Our super, cute hotel room in D.C.

Melissa keeps asking why I haven't put the pictures of our hotel room on our blog. So, here are some pictures of our super cute room.

May 30th... always an adventure!

May 30th has always been an adventure for our family from the very beginning. Today is the seventh anniversary of mine and Ray's first date. (We went on a double date and saw "Titanic" with some friends.) One year later (six years ago from today) I had a miscarriage and we signed on our first home. The next year and the next were also pretty eventful. Every year has had some sort of really fun, or really traumatic happening. This year started out like any other day... We had a play date arranged with our good friends Eliza and Sadie and then I received a call from Ray saying that he was leaving work to go to the hospital with really low blood pressure. To make a long story really short, he is home now and really sick with some sort of bug. Just before Kayla went to sleep tonight I noticed that she has pink eye and I am hoping we didn't spread any germs to anyone today. Fun times. This day is ALWAYS an adventure. I am so thankful for my Ray and for our beautiful little girls. I am blessed.

Thousands of Bikers...

While we were in D.C. we made an attempt to go to the National Mall to walk around. When we got up there we realized that we had made a terrible mistake in our planning. We went up there thinking that we would be able to find a parking spot and were VERY wrong. (we usually ride the Metro in and will from now on) Evidently there was a Biker Rally going on and EVERY parking spot was taken. (Once there I remembered overhearing someone in line the night before talking about a 50,000 biker ride or something... I just didn't realize it was in D.C!) So, we drove around for an hour and a half and ended up just going back to our hotel. Well, this was the story that Melissa and Kayla just told me. Melissa said, "Mommy, you will not believe what just happened. I was driving around my stroller trying to find a parking spot and I could not find a single one! There were bikers EVERYWHERE! Thousands and thousands and thousands of bikers. They were in every spot and even in the grass! You wouldn't believe it! It was horrible. My baby dolls were so traumatized!" During this whole story Kayla was putting in her bit, something, something, "bikers!" Something else, "bikers!" She couldn't believe it either! I guess they were more traumatized about not being able to find a spot to park than I thought!

Money Down the Drain

I overheard this conversation between Melissa and Kayla today. Melissa said, "I put money in the washer. I put money in the dryer. That is just money down the drain, Kayla. Money down the drain!" Kayla said, "oh no." Melissa said, "Yes, money down the drain." !!! What??? It took me the rest of the afternoon to figure out how she came up with that one. Before you jump to conclusions, I will tell you how... She was watching Max and Ruby (a cartoon about a brother and sister bunny) and Ruby had to wash Max's clothes while they were out shopping. She told Max that it was money down the drain. These girls pick up on EVERYTHING! Melissa has been using the phrase ALL day! I love it!

Spontanuity at it's best...

If you are reading this you probably know me and know that I am NOT a spontaneous kind of person. Any time that I try to be spontaneous I have to plan for a couple of days prior to the "spontaneous" occurrence. Well, yesterday Ray stayed home from work for a "mental health" day (which he REALLY needed) and surprised me and the girls while we were eating breakfast. He rang the doorbell while I was talking to him on the phone. Yippee! He didn't tell us he was staying home and we were SO happy to see him. To make a LONG story short, I said that we needed to get "away" for the weekend, he agreed and within an hour we had reservations at a hotel in D.C. until Monday. We ran around for about an hour and packed things up and off we went. I know! We have gone crazy! It has been fun. Our hotel is SOOO nice. It is the nicest hotel that we have stayed in and miraculously, the least amount of money that we have spent on one. Expedia.com is awesome. We book ALL of our vacations through them. I will write more about the hotel later and post some picture. Today has been such an adventure! It started out at 6:30 this morning with everyone in the hotel waking up to the same wake up call... someone burned some toast and set off the fire alarm! What a rude awakening! Literally! We all saw each other how we TRULY are... in our pj's, no makeup, Mufasa hair, etc. Yeah... great. At first I was mad at Ray for not turning off the alarm.. then I realized it wasn't going off at all... Then I realized Ray was telling me to get up and grab Kayla. Yep... fun times! We went to the National Zoo today which was fun. I will post pictures from that too. Tomorrow is Sunday so we will go visit the Temple and do some things around here. I'll write about the rest of the trip later. Being spontaneous is fun!

The CRAZY House

Today I needed to completely clean out the playroom so I took a couple of things and made a new little play-house behind the love seat so that the girls could have a new, exciting place to play. Well, Melissa said, "Mommy. You are CrAzY!" To that Kayla added, "Our Crazy house!" Then it all became one. "This is the CRAAZY HOUSE!" So, I sent my girls to the crazy house... at an early age.

Melissa LOVES Ballet!

This is a video of Melissa's dress rehearsal and before and after her ballet recital. We have a video of the actual performance, but I could not figure out how to download it onto one true media. So, if you live close, I will show it to you sometime. She was INCREDIBLE! They danced to "I'm a Little Teapot" and she LOVED IT! She wasn't scared and did all of her moves really well. We are SO proud of her!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Painting with Dandelions...

So, yesterday the girls did a bunch of cute things... I didn't realize it until I was looking at the pictures that I took. This is a picture of them "painting" with dandelions. They asked me if they could paint on the easel that is on the back deck. I told them that we could later in the day so Kayla (being the smart girl that she is) started dipping the dandelion that she was holding in some water and "painting" the back of the easel. It was SO cute! I have very crafty, creative girls!

Making Poppa-sicles...

Today the girls made 'Poppa-sicles' to take out to Daddy who was working hard in our garden. They were SOOO yummy! Kayla has a sun allergy, so our outside time is limited to short intervals and poor Ray was left outside to do almost all of the garden all by himself. (wipe tear) We did get to go out last night for the seed part. We FINALLY planted the green beans, peas, corn, carrots and some more peppers. The tomatoes and some other peppers have been in the ground for awhile. It was good to have a Saturday without rain! On the back deck we have some yummy peppermint, some parsley, strawberries, and some other type of herb that I don't know the name of. Ray likes it though! So, slowly, but surely we are getting the garden going. Tomorrow we will plant the cucumbers and a few other things. Yippee!

Remembering Susan

Time goes by SO fast. 12 years ago today my cousin died in a car accident. I did not realize how much time has gone past until I took a minute to pull out her picture and remember all of the memories that we have from childhood. She was my best friend and I still miss her terribly. We grew up together and when she died I felt like I was loosing a part of myself. She was pregnant with a little boy who she and her boyfriend (Brian) planned to name Caleb. He died also. Brian had several injuries, but fully recovered and is now married. As an additional kick in the pants, the person that hit her and Brian's car was a friend of mine from high school named Scott. I have a lot of regrets from my relationship with Scott. He asked me out on a date EVERY day for 2 years and I NEVER went out with him. I wish I had... Lucky for me, I know what happens after we die and I found (and find) great comfort in that knowledge. I am so thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and for the knowledge that it gives me of our loving Father in Heaven and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Susan Melissa Shuler 2/27/76 - 5/17/96

Ballet Class

This is our Melissa as a "Teapot" with her ballet class. Her recital is on Friday and the theme is "Toys on Parade." It should be fun and of course I will post a video and pictures Saturday or Sunday. She LOVES ballet!

The Sleeping Fairy

A few weeks ago I decided to implement the "sleeping fairy" for Melissa's bed time. The sleeping fairy came during the night and left little treats by her bed IF she fell asleep all by herself - meaning, Ray and I did not need to be in her room. IT WORKED! She has gone right to sleep EVERY night since then. It is getting expensive, but it is well worth it. So, a couple of nights ago we told Melissa that the sleeping fairy would only come if she could stay in her bed the WHOLE night. She was a little worried about that and asked for more details. I don't know if it was Ray or me, but one of us explained that is she did not come into Mommy and Daddy's bed the WHOLE night then the sleeping fairy would leave a treat by her bed. The first night I woke up around 5AM to find Melissa sleeping soundly in our doorway. She was literally half in our room and half out!! Last night I woke up at 2:30 to find her curled up asleep on the floor at the foot of our bed! It is adorable! I don't mind. We just pick her up and put her back in her bed... At least she isn't in ours! I LOVE the sleeping fairy!

Silly Girl!

Kayla absolutely LOVES to make us laugh. The other night she put on these silly glasses and went around making silly sounds and trying to get us to laugh. She is SO funny!

Just like Mommy

Melissa LOVES to put curlers in her hair anytime I do. This is from the other day. Isn't she cute?

Super Daddy-O

So, Ray is seriously my hero. His name in our house is now "Super Daddy-O, Defender of the girls!" A few days ago I looked out my bathroom window (which is upstairs) and could have sworn that I saw a snake in the pool. Knowing how often I "think" I see snakes I talked myself out of such a ridiculous idea. I decided that I was seeing things. Well, today before nap I looked out the window again and saw a black curly thing on the side of the cover... I was still in denial and talked myself into believing that a strange, twisty piece of trash had somehow managed to get into the pool. (This is how desperately I wanted there to NOT be a snake in the pool!) So, after nap I looked out the window again and my WORST outside fear was looking up at me... I am not kidding, they were looking up at the window! There were TWO snakes "sunbathing" in the pool! AHHHHH!!!! One was laying there happy as can be and the other one was moving around, saw me, and froze... like it wasn't really there! I have never moved so fast in my entire life! I scooped up Kayla, RAN down the stairs (which is quite an accomplishment considering I am wearing my glasses today and my depth perception is off!) and went outside to tell Ray to get them out of there and kill them. Some of you may not know my Ray. He had NEVER killed anything in his life before he met me. Poor guy, since marrying me he has killed several fish, some mice, spiders, some flies and heaps of ants. So, asking him to kill a snake was almost out of the question... ALMOST. I told him that me and the girls would no longer be going into the backyard if he just tossed them into the woods behind the fence. Lucky for me, he believed me and went about trying to get the snakes out of the pool. You may be laughing and saying that snakes won't hurt anything and really, I DON'T BELIEVE YOU! My heart literally stops when I see snakes. I start breathing funny and I "wig" out as Ray says. So, laugh, lecture, I DON'T CARE! This is turning out to be a LONG story, so I will just say, Ray killed them and the backyard is "safe" again! (The whole time he was "taking care of business" the girls were jumping up and down saying, "Yay Daddy-O! Get them, get them!)

Good Friends

We are so blessed to have such good friends. Yesterday I had to go to the ER for some dizzy spells that I have been having and initially was a little worried about having to take our 2 girls with us. I knew I would be there for HOURS and I knew they would be bouncing off of the walls. I called Eliza and Sadie's Mom and she openly accepted Melissa into her home. (she offered to keep Kayla too, but Kayla is sick and hadn't been on her antibiotic for 24 hours yet, so I couldn't do that to their family!) They took such good care of her and she was pretty disappointed when Daddy came to pick her up! At one point Eliza's Mom said that I wouldn't be there until late and Melissa asked if she could sleep with Eliza. Her mommy said yes and Melissa in return said, "Oh, thank you. Thank you for the sleepover!" She LOVES big-girl terms like, "sleepover!" So, a big thanks to Eliza and Sadie's family for taking such good care of my little one! (BTW, the doctors found NOTHING wrong with me at the ER and are sending me to a Neurologist!!! ARGH!) *Side Note* I was just going through Melissa's bag and found that they even did arts and crafts! WOW! That is awesome!