TLC's Family

Disneyland

2009-09-22T17:27:00.011-06:00

This summer we had the incredible opportunity to visit Disneyland. It was an unplanned trip, so it didn't go exactly how we wanted it to, but it was fun nonetheless. My cousing died unexpectedly and so we drove to CA. My other cousin just happened to be getting married at the same time, so we drove down and had a day off between the two events. My cousin just happens to work at Disneyland and can thus get three people in for free. So, we only had to pay for Malia (Timothy was free). It was a ton of fun (minus the headache and the throwing up on my part). We started out the day having to buy batteries for our camera because even though we brought two completely new packages of four, none of them worked. After that, though, the day went pretty smoothly (until Thayne had to buy ibuprofen- $1 for two pills! That and the batteries were our only souveniers).

We, of course, had to have our picture taken next to Walt and Mickey.

We started out the day on Peter Pan's flight- the only ride that Timothy really had a problem with. He had to get used to that feeling of going down.

Here are Kaylee and Malia waiting to go on "It's a small world". This and the caterpillar roller coaster were Kaylee's favorite. We really enjoyed the changes to the ride- they now have dolls dressed like the Disney characters throughout the ride. (Although the people behind Kaylee and I complained that it made it "too commercialized"- your at Disneyland, the whole thing is a big huge commercial for Disney!) It was really fun looking at the different bushed that were shaped like animals.

This was probably Kaylee's least favorite ride- the matterhorn. She really didn't like the curves! Malia said she liked it, but when we asked her if she wanted to go on it again, she immediately got wide eyed and shook her head no.

This was the one ride that I never thought Kaylee would have a problem with- Nemo and the submarine. But she got really concerned that we were going to drown- she held on tight to Thayne the whole time!

The few cars that I'm not afraid to put my kid's behind the wheel!

I wish we had one of these at home!

After over an hour's wait we were finally able to meet the man- Mickey himself! The girls were way excited, but they sure did rush us through. Malia really wanted to meet the Princesses but it would have been a 1 1/2 to 2 hour wait! We told her that the next time we go she can see them.

Later we went through the Haunted Mansion- Kaylee didn't really like this one. I'm not sure what Malia really would've thought- she couldn't see most of the stuff. She did like the ghost sitting next to her at the end.

Pirates of the carribean, although one of Thayne's favorite rides, did not go over well with the girls. The sudden drops and the water splashing had them both holding onto the bars so tightly their finger's were white.

Kaylee got to be a special helper in the Tikki room. She was chosen to wake up the birds- she was so excited!

While Malia and Timothy had fallen asleep in the stroller during the new show "Magical" (It was really cute- they had Tinkerbell and Dumbo fly through the air and fireworks, so cute!) Kaylee was still wanting more. So I stayed with the stroller while Thayne took Kaylee on the caterpillar roller coaster and Peter Pan's flight again. Then they came back and I took her on "It's a small world" again.

The day was truly magical for us.

new site to check out

2009-09-22T17:19:00.001-06:00

So my Cousin's wife, Bronwen, is about the most creative person I know and she has a little shop set up on Etsy to sell some of her stuff. I wanted to make sure that everyone could see her stuff so I am putting her link on my blog. Go check it out.

Yummy Food Storage

2009-05-01T14:27:00.003-06:00

So at my meeting last night I was talking to one of the women and she has started working with her friends company selling gourmet food storage- imagine that- food storage that actually tastes good! Anyway, I thought I would add her button to my site so that if any of you are interested you can go look at her site. Or just click on this!

More on Acai Berry Scam

2009-03-24T11:35:00.002-06:00

So as I was writing my previous blog, I went to google pictures of acai berries (I thought it would make the post more interesting) and found the following article.

Attorney General: Conn AG investigates Acai Berry businesses
By George Gombossy on March 23, 2009 12:33 PM

ATTORNEY GENERAL ANNOUNCES ACAI BERRY INVESTIGATION INVOLVING IMPROPER CREDIT CARD CHARGES, WEIGHT LOSS CLAIMS

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal today announced an investigation into the business practices and questionable science associated with Acai berry products -- primarily pitched by Internet-based companies as a wonder treatment for weight-loss.

Blumenthal's office has received numerous consumer complaints related to Acai berry purchases, and is investigating with other states.

There is no competent scientific research that demonstrates any of the claimed effects of Acai berry, including weight loss, detoxification and increased energy and vitality, Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal said various companies selling Acai berry products -- in addition to bogus weight loss claims -- have improperly charged consumer credit cards.

After promising 14-day "free trials" of Acai berry products, the companies often make it virtually impossible for consumers to cancel the trial, resulting in charges to consumer credit cards ranging anywhere from $59 to $89.

Even worse, some consumers never even receive the product within the trial period -- making it impossible to try the product before deciding whether to cancel.

"There are no magical berries from the Brazilian rainforest that cure obesity -- only painfully real credit card charges and empty weight loss promises," Blumenthal said. "Aggressive Acai berry pitches on the Internet entice countless consumers into free trials promising weight loss, energy and detoxification. These claims are based on folklore, traditional remedies and outright fabrications -- unproven by real scientific evidence."

In reality, consumers lose more money than weight after free trials transition into inescapable charges. We will investigate these allegedly misleading or deceptive nutrition and health claims and take action under our consumer protection statutes -- as we have done with other food products. As problematic as the berries are the bills.

"Supposedly free online product offers commonly entail costs. These false celebrity endorsements and fake blogs show the dark side of online marketing."

David Schardt, senior nutritionist for Center for Science in the Public Interest, said, "If Bernard Madoff were in the food business, he'd be offering 'free' trials of açai-based weight-loss products. Law enforcement has yet to catch up to these rogue operators. Until they do, consumers have to protect themselves."

Acai Berry & Colon Cleanse Scam

2009-03-24T11:23:00.004-06:00

I sent out an email to many of my friends and family about this, but I feel compelled to write about it. I, like so many others, have struggled for a long time with weight management. So, when I saw all of the ads about the acai berry and colon cleansing, I was intrigued. I looked into it and discovered that the "free offer" is not what it should be. You have a very limited amount of time to cancel with these companies before you are automatically enrolled in their monthly system. You pay upwards of $80 each for these products, and they bill you on an ongoing basis. From different blogs and articles that I have read on this subject, it also appears that cancelling your monthly subscription is a pain in the you know what. I also found that many doctor's actually disagree with these products, seeing as their hasn't been any competent research done to back up the claims of these companies.
Finally, I was looking at some websites and found that Becky from beckysweightloss.com is also Ann from anndropslbs.com and Ellie from elliesweightloss.com. I also found that Ashley from ashleysweightloss.com is also Anna from annasdiet.com, and Lauren from bestcelebdiet.com is also adriana from adrianasweightloss.com. I only went through a fraction of the sites out there. I bet if I continued I would find that these same people are claiming to be several other people. These companies are not legitimate! Do no waste your money on them! Plus, who knows if these products have long-term side-effects that have yet to have be discovered because there is no adequate research.

Haircuts!

2009-03-15T20:27:00.002-06:00

So my girls got their hair cut by a professional for the first time on Friday (I have always cut it before now). Kaylee's hair was looking ridiculous- almost like a mullet. And Malia's just needed a trim, but I decided to get it cut anyway. Our neighbor, Sara, did it for us. I watch her little 4-year old girl, Ella, a few times a week and she usually pays us about $50/week (I've told her several times that $50 is way too much, but she said it is a lot less expensive than putting her into a daycare). Anyway, Sara offered to do haircuts for us as a way of paying us also, so I decided to let her do it, and the girls look so cute! I will attach a picture soon.

Sick, Sick, Sick

2009-03-02T10:22:00.002-07:00

For the first time in my history as a mom I stayed home from church with all 3 of my kids because they were all sick! Timo has been the worst, though. He wants me to hold him all the time! Well, this too shall pass, right?

Oh- one spot of good news. My sister-in-law found out she was having a girl! She has 3 boys and this is their last baby. So we are all very excited for her.

Balloon Boy

2009-02-22T18:06:00.003-07:00

Timothy, just like my other two, has a facination with balloons. The other day he was determined to push the balloon into the little cupboard at the bottom of our entertainment center. In the act he ended up falling into the cupboard and pinned himself between the balloon and the side wall. Even though he was crying, we couldn't resist taking some pic's.

When he finally fell below the balloon we thought for sure that he would get out on his own but he just lay there crying. We, of course, thought he was throwing a fit (it was late after all and he was getting very tired). Turns that he somehow managed to lodge his fingers inbetween the base and the backer board! I felt so bad for laughing at his predicament, but it's still a funny site.

Sleepy Timothy

2009-02-22T17:45:00.007-07:00

Timothy has developed some random sleep habits this past week. Most of the time he is way grumpy when he is tired, but this week he had a few moments where we didn't notice that he was tired until he had already fallen asleep. The other night Thayne was holding him while we were watching Jay Leno and this is what I saw.

On another day Thayne was busy doing laundry and cleaning and everything and I had gone out to a meeting or something. When Thayne walked in the room he found Timo sleeping peacefully in the laundry basket- blanket and bottle included! (The bottle is against his back in the upper right corner of the laundry basket)

Isn't he CUTE?!!!!

Becoming Millionaires

2009-02-15T19:31:00.002-07:00

Many of you don't know this, but Thayne lost his job at the beginning of January. The news was given to us one week after we moved into our new home. We were frantically searching for something that would pay him enough money to make our house payments. I found an ad on Craig's list and decided to call on it. This ad led us to our new adventure! After a lot of praying and pondering we decided to join Nouveau Riche. We believe that this company, if you follow the instructions of your mentors and listen to the training, has the power to change your lives. If you'd like any information about this company- please let us know. We will blog more about our journey as we go.

Kaylee's First Major School Project

2009-02-15T19:27:00.003-07:00

Kaylee and I spent about two weeks creating her first major school project. We had to gather labels that represented a letter of the alphabet and the glue it onto a page and write the upper and lower case corner at the top. We decided to decorate her cover with little paper letters- the glue got everywhere! But here she is with the finished product.

Dog Food

2009-02-15T19:20:00.003-07:00

So one thing that we figured out very quickly is that we couldn't put Rosebud's dog food or water on the ground. For some reason it is like a Timo magnet and he cannot resist the urge to play in the water (thoroughly soaking himself) and eating the dog's food. It's so disgusting and his breath is really stinky after!

Malia turns 3

2009-02-15T19:06:00.005-07:00

My little (but big) Malia turned three this January. Again, I cannot believe how fast time flies! Thayne and I were very excited near the end of December I had a little talk with Malia about how when she turned 3 she would be a big girl and big girls don't wear diapers. Well, something clicked because the very next day she decided that she was going to go potty just like a big girl and has been doing really well since. We thought that it was almost like her giving us a gift for her birthday! Anyway, back to the birthday celebration. She decided very last minute that she wanted to have a WallE cake- before that it was going to be a "Cinderelli" cake. (I'll post pictures of the cake as soon as I find the adaptor for Thayne's memory card from his phone. We couldn't find the camera, so he took pictures with his phone) Thayne did a great job putting it all together. We had a party with the grandparents a few days before her birthday and they gave her some fun stuff- a princess book, Horton Hatches an egg, another doll, and some other fun stuff. Our party with just our little fam happened on her birthday. We gave her a Winnie the Pooh book that has repositionable stickers to decorate the pages with (she is still my little sticker queen!). She also got a little veterinarian package- it was a little stuffed cat the came in a carrier and had different doctor's equipment with it. She really liked that one.

She was so excited to open her birthday cards, she ended up opening one before we started the party. It was a great day for her.

Christmas time!

2009-02-15T18:49:00.006-07:00

Christmas was really fun in our new home- we could actually put up lights this year! The girls wanted them on all the time and kept plugging them in. Thankfully, our electricity bill was not that high.

Timothy was pretty easy to please, just like on his birthday he was more exctied about the packaging than the actual gift, but he still liked it. We had to wake him up early. The girls really wanted to go into the front room but we had put up the baby gate in the hall so that we could all go in together, but Timo was so tired he slept until 9- even then it was hard to wake him up! He also really liked the girls gifts (always want what's not yours right?)

Malia didn't get a doll from Santa (thank goodness Grandma got her one!) but she did get a bath for her babies, some clothes for her barbies and a lot of other stuff.

Both of the girls got a pair of adjustable roller skates.

All of the kids got two hooded towels with their names on them (the pink thing in the bottom middle of the picture above is Malia's, Kaylee got green and Timothy got blue). Santa also brought them huge wooden letters that were the initials of their first name. They have little hooks on them so that the kids can hang up their coats and backpacks and things in their own special spot.

Tomothy Turns 1!!!!

2009-02-15T18:17:00.009-07:00

I cannot believe how fast the past year has gone by. My little guy turned one! He was very excited about the boxes that his toys came in and the frosting for the cake!

Here are some more pictures of the very exciting event. (I think I was more excited to open the presents than he was.)

Some other news on the Timothy front. He started walking about a week before Christmas- now he is trying to run, but sometimes his feet can't keep up with his head! Also, he started saying Daddy and then Mommy- he really loves to shout it at the top of his lungs. Just this last week he figured out how to go down the stairs. He was very reluctant to try it- he fell down the stairs two times and didn't want to go further than the first step.

Unfortunately he has figured out how to

climb. He figured out how to get up on to the chairs and go from there to the table- we have had quite a few water spills and our cereal boxes are never safe.

One day about two weeks ago Thayne had the ladder out to work on painting the kitchen/front room and he got up to the fourth step! (He was working toward the fifth but we realized where he was and stopped him.

2009-02-15T18:08:00.003-07:00

We had such a fun ward Christmas Party. At all of the tables they had gingerbread houses to decorate. The kids loved it (well, Timothy loved the candy at least). We brought our little next door neighbor- you can see her next to Malia. She is Kaylee's new best friend! The kids also got to have their pictures taked with Santa and his wife. While we were waiting to see them I helped Malia come up with a gift she wanted Santa to give her- a doll . Right after she got off of Santa's lap she asked me why Santa didn't give her a doll! Such a silly girl. Timothy was not so excited about sitting on Santa's lap!

2009-02-15T17:55:00.002-07:00

So I am going to try and post a lot of the things that have happened in the past few months but that I never put on our blog. Shortly after we moved into our new house we got a cute little black lab. Kaylee decided to name her Rosebud (we couldn't figure out where she got the name for the longest time, then one day we were watching the movie Snow Buddies and one of the buddies is named Rosebud). I took this picture one day when Timo decided to lay back and just lounge on her for a minute- Rose didn't even care! Anyway, I just thought that it was so cute I just had to take a picture.

The New house

2008-11-20T21:58:00.004-07:00

So, as I wrote on my first post but haven't posted since, we've moved to a new house. It is so great to have all the room- but my goodness having a house is expensive! And we haven't even made a house or utility payment yet! We bought this house for a great deal, but it is a fixer-upper.
An exciting note: After spending the last two and a half weeks deep cleaning the house I only have one spot left to clean- the built in shelf way up high in our bedroom.

Take a look at this- it is much dirtier than it looks!

The real reason I took this picture was to show you what was up there. That brown thing in the upper middle? Yeah, that is a piece of chocolate with nuts in it, and that is not the only piece, there are several more down at the dark end.

As Kaylee would say- What the heck?!

It Starts!

2008-10-15T22:38:00.000-06:00

So I've finally decided to join the Blog-wagon. I am not sure how well I'll keep it up- we are moving in about two weeks (no more apartment, yeah!!!) and we've been pretty busy packing and painting our walls back to the beautiful "navajo white" aka ugliest color ever (well maybe not ever, but it is probably really close). I hope to update on Sundays, we'll see how that goes. More stuff to come!