About Me

Oslo, Norway
Welcome to my blog! I am a wife and a Mommy of three. We have 2 daughters, Reagan and Hayden and a son, Grasyon. Here I write about our life happenings and try to capture memories the best I can. I hope this helps keep those close to us, in Texas, Iowa, Illinois, and beyond, a little more up to date while we're away. Enjoy!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Melmo!!

In ONE week from today Honey (Darrin's mom) will be here and we are taking Reagan to her very first concert! We are going to see Sesame Street Live with Elmo and Friends! I can not wait to see what Reagan thinks about it! She is in a HUGE Elmo phase. We bought her an Elmo a few months ago and she carries it around with her all day.

Here are a 'few' pictures I have taken of her with Elmo (or Melmo as she says) over the past week or so.

Darrin put a diaper on Elmo for some reason.

Giving Elmo kisses

And Hugs.

She pulls him around in her dump truck.







She even fixes his hair.



He rides on her car with her

And she brushes his teeth.



They watch TV and color together.















They play dress up and sit on the potty together.





She tries to get him to wear her shoes

And most of all she loves on him.













Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Monday, April 12, 2010

Cheese!!

Reagan is so funny. I can not pull out a camera without her posing and saying, "cheeeeese." I will try to get a picture of her doing whatever she is doing but as soon as she sees I have a camera, she smiles a big smile at me.





(this is her latest cheese, the head tilt)



Sunday, April 11, 2010

Look What I Got!!

We finally caught up to date and got an SLR camera. I have been wanting one for a while now, we just couldn't decide on which one and just kept putting it off. I originally wanted a Nikon D90 or D5000 but once I got there we decided on the Canon Rebel T2i. It's the newest version from Canon and was lighter than the Nikon's so we changed our mind. We also bought an additional telephoto lens for it, so now I should be able to get some great pictures!

Of course the second we got it I was ready to take it out and play with it. However, I need to read through the manual a few times in order to really be able to use it the way I want to. But I am already in love.





















Tuesday, April 6, 2010

20 Months

I can't believe in 4 months Reagan will be TWO! It's just crazy how fast time flies. For some reason this month I have been a little more emotional because I feel like she is changing day by day. At this age they are such little sponge's and they things she does or says just continues to surprise me. She still LOVES to sing and dance. Her favorites are Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga, Paparazzi, she actually sings along, "pa pa, pa pa rati." It's cute. Most of the time I have CMT or GAC on during the day and she will just sing and dance.

Her vocabulary is growing and growing. Some new words are: no, keys, jacket, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, toes, elmo, babies, mmm...good, colors, bird, trees, car, hi, bye bye, poo poo, tee tee, hot, paper, purple. Of course, all of them are not perfectly pronounced, but I know what she is saying. It seems everyday she says a new word. If Darrin and I ask her to repeat a word she usually tries to say it. The other day I rolled down the back window so she could look out and she said, "hi cars, hi trees." It was so cute.

She has gotten more picky with what she eats, which drives me nuts. I feel like she eats the same thing over and over. If it has ketchup or ranch to dip it in most likely she will eat it. She loves chicken and beans. Beans are her favorite! I make a taco soup that I can just about get her to eat for every meal of the day, besides that she can be choosy. Some days are better than others, but I feel like I go through about 3 things before I actually find one that she will eat.

We started time-out. She was hitting when CeCe was in town and other times she will swat at me. Tache has a maltese and sometimes she will pull her hair, so she goes to time-out over there. I am not really sure how effective it is right now, but eventually she will understand. If I ask her if she wants to go to time-out she shakes her head, smiles and says no. (turkey)

Other than that she is just so sweet, lovable, friendly, talkative, outgoing, perfect little girl. I can't believe how big she is getting. I feel like this is my favorite stage so far, but I might be saying that again later on. We went to the park today and I took a 'few' pictures of her, she loves to swing!





































Sunday, April 4, 2010

7.2 Earthquake Near San Diego

Ok my Easter blog was already long enough that I just couldn't add more onto it. It is very obvious that I don't just take a "few" pictures, I take a ton! So now that I am actually posting this on Monday, instead of Sunday, I will tell you about what happened yesterday, on Easter around 3:30 pm.

Darrin was going to take Reagan to the park for a little bit, but just before they left she started rubbing her eyes. Since they were all ready to go, he just decided to take her to the park here in the apartments. I was going to clean up and blog for a bit while they were gone. So off they went and I picked up, I got the laptop out and brought it into out living room. I opened up our blog and I then I started to feel a little weird. I thought I was having a heart attack or something. It was like my heart was beating fast and I was getting dizzy, I wasn't sure what was going on. I put my hands on the ground (because that's where I was sitting, on the floor) to see if it was me. Then I looked up and saw our fan sway and start rocking. I still was in shock of what was going on and I really don't know what I was thinking. I looked up and noticed the TV was swaying and this is when I realized we were having an earthquake. I grabbed my keys and phone, because they were sitting on the counter and ran downstairs to open the garage. (We have a single car garage that leads us up to our apartment. Once we come in the garage we then enter out apartment from our stairs. This is the only way we ever enter and leave the house, so that is what I am used to. We have a front door, but since we are always coming in the garage, we never us it.) So, I went the way I was used to. And it was stupid. Once I got down there is probably when the biggest quake came and I could see the garage sway. It was as if it wasn't going to open. For a split second I thought, "Oh no. The garage isn't going to open. I am going to be trapped down here. How long do I have to get out? I have to get back upstairs. But it opened and I ran out.

As soon as I got out I saw others in the parking lot who had came out from being inside. I tried to call Darrin but my phone didn't have a connection. Right about that time I saw Darrin running around the corner pulling Reagan in her wagon. For some reason I screamed Darrin, even though I knew he saw me. And all had stopped, everything was pretty much over. This was all just about a minute, it was so weird. It was like I was drunk and dizzy or like I was on a boat swaying back and forth. Darrin said while he was on the playground he felt it sway and thought it was his weight at first (so funny what you think sometimes) and then he heard a guy yell, "Earthquake!! Get your families out of the house!" And that's when he saw the building and trees sway before he came running over to see if I came out.

It honestly wasn't that scary during it. I guess just because it was only for about a minute from the start of the panic until realizing it was over. But afterwards I was upset. You just never really prepare yourself for those types of situations. I didn't even think to take anything with me, like personal belongings or things of sentimental value, I just ran out. (luckily I was dressed and had I bra on!) All that mattered during that time is that I get out to where Darrin and Reagan were.

But I can say I have been in a earthquake and now, and I think maybe I will know what to do a little better. Since the big one, we have had several tremors. I have felt a few of them and it makes me nervous. I feel like I don't know if I need to jump up and go, or wait to see if it is just a tremor.

Here are a few facts I have seen on the news:

  • Measured at 7.2 magnitude
  • 108 miles east of Tijuana, 40 miles south Mexico/USA border
  • Biggest incident which struck the region in 18 years
  • 2 people killed, several injured (around 100)
  • After one hour of the earthquake as many as 20 aftershocks occurred
It's crazy to me that Haiti's earthquake was measured at a 7.0 and pretty much wiped out the country. Over 200,oo0 people killed, over 1 million homeless and over 3 million in need but because of the way our buildings are structured there was very little damage done. We did not have a single picture fall of the wall, a glass broken or even anything out of place. Not saying that I wish there was, but we have officially experienced our first earthquake and according to the scale, it was a big one!