Planet Capra

Months of Blog Neglect

2011-11-02T15:37:00.001-06:00

I know I've been neglecting my blog for quite some time now, but I promise I have a good excuse! A few actually! First of all, I'm more than happy to announce (as if everyone didn't already know) that we had baby #4! Joshua Michael Capra was born May 28th, 2011. He was 7 pounds 6 ounces and I can't imagine him being any sweeter! He's always smiling and always content. If he isn't sleeping, eating or smiling - he's sucking his cute little thumb. Yeah - we finally got ourselves a thumb-sucker. :) It doesn't bother me - for now - since he is SO good at self-soothing, but I know that little thumb is going to be an issue later!! Katie is still sucking her two middle fingers every now and then and I don't know how to break her of it! Anyways - I can't believe Joshua is already 5 months old! Time is going by so very fast and it makes me so sad! The kids all seem to be growing up too fast and I can't make time slow down! I need more time! Speaking of needing more time with the kids, I need to get this post done, so I can get back to them! :)

So the last time I wrote, it was mid-May or so and a lot has happened since then, so here's a quick recap! Quick...HA! :)

May
- My Dad drove my Mom and Grandma down from WA State and then flew back home the next day (poor little Daddy always having to work).
- Celebrated my Mom's birthday - even though the poor thing was sick for one week straight! It was so sad - she seemed to feel worse knowing that she had come down for the sole reason of helping me with the house and kids before and after baby #4 and I ended up having to help take care of her (and Grandma too since my Mom usually does everything for her). Seriously though - who can help getting sick? Silly Mommy!
- Jason's brother Mike came down to visit on the 14th to go crab fishing with Jason (since he was still TDY down in southern CA and only a few hours away). We celebrated his birthday too (although it wasn't much - just some boring white cupcakes, but hey - it's the thought that counts right?!)

Kristin and Katie with Uncle Mikey on his birthday, MooMee on her birthday and a random picture of the kids in their swimming pool

- Spent a good chunk of time going through stuff and throwing things out (to get ready for our upcoming move - since I knew I'd be busy with the new baby soon and probably wouldn't have as much time on my hands)!
- Thankfully my Mom had come down - because I ended up getting sick too for a couple of days. Ugh. Even if I hadn't gotten sick - she was such a huge help with all of the laundry and cooking! Thank you Mommy!!
- Jason's Mom and Mike both arrived on the 27th in the hopes (and after much prayer) that Joshua would come that weekend while they were both visiting.
- I went into labor early the next morning, got ready, left the house (with Jason, his Mom and my Mom) and checked into the hospital around 730am on the 28th with light contractions every 3-4 minutes. The nurse had trouble getting my IV in, so after she left the room (to find an anesthesiologist to help her), Jason jumped up and put it in right before the nurse and anesthetist returned. :) He's good at what he does folks...he's good at what he does... :) I don't know what I would have done without my two mommies! :) My Mom killed her wrists rubbing my back during contractions (while I leaned over the end of my bed) and Jason's Mom prayed and talked me through everything. Who needs a doula or mid-wife when you can have these two wonderful women on your birth team??!! :) Thank you Jesus that He gave me huge breaks between the contractions! I dilated to 10 fairly quickly and pushed the baby out pretty fast as well - all without an epidural! Yay! I'm 3 for 4 so far! I'm not quite sure why I just said "so far" because I feel quite content with 4 kids - mostly because Caleb became more than a handful after I found out I was pregnant with Josh! Yikes! He's more work than the other 3 combined!! Lucky for him - he's a cutie and he has his sweet moments...so I still love him. ;) I am amazed at God's awesomeness!! Everything went SO smoothly!! I had so many answered prayers!!! One being that I'd have no pain (unbearable pain anyways), the labor and delivery would be fast and the baby would be healthy. Another being that we'd have someone to watch the kids while we were at the hospital (thank you Michael!!!!!!!!!). The last being that Jason's Mom, Mike and my Mom would all be there when the baby came. I mean seriously - it was so obvious that God was at work! Jason's Mom and Michael were ONLY going to be in town from the 27th to the 30th and I wasn't due until June 7th. I had Joshua on the 28th and still had a couple of days to visit with Mom Capra and Mike before they left. Thank you Jesus!!! My first night and next day at the hospital was so much more comfortable with my Mom there with me - doing everything for me of course (including midnight/early morning diaper changes)! She took such good care of me and she didn't even complain about her wrists hurting from all of that massaging she did during labor! ;) This was my Mom's first time being at the hospital for one of our babies being born, so she was running on adrenaline! Jason's Mom has been my personal mid-wife for 3 of 4 births (she would have been there for all 4 if Katie hadn't come a day earlier)!

Jason putting in my IV/contractions, pushing and delivering Joshua Michael 7lbs 6oz

Me and Joshua Michael/Jason's present for Joshua/Me and my OB doctor and nurse

Meeting Joshua Michael


Grandma Christie, Grandma Capra and Daddy with Joshua

- Uncle Doug, Gala and their girls came down to visit the day I got back from the hospital, so they could meet Joshua and visit with Jason's Mom while she was here.

My welcome home banner/Pictures with Mommy, Great Grandma Jackson and Daddy

Caleb and Joshua

June

- One week after Joshua was born, we drove 3 hours south (with my Mom and Grandma in tow) to visit Uncle Doug and Gala, so we could see them and their kids one last time before they moved away to South Carolina. Mike drove up from southern CA and met us there.

The girls with Jason, Uncle Mikey and Cousins

- Watched a couple of movies at the drive-in. The easiest way to watch a movie with kids! Is CA the only place that still has drive-ins?? They need to make a come back!

- My Dad flew back down to visit for a week before bringing my Mom and Grandma back home. I'm so grateful to him for sharing my Mommy with me for SO long! Thanks Daddy-man! I wish you had been able to stay with us the whole time too!

- Went to San Francisco one last time with my parents. I'm pretty sure I've had my fill of San Francisco this past year in CA. I should be good for a while. :)

-Jason's sister Rachel delivered her 2nd baby on June 14th - Phoebe Joy Lee (a.k.a. Starfish). She's such a cutie!! Thankfully, she came a couple weeks early - because Rachel was her sister Sarah's matron of honor and she was originally due July 2nd on the day of the wedding!

-Went out to tea in Menlo Park with my Mom, Grandma, the girls and Joshua while my poor Dad stayed home with my animal child Caleb. Sadly, the headed back home to WA after our tea party was over.

Joshua and his silly Grandpa Neil

Time for Tea!

Joshua's first bath/Time with Mommy and Big Baby Kristin

Last day of gymnastics in CA for Kristin and Katie (that's Kristin coming down the gym rope - after reaching the ceiling!)

- Flew from CA to VA for Jason's sister Sarah's wedding. It was a tough thing to do with a new baby, and our upcoming move, but we couldn't miss it! I still haven't gotten over missing my only sister's wedding (which I couldn't go to because of a mandatory college course that I couldn't miss for graduation), so I've made sure that we've never missed weddings since then!

July
- Sarah married Robby Johnson on July 2nd. It was a beautiful ceremony and Sarah looked gorgeous! Kristin was overjoyed to finally be a flower girl. She has been waiting for quite some time now! :) I remember her being sad that she wasn't in her Uncle James' wedding 3 years ago and I remember her asking her Uncle Joe (when he got married 2 years ago) if she could be a flower girl at his wedding and he said, "Aw...we already have a flower girl. Maybe you can be Uncle Mikey's flower girl when he gets married." She was heartbroken. Poor little big baby! :) Well - the wait is finally over Kristin! ;)


Taking Sarah out for drinks and appetizers a couple nights before wedding (Angie and her sister Christy, Me, Danielle, Mommy Capra, Dillon, Rachel and Sarah)

Joshua meets his little cousin Phoebe (see why she's nicknamed Starfish?)

Caleb's first haircut with Daddy

Kristin the Flower Girl/Tiny Twig was slightly disappointed that she didn't have a pretty dress to match (poor thing)/Sarah - the beautiful bride - right before the wedding

Misc pictures before the wedding

Wedding ceremony

Dillon, Joe and Josiah/Joe, Mike, Josiah, Jason, Josh, Mark and Caleb/Family picture with Mike :)

Kristin and Uncle Jake/Jason, Mark, Joe, Josh, Caleb and Josiah/Capra Family minus spouses/Sarah and her sisters

After-wedding photos

Reception (I didn't get as many pictures as I'd hoped since I was so busy socializing...and dancing!) :)

Danielle at AE and Joshua with Grandma Capra

- After the wedding, we spent a few days visiting with family in VA until the 7th.

- Jason and I celebrated our 33rd birthdays on the 8th and 10th. Eek! Yikes! Sheesh! Where did all the time go?!?!

- Jason's brother James' wife had their baby Nina Ruth Capra on the 14th. Nina became Jason's parents' 13th grand-baby (4 grand-babies in one year!)

- I spent the rest of July setting up our move and getting the house ready while taking care of the kids. Jason was also TDY in Maryland for an acupuncture course the last week we were in our house (which meant the movers were coming while he was gone and I had to do it all alone with the 4 kids)! Yikes! Luckily for me, I have a wonderful Mom who knew I could use some help (without my asking) and she drove down to help me the last week before we moved. She's so sweet - I don't know what I would have done without her! I was really sad to see her and my Grandma leave - they were such a big help our last couple of months in CA. I miss them! :(

- Jason finished up his fellowship on 28 July! He's finally finished with 13 years worth of school and training!! FINALLY!!! Jason and I went out for drinks and dancing that night to celebrate while my Mom stayed in the billeting room with the kids. It was so nice to be able to spend some time alone with him - that doesn't happen often!

August

- We left CA for FL on the 1st, the same day my Mom and Grandma left for WA. Our first stop was in Las Vegas at Nellis AFB. We drove 2 cars, so it was slightly rough - but it wasn't too bad overall. Kristin was a huge help with Joshua. She seems so much older for her age! Older than I remember being at 7 (almost 8)! I can't believe I moved to Turkey when I was her age!! I don't even think I understood why the heck we were moving to a place that sounded like a poultry product!!

- The next morning, we left Nellis for Michael's house at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico. He was such a good host! He was so excited to have visitors coming that he paced his living room for 10 minutes before we got there! He's too funny! :) He has always been the one to visit us and he has visited us quite a lot these past 5 years and this was our first time coming to his house to stay! We stayed 2 nights and he took such good care of us! He made homemade lasagna, garlic bread and salad the first night, a big breakfast the next morning, up a mountain for lunchtime site-seeing and pizza for dinner. :)

Visiting Mike in New Mexico

- From Mike's we drove on to Aunt Shelly and Uncle Jim's in Dallas to visit for a couple of days. Oh how I miss being able to visit them every couple of months!!! It was so good to see them!!! I wish we lived closer!! Unfortunately while we were there, Jason's Grandma was in the hospital for some issues and I'm sad that we didn't get over to the hospital to see her. We didn't know she was doing so badly and would soon pass away only a couple of weeks later. I've never been more happy for someone to pass away though. I know I'm wording that ALL wrong, but I don't know how else to say it! I just mean - I've never known anyone more ready to go home to Jesus than Jason's Grandma! For the past few years, she would always mention it at least once when we'd go up to visit Aunt Shelly's house - and we visited quite frequently! She was ready to see Jesus and also Grandpa Capra - who had passed away when Jason was only about 10. That's a long time to have been without her husband! I just know that she is much happier now - but who wouldn't be happy to be in God's presence for all eternity (and no longer have to deal with physical pain, sorrow or disappointment )?!

- We finally arrived at Eglin AFB in FL on the 4th. I think it's great here! I'm glad so many people had so many bad things to say about this area (before we moved here) because I was prepared for the worst and ended up being pleasantly surprised! It's like a laid-back beach town with a lot of local places, but then it's also big enough that it has all the usual places I've become accustomed to...like Target, Walmart, mall, some chain restaurants (Chick-Fil-A included - yay!), a nice-sized church with a lot of groups and activities. The gym selection is somewhat sparse (they must think all the locals run on the beach for exercise or something), but I've found a gym with 2-hr per day of childcare, exercise classes and a hydromassage table - so I think I'll be okay. ;) I'm also happy to be back on a full-functioning base with a huge commissary and BX. It makes such a huge difference!

- The kids and I met Jason's colleague, Scott, for dinner our 2nd night here and he was great! Jason actually knew him during his residency in San Antonio, but I had never met him til now. He took us out the following weekend on his boat and we spent some time at the beach watching all of the kids play in the sand.

Spending the day at Crab Island with Scott and his kids

- While I was out and driving about one day on base, I noticed the street sign that was named after Jason's brother Tony (since he was stationed here a few years back). It's just around the corner from the EOD building. I pulled over and had the girls jump out to take a picture. I knew I probably looked weird and a little suspicious, but I did it anyways. My suspicions were confirmed when I didn't even have a chance to pull out of my parking space before a base police car beeped his siren at me. Two of them got out of the car and made their way to my door. Ugh. They said, "We couldn't help but notice that you're taking pictures and there's a small part of the flight line that may be in your line of sight." I felt awkward and said, "I knew it would look weird taking pictures of a street sign. The sign is named after my husband's brother who was killed in Iraq." They both seemed to be at a loss for words and all they ended up doing was backing away in a bowing-type motion as they repeated, "Fair enough. That's understandable. Fair enough. We're sorry." Aw... poor guys - they were just doing their job.

The girls under Tony's street sign/Misc pics of the kids and Joshua in our Florida room. :)

- We traded in Jason's tiny roller skate-for-a-car-Yaris for a Hummer 3. Yikes! What a huge difference in gas mileage!! It's a good thing the hospital is only 4 minutes from our house! But when I think about it that way - it doesn't make sense that he has a car at all! He should have a little moped or maybe ride a bike! ;) I guess he does have to drive off base to jiu jitsu a few nights a week and maybe a work dinner here and there. But still... Oh well - I actually really like it. It's much better than what he originally wanted - which was one of those 2-seater sports cars...I didn't want him to look like he was going through some kind of mid-life crisis or anything... ;)

- Thankfully, we were offered a house on base at the end of the month. Of course Jason was out of town for a week-long oral board prep course to get ready for his oral boards in Sept. I'm glad he had a chance to get better-prepared, but sheesh! That boy is never home! The movers delivered our household shipment while he was gone. It went more smoothly than I imagined it was going to with Jason gone and me alone with all of the kids. It then took me about 3 weeks or so to get some walls painted and everything in its place. Last year it took me a month to get settled into our house in CA, so I'm excited to have shaved a week off my time - and with an extra kid too! :) I'm starting to get tired of moving all of the time! We moved 3 times in four years when we were living in Texas and then we moved to CA for only one year and now here we are again! I'm excited that we'll be staying put for the next few years!

Sept

- Got Kristin and Katie signed up for their gymnastics classes, piano lessons, Awanas group and our home-school co-op group.

- Jason took and passed his oral boards for anesthesia, so he's now officially board certified and also done with studying!! Yay!

- Jason's brother, James, surprised us with a visit...after he figured out that he was TDY at Maxwell AFB, AL and only a couple of hours away from us! We were able to visit with him a couple of weekends in a row while he completed some 5-week course.

James visiting/First day of homeschooling - 3rd grade and Pre-K for Kristin and Katie (Caleb didn't want to be left out)

Misc pics of the kids/Caleb has an obsession with lining his cars up in all sorts of patterns. :)

Finally finished with unpacking, painting and decorating - it's old and not much to look at from the outside, but it feels cozy inside and it's WAY easier to clean up a one-story house (that's all that matters)! :)
Living Room/Florida Room (off the formal dining room we don't use)

The girls' room/Caleb's room (he's got it all to himself for now)/Master Bedroom and Bath

Kitchen/Laundry Room/Dining Room/Hall Bath/Florida Room/Back porch and front entrance

October

- James' wife Tish decided to fly in from Italy with their new baby girl to visit James while he was in Alabama, so they could visit family and introduce their new little baby (since they won't be able to come back for Christmas). Their daughter Nina is adorable and has a full head of hair! Lucky! :) Anyways, they stayed with us for a couple of nights. It was so nice to see them - nobody sees them much since they're always living overseas in places like Germany and Italy. Hmph! So spoiled! ;)

Caleb meets Nina/James and Nina/Caleb with Uncle James and Aunt Tish/Kristin and Nina

Caleb and Jason getting haircuts (Caleb loves getting his haircut)/Another misc picture of Caleb and his cars/Kristin and I with Kristin's newest idea of fun - making Cake Pops (which she wanted to make for her Awanas group)

Misc pics of our little cutie patootie Joshua/Pics of the adorable quilt that Joshua's Grandma Capra made for him

- I've also found a bible study group and a MOPS group (both with childcare) at our church. I'm so excited to finally get involved! I've always wanted to be in a bible study and join MOPS, but we've always lived so far away from our church, so it has always been a bit difficult to get up in time and get all the kids together. Now we're only about 10-15 minutes away and the boys wake me up early, so I have plenty of time to get ready. :)

So that's all we've been up to so far. For now, we're keeping ourselves very busy with a tight schedule of home schooling, the gym, gymnastics, piano, Awanas, home school co-op, bible study and MOPS to name a few. I am also patiently (as patiently as I can anyways) awaiting the news as to whether my friend Laura will be moving here with her family in July or not. I'm really hoping they get stationed here! I miss my L-poo! I know Florida is 2nd to their 1st choice - which is Hawaii, but I can't imagine why they'd want to go there... I mean who in their right mind would choose Hawaii over ME??!! ;) Hahaha!! God's in control, so that's all that matters. I'm just not very good at waiting... :)

I'm sure I'll have more to write about in November - especially since this is the first Thanksgiving that Jason's parents and 4 of the kids are coming to visit!! I'm so excited...and just a tiny bit nervous about preparing the whole Thanksgiving meal myself - especially since the most I've ever cooked for is us and Jason's brother Mike!! Eek! I've done it before, so I know it's doable - but I hate that I don't have much practice with all of it!! Thanksgiving only comes once a year, so that doesn't give me a whole lot of practice with rolling out pie dough and all of that turkey-roasting stuff! We've been other family's guests a lot of times, so I don't even get practice every year, so we'll see how this goes... My Momroo better prepare herself for a lot of phone calls for help!! ;) Maybe I should just fly her here, have her make it all for me and then take all of the credit for it! Hmmm...I wonder... ;)

Has it really been over 3 months? Seriously??!!

2011-05-07T15:19:00.024-06:00

Wow!! I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by since I last posted something on here. I'm afraid there's just no hope for me people. I'm obsessive compulsive about A LOT of things, but blogging apparently isn't one of those things! ;) Well - I guess it would be pretty sad if I was obsessed with being on the computer constantly blogging, so I guess it's a good thing that I'm so lazy when it comes to keeping up with this thing. I'm still sorry though - to have failed all of my many many readers out there...so please accept my most sincerest apologies...all one or two of you... ;)

Okay - now that the excuses and apologies are out of the way - I'll get on with it! :)

So February came and went fairly quickly...as did March and then April. I'm trying to remember if there was anything significant that happened, but nothing comes to mind (but then again I have pregnancy brain), so you'll have to excuse me while I consult my planner... Okay - I'm back! So...let's see here. Why have I been too busy for blogging?? What all have I been up to?? Hmm...not too much. Curious. Nothing out of the ordinary. Well - this is just sad. Okay - let's get this over with. Here's a quick rundown to get you all up to date on whatever it is we've been up to...however little and unexciting it may be... ;)

I've been keeping up with our usual routine of home schooling, gymnastics, going to the gym, resolving fights and arguments between the kids (mostly Katie and Caleb), changing poopy diapers, grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking and OB appointments - while Jason works, goes to the gym, goes to jiu jitsu...oh and goes out of town for conferences and TDYs. ;)

February

- Much to my embarrassment, I watched the newest season of The Bachelor on ABC. It's a shameful habit of mine. Luckily I always miss a season here and there, so that makes me feel a little less guilty about it... ;)
- Had our own mini Superbowl party and we ended up with a lot of finger food leftovers...
- Caleb decided he was ready to pee on command. He still can't control his bladder when wearing a diaper, but he can force himself to pee on the toilet by grunting. He's very proud of his manly accomplishment...although it doesn't seem so very manly for a little man to be sitting on the toilet instead of standing. Jason must not be around enough to give poor Caleb some pointers... We'll figure it out one of these days... ;)

Misc pictures from February - Kristin showing off her mega blok giraffe/Superbowl/Jason and Caleb doing some yoga stretches (hahaha)/Caleb on his potty and Katie showing off an art project from the gym kid-watch place

- I bought a real sewing machine (the kind you wouldn't find in a high school home economics class anyways) and I love it! I bought it from a local quilting/sewing/fabric store (WAY better than your average Joann Fabric chain store). This store offers a ton of different classes - for the newbie sewer/quilter to the extra advanced sewer/quilter. In February I took a class to learn how to use my extra special sewing machine - which was a prerequisite to any other classes I'd want to take. Since then I took a quilting class in March and a sewing class in April. I thought I'd squeeze in some learning before I pop this baby out and have even less time (if that's even possible) for hobbies! It was SO much fun! Now I don't feel as intimidated about starting quilting/sewing projects on my own! Yay!
- Kristin also started a young sewer's club this month. She goes to one class a month where they learn and put together a new project. It's so cute to see her so excited about having a hobby!

24 weeks preggers (if I remember right)

- Celebrated Valentines Day with a giant sugar cookie and surprises for the kids. Kristin being the sweet daughter that she is - made us some paper flowers, a sweet card and spent her hard-earned allowance on a $6 box of Almond Roca for her Mommy and Daddy. She's such a cutie!

Valentines Day 2011

- Luckily for me, Jason agreed to start going to a physical therapist after I found him a therapist and made him an appointment. He's been having back pain since before Christmas and I couldn't handle the grumpiness anymore! It has helped a lot - he just recently had another episode, but I think the therapy is still helping. It isn't fun when your hubcap is grumpy and in pain!
- We celebrated Caleb's 2nd birthday on February 19th. He was very excited about eating cake and opening presents. Greedy little boy. ;) Since he has been obsessed with Disney's Cars for quite some time now, I thought it might be worth the HUGE hassle of decorating a Lightning McQueen cake (instead of going the easy route with cupcakes). It was exhausting!!! It took about 3 hours! 3 hours may sound horrible to most people, but I'm happy to say that I've shaved 3 hours off my usual cake decorating time of 6 hours. No - I'm not joking. I decorated my very first cake (something other than a sheet or circle cake) for Kristin's 1st birthday (an Elmo head) and it took me a whopping 6 hours! Yikes!! Anyways - I'm hoping to one day take a few cake decorating classes at Michaels, so I can figure out what the heck I'm doing wrong!! ;)

Caleb's 2nd birthday

March

- Jason went out of town to Las Vegas again for another conference. This time he was able to meet up with his brother James who's there for a few months for Weapons School at Nellis AFB, so that made Jason's trip to filth-hole Vegas more worth it. I'm still trying to figure out how Las Vegas has become a "family-friendly" place to bring/raise kids... I'm SO glad I was only there long enough to be born and then wait around a few years for my sister to be born! I really don't have any desire to visit (let alone live) in Vegas...not for a long time anyways...
- While Jason was gone on this trip - I was lucky enough to pull Kristin's 4th loose tooth...shudder shudder. I hate loose teeth! It brings back so many bad memories of having my own teeth pulled! I don't know why, but it always used to bother me A LOT! Ouch!! My worse tooth-pulling memory is of my Grandpa (normally my Dadroo was the one to pull all of my teeth, so I'm not sure how my Grandpa got this assignment!) tying a piece of dental floss to my loose tooth and then tying the other end to an open door and then slamming the door shut with all of his might and my tooth flying in the air!! Eeeeeeeek!!!!! Not one of my favorite memories!! ;)

Misc pictures from early March - Caleb/Jason and Caleb/kids in the girls' barbie jeep/Katie showing off her puzzle skills

Kristin with another missing "toof" :)

- I mailed Jason's sister Rachel a box of some of the girls' old baby clothes - she's only a few weeks behind me with her 2nd baby girl, so I thought I'd mail her some clothes for both of their little girlie girls. I'm thinking this may be our last baby, so I may end up mailing Rachel the rest of the girls' other clothes (except for maybe a favorite here or there for memory's sake).

Some old baby girl clothes. How did the time go by so fast? :( And Caleb sitting at his favorite table in the living room. :)

- Jason's brother Mike came to visit us for a weekend in March since he was in the area on TDY. He always seems to be the uncle who visits us the mostest. :) He ordered us our usual King Kong pizza and then I had the privilage of watching Mike make Jason drink too much sake whilst watching the Last Samarai with Tom Cruise. They had to take a drink every time they heard the words samarai or sake... and they ended up sharing a whole bottle! Ugh. The thought of drinking that much makes me want to throw up! Blah!
- We also took a trip up to San Francisco to walk on Pier 39, munch on some yummy food, gaze at scary Alcatraz and breathe in the stinky sea lion air.

Mike visiting

Random day feeding some crazy ducks who showed up on our doorstep out of nowhere! There isn't a pond nearby or anything, so I'm not sure why the heck they might have been wondering around in the neighborhood...but the kids loved it!

Celebrating Jason's brother Tony's birthday with some cupcakes with homemade frosting made with real butter (one of Tony's favorite foods...wait butter isn't a food is it?) ;) We love and miss you Tony!!!!!!!!

- We celebrated Katie's 4th birthday on March 20th. I cannot believe she is already 4!!! I just can't figure out how time seems to be slipping away on me!!! I'm thinking of getting rid of the majority of the things in our house, so I can spend less time cleaning and more time focusing on the kids before they grow up and leave the house! I can't handle time going by this fast - it freaks me out! Oh - before we lit the candles on the cake, we called everyone into the dining room. Jason called Caleb down saying, "Come on! It's time for Katie's birthday!" Of course, Caleb came running while yelling, "Yay me!!!!" He's such a greedy little boy! ;)
- The Spring Equinox was also on Katie's birthday and we thought we'd test out that whole egg- standing-upright-thing at a specific time during the day...me and Jason could NOT get our flippin' eggs to stand up straight, so we gave up after 15 minutes...but guess who didn't give up... That's right...Big Baby!! She kept trying and finally got the egg to stand up! She's always trying to outdo us! ;)

Kristin was more persistent than Jason and I were and was able to get her egg to stand up. Little Miss Overachiever... ;)

Katie's 4th birthday

- Spent much of March buying things here and there for baby #4...I don't know why buying new things for each baby is so exciting for me. It's almost exciting as when I started baby shopping for Kristin...almost... :)

April

- Went to Santa Cruz for the day with Jason and the kids. I think I would have had more fun if I wasn't sick with food poisoning from the night before. Ugh... Still - I was able to enjoy most of the day (except for when I had to make a quick stop on the way to throw up for 5 minutes in a nasty gas station bathroom - ew ew ew ew ew!).

My quilt and Jason's pajama pants that I made in my quilting and sewing classes

Kristin showing off her projects (pillow case, flower pin cushion, backpack and tote)

Trip to Santa Cruz

- Jason and I celebrated our 14th Anniversary. Yay us! ;) We got a babysitter the following Friday and went out to a Turkish restaurant to celebrate our Turkish romance/wedding... :) My Momroo and Dadroo went a little crazy and bought us $800 brand new dishes from Crate and Barrel for our anniversary present, but I felt it was just too ridiculous for them to be spending that much of their hard-earned money on us, so I forced them to take it all back! I take all the credit for having saved my Dadroo from a mini-heart attack of some sort. ;) They're too sweet - I'd say it's the thought that counts, but they did more than just think about spending that much money - they actually did! Yikes! I think they think a little too much of us than they should!!!! ;) Love you Mommy and Daddy! :)
- We finally found out that we'll be moving to Eglin AFB in Florida August 1st. It was either Florida or Alaska. As much as I would have loved to live by close friends in Alaska, I was pretty nervous about the cold weather and feeling of isolation! Although I'm sure (based on all of the wonderful things I here about Alaska) that I would have loved it there. Maybe next time we'll heading out to Alaska! For now - I'm looking forward to warm weather (not the hurricanes, big bugs and alligators though) and being closer to Jason's family! Yay!
- We remembered Tony's bravery and ultimate sacrifice on 9 April. This marks the 3rd year since Jason's brother was killed in action in Golden Hills, Iraq. There honestly isn't a day that goes by when I don't think of him and miss his many many phone calls. Thankfully, he left behind a part of him in each of his 5 children. We love and miss him SO very much!!
- Jason's brother Mike came up to visit for the weekend to take us crab fishing with him (since he's only 4 hours away in southern CA for a couple months on TDY. See I told you he visits us a lot! ;) We went to a Stanford baseball game and got another King Kong pizza... :)
- Mike came out again the following weekend to go crab fishing again - this time I stayed home with the crazy kids and Jason went with Mike (they caught 3 crabs and brought them home to cook and eat - it was kind of scary and just a little gross to cook live crabs...especially in my own kitchen, but they were yummy!). He also celebrated Easter with us the next morning before heading back home.

The kids taking turns getting swung around the living room by Uncle Mikey/The girls and Caleb on Easter morning

Easter 2011

- Much to my disappointment, Caleb got his first haircut this month. Jason sort of did it without my consent. Sniff sniff. I'm really not a fan of curly locks on boys, but I wanted to wait until he grew a little more hair on the top of his head, so he wouldn't look so bald! Why does it seem like he already has a receding hairline?!?! He never even had much hair to begin with! Wah! Anyways - he still looks like a little cutie to me, so I guess it wasn't that big of a deal... ;)
- Jason was out of town for almost a week in April - this time he was in Maryland for an acupuncture course. He'll be going again for another week-long course in both July (a few days before we move) and then he'll finish up the course sometime in September. By the end of it he'll be certified in Acupuncture and can treat patients with some alternative pain management techniques. He sure leaves a lot doesn't he? ;)

-Kristin and I finished up her 2nd grade curriculum on April 29th, so we have a long summer break ahead of us! Yay! I wanted to finish a little early, so we could have some kind of break before Joshua comes. We did a few double lessons here and there to make it happen and it was SO worth it! It's nice to be able to relax and not worry about having to work on lessons with a newborn baby. Ahhhhh... Now when we start up 3rd grade, the baby will be about 3 months old. :)

May

- Now that we know where we're moving, it feels more official - and so begins my crazy psycho routine of going through the whole house looking for things to sell, donate or throw out. I have 4 weeks left (hopefully 3 God-willing) of this pregnancy, so it seems like a good time to purge the house of junk - who knows how much time I'll NOT HAVE after the next baby comes!!! I can barely keep up with the 3 kids I already have! There's no telling how little I'll get done with 4 kids - especially with one of those 4 being so tiny and helpless!! Yikes!! It's a scary thought! ;)
- I pulled yet ANOTHER one of Kristin's loose teeth while Jason was in Maryland! So far I'm winning at the tooth-pulling competition...Tricia-3 teeth vs. Jason-2 teeth! ;) Our other competition is baby eye color. :) So far the girls both have blue eyes and Caleb has brown, so we're waiting to see whether we're going to tie or whether I'm going to win with 3:1! I'll keep you posted on the results when they become available...around 6 months from now!! ;)

Me at 35 weeks (3 May 2011)/Kristin with one less tooth

- My Dadroo drove my Mom and Grandma down to our house overnight last night after he got off work and they just arrived this morning after 12 hours of driving (how sweet and exhausting is that?!). My Daddy-man is flying back to Portland tomorrow and then he'll be flying back here 7 June (hopefully Joshua will have already arrived by then!) and then they'll head back home a week after that. Ah...it's nice to have help! I feel relaxed already!! Yay me!! ;)

That's it for now folks! I tried to keep it short, but it's sort of hard to do that when I let this thing get SO far behind! It's just ridiculous I tell you! I'm curious as to when I'll be on here again. Hmmm...probably not before the next baby comes (based on my long history of blog slacking), so I'm not sure how long it will take before I'm able to do anything besides taking care of 3 animals whilst caring for a new baby milk hog (not to mention moving on top of that!). We'll see... Who knows! I may surprise everyone - including myself!! ;)

The Ultrasound Is In!

2011-01-27T21:13:00.009-06:00

21 weeks (1-25-2011)

So for the past few months, everyone had been asking me which sex I'd prefer baby #4 to be. It's a question I REALLY don't like answering because if I were to say one thing...and get the opposite...I'd feel SO horrible!! Of course there's always that little voice in the back of my head that says what I think I'd like, but it's really all up to God and since He's the one with the plan - of course I would be happy either way!

Way back when - I had hoped my first would be a boy, so he could take care of his siblings (since I was the oldest growing up, I always felt a little tom-boyish having to stand up for my little sister, so you know...). Obviously, I ended up having Kristin first and I can't imagine not having had her as my firstborn! Then for the 2nd, I had hoped for another girl so the first two could be friends (even though I didn't really care either way because it took SO long to get pregnant the 2nd time around!) and out came crazy Katie. After that, it was time for some boys! ;) For the last two, I had prayed ahead of time (with each one) that if it was within God's will, it was the desire of my heart to have a boy. So then there was Caleb (a.k.a. Dogbone)...and now...we just found out that baby #4 is also a boy! Hooray for 2 and 2! It feels like such a nice even number. :)

Joshua Michael

Ultrasound Tech (with Filipino accent): Oh boy...
Me: It's a boy?
Tech: Yes - it is definitely a boy! Look at that - he's right at 12 0'clock! Now that's a boy to be proud of!!
Kristin: It's a pickle!!
Me (with bright red face): Hahahahahahaha!!!!

Before we found out that #4 was a boy, I was thinking 4 kids might be it for us (of course I'd still be open to whatever God has planned...I'm just sayin'). ;) But now that I know baby #4 is a boy...I'm getting a weird feeling...the feeling like I'd like another baby girl somewhere down the road! What in the heck is wrong with me?!?! I went out looking for 2 yr old clothes for Caleb...and the only thing that kept jumping out at me was one adorable baby girl outfit after another!! Sheesh! Not that it's all about clothes, but it just got me thinking. Maybe that's my problem...I need to stop thinking! ;) So that's all I have to say about that - either I'm crazy...or God has a funny way of letting me know that I'm not finished yet! ;) Hey! I know what you're thinking!!! But you're wrong! I'm not crazy!! Just tired...very very tired... ;)

Crazy Busy!!

2011-01-01T23:00:00.003-06:00

So I usually get on here (every few months or so) with the usual excuse of being extremely busy yada yada yada... This time it's no different - only this time I've had the added busy-ness of a lot of visitors, traveling and of course all of the holidays in between! All in all - it has been a VERY busy and fun 2+ months and I am completely exhausted!!

So first of all - we have big news...many of you already know - since my Christmas newsletters went out before I had a chance to update my blog - that we're expecting our 4th baby! Yay! We found out October 1st! Luckily Caleb (our third) didn't go into total animal mode until after we found out I was pregnant, so I didn't have a chance to second-guess whether I was ready for another baby. ;) It has made me question whether I can handle any more babies though. Since I was pregnant with Caleb, I thought I wanted 6 kiddos, but...I'm wondering now if 4 might be just the right size. Enough to make me go crazy, but not tooooo crazy. That's what I'm thinking anyways. :) I just want to make sure we can give the four kids we have enough attention. Time has been flying by so fast - I don't want to be so crazy and insanely busy that I miss all of our kiddie-poos growing up years!! :( We'll see. I'm more than willing to go along with whatever God has planned for our family, so I'm not worried about it. I'm just saying'...for now - 4 sounds nice to me. :)

Uh-oh...What just happened?? ;)

October
- Jason left for another weekend conference/workshop - this time in Denver.
- Started and finished the first season of Glee on netflix. I love netflix. :)
- Uncle Doug, Gala and kids came to visit the weekend Jason was in Denver. The following afternoon, we left all the kids home and went to a yummy Mongolian restaurant where Gala and I enjoyed watching Uncle Doug sweat (most profusely) from all of the spicy food. ;) Mmmm...spicy food... :)
- Jason's sister, Rachel, flew in with her sweet little baby girl Charlotte to visit for a week. It was lots of fun! Lots of cackling episodes...in between long stretches of nauseousness (on my part). Ugh... But I tried not too be too annoying (as far as whining and complaining goes). We watched a lot of netflix movies, went to a couple of restaurants, the mall (gymboree in particular), a Christian bookstore and Pier 39 in San Francisco to walk around a bit and eat lunch at Bubba Gump...Mmmm. I was sad to see my little midget girl go. :( Back to school and the usual...

Our visit with Rachel and Charlotte

At Pier 39

- After Rachel left, the kids and I finished out the rest of October up in WA State where we visited with my Mom, Dadroo and Grandma. We stayed for about 2 weeks while Jason worked through a wretched 2-week rotation at the hospital where he was either working, on call or being paged every 5 minutes all day and all night for 2 weeks straight. Blah! I felt so bad for my family since they had to listen to me whine and complain (and gag every now and then) our entire visit because I was extremely nauseous the whole time! Surprisingly the kids did really well on the 12 hour trip! I was nervous driving that far without Jason, but the kids were easy on me! Thank you Jesus! :)

Ahhh...I know I'm almost there when I start getting into all of the beautiful scenery!!

At the Pumpkin Patch with Grandma Christie...alas there were no good pumpkins good for picking though...

We warmed up later at Chuck E Cheese's for dinner and games.

The kids were all dressed up to go to Haleluia Night at my parents church (the one we used to go to when we were going to college in Portland), but for some weird reason they changed the date to the following week, so we missed it. :( Oh well - they still enjoyed dressing up...except for Caleb apparently... ;)

While we were there, I had to (gulp) pull one of Kristin's loose teeth!! Eek!! I would have let it alone and let Jason deal with it when we got back, but her gums were all red and inflamed, so I had to do something! It wasn't as horribly nasty as I thought it would be, but it still gave me the heebie jeebies!! ;)

My Mom and Grandma took me and the girls out to Tillamook, Oregon to have tea at La Tea Da. It was fun and really yummy!! Meanwhile, my Dad took Caleb and went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory for a few rounds of free cheese samples. :) We also made sure to stop

While we were in WA, we had the privilege of watching my pro-bowler Dadroo bowl on his bowling league (well okay - he's not REALLY a pro-bowler, but he's dang good!! It's not uncommon for him to get scores in the 260s-290s. 298 has been his best score so far...300 being the highest score possible! Yeah - he's that good. :)

November
- Left my parents' house after Jason's horrendous hospital rotation was over.
- Jason and I were disappointed that the hospital didn't give their employees the day off on Veteran's Day. He has decided that he will be going in to work on Martin Luther King Day in silent protest (since they are given that day off). That's just what he's been saying anyways. ;) Both days are important days to reflect on and appreciate - I can't believe Veteran's Day wasn't seen as important enough to have the day off. Tisk tisk. :(
- My Mom, Dad and Grandma drove down for one week to go to Disneyland with us for 3 days, celebrate Kristin's 7th Birthday an celebrate an early Thanksgiving dinner together. Jason (of course) went to another workshop - this time in Arizona, so luckily for him he missed the 6-hour drive down to Disneyland. My parents, Grandma, the kids and I went to Disneyland the first day by ourselves while Jason was in Arizona and then he flew into Orange County that night and took the shuttle over to the Disneyland Hotel where he met up with us and then he went with us to Disneyland for the last two days. It was lots of fun - and much to my surprise they had already decorated the whole park for Christmas!! Yay!

1st day at Disneyland!!

Daddy made it!!

Day 2 at Disney on the Finding Nemo Submarines

Waiting for our reservation at Goofy's Kitchen

Goofy's Kitchen...a lot of the characters were missing since it wasn't a busy day, but we got a lot of attention from the few characters that were there, so that was fun. Only they visited us so much - I didn't end up eating a whole lot...which made it seem even more expensive than it already was since I didn't get my money's worth in food (which saved me some calories...I suppose...) ;)

Meeting Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder and Buzz Lightyear

Fake snow falling at the end of the fireworks display

So pretty...if only my camera was better at capturing it (or maybe it's just the photographer...)

3rd Day at Disney - meeting Pluto and Tinkerbell and friends/Dumbo ride

Spending a little time over at CA Adventure

Bye Disneyland! See you in the summer when we're on our way out of California!

Early Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad

Celebrating Kristin's 7th Birthday - I can't believe how fast the time has gone by!!! My big baby is getting SO big SO fast! :( (Unfortunately, my camera battery died and I had to use my phone camera for the rest of her pictures...definitely not as nice...)

- The same day my parents left, Jason's brother Jake came out to visit us over the Thanksgiving break. Over the 4 day weekend, we went to Stanford, did some shopping, ate my Mom's Thanksgiving leftovers, went to San Francisco, tailgated and went to the last football game of the season, watched Tangled at the drive-in theater (which was really cute BTW) and got Jake a much-needed haircut at Jason's favorite barber.
- Praise God my nauseousness ended around Thanksgiving - if that's not an answer to prayer - I don't know what is!! Pregnancy is much more enjoyable when you're not feeling terrible! :) And I am very thankful it only lasted about 4-5 weeks! Whew!

Spending some time over at the Stanford campus with Jake - mostly so Jason and Jake could get some filmage for Jason's next running/dancing video... :)

In San Francisco to do the same old same old...Pier 39 view of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge, seal watching, window shopping and lunch at Bubba Gump. :)

December
- Took family pictures with the self-timer, so I could have something to send out with my Christmas cards. It didn't make for an enjoyable afternoon... Jason was grumpy by the end of our "session", Katie couldn't take it anymore and Caleb made a run for the fountain between every shot...and got dirtier and dirtier by the minute! We will definitely be having our pictures done professionally next year!! :)

This was as good as it was going to get... ;)

Caleb and our first ultrasound picture of baby #4! :)

- Jason went to ANOTHER conference/workshop...this time in Las Vegas. It's too bad Las Vegas has to be so trashy. It has so much potential. It's so pretty (at least at night) and it almost seems like an adult-version of Disneyland (or something equally far from reality), but then it has to have that trashy component thrown into it. Jason said there were so many posters of half-naked women every where you look and then - if that wasn't enough - there are also crazies on the street shoving flyers in your face (literally) of half-naked women. It's just sad...and gross. I've heard over and over again that Las Vegas has become so much more family friendly over the years (which I'm sure it has), but literally shoving sex-related material in people's faces hardly seems family friendly to me! Yikes! The only good thing that ever came out of Las Vegas was my sister's and my births at Nellis AFB!! :) Other than that - I'm happy I didn't have to live there past the age of 4!!
- Got an early Christmas present from Jason...a new treadmill!!! Yay!!!!
- Finally found a babysitter and went out alone (for the first time since we've moved here) to Jason's Christmas party. It was a lot of fun to finally meet all of his co-workers. I can't believe it was the first opportunity I've had to meet them. I'm not sure why they never had a "Let's get to know your family" party at the beginning of his training! Seriously - we've been here for 6 months already!
- Raced to get Christmas cards, pictures and newsletters together and out in the mail and all of the cookies baked while keeping up with home schooling, the kids and the house. Christmastime really shouldn't be an exhausting time of year - at least I don't like it to be! I need to come up with a better plan for next year, so I can focus on the real reason for the season! :)
- Jason had a week of leave, so we drove up to WA State together with the kids and celebrated an early Christmas with my parents and Grandma. We HAD to - we hadn't had a Christmas with them since 2000 and none before that since before we were married in 1997! Horrible - I know! :( I'm most disappointed with myself though for not taking enough pictures - I'm always a little lazy when it comes to picture-taking when I'm visiting family...because I'm too busy visiting! I'm always sad later though when I realize all of the picture-taking opportunities I missed! :( Wah!

We pulled up into my parents drive way to find they'd actually put up lights!! I don't remember my Dad putting up more than one string of lights in one window when I was growing up, so this was a lovely sight to drive up to! :) Good job Dadroo!

3-day early Christmas with Grandma Christie, Grandpa Neil and Great Great Jackson!

- We got back home the day before Christmas Eve and Jason was paged within an hour or so of us walking in the door. Boo!
- We spent Christmas Eve evening looking for/buying James and Tish' Christmas presents (since they're our Capra Christmas partner this year) and luckily they just happened to be in CA visiting Tish' family for Christmas this year, so we postponed our Christmas and they drove up the morning after Christmas and we celebrated together.
- Spent Christmas Day cleaning up the house and grocery shopping at Safeway for our day after Christmas dinner with James and Tish. Spent that night preparing lasagna and cheesecake, so I wouldn't have to waste time in the kitchen while they were here visiting.
- Celebrated our little Christmas with James and Tish (and her Daddy) the day after Christmas. It was so nice to see them - we don't see them much these days since they're always stationed in faraway places...like Germany and Italy... Spoiled brats! ;) Anyways - I'm disappointed YET AGAIN because we did not take any pictures when James and Tish were here! Maybe because it was only one day and we were so busy with presents, food and visiting. I did get one picture of James, but then I got annoyed that my camera kept taking blurry pictures, so I stopped and then forgot to try again later! Argh!

Christmas Day - opening Grandma and Grandpa Capra's presents and Aunt Shelly and Uncle Jim's presents.

The one lone picture we got of James (and a blurry one at that) opening one of our presents to him. The only evidence I have of Tish and her Dad being there is her knee and his foot on the left side of the picture! Dang it!

- James and Tish left the next morning and we went about the rest of our week as usual - work, school, etc. Then we drove down to Uncle Doug and Aunt Gala's house Friday afternoon to celebrate New Year's Eve with them. We had fun ringing in the new year with them, their kids and their friends...well - at least me and the girls did. Jason and Caleb couldn't handle the fun and they past out around 930pm. Tisk tisk tisk. ;)

So that's where I am now...spending New Year's Day at Uncle Doug's typing away on this blasted laptop whilst pondering my New Year's Resolutions. Of course - I have too many to count, so I'm going to have to go for now, so I can start working on narrowing down my list of impossibles. Don't want to let myself down too much this year, so I'm going to need to keep it somewhat simple. God, marriage, kids, health, family and friends, hobbies. There - that's my rough draft...now I'll have to go and elaborate on it somewhat. ;) Happy New Year everyone!!! I pray you all have a wonderful and blessed year ahead - full of happy memories!!! :)

Visitors, School and Football Games

2010-09-29T15:30:00.022-06:00

Hey there! I thought I'd get on here and post something in less than two month's time! Aren't you so very proud (and astonished) with me?! ;) I'm trying to be more consistent. That and I feel like we've been so busy since we've moved here and we're going to be even more busy the next 3 months with birthdays, holidays and visitors. I'll try to keep up with our busy-ness, so I don't end up writing a long rambling monster post three or four months from now! You know what kind of post I'm talking about...the long rambling kind that strike fear (and boredom) in even the bravest of souls!! ;) So here we go!!

August 23 - we picked up Jason's sister, Sarah, from the airport. She flew out from Virginia to go to her marine boyfriend's (Robbie) graduation from some linguistics school about an hour south of us. We had a couple of days with her before he came and picked her up and drove her down to Monterrey to spend a few days with him and his parents. The day he picked her up, I realized that I had met his parents before - Jason's Mom and I used to go to bible study with his Mom in Turkey and his parents both came to Jason's and my wedding! Man - I felt horrible when I said, "Nice to meet you" to his Dad...and his Dad quickly responded, "Oh - we've met before...at your wedding." How embarrassing...but hey! It wasn't my fault! The wedding details were so overwhelming and I was really busy...and embarrassed to have so much attention all at once. When I went outside to say hello to his Mom, I recognized her right away. See! I haven't lost it altogether!! ;)

Katie and Caleb at the hair place where Sarah was getting her hair done. This is where Jason always goes for his haircuts and the kids LOVE it here because the employees give the kids unlimited lolipops! Maybe I should have them pay for all the cavities they're going to need filled! ;)

August 27-29 - Jason went to Baltimore, MD for a weekend conference. His Mom had planned on driving 1.5 hours with a couple of his little sisters from Virginia to visit him for dinner on one of the nights he was there, but Jason's Grandma past away and his Mom had to fly to Florida for the funeral. :( Jason will never say, but I think he was really bummed out that he was so close to his parents' house and didn't get to see anyone. His Grandma had had Alzheimer's and dementia for a few years and all of the sudden her health seemed to deteriorate recently and she finally lost the will/energy to eat anything. Jason and I never had many opportunities to visit with his grandparents too often because we've always lived so far away, but I'm sad that I couldn't have been there for Jason's Mom. I felt so sad for her. :( It's times like these - when I hate living so far away from family. :( I hate not being there to support and encourage family and friends during hard times and I hate not being there to celebrate happy times - like holidays and birthdays or when our someone gets engaged or has a baby. :( It really stinks to miss out on everything! At least we haven't missed any weddings, but still! I hate living so far away from the people I love - because I miss out on everything!!! :(

So anyways, while Jason was gone, I spent the rest of the weekend searching for tailgating gear to use for the upcoming football season at Stanford. I also finished up the rest of the Army Wives seasons on Netflix while Jason was gone (so he wasn't there to witness the hours of my life I wasted away while the kids slept) - I can't wait until the 4th season comes out on DVD because I spent the whole last season getting caught up on the first 3 seasons!

During this time, my cousin Derik came down from Oregon with his daughter, girlfriend Tracey and her son to do some traveling along the Oregon and California coast. They stopped by one day for a couple of hours to say hi, so we could catch up while the kids played together. I can't believe how long it has been since I've seen him! I think the last time I saw him, I had just had Kristin!
We don't make it up to Washington and Oregon very much, so we go years between visits with family - it's horrible! Anyways - it was a great visit! Derik's kid and Tracey's kid were so sweet! I wish we lived closer to them - because I would totally hire her son to babysit my animal children! He was so great with kids! Especially Caleb - who wouldn't let him leave his sight! Sure he was only 12, but he was the most mature 12 year old I'd ever met - especially for a guy! Man - we really need to get out...does anyone know a good babysitter I could borrow? ;)

Avery, Kristin and Katie/Tracey and Derik/Me and Derik/Devon and Caleb

I've also continued my plan to make new recipes...but I think I'm going to switch back to cooking healthier recipes again because ever since I started cooking out of normal unhealthy-type cookbooks, I've gained 3-4 pounds. Coincidence?! I think not!!! ;) Since I'm SO tired of any of my old healthy cookbooks, I underwent a mad search for healthy cookbooks on Amazon until I came across two that looked REALLY good and had amazing reviews! I just received them both, so I'll get started on some of the recipes. If they turn out to be as good as everyone says they are, I'll reveal their titles...if you're looking for a good cookbook with healthier recipes!

Kristin with one of her two favorite recipes so far...Breakfast Bowls and Gumbo

Robbie brought back Sarah after their weekend in Monterrey came to an end and she stayed for another week before heading back to Virginia. Did I mention they also got engaged as well? Yay!! I'm so excited for them! They've set a date for July 2, 2011 - I guess I'll have to start looking up ticket prices! Can anyone recommend a good website for buying tickets and how far out is the best time to buy? I don't ever seem to buy at the right time and I'm SO tired of it!!!

Top: Robbie and Sarah - newly engaged! Bottom: Caleb loved spending time with Robbie!

A few days after their first visit, my cousin Derik and his girlfriend Tracey and each of their kids stopped by again to say hi on their way back up to Oregon. We went out to the closest deli place and bought some lunch (that was way overpriced I might add) and brought it back to our house where we had a picnic across the street at the park. We visited and let the kids play for the next 3 hours or so and then they headed out.

Devon and Caleb (thinking he's all grown up and making guy friends) ;)

Sept 3 - Jason's brother, Mike, came out to visit for the weekend while Sarah was still here. That afternoon, we went out for lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant, Cafe Yulong. Mmmm...yummy! We've been there quite a few times now since we've moved here. We never did find a favorite Chinese place while we were in San Antonio, so we've been making up for lost time - not that I need the extra calories!!! Eek! ;) That night for dinner - as if we needed any more food, we went out for pizza and Jason couldn't resist getting the largest pizza he could buy...the King Kong size pizza with pepperoni and jalepenos!! It was HUGE!!! And really yummy!!! It was really good - I don't know if it beats the taste of our favorite pizza place in San Antonio, but it's close! Later that night, Jason Uncle Doug (who lives 3 hours south of us) and two of his kids came up to stay a couple of nights, so they could go to the football game with us and also visit with Mike while he was here.

Caleb is reunited with his Uncle Mikey/Mike and Jason with the world's largest pizza box - the pizza place had small, medium, large, x-large...and King Kong...guess which one Jason had to buy... ;)

The next afternoon, we hosted our first tailgating party prior to our first Stanford football game! I bought way too much food...and then Uncle Doug bought even more (I guess he wanted to make sure we didn't run out)! ;) Sarah's fiance was also able to make it back before we left the house - the more the merrier!!

Our first time hosting a tailgating party...Success!! :) L to R Top Row: Mike and Uncle Doug, Jason/Uncle Doug/Mike, Uncle Doug and Mike L to R Middle Row: Jason and Mike, Me and Jason and Robbie/Sarah/Katie L to R Bottom Row: Me and Kristin, Kristin and the twins Jackie and Sophie and Me and Jason

First football game of the season at Stanford!

Caleb and his Uncle Mikey after dancing with the Stanford tree mascot...and some wolf-man-thing

Early the next morning, we took Sarah and Mike to the airport for their flights back home. Uncle Doug and the girls headed back home and I spent the rest of the day cleaning up the house and also visiting next door at the neighbor's birthday party.

Sept 8 - Spent all day cleaning and getting things ready for my parents and Grandma's visit. We also went to a nearby park to let the kids feed giant ducks and play on the playground. As we were leaving the pond, we noticed a huge sign that said, "PLEASE DO NOT FEED WATER FOWL." Oopsies...

At the forbidden duck-feeding pond and playground

We also found this war memorial in the middle of nowhere at the park. It had an emblem and some wording for each branch of the military. I thought it was nice...

Sept 9 - my parents and Grandma arrived for their week-long visit. Not as long as their usual 3-week stay that they used to do when they'd visit us in San Antonio, but that's okay. My Dadroo had to get back to his demanding job. Boo! Oh well - it was a great week and I loved visiting with them! The girls were crushed when they left. Kristin was the most upset over their leaving. She cried and cried...and then cried and cried some more later on. It was so sad. :( Just another reason I hate living so far away from loved ones! Argh!

Caleb spending some quality car-playing time with his Grandpa Neil and having a hard time warming up to Great Grandma...or even Grandma Christie for that matter! I don't know why, but he is much more willing to go to boys than he is to girls...it's as if he knows who really appreciates a good car or ball... It's really funny! By the end of the visit, he had finally warmed up to Grandma Christie and Great Grandma.

We spent most of the week visiting at home and going out to yummy restaurants. Chinese one night, 2 nights of Turkish food and one night of pizza...King Kong-sized of course! My Mom cooked on two other nights - Turkish food one night and teriyaki skewers and watermelon another night. A couple days before they left, we tried a partial tailgating BBQ before a Stanford soccer game, but we ended up leaving halfway through the game because it was so cold out and we forgot extra jackets and blankets. :( We spent the day in San Francisco on one of Jason's day off - where we ate at Bubba Gump's. Mmmm... It's no surprise that I gained 4 pounds during this visit. Ugh. Oh well - it didn't take long to lose it afterward. I'm just not used to eating that much yummy food in one week's time! I'm usually only somewhat bad on the weekends...not the whole week! But when I'm visiting or on vacation - I somehow lose control! Eek!

In San Francisco with my Mom and Dadroo

Watching the soccer game after a little tailgating BBQ

We spent a good chunk of my parents' visit at home and a lot of our visit involved staying up late watching movies or playing games. One of those nights, we played monopoly. One by one people started to either lose or drag themselves off to bed...which left only me and my Dadroo...who of course beat me in the end. I was perplexed...how could I be losing so badly?! How had he become such a monopoly master?! I later figured out that he had been playing monopoly since he was in elementary school! He said he and his friend used to play almost everyday!! I didn't have a chance of winning!!!! By the end of the game, I only had only 4 properties left and no money. Sheesh Daddy-man! You need to go more easy on me next time!! ;) Hahaha!! Oh well - he seemed really excited about having such unbeatable monopoly skills. He's so cute!!

Dadroo - the monopoly master/Caleb spending time with Grandpa Neil

Sept 15 - My parents and Grandma headed back home much to Kristin's disappointment. Poor poor Kristin. I was sad enough as it was to see them go - it only made it worse seeing Kristin so sad!!! :(

Time for some going away pictures (Can you find the picture where my Grandma cut my Dad's head out of the picture? Not because she's crazy mind you - but because the sun was in her eyes and she couldn't see the camera screen.) ;)

After my parents left, I spent the next few days getting back into our normal routine...which included some much-needed gym time, gymnastics and getting ready to start school! :)

Sept 18 - we had our own tailgating party before watching our second football game. It was a little more difficult for Jason and I to set everything up and watch the kids at the same time, but we still had a good time and then enjoyed watching Stanford win another game.

Our little tailgating party before the game

Sept 20 - We finally started school! Yeah - we started almost a month after everyone else in the school district did, but I didn't feel like starting school when I knew we were going to have so many visitors back to back. Even with the late start and holiday breaks, we'll still be finished by mid-May, so I'm not worried about it. I love being able to make our own schedule!! Just one of the many reasons I love home schooling!! :) Sure it's stressful and I don't get time to myself like I would if my kids were away at school, but the pros of home-schooling far outweigh the cons!! Yay for home-schooling!! :)

Me and Kristin/Kristin and Katie (Katie doing pre-K work)/an apple that Kristin gave to me on our first day of school - is she cute or what?!/Me and my little women

We surprisingly started up our schedule of after school activities...so far we've made a pinecone bird feeder (that no bird will even come near - dang blasted ungrateful birds!), I talked Kristin how to thread a needle and stitch (which she loved by the way), she made a birthday card for one of her aunts and we went to the Palo Alto Jr. Museum for our first field trip. By the first day of school, we figured out that in order for us to not go crazy when we're doing school, we'd have to start waking up REALLY early, so Kristin and I can work on school before the younger two wake up. Then by the time they wake up, we'd be done and starting on our daily activity. So...that's what we did the first week. After Jason left for work at either 530am or 6am, I'd stay up and take a shower, read my bible and then Kristin and I would eat breakfast and then we'd start school. I don't know what happened the 2nd week, but for some reason we weren't getting up as early, so we ended up doing a lot of school with Katie and Caleb awake - which makes the whole school day last even longer because of all of the distractions and interruptions. Hence - we didn't have time to do our projects this week, but we plan on getting back on schedule next week, so we can enjoy our school day more and have more time for fun projects afterward.

Defintely wasn't our favorite activity so far - maybe it would have been more worth it...if some flippin' birds actually ate it!!!! Ungrateful birds!! ;)

Kristin also started riding her bike without training wheels a couple weeks ago! It's so sad that she hasn't had the chance to learn sooner! She had a bike in San Antonio, but it was always so hot out that we never really wanted to go out unless it was to a water park or under some shade somewhere, so she just never got around to it. :( Then we got rid of her old bike because it was too small for her and then we only just bought her a new bigger bike about 3 weeks ago. Jason decided it was time to take off the training wheels and off she went! She did it without us even running behind her. She's only fallen (quite gracefully) a couple of times and that's it! She's a natural! It was a lot like potty training. We didn't start early, we just waited until she could understand what we were trying to say to her and she did it within a couple of days! Who cares about meeting big milestones at the same rate as everyone else?! Well...I still do somewhat, but really in the big scheme of things - who cares?! :)

We went to a women's soccer game last weekend - Stanford vs. University of Portland (Jason and his brothers' James and Mike's Alma mater). Much to our surprise - UP lost!! We couldn't believe it! Of course Jason (or traitor as I like to call him) was rooting for Stanford, but I was rooting for UP (I'm no traitor!)! ;) UP has always had such an amazing women's soccer team...I don't know what the heck happened?! :(

So that's it for now. We've just been busy the last couple of weeks with the usual - school, gymnastics, diapers, cooking and cleaning - nothing too exciting... Jason will be out of town again next weekend for another conference - this time in Denver. That same weekend, Uncle Doug and his family are coming down to visit me for a day or two.
And a week after that, Jason's sister, Rachel, will be in town to visit us for a week with my sweet baby niece Charlotte and I can't wait!!! Eeeee!!! Mike may also be coming to visit that weekend, so it should be fun! The day after Rachel leaves, I'm planning on driving up to my parents' house in WA with the kids to visit for a week while Jason endures a rough rotation here (one in which we probably won't see much of him anyways). We have a pretty busy month ahead of us!!
Well - I'm done for now. I'm exhausted and need to get to bed, so I can wake up for church tomorrow! Goodnight!! Zzzz Zzzz

P.S. Oh - one more thing! If you ever happen to be in California...stop at every yellow light! I think the lights here are rigged, so this bankrupt (yet beautiful) state can scrounge up money any way it can! We just paid a HUGE traffic fine for Jason running a red light (one of those lights with the blasted camera on it)! $460 folks!!! $460!!!! Eek!!! Is that crazy or what?!?!?!
Okay - on that not-so-happy note, I'm off to bed! ;)

Blogger Slacker

2010-08-20T22:06:00.037-06:00

I hate that I'm getting slower and slower at this whole blogging thing! There are a lot of things that I'd like to accomplish...many of them I don't ever get around to. Things I'd like to do regularly. You know - like sewing/quilting, playing the piano, gardening, going to a women's bible study, planning weekend trips and on and on the list goes. Then there are those things that I wish I could do at least monthly...like post something of worth on this dang blasted blog of mine! Argh! It has ended up becoming one of the many things I'd like to get done that doesn't get done. You know you're a blogger slacker when the beginning of each post begins with a list of excuses for why you're so behind in your blogging. Sniff sniff. I feel like such a failure! Okay okay - well I don't really feel THAT badly about being so behind. But still! I hate being so behind! It's aggravating! I keep wondering if I should just be done with this thing - to lighten my load of burdens, but I can't! I know I'd be upset with myself later on for giving up on it, so for now - I'm going to try and keep it up...I just hope that one day I'll learn how to prioritize my time, so I can be more consistent (so I don't have to do so much back-blogging...like I'm about to do now). ;)
Oh well - there could be a lot worse things to be sad about than just being extremely slow at blogging! Am I right? Yeah, so what the heck am I complaining about?! I'm just going to embrace my unbelievable slowness and accept it! I'll still try to be more on top of this thing, but I'm going to try and not get so overwhelmed with it either - I do have a lot of other things that need my attention more...like our crazy kids...and that even crazier hubcap of mine! ;) So do be patient with me! I know all two of you readers out there are always on the edge of your computer chair just waiting for the chance to read about my oh so glamorous life, but hey - I'm slow alright!! Just let me be me!!! ;) Hahaha!
Okay, so where did we leave off...I think it had something to do with Kristin's gymnastics pictures and getting ready for our trip to Virginia, so...that would be sometime in May. Whoa! So diary-type entries it is!! ;) It's my lazy way of getting caught up. Enjoy! :)

May 2010
- May 15th we packed up and headed to Dallas to visit with Aunt Shell and Uncle Jim and spend the night before driving out to Virginia.
- Drove 26 hours to Virginia (with a stop in Nashville) to visit Jason's family for 2 weeks (the drive was long and horrendous, but the aggravation was worth seeing family...I suppose). ;)
- Met our newest little niece, Charlotte (Rachel and Nate's 1st baby). She is extremely cute!!!
- Celebrated Mommy Capra's birthday and Rachel's/Charolotte's Baby Shower.

Rachel and Charlotte's Baby Shower

Mommy Capra's Birthday Party

- Went to WA National Zoo (once you've been to the Oregon Zoo - no other zoo compares...except for maybe the San Diego Zoo, but I've never been there). But hey - the D.C. Zoo has free admission, so what can you expect?! My favorite part about this zoo though - is the Panda Bear! It was so cute! That and spending time with family made it worth the visit. :)

Left to Right/Top to Bottom: Nieces Tori and Anna, Jason's sister Joanna with Caleb, Jason and Tori, Caleb and Tori, crazy panda bear, me and Tori, cute little Charlotte, crazy Katie and pooped out Caleb next to Emily

- Said goodbye to Rachel, Nate and Charlotte (or as Rachel calls her Char-latte). Oh just a side note: Charlotte was about 5-6 weeks old when we met her and Rachel was already back to her tiny-sized self. I hate you Rachel!! No I'm just kidding - I love you! But I can't help but loathe and despise you at the same time!! You little wench you! ;)

- I finished my very first quilt!! I had originally started it WAY back when I was pregnant with Kristin (under master quilter Mommy Capra's tutelage). I really enjoyed learning to quilt. It's one of those things that is much easier to learn when someone shows you how to do it in person - than trying to learn it out of a book! Anyways - I got a little busy after I had Kristin...and then even busier after I had Katie and then Caleb, so I never got around to completing it (mostly because I was too scared to move on to the next step without having help from anyone). After I found out that my best friend Laura was having a baby boy - I was determined to finish it and give it to her as a baby gift...along with a purchased gift (it's not like I was trying to be cheap or anything - okay?)! ;) I decided to bring it with us on our trip and finish it with Jason's Mom's help and guidance (which made me feel a whole lot better). She got me going...and then she left for France with her Dad for a 2 week trip! I was totally nervous about finishing it without her, but with Rachel's help and encouragement - I kept working on it...and then Rachel left!!! I was left with an almost-finished quilt and nobody! So I did what any desperate person would do - I looked up video clips on youtube on how to finish the binding and I finished it myself!! I was so excited to finally finish it! Whew! One accomplishment down - a million more to go!! ;) Anyways - it was only slightly difficult for me to put my very first quilt in the mail and send it to my friend, but I kept reminding myself that I wouldn't have been as determined or motivated to finish it if it hadn't been for wanting to finish it for my her...so I mailed it (with a tear in my eye - just kidding). I was so excited to hear how happy she was when she got it - and even happier that she noticed how much detail and hard work went into it!! :)

Here's my very first quilt...and here's me having a hard time mailing it at the post office... ;)

- Went to Angie's house to celebrate our nephews Jared and Shawn's birthdays. We had fun visiting, eating pizza, cake and ice cream and watching the boys open their presents. Katie loves Angie's youngest kiddo Anna. They're less than a year apart and they were so cute together!!

It appears here that I was desperately trying to get into more pictures. I'm usually the picture-taker and I've had enough I tell you!! I need some sort of proof that I was somewhere too!!! ;) Hahaha! L to R/T to B: Me and Jason's sister Danielle, sketch of Jason's brother Tony, rare photo of me AND Jason, Caleb with Jason's brother Jake, Jared and Shawn, Angie beating Jason...I'm sure he probably deserved it ;), me and Jason's sister Sarah, me and Jake...this was taken the day before I got a hold of his hair and gave him a real haircut :) and me and Tori.

- The next couple of days Jason and I helped clean his parents house to get it ready for a family BBQ. Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelly were going to stop by to visit after going to their son Doug's graduation from the Naval Academy up in Annapolis. We were supposed to be at the graduation too and I'm sad we missed it!! We were nervous about our animal children disturbing the ceremony. That and we really wanted to help out Jason's Dad by getting everything ready for their visit. :) I really don't like cleaning, but I LOVE to help make life easier on someone else!! It makes me feel good to help out...so is that really just me being selfish or what??!! Man - I'm a wench! ;) And Uncle Lou and Aunt Lynn came up (and down) for the visit too - we rarely get to see Uncle Lou and Aunt Lynn, so I was really excited to see them there! They're so sweet!
-We had a great time BBQing with Jason's Dad, siblings, Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelly, Uncle Lou and Aunt Lynn and all of the cousins. I love spending time with family over food, drinks and lots of loud talking and cackling...oh and there's always the traditional dance-off to finish the evening!!! :)

Danielle, Doug and Mark all taking turns to push Caleb (a.k.a. Dogbone) around the yard on a toy ATV...oh and then a random picture of Jason, Mark and me doing who knows what. ;)

BBQ time! L to R/T to B: Jason mixing everyone overly strong drinks for his uncles, my two boys, Aunt Lynn, Rissy and me, me and Jessie, Jason, me and Aunt Shelly, Uncle Lou with Caleb, me and Becky, Uncle Lou, Daddy Capra and Uncle Jim, me, Jessie and Becky, Josh and Caleb, Doug and Kiersten, me and my silly Aunt Shelly. :)

More BBQ fun! (Look at that "more manly" haircut I gave Jake!) ;)

- We somehow convinced Jason's Dad to let us bring Joanna back to San Antonio with us (without a return date even), so we packed up the car and our little String Bean (Joanna's nickname) and we began the long wretched drive back to Texas. Poor poor Joanna...I don't know how she did it! She was in the back of our "then" Highlander with no rear air conditioning and 3 crazy animals...or as some nicer people might call them - our children. ;) I'm not surprised that Joanna wants to be a Kindergarten teacher when she grows up - that Bean is one extremely patient girl!! But if I can remember correctly...I was once very patient with other people's kids. It's when you have your own (the kind that you can't hand over to someone else at the end of the day) that your patience tank starts to deplete and you go a little crazy! ;) But it's worth it I think! Does anyone else agree? Anybody?? ;)
-We met up with Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelly and all of the cousins at some point on the road and we spent the night in the same hotel and ate our continental breakfasts together the next morning on Memorial Day. Sniff sniff. All this talk of Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelly is starting to make me sad! I miss them!!! It seems weird not being in the same state as them anymore!! :( We drove behind them for most of the day and finally split up not too far from Dallas and we continued our drive down to San Antonio...5 more long hours...

June 2010
- Spent the first few days in June doing the usual as well as preparing for our upcoming move to CA.
- Jason graduated from his Anesthesiology Residency on June 4th (even though they still had to finish out their program the rest of the month). It was a long graduation because it also included every other residency program and internship program. Jason's program starts with an A, so it was the first to go and Jason's name is pretty close to the beginning of the alphabet, so his moment was over very early on in the ceremony, but we still had to sit and wait and wait and wait until it was finally over. :)
- That same night, there was a graduation dinner for the Anesthesiology program provided by the staff anesthesiologists. It was really nice and it was even nicer that they invited Jason's brother Mike to the dinner as well (since they had heard he'd be in town and that he had just gotten back from his 4 month deployment to Haiti). Two of the residents - both chief residents - received achievement medals for excellence, professionalism and job well done. Of course Jason was one of those two residents! :) Good job Jason - I'm so proud of you! I don't call you Big Head for nothing!! ;)

Graduation and dinner

- The next couple of weeks in June, I spent A LOT of time getting ready for our move. Very exhausting!
- Joanna and I overdid it with netflix this month! We decided to watch the first couple of shows from the first season of Army Wives and for some odd reason, Joanna and I couldn't stop watching it! We got through 2 seasons before she had to go. Quite pathetic...we know. :) Now that Joanna isn't here, I've had to start on the 3rd season all by myself. I have 2 more discs to go and then I'll come back to reality...just in time for school to start. ;)
- We had Joanna with us for 3 weeks and her parents started to miss her, so we bought her a ticket out of Dallas, so she could fly nonstop back to Virginia (since she's underage and flying alone for the first time). We drove her up on the 17th and took her to the airport the next morning and stayed until her plane left. We spent the rest of the weekend visiting Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelly for our last visit. :( We miss youuuuu!!!

We miss you Aunt Joanna!

Last trip to Dallas to visit Aunt Shelly and Uncle Jim's :(

- I got a 0% offer on one of my credit cards with convenience checks, so I wrote myself a big check and paid off Jason's little work car and paid our horrendous Highlander loan down to the best trade-in price we were offered.
- The next day we traded in our Highlander for a '11 Toyota Sienna...yes...a minivan! Gulp! We have been resisting the inevitable for quite some time now and we finally decided to give in and just do it! Our highlander almost had 100,000 miles on it (after only 3 measly years) and the value of the car was going down fast, so we felt we had to do something soon since we eventually wanted to trade it in for something bigger anyways). I was really nervous about having something so dorky, but we were pretty impressed with the Sienna (Toyota had just redesigned their minivan and tried making it look a tad more sporty - if that's even possible). :) Anyways - I was afraid we'd regret it later, but I haven't been happier (with a car anyways)! It's SO nice to finally have space for the kids and even more space to fit stuff inside it without worrying about having to tie anything to the roof rack or hang the trunk door open! It's great! The huge DVD screen, dual moon roof, usb ports and electrical outlets are all super nice and of course the size...the list goes on! Honda is also coming out with their new redesigned Odyssey in the Fall,...so hopefully I won't regret not having waited, so I could have compared the two... Oh well - I'm still very happy with our purchase!

Our new minivan! It's not too dorky...right?? ;)

- Our movers came on the 23rd and 24th to pack and pickup our stuff. They did a pretty horrible job, but what can you do? I brought our irreplaceable things with us - like pictures and important papers, so that's all that really matters to me. Although I DO NOT enjoy going out trying to find replacements for all the things that were either broken or lost in our shipment. Argh. Thankfully, the military has switched over to making the carrier responsible for loss and damages, so they sent us checks to reimburse us fairly quickly, so that helped some of the aggravation.
- We moved into base lodging and stayed for our remainder of time at Lackland AFB. We lived just a few doors down from some friends of ours (Cami and her kiddos), but we rarely saw each other except for a couple of times. I cannot believe how busy I was those last few days! I was picturing us not having anything to do but relax after we moved into billeting, but that didn't happen! Anyways - I'm totally jealous of Cami because they moved to the beautiful state of Alaska...where my best friend Laura is currently living! Hmph! We might have a chance of moving there next summer when Jason is finished with his fellowship - if the AF wants him to open a Pain Clinic up there! We're trusting God will send us wherever He wants us, so we'll see!! For right now - if they don't have Jason open a clinic somewhere, we'll be headed back to San Antonio for what would probably be a long long long time. :( I definitely don't dislike San Antonio, but moving around to new places is one of the many things I love about the military - so it would be sad to stay put in one place forever (especially if it isn't at a base I desire to live at forever). You know? Anyways - we'll see. I'm excited to find out! Hopefully we'll have an idea sometime in December!!!
- We spent the day at Sea World and ate Rudy's BBQ for dinner on our last weekend in San Antonio.

Last day at Sea World

- Jason decided the day before we left Texas that we should stop by Disneyland on the way to our new home in CA, so I ran out and bought us one-day passes at the tickets office on base and made reservations for 2 nights at the Paradise Pier at Disneyland - Disneyland Hotel was all full. :( Even with a military discount - the Disneyland Resort is SO overpriced!!! But it's so much more fun than to stay on the Disney grounds!! I could probably settle for going back to the old Best Western like we did when we graduated college, but I don't think Jason will ever agree to it. ;)
- We packed up the cars (which were both totally full by the way) the night before and left San Antonio July 1st. It was a LONG LONG LONG drive... It felt so much longer because Jason had to also drive his work car, so we didn't get to take turns driving. Ugh. Oh well - it wasn't horrible. We traded off kids every now and then. One of the kids would ride with Jason and they'd all switch off. So I only had 2 kids at a time which helped keep some of the fighting down...a little anyways. :)
- We spent the first night in Arizona at Ft. Huachuca and then we got to Disneyland the next afternoon. We ate a small dinner at Crocs Bits N Bites at the Disneyland Hotel and then we spent the rest of the night walking around Downtown Disney, eating beighnets for dessert and watching fireworks from our hotel room window.

Lego Store in Downtown Disney and watching fireworks from our hotel room

- After we ate the room service breakfast that Jason ordered us the night before, we spent the whole next day racing from one thing to the next in Disneyland with only a 2 hour break in the middle of the day back at the hotel. It was totally exhausting and not relaxing in the least! Did I mention I was so exhausted because I carried Caleb around ALL DAY LONG?!? We came into the park on the monorail, so we didn't have a chance to stop at the stroller check-out stand at the park entrance! I think we meant to make our way to the entrance at some point, but we just kept running and running and sort of forgot! Jason held Katie pretty much the whole time and I trailed behind him with Caleb for most of the time while he sped-walked a million miles an hour!!!! I was pooped! I'm positive that I fell asleep the split second my head hit the pillow that night!!!! I definitely recommend doing what we normally do - which is spend 2 or 3 days at the park AND rent a stroller!!!! Much more relaxing if you do it that way! Then you don't feel the pressure to see everything because you can space it all out over a period of days. We watched the beautiful fireworks and then headed back to our room to pass out.

Room service breakfast, Nemo's submarine ride and Dumbo ride

Dumbo ride, train ride and carousel

Sleeping Beauty's castle, Me and Kristin on Splash Mountain and meeting Tinkerbell and Terrance

Meeting Star Wars characters, Pluto, princesses and Mickey and Minnie Mouse

- The next morning, we checked out of our room and then ate brunch at the over-priced Goofy's Kitchen where all of the characters come out to meet with you at your table. The food is always oh so yummy!! Afterward, we drove 3 hours north to Jason's Uncle Doug's house to celebrate the 4th of July. We BBQ'd, swam in the pool and then watched Uncle Doug, his friend and Jason light off fireworks in the cul de sac (or however you spell that).

Goofy's Kitchen

- The next morning we headed farther north 3 more hours to our new base (or closed down base that's now owned by NASA - that just happens to still offer housing to military members). We checked into base lodging and then we signed the papers for our new house the morning after that. The movers came and delivered our stuff a couple of days later and I ran around like a crazy person for most of the month of July buying things and replacing others and trying to get us all settled into our new house. Did I mention that the house is only 5 years old?!?! A HUGE difference compared to the 60+ year old house we had been living in the last 4 years in Texas!! It's so nice not to breathe mold, asbestos and lead paint every time you step into your house! It makes a world of difference! :)
- So July was VERY busy - mostly with me running around like an insane chicken with its head cut off. Not pretty. Not pleasant. ;) We also found all of our usual places - like a church, a gym, Kristin and Katie's new gymnastics place (which is even better than the last place they went to!), Jason's jujitsu place, grocery stores, favorite restaurants and stores.
- Jason was also very busy this month studying to get ready for his Anesthesia board exam which he took on August 2nd.
- We also squeezed in a day here and there to visit the Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco and Monterrey.

Fisherman's Wharf - Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge, crazy sea lions and lunch at Bubba Gump's

We spent a couple hours in Monterrey looking at overcast waters...and we also walked around and saw all of the local stores and candy shops

Our crazy kiddies on an average day... :)

- A week before Jason started his fellowship, we had to go out and buy him a wardrobe of suits, shirts and ties for his one year of working as an active duty civilian-clothes-wearing doctor. Ugh. Wearing a military uniform and scrubs everyday for work is much more affordable and convenient! Just another of my favorite things about military life! ;)
- We also went back to Uncle Doug's for another visit at the end of July and we're planning to visit one another every month or so. They need some Capra lovin' - they've been so far away from the rest of the Capras living way out here in California!

Visiting Uncle Doug and Aunt Gala and cousins (Uncle Doug's caption for the picture of him and Jason in their swimming trunks: "It's like looking in the mirror!") Hahahaha!!! :)

August
- Jason took his Anesthesia board exam. We'll find out in October how he did. I'm sure that Big Head boy did great. :)
- Jason started his first day of work at Stanford University Hospital. He is going to be one REALLY busy guy this next year!! This fellowship is intense!! Yikes!

Jason's first day of work (of course he couldn't be all serious!) ;)

- Finally finished getting everything in its place and everything hung up and decorated exactly one month after moving into our house. Sheesh! I'm getting REALLY slow! It used to only take me a couple of days to get settled in! This whole kid thing is really slowing me down!! ;) It's still worth it though - even if I am slowly going crazy.... :)

Front and backyard of our new house (it's kind of like a townhouse/row housing - our front door is the one with the flag and the building at he end of our backyard sidewalk is our detached 2 car garage)

Front door entry/Powder Room/Dining Room and Office

Living Room and the awkward space between it and the Dining Room :) I miss having painted walls, but I am not about to paint all of these walls just so we can move 11 months from now!

Kitchen/Laundry Room

My storage closet of hidden (yet somewhat organized) junk. It also doubles as my home school and crafts storage, board games closet and office.

Girls' Bedroom

Caleb's Room, Kids' Bathroom and Hallway

Master Bedroom and Bathroom

- I've also been busy planning out our schedule and our first month of school and activities. I think we're going to start school August 30th. Kristin is starting 2nd grade! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by! I'm going to do some little things with Katie as well - with ABC's, numbers and shapes. Now I just have to figure out what to do with that animal boy of mine in the meantime... ;) I also think we're going to add more stuff to the end of each of our school days. Like arts/crafts on Mondays, Sewing on Tuesdays, Hospitality (of some sort) Wednesdays, Cooking on Thursdays and Field Trips on Fridays. Hopefully that all works out according to plan!!
- I'm determined to try a new recipe for each of our dinners. As much as Jason will probably hate it - I really want to find new recipes before I die of boredom!! ;) I've already tried a few and I'm going to keep it up! So far - I haven't been amazingly impressed with anything, but I'm still determined to keep trying! There's yummy recipes out there! I just know it!!! :)

2 of the new recipes I've tried (they were both - eh - okay)

Testing out our new chimnea with some s'more roasting!

More S'mores another night

- Brought a blanket and some snacks and went to a Stanford soccer scrimmage match. The first of many Stanford sports we'll be watching this year.

Stanford soccer scrimmage

- Jason's sister Sarah is coming out to visit for a week. Well - she's actually coming out for her marine boyfriend's graduation from some linguistics thing in Monterrey, but we get a few days with her before and afterward. :)

So now that we're settled in, we're back to the usual. One of those usual things being the girls' gymnastics classes. I spend 3 days a week standing and watching the girls for 2 long hours each day whilst trying to hold/control a crazy 18-month old boy. Ugh. There has to be a better way!! These kinds of places need a sectioned-off place for younger toddlers to play while they wait for older siblings. Then I would actually look forward to gymnastics! I could watch the girls and maybe read a book. Ah....now that would make these overpriced CA gymnastics places worth paying for! As for the time being - they're just costing me a lot of money and a lot of headaches!!

Oh - just as a side note: Here is what I posted on my facebook status a little earlier today:

"is thankful to have gotten all of the Play Doh out of Caleb's ear that he so happily stuffed in his ear while I was getting our lunch ready! The girls were never interested with putting anything in their ears or noses, so I wasn't prepared for this! Boys are animals!!! He can already open baby-proofed door knobs (Jason can barely even open them)! Eek! It's time for me to up the baby-proofing! But how...?"

On that happy note, I'm off to work on some more baby-proofing!! :)

P.S. Here is a quick video clip that Jason took of our dear baby boy banging his head on our car steering wheel while I was inside Ikea returning something. I've been a tad bit worried about all of the head-banging he's been doing lately, so I told my Mom...only to find out that I used to do the same thing as a baby... Uh...I think I turned out okay didn't I?? Uh... Besides the insane amount of rambling I do when I'm writing...or talking... Oh no...this isn't good!! ;)

I wouldn't call it a proud day... ;)

Who me? Behind? Fine - it's true!

2010-05-14T11:03:00.037-06:00

You may be wondering how my amazing schedule (that I mentioned in my last post) has been working out these days... If you are...here's a not-so-surprising tid bit of information - it hasn't been working!!! Well - actually - it would probably be working great if only I had started it! Ha! If I had, I probably would have found the time to write something on here a lot sooner than now! So instead of listing the many many reasons as to why I'm so behind or why I haven't started my oh-so-perfect schedule (because there are many reasons let me assure you!), I'll just get started to avoid any long rambling paragraphs. :)
So since it has been a good two months since I last posted - I'll try to keep it brief with some journal entry-type updates and a few pictures.

March
-Busy with the usual: home schooling Kristin, never-ending cleaning, feeding, diaper changing, exercising, grocery shopping, gymnastics etc.
-Very busy working on all of the paperwork for Stanford and the Air Force. Ugh!
-Caleb has his circumcision - and I was a nervous wreck! Everything went smoothly though and he healed quickly (thank you Jesus!). He was waddling around the first day (poor little boy), but then he was off and running around the next day - as if nothing had ever happened!

The night before his surgery...blissfully unaware... ;)

A few minutes before they wheeled him away...still unaware... (poor little boy...)

In the recovery room...he was NOT a happy baby!

-We went to the Riverwalk for the day and walked around, ate at a horrible Mexican restaurant (that claimed it was the very first Mexican Restaurant - blah!) and we played in the fountains by the Tower of the Americas.

Hanging out in the front yard before we left for the Riverwalk

Jason and Caleb

Jason and Caleb

Day at the Riverwalk

-Went to my first dental checkup in almost 4 years...Relieved to find out I only had one root canal/crown and one filling. I was still disappointed, but very thankful that there wasn't more damage (I don't know how many thousands of dollars we spent on my wretched mouth before we moved here from Maryland 4 years ago)!! I don't know how dentists sleep at night (or at least the insurance companies)!!
-We celebrated Katie's 3rd Birthday at Big'z (our favorite burger place) with our friend from medical school and his daughter. Afterward we all came back to our house for some wine and a movie while the kids stayed up late playing with Katie's new toys.

Jason and our little man before we head out for Katie's Birthday

Me and my little cutie-poop!

Katie's 3rd Birthday (cake and presents from us, Grandma Christie and Grandpa Neil, Great Grandma Jackson and Rehanna)

A birthday box from Grandma Capra came in the next day!

-A few days after Katie's birthday, she decided to finally figure out the whole potty training thing! Woohoo!! I was so excited!! We took her to Chuck E Cheese (like we had been promising to do) to celebrate and bought her first undies!! She still wears a pull up at bedtime, but I don't care! I'm relieved for her to be using to toilet!! She was being so stubborn there for a while - I had almost given up hope! She didn't seem to want anything to do with the potty - until we got her this DVD/doll/book (for her birthday) about girls using the potty and she got into it within a day or two! Yay!!

Katie with her potty DVD set (I have the wretched potty song stuck in my head - "Bye bye pee pee and buy buy poop! I've got a brand new potty and I'm going try it too!" Ugh!)

Katie on her potty (thankfully she does her other business on the big potty)

Celebrating Katie being potty-trained at CEC!!

-Kristin, Katie and I made a beignet recipe from the girls' Princess and the Frog cookbook. I didn't think they were as yummy as they looked in the movie (and they definitely didn't look the way they were supposed to look), but Jason really liked them! They were kind of like a doughnut, but not nearly as sweet.

Making beignets

-I started the P90X exercise program (courtesy of my lovely sister-in-law Tish who lent me the DVDs) and I finally got rid of 4 of the 6 lbs I've been struggling to lose! I got bored of it after 5 weeks, so now I've gone back to jogging on the treadmill and going to body combat classes at the gym two times a week. 2 more lbs to go (who knows how long it could take, but I don't really care. I'm close enough to my goal weight, so it doesn't really bother me...too much)! :)
-Kristin lost her 2nd tooth!!

2 teeth down...plenty more to go!

April
-Jason and I celebrated our 13th Anniversary!! My Mom and Dad sent us money for our anniversary, so with that money we got a babysitter and went out for a few hours for drinks and dinner. We tried to go to the Turkish restaurant for Efes beer and appetizers to start the evening (since we got married in Turkey), but the new owners were still waiting for their liquor license! Man! So we left and went to a couple of other places that we had been wanting to go to, but they weren't that great either, so we finally ended up going to our favorite British grill and pub for drinks and the yummiest fish and chips ever! Mmmmm... Speaking of marriage, a couple weeks or so before our anniversary, Kristin and Katie were playing with their princesses and Jason overheard Kristin say, "Do you take this man to be your awful husband?" Hahahahaha!!! When Jason told me, I could not stop laughing!!!!!! How hilarious!!!

Our Edible Arrangement from Jason's Mom and Dad for our Anniversary

- Katie sleeps with Kristin in her bed now and wants nothing to do with her toddler bed...it's time to figure out new sleeping arrangements (I'm too nervous to get a bunk bed, so we may end up getting a twin with a trundle unless I find something better)... I'll wait to buy something when we get to California.

Little cuties...

Random day at the playground

-We dyed eggs and made sugar cookies for Easter the night before, went to Catholic mass Easter morning (since we were invited by some friends of ours), took pictures in a field of Texas bluebonnet flowers, had an Easter basket hunt before our Easter egg hunt. Later that night we went to our church for the praise and worship service and then we went out for dinner at Red Robin. We had a great day! Thank you Jesus for loving us so much (even though we totally don't deserve it!!!) that you died on the cross for our sins! You alone are awesome and worthy of our praise!!!!

Dyeing Easter eggs and frosting sugar cookies

Easter Day pictures

Texas Bluebonnets

Easter basket hunt (the clothes and majority of Easter basket booty was from Grandma Christie and Grandpa Neil - thank you Mommy and Daddy!!!)

Easter Egg Hunt

-Katie started gymnastics...she has been waiting for over a year now and is only just now old enough! She is SO excited about it - she might end up liking it even more than Kristin (if that's even possible)!

Katie's 1st Day of Gymnastics

-On Saturdays (when Jason isn't working), we take the kids to open mat at Kristin's gymnastics gym.

The kids at open mat

-Rachel (my sweet little sister-in-law) went into labor 5 weeks early and delivered a beautiful baby girl - Charlotte Renee Lee 4 lbs 11 oz - on April 8th! She's doing great! Praise God!! Congratulations Rachel and Nate (or as I like to call them - Nachel)!!

Charlie

-On April 9th, we remembered Jason's brother Tony (like we do everyday)...his daily phone calls with the latest family gossip, his crazy sponge bob laugh, his obsession with eating sticks of butter and most of all...his incredible bravery and sacrifice. We miss him so very much, but we look forward to seeing him again! He was an amazing brother and friend and we're all still SO very proud of him. Thank you for all of the wonderful memories Tony!! We love you!! March 14, 1977-April 9, 2008.

Tony in Iraq

A street that was named after Tony at Eglin AFB, FL

Jason remembering his brother and bestest friend

-Jason was out of town for most of the next month in Dallas on another rotation at a hospital up there. He drove down one weekend and we drove up another and he stayed with at Aunt Shelly and Uncle Jim's the last two weekends.
-For no reason at all, my Mom sent money for me to take the kids to build-a-bear and buy them each a stuffed animal (all because she saw a pony and dragon at her mall and thought they were cute). She's such a cute little mommy...and they're such spoiled grandkids :)

The kids at Build-a-Bear

Our visit to Dallas (pay no attention to the crazy smirk in all of my pictures...I'm not sure what that was all about!) :)

Jason and I were putting out some scary dance moves... ;)

Spending time with the cousins!!

Me and my cuties

-More paperwork for Stanford...(gulp!)

May
-Kristin and I finished up her 1st grade school year on May 1st! About an hour after her last test, she said, "We need to find me a workbook to work on to get me ready for 2nd grade!" Is she a cute nerd or what?! ;)
-We celebrated Kristin finishing 1st grade with a tea party graduation/pajama party with my friend Cami and her 3 kiddies. Kristin had been plotting and planning it for weeks!

All done with 1st grade!!! Yay Kristin!!

-Kristin had gymnastics team pictures

Kristin smiled so much for me, that her cheeks hurt by the time the photographer finally started taking his pictures! Whoopsies! Poor little cutie!!

-Even MORE paperwork for both Stanford and Air Force!!! Will it ever end?!?!?! Yikes! We're in the process of waiting on Jason's orders, so we can set up our movers and everything else that goes along with moving - like turning in our base house, making billeting reservations, etc. Ugh!
-If Jason gets his orders on time and everything works out the way it's supposed to, we should be having our household goods picked up around June 20th and into billeting by the 21st where we'll stay until we leave San Antonio July 1st.
-Trying to get the house in order to get ready for our move. Going through everything to find things to throw out, sell or give away. I'm preparing us for our transition to an even smaller house/apartment (if that's even possible)! :)
-Trying as best we can to save up enough money for a deposit and first month's rent on our new place in California! We were cutting it close enough as it was and then I just found out yesterday that Jason's military housing pay won't even kick in until a month after we move from here!!! Eek!!!
-We're considering (once again) trading in our Highlander Hybrid for a minivan...we're going back and forth and back and forth with the idea, but can't seem to make up our minds. Mostly because we know we won't get squat for our trade-in and we'll be in the hole...again... Rrrrrr... When we finally do make up our minds - it'll probably end up being either the '10 Honda Odyssey or the '11 Toyota Sienna. We may wait to see what Honda puts out for their '11 Odyssey (whenever they decide to put it on the market), but I don't know if I can wait that long! I've tried long and hard to avoid The Minivan...but I want something bigger and I don't know if I can handle a large SUV that hogs gas like there's no tomorrow! It's just too difficult to imagine - especially since we've had a hybrid these past 3 years! A minivan is going to be a bad enough transition!

Anyways - enough of my whining! I have a lot I need to be working on, so I need to go!!!! I'll try to get on here at least one more time before we move - which gives me about 6 more weeks!! Based on my long history of being way behind, the odds are stacked against me - but I can always surprise myself! Right???... ;)

Random Updates!

2010-03-02T15:35:00.023-06:00

I know I'm always slow with updating my blog, but I thought I'd be on here a lot sooner than this! You'd think I have at least a tiny snippet of time somewhere in my busy schedule to at least get on here once a month to keep this thing somewhat up-to-date. Sheesh - it has been almost two months already! I completely missed February altogether! Oh well - there are worse things that I could have to complain about, so I'll stop complaining! :)

So January and February have both come and gone and I'm trying to remember what all has happened...hmmm...I know there had to be something... Let's see... where did I leave off last? Oh - Jason's sisters were here for about a week after New Year's and then I had to drive them 5 hours back up to Dallas where they were flying out and then I had to turn around and drive 5 hours back to San Antonio the next afternoon.

Enjoying the rest of our visit with Aunt Danielle and Aunt Joanna

I've been consistent with reading my Bible everyday (one of the few New Year's Resolutions I'm actually sticking to)!! :)

I pulled my treadmill back into the house from the carport to revive my workout program - since it was way too cold to exercise outside and I was getting tired of doing exercise DVDs inside! I've only lost 2 lbs since my summer boot camp with Jason's cousins, so I'm a wee bit frustrated - but I'm trying to keep up with my exercising despite this frustrating plateau because I know it's good for me (and I shouldn't think of exercise as only a weight loss tool), so I'm trying not to get discouraged and quit it altogether! ;) This is the first time I've ever thought of exercise as more than just for weight loss (because I think I've been trying to lose weight for pretty much most of my life). If nothing else, I guess all this exercising and watching what I eat is at least keeping me from gaining weight...I suppose... ;) I'd still really like to lose 5 lbs, so I can get back to my pre-Caleb weight (a weight I was pretty happy with) before maybe getting pregnant again and starting the whole weight-gain thing AGAIN! ;) If I can avoid compounding any baby weight, it will be that much easier to lost weight afterward and I'll be much more pleased with those triple digits staring back at me on my scale!!! ;)

Our 1-1/2 year old iMac computer decided to die on us at an early age. A little too early if you ask me!!!! Rrrrrrr... We could have paid $400+ to fix it up, but it has always been somewhat of a lemon, so we didn't want to put the money into it - just so it could turn around and have another problem soon afterward. We ended up buying another newer version of the same thing. Ugh. More credit card debt. Blah!! Did I forget to mention that we lost the last 1-1/2 years worth of pictures and movies that we had stored on our old iMac? I was furious and heartbroken. :( Of course, I have everything saved on DVDs, but the quality isn't the same as the originals. Sniff sniff. :( That and it'll take days to upload all of those sub par quality DVDs to this new computer - time that I obviously don't have (because I still haven't had a chance to do it)!

Jason was up in Dallas for one month doing a Vascular Surgery rotation at a hospital up there. In the past, we've always gone with him to his out of town rotations (to Houston twice and Corpus Christi once). We'd just bring our home school stuff and stay the whole month. But now that Kristin was moved up to Level 4 in gymnastics, her coaches expect her and her teammates to make it to every practice. They learn so much in such a short period of time that she'd fall behind quickly if she were to miss even a couple of days!! That and the coaches would probably ask her to quit the team because they don't want their girls to fall behind because that would mean that they'd have to spend more time trying to catch her up and less time on the rest of the team. It all makes sense, but I hate being tied down to something!!! I like flexibility!! That's why I like home schooling so much!! They're all very serious about this competition stuff and I'm trying hard to keep up with all of the demands, but I'm definitely not like most of the other competition moms! It may be because I was never in something so competitive growing up. Looking back now, I wish I had been involved in something I really liked (other than only in 11th and 12th grade) - but I'm still happy that my Mom wasn't pushy or aggressive when it came to competing against others! Jason is definitely a competition Dad, but he isn't the one who has to take Kristin to gymnastics or deal with all of the drama! :) I'm so relieved that Kristin is enjoying Level 4 though - it makes it worth all the extra work I have to go through! She was very upset her first couple of weeks on the team because they are a lot more strict, they work them out a lot harder and the hours are longer. About a month ago, I almost decided to move her back to Pre-Team because she was upset that it was harder and she was sad to be away from us longer hours. She just didn't seem to be enjoying it like she had before. She was crying and whining each day we'd leave for practice. One day I was almost ready to make the switch (unbeknown to Kristin) and luckily that was the same day she ended up having a great practice and decided she loved it! She finally mastered a couple of things she was struggling with and she loved that she had finally figured it out! From then on, she has enjoyed every practice and now she practices constantly at home. She's crazy!! She has improved SO much in the last month! I can't believe it!! They learn so much more and at such a rapid pace compared to the pre-team she was on just a couple months ago!! Anyways - they're supposed to start competing in August and she is SO upset that we're moving away a month before in July! She even asked if we could drive back here for competitions!! Poor kid! We're looking into the local teams in California and Kristin's coaches are going to help us pick the best place for her to go to, so she can continue to get quality training, so she won't fall behind her TX teammates. They're more concerned about her training because they know we'll probably (most likely) be moving back here a year from July (when Jason finishes up his training in CA) and joining their team again.

So anyways!!! Jason was in Dallas for a month without us. That was the longest we've ever been apart since Jason went to basic training when we first got married - almost 13 years ago!!! I don't know if this counted though - we still saw each other on the weekends...but still! :)

Oh! With our tax return we paid off all of our credit card debt! Hooray! We even started a savings! I can't believe it! Now all we have to do is keep ourselves out of debt... :) I highly recommend getting out of debt - it's like losing weight! It's great! :) Of course we still have car loan debt - which I still consider debt, but I guess it's one of those debts you can't avoid - unless you have the patience and the means to wait until you can buy something with cash! I'd like to think we were going to keep the Highlander we have now, but it just isn't practical enough - especially if we have another baby. If that happens, we most definitely will not be able to keep the Highlander. NO WAY! Unless I decide not to ever bring a stroller with me or buy any groceries (or anything else for that matter)! I already have all three kiddos side by side in car seats in the middle row and if I pull up the third row my trunk goes from a normal size trunk to a trunk that's only 1 foot deep! That and the third row doesn't have anchor capability and I'm not going to install a car seat that isn't really installed properly!!

No more room for any other kids in this car!! Hey - this looks like some sort of ad for Sunshine Kids (Where's my money?!)! ;)

I bought the Flat Belly Diet book...pathetic sounding - I know. But I lost like 6 lbs the first week (mostly water I'm sure) and the menu options were yummy, so I highly recommend it!! :) Of course I was driving up to Dallas to meet Jason at Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelley's house on the weekends, so I sabotaged all of my hard work by eating too much of Uncle Jim's yummy food!!! Argh! I have no self control!!! ;) I have better control of my eating habits here at home because I try not to keep too many unhealthy tempting foods in the house. That and going to the gym is almost motivating because it's my one break during the day where the kids are taken care of and I don't have to think about anything (except exercising of course). :)

What else is there? Ah yes! I seized the opportunity to watch as many girlie movies as I could (while Jason was in Dallas) that I can never watch when Jason is here! :) I watched about one every other night or so after the kids were in bed. One of the movies was Julie and Julia (the movie based on the novel written by some woman who took on a self-inflicted challenge to try each and every one of Julia Child's recipes in her first cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking within one year's time and then she blogged each night about it). I thought it was going to be a bit lame, but all it ended up doing - is making me want to go to cooking school!!! Man I wish I had time to do that!! Maybe not the entire cooking school program, but I'd at least like to take some cooking classes at a cooking school! That would be so much fun! But since that will probably never happen as long as I have little kiddies in the house - I'm almost tempted to try something like the author did. Not with a French cookbook though...and not a specific cuisine either. I'd want some variation!! Whatever it might end up being, I'm considering taking on a similar feat... :) Why can't I think of anything creative like that on my own? I probably wouldn't blog about it like the author did, but I would like to try cooking every recipe in a good cookbook! I hate that I've only tried a handful (if not less) of recipes in each of the 20+ cookbooks I own! Who knows how many recipes I have just sitting there in my cabinet that we've never tried - but are probably so yummy??!! Does anyone else agree? ;) By the way - I skimmed over some of Julie's blog and I don't know that I would have enjoyed keeping up with her blog all that much - she said f-ing WAY too much! I like it better how she was portrayed by Amy Adams in the movie - much cuter and way more sweet-like. :)

During one of our visits to Dallas, I finally had my engagement ring/wedding ring dipped in white gold!!! I've never been a fan of yellow gold...EVER! I always thought that I'd like yellow gold one day when I grew up, but it hasn't happened yet - so I'm assuming it never will! I've had my wedding rings all these years and I would never trade them in for some new sparkly replacements in white gold or platinum, but I've always been disappointed with the fact that I'd be stuck with yellow gold forever (because I always want to wear the bands we had when we got married)! Then recently it was brought to my attention - that I could just have my own rings dipped in white gold and after months of debating it with Jason I finally did it!! They look so much better in white gold! Now I don't feel weird about mixing silver earrings and other rings with my yellow gold wedding bands - because they aren't yellow anymore! Hooray! The only disappointing part about this whole thing - is that my college ring was in yellow gold (to match my then yellow gold wedding rings) and they can't dip it because of all of the detailing. Man! So now I don't wear it! It's the only other jewelry (besides my wedding rings) that I've worn consistently over the years and now it just sits in my jewelry box. I guess I can order a silver ring one of these days, but school rings are sort of expensive! I don't have spare cash to replace a school ring! At least not right now I don't. Oh well. It's not that big of a deal. Now all I have left to do is convince Jason to dip his ring too...he doesn't want to because he doesn't think that's a very Italian thing to do. He said it has to match the big gold chain he's going to buy for himself one day. Yikes! It's at that point when I remind him that he's only 1/4 Italian... and even more happily remind him that he's also 1/4 Polish - a fact he always like to deny. ;)

I've been de-junking my house now for the last 2-1/2 months!!! Ever since we found out we'd be moving for sure in July, I've been on some crazy clutter-ridding rampage!! I don't know what it is about cleaning everything out and getting rid of junk before you move out of an old house and into a new one, but I love it!! It's cleansing...I guess... I'm trying not to get ahead of myself and I'm trying to live in the now and enjoy the rest of our time here, but I can't seem to control myself!! :)

Jason finished up his rotation in Dallas just in time for Valentines Day, so we got a babysitter and went out to some new British grill and pub together. The food was fabulous and it was so fun and relaxing to spend some time alone with Jason! We really need to get out more often... :) Jason also got me and the girls each a stuffed animal, some roses and candy and he took us to get our nails done. He says boys aren't supposed to get anything on Valentines Day, so he wouldn't let us get anything for him. Silly boy. Kristin filled out her annual V-Day cards that she happily mailed out and then we made Valentine cupcakes and cards for her teammates at gymnastics. The other moms had no idea why I went to the trouble of bringing in anything - but since Kristin is home-schooled, she wants to participate in some kind of V-Day party somehow (even if it means getting nothing in return)! Next year - I'm going to have to get involved with a home school co-op, so we can get together with other home-school moms and kids, so we can celebrate holiday parties school-style so Kristin doesn't feel left out! Later that night Kristin and I made a giant heart-shaped cookie...I had just finished frosting it when I caught Jason trying to sneak some bites when he thought no one was looking!! ;)

Kristin and Katie with all their Valentines booty
Jason sneaking a bite of our giant V-Day cookie
The girls showing off their new favorite outfits... Man are they girlie girls or what?!!! ;)

In more important news - Caleb turned one on February 19th and started walking a couple of days afterward!! True to Capra form (at least our Capras), he started walking just after turning one like both of his big sisters. Lazy little kiddos!! ;) Caleb has also just been given the okay by his Urologist to go ahead with his circumcision!!! I hate being nervous about stuff and this is one of those things. Argh! I'm not nervous about the surgery part, just the being put to sleep part. Maybe because Jason is an Anesthesiologist and I've heard about some of the bad things that can go wrong with Anesthesia. I always used to think it was the surgery that had all of the complications, but for the most part it's usually the anesthesia that can go wrong. That and Caleb is still so young. I wish he could have been circumcised right after birth, but his scrotum ran too high up the shaft and they didn't want to cut into his scrotum accidentally, so they encouraged us to wait until he was older to do it (and when you wait until later, you have to put the kid to sleep). I know God's Word says not to worry - it's more of a command really, so I just keep continuing to pray about it and I'm comforted in knowing God is in control of the whole thing and I can't accomplish anything by worrying about it. So that's scheduled for March 12th, so please keep my little guy in prayer! :)

Celebrating Caleb's 1st Birthday (big load of clothes from Grandma Christie and Grandpa Neil, little load of clothes from Mommy and Daddy and a My Pal Scout toy from Grandma and Grandpa Capra)!

Day 4 of Caleb's new found skill

I've perfected the most perfectly perfect schedule that I'm really excited about starting! I should be able to fit in every possible thing that I want the kids and I to accomplish in a 24 hour period to include me waking up an hour and a half before the kids wake up (instead of me using them as an alarm clock)! I do realize this means I have to go to bed much earlier than I'm accustomed to, but I think I can do it - especially if it means I can cut away some time in my schedule to do things I'd really like to be doing (like quilting, learning a new language - which has changed to Italian by the way and reading for fun)! :) I have additional pages with ideas of things to do in our/my free time and also ideas for things to do on the weekends for fun. Hopefully we can somehow align our schedules with Daddy's schedule, so it can work!

Hmm...what else? Kristin and I have about 9-1/2 weeks left of school!! Hooray! Summer here we come!!! ;) I'm amazed that we're already this far into the curriculum! Time has been flying by!

Speaking of Kristin, she lost her first tooth a couple of weeks ago!! She didn't even notice that she had two loose teeth - I noticed it before she did! Have I got it together or what?! ;) Her two bottom teeth looked like they had started to move away from from the rest of her teeth and I noticed it while she was talking to me one day. Then I tugged on them a little and felt that both of them were loose! Ew! I hate loose teeth! Blah!! I immediately tried hiding my disgust as I told her (as excitedly as I could muster) that she had two loose teeth! She was excited about it...until Daddy came home and she told him about it. He of course starts testing it out himself to see if they're ready to come out (and I'm thinking - "I thought it took days for a tooth to be ready... Doesn't it have to get to that really yucky stage where it looks like it's about to fall out at any moment?"). I tried to mention it to Jason without freaking Kristin out and undermining Jason's fatherly leadership. I was able to hold him off...for one day. Ha! The next night after Jason arrives home from work (within 1 minute of coming through the door), he immediately needs to check her tooth (it was as if he had been thinking about it all day or something). I knew he meant business when he asked for a paper towel and I could NOT believe him when he said her tooth was ready to be pulled!!! I kept picturing him ripping the poor kid's tooth out and leaving half a root stuck in her gums!! With Kristin whimpering in one ear, he pulled out her tooth within 30 seconds! Surprisingly there wasn't any leftover root for me to nag him about ("I told you it wasn't ready!") and we immediately spotted the ginormous tooth coming in behind it! Eek! How big are these kid's teeth going to end up being!!!!! I don't know if this girl is going to have any room with the teeth she has coming!!! Braces...here we come!

Kristin's big bloody gap...Ew... ;)

On that happy note, I'm going to end this monstrosity for now and get started on the arduous task of uploading pictures. I'm going to try and make them into collages first, so I don't take up as much room (like I normally do). Yeah - that's me...always thinking about my readers before myself. ;)

Three months behind and falling!!!

2010-01-07T23:03:00.000-06:00

Why hello there! Are you as surprised as surprised as I am - that I'm actually going to post something new after all of this time?! I'm so disappointed in my lack of entries! I seem to be averaging at less than one post a month! How sad!! I just figured out that I am incapable of accomplishing anything with three kids! I'm curious as to how I would even function if we have more babies! Babies you ask? Yes - I've been thinking about it for a while now. I'm pondering the major implications of such a feat and I've come the conclusion that I think I can handle it. I'm finally getting used to the idea that I'll never get caught up on everything I want to accomplish - simultaneously anyways. That and I used to think I wanted 4 kids, but now that I have 3 - I can't get over the fact that I'd only be pregnant one more time for the rest of my life! I don't think I'm ready for that! Then I start thinking...5 is an odd number, so why not keep things even and go for 6! ;) I can't imagine having more than that, but I'm open to whatever God has planned for our family. :)
Since I am so ridiculously behind, I've decided to do more of a newsletter type entry with just a few pictures interspersed to help me get caught up, so I don't have to write a 1,000-page novel. The idea of rambling on and on for months worth of stories is just too overwhelming for me! So I'm just going to get this over with!!! I'll go back to where I left off in in my November entry and try and summarize!!

September 2009
-Kristin and I started piano lessons
-Returned from trip to California for Jason's interview at Stanford.

Jason is very excited about the new suit he got for his interview (seconds before I dropped and broke the camera).

-Finished up first month of 1st grade with Kristin! One month down - 8 more to go! ;)

October 2009
-Got camera fixed! Whew! I hate being without my camera!!

Testing out my repaired camera on our cute little kiddies!!

-Kristin moved up a level in gymnastics and started Pre-Team! Unfortunately that means we have to go to gymnastics for 1.5 hours three times a week instead of 50 minutes 2 times a week. This makes a huge difference when you have to watch 2 kids while you're waiting! Yikes!!
-Jason was accepted to Stanford - yay! Now we have to wait until mid-December to find out if the Air Force will accept his application to specialize in Pain Management at Stanford.
-Jason and I watched the Godfather Trilogy for the first time ever. Now we can understand all of those popular lines we've been hearing for all these years. Sheesh - are we slow or what?! ;)
-Jason bought me my first bowling ball and shoes! No more cooties for me! Now I just have to work on my game and try to get better than Jason!! :)
-Jason's brother Mike came down to San Antonio to get corrective eye surgery, so he stayed at our house for a week, so he could recover and go to follow-up appointments. He BBQ'd for us a couple of times and I enjoyed not having to cook dinner. Ah...

Mike at work in the kitchen

Jason felt the need to celebrate Mike's new eyeballs by smashing his old glasses. ;)

-My sister's husband Richard got back into the Air Force (after separating almost 8 years ago), so we had him here in town for 2 months while he went through a training program on base. Surprisingly we only saw him maybe 3 or 4 times the whole time he was here! That's what happens when you're a busy home-schooling Mom of 3 with no time on your hands!!
-I finally gave in and chopped off my hair - coming to grips with the fact that my hair gets stringier the longer it gets and that I can never have a huge mop of thick long hair, so what's the point in growing it out?!

The shorter the better...for me anyways...

-We visited Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim's up in Dallas and went to the kids' home coming game.

Mike and Jason at the homecoming game in Dallas

Uncle Jim and Katie

Me and Aunt Shelley

Caleb and his Uncle Mikey

Rissy and Kristin

Uncle Jim escorting Becky for the announcement of homecoming queen and king

-I was extremely sick for 4-5 days with what I thought was the flu, but wasn't really and had a difficult time taking care of the kids while Jason was at work. Ugh. After I recovered, I had never felt more grateful for my health (I usually don't get sick - especially that sick)! Thank you Jesus!!! :)
-Took the kids to Hallelujah Night at church (the alternative to Halloween thing) and had fun watching them run around and have fun in their Disney costumes.

Me and the kids getting ready to go to church for Hallelujah Night

Jason and the kids

Me and the kids

Me and my little Caleb-Pooh ;)

Jason and the kids

Katie and Kristin getting on a ride

Back at home, Kristin can't resist trying on Caleb's Pooh costume :)

Kristin and Katie paint their pumpkins

November 2009
-Went to Austin for an "Austin Gorge" in place of our Fall Gorge. We normally go to the Apple Orchard every October for our Fall Gorge where we eat all things apple (apple streudel, apple turnover, apple ice cream, apple cinnamon streudel coffee - after painting pumpkins and petting animals at the pumpkin patch). But this year I was sick and we missed it! So this year, we decided to go to Austin and experience the Austin Gorge (we went to 3 places that the host of Man vs. Food went to during one of his episodes). We went to Juan in a Million for their infamous breakfast burritos, then onto Round Rock Donuts to eat a 6 pound Texas Donut and then onto Salt Lick for some yummy BBQ. It probably gained 6 pounds that day - but it was worth it. ;)

Breakfast burrito (6 eggs, 1 whole potato, bacon and a tortilla). The challenge on Man vs. Food was to eat more than 8 burritos without any bathroom breaks to beat the current champion. I almost couldn't finish one. Maybe I shouldn't have eaten any chips and salsa beforehand. Ugh. It was yummy though!

Jason also could only eat one

Staring down my burrito...

Katie only wanted to eat the fresh tortillas

Then it was onto Round Rock Donuts for the Texas Donut

Jason and Caleb vs. The Texas Donut

Now it's the girls and my turn!!

After some shopping at Ikea and the outlet mall, we decided we were hungry enough to move onto the next and last stop - The Salt Lick.

Jason and Katie at the Salt Lick

The kiddie-poos

-Kept busy with school and going to the playground

Kristin and Katie back to back (They like it and it's less work for me!) :)

Katie and Kristin

Caleb loves the swing!

-Caleb started sitting up on his own

The first day I spotted Caleb sitting up on his own

-Watched Jason play soccer in the annual grudge match between the anesthesiology staff doctors and residents.

Staff doctors against resident doctors

Playing some soccer

Katie distracted by some dogs

The kids at Daddy's soccer game

Jason doing what he does best...socializing...

Running, running and more running

Tossing in the ball

-Grandma Christie and Grandpa Neil sent a package with some new clothes for the kids! Hooray!

Aw!!! How cute!! (If I don't say so myself that is...) ;)

Our little cuties

Panda bear girls

-Went to get our annual family pictures. It's getting more difficult with each kid! The more people - the more likely someone has their eyes half-closed or a finger up their nose!! ;)

The two pictures that made the cut...

-Went to Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim's for Thanksgiving.

Jason and Katie at Salt Lick for dinner on our way to Aunt Shelley's

Me and Kristin

Me, Kristin and Caleb

Jason and Kristin

The girls helped Uncle Jim get the Thanksgiving turkey ready

Becky, Kristin and Caleb watching a little TV

Jason and Mark tossing Caleb back and forth

Me and Jason

Becky, me and Rissy

Katie and Kristin with Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelley - The turkey is ready!!

The boys are all really excited that we're about to eat! ;)

Kristin and Katie get started on eating

My little contribution to Uncle Jim's feast - my annual apple and pecan pies

Kristin and Katie love their new pajamas from Aunt Shelley

-Celebrated Kristin's 6th Birthday at Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim's. I can't believe she's already 6!!!!

Aunt Shelley making a pinata for Kristin's Bday party

I'm trying to help Aunt Shelley with the pinata...why didn't I just buy one?!

Doug lifting up the birthday girl

I have a crazed look in my eye...my usual look after decorating bday cakes for 3-4 hours... One of these days I'll take a cake decorating class and figure out what I've been doing wrong... ;)

All of us minus Caleb (who was taking a nap) getting ready to start the party!

Me and Kristin

About to blow out the candle (Jason looks more excited than she is)!

Fur Real Cat from Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim

Kristin's first bowling ball from Grandma Christie and Grandpa Neil

Presents from Great Grandma Jackson

Presents from Grandma and Grandpa Capra

Strawberry Shortcake house and kid tough digital camera from Mommy and Daddy

Caleb finally wakes up to join the party!

Kristin and Katie playing Tinkerbell online

-Bought our first real Christmas tree and loved that real tree smell...I just didn't love the pine needle mess! I soon realized that I can't even keep a Christmas tree alive!! How sad is that?! How difficult can it be? I did everything I was supposed to and it still started to shrivel up and die before Christmas!! I think I'll be going artificial next year!

Kristin helping Daddy pick out a tree

Katie wants to help too!

Caleb is enjoying the show!

Kristin decorating the little tree in her bedroom (something she HAD to have after seeing the one in Cindy Lou Who's bedroom on the Grinch). :)

Me and Kristin decorating the tree

Jason putting the start on the tree

We're all done!

The best I could do with the lights off

December 2009
-Jason and his brother Michael went to their first jiu jitsu tournament in Austin.

Jason and Mike stretching out

More stretching...

Jason's up!

He flips his opponent

And gets him in some sort of thingy-majigger... ;)

And then another...

Jason wins! 18-0!!

Jason and Mike listening to the judges

Jason picking up his gold medal

Now it's Mike's turn...

He gets out of something...

But the guy ended up choking him... Poor Michael... :(

We went out to for breakfast burritos afterward at Juan in a Million

-Spent our last day at Sea World with our season passes. No more Sea World for us unless we move back here after we leave California. How sad... It's one of the girls' favorite places to go!

The kiddies are excited to be at Sea World...not surprisingly... :)

Kristin and Katie with the dolphin thingy ;)

The girls with Santa Shamu

Jason and Katie on the Sea world playground

-Dog sat my sister and brother-in-law's new puppy for 4 days and realized shortly after her arrival that we will not be getting a puppy for quite some time!! She peed on our floor 30 seconds after coming in the house and she cried all night long every night! Yikes!! I was happy to see that thing go when my brother-in-law left for Washington!! We might at least get the kids a kitten...after we move from here...I suppose... I can't make any promises though! Taking care of kids is enough work! I don't feel like adding animals to my hectic workload!!
-Baked Christmas cookies with Kristin and Katie.
-Jason found out the Air Force accepted his application to train at Stanford!! Yay!!! We'll be moving to California in July when Jason finishes up his residency. We'll be there for one year and then who knows after that!! Disneyland season passes here we come!!! ;)
-Kristin was moved up to Level 4 in gymnastics after her last performance, so she'll be competing soon! Eek! That was fast!! I'm not looking forward to having to pay for all of those team leotards, warm ups and competition fees!!! Not to mention that she now has to go 3 days a week for 2.5 hours Mondays and Fridays and for 3 hours on Wednesdays!! Yikes!!

Kristin's Pre-Team class getting ready for their winter performance (3rd from the left)

And finish!

Kristin's Pre-Team Class

All done with Pre-Team and ready for Level 4!

Caleb is ready for his first competition (I don't know how he hung on for so long)!

-Spent too many days helping Jason work on his application for licensure in California. $1,300 later... Sheesh! They should have a military doctor rate since they don't make as much as civilian doctors!!
-Spent Christmas morning here at home and then drove up to Dallas to spend Jason's week of leave at Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim's house.

The girls getting ready to cut gingerbread men, trees and snowflakes

They're ready!

Mmmm...yummy!

The girls opening their stockings on Cmas Eve

Kristin had a surprise picture for Katie and Caleb in their stockings... How cute!

Caleb is ready to start opening presents on Christmas morning!

Jason and his new pipe and "Stanford" sweater :)

Caleb opening one of his presents

Katie and her princesses

Kristin and her princesses

Jason opening his violin from my Mom and Dadroo

Testing it out...

Kristin and Katie opening their present from Grandma Christie and Grandpa Neil

The kids and our presents from us, Grandma Christie, Grandpa Neil and Great Grandma Jackson

Me and my presents from Jason

Caleb testing out his present from Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim

Jason, Caleb and their cousins at Aunt Shelley's

The kids with Becky and their little snowman (yes - it snowed in Texas this Christmas!)

Becky and the girls playing in the leftover snow

Aunt Shell, Kristin, Rissy, Becky and me competing in our gingerbread house contest - which Aunt Shelley won. :)

It snowed again!!!! (Kristin, Becky and their snowman)

January 2010
-FINALLY mailed out my Christmas cards!! Only a month late...and without a newsletter!!! Maybe next year I'll get it together... :)
-Spent New Year's Eve and New Year's Day at Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim's. Happy New Year!!!!!

Uncle Jim's New Year's Eve snacks

"Can I haz sum dinners pleeze?" -Lolcatz!-

-Picked up Jason's sisters Danielle and Joanna from the airport and brought them down to San Antonio for a week (their brother Michael flew them out for their Christmas present). I'll be driving them back up in a couple of days.

Me and the kids at the commissary while Jason and his sisters go to a movie (I figured out that it is much easier to grocery shop when you cram all your kiddies into one cart). :)

At the bookstore after church - I was actually able to read through some books while the girls were entertained by they're crazy aunts! :)

And Caleb is happy no matter where he is! He's such a happy little boy!!!

So that's it for now! I'm tired and I want to go to bed!!!! I know there wasn't much detail as far as the writing goes, but I made up for it with an insane amount of pictures...which took FOREVER to upload! Yikes!
I'm really hoping to get on here more frequently, but...I've said that in the past sooooo.... We'll see! :) Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a very happy new year!!!!!

Merry Christmas!!

2009-12-12T00:43:00.000-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Busy little Capras!

2009-11-23T16:01:00.001-06:00

I can't even begin to describe the tremendous amount of stress that I've been under the past couple months or so! Gone are the good ol' days when I was actually able to accomplish the tasks I set out to do. Challenging and meaningful tasks. These days I get excited when I accomplish even the most simplest of tasks...like exercising, taking a shower, making the bed, getting the laundry folded and put away in less than three (or four) days and maybe squeezing in two minutes to check my email every other day or so. Yikes! What is happening??!! I feel like I'm losing control of what used to be really quite easy for me to handle! Like keeping the house clean, making grocery lists, keeping the laundry in check and cooking most of our dinners at home. Everything seems to be unraveling before my very eyes and it seems impossible to get it together! What's happened to me??!! I'll tell you what's happened to me! 3 kids - that's what happened!!! I wouldn't trade my kids for a clean and organized house and life for anything in the world, but I must say...I am feeling extremely exhausted and a bit overwhelmed!! It could be because Caleb has been crawling like a maniac all over the place for the past three months...or it could be because Kristin and Katie have started fighting more than they used to...or it could be that loading and unloading 3 kiddies into and out of the car is a mountainous task in and of itself! I just can't put my finger on it, but whatever it is - I'm pooped!!!

But enough of my whining!! I'm very grateful to have my hubcap and 3 kiddie-poos! Sure they all demand without ceasing, but I'd be so very sad if they weren't all in my life! So enough complaining! It's time to get you all caught up with our crazy lives!! ;)

First of all, Kristin and I started her 1st grade curriculum September 7th. I'm not sure why we started so much later than we did last year, but it doesn't really matter I guess. We're still scheduled to finish by the 2nd week in May. I use the Calvert home school curriculum and I must say that I am SO much more pleased with the 1st grade curriculum than I was with the Kindergarten one. It's much more interesting and colorful. I've tried to include one cooking activity and one art project per week, but we've missed one here and there - since we've had so much going on lately, but we're slowly getting back on schedule.

Kristin's first day of 1st grade!!

Kristin and her "Mommy teacher" :)

We begin each day with the pledge of allegiance and finding yesterday's, today's and tomorrow's date.

Kristin working on her first assignment of the new school year

Katie and Caleb didn't appreciate being left out of the 1st day of school picture, so they demanded a do-over the next day. ;)

Kristin is all ready for her cooking activity - s'mores bars!

Me and Kristin get started

Kristin rolling out the graham crackers to make the crust

Katie always enjoys helping with cooking activities (and anything else kitchen-related)!

Of course the camera battery died at this point, so we have no finished product to show off. :( It ended up tasting okay, but it was a little too rich for my liking. It was apparently not rich enough - because they were all devoured within a day or so. Yikes - way too many calories!!

So for each day of school, Kristin gets a sticker if she did a good job and tried her best. She can save up her stickers to pick a place to go each week - like the playground or Sea World. She can save up two weeks of stickers to go to Chuck E Cheese or buy a new book or coloring book. Of course, she chose to save up two weeks of stickers for CEC for her first couple weeks of school. Katie and Caleb get to partake of the fun without doing anything to earn it, so they're lucky that Kristin tries so hard in school! Those little moochers!! ;)

A mean game of table hockey at CEC - Jason and Caleb vs. Kristin

Kristin enjoying table hockey...even while losing to Daddy and Caleb!

Kristin is all ready for her first science experiment...which ended up being lame when it didn't work!

Waiting for something to happen... to no avail...

I don't think I mentioned it in my other posts, but after we got back from Jason's brother Joe's wedding back in August, Jason decided that he wanted to specialize in Anesthesiology doing Pain Management. He'd been going back and forth with the idea since he first began his residency. For some reason he finally made up his mind and began the application process. It's a two-part process. He had to apply to schools/hospitals that offer Fellowships in Pain Management and he also had to apply to the Air Force to get their permission/funding to do further training after residency. It took a few weeks to complete both applications and it was a bit stressful getting a hold of all of the documents and transcripts required for the application process. Fortunately, the stress was worth it - because he was invited to interview at Stanford the end of September. It was an unexpected expense that we hadn't planned for (yay or 0% interest credit cards!). He was only given a few days notice, so plane tickets were outrageous (which of course doesn't include hotel or rental cars). I figured out that it would cost just as much for Jason to go out by himself as it would for all of us to all drive out there together...so we ended up making it a mini family vacation. So we headed out to Stanford (which is in Palo Alto, CA) September 22nd after Jason got home from work. Yes - the drive was long and horrendous, but I did the first 10-hour chunk of driving through the night, so all of the kids slept until breakfast time the next morning. So the first half of the drive wasn't too bad (besides me being exhausted...with dark circles under my eyes...). ;) We spent one day driving all the way through to Jason's Uncle Doug's house (which is 3 hours away from Stanford). We ate dinner at a Greek restaurant while we waited for Uncle Doug and Aunt Gala to get off work and pick up their kids from school. Then we headed over to visit for a while before heading to bed. The next morning we drove 3 hours to Palo Alto to look at the apartments at Stanford (for residents, staff and employees only). They were REALLY overpriced, but they were SO nice! I don't really like the idea of moving back into an apartment after living in a house for the past 7+ years, but they were really more like townhouses with attached garages and the community felt really safe and cozy!! And you could totally tell the people who live their are all spoiled living on civilian doctor pay (we even saw a couple of resident couples outside with their kids at the playground while they had maids cleaning their apartments! Oh my goodness - are you kidding me??!! I could not imagine needing a maid for a tiny two bedroom apartment!!! Sheesh! Oh well - I guess if you have money to spare. I'm not sure what that's like, but I still don't know if I could justify a maid for an apartment even if I had money to spare!!! Anyways - I'm glad we were able to go with Jason. It was fun to look around what could potentially be our next home (for one year anyways). The training is only 1 year long and then we'd be off to Jason's next assignment - wherever that might be. It was also nice to visit Jason's Uncle and Aunt! We've never been out to their house before - all of the other Capras live on the East Coast (besides Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelly in Dallas). They've always lived so far away from everyone - that we've never have a chance to visit them. So after looking around at the apartments and surrounding area, we spent the night at Travis AFB an hour from Stanford - which looks like a really nice base (at least it did at night - we didn't see it in the daytime). This was the night that I dropped our camera and broke it. :( I was taking pictures of Jason in his first suit (another reason the 0% interest credit card came in handy). He was so excited about it. The only other suit he has is the suit from our wedding!! He has only ever needed to wear a uniform, so we've had no need to buy him a suit. Anyways - I was really disappointed about breaking the camera - because we have no pictures to show for our trip (except for iPhone pictures - which definitely aren't as good). :( The next morning, we left REALLY early to make sure we didn't get stuck in traffic. We got to Stanford an hour early, so we played around at the playground at the apartments until Jason had to leave for his interview. It was an ALL day interview that lasted from 10am to 5pm or so. Yikes! The kids and I walked around a lot and looked in all the different shops and grocery stores while we waited. The interview ended up going really well and Jason was really excited about it. That night we drove back to Uncle Doug's to spend one more night. The next morning we began our drive back to Texas. Only we were so close to Disneyland...with just enough time to stop by the Disneyland Hotel and eat brunch at Goofy's Kitchen!!! I just love Disneyland (I don't know why). We didn't have time or money to go into the park, but just being at the Hotel made us feel like we were in the park. We also walked in Downtown Disney the Disney store to walk around and then we pulled ourselves away and began the horrendous drive back home. We stayed in Arizona after 8 hours of driving and then we drove the last 12-13 hours the next day.
A week later we found out that Jason was accepted to Stanford!! Unfortunately we've had to wait to find out what the Air Force will say. The Board meets December 5th and we'll find out on December 16th! I can't wait to find out!! If they accept his application, we'd be moving to California July 1st. If not, we won't find out where we'll be moving until February/March! Eek! I'm anxious to find out where we'll be going and I'm trying not to worry about anything. I'm comforted in knowing that God is in control, so that makes it less stressful, but I'm such a psycho! I'd love to know now!!! :)

The kids with Mickey Mouse outside of the Disneyland Hotel

Kristin taking her first test of the year. I don't remember being so happy taking tests when I was little! ;)

I need to post this and move on (since I'm SOOOOOO far behind), but I must say that I'm getting so aggravated with blogspot! I don't know if it's just me and I haven't had time to figure out all the new updates, but nothing seems to be working the way it used to! All of my pictures are messed up (with huge gaps) and I can't seem to figure it out! So sorry for the mess! And if you have any pointers - let me know what I'm doing wrong!!! Argh! Hopefully, I'll be getting another story/pictures posted on here within the next day or so (if I don't pop a vein out of anger)!!! ;)

Last days of summer...

2009-10-20T23:57:00.001-06:00

Before I get all caught up in the new school year with Kristin, I think I'll finish writing about the rest of our summer - so I don't get all behind...again. ;)
So we really didn't do a whole lot the last month of our summer break. We might have done more if Jason wasn't always working or if we had some extra money, but what can you do? I'd love to have been able to visit Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim more, go camping, go to an Astros game and just spend some time with Jason. Alas - Jason had to work the night shift for two weeks, so he was no fun (because he was either at the hospital working through the night or here sleeping during the day). I hate the night shift!! Apparently he didn't have as horrible a time as I did because he and his colleague decided to make their 2 weeks of night float an interesting experience (or at least appear that way). Each night, they took a couple of pictures with Jason's iPhone and then Jason would then proceed to make a story about each night's pictures (turning it into a poster). So they had one poster for each night and Jason made sure to hang up all of their posters on a bulletin board in the residents' room just to make the other residents jealous of all the fun they had. Yep! That's my hubcap!

The girls and I had a chance to meet up with some friends of ours a couple of times - once at our favorite playground by the commissary and another time for tea at Mad-hatter's. It wasn't the most enjoyable experience - because we had all of our kids (my three and her three), but it was still fun!

Our final two weeks, Jason was back to his normal schedule, but we didn't have any money to do anything. Dang blast it! We always seem to use up our savings whenever we go to Virginia, so there wasn't a whole lot we could do!! We had no money to buy a tent or supplies, so we couldn't go camping. We couldn't go to Houston to take in a baseball game because we had no money for gas, tickets and a hotel. We actually could have made it to Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim's house Labor Day weekend, but Jason's brother Mike already had plans to come down and visit us and a friend of his. Although we didn't get to do all that we'd like to have done - we still had fun doing the usual: driving around wasting gas (which gives Jason and I chance to talk while the kids are all strapped in and watching a movie on the DVD player, spending time with Mike when he came to town and enjoying an interesting evening of BBQ and karaoke with the next door neighbors for Labor Day!

I also spent a few days reading a book called Scheduling for Christian Home-Schooling Families that my wonderful friend Laura recommended to me! Thanks Laura-poo!! Then I spent the last couple of weeks trying to come up with the perfect schedule for us to use on the weekdays. It's coming along great! I definitely won't be scheduling our weekends though - that would be a bit much! I'd rather just keep the weekends open for adventures!!

This is how I was greeted at the hospital when the girls and I stopped by for a visit - by a very bald Jason. He and his colleague decided that it would be fun to shave each others heads with surgical clippers. It must have been a slow night at the hospital. Yikes!! ;)

At the commissary shopping for the Resident BBQ we hosted.

Jason and Caleb (my two bald boys) at our new favorite breakfast place - The Egg and I.

Jason and our little cutie-poo Caleb

Me and Kristin

Kristin and her friend Carol on their way to our tea party at Mad-hatter's

Kristin and Carol are ready for their tea!

Kristin and Nora

We also went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate Jason being done with the night shift. He only has two more 1-week rotation of the night shift for the rest of the year! Hooray!

Katie and Kristin at the Cheesecake Factory

Later that night, Jason and I went out for our 2nd bowling date. Much to my amazement (and Jason's demise), I actually beat him!!! Woohoo!!!! It's the first time I've ever gotten over 120!!! Jason usually gets a much higher score, but unfortunately for him he lost the plug in his bowling ball and it threw off his game! But I still count that as a valid win for me - in my book! A couple paydays from now, Jason is going to buy me my own bowling ball, so I can work on bettering my bowling score (and start throwing more consistently)! Hooray! And I'm getting my own shoes too! Yay! No more rental shoe cooties for me!! ;)

145 to 142!! Woot woot! ;) Oh - and Jacob was Jason's new name for the day (I'm not sure what his thing is about not putting his own name on the board)... ;)

Caleb - a little over 6 months old

Aw! He's so cute!! :)

Out on our Bass Pro Shop excursion -

He's all dressed in his camo gear and reading to find some camping/hunting supplies! ;)

Cute little Kristin is always up for a photo op! ;)

About a week before we started school, my Mom decided (out of the blue) that I HAD to take the kids to Build-a-Bear and have each of the kids pick out their own bear, an outfit and shoes. There was some kind of special going on, so my Momroo deposited money in our account and forced me to go! What could I do? Even with a special, Build-a-bear is pretty overpriced...I think anyways!! The girls were overjoyed...and Caleb happily smiled at the wolf I picked out for him (just before he decided to gnaw away at the price tag until it was a useless lump of mush)!! ;) It's a good thing we went without Jason because we spent about 2 hours in there!!! I almost went crazy!! But it was still fun!

Okay - I have to jump in here for a second! I do not know what is going on with this ridiculous blog entry of mine, but for some reason I can't get any more titles on the rest of the pictures I've uploaded!! And it keeps leaving a huge gap between some of the photos! What the poo?! I've tried everything and nothing seems to be working! I'm too frustrated to keep messing with this, so I'm just going to publish it as is. Sorry! Maybe I'll be able to come back to it later and fix it.
The rest of the pictures are of Jason's brother Mike in town (while he was here visiting a friend of his from college). There are pictures of us when we went to a shooting range with Mike and a colleague of Jason's from the hospital. The last few pictures are of the kids and then of the Labor Day BBQ we had with our neighbors next door - a night full of food, drinks, cackling and Jason dominating the karaoke machine... It wasn't pretty folks... ;)

Kristin, Katie and Caleb with their unstuffed animals

Kristin getting her Hello Kitty stuffed

Kristin doing the honors (for some reason Katie was too afraid to push the pedal herself to help stuff her own bear).

She happily took her stuffed bear from Kristin

Man it's a lot of hard work being the big sister!! ;) Kristin helps stuff Caleb's animal too!

He's very excited about Wolfy (the name Kristin gave Caleb's stuffed animal)!

Kristin dressing her Princess Kitty

Killing the kids' eyeballs as I try to get them smile for the camera with their new stuffed animals in the bright sun!

Mike and Fia waiting for another round of shooting

Caleb enjoying the thrills of the BX with his crazy sisters!

Blue eyes vs. Brown eyes 3:2

2009-09-14T13:19:00.002-06:00

We're pretty sure that Caleb has turned to the dark side. Yes - it's true. He has betrayed me and his sisters and aligned himself with the likes of his Daddy! How you ask? We're beyond the 6-month mark and it appears as though Caleb has decided to go with brown eyes instead of blue! How dare he! Traitorous little milk hog!! ;) That's what I get I suppose. I told Jason that he'd never be able to beat out my blue-eyed genes. I thought that since everyone on both my sides of the family has blue eyes and since Jason's Mommy-poo and her family have blue eyes - that we'd beat out Jason and his Dad's brown eyes. Oh well. Lucky for Caleb, I actually like brown eyes! I just don't like losing... Well - at least I still have one up on Jason...I just hope the next baby takes my side!! If not, we'll be tied! ;) And no - that doesn't mean there's another bun in the oven...not yet anyways! ;)

Random Tidbits

2009-09-11T12:06:00.011-06:00

I thought I'd get on here and write a little instead of waiting a whole month...or three! :)
So we weren't very busy in August after getting back from Virginia. Nothing too out of the ordinary happened - besides me trying to rid my house of junk, so I could get more organized before starting up 1st grade with Kristin. And Jason and I have taken up dating...with each other that is!! So far we've gone out about 3 Fridays in the last month! We've only made it as far as the bowling alley on base, but it has been so much fun! We love spending time with our little kiddie-poos, but I think it's important to spend a little one on one time with the ol' hubcap! Who wouldn't want to spend 3 solid hours with ME??!! I mean seriously!! ;) Oh! And Jason's Uncle Lou and Aunt Lynn were in town for a little bit, so we spent a little time with them as well - which was of course a lot of fun!!

Having fun bowling with Jason - even though I knew I didn't stand a chance of winning! ;)

He doesn't understand why I'm taking pictures. Come on! This is our first date in a really long time! Seriously! This is a big deal!! ;)

Obviously I'm excited about losing...because I was doing horrible!!

Jason has to look away from the camera - apparently this is the only way he can keep himself from closing his eyes. You'd think someone with an M.D. could figure out to keep his eyes open for a picture!! ;)

Hmph!!! I won't go so easy on you next time Jason (a.k.a. Edward)!!! You'll see!!!

Aunt Lynn and Jonathan with the girls at Sea World

Some crazy woman diver feeding the sting rays...Eek!

Out for some Mexican food with Uncle Lou and Aunt Lynn

Aunt Lynn with the girls

Katie isn't too sure about Jonathan - he looks too much like Jason's brother Jake (who isn't very nice to the girls), so Katie didn't trust him - even though he was nothing but nice to her. Poor Jonathan...

Katie with Uncle Lou

Sometime in the middle of the month, my Momroo felt like spending a little too much money at Gymboree, so she could send the kids some new outfits! It makes me feel SO bad when she does this sort of thing (especially when it isn't for anything specific - like a birthday, Christmas or some other holiday)! The girls were ecstatic about getting something in the mail though!

Kristin is very excited about getting new clothes!

And so is her crazy sister Katie!!

Aw...my cute little nerd girls!! ;)

We hit the mother-load!!! ;) Seriously Mamoo - this was too much!!! I mean - doggies with plaid matching travel bags? Come on!! ;)

Even bald boy gets some of the spoils!!

He looks adorable in all of the outfits! Good job Mommy!!!

Aw! They look like nerdy little school girls!!! How cute!! :)

Jason's brother Mike was also in town on a TDY from Oklahoma, so he stayed with us while he was here. It was nice having someone at the house for a few days - especially since Jason was working the night shift for 2 weeks. I hate being in the house all alone at night!! But it stinks that Jason wasn't home to spend time with his brother!! Mike did have a chance to go to the hospital and pretend to be a doctor with Jason for a night though! I had him dress up in some of Jason's old scrubs, so he could look the part (well - sort of...the hat doesn't really go with scrubs). ;)

Mike taking a "family picture" to make Jason jealous that Mike was stealing his family time. ;)

I also took Kristin to swimming lessons for 2 weeks in August. It was a tad bit lame though. She already knew how to do everything the life guards were teaching, so they tried to tailor something just for her, but it still didn't seem like much of anything. The nice thing about it though - was that since I was taking her to swimming lessons at our gym, I was able to check Katie and Caleb into the kid watch thing while I sat and waited for Kristin. That gave me a chance to catch up on some reading - something I never seem to have time for!! It was SO relaxing not to have to chase or tend to anyone! It's nice to get a little break every now and then!! The fun part was watching Kristin after the class was over. I let her run around on the Splash Pad after every class. She ran around like crazy squealing with delight! It doesn't take too much to amuse her - she's a lot like her Mommy...I suppose. ;)

Kristin thoroughly enjoying the Splash Pad

She was crazy!! She was running all over the place, dancing, skipping and singing to herself.

My cute little spaz... ;)

Cute little turd!

Jason and I both came home from work and gymnastics to find Michael hard at work in our kitchen cooking us a feast of homemade meatballs and sauce with pasta! Mmmm...yummy!! Was my kitchen a disaster afterward?? Of course it was!!! But it was worth it! Any day where I don't have to make dinner is always worth it!! ;)

I must step away from the computer for the time being to tend to my animals (er...kids) and then get some much-needed sleep, but I'll be back soon... or so I think anyways!!! ;)

Joe and Dillon get married!!

2009-09-02T17:34:00.004-06:00

Well it appears my being "on a roll" didn't last for very long!! Man! I was really looking forward to getting caught up and staying caught up!! Oh well - I'll keep trying!! So this post is going to have quite a few pictures (no surprises there right?)!! I'd try to keep the pictures to a minimum if I could, but I just couldn't! There are too many people in Jason's family, therefore there must be too many pictures as well!!!

We drove up to Dallas July 24th and spent the night at Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim's. We flew out the next morning on a nonstop flight to D.C. Jason's Mom, Uncle Mark and a few of the kids came to pick us up from the airport in the stylin' 18-passenger van and we began our one hour drive down to Fredericksburg, VA. This is one of the few times we've actually flown out to Jason's parents'. We usually drive 26 hours one each way, but this particular time - we needed to fly because we had a wedding to get to! Jason's little brother Joe (who just turned 20 almost 3 months ago) was getting married! And to whom you might ask? None other than Dillon Mahoney! Lucky for her, she's now Dillon Capra! Haha! I'm just kidding! I think it's the other way around! We're lucky to have her! She's such a cutie!! We actually didn't have to get to Virginia right away, but we did have to leave right away (the morning after the wedding) to get back in time for Jason to be back at work Monday morning. :( Sniff sniff. I can't wait until Jason isn't in some sort of training program, so he can actually have more say in when he can take his leave!!

So despite the hours we saved by flying instead of driving - this felt like the shortest vacation we've ever had! I was so sad! The time flew by at record speed! I didn't even have much of a chance to spend any quality time with my Mommy-in-law!! We usually spend a lot more time with one another, but this time we didn't seem to have enough time!!! It wasn't like we had a whole lot we had to work on (being that we were the groom's family and not the bride's), so I'm not sure why we seemed SO busy!! Let's break it down shall we? ;) I know I say it every time, but I'm going to try to keep it short!! ;)

Day 1: Flew in, drove to Fredericksburg (while jabbering away in the van) and unloaded our stuff. Hugged and squeezed everyone hello and then left with Angie to go to her house and pick up some supplies while Dad Capra started up the grill for some BBQ. We picked up only the essentials: Efes (Turkish beer that Angie found at a Mediterranean market) and ingredients to make Cheese Borek (Turkish appetizer). We came back, made a deep-fried-splattered mess of the kitchen and wolfed down the borek (washed down with some Efes of course). ;) Mmmm...yummy! I miss Turkish food! We spent some time cackling while we visited before heading to bed. I should mention - that upon arriving, we barely saw even a glimpse of Kristin (who was attached at Joanna's hip at all times). ;) We missed the little wench, but we knew she was in good hands. ;)

Caleb meeting Aunt Angie

Day 2: Woke up to a yummy breakfast of egg and bacon sandwiches and watermelon (thanks to MomEE) before heading out with Jason, his cousin Doug (Uncle Jim's #2 kid who was on summer break from the Naval Academy), Jason's brother Mike (we're all familiar with him-kid #4) and Jake (Jason's youngest brother-kid #8). We stopped at Tropical Smoothie first (our most favorite smoothie place) and ran into Dillon and her Mom! We visited with them over smoothies before heading over to Walmart (for Mike and Jake to get fishing licenses and gear). Then we met Jason's sister Rachel and her hubcap Nate at Target before running over to Borders Bookstore (we were on the hunt for some good dancing DVDs, so we could all practice and be prepared for a Capra/Mahoney dance off at the wedding reception!). Our search was a success! We found a collection of 3 DVDs (Tango, Swing and Waltz). Although the instructor and her partner were a little on the cheesy/dorky side - we mastered all of the steps after a couple of sessions (that day and on the morning of the wedding)! Then we met Angie at the mall afterward and tried to help her find flower girl dresses for Tori and Anna. After we got home, all the older girls (Kristin included) decided to make their own restaurant and serve everyone dinner. They named the restaurant Shamu Bayou. Hahahaha!! It was cute. They set up tables, strung up lights and decorated the apartment back porch. They took everyone's drink orders and we were given appetizers of gold fish and chips before our dinner arrived (choice of pasta with shrimp or chicken with orange wedges).

Caleb spending a little quality time with Grandpa and Grandma

Katie with her cousin Anna waiting for their food to arrive

Kristin serving Aunt Rachel her food

Rachel and I (with Caleb hiding under my hooter hider) are ready to eat!

Day 3: Jason and I headed over to the local YMCA to exercise (while Katie and Caleb waited for us in the nursery). We headed back home for showers before Angie came by to pick me up for some shopping. We were out for a good chunk of the day (part of it looking for our bachelorette party presents for Dillon). On our way back, we checked on the kids at home before heading back out to meet Jason, Mike and Doug at the Fredericksburg Pub for a late dinner and a couple of drinks. It was good! They've built a lot of new shops and restaurants in Fredericksburg since we moved away!! Unfortunately for all of you - I forgot to take pictures!!! ;)

Day 4: Jason and I went to the YMCA and came back for showers before we all headed over to Chuck E. Cheese for a late celebration of Jason and my birthdays. We all ate some pizza and then paired up in twos. Everyone had the same goal - lots and lots of tickets (which were then used for a lot of candy and junk toys)! Angie then proceeded to buy 20 bags of cotton candy for everyone to share! I've never seen that much cotton candy in one spot!! After that, Jason got his haircut and we went back home to watch the kids play in the pool for a little while. Later that night, Jason and I went out to a Thai restaurant with Angie, Mike and Doug (we've had much better Thai, but it was still fun!). Then we came home to for some drinks and s'mores around the fire-pit.

Danielle and Caleb at CEC

Uncle Mikey introduces Caleb to CEC

Caleb and his Aunt Sarah

He never had a chance of avoiding Katie!! ;)

Jason gets serious about winning tickets ;)

Angie knows where to get the most tickets for her token! ;)

Katie and her Aunt Julia pair up

Kristin and her Aunt Emily

Tori and Joanna with cousin Darby at my favorite game at CEC (Deal or No Deal)

Mark and cousin Jack

Jake is all on his own with nothing but tickets on the brain

Anna and her Aunt Danielle

Me and Angie-poo taking a break from the craziness

The Capras have overrun CEC!!!

Jason and Doug get serious... This is no time for fun and games!!! ;)

Caleb looks pretty cozy with his Aunt Angie

Some crazy Capras trying to get every last ticket out of this machine

Kristin is overcome with candy-crazed joy!

Michael enjoys the feeling of tickets in mass quantities

Becky can't believe her eyes! 20 bags of cotton candy?!!!

Mike has never been so happy... ;)

Me and the boys (well - Sarah's head popped out of no where!!)

Jason doesn't look happy about something...maybe I was standing too close to Mike or something. ;)

Katie and Anna with their Grandma Capra

Jason's Mom in the pool with Julia, Katie, Caleb, Emily and Tori

Apparently Katie isn't afraid of the water anymore...

Kristin always loves the water, but it only took a couple of days of this and she was swimming all over the pool without a life jacket! I guess two days of intensive training is all it takes! ;)

Jake sports his beginning swimmer flotation device... ;)

Caleb enjoying the water...and all of the attention!

Doug, Jake and Mike (a really pale Mike that is)! ;) I hope Jake didn't break anything of value! Eek! That looks like it should hurt!!

Caleb with his Uncle Michael

Joanna, Danielle and Rissy

Caleb with his Grandma

Daddy Capra at the grill. Come on Dad! Not even a tiny smile??? Pretty pleeeeaase??!!

Jason and Doug at the Thai restaurant

Mike, Angie and me

Mike, Doug and Jason enjoying a little stroll across this oddly-placed bridge in the center of the tiny Thai restaurant. There was water under it and everything! It was cute - it just looked out of place!!

Kristin and her Aunt Joanna making s'mores

Day 5: YMCA. Showers. Dad picked up James and Tish (who had just flown in from Italy - where they're now stationed). Before they arrived, the guys went out to watch Harry Potter at the theater while I stayed home and got to work with Becky and Rissy on the sun-room and family room. We were trying to get the house ready for all of the visitors that would be coming over for the rehearsal dinner. We named ourselves the Texas Team - since we were all from Texas and the only ones doing all the cleaning!! ;) James and Tish arrived and I had a chance to visit with them before heading out to Target with Tish, Angie, Mom and Dillon (we were helping Tish find a top to go with her pants for the wedding). Afterward, Tish, Angie, Dillon and I picked up James from the house and met the rest of the guys (Jason, Mike, Doug and Joe) at the Fredericksburg Pub for dinner and drinks.

Mike upset that Jason and I were going to work out while he started in on cleaning up the garage

Jason butting in on Joe and Dillon's pose ;)

Tish and James...in his pirate shirt... ;)

Doug and Jason together again... :)

While I'm with Angie and Mike again! ;)

Day 6: YMCA. Showers. Jason and I went out to eat lunch at 5 Guys with James, Tish, Mike, Doug, Joe and Jake. After I got back, I realized my two Texas Team members (Becky and Rissy) were hard at work cleaning and their was no food in sight! I felt bad that they were starving, so I took them and Danielle to McDonalds to pick up some food to bring back to the house. I can think of a hundred other places that are a whole lot tastier, but it was close and cheap. Meanwhile, Jason, James, Mike, Jake and Joe's friend Michael all took Joe out skydiving to kick off Joe's bachelor party! Only Joe and his friend did the diving - while all of Joe's brothers cheered from the sidelines. Now that sounds like a fun idea for a bachelor party!!! It's too bad they couldn't have all went together...it's just a wee bit expensive! Me, Tish, Rachel, Becky, Rissy and Danielle all got ready and headed over to Dillon's friend's apartment for the Bachelorette party. We never heard what we were going to do, so we came over dressed pretty casual. When they opened the door, Dillon, her sisters and all her friends were in dresses and drinking wine! I felt so sloppy and under-dressed! Oh well - we still enjoyed some snacks and drinks while we watched Dillon open all her presents! The party ended within a couple hours, so we headed back home to wait for the guys to get back from their full day out. We picked up some snacks on the way and watched some of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The guys got in pretty late and continued their party around the fire-pit, so we all went to bed soon after that got home.

Bachelorette party (Capra girls): Sarah, Dillon, me, Danielle, Becky, Tish, Rissy and Rachel

I wonder what present (or what comment was made about the present) she's laughing about... ;)

Becky, Rissy and Danielle

Tish, Rachel and me

Day 7: YMCA. Showers. To make it up to Uncle Mark (for forgetting to invite him to the Bachelor party), Jason offers to take him to lunch, so we take him out to Buffalo Wild Wings. James and Tish also come along and we met Rachel and Nate there as well. We had some yummy boneless wings and high-tailed it out of there when we realized the guys were going to be late to the rehearsal!! Tish and I ended up coming along since there was no time to drop us off back at home, so we got a little sneak peek!! ;) They were going to have their wedding at a friend of the family's house. I had something totally different in mind when I heard they were getting married in someone's backyard! This house was gorgeous and the landscaping was beautiful!!! I'm sure all of Dillon's wedding pictures will be unbelievable (which only reminds me of how dissappointed I am with my own wedding pictures - poo!)! Afterward, we headed back home to get ready for the rehearsal dinner. Thank goodness our very own Uncle Jim (from Dallas) came in the night before to help put together the party plans!! He really is a good party-thrower!!! :) We enjoyed the rest of the evening surrounded by family and friends. It was great!

The happy almost-to-be-married couple

Jason getting started on his poses for the camera (minutes before the rehearsal begins)

Here's another...

And another... He'll just keep going if you don't stop him!!! ;)

Oh noooo!!! Mike and Jake are following in his footsteps!!!

Dillon and her Dad practicing their walk down the aisle

Look at those nosy boys - all up in Joe and Dillon's ceremony business! ;)

I didn't have a good view of Dillon and Joe from this angle (the bride's side of the aisle), but Michael's face in the background amuses me... ;)

Jason doing what he does best...stealing attention from other people (by noisily unwrapping a granola bar and eating it during the rehearsal ... ;)

Tish, Angie and me at the rehearsal dinner

Day 8: It's the BIG DAY!!! Joe and Dillon are getting married!!! ...but not for several more hours... So until then we moved the table out of the way and started practicing our dance moves in the dining room!! I wish we had pictures of it! Actually...I think Nate took some pictures! Maybe I'll beg him for some pictures and post them on here later!! We were all paired up and twirling around in formation (me and Jason, James and Tish, Mike and Danielle, Doug and Rissy)! It was great!! We practiced the Tango and Swing (because I thought Dillon said there would be swing music). Much to our disappointment - the music at the wedding didn't really go with any of the moves, but we still tried to do our best to incorporate what we learned!! Oh well - it wasn't time lost! We actually had a lot of fun!!! After getting all sweaty from dancing, Danielle and I took our showers and then headed over to a salon to get our hair done for the wedding. I am so mad though! I surprisingly loved my hairdo (something that never happens) and I have no picture of the back view!!! Man!!! From the front, it almost looks like I always wear it - which is the disappointing part. I spent $50 and it looks like I didn't do anything (from the front view)!!!
Anyways!!! The ceremony was BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! Dillon was gorgeous of course! So far she is only one of two people I know that never seem to take a bad picture (the other person being Rachel)!!! Poo on them!!!! ;) It was one of those weddings you wish you had been to before you had yours (so you could steal all of the ideas for your own). It's a shame I had only been to two weddings before my own! I would have done it a WHOLE lot differently!!!!! Maybe we'll have to do a 15 or 20 year wedding vow thing, so we can have a do-over! ;)
Unfortunately, the reception didn't last very long. It probably lasted the appropriate time, but it honestly didn't feel like it lasted more than 30 minutes!!! :( That and I barely ate anything! I made a plate, ate a few bites and got up to use the restroom and when I got back my food had been taken away! Then Nate went and made me another plate, but I got up to dance with Jason for less than 5 minutes and my second plate was taken away!! I was SO hungry!!! It's no wonder my milk supply decreased!!! ;)
But besides that - everything was beautiful and I'm so very happy for Joe Shmo and my new sister!! He couldn't have found a more wonderful wife!! Congratulations you two little cuties!!!!

Becky and Katie are ready to get this wedding started!!

Doug and Jesse (Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelley's two oldest kids who are out of the house)

Uncle Jim with Caleb (we miss our Aunt Shelley!!!)

Me and my Rachel-poo

The boys in uniform (Doug, Mike, Jason and James). Can anyone guess which Air Force member is wearing his uniform properly?? Hint: He's not missing his work badge or jacket-closing-device... ;)

Come on Jason! Don't ruin the picture!! Do you know how few pictures we have as a couple?! Seriously!! ;) And another thing...I wish you were just 2 inches taller, so I could wear some heals for once!!! ;) I love you bubble butt!!! :)

There! That's better...I suppose... ;)

James and Tish

Joe Shmo and his best man Jake doing their signature pose ;)

Jesse and her fiance Mike (congratulations!!!!)

Rachel and Nate

Our little Kristin-poo (where have you been this past week little girl??!!) ;)

Kristin and her Aunt Joanna (a.k.a. Bean)

The Dallas, TX crew!! Becky, Doug, Micah, Mike, Jesse and Rissy (Mark is missing because he had just left for the Coast Guard Academy!!!)

Sarah and Robert (her Marine-man boyfriend) ;)

Beautiful little Rachel-poo

Me and Tish-a-lish (and Caleb too!)

Waiting for the bride to make her entrance (Joe, Jake, Mike, Mike-Joe's friend)

James, Mark (Tony and Angie's oldest little man) and Jason

Joe and Jake watching Dillon make her way down the aisle

Angie taking pictures down the aisle

Jason being cute as usual :)

Let the ceremony begin!!

Singing praise songs

Exchanging vows

Dillon laughing after Joe pulls out a $20 bill (he was supposed to pull out his letter to her) :)

Both families (parents and siblings) pray over Joe and Dillon...

While Dillon's Mom sings a song

They sealed the deal!!! ;)

The wedding party

Parents with the bride and groom

A blurry family picture that I stole from Angie's facebook page

Me and Dillon

And now...I'm going to attempt the impossible...posting one more story before bed, so I'm thoroughly caught up on this whole blogging shmeal... We'll see...

Back-blogging July 2009

2009-08-07T13:42:00.014-06:00

I seem to be on a roll!!! Sure my house is getting destroyed at a rapid pace while I waste the day away here on the computer (thanks kids)! But at least I'm finally getting caught up on this thing!!
So we spent the 4th of July weekend with Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelley up in Dallas. It was so much fun (but when isn't it fun up there?)!! Jason was on call at the hospital on the 1st, so we were able to head up to Dallas the next morning when he got off of work. It's so much nicer when we get to stay longer than a night or two with all of the driving there and back!! 5 hours each way doesn't seem like much...unless you have kids in the car with you... Eek!!!
The first night we spent lazing around the house and visiting with the family. The next day we spent some time out on Uncle Jim's boat and had a BBQ and the next day (the 4th of July), we spent the whole day BBQing, swimming in the pool and being lazy! It was great!!

Uncle Jim with the kiddos

Poor Becky couldn't seem to get away from Kristin or Katie the whole weekend - she spent most of her time with them watching Sleeping Beauty and Thumbalina over and over, coloring and swimming in the pool). I'm pretty sure that Becky has a permanent twitch in her eye from going just a wee bit crazy!! :)

Kristin and Becky

Jason begins his weekend with a new set of temporary tattoos!!

They can't resist putting hundreds of tattoos on themselves and then showing their best manly poses. The only thing they love more is getting pictures of themselves! Sheesh... ;)

Jason always seems to enjoy posing for pictures... ;)

But he's not the only one... (Hey! Get my baby out of that mess!)

Mark, Caleb, Mike, Jason and Micah doing what they do best (embarrass Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelley by letting the neighbors see them). ;)

Will it ever end??!! ;)

Aw...my little Caleb-poo...

Marissa and Caleb on the boat

Caleb, Aunt Shell, Becky and the girls are ready to set out!

I'm telling you...he loves the camera (a little too much)... :)

Uncle Jim taking the boat out onto the lake

Jason taking the jet ski for a ride

While me and Aunt Shelley have a drink...or two...

Our cute little Kristin

Me and Jason

Becky

It's too much fun for the boy - he has to take a break...

Kristin and her Uncle Mike

I don't know about him... ;)

Jason and Micah entertaining themselves

Aunt Shelley taking care of the boy

Becky and Kristin seem to be enjoying themselves

Katie watching from afar... She didn't seem to like the water quite as much...

Marissa and Katie

The kids' surrogate grandparents

Marissa trying to get Katie to have fun in the water

Jason being pulled along...

by Mike and Micah on the jet ski

Whoa! What the heck??!

Uncle Jim and Jason deep in conversation

Becky somehow escaped from the kids' little clutches!!

Me and Caleb back at the dock

Caleb and his Great Grandma Capra

Becky is stuck with Katie...again...

Jason teaching Caleb some jiu jitsu moves (I guess you're never to young to start learning) ;)

Oh Daddy - are you for realz?? ;)

Okay - I think that's enough for today...

Caleb approves of my 4th of July flag cake!

Becky and the girls at the computer watching Thumbalina for the thousandth time! Poor Becky! Little did she know at this moment that she would be spending the next 3 weeks with these monsters!! :)

On Sunday the 6th, we packed up the car and we're about to leave when Rissy joked that she was going to hide in the back of our car and come with us. Then I started thinking...we were going to be back up to Dallas in less than 3 weeks to fly out of DFW to go to Joe's wedding in Virginia... So why don't we just bring Becky and Rissy along with us??!! After 30 seconds of deliberations, we decided it was a plan and after a couple minutes of begging Uncle Jim, the girls were off and packing their bags. We had plans of some sort of 3 week bootcamp where we'd watch what we ate and exercised twice a day. Surprisingly we actually followed through with our plan and we all lost 6 pounds each!! It was SO much fun having them stay with us!! We worked out once in the morning and once at night (either using the treadmill, running the track or going to classes at the gym), we ate healthfully (except for the day we had a BBQ with some friends), we shopped, cackled and watched far too many movies. The time flew by (at least for me it did)! Who knows... Becky and Marissa might have been going crazy and were just too nice to say so!!

Jason was so excited to see that he and Mike's jiu jitsu team shirts came in the mail, he put it on immediately and requested a picture to be sent to Mike. ;)

Me and the girls

Our cute little cousin-poos

Kristin playing outside our favorite Burger joint Big'z

Katie clinging to the tree for dear life

Caleb wants to be in a picture too!!

Our poor little cousins were trapped in the girls' playhouse for a little too long... (Becky's eye is twitching again) ;)

Poor Becky went a little crazy and somehow ended up in a princess dress. :)

Becky climbing the rockwall at our gym...right before I did (it's too bad my camera battery died right after this picture...) ;)

The three weeks had finally come to an end and I spent the last couple of days getting all of our stuff packed and ready to go. We drove back to Dallas on July 24th, spent the night and flew out of DFW to D.C. the next morning on our way to Virginia for Jason's brother Joe's wedding!!! Woohoo!!!!! More on that later... ;)