Words

Madison's vocabulary is starting to explode. She picks up new words every day. Her favorite word right now is PUPPY. She says it clear as day and all the time. It all started a few weeks ago when my sister Juyla got a puppy. At first Madison would just say PupPup. But within a few days she turned it into PUPPY and loves it. She tries so hard to make sure she says it clear. I love this stage when they learn new words and can start to tell us what they want. Hopefully she find a new favorite word soon, every time she sees Juyla she just keeps repeating her favorite word, Puppy.
But who can blame her, look how cute she is.

HOUSE update

John and I have been looking for a house for over 3 months now. This has been a very stressful and crazy time. The housing market is so insane I hate it. But we are hoping we are in the ups. We have put several offers in on houses and have lost a few. We have followed a house to trustee sale only to find out that the sale was postponed just moments before the sale. But we have finally had an offer accepted!! Hoorah! But we can't get too excited just yet. This was a drive by only! Meaning no one could get in without their offer being accepted. We had been in several homes with a similar floor plan in this neighborhood and knew we LOVED the layout of the house and the neighborhood. The house is a short sale and had been on the market for a few months when we put our offer in. Our offer was a back-up offer, but since we weren't finding anything else we decdied to just play the game. So we made our highest and best offer knowing that there were two other offers that were submited to the bank. On Friday July 17th I got a call from my AMAZING realtor saying that the Short Sale had been approved and the other two offers were gone so the listing agent was going to sumbit our offer to the bank! Hoorah! I was so excited. But a little nervous because interest rates have gone up since we started looking and so I was very nervous that we would NOT be able to afford the house at what we offered. John assured me that everything would work out. So the agent submited our offer to the bank and I got a call from my agent on Wednesday July 22nd, saying that the bank had accepted our offer. Hoorah again!!! Now we just needed to go see the house to see if we really wanted to proceed to purchasing this home. We got an appointment with the owners for Saturday and went in to see it. The layout was everything I was hoping it to be. (This house have everything on my wish list, minus all the new luxurious granite.) However the house is not in the best condition. It needs a TON of cleaning and some repairs. The master shower has started to be retiled but was never completed, meaning it is not useable, the flooring upstairs was also NOT completed, the pool is NOT fenced or filled, and the stove top is missing in the kitchen. (And yes, people are LIVING in it, how I have no idea.) We also counted 9 different flooring types through out the home. How crazy is that!!!! But we love the house itself. So now we are waiting for excrow to start so that we can get an appraiser in the house in hopes that he will appraise it for less so that we can finance the work it needs into the home. If not, then we are back to square one again!

a NEW pet

Charles found a little baby toad in the garden yesterday and is SO EXCITED about it. We decided he can keep it as a pet. He keeps walking up to the little aquarium it is in and saying, "He is SO cute." It's very funny! He loves it. My dad has 4 Toads so Charles is very excited to have a pet like Grandpas.

Big BUMMER

So I went with my two sisters and my sister from another mother Janica, to go see the taping of So You Think You Can Dances' 100th episode. And it was just NOT our day... anything that could go wrong did. We got to the taping about 15 minutes late and they would NOT let us in. We were so bummed. Since we sat in traffic to get their we didn't want to sit in traffic again. So we decided to hang out at The Grove. We saw the movie "The Proposal" and had dinner at Wood Ranch and then headed home. It was nice to be out with some of my favorite girls with No Kids!!! Although we did not get to see the taping as planned we did have a nice evening. Hopefully we will have better luck next time.

His 1st Trophy

On Friday our ward had their annual Pine Wood Derby. They decided to turn it into a ward activity and allow all to participate by making or bringing their own car. John borrowed our brother-in-law's car and Charles raced it. They first did a race with all the cub scouts and then had a race for everyone else. Charles had a great time racing Uncle Daniel's car. And they got lots of compliments about the car because it was Army style. Charles and Uncle Daniel's car got 3rd Place!!!! WhooHoo!!! Charles was so excited to actually get a trophy. It was really neat. He was so proud. We called Uncle Daniel after the race and told him all about. Who would of thought his first trophy would be for a Pine Wood Derby race at age 4.

I forgot to bring my camera, so these are just photos at home afterward.

I GOT Tickets!!!!!

I am so SUPER excited!!! I got tickets to go see a taping of "So You Think You Can Dance" for this weeks taping. I guess I better get caught up before I go see the results show LIVE. Yippy!!!!!

SHE'S HOME

We are SO EXCITED!!!!! Sister Janelle Anderson is HOME!!!!!
Her plane landed on Wednesday around 4 PM at Ontario Airport. All our family was their to greet her. It was a very surreal moment. The kids did great! Charles just kept staring at her, and has been following her around the house ever since. All day on Wednesday Janelle kept asking to hold Charles, and he loved EVERY minute of it. It was very cute. Madison walked to her without any problems. It has been great. We all have just be hanging out.

Fruit and Vegitarian

Some days I think Madison is anti meat. Most days all she eats is FRUIT, VEGETABLES, & Pretzels. (Her go to snack) And throw in some cookies on occasion. Here at my parents house they have a small Island butcher block where my mom likes to keep her fresh fruit. Well Mad is now tall enough to help herself to the fruit. It's not uncommon for her to all of a sudden be eating an apple or plum or whatever else she can reach. I always have to catch her and strap her into her chair to finish eating.

Could you imagine what the house would look like if I let her wander around while eating her fruit! She is a messy eater! But I guess I can't complain about only eating fruits and veggies, it may not last forever, she doesn't have good genes, mommy is a candyoholic!!!

Kids say the funniest things....

Charles always says silly and random things, I'm just not so good at writing them down but wish I had written more of them down because most of them I can't remember. Here are few recent ones that I thought we too cute not to write down.

*When Charles was with his cousins they were having a lemonade & popcorn stand. Charles would come in the house and tell us when they had customers. When he came in one of the adults, I think it was Cris, told him that they need to do some Marketing. Charles replied, We are we have some markers and things out there.
*When we were in fast and testimony meeting at Jennie's ward a lady walked up to the pulpit to bear her testimony. She was dressed in a completely white dress and Charles says in his normal voice, "Is that lady getting married or something?" It was so funny. Those around us that heard could not help but chuckle.

Gotta love these sweet innocent kids!

July Thus FAR

This month has FLOWN by I can not believe it. It started out with John's brother and his family coming into town from Houston. We had a great time hanging out, playing at the beach, swimming, and as always eating. While they were here we all participated in a 4th of July 5k & 10K Run/walk. I was so looking forward to meeting my goal of running the 10K in under an hour. I started training in May and was doing very well. Until we heard of some crazy men in Corona assaulting female joggers. So I slowed my training down and TRIED to run on my sister's treadmill. If you have ever gone from running on the street to running on a treadmill you know why the emphasis on tried. A treadmill is BORING. I could not get myself to run very long on it. I got hot and very bored. So my training did not go so well. But I tried doing some exercise videos to make up for it. The Wednesday before the big race my brother in-law and I decided to do a practice run. It started out very well. We were doing great, and after the 5th mile my knee starting hurting a little bit. I wasn't concerned since I often get aches and pains when running long distance. But when we completed the 6.4 miles and I stopped running my knee really started hurting. So I let it rest until Saturday morning and got a blessing and prayed that I would be able to meet my goal. Well the Lord had another plan in mind. Dan (my brother in-law) and I where the only ones doing the 10K , so we got there early and were the first ones at the starting line, the beginning of the course bottle necked through a gate before it took off across the running path, so we decided to be the first through the gate so that we wouldn't have to slow down as we all squeezed through it. We started running and I had no pain, then as we continued the pain came and got worse and worse. By the 1 mile marker I could NOT run anymore. The pain was too intense. I insisted that Dan go on ahead and meet our goal of completing the race in under an hour. Dan hesitated to leave me, but I insisted and he did great. He completed it in about 58 minutes. WAY TO GO DAN!!!! I was so bummed that I could not run. I tried to run/walk but could barely do it. So I walked as fast as I possibly could, I was determined to complete the race and NOT be the last one. So I did accomplish some goals that morning, just not my original goal. I complete the 10k in an hour and 20 minutes. Not too bad for having a gimp knee. Now I am working on getting my knee better and finding another 10k to run so I can meet my goal of running a 10k in under and hour. According to my doctor I have Iliotibial Band Syndrome. I basically irritated my iliotibial band really bad by doing too much too quick. Before running the 6.4, the farthest I had run in my training was 3 miles. So not a good thing. I am trying really hard to take it easy and let my knee heal so that I can run again.

John ran the 5K on the 4th and did great. He did a run/walk with his brother and his wife. They ran for so many minutes and then walked for like a minute. He did really good and enjoyed the run/walk much better then just running. Maybe we will have to try that together since he doesn't really enjoy running. The rest of the family did great also. It is so nice to be able to do something like this together. What an accomplishment for everyone and what a great example for our kids.

Charles also got to participate in a run. They had some running events for the kids. For Charles age group he got to do a 1/4 mile. He was very excited to run like mommy but was a little intimated at the starting line. He started running and then stopped when it got crazy with all the kids running around him. So John joined him and they finished together. It was so cute. They gave all the kids medals for participating it was awesome!!!

~~The following is simply a day-to-day outline for what we did for journaling purposes. You can stop reading here, It may get boring~~
Wednesday-- Dan & I did our practice race and I got injured. That afternoon we all went down to the beach for some fun in the sun. It was perfect. We arrived around 2:30 so the sun was not so harsh. Charles loved playing on the shore with his "friends" that is what he calls all his cousins. Madison also did REALLY well. She sat and played in the sand near the water the ENTIRE time. It was great. I got to sit on the sand near her and chat with my sister-in-laws while they played. The only reason she didn't race to be in the water was because it was a little cold. After playing at the beach we went to a nearby park and had a BBQ and let the kids play until it got too dark to see. It was such a nice day. After going to the beach we went home and put the kids in bed and then went to my sister-in-laws to play games. (This is one HUGE perk for living with your parents, they are always willing to watch your kids when they are sleeping.)
Thursday-- Thursday was Charles 4th birthday (I will blog about that after his party) so we all met at Chick-fil-A for lunch and let the kids play. Charles and Madison both slept in until around 8-8:30, which is so NOT normal, so I had the chance to make cupcakes for him so we could take them to his friends for lunch. The kids had a great time playing at chick-fil-A. When we got back to Jennie's house(that is where all the festivities were since Mom & dad live their and Cris and Kenna were staying there.) We hung out and played games and then headed over to the pool for Brittany Sue's Birthday party. (Her birthday was actually the week before, but she wanted to have her cousins from texas there with her.) The party was really fun, we ate and swam. The kids LOVED it. Mad loved the water too much. We bought her a life vest that we could use when we go to the river and for swimming, but it didn't work so well for her. I guess it's not really meant for swimming. She doesn't want to be held in the water, she wants to just swim all by herself. So it was exhausting trying to entertain her in the pool. But we did and had a great time. Then we dropped the kids off at home and went back to Jennie's to play more games.

Mad enjoying someones ice cream a chick-fil-A
Friday-- John, Cris, & Dan got up really early to go play golf, they played at this old run down course in Riverside that was super cheap. John said he would not go their again, but they did have a great time being together. After golfing we all went to Jennie's and hung out and played games for a little while. Then we headed to John's sister Anna's house. Her and her boyfriend Bobby just moved into a new little house. It is in Brea and so cute. We BBQ'd, took family photos. It was great. Bobby looks a lot like one of the Imagination Movers, Scott. As we were telling him how much we thought he looked like Scott he told us he has a coverall just like them. So he got all dressed up and was acting like Scott just for the kids. It was so funny!! What a great sport he was. Thank Bobby we had a blast!

Bobby playing Scott

Saturday-- We spent the night at my sister' condo in Chino which is around the corner from Jennie's house since I had to be up and on my way to the race super early. I picked up Dan and we headed down to Laguna Niguel for the race. (See more about the race above) After the race John and the kids went with everyone else back to Jennie's to play while I went to a friends house to take some family photos for them. Then I joined the rest of my family and we had a BBQ and watched fireworks at Jennie's. And of course played games. It seems to be our 4th of July tradition now, Race in the morning and BBQ and fireworks at Jennie's in the evening. Fireworks are legal in Chino so they always buy a bunch and the boys do a show for us. It's so fun and the kids love to play with the sparklers. I think this was the first year that Charles stayed out side the entire time.


Sunday-- Sunday was the day that Megan was to be blessed. So we all went to Jennie and Daniel's ward for church and then went back to their house for lunch and playing games. It was a nice relaxing day. We just ate and played games ALL day. My sister was out of town for the weekend so my Dad picked her up from the airport and then came by and picked up our kids and took them home to put them to bed for us. Awh! So nice! Then we stayed and played games until all hours of the night.

Monday-- On Monday I decided to try and get a doctor's appointment for my knee. So I made my appointment dropped Charles off at Jennie's so he could play and said good-bye to Cris, (Who was going home a day early then his family because they headed up to Oregon to see her family for a few weeks.) Then Mad and I head to orange county for my appointment. (I have switched our doctors yet, since we don't know exactly where we will be.) Mad and I went to the doctor's and I got my prognosis of having Iliotibial Band Syndrome, he gave me some instructions and exercises then we we headed to go pick up John. John and I had a few houses we wanted to go see so we met Ryan our agent in Corona and went to see some houses. Nothing too exciting. Then we went to Jennie's house and had dinner and then took the kids to the park to play. It was a nice mellow night. Then we said our good bye's to the Garthe Clan and went home. It was a FUN and exciting long week.

The Garthe's

Tom's Farm

A week in a half ago my sister and I took the kids to Tom's Farm. Well I didn't read the info on line very well, because I didn't realize that NOTHING was open during the week. We planned to do some of the rides and to see the farm animals. To our surprise none of that was open. But we did have a nice time eating the yummy food and Charles got to dig with the tractor. He was SO BUMMED that we could not see the animals. We will have to make another trip their on a Saturday, it's just not as fun with nothing open.
After the disappointment of not seeing the animals we decided to take him to the Norco animal shelter since they always have farm animals. We got there and they were CLOSED. Apparently they are closed on Friday. Needless to say our little man was a little bummed. Better luck next time.

Garden

A few months back my mom decided to plant a garden and asked Charles to help her take care of it. A task which he LOVES. It is so cute. He goes out to it everyday and checks the plants. They water it together in the afternoon and even pull weeds together. It took a lot patience from this little guy to finally see the fruits of his labor, but he has finally seen them. TaDah!

Our GARDEN!

We have; tomatoes, corn, zucchini, cucumbers, beans, sun flowers, pepper, and maybe some strawberries.
I never thought gardening could be so fun!!!