

What a cute captain!!

Rouge River Trip!!

2008-07-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

We had a Valentine Family trip at the end of May on the Rouge River in Oregon. This was such a fun trip to go on and Micah and I are very greatful to have had the chance to do it. Every year Steve and Robin (Micah's parents) plan a trip for us all. This one was the Valentine's and many others, probably 30 of us total.

Here we are packing the boats. On this trip you have to travel down the river and then you stay at a cabin for the night. We stayed at two different cabins and it was a great way to take on the Rouge River.

This red boat was the one that Micah manned with Matt (our friend), Todd (Matt's brother) and Christian (Chelsea's brother) (Chelsea is Micah's brother, Connor's wife)

Christian and Chelsea

Todd and Matt

Micah's 5K run

2008-07-16T10:56:00.001-07:00

Our great friend and neighbor Julie said she was going to do a 5K run and Micah thought it would be a fun experience so he decided to do it also. The run was as the end of April. They were very excited when the day finally came to run for fun! luckily I had the excuse of being to pregnant to run with them. Maybe I will do it next year. I really don't like running but if I'm going to do it to compete, than that might be fun to do.

Here is Julie and Micah with their cool numbers attached to their clothing, this makes it official.
And of course Little V is very excited for her daddy.

Karma is defiantly daddy's number 1 fan.

And there off!! Daddy gives a corny fist in the air for the camera as he runs by.

Our cheering squad!! Karma and Julie's little girl, Elle.

In the end Micah did great and he had lots of fun. His time was 24 min's I think, don't quote me on that, it was a while ago.

After the race was all done they has all these booths with food and fun things for kids to do. Karma is getting a butterfly painted on her face.

Veraty and I are just hanging out waiting for Karma's painting to finish up. By the way Veraty has a mouth full of Skittles!

Time to update

2008-07-16T10:53:00.000-07:00

Yes I know it has been a very long time since I've updated my blog. I know you are all waiting at the edge of your seats, checking everyday to see if I've updated. Well now I'm finally going to do it. I'm at that point were so much time has gone by and so many things have happened that I don't really want to update it but I'm going to!!!

Karma turned 4!!!

2008-04-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late on posting this but Karma had her forth Birthday on the 17th. I can't believe she is 4, I can't believe I have a 4 year old. She has been such a blessing to our family and is such a good big sister to Veraty. She is so smart and the things she says just crack Micah and I up sometimes. She thinks she is a big person sometimes with the way she talks and expresses her feelings, she can have such a DIVA attitude. Most of the time its pretty funny then she does it over and over and over again, then it is just plain annoying.
She had a birthday party and home with most of her friends and it went pretty good for as many kids there were. Micah (he is a given), Julie and Paige stayed and helped control the potential chaos that could have erupted at any time, so thank you! It was Tinkerbell themed, fyi.

It's a Girl!!!

2008-04-10T21:44:00.000-07:00

How horrible am I not to post!!?! I went to the doctor last Friday for the ultrasound. Micah, Karma and my mom when with me and surprisingly it was a girl!! I thought for sure it was going to be a boy. When she told us my stomach dropped and I didn't even want to look at Micah tears were already welling in my eyes. We were both very sad, yes it sound horrible but we wanted a boy so badly. Well what do you do, Heavenly Father has a plan for us and if we are supposed to have all girls, well we will just have to deal. Micah is thinking of all kinds of ways to get a boy, if there is a next time. If he keeps moaping (sp?) around I'm certain there will be a next time!!

All done and starting Again!!!

2008-04-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

Alright, I finished the Twilight series, which is a total of 3 large books, 500-620 or so pages, just a few days ago and my sister in law and I talk about it everyday. So today I was defiantly having withdraws so I had to make a run to target and there it was. I've decided it would be a good idea to start over again with the first book, just to make sure i didn't miss anything of course. It is such a good series, YOU NEED TO READ IT!!!

Twilight

2008-04-01T10:10:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I started this book that was highly recommended to from my sister in law, Chelsea. Its called Twilight and it is a series of 4 books, the last ones comes out in August. I started it on Sunday night, and let me remind you I'm not a book reader until now, and today is Tuesday and I've got 1/4 of the book left. Its a large book for me 500 pages or so. It is so good I can hardly put it down, it consumes my mind. I think about it even when I get up to go pee in the middle of the night which is only a few minutes. So if you want to read a great book you can ask me what it is about if you want but it is awsome!!
Here is the author's webpage http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight.html

Mmmm, Yogurt!!!!

2008-03-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

This girl love her yogurt! She always wants to feed herself, which is great because I don't have to sit there and feed it to her I can just do my own thing, but then you have to clean up the mess. I don't know how they do it, they get it everywhere!

Happy Easter!

2008-03-24T21:36:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter!!!!

This is the best picture out of 6, Our little Family!

Little Karma

It was so rainy outside the easter bunny had to hide the eggs in the house. Karma is very focused as you can see!

Veraty has really no idea what is going on, but she is game.

Veraty now has the idea!

She only found 5 eggs, 3 were hard boiled which she threw to the side and the other two she knew were "The Good Ones" just by shaking them. Here she is with a hand full.

And a mouth full!

Hey, Karma too!!

Now here I really tried to get a good picture of the two of them together. This is only half the photos and I think I only got one decent one. Ohh well.

This would be the good one I'm talking about.

The course of 8 days

2008-03-13T18:11:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of Veraty when she got really sick after throwing up at Target, it lasted about 8 days. For a couple of days she just layed there totally expressionless. She was happy to have some water, a book and of course her silky.

At about the 5th day she was up playing with Karma, but you could tell she just wasn't 100%.

And then of course she had to get something else just to top it off for good measure. She got Hives!!! She looked absolutely horrible. She was still pale looking, had a cough, and much skinnier now than a week ago and big blotches of red all over her body. If you've every had hives or know someone who did it is quite strange. The red blotches moves around on your body, for a little while its on your back then it moves to you arms. So she started off with her chest covered then it went to her arms and legs and her back. By the end of the second day it hit all her body parts and then it was done. So she is finally well, weighs a bit less but is doing great and having fun running around with her sister.

I've got a headache already and it's only 10:30am

2008-02-13T12:33:00.001-08:00

Well this morning was quite crazy. The girls and I needed to run to Target before a birthday party they were going to at 10:30. Today they got up at 8:35 and I needed to change and feed them so we could be out the door at 9:30. My wonderful hubby got them changed and I fed them. Veraty wasn't eating very well and for those if you who know her, she is a eater! I didn't think much of it so off we went to Target. Veraty was looking quite tired for just waking up a little bit ago. We went through the whole store got just what we needed (which was an accomplishment in itself) and as we are getting close to the check out Veraty pukes all over herself. Not one, not two, but three times and it was alot. Ahhhhhhh! All I could do was watch her and I tried to catch a little in a burp rag I was using for her runny nose. Most ended up in a huge puddle of yogurt and oatmeal on the floor, but she looked like she felt much better. A nice lady that watch the whole thing brought me some of her wet wipes and then 4 Target team members rushed over to help clean up. The whole thing was quite entertaining but now we are home and she is washed up and asleep. As for Karma she didn't get to go to the birthday party and she cried all the way home about it.

New Project

2008-02-07T21:12:00.000-08:00

Well today I started a new project. I woke up this morning and I thought to myself I really wanted to start it today but its really had to do the beginning part with the kiddies around. I was thinking who could I ask to have my kids over for a bit, well Heavenly Father must have been listening because my good friend and neighbor (lucky us, she lives right next door) called after Karma got back from school to ask if the girls (yes, both) wanted to come over and play. What a blessing. It was perfect timing and I was able to get a lot done. Of course I cleaned very quickly the best I could around the house then I headed downstairs and there I stayed till she brought them back. So thank you Julie!!!

So, this one will read "FAMILY" and I really like how it looks so far. They started of all white and I was going to take before pictures but I was to anxious to start and I forgot. So I painted them and got the pretty paper on and a few rub ons, I can't wait till its finished.

My sweet Karma

2008-02-07T21:00:00.000-08:00

I just took the girls to bed and every night we say a prayer together and tonight was Karma's turn. She usually says the same few things and then throws in a few words of what she did today that she is thankful for. For a few months now she has been saying, " I'm thankful for our prophet Gordon B. Hinkley." But he passed away a couple weeks ago and Micah and I explained that to her many times and told her that since he passed away we now have a new prophet to guide our church. So, tonight she said, "I'm thankful for our prophet Gordon B. Hinkley (with a slight pause) we pray that he will come alive again and come back to church." That just made me smile:)

I've finally done it!

2008-02-04T14:45:00.000-08:00

Ohh my gosh look at me, I've finally made a blog for my family. My parents and friends always complain that the dont have any pictures of the girls, well now they will at least be able to look at recent pictures of them!!!