Poor Madeline!

Once upon a time there was a sweet little girl who got sick.

Presumably, it was the same bug that made her big brother have a minor stomach ache for half a day.

But for her it was a nightmare.

36 straight hours of vomiting up every teaspoon of liquid that crossed her lips.  It was horrible.

Finally after she was too weak to move or to even swallow,  I took her in so she could get some IV fluids.   She instantly relaxed, fell asleep, and has been slowly improving since then.

Now it's my turn to sleep.

The End.

Playtime!

I love downloading pictures from my phone. Here are my favorite pics from the last couple weeks:

Madeline and her friend Claire cheesing it up for the camera!

Andrew, Cousin Lincoln, and Madeline building an awesome cup tower.

I can't get over Andrew and Lincoln's similar facial expressions. It almost makes them look alike.

Corey, Andrew, Clark and Claire playing after school on the school's playground

Madeline, Claire, Andrew, Corey (and a couple other random kids) at the playground.

Madeline, Cali, and Kyla having a tea party.

Madeline holding the most adorable little chick.

Me and Madeline watching as the chick fell asleep in Madeline's hands! Poor newborn chicks are tired! (Don't you love Madeline's cute outfit? ;o)

It's so great to have a portable camera that goes everyone with me!

Life

Current Events:

• We are going to spend a month in the Dallas area this summer and are super excited to reconnect with old friends.
• Just like last summer we are working on house swaps and subletting, which we are finally making progress with. Staying in someone else's home is so, so much nicer than staying in cramped hotel rooms. We are so grateful for the generosity of strangers in helping us to make this happen! (One of the many benefits to being LDS is the instant connections you have to people all over the world!! AWESOME!)
• Andrew is STAR testing at school right now. I am interested to see if he's as good at taking multiple choice tests as his daddy is!
• Tom has been travelling a lot again. Most trips he takes are to Texas, but he is currently in D.C. and will return today! Woo-hoo!
• Tom received a new calling on Sunday. He is disappointed that his calling as primary chorister ended after only a few short months, but he is excited for his new calling as Ward Clerk.
• Tom did a "flash mob" style primary musical number for our relief society on Mother's Day. The kids sang "Love at Home" which produced a lot of tears from the women present! I was a very proud wife! (o:
• I love, love, love it when Tom sings. It makes my heart happy! And since I'm not sure if I mentioned it, Tom sang "I Feel my Savior's Love" at Andrew's baptism. It was wonderful!
• Our best friends are out of town for a couple weeks again and we really miss them. We already told them if they ever move away, we are moving too! HA! Hope they never move...
• Have I mentioned lately how much I love Southern California? It is such a wonderful place to live and we are so blessed to be able to live here. I am still waiting on our NorCal friends to come join us.
• We spent Saturday visiting Grandma King. She is one of my favorite people and I am so grateful she is part of our lives right now.
• Madeline and I had a mini-golfing date while the boys played laser tag. Madeline is hilarious to play with. Madeline is left handed which seems to make playing golf a little more difficult. She would hit the ball several times, then pick it and put it in the hole. She would always pick up my ball and throw it in too. Needless to say, we didn't keep score, but we did have fun.

• We encountered a bunny that was completely unafraid of people while golfing. We are assuming it must be a regular on the course:

Ok, I think I've bored you enough for today. Hope everyone is having a great week!

House Updates

The exterior of our house hadn't been painted since it was built in the late seventies. We decided it was time for a new paint job.

BEFORE:

 

AFTER:

It still looks like a house built in the 70's, but we like the new colors a lot better.

We also changed out our LAST ceiling fan.

BEFORE:

This is technically an old fan from another room, but our guest room fan looked just like it.

AFTER:

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Good times! Now we can relax this weekend. Phew! (o:

Baptisms Make You Silly?

At least that is the conclusion I came to today:

Front row: Alora, Kayleigh, Praia, Lincoln, Andrew, Madeline, Juliette, Gabe
Middle Row: Russ, Jen, Clark, Tom, me, Mom, Brian
Back row: Dad, Astoria, Matt and Jack, Forrest, Marsha, Monte, and Nate

We had a pizza party at our house after the baptism. Everyone was STILL being silly:

Ian, Andrew, Juliette, Astoria, Sierra, Alora, Claire, Michael, Lincoln, Aiden, Stefan, Gabe

All silliness aside, congratulations to Andrew! We are so proud of you for making the decision to be baptized today!

Thanks to all our awesome friends and family for helping to make this a special day for our family!