Stenderville

Ahh the holidays...

2012-01-08T14:25:00.000-08:00

December was definitely a fun month. I think I will kind of recap the month in a list because it is simpler for my brain to think that way.

1. Teaching school was pretty great that week before break. We had a teacher conference day where I had no students. Then my kindergarten teachers canceled art class one day along with my last period of the day so I only taught 2 out of 5 classes that day. The last day of school was a little nuts but not as bad as I thought it would be.
2. We bought a tree this year. Usually we go and cut down our own but it didn't work out so we bought one and I Loved how soft and full it is. Our usual trees are pretty scraggly because they are desert pine trees.

3. Eleanor understood the whole Santa Clause thing this year so she had fun meeting him at the ward Christmas Party. We checked out a couple christmas board books and she wanted to read those every night and now she knows all the words that go with the season.

4. Eleanor Loves Christmas lights. We took her to the cactus garden at Ethel M and she kept saying "Look at these lights!" Also anytime we were driving at night she would point out the lights. Happily alot of people on our street like to put out lights so that made it festive.

5. This year Warren's parents went to AZ to visit their oldest daughter and her family so we got to have a Christmas at home, which was extremely relaxing.

6. We were able to go bowling with my family on Christmas Eve(family tradition). We haven't been able to go since the first year we were married, because we usually spend Christmas Eve with Warren's family. Eleanor had fun bowling but mostly just running around with her cousins. Warren bowled his best score ever and beat everyone, I think it was like 122.

7. The week before Christmas, Eleanor received a visit from Santa and his elf(Warren's cousin Andrew, and his sister Laurel) They brought her a present and visited a little. She was a little hesitant at first but was pretty happy at the end, especially when she got her first present to put under the tree.

8. Christmas morning, Eleanor slept in because she was so tired from bowling. I had to finally wake her up at 8:15. My sister who has 4 kids, gave us the scooter and bike since her kids had grown out of them. Eleanor loved those the best out of all her presents. I had a lot of fun this year just watching Eleanor open gifts and to see her reaction.

9. We went to church which was a nice break and it felt good to have an hour devoted to the real meaning of christmas. Then in the afternoon we went to my parent's house were we opened presents, ate food, and did the story of Christ's birth. I made a white dress for Eleanor to wear as an angel and she was so excited to get to be the Angel and wear her dress. She wouldn't take it off once we put it on. I'll have to ask Warren for a picture, he used his phone to do some since I was a shepherd.

10. We also did a holiday party with two couples that are the same age as us and they each have one kid. That was a ton of fun. We put the kids at one house with a babysitter and then all the adults came to my house and we did a ham and everyone brought food. It was enjoyable to just visit with each other and talk and play games. Definitely something we will have to do more often.

Overall, December was an awesome month. I enjoy the holidays so much more now that I have a little person to share it with. I'm grateful we were able to spend time with family and friends this month. It was a great month to remind us of what is important in the coming year. I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas too.

Christmas Time

2011-12-18T21:01:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2011

I think 2011 was way better than 2010. 2010 I didn't even want to send out a christmas card because I felt it was such a junky year that I wanted to just move on and do a new year. So this year was quite an improvement on it. So this year in a recap.

1.Warren finished his financial classes and got some traveling in. He visited Kentucky and we went with him to LA.

2. I went back to substituting which was emotionally challenging but ultimately made me feel much better about myself.

3. Eleanor had her 2nd birthday and is such an amazing kid, I can't believe all the stuff she does.

4. I did a 4 day girl weekend with my sisters to Los Angeles and it felt amazing!!

5. Warren did a 50 mile hiking trip through the Sierra Nevadas for Mt Whitney and he survived!

6. We went to Solvang CA and then to San Francisco where we stayed for 4 days at a fancy hotel, ooo la la!

7. I was hired on as a full time art teacher at 3 schools so I get to teach awesome classes and not get asked to do anything because admin forgets I 'm there.

8. Eleanor Loves hanging out with her friend Camden during the week, sometimes she doesn't even want to come home with me.

9. We've been trying to have another kid but haven't had much luck but I think next year will be our year, and if not, I'm ok with that, I'm so grateful that I have Eleanor.

10. Warren is losing his job but now he can finally finish his Bachelors degree which will improve his opportunities and he will get to watch Eleanor 3 days a week which will help relieve my guilty feelings and he is a big kid so they will both have fun. :)

My faith has grown stronger this year as we've made decisions based on what the Lord wants us to do and we have seen our lives go on a good path because of it. I know that what I am doing is right and I am grateful for this year, that I have grown and progressed. I hope other people have improved this year, I think that is something we can all do, work towards slowly improving ourselves so each year we get a little better. I wish all my friends and family a wonderful Christmas season, thank you for all your love and support.

Many blessings to you,

Love, the Stenders.

Updates for the Stender Clan

2011-10-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, I hadn't realized I haven't written on here since July. It has been a pretty busy 3 months. In August we went to Warren's family reunion and afterwards we went to San Francisco for a little vacation. It was a package I purchased last year for a good deal so we stayed at the Sir Francis Drake hotel. We took public transportation everywhere which was a lot of fun. And we crossed the golden gate bridge with some friends who happened to be visiting on one of the days of our trip.

Ella enjoying the park at Solvang

Warren showed Ella how to roll down a hill. They both seemed to really enjoy it.

Warren's sister Laurel, Eleanor loves her.

Doing a hike on the way out of Solvang.

The hike ended at a waterfall, which was fun for Ella to play in.

We drove on the 101 up to San Francisco and made some stops to see the ocean.

Waiting for the bus, SF has an excellent public transportation system.

The palace of fine arts that hosted the world fair in San Francisco a couple years after the huge fire, they rebuilt everything for the fair and it launched San Francisco as a major west coast city. Pretty cool history.

The science museum had tons of cool exhibits that we got to check out.

It makes a cyclone in the center to show the turning of a tornado.

Getting ready to walk across the bridge, 1. It is pretty long. 2. It is really cold. and 3. You have to walk back there is no bus on the otherside. Things we wish we would have known before walking across.

Heck yeah! The headquarters for Ghirardelli chocolate, one of our favorite stops on our trip.

One of those original carousels that have handmade wood animals.

The lobby of our hotel, very fancy and historic.

Lumbard st, the crookedest street in the US.

The academy of science, soooo much fun to look at all the animals and eco systems.

Upside down jellyfish, they just lay upside down on the ocean floor. Weird, like how do they survive?

Butterfly and tropical rainforest observatory.

Right before all this I found out that I got a job as an art teacher. I am an art itinerant so I teach at 4 schools because they have too many students for just one art teacher. So as soon as we got back from our trip then I had to get all my paperwork stuff done, orientation(that sucked) and visit my schools.

So now I've been teaching since August. They did count day in september and I lost one of my schools and picked up a day at one of my other schools so now I have 3 schools instead of 4. (so nice, I didn't like the school so I was pretty happy to lose that school) I love teaching art again, it really makes me happy and Eleanor is doing wonderfully with her babysitter, she is the kindest woman and her son and Eleanor play like they are siblings.

We were hoping to have another kid soon. I got pregnant in August and I was at 8 weeks this week, but then on Friday I started having cramping and bleeding. Went to the doctors, they did an ultrasound and said everything looked ok. Saturday it got worse, went to the ER and ended up having a miscarriage.

I'm ok with it. It is easier having it earlier. Last time I was at 10 weeks. I don't know what the problem is, but it makes me very grateful that we have Eleanor. So we will see what happens. I think we will try again later on, but if things don't work out, I'll be ok with that. Now I'm kind of looking forward to staying skinny longer and getting to eat some sushi on my birthday this week. I hope everyone else is having a good fall season, I am really looking forward to Halloween and all the other holidays this year so I'll keep this updated with everything we are up to. Love ya!

The stenders.

Sexy Shoes!

2011-07-08T14:47:00.000-07:00

So a couple posts ago I mentioned that I bought some new shoes that I thought are super sexy. At the time I didn't have a photo that I liked of them because it is very difficult to do self portraits. So I asked my husband to help me out, he was happy to oblige. :) I think models are sticks because it is very simple to take photos of stick people whereas people with curves, a lot harder. I had to take a ton of photos for one I liked. I much prefer taking photos of other people than myself.

We have been having crazy monsoon weather this week. Sunday we had a storm that was just nuts. Blew over a bunch of trees and we got like an inch in our backyard. Eleanor loved standing outside when it first started. I even joined her, Warren wasn't home which is too bad because it would have been fun to get a picture of both of us in the rain. That's ok though because Eleanor is cute enough for the both of us.

Do you hear the thunder?

Time to come inside.

For the 4th of July we went to a ward breakfast. In the evening we went swimming at my parent's house and then we drove up to Henderson for the fireworks. We were too far away from the fireworks so Eleanor wasn't that impressed.

Eleanor and her friend Charlie, running through the sprinklers.

Eleanor loves swimming with her cousins. She asks me every day to go swimming with Anna (the cousin closest in age to her)

Pretty good firework display at Basic high school, we will have to go earlier next year so we get better seats.

A memorial to our bunny

2011-07-05T08:42:00.000-07:00

Last night, the 4th of July our bunny passed away. He was sick on the 4th of July but because it was a holiday, the vets that take rabbits were not available. I figured he would be ok till today when I could take him in but tragically he did not last through the night.

I found him this morning and was able to put him away before Eleanor saw him so she didn't freak out. I did some crying while fixing breakfast and Eleanor started to tear up with me because she said I was "hurt." Which I was, but in a way that a band aid doesn't help.

I truly loved having this little creature in our home. He was sweet and snuggly. He would follow me around and want to be petted. He was so soft that he would slip on the tiles when he tried to stand in one spot. When you petted him he liked to flatten himself out like a pancake.

I think that perhaps the bunny we had before was sick and it left some germs around that this bunny picked up, which really saddens me because I wanted this bunny to be around a long time with us.

I don't think I should get another rabbit. I would be paranoid that it would die too. I guess we are just a no pet household.

I'm sorry that I couldn't keep this little creature alive, but I know it is in a special place having a ton of fun.

Good bye

Enjoying some sun.

On the move, I was trying to take a picture of him when he was a pancake.

Hiding under the dishwasher.

Slight pancake, he could flatten himself out to like an inch tall.

Live in the Joyful moment

2011-07-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

Today in Relief Society we talked about happiness and finding joy. Some days I have a very hard time with this and I thought that it was a physical problem with me, but I realize that it is just something I have to work on. So today I had a joyful moment and I wanted to write about it so I would remember it.

Stuff leading up to my joyful moment.

Warren left on Thursday to go on a big weekend long hike with his sister, Laurel, at Mt. Whitney. Judy, my sister, her husband is also out of town, which leaves her with her 4 kids. So Thursday Judy and I got together and went swimming at my parent's house. Friday, my sister, Kathy, graciously accepted to watch my daughter and Judy's kids for a couple hours so we could have some girl shopping time. So we went to the mall, had dinner, and did some shopping at Kohls. I bought some SEXY wedge shoes that I absolutely love and my sister got an awesome turquoise dress that she looked wonderful in.

Saturday we went swimming at the folks again. My aunt, cousin and her daughter were visiting and my aunt was super nice and bought pizza for everyone, which I really appreciate because money is kind of low this week and I didn't feel like eating at home. :)

Sunday. Today I wore my sexy shoes. Since Warren wasn't home I did stuff I wanted to this morning like exfoliating my face and sewing different buttons on my turquoise shirt. I wore that shirt with a black skirt and my sexy shoes and I felt awesome. Eleanor wore a dress that I made this weekend. I've been crocheting the top for a week and then I made the under dress out of some cool retro fabric. Eleanor was nuts during the first hour but then she was in nursery so that was nice. Got home, gave her a snack and put her in bed for nap.

We recently got a bunny. He is 5 weeks old and is super fuzzy because his dad was a lionsmane rabbit. He is an amazingly sweet bunny. So I let him out while Eleanor was napping to hop around uninhibited by a crazy toddler. I had pizza and watched wipeout (love that show). I went to pet him and noticed he was stinky. Poor guy had a buildup on the bum. I thought, Dang, I'm going to have to wash him and he is not going to like that one bit. So I tucked him in my hands and ran water on his bum, and he held very very still and let me clean him all up. :) Then I tucked him in a towel to dry and I remembered reading that you should blow dry them. I thought, Oh he is really not going to like that. So we went in and snuggled him in the towel in my lap and turned on the blow dryer on cool. He jumped a little but then settled down and let me blow him dry so he had a dry bum.

Once he was dry he sat quietly in my lap and was so happy to let me pet him for a good 10 minutes. I don't know what it is about petting a bunny but I can feel it lowering all my tension and blood pressure till the world feels perfectly quiet. He went back in his cage because it was time to wake up Eleanor.

Sometimes when you wake up a kid it can go really bad. They'll sit there crying and whining about everything so you think, Why did I think this would be a good idea?? So I went in and Eleanor woke up and she wanted to be picked up and she wanted her sippy cup with milk. I snuggled her close and we sat on the couch while she drank her milk and I held her and rubbed her back and rocked her a bit. And at that moment I felt happy, truly happy. Happy that I have a wonderful, sweet daughter who I can hold and love, who makes me laugh with all her silly sayings. Happy that I have someone who loves me so completely and that I can love back completely. It was a joyful moment and I wanted to hold onto it for as long as I could because I think that is what we have to do. There is so much sadness and frustration in the world these days that when you have a happy moment you have to remember it and tuck it away to remind you when those dark days come.

Eleanor turned 2 this last weekend. It is crazy that I've had her for 2 years now, it has flown by. She is smart and funny. She loves to watch Shaun the Sheep on Netflix. She loves our bunny, and swimming, and her friend Charlie. She is so cute. She has a wonderful smile and makes people laugh. She likes to wave at every aisle in the church when we walk out. She loves frogs, and hopping like them and saying "libbit" She loves fruit and vegetables and playing in the dirt. She is obsessed with books and takes a stack of them to bed with her. She is the best of Warren and I in one little happy being. Sometimes she really frustrates me but most of the time she makes me happy and I'm grateful for that .

I hope everyone is having a wonderful 4th of July weekend and are grateful that we live in such an amazing country. And here is me hoping that you have a joyful moment soon.

Exciting times!

2011-04-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

Well, last weekend was my craft fair at UNLV and I'm happy because it went pretty well. Everyone was impressed with the organization of it and the weather was amazing. We didn't get as much foot traffic as I thought we would, I think UNLV thought we would get the same numbers as last year so they didn't really go out of their way for publicity so we actually had low numbers. Other problem was that there were a bunch of other activities that weekend, the Boulder City arts fair happened and I think there was a henderson crafts festival. But it was my first one and I think it went very well for that. Everyone loved the location(I knew they would) because we were under all the huge trees at UNLV and it really is a great campus. So I might plan a fall festival, we will see how that goes.

Here is my display, I love the wood.

My new Waterlily design was eye catching.

My mom did fall stuff, and the cute bunnies up front with interchangeable ears.

My sister judy did GORGEOUS dresses for babies out of onesies, I'll put a link to her blog on here.

Look at the ruffles!

Our beautiful location, the trees are amazing.

So other ideas in the works. I want to start up a business. It would be an art studio/school. I will offer all kinds of art classes for children and adults. It is great as an after school class, a preschool class in the morning, and adult evening classes. There will also be open studio time where you can reserve space to work on your own projects if you don't have room at home. If you bring your own supplies it is one price, if you want to use my supplies it is a little more. You can register for month long classes or you can do drop in classes. We will also have a play area set up so little people can play there while the parents work on projects. Overall I think it is a really great idea. My aunt says they have places like this in portland and they do really well. I think it would be good for Vegas. Now I have to look into the numbers of it, do a little number crunching to figure out how much I would need to make, how much to start it up etc. I'm also looking into locations. Luckily there is an abundance of commercial space available so you can get a place for a cheaper price now, but for the space I need it would still be a little expensive. Oh well, you have to try it before you can give up on it. :)

Sick Days

2011-03-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

Feels like my family has been sick for the past month. Yuck!
At the beginning of the month I had a cough that lasted 2 weeks, I kept hacking up stuff. I felt better for like 5 days and then my throat started hurting and I got the sniffles. Warren has been sick too. Ella has had a continually runny nose for a couple weeks, with a cough some days and then yesterday she picked up pink eye......So much fun. *sigh*

So I took the day off. We are supposed to go to LA on Friday and Warren is leaving to Reno tomorrow morning so I'll be by myself for the next couple days and there is just too much stuff to do, and being sick on top of that is not nice.

The other annoying thing about being sick is that I don't feel like working out, or I don't know if working out would be good for me. So I feel fat because I'm laying around, eating and drinking more and I'm not getting any exercise. Sorry this isn't a fun post, I just needed to vent a little bit. I hope other people are doing well.

Conclusion of the day

2011-03-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

Yes. She was stripping. She only slept for like 45 minutes and then woke up whining and I hear a loud Uh Oh (that is her favorite phrase) I go in and yes she is butt naked and has whizzed the bed. Ahh the wonderful life with a kid. I talked to my sister earlier today and she has 4 kids so she loves to hear what Ella is up to and then she'll say "Yeah, and then you have 3 more." Yeeeeaaahhh......We'll see about that. :)

March is marching on

2011-03-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

How's it going? I'm going pretty good. Took a couple days off because I'm trying to get rid of a little cold. Eleanor is in her room playing in her bed, hopefully not stripping. I am fine with her playing as long as she isn't crying then we are good. She is supposed to be taking a nap but I guess I didn't wear her out enough this morning.

Lately she has been into this stripping phase. A couple times last week I went in the morning and she was naked, funny the first time, not so funny the second time when she wakes you up at 4 in the morning and she peed on herself and she is shivering. Not so funny. So now I safety pin her pajamas at night, but you can't do that when she lays down for a nap, so I hope she doesn't strip today.

Warren is out of town to LA this weekend. He has a financial class next to LAX airport. So it is just Ella and I for the weekend. He has another one next weekend, I'm trying to decide if I want to go to, I'd love to hit up the garment district again and see if I can find anything really cool.

The craft fair is doing well, I went to a meeting yesterday and we have about 54 vendors signed up so it will be a good size. I'm trying to get my hair clips ready but I am also procrastinating.

A couple weeks ago we left Ella at my parents house while we went out to dinner, when we got back we talked for a bit and while we were hanging out Eleanor fell and hit her head on the corner of the wall. Warren was holding her and then I looked at it and almost had a heart attack because it was sticking out a half inch and was this huge bubble on her forehead. It almost broke then skin so we would have had a huge bloody mess but luckily it didn't. Still, I freaked out and we called our nurse line and I put ice on it. She was fine except for this Lovely bruise that lasted like 3 weeks. Then the bruise sank down in her eyes so she has green on the inside corners of her eyes. I think she looks like a vampire. If I had some vampire teeth it would make a great photo.

I subbed at my mom's school for a couple days and they were having spirit week. One day was rock and roll day so I had fun dressing up. The kids asked who I was, I said I was one of the many aspiring rockers that never made it. :) That was a fun day.

Alright, now that I've done a little update I need to go work on my hairclips, Hope you have an awesome day!

Back to work

2011-02-11T13:55:00.000-08:00

January was a hard month. We were trying to fandangle a deal were we would buy a really cheap house and eventually let our house go so we could pay off our debts easier but it didn't work out which was hard for me to deal with. We had a nice chat with my parents and they suggested that I go back to work and it was kind of an inspiration ah ha moment. I've been a stay at home mom for 19 months now and I love spending time with my daughter, she is amazing, but I hate being at home ALL the time. It drives me nuts. I don't feel motivated to do anything. I think, why should I clean this up when it is just going to get dirty again? I started to feel that way about everything, but I also felt that I couldn't go back to work because that would be terrible for someone else to take care of my daughter. So when someone else finally suggested that I should go back to work it was just a quiet thing like, Yes, I should go back to work. I am happier when I am working and that makes my time with my family more quality time. So I found a great mom who lives by us who has a little boy the same age as Ella and she is just amazing. She takes care of Ella and Ella just loves it. She just plays all day.

I've put in my paper work to go back to teaching. Hopefully I can get into a good school in the fall to teach art. I'm excited about that but a little worried because of all the financial stuff our school district is going through.

I finish up my diet on Sunday. Which will be awesome. I lost 13 lbs. Which I'm sure some people are like, well thats not very much but heres the thing, it was 13 lbs of fat, not muscle, fat. I've been this weight before and not been this skinny. I'm normally like a size 9. When I exercise and eat good I wear a size 8. I'm at a size 6 now. I don't remember ever wearing a size 6. :) So, that is the great thing about the hcg diet is that you lose fat while with any other diet you usually lose muscle. And you lose fat in all those annoying spots that never seem to lose fat. So I'm happy. I probably could have buckled down and lost some more, but I'm not anal about my weight. I'm happy that I've lost this weight and I look better than I ever have before. Now I want to get back to exercising so I can firm up and feel better mentally as well.

I'm glad it is february, I'm glad I am working, I'm glad I lost 13 lbs without feeling super hungry or working out like a crazy person, I'm glad that I am getting this craft fair going and I'm grateful for everything the Lord has blessed me with. I hope you have some love and happiness this Valentine's Day.

Love,
Melinda

January. A new start?

2011-01-14T15:01:00.000-08:00

It is nice o have a new year. It gives you hope that this year will be better than the last. I'm trying to do things to change my feelings about my surroundings and in turn myself. Last year I felt very powerless about changing things around me. I felt like I had no control or influence to make anything better. So I decided to put one of my ideas into reality. I contacted UNLV and I will be organizing a craft fair that is just for local artists and it will take place in April. I'm excited about this project I think it will be an annual event that people will enjoy.

I gained some weight over the holidays and still had a little baby weight so I wasn't feeling to happy physically. Of course people are nice and say you look great but its like "well yeah cause these jeans squish all my fat in!" So I started the HCG diet on Monday the 3rd. Warren and his family have all had great success with it so yeah I've lost 12 lbs in 12 days! Pretty nice huh? It is really great to see your shape again, makes me feel much better.

Today Ella has a little cold. She woke up a couple times last night and I had to give her some medicine at 4 this morning. So it has been a tv day. She will run around and do stuff but then she gets worn out and we watch some tv. Thank goodness for pbs! Something to show she is definitely not feeling well is she needed an extra nap in the morning. Poor little runny nose kid. :)

Money is really hard, it gets really frustrating when you have no options but I just pray and trust in the Lord that things will work out. I know this year will be better. Hope everyone else is doing well.

My Ella Bean

2010-12-17T20:57:00.000-08:00

It is crazy that it is now December and Eleanor will be turning 18 months. She is so much fun and turning in to quite the little helper. Whenever I go to empty the dishrack she gets all excited and helps me empty the bottom by handing me each item. Then she runs and pushes her chair over so she can help me with the top rack.

This past weekend we went to Los Angeles for a convention for Warren. He was gone during the day so Ella and I got to putz around and do stuff on our own.

We stayed at the Sheraton right by LAX and it was soooo nice, except the walls are very thin. I could hear our neighbors having some fun, luckily Ella and Warren slept through it. :)

On Saturday we went with my sister in law, Shauna and her husband Richard to Knottsberry farm. I've never been before. Sadly I was hoping there would be more farm. Also it was Toys for tots weekend and get in free with your military or government ID so it was crazy busy.

Shaunna was so nice and bought Ella a push along duck with rubber feet that smack when you push it. Ella had a ball with it and it kept her busy and close by when we would take her out of her stroller.

I went on this ride but I also got a picture of Shaunna and Richard on it. It swings you up 70 feet in the air so you are perpendicular to the ground.

Here we are in front of Snoopy camp.

So overall it was a fun weekend. Nice to get away and not have to think about cooking or cleaning for a couple days.

Halloween, our little farm.

2010-11-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

Halloween

2010-10-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

Alright!!! So it is Halloween, which is one of my fav holidays. This year we got three pumpkins, one for each of us. I got the big one from bountiful baskets and the two smaller ones we picked ourself at Gilcrease Orchard here in Las Vegas. This year I decided to try etching one because I have the tools for that, then the other two we did some regular carving on. Warren did the big one since he is the big man of the house. :)

Eleanor at 16 months

2010-10-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

Ella knows where the food is, so she lets you know when she wants something.

Enjoying the cool weather by playing in the backyard on her slide.

playing in the rain

2010-10-02T17:31:00.000-07:00

Last month we had a thunderstorm that came up pretty sudden. We were all outside enjoying the cooler weather and then it started raining. I retreated inside to take photos from the shelter of the doorway. Warren stayed out for a while but then he came in too. Eleanor LOVED it. She always enjoys playing in the water and this was a smorgasbord for her.

Camping

2010-09-26T21:48:00.000-07:00

The first week in September my parents and my sister's reserved a camping spot up at Mt. Charleston. We drove up for Sunday afternoon and we celebrated my sister Jenny's birthday and everybody gave warren a gift card for his birthday so he could buy some parts he needed for his shop vac.

Playing Games

Eleanor loved Jenna's alligator.

Eleanor with her cousins Anna and Caleb.

Jenna was very nice to let Eleanor play her her alligator.

So it is September 26th, Eleanor is now 15 months old. It is crazy how the time flies by. She just gets cuter and cuter and so much fun. I love being around her. I started subbing a couple times a month and it is nice to get out of the house. Eleanor stays with her friend Charlie when I sub. Which is good for both of them and Charlie's mom Krystal says that it is easier to have two of them because they keep each other occupied. Krystal and I have a barter system worked since I can't really pay her, so far it is going really well.

Enjoying Summer

2010-08-13T20:53:00.000-07:00

Well, since our trip to the beach we haven't really done anything too exciting so thats why I haven't written much on here, that and I've been busy with my craft blog. I did get to go to girls camp for 2 1/2 days in the first week of August which was pretty awesome because that was the first time that I have been away from Eleanor. I thought I would be all worried but Nope, I felt great. I knew Warren would take care of her and it was so much fun to be independent for a little while, you forget how that feels to not have someone to think about all the time.

It was also great for Warren to see what I do every day, made him a little more grateful. :) Also a little more understanding when he gets home and I'm all excited because I got the kitchen clean.

Eleanor is just getting cuter and cuter. She is such a ham and a people person. She loves to interact with everyone around her and she makes all these little looks and gestures just to get a smile out of you. She will be a definite people person which is funny because Warren and I aren't big people pleasers like that so I guess she got both our bits combined so she is full of entertainment.

She loves to eat fruits and vegetables and she isn't really big on the bad for you stuff. Like she goes to town on a peach but if I give her ice cream she'll just snack a bit on it.

This is her angry squish face, we call it. She furrows up her little brows whenever she is annoyed at something. It just makes me laugh. I love this photo because with those pointy ears she looks like a little elf or something. So funny.

School is starting up in a couple weeks, sometimes I really wish I was going back but then she makes me laugh and I'm glad I get to spend this time with her.

Hope everyone else is doing well. Love, the Stenders.

San Onofre Beach!

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

This past weekend we went to San Onofre beach which is just outside of San Diego. Warren's family goes there every year for like the past 20 years. Eleanor Loved the sand and that she could play with it no matter where she was at. The water felt great and so did the cool ocean breezes. It made it pretty hard to come back to our 113 degree Las Vegas heat.

Our First Ocean visit

I Love putting Sand on my head!!!

Connie and Kelsey checking out our surfer girl.

Surfin!!!

It's Camping Time!!!!!

2010-07-09T13:39:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend we went Camping! We left on Friday and went up to Duck Creek with my parents and their trailer. We brought our quad, their quad, and a Teryx which is a side by side four wheeler.

The weather was Awesome! Like 75 during the day and then in the 40s at night. We camped out on the meadow with our buddies Russ and Pam along with a couple of their kids and their friends.

Ella enjoying her ride with mom and our hats that I made from t-shirts!!

It was pretty dirty and Ella had the buns to prove it.

Our little spotted puppy. She fell over and head planted in the dirt.

Ella loves having her own chair.

Enjoying the parade at duck creek village.

Ella had her flag that was made in China, great huh?

Our friend Russ who participated in the parade.

The view from Strawberry Point.

Ella enjoyed all the flowers we found.

Ella wanted to get close to the creek. Warren was helpful. :)

The meadow by strawberry point was amazing, and flat so Ella had alot of fun walking around.

Ella and Grandma. Look out for those cow pies!!

Warren took Ella on her first quad ride and she had tons of fun! Then she wanted to go out on it whenever she could.

Warren introduced Ella to toasted marshmallows, I don't know how much she really enjoyed it.

How's it going?

2010-07-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

Today started off as a junk day. You ever have those junk days? You wake up and you got enough sleep but you Really don't want to get out of bed.......But you have to. So then you get going, get the kid and then you just feel Junky. You can think of ALLLLL the things you could do or should do today and it all feels like,why? What's the point? It is extremely unmotivating. So I got Ella off to a nap and I sat down and got my other blog going. I've started a craft blog. http://hodgepodgedays.blogspot.com/

It is a day to day project blog where each day is a new theme. This will motivate me to actually Do Something instead of saying Why? and eating a mint oreo (which by the way, the new ones with fudge are freakin amazing) it will keep my creative juices moving and really who doesn't need some of that? So I hope you will check it out, frequently, and try out some of my tips so I can spread some love in this world. Also check out all the links to all the other fabulous blogs I have found that inspire me all the time.

Love to all my peeps in the world(which aren't very many so I hope you Really feel the love)

Eleanor at 1!!!!!

2010-06-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday the 26th was Eleanor's birthday, she is the big number one!!! We started off the day with waffles and eggs (her favorite) then in the late afternoon we went to my parent's house for a pool party.

Ella's cute suit that I got at Old Navy.

Ella likes headbands that she can take off and put back on.

Yay! New board books!

Figured stripping her down would be a good idea.

Eleanor was very dainty about eating her cupcake.

Until it fell apart, than she had fun squishing it.

Overall it was a really fun day, it is hard to believe that I have had this little sweet spirit for a year already, I look forward to all the years I will have with her.

2010-06-24T09:59:00.001-07:00

Memorial Weekend

2010-06-08T10:54:00.000-07:00

I found some photos from our memorial weekend. First a shout out of pride to all those serving in the military, You guys are Awesome!!!! I appreciate our military and all they have done to keep our country safe.

For Memorial Day we went to my parent's house in the afternoon for a little swim party. They have a pretty big pool and they just got it all ready for the summer so it was only about 67 degrees. Pretty Chilly! So first I put Eleanor's feet in but then she wanted to go in more so I pulled off her pants and let her splash in the water, then the shirt came off and she sat down on the step and was having a ton of fun. I just put my feet in. My sister's kids went in all the way because they don't care how cold it is even though they had little blue lips after about 20 minutes in there. When Ella started to feel cold I pulled her out and kept her snug in a towel, after she warmed up she wanted to go back in so Warren, my tough wonderful husband pulled on his swim trunks and hopped in then took Ella out in the water Naked!! She had a blast in the nude of course. Next time I will bring some swim diapers.

June

2010-06-06T21:03:00.000-07:00

Eleanor turned 11 months on May 26 and she will be 1 year old on the 26th of this month which is kind of crazy to think about. She is so much fun. She's getting pretty good at walking, she can do about 5 feet without falling and since she is so small it is funny to watch her walk around. I've been trying to get her recorded but whenever I pull the camera out she knows and then she wants to crawl over and see it.

Eleanor at 11 months

Laura and I went to first friday again this weekend and it was a ton of fun. We got mixed around when we were leaving but we found out there are some more galleries that we've never been in so we will test those out next time.

Warren went to Los Angeles for the day on Saturday for a guy's day. They putzed around and then went to the Dodgers game. He got back at 3 am this morning so Ella and I hung out in the living room so he could sleep in. We used that as an excuse to stay home from church. :)

I love church but having three hours of it is kind of annoying because it always interrupts some nap for Ella and that throws her off for the rest of the day. We have the 9 am slot which is nice because then you have the rest of the day.

I am making a goal to have my own booth at first friday in October. I make all kinds of awesome stuff and I always want to do my own show and this will be my goal. I am also going to launch my Etsy sight in September so I can have cards ready for people to visit my site after they see my stuff at first friday. I think this will be a good goal for me because I love to make my art but sometimes I get discouraged about why I am doing it and this will give me a purpose.

I made these two barrettes this weekend they are about 2 inches on the base and you can wear them in your hair or as a pin. The blue one I wore to first friday and I gave them to my sister michelle for her birthday today but I think she really just wanted some money or a gift card so I will get them back from her and give her a gift card instead. Let me know what you think of them, if you think someone would actually buy them. I would but then I'm me :) So it would be good to hear from "normal people."

First Friday Art Night!

2010-05-14T13:59:00.000-07:00

In Las Vegas the first friday of the month is art night. My best bud Laura and I have been going forever to this activity. We skip sometimes in the winter when it is too chilly and in the summer when it is a bit too warm. They open up all the art galleries in the downtown area from 6-10 pm with a shuttle. There is music and tons of people of all varieties. It is really my one girl night out of the month so I really look forward to it. Laura was the art teacher I shadows for my practicum and we've been best buds ever since. We are both turning 28 this year so we had fun complaining all evening about how old we are. I wanted to get a photo of us together but I forgot about it while we were putzing around. It is so funny to go because you have all these goth and emo high schoolers walking around trying to look all cool and artsy and you know they spend like an hour putting together their outfit just so it looks like they threw something on. Then you have all the gays and lesbians who flirt with each other. :P And all the wannabe artists who try so sell their crap to anybody. This time there weren't as many people because they were all at the San Ganero Italian festival. It made for a nice change because sometimes it is a pain trying to look at the art with everyone all crowding next to each other.

The bottom photo is of the train tracks that run through the area. We walk over those to get to the art galleries.
This time we started a new tradition. We went to Luv Its frozen custard after we got done and boy howdy was it good. If you are ever in the down town area it is the best custard in Las Vegas, it is off oaky and Las Vegas Blvd.

It is such a fun evening, but definitely not for the conservative person :)

Relief Society Activity

2010-05-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

My Relief society asked me to paint a picture of a light house for their activity so I got some mat board since I needed it pretty big. Also they wanted me to put a little fish for each woman in our ward. So this is the finished painting and then I printed out little fish with the names on them and stuck them on in the water, but I didn't take a photo of it with the fish. It was lots of fun working on a painting and I was pretty happy with how it came out.

Icky Throw up days

2010-05-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

Ella has been wanting to wanting to eat solid food lately so on wednesday I gave her a little hotdog, mozzarella cheese and some carrots. She didn't like the hotdog much so I ended up eating like 1 and a 1/2 hotdogs. Warren came home and we went to costco. I wasn't feeling too good so I thought some chocolate milk would help, then I tried some broccoli salad and some shrimp soup. I was feeling pretty lousy by the time we got home. I was putting Ella to bed and luckily got her into bed before rushing to the bathroom and throwing up. Went to R.S. activity, came home and threw up. Tried to sleep, but my stomach hurt. Ella woke up and wanted to feed but as I picked her up I knew I needed to get to the bathroom so I dropped her in bed with Warren and high tailed it in to upchuck again. At this point I'm like, there's nothing left, why am I still hurling? Poor Ella was screaming because she wanted to be fed, not hang out with Dad. Got her fed and back to bed, me back to bed. I woke up again at like 1:30 AM and had to hurl again. Luckily that was the last. Thursday I woke up feeling really gross. Warren had meetings so he couldn't stay home so I gave my mom a call. She was sweet enough to take the day off and come over to take care of me and Ella. Aren't moms great? Moms make everything better. I ate two pieces of toast on thursday and drank so chicken broth in the evening and that was about it. Woke up today and I feel much better but I'm still taking it easy on the food, mostly bread and liquids.

Expanding my food horizons!

2010-05-14T13:19:00.000-07:00

Now that I am a stay at home mom, I find that lunch is an annoying thing to deal with. On the one side I really want to have something yummy, but then I'm usually working on getting Ella her lunch so I don't like spending a lot of time on mine. So here is something fast. I bought sundried tomato bread from smiths, I pop that in the toaster then I cook an egg over medium. I slice up an avocado and put that on the toasted bread and then the egg on top. It is super yummy!! It takes about 6 minutes to make and it gives you protein, good fats in the avocado, a good bread, and even a little vegetable in the tomatoes. You should try it!

Get Caught up

2010-05-04T13:56:00.000-07:00

Well it has been an eventful couple of weeks. Two weeks ago we went to Mesa AZ. Warren's sisters Sandy and Shaunna both got their endowments taken out at the Mesa temple. Eleanor started getting a cold that weekend so she was a terrible sleeper, so it wasn't a very fun weekend for me, but it was wonderful going through the Mesa temple. On our way back we went through Sedona and stopped at a little picnic area for a break. Eleanor had a cold for a week. Luckily she slept better the last half, it was sad to see her with all her boogers.

Then last week I caught strep throat. Luckily I went to the doctor the next day and got some pills so then I was only really painfully sick for a couple days. Michelle got married on Saturday May 1st. Me being sick was a bad thing and kind of a good thing. Bad: I missed out on the bachelorette party and I had to limit my party time so I wouldn't get anyone sick, couldn't help out very much with all the wedding stuff. Good: Didn't have to help out with all the wedding stuff (Warren was happy about that), went home and took a nap in between the ceremony and the reception, and just popped in to the reception and ate the food. :) But now I am feeling better do it is all good. Strep really wasn't that bad of a sickness, it just saps your energy.

Eleanor has such a personality, it is too funny. She likes to wear stuff around her neck. Any piece of fabric or string she tries to put over her head to see if it will lay around her neck. So I have an exercise band and any time she finds it she puts it on her neck and then crawls around like that the rest of the day.

Yesterday we were outside in the back yard enjoying the weather and I was watering the plants, Eleanor kept trying to play with the water so I cleaned off a garbage can lid and filled it with water. She started by just splashing it from the sides then she crawled inside and had a hey day splashing the water all over herself. Thats my ghetto swimming pool. :)

I had a really annoying online class, but luckily it is done with. I finished my last project last night which I don't think I did a great job on but really I didn't care at the end, I just wanted to finish it. My tomato plants all did great. I raised them from seeds and put a set in my garden and was left with 43 plants. So I gave some to my husband's coworkers and I still have some at home. Maybe I'll just get a bunch of pots and have a huge tomato crop this year.

love this song!

2010-04-15T12:32:00.001-07:00

Doing Good

2010-03-25T17:38:00.000-07:00

Well the weather is kind of funky today. It is breezy and all the trees decided to pollinate today so there is just a ton of junk in the air. I'm feeling good except my throat feels scratchy which I don't know if it is because of the weather or because my medicine gives you dry mouth and that is turning into dry throat.

Eleanor had a wigging out moment last night. She woke up at midnight and was crying, I went in and picked her up, gave her the pacifier and she did not want that pacifier so she started crying even harder. So I thought, ok she must be hungry, I went to nurse her and she started screaming. Scared the heck out of me because it wasn't like any of her usual cries so I didn't know what she wanted. I took her into my bedroom and Warren was awake, turned on a bathroom light, and she's just sitting there shaking and screaming. Warren tries to rock her and then she's flailing her arms and screaming. So I set her on my lap and start singing some of her bedtime songs and she slowly calms down but with that shuttering whimper type breathing. We had to just sit there for a while singing and talking till she was a little more normal. Then I nursed her and took her back to bed. Warren commented that she is a drama queen already. I was just happy that she wasn't hurt. I think that is one of my worst fears is for her to be in pain and I don't know why or what to do to stop it.

Today!

2010-03-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

Well I went to the doctor yesterday and first of all, I changed doctors and I went to a female doctor and it was so great! It was awesome because she knew exactly how I was feeling, she summarized all the negative and positive things I've been growing through and she made me feel much better. Her name is Dr. Culley over at South West Medical here in Anthem. Second thing, I'm a very natural minded person, I feel like if you have a physical problem you can solve it naturally with exercise or diet, so I'm not a big fan of medications. She explained that my feelings of depression and moodiness are very natural and it is perfectly normal to need a little help in feeling better. So I got a low dose prescription of Zoloft.

I tried it this morning and Wow! I feel better! It is the weirdest thing. It's not like I'm this amazingly happy person or anything but it just takes all my negative feelings and tones them down so they aren't taking over my brain. Hopefully I can eventually go off these in a couple months but it is nice to actually feel better and I can immediately feel a difference from my usual self and I like this feeling much more. I feel like I can accomplish more whereas before it took so much effort to even think of doing something and then I usually talked myself out of it. So if there are other new moms out there who are feeling depressed and overwhelmed, I understand and I hope you feel better.

Beautiful Monday

2010-03-22T14:10:00.000-07:00

Well it is a fabulous Monday in Las Vegas. The weather is an amazing 74 degrees in my backyard resulting in all my windows being thrown open to welcome in the fresh air. Mmmm how I love fresh air in the house, you forget how stale it gets inside until you open everything up. We have some wonderful birds that have taken up residence near our home and they are a twitter all day. It makes for an enjoyable background noise. Lets see... some things that have made this day better.

1. I cut my own bangs. I've been thinking about bangs for a while but every time I go to my stylist he says something like "oh no you do not want bangs, here we will just add some layers on the side." But then I look at all my photos and I have this monstrous forehead, so I just cut my own. Neener neener to my hair stylist.
2. I made a doctors appointment and am able to get in today! I have been extremely moody for a while and I, and Warren, are getting sick of it so I'm getting a physical to see if it is a physical thing or if I am just crazy.
3. I cleaned off a cabinet, tidied up the office, and found Warren's missing cell phone charger. Hurray for me!
4. I found this awesome website thanks to the Perry's blog and I updated my template and learned how to add pages to my blog which will be something to work on.
5. I fit into my t-shirts from like 10 years ago when I was a page at whitney library.
6. I figured out that Eleanor is getting old enough so that she wants solids more and less nursing, I adjusted that today and she is doing great!
7. Along with number 6 I gave Eleanor cut up blueberries and string cheese as a snack and she was so cute to see picking them up and figuring out how to eat them without dropping them in her lap.
8. I was able to put up Ella's jumper in the office doorway so I could clean in the office and she could jump like it was the funnest thing in the world!

So yeah, I am doing good, which is nice because I was kind of depressed when I got up this morning, and that is the annoying thing that I didn't even know why I was depressed. Last week I went jogging three days during the week and I went to my exercise class but even with all those endorphins I was still moody, so I think it is something else, we will see.

Eleanor at almost 8 months

2010-02-19T10:02:00.000-08:00

Ella has figured out how to stand up in her crib, luckily she is pretty short so I don't worry about her falling out yet. Warren bought this outfit for her back in november when he went to Florida, she is just now fitting into it. I love dressing her in colors other than pink but then of course you have the olderly people who say "Oh what a cute boy!" Its ok, I forgive all the old people out there because I will be old too someday. :(

Ella is a remote fanatic. She will do whatever possible to reach one if she sees it, she is also figuring out that the buttons do things. I love her little feet they are so soft and cute.

I shot this series of photos with Eleanor on our bed. She is just such a happy little spirit, it is so much fun. I started putting her to bed at 7pm last week and she is sleeping all night, it is awesome! She is also almost crawling. She gets on her knees and then she goes into a plank position and inches her way forward. I've been testing her by putting stuff she wants like 3 feet from her and seeing how long it takes her to get over to it, each day she gets better and better at it. We also have a jump seat that hangs in the doorway and she can actually jump in it now, she gets a rhythm going and bounces up and down. I was laughing at her last night because she was having so much fun and its great because it wears her out. I just love her so much, I'm so grateful for my little sweetheart.

cloudy friday

2010-02-19T09:37:00.000-08:00

I feel very lonely today. It is interesting being a stay at home mom, you think it would be so much fun but really i gets very dulling, like I feel like I am getting duller. I have projects to do but then some little part of me goes "why are you doing those? What good will it do?" So alot of the time I end up not doing them. I just do little stuff around the house like clean up the kitchen, do the laundry, pick up clutter. Yesterday I was all excited because I vacuumed the whole house. I just feel out of touch with the world. I finished my website www.artsylasvegan.com and sent out the announcement to probably 50 people, 1 person wrote back. I feel like, why did I even put the effort into it? Is anyone even interested in it or was it just a big waste of time.

I decided to make bibs out of vintage sheets and terry cloth. I made one and it looks super cute then I was thinking of making more and selling them on Etsy but then I get discouraged and wonder if anyone would actually buy them. I keep stock piling art supplies to work on but then I don't actually work on any of them.

Every day I try to think of something that I can look forward to, like yesterday I took our change jar over to a coinstar. Today I was excited because I was going to go over to my old school, Western, to pick up some supplies that I left there but then I realized that it is a teacher inservice day so they will be in meetings and things so I don't know when I could go over. It just made my day into a real bummer.

And I know it seems stupid, like I'm just being emotional but it is just hard to deal with and I love being home with Eleanor, I just feel very insignificant sometimes. I think that is the main point of it right there is that I used to feel significant because I was needed to teach, if I didn't show up I would have 250 students wondering where I was and what I was doing. Now its just Eleanor and Warren, it is a difficult jump to make. I go on facebook to get in touch with people and no one writes me back or responds to what I'm doing, it feels like wow, this is how much influence and interest there is in me out there, zip. Oh well, maybe its just the clouds, I always have a harder time on cloudy days. I just have to be grateful for what I have.

Christmas 2009

2010-01-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

So Christmas was pretty fun this year. We went to Barstow for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. All of Warren's family came and it was really great because they haven't seen Eleanor since like August so it was fun to show her off.
We drove back to Las Vegas on Christmas Day and spent the afternoon with my family. I didn't feel like taking photos so we don't have a lot of my family. Waren drove back to Barstow the day after christmas so he could go 4 wheeling with his sister Laurel. I was boring and stayed in Vegas and Hung out with my family.

Christmas 2009

2010-01-08T14:38:00.000-08:00

Well this was definitely a fun Christmas. I think because it was Eleanor's first Christmas, it felt more like Christmas . I feel like the past couple times haven't felt very Christmasy so it was nice to get into the spirit of the season this year.

We started off by going to our Ward Christmas party which was a breakfast on Saturday the 19th.

Travis did a great job as Santa Claus, the funny thing was Ella had a hold of some of the hair in his beard and was ready to yank it off.

For Christmas Eve we traveled to Barstow CA to hang out with Warren's family. This is Warren's brother in law Dan and his son Derrick. Dan is married to Sandy, Warren's sister. It was alot of fun hanging out with their family. Derrick really liked Eleanor and he says her name so cute, he uses an h instead of an l so it sounds like ehenor. We also got to see Warren's siblings, Laurel, Shaunna and her husband Richard, Steven, and his parents. Steven was really nice and let us take over his room while we stayed. I was suprised at how well Ella did with all the niose. Our house is pretty quiet.

Sandy, Derrick showing off his Christmas stockings, Dan, and Linda.

Some photos to illustrate this week.

2009-12-18T21:06:00.000-08:00

So this is my arm two days after I got the h1n1 shot. Warren was worried but online it says that swelling is a usual side affect.

This is a hat I crocheted for my friend Heidi's daughter, Ellie. I am mailing it tomorrow and I am super excited with how well it turned out. I added a little loop so she can clip on flower barrettes. You love my model? :)

Eleanor turned 6 months on Friday and she is doing great at sitting up, she can hold it for a pretty good amount of time before she tips over.

Here is our decorated tree that we chopped down ourselves. My sister gave me a ton of decorations last year along with wrapping paper so everything is color coordinated. Ooooh it looks so fancy.

Oh, I figured out that Eleanor needed to go to bed a little earlier, she was getting too tired and that was why she wouldn't go to sleep :) Every day is a new day and a new challenge.

This week

2009-12-17T21:18:00.000-08:00

It has been an eventful week.
On Monday Eleanor went in for her 6 month checkup and shots. They had the h1n1 vaccine so I decided to get it. The first time we got shots Ella slept like all afternoon but not anymore, she just gets cranky. So monday night she didn't sleep well and neither did I of course. Tuesday she was cranky allll day. I think she wanted to sleep but she was fighting the urge. So we just stayed home and cleaned the house.

Tuesday night she slept great but I woke up around 2am and then I couldn't sleep after that. All my joints ached and I felt hot but I didn't have a fever. Where they injected me it got all swollen and red, its like "great lets have all kinds of fun side affects and then I probably wont get sick anyway because I'm at home all the time." Wednesday I made ham for dinner cause I had a hankerin for some ham! I got all my christmas cards mailed out and I finished crocheting and knitting a bunch of my christmas gifts, Yay! I can't tell you what they are in case someone reads this that I am giving them too.

I also made peanut brittle on wednesday and that came out awesome as well. I made it so Warren could give it to his coworkers. It came out great, nice and crunchy but not like hard crunchy were it hurts your teeth.

Today I went to my exercise class in the morning. One of the women in my ward, Maranda, does an exercise class at our church and so we can bring our kids and they can hang out while we work out. She seriously wooped our buttes today, it felt good.

My house feels like a big mess again, it seems to be a continual thing, so annoying. It is also frustrating that everyone's kid is different so even if you ask for advice it doesn't really work because your kid is different from their kid. Like, I am having trouble getting Eleanor into a regular routine because she likes to take little 45 minute naps but then if we are out and about driving in the afternoon she will take a long nap, but if we are at home it is just a little 45 minute nap. So I don't know. She has a sound machine in her room so there is background noise. Then for the past 3 days she doesn't want to go to bed at her usual time of 9pm instead she'll stay up till 9:30-10:00 but I can tell that she is super tired, she just won't fall asleep.

So I don't know.

Eleanor's room

2009-12-15T13:47:00.000-08:00

This is Eleanor's room. I painted a cherry blossom tree in the corner. The bassinet was what my mom had me and all of my sisters in and then my older sister used it with her 4 kids and now I get to use it.

This is a mobile of glass drops. My grandmother had these hanging in her kitchen and I loved to look at them when we came to visit her, so I was fortunate to get them when she passed away. Ella loves to look at them too.

She shares a room with my craft stuff, we will see what happens when we have another kid.

tree hunting

2009-12-15T13:46:00.000-08:00

We went with my sister Kathy and her husband Karl, tree hunting up by Caliente. Karl's family does it every year for the past 25 years. It was alot of fun and kind of cold so we had to bundle up really well. It was fun hunting our tree down. Then they had lunch of chili and cornbread. The second photo is us in front of our tree. I will post one of our tree all decorated.

Random Ella

2009-12-15T13:18:00.000-08:00

Here is the hat I crocheted Ella.
Hanging out with dad.

Relaxing on the bed in the PJs

Friends and Family at Thanksgiving

2009-12-15T13:16:00.000-08:00

We were able to visit with my Aunt Carlene and Uncle Ray. My Aunt just had shoulder surgery so we were lucky to see her.
Then we got to hang out with our awesome friends, Heidi, Mike and their daughters Ellie and the newest addition Alyse. Sadly Alyse had just woken up from a nap and wasn't very happy about it.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-15T13:12:00.000-08:00

Abigail, such a big help!

More Thanksgiving

2009-12-15T13:10:00.000-08:00

Thanks Giving in Utah

2009-12-15T13:08:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving we went to Salt Lake city and luckily Warren's cousin Debbie was kind enough to let us stay at their home. This is Elizabeth who is about a month older than Ella. It was hilarious trying to get a photo of the two of them.

Warren and Emma, who was the baby until Elizabeth came along. She is a ham.

The battle of the socks!

2009-12-15T13:04:00.000-08:00

Eleanor loves to pull her socks off. She gets a hold of them and then pulls them a good 5-6 inches with her mouth before they yank off. Course then they are all wet so they aren't much good at keeping her feet warm.

Natalie Visit

2009-12-15T13:02:00.000-08:00

My best Bud Natalie came to visit and so I got to hang out with her and see how big her little Micah has gotten. She is pregnant with a girl! So excited for her.

More Rice Cereal

2009-12-15T12:59:00.000-08:00

Whoo hoo!

2009-12-15T12:58:00.000-08:00

I love how here hair stands up in the back. I was watching the Incredibles the other day and she totally looks like Jack Jack and I can see her beating up the bad guy just like him at the end of the movie.

Mom's first knitted hat!

2009-12-15T12:57:00.000-08:00

Cold weather is coming in so I used my knifty knitters loom and made Eleanor a hat. It was tons of fun so I also made one for my cousin Becky who is having a boy. Then I pulled out my crochet hooks and started crocheting which I haven't done in sooooo many years. I will take some photos of my creations.

Mommy and Ella

2009-12-15T12:55:00.000-08:00

I tried taking a photo of the two of us, but clearly she is the more photogenic so we'll just stick to photos of her.

Pushin up like a champ!

2009-12-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

Eleanor and rice cereal!

2009-12-15T12:52:00.000-08:00

At around 5 months I noticed Elle was really interested in anything we eat or drink and she started sticking her tongue out so we decided to try rice cereal and it was a hit! She got a good amount down. Funny thing though is that I go Yum Yum when I feed it to her and so now she thinks she is supposed to talk and make noises while she is eating. Makes it a little harder to get the food in. :)

Campin on Halloween!

2009-12-15T12:48:00.000-08:00

For Halloween we went to Cold Creek just outside of Las Vegas with my parents and their RV.
Warren and my Dad had alot of fun on their quads. They even got me out on one for a while. I don't mind quads but I prefer the automatic ones and all we had were manual for this trip. So I kind of ran over my foot but otherwise it was a fun weekend!
Here is our little pumpkin growing by the creek :)

There were wild horses all over the place, this was the prettiest one.

Week 18

2009-12-15T12:44:00.000-08:00

Week 18 was very eventful for Eleanor. She has a bouncy seat and up till now she could only grab the outside two rings, then this week she could grab the middle ring! She is also pushing up alot more on her tummy and she is just super alert!

Birthday Luncheon

2009-12-15T12:40:00.000-08:00

I got together with some of my buds, Tara, Christine, and Amy for a birthday luncheon. My birthday is Oct. 18th, Tara's is the 24th and Christine's is the 28th.

The Bumbo!

2009-12-15T12:38:00.000-08:00

Eleanor trying out her bumbo. She was happy for about 3 minutes. I only put her in now when I am feeding her otherwise she does not like sitting in it. :)

Robin's dress

2009-12-15T12:37:00.000-08:00

My cousin Robin gave us this dress and Eleanor finally fit into it.

2009-12-15T12:36:00.000-08:00

I made these lanterns for Halloween, decoupage tissue paper. It was great to use up some jars and I'll keep them for next year. Thanks to Trina for the great idea!

Union Picnic in October

2009-12-15T12:34:00.000-08:00

We had a great time at Warren's Union picnic. They did it at a park in the Northwest and the weather was perfect. It was the best picnic they have done so far.
We got Eleanor to wear the shades for a little while but she was much happier when we took them off.

The many faces of Eleanor 10/14

2009-12-15T12:32:00.000-08:00

Eleanor 17 weeks

2009-12-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

13 weeks!

2009-09-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

Wow,
Time has really flown by. Eleanor is at a healthy 13 weeks! I have been mostly posting on Facebook but now I will get back into my blog because I really like being able to write more on here. Facebook feels kind of annoying sometimes. It is amazing how much Ella has grown and changed. Last week was a bunch of firsts for her. She is becoming more vocal which is alot of fun because I feel like I can carry on a conversation with her with all the fun noises she is making. She is getting much stronger, I put her on her stomache on Wednesday and she pushed herself up with her arms which she hasn't done before!

Ella has a mobile over her bassinet that she loves to watch and now she is strong enough and more coordinated in that she likes to kick the little animals as they go around.

Something I can't figure out is that her sleep patterns keep changing. She'll have a great night where she goes to bed at 9:00 and wakes up to feed between 3-4 Am then she'll sleep till 7. Then the next night she'll wake up at 1:30 AM and then every two hours after that. And she'll still feed the same amount but she will wake up and I have to go in a give her a pacifier so I really don't know what to do about that. She did this for Friday and Saturday night so Sunday night I was hoping she would sleep better but then she woke up at 1:30. I was pretty worn out so I gave her the binkie and then just left her. Warren had suggested that I let her cry one of these nights(we were a little snappy Sunday morning, really just a communication issue that we got figured out) so I let her cry. But I couldn't sleep, listening to her crying. She cried for an hour and then I got up and fed her and she passed out until 7:30 this morning. Then she woke up, ate, played a little and is asleep again. I guess all the crying really wore her out. So we will see how tonight goes.

I met an awesome new girl in our ward on Sunday. It was fun because we have a ton of stuff in common. She, her husband, and their new baby just moved into the subdivision near us. She and I have a bunch of the same things in common, we both grew up in Vegas, we attended the community college HS in henderson, she graduated a year before me, her baby girl charlie is just one month older than Eleanor, we are both stay at home moms. Yep so it was fun talking to her. Hopefully we can start a walking routine once the weather cools down.

Eleanor at one week.

2009-07-10T17:05:00.000-07:00

This first week was very trying. There's the physical pain of recovering from the labor and then there is the emotional pain of what am I doing? Warren stayed home from work monday and tuesday and my mom came over on wednesday. Eleanor is doing excellent. She only lost an ounce when we went to our pediatrician. Even though I'm not getting enough sleep it doesn't seem to matter because all I care about it having her healthy and strong :) must be the hormones talking. I feel pretty good too, the pain isn't that much. On her one week anniversary I took these photos of her to use in her baby announcement/thank you card.

Eleanor Desirae Stender is two weeks old

2009-07-10T15:23:00.000-07:00

Alright, it has been a while since I updated this so here we go.

on June 26 at 12:00 Am I went into labor. Not too bad, I couldn't sleep so I cleaned my house. Warren got up at 3:30 for work and I told him I was in labor. At 5:30 AM we went to St. Rose De lima hospital. They hooked me up to the monitors for 2 hours but I was at 3 cms and they didn't see me progressing so they told me to go home, drink lots of water, and put my feet up. So we went home I drank 2 of those big gatorades, sat in the hot tub, and watched The Shadow. Around 1:00 pm I was getting in a lot of pain, and my contractions were about 3 mins apart, called the hospital and they said to come in. So at about 2:00 we get over there, I am at 5 cms so they say they'll keep me:)thank goodness. I has planned on doing it natural but at that point I said "No Way Jose!" So they gave me an IV of water, took my blood work and got an epidural. That was awesome! I could talk and rest after that. They gave me some pitocin because my contractions slowed down. About an hour and a half later I was at 8 cms, then I moved on pretty fast to 10 cms. My nurse was awesome, she checked on me alot and helped me with everything. They got me pushing and we could see the top of her head, :) and then they called the doctor. We had to wait for the doctor. My doctor was out of town but they had another doctor from the same practice that I've seen before so that was fine with me. So we got pushing and at 6:59 pm my Eleanor was born.

Words cannot describe the immense joy I felt as I looked at her, nothing else mattered in the world and she was stunning. Absolutely perfect, not wrinkly, cone shaped or anything, just beautiful. I cried with how much joy I felt at having this little spirit given to me. Warren was able to catch Eleanor and cut the cord then he was right there with her as they weighed her and cleaned her up. I think she knew him already. I cried again when I was able to hold her and she looked at me, it stunned me that this sweet thing was something I carried for 9 months. She weighed 6lbs 1 oz. and was 18 inches long. The hospital staff was so nice. The nurse who checked me in the morning was back and she came in to see our little Ella. Warren called his sister Laurel and my parents. Laurel showed up with roses and a balloon, she was worried to hold her but we finally got her too. My folks showed up and the they were so happy for us.

I got moved to my room in a funny handtruck looking device. Everyone took off while we settled in and I tried feeding Ella. Then we slept, sort of. It's hard to sleep when they have to come in and check on you, do tests, and all that. They took Ella at around 1 am for her "Spa treatment" where they got her all cleaned up. I think she was probably crying quite a bit because she slept for a long time after this. Saturday we just rested, sent Warren out for some errands because he was getting stir crazy in there. My sister Kathy and her husband Karl stopped by in the afternoon to see us. We decided to stay on an extra day rather than checking out Saturday evening. They brought us a special dinner to celebrate, steak, shrimp, baked potato, salad and cheese cake. I have to say that the food at my hospital was awesome.

Sunday we go up, had breakfast, showered and got checked out at around 10:30. It was a little nerve racking putting her in the car seat and traveling home. We had everyone over that evening of my family to celebrate my mom's birthday. It was alright because it was just desert but it did wear me out and give me alot of anxiety so I took Ella to the bedroom to hang out because it felt like a little too much for me. Thats when all the hormones started kicking in and I cried for a while.

4 weeks to go!

2009-06-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well this was the last week of school, thank goodness. I have been counting down the days, and it hasn't helped being this pregnant. I'm so glad that I still have 4 weeks though becuase if I was due any sooner these past weeks of teaching would be even worse.

So Thursday was the last day for the students, I was amazed at how well behaved my last classes were, I think they were just as tired as I was so they didn't give me any hassle. :) Today was a professional development day and then we have to come back on monday for checkout, they added an extra day becuase of our snow day.

I won't be teaching next year, I will be staying home with our little one so I had to clean all my stuff out of my room. That was a little sad because I really love teaching. But it also felt really good :) I will be substituting in the fall a couple days of the week to make some extra cash. I think that will work out great.

Tomorrow is my baby shower for all my family and friends here in Las Vegas. I am super excited, I hope a bunch of people can come.

Health wise I think I am doing great. I am still swimming 2-3 times a week which really makes me feel better physically. It is really tough gaining this much weight, I have never been this big before and it doesn't make me feel very attractive. It doesn't help that people say the most idiotic things like "Hey Big Momma", "Wow, are you having twins?" "You're gonna pop" "You can barely walk" "should you be eating that?" It's like really, I'm going to smack the next person that comments on my size. I think I look pretty good, I just happen to be short and my baby likes to really stick out so yeah, I am beach ball size now. It's also frustrating in my change of clothes size. I've gained most of my weight in my bum and hips so it makes me much wider so I have to get a big size in maternity, then you see this size 4 8 month pregnant women with their perfect basketball round bellies and their cute butts, and you just want to kick them. :) Can you tell I'm getting tired of the pregnant thing?

But other than the getting huge part, it is fun being pregnant, I can't wait to see what my little girl is going to look like. I haven't had any health problems, no early contractions, or anything else, so I'm just hoping that I don't go over my due date, I want it to be on the date or before.

Oh, the one other problem is that my feet are getting all swollen. It really sucks becuase at the end of the day I feel twice as big as I really am. And if I sit too long in a chair or I walk or stand too much my feet become rolly polly sausages. Which is very disturbing because I've always really liked how my feet look and now they are monster feet :( So that is a problem.

We have kind of picked the name Eleanor Desirae Stender as her name. I think it is very beautiful and Warren likes it as well. But it could always change, we may find something even better tomorrow. :) Well, I hope all our family and friends are doing well and I'll tryy to keep you up to date with what is going on. Love everybody.

6 weeks to go!!

2009-05-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

Wow,
it is amazing but we are at 34 weeks. I am feeling great other than the getting huge part. This weekend has been really nice to relax and get stuff done. Warren cleaned out the garage so he could put the dune buggy in there, we want to clean it up and sell it for some extra cash. Today Warren is out riding quads and shooting things with his brother and sister, Stephen and Laurel. Hopefully they come back intact.

We only have 2 weeks left of school. 4 days this week and then next week is finals so we have half days. I am just so extremely excited to be out for the summer. I am reading the twilight series, :) fun books but definitely very teenage drama. I have to request the last book in the series. The nice thing is that all the books are out so it isn't like harry potter where you had to wait another year or two in between books and by then you had to go back and read the previous book again.

We've decided on the name Eleanor. Middle name isn't decided yet, I was thinking Ann but Warren doesn't like that as much.
Warren went to Washington DC for a conference from last saturday night to thursday. He had alot of fun, but he was also very busy so he didn't get to do much sight seeing. I have been busy just getting things finished for school.

We celebrated our 4 year anniversary on Thursday night. It doesn't feel like it has been 4 years. I think it really is half that time, it feels like 2 years. We went to Townsquare annd had dinner at Texas de Brazil. It is a brazilian steakhouse, SO GOOD! Everything was delicious and the service was astonishiing. It is sad that we have such poor service in Las Vegas that we when you get good service you are just stunned. :)Little pricey but definitely a great place for a special occasion.

Other than that everything is about the same. I am doing great, healthy as a horse, no problems with the baby. My feet do get swollen at the end of the day, but it helps if I go swimming. I couldn't go last week but otherwise I have been averaging 2 or 3 trips to the gym a week for swimming. Makes me feel much better and gets some good exercise.

Oh, on June 6th at 3:00 pm we are having my baby shower. I sent out invitations but if there is anyone who didn't get one you are invited to come. I will post a copy of the baby shower inviation on here and I would love for more people to come, it will be alot of fun.

2009-04-16T16:01:00.000-07:00

28 weeks!

2009-04-16T15:49:00.000-07:00

Wow,
I can't believe we are at 28 weeks. We still haven't picked a name but here is a list of names I like at the moment:
1. Eudora
2. Evianna
3. Lila
4. Liliana
5. Olive :)
6. Eleanor

But don't quote me on any of those because we still have a ways to go and I am not set on anything. I am feeling Great! Our little girl is super active now, I like it in the morning when I roll over and she gets all upset and pushes everywhere, it makes me smile.
The baby room is coming along nicely. We painted it yellow and I am working on a mural, I will post some photos when it is done or atleast closer to being done.

I bought my maternity swimming suit so I have been swimming this week which makes me feel great and doesn't make me sore, so I will keep that up.

We bought the Wii fit and have been having fun with that, Warren has been working on losing some weight. :) He didn't like the sympathy weight he was gaining. I am trying not to gain too much more weight because I think I gained it a little fast in the beginning so I am getting up past what I want to be.

I am ready for school to be out, both I and the students have spring fever so it is getting pretty frustrating. On May 2nd I will be going to CA for my in laws Sewing get together with the ladies, we will also be having my baby shower. Then in June I will have the baby shower with people here in Vegas. My sister Judy has already happily loaded me up with all of her baby stuff so I don't think we will have a shortage of baby stuff.

I think that is pretty much everything going on, I hope everyone else is doing great.

1st Baby feeling!

2009-02-14T15:13:00.000-08:00

On Thursday night Warren and I were in bed and Warren asked if I had felt the baby yet. I didn't really know, I mean it could be some bubbles or something. So Warren put his hand on my belly and we both held real still...and he felt a bump! A kind of gently nudging, so then I felt it and it was so breath taking. It made me feel like Wow I have a little person inside of me, it made it much more real. So then I couldn't fall asleep so I had my hands on my belly and Womp!! felt a good kick right against my hand and a couple seconds later there it was again. I started laughing because it suprised me so much. So then Warren had to feel it and he got one good kick and then the baby settled down. :) Then I had a really hard time falling asleep. It is just very exciting. This week we will find out if it is a girl or a boy. I don't have a real idea of what we are having so it will be fun either way.

18 week photo

2009-02-04T17:13:00.001-08:00

Yep, so this is what I look like at 18 weeks. Warren is pretty excited that I am showing, and now I have to wear my loose pants or maternity pants. It is fun. I am trying to get in some exercise like 3 times a week so I don't get too flabby.

Everything is good!

2009-02-01T10:21:00.000-08:00

Well I am at 18 weeks this week and everything is going pretty awesome. I have my second doctors appointment on Thursday and then my ultrasound to find out the baby's sex is on the 18th. My doctor wanted to wait till 20 weeks so that they can see all of the chambers of the heart. Warren is doing a great job on building a wall unit for our office so hopefully we can get some more things organized. I'm not worried about a baby room becuase the baby will be in a basinet for the first 2-3 months in our room. I went to deseret industries yesterday and hit the jackpot on maternity clothes. I got 2 pairs of jeans, jean capris, long jean skirt, 3 shirts, 2 dresses, brown dress pants,1 green skirt, 1 cardigan, 2 pairs of boots, and a pair of sandals. I got all that stuff for $57.00! I love D.I. If you have one in your area you should definitely check it out.
We are going to try to have a little super bowl get together with some friends this evening but I don't know if we will get anyone. Christine and Patrick came up with the idea but then we haven't spoken to them about it since then, and we wanted to invite some other people but I bet they will already have plans. So we will see how it goes. Either way I am doing a chocolate fondue tonight, Yum!!!

Ultrasound

2008-12-24T17:52:00.000-08:00

Warren and I went to our first ultrasound on Thursday Dec. 18. It was a ton of fun! Our baby was hiding so the nurse had to push on my belly a bit and then he(we'll just call it a him till we find out) came flying around into view. I ended up being farther along then we thought so I was at 12 weeks and he was 2 inches long. My due date is July 4th! Warren is happy because that is his favorite holiday. It was very exciting to hear his heartbeat. The sweetest thing was that he kept sticking his leg up, it was just an amazing experience to be able to see our baby.

Holy Cow it has been a while!!!

2008-12-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

Yeah so I am very sorry that I have not kept this updated, I will just have to set a day each week for doing it so I keep up with it, and it is very sad considering all the stuff that has happened this year. So I will do a little list, then when I get my photos going I will do a little post for each one so you have some more details.
1.spring, didn't really do anything, still teaching at JD Smith MS
2.late spring,survived the loooonnnngggg time between spring break and summer break
3.Summer Warren began work on backyard, we designed some planters, carved rocks, and stamped concrete.
4. Summer/july My principal from JD Smith called and asked me to join her at her new school, Western HS as a ceramics teacher. Such a scary decision, looked at my room and said YES!!!!
5. July/end- Had to move all my supplies from JD Smith over into my new school, I have Way too much Stuff.
6. August-1-17 Warren and I go on an AWESOME trip to Panama for the dedication of their new temple.(that will be a long post)
7. August/end-start teaching at Western HS- High schoolers are soooo immature, or very mature and tons of fun to teach!!!
8. October-my birthday and we had a great party at our house as a halloween/adult get together.
9. November 5- Find out that I am PREGNANT!!!!!Call my folks, let Warren's folks know, everyone is very excited.
10. November 15-20- Trip to San Antonio TX, Home of the Alamo! And I get that great morning sickness that isn't restricted to just the morning. But otherwise so much fun.
11. Thanksgiving at my folks house, we miss out on seeing Warren's family.
12. December-Only three weeks left of school!!!!!
13. December 10- My best bud Natalie comes to visit with her cute little boy who is getting so big. Way fun hanging out with Natalie for the evening.
14. TODAY December 18,2008- Las Vegas first SNOW DAY!!!! I don't have to go to work and we got 4 inches of snow at our house, it is absolutely amazing!!! Also today I go for my first ultrasound so we will find out exactly how far along I am and then I can put some posts up about that.

New Wyatt Baby Slideshow

2007-12-23T17:39:00.000-08:00

Hodge party Slideshow

2007-12-23T17:32:00.001-08:00

Hodge Christmas party

2007-12-23T16:50:00.000-08:00

Every Year Warren's family gets together with his mom's side of the family, the Hodges, and we have a Christmas Party in Simi Valley CA. Usually it is at Bruce and Dottie's or Denny and Diane's house but this year Bruce's son Tom and his lovely wife Becky hosted the party at their house which I must say was absolutely gorgeous. It makes me pine for the older architecture that Las Vegas is sadly lacking. It was also great because their house is set up with a playroom for the kids so this year all the kids had something to do rather than looking at us adults all the time wishing we would take them home. :) So I think we should do this again.

There were several funny events of the evening. Every year someone ends up with a very large pair of purple panties, Becky was the lucky recipient this year. But to add to the fun underwear department Tom donated a racoon pair of underwear which Diana was happy to receive.

Diana first picked out a set of those turning push up handles....she tried to say that they are pushups for her chest, hence the push up picture. But Sandy was not put off and took it from her. I like Ron's Captain Morgan pose, he is a hilarious individual and definitely perks up the room.

I was the lucky recipient of a turkey Fryer which Becky and Tom were kind enough to put in as a present. (don't tell but we stuck it back in their garage..Shhhhhh.....) >:D and Warren picked a reed diffuser which he kept because I wanted it. :) Aren't husbands wonderful?

For Christmas Eve we are going to Warren's parent's house, Linda And Dave, then Christmas day we will hang out with my folks. I am looking forward to this two week break, I'm sure I won't get very much of my things done but oh well, it will just be nice to relax a little. Hope everyone has a merry christmas, Love you.

Whoo hoo look at my skillz!

2007-12-23T16:26:00.000-08:00

I figured out how to upload this Jukebox from Jango. I recommend this website to everyone I know. You can listen to all kinds of music and there are no commercials or ads and you can decide how many other artists you want to listen to.

Juke box

2007-12-23T16:25:00.000-08:00

www.Jango.com

Update on everything

2007-12-08T14:23:00.000-08:00

Well my goodness it has been quite a while since I have posted a new blog. Sorry about that. I just have been very busy with teaching and everything else we have been doing. I took some pictures of my art room at JD Smith so everybody could see where I spend my days teaching. :) It is a great room, with lots of storage space. I would like to paint it a different color because the yellow is a little yuck.

My birthday is October 18, I told the kids about it and they were so nice. They sang happy birthday to me. I got a couple stuffed animals and some really cute figurines. Then the kids decided to write happy birthday on my white boards so I took pictures at the end of the day to show the final result.

The students just love writing on my white boards. I don't mind since I can just wipe it off. We have been having a great time. I think I will be starting up a website with my student's work on it so I will post that when I get it going.

For Nevada Day we went to Sequioa National park with our friends Tara, Travis, and their son Stetson. That was amazing. Our campsite was gorgeous and not busy at all and the trees were awesome.

Our campsite was surrounded by oak trees. Then there is a river that runs through the canyon where we stayed and it is full of big granite boulders. Really I think it was the most beautiful campsite I have ever stayed at. So we shot photos for Tara and Travis's family photos for christmas. And really with a setting that beautiful you can't really mess it up.

The trees were huge. I never realized that they are that tall. And they are soft so if you cut one down you can't really use the wood for anything.

School!

2007-09-12T18:44:00.000-07:00

Well, school has started and so far it is going great! I am taking a graduate photography class through UNLV. Warren is taking Business, economics, and accounting. My school is awesome. I am teaching at J.D. Smith Middle school, it is off of Lake Mead and Bruce. I am teaching Middle school art to all grades and so far the kids and I really like each other, I think this is going to be a great year with them.

Nothing much else is going on, we almost bought a house in August. The house was one that I had been looking at, then it went to auction and we won it at the auction, then we put in our offer for it and the bank rejected it and took another buyer's offer. It was a little dissapointing because it was a really great house and would a lot of fun to live in. But oh well, the Lord didn't think it was the right time so in the mean time Warren is doing a great job on getting the backyard done. So when we get that done everyone will have to come see.

School is keeping me pretty busy, I will be doing art claub twice a week, luckily I get paid for it so I am not complaining. Well hope everyone is doing great, love ya!

Family reunion

2007-08-20T19:34:00.000-07:00

Well, it is now the middle of August. I have downloaded my photos from the other events in August so I thought I would share them.

August 3rd, 4th, and 5th Warren and I were in Solvang California at the Pfeiffer family reunion. It is Warren's side of the family and they get together every other year in this great little Danish town in California. I took photos of the town last time so I didn't this time, but instead focused on just photos of the family.

This is all of the family that came to the reunion this year. I think last time we had a bigger turnout but this was nice because we were able to take a more intimate photo, where you can actually see everyone. Debbie and I were in charge of the family photo and I think we did a great job.

Aunt Diane threw a tea party for all the young ladies in the family. They each recieved a disney tea set, dressed up in their feathers and hats, and enjoyed the company of their favorite stuffed animal or doll. And of course, each other.

I had a lot of fun taking portrait photos of all the girls, it shows what wonderful young ladies we have in the family and how beautiful each one is in her own way.

And then I had to add these photos in because she is the cutest little girl I have ever seen and so extremely photogenic. I could just follow her around forever taking photos.

So overall we had a great time at the family reunion. If you ever get to visit Solvang I would encourage you to have an eclair, because they are amazing, and stop at a wonderful old looking garden close to the freeway that almost feels enchanted with all of its old statues and forgotten plants.

Love and God bless all our family and friends,

Melinda

Busy August

2007-08-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

Well my goodness, it has been an incredibly busy end of July and beginning of August. July 27-29 Warren and I went on a backpacking trip with his sister Laurel, his brother Stephen, and his cousin Kendall. That nearly killed us(it felt like that) but we made it through and were stronger in the end.

So here is our little group at the beginning, you notice we are all smiling(except for Stephen) but that mood would soon change.

We are outside of Kanab Ut at a slot canyon called Buckskin Gultch. The hike is about 13 miles to the safe camping spot, so we planned on doing that 13 miles in the first day, sleeping overnight and hiking out another 7 miles through Paria canyon to our vehicle.

Unfortunately there was a lot of water left over from the past rainstorms. The ranger thought there would only be a few pools to go through, sadly those few pools were quite alot of pools.

We tried walking through barefoot for the first ones, but once we realized they weren't going to end we put our shoes on. But then you have to walk in wet shoes that are full of sand, rocks, and various point objects. Needless to say, that wasn't fun.

Parts of the Canyon were a little tight. But really the entire canyon was gorgeous. I wish I could have taken photos of every step because the light, and the walls were just stunning.

I call this one God's thumbprint because it really looked like a huge thumbprint in the rock.

Again more water.

And more water..... Laurel found a rock that looked exactly like a brain, would have been fun to bring out but our packs were heavy enough as they were.

I like this photo on the lower left because if you look close on the bottom you can see Warren, so you can see the ratio of how HUGE the walls were.

So the first day we got started too late, we didn't get going until about noon, and then the hike was much more grueling than we thought it would be. There is only one spot in the canyon to get out and that is at the middle. Unfortunately we couldn't find the middle so we did the entire 13 miles the first day, we didn't stop until about 10:30 pm. I stopped taking photos that middle third of the trip because I was so tired.

We camped at the safe point. In the morning, Laurel checked out the Paria canyon and it was really wet, with lots of quicksand, and mut that sucks onto your legs. So we decided to go back and find the middle and climb out that way instead.

So the photo below is the 100 ft wall we had to climb to get out. We would haul our packs up, climb, haul em up again, climb, and so forth.

I think the look on Laurel's face really sums up how we were all feeling at that point.

Then we had to walk 2 miles on top of the canyon. This was a really hard trek because it was about 105 degrees on top and it was alot of uphill climbing. Every chande we got we would hide in the shade, and even Laurel, the tough one of the bunch said "I'm struggling."

So you know it is pretty nasty when Laurel says something like that.

So this photo is the view from on top. You can see our little group taking a break in the shade.

This photo to the right is when we reached the trailhead. The thunderclouds were rolling in and there was a big tree to rest under. Kendall was quite the trooper through the whole ordeal.

By the time we reached the top we only had a liter of water and 3 8 ounce water bottles left. Laurel and Warren volunteered to go for the truck. So they took the liter and headed off on what they thought would be a 6 mile walk.

Well it ended up being 10.5 miles.

So while Laurel and Warren were walking, Stephen, Kendall and I hung out at the trailhead. Once we saw the rain coming our way we set up the tent to keep our packs dry.

Laurel had brought a brand new tarp so when the rain started pouring, we pulled it out and collected the rain water.

We figured out to stick it under the tarp of the tent so we got double the amount of water. We collected a whole gallon of water! And boy did it taste good.

Well Warren and Laurel made it back after about 3 hours. We didn't get back to our house in Las Vegas until 2 am on monday morning.

It was an experience that we will never forget but probably not one we will want to repeat any time soon. We are just grateful we made it back alive.