We’ve had a great month.  We drove up to see Rob’s mom a couple weekends ago, and while we were there we got to see the kids’ godparents, Rachel and Casey.  We haven’t seen them since we left Idaho, so it’ was a wonderful visit.  There are some pictures of that weekend in the Main Picture Gallery.  Casey leaves for boot camp tomorrow, the 24th.  So we’d like to say “Good luck, and welcome to the Marine Corps family Rachel and Casey!”.

This weekend I had the opportunity to meet two of my clients.  I drove up to Ventura, CA which is 3 hours north.  I finally got to meet Mia, at www.caramiamakeup.com.  I had a facial, manicure and pedicure.  I felt like I was queen for the day.  If you live any where near Mia’s studio, you really should check her out.  Otherwise, you can click the link from above and you can go visit her website.  She’s got great skin care products and makeup!  Thank you Mia for a wonderful day!

After my spa experience, I drove to Beverly Hills and had dinner with dear friends of mine, Gary and Wendy.  They’ve been clients of mine for almost 4 years, but this was the first time we’ve ever met in person.  We ate at an Italian restaurant one street over from Rodeo Drive.  I didn’t see anyone famous, but had a wonderful time having dinner with Gary and Wendy.  I also met one of their friends, Dana, who was also an absolute delight.  There is a picture from my dinner last night in the Main Picture Gallery.

Our Marine Corps Ball is coming up, November 4th, and Rob and I are getting very excited.  This will be a chance for me to meet the guys he works with, and their wives, so I’m looking forward to it.

Well, that’s it for now.  Drop us a line and let us know how you’re doing!

Well we made it to California, most of you know that already.  We’ve been here for about a month and we’re loving it!  The weather here is fabulous, in the 70’s every day, no rain at all!  I feel like we’re in heaven.  The house is wonderful, we’ve almost got everything unpacked.  I am still working on painting the interior of the house, bright colors of course, and it’ll probably take another month or two before I get it all finished.  Damian loves having a backyard again, he’s constantly outside playing in the yard and riding his bike.  He’s making friends with the neighbors!

Rob is finally checked in at work, and he loves his new job.  He’s the boss of a bunch of marines that out-rank him.  I think he’s very excited in his new position.  He will be leaving in February for Warrant Officer school, he’ll be gone about 5 1/2 months.  The kids and I will more than likely stay right here in California while he’s gone.  We’re not sure yet, but probably fairly soon after Rob returns from school he’ll end up shipping out on a 6-month float with his work.  We’re not looking forward to him being gone for almost a year over the next year to year and a half.  But, we know that’s the life of a marine and we’ll make it work.

Damian is going to Children’s Christian Academy here in Oceanside.  He seems to really be enjoying his new daycare, and loves his teachers. We have a nanny that comes to the house each day to watch Kadence, since she’s still so young.  Our nanny is great with Kadence.  Michelle (our nanny) brings her 8 month old son over every day, and Kadence seems to really enjoy the company.

Life is getting somewhat normal around here.  We’ve been to LegoLand, San Diego Zoo, and San Diego Wild Animal Park.  Rob’s mom and brother are coming to visit us this weekend and we’re very excited about that!

Make sure you check the gallery, we’ve added a ton of new pictures today!

Has it really been two months since I updated this website?  I am sorry for taking so long to get back to it, but hopefully you understand that having 2 little ones takes alot of your time!!!!

We’ve had a busy late spring/early summer.  In the last 2 months we’ve been visited by Rob’s mom, Rob’s Dad, my Dad, my StepMom, my Mom, and 3 of my sisters (Catie – 12, Sarah – 11, and Jamie – 8).  We also took a trip up to Northern Idaho to visit with Rob’s Dad and StepMom.  We’ve been to the Boise Zoo twice, Chuck E Cheese, the Carnival here in Boise, drove to the Oregon Coast for a few days and visited the Bonneville Dam, Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, Wax Works Museum, Undersea Gardens, Oregon Coast Aquarium and the Portland Zoo.  We also attended a God and Country Rally here in Boise and got lucky enough to see fireworks in Arlington Oregon on our way home from our trip to the coast.  We’ve had a wonderful time, see many great things, and most importantly enjoyed all the time we had to share with our family.

We were supposed to be moving to California in August, as the Marine Corps decided to relocate Rob… but we just found out yesterday that I’m going to have to have some surgery in a week or two and due to that we’ve asked the Marine Corps to give us a 3 month extension on our move, so that I have plenty of time to recover here before the move.  The doctor says it’ll take about 12 weeks before I’m in good enough shape to make a move to another state.  Don’t worry, the surgery isn’t for anything too serious, I’m having my right foot operated on.  I crushed my heel in a car accident back in ’96 and the foot didn’t heal correctly causing some deformation in my heel/ankle.  So, they are going to drill a hole in a bone, cut a nerve out and bury that in the bone; they are going to shave off a large chunk of the back of the heel so they can try and get it better shaped; they’re going to take a piece of my bone from the front of my right leg below the knee, and put that in my foot; and lastly they will put 2 screws in my heel so they can fuse the joints together.  All of this is in an effort to save the foot, because it has started to essentially fall apart from all the trauma, but this should alleviate most of the pain.  I’ve already lost about 70-80% of the mobility in that foot from the wreck, I will lose a bit more but it will be worth it to deal with pain.  I should be going in for surgery in a week or two, will be in the hospital for 3 days, then non-weight bearing for 6 weeks, then in a walking cast for 6 more weeks.  All is expected to go well.

One of these days I’ll have the time to redo this website, give it a new look and make it for both kids instead of just Damian.  But in the mean time, I have added over 100 new pictures to the website of the kids!!!  Check them out.  We also added a flower/nature gallery, be sure to check it out!

Kadence Is Here!!!  Kadence was born at 1:44pm on Wednesday, April 20th.  She weighed in at 6lbs and 10oz.  She is 20″ long.  The delivery went very smoothly, and quickly.  From the first push she was completely born in 10 minutes.  After her head was born the doctor had me wrap my arms around her and pull her the rest of the way out myself, and pull her right up to my chest.  That was INCREDIBLE!  She cried out for a few seconds and them opened her eyes and looked up at me.  Once I started talking to her she stopped crying and just stared at me.  Rob was able to cut the cord.  Everything went perfectly!  We came home from the hospital yesterday evening, about 30 hrs after she was born.  Nobody got any sleep last night, but we’re all doing well.

I’ve added over 50 pictures to this website this morning, some of Damian during the last month or so, and many of Kadence, click here to view them.  We’ll get more photos added as soon as we can.

Take care everyone, we love you all.

We’ve had a very exciting week.  We moved last Monday into our new apartment, and we’re almost all unpacked now.  We really like living in Boise, we are now much closer to the things we do so it’s working out very well.  Damian was a bit unsure of his new environment at first, be he’s adjusting well now.

On Monday I started having some really strong contractions, so the doctors office had me come in so they could monitor me.  I was having what appeared to be pre-labor, so they sent me back home on bed rest since I was only 34 weeks along.  Then yesterday we went back in and they decided since the contractions weren’t stopping, it was time to see how well our baby girl was doing.  So they decided to do an amniocentesis to check to make sure I didn’t have any infection and also to check Kadence’s lung maturity.  The test was painful, but it was quick.  Good news, I don’t have any type of infection, and Kadence’s lungs are more than mature!  They are now thinking we are actually further along in our pregnancy than what they thought, by about a week – which is what we’ve been trying to tell them anyway!  So, after finding out that Kadence is pretty much ready to be born, they decided to go ahead and remove my cerclage (stitches in my cervix).  This was also a pretty painful procedure, but it too went quick!  I have been taken off the medicine that was supposed to help stop my contractions, and I’m also finally off of bed rest.  They would like to see Kadence wait for another couple weeks to be born, but since everything looks so good they’ve given her the go-ahead to come whenever she’s ready.  I have a feeling that now that she is able to be born, she’s probably going to change her mind and want to hang out for a while longer.  Damian did the same thing so it wouldn’t shock me for her to do it also.  I was having some good contractions yesterday after those procedures, but they have disappeared.  Things seem quite normal right now, minus some pain from having the cerclage removed.  Rob was there to watch them do the amnio and the removal of my stitches and he handled it all very well.  I was the one who almost passed out, and I figured it would have been him!  If Kadence isn’t here by Monday, then we have a check-up Monday to check on her growth and just make sure everything still looks good!