Fun at the park

Yesterday we decided we needed to get out of the house for some fun. We were all tired of being inside but it was a little too late in the day to take the boat out. We called up my sister and met her and her 3 boys out at the park with my mom and dad. We enjoyed Little Ceaser's for dinner and had fun playing at the water area of the park. McKaila wasn't too pleased with it so she stayed at the playground area with my mom. That is why I have all pictures of Kameron. I stayed in the water area with him.

This is Kameron dancing :) The only picture I got of McKaila. She enjoyed her pizza.

Kameron really started enjoying the water when he stepped into this little ring.

This is the continuation of the picture above. He would try to block the water from coming out from two spots but the spout in the middle would shoot him in the face.

He was trying to bite the water.

My bald boy

So I had some issues today. I really needed to trim Kamerons hair because it was getting long and his ears had those wings around it. You all know what I'm talking about right? So I got the scissors and started trimming. Well the scissors weren't that sharp and he kept wanting to play. So I finally asked my mom for her buzzer. I look through the blade sizes and find one that I think looks right. I read the number 1/4 " on it. For some reason I was thinking more like 1 inch. I don't know. Anyways I started at the middle of his head. After I started that one line I realized it was too late. My poor baby was going to be bald. I felt so bad. He does look cute but I buzzed off all of his hair :( Here is a picture of him afterwards. He doesn't seem to mind the breeze on his scalp. Look through the other pictures to see how much I really cut off. It was a lot. Poor guy. I don' t know what was going through my head. Probably all the stress from today.

Life's Challenges

Life has been very tough the last few days. We had some unexpected things happen that have made me too stressed to enjoy life. We are buying a home in Dumfries, VA and we close next friday (my birthday). We were supposed to be getting some down payment assistance for first time home buyers but that fell through (long story). So besides having to come up with a large downpayment now we have also found out that all of our household items being shipped from Bangkok won't arrive until Oct 10 at the earliest. Yup, that means no beds, no cooking utensils, nothing until October. I am thinking that this is way too much for me to handle right now. I know the Lord doesn't give us more than we can handle but this is all taking a toll on me. Besides all of this my little sister is getting married Saturday so I have been extremely busy trying to help my mom with everything.

The kids seem to know I am stressed. Kameron only wants me to hold him all day long. McKaila is refusing to take naps now which means no naps for me. I haven't really been making her take naps which is probably my problem now. Kameron and McKaila are currently sharing a room at my moms house and Kameron will sleep longer if Mckaila isn't in the room. So I keep her up so he can sleep longer because he is extra cranky these days. I need to be strict and make her take naps but with our schedule lately its been hard and honestly I don't have the energy to keep putting her back in bed.

Life is just seeming too difficult these days. I just want to stay in my room and cry all day long. I don't get the pleasure of doing that. I get to take care of my two little smiling faces all day long. Don't get me wrong, I love my children but being a mother is difficult sometimes (I'm sure all mothers will agree). Well if I don't post in the next little bit its because too much is going on and I don't have the time or patience to write. Until next time....

The Lake

We had such a great day today. This afternoon we decided to go out on my dads boat. McKaila has been asking to since before we arrived in Idaho. (I forgot to mention- the kids and I flew to Idaho the other day for my sisters wedding. We'll be here a month or so) My older sister, Gina, and her three kids (Isaiah, Kadren and Tyler) decided to join us for a ride. McKaila wanted to stay by her PaPa the whole time. My dad even let her help drive the boat. Kameron had mixed emotions about our adventure. He was sad and crying because he hated having the life jacket on but then he would be fine and screaming with joy when the wind was blowing in his hair. Both McKaila and Kameron had very short naps today. I'm talking ten minutes max when we were driving in the van. They wouldn't go down when I got them up. That added more drama to Kamerons cry. Enjoy the pictures.

Here is Kameron sitting in the boat waiting to go.

McKaila was brave and even jumped on the tube for a ride with her cousins. Left side is Kadren and then Isaiah is holding McKaila and Tyler is on the right side. My dad went really really slow with her on it. She lasted maybe 30 sec. and then she decided she wanted off.

Kameron and I. He was not so happy.

A few minutes later he decided it wasn't so bad. Although he doesn't look too happy in this one he really was.

Isaiah was being very brave and he would stand up on the tube. He looks like he is surfing. He did really well and didn't fall off.

McKaila decided she was getting pretty tired. She didn't fall asleep like this but she was close to it. She loved snuggling up with Papa. If you look closely you can see her eyes.

Before we headed in Isaiah asked if he could jump into the lake. McKaila didn't like the tube so she didn't really have any experience with the water. I asked her if she wanted to get in and she said no at first but then she saw how much fun everyone was having. Isaiah was being such a good helper and making sure she was safe.

About two minutes after we got into the truck this is what I found. He was exhausted. The lack of sleep finally caught up with him. Look at that double chin:) His new nickname is Bruiser.

We had such a good time out today with my family. While my sister and my dad were getting the boat cleaned up and hooked onto the truck I decided to take the kids over to the swimming area. McKaila loves the water and was out in the deeper end with her cousins. I finally took off Kameron's life jacket since I was holding him in the water and he was so happy. He was splashing and laughing and loving the water. Thanks dad for taking us out today.

We made it

After a long and exhausting 19 hours of flying we have arrived back in America. David and I got about 3 hours of sleep before our flight because we were busy packing and cleaning the house. When the alarm went off it was very hard to get up. We arrived at the airport trying not to leave too much time just sitting there because the lounges aren't open at 5 am. We couldn't have timed it better. By the time we got all checked in and went through security it was time to board the plane. We didn't even sit down before boarding. The flight to Narita, Japan was a little rough with the kids. We had called United to make sure we had kids meals requested for them and when we checked in they said they had. When meal time came around there were no meals for either of my children. Great. Luckily Kameron will eat anything so he wasn't gea big concern but McKaila is picky. We did manage to get her to eat some eggs though.
Between landing in Narita and boarding the next plane to Dulles we had a one hour layover. We knew it was going to be somewhat tight but I didn't expect to run to our next gate. Our flight into Narita was a little late and by the time we had landed we had 25 minutes to get off the airplane and go through security and get to our next flight before it took off. Of course we were last off the airplane because we have two carseats and bags and David can't carry it all up at once so rather than him trying to push through people to get back to us we just waited till we were able to move around. Then they told us to wait for our stroller at the jetway. So we are waiting for about 5 minutes and another lady said oh we sent your stroller to your next plane because you don't have much time. You are telling me. Thanks for not telling us sooner. So then the next few minutes consisted of "McKaila run, run, run. We have to run or we'll miss our flight". Then she would reply "I want to walk". We get to security finally and I about died. There were massive lines. We went through the business line and just cut in front of everyone and tried to explain we had less than ten min. before our flight left and we aren't on it. Needless to say, we made it. It was crazy though. I had on a backpack, a shoulder bag, was carrying Kameron and trying to pull McKaila along and keep her running. It was quite the scene. David was behind us with another backpack and our two carseats.

When we were about to take off the captain told us we'd be arriving like 20 min. earlier than expected. That was music to my ears. The kids were doing fine for so long and then they started getting a little crabby. Kameron pooped EVERYWHERE!!!! Oh my goodness did he make a mess. David said he needed a diaper change so I offered to do it since I was closest to the bathroom and David would have to climb over someone else to get out. As soon as I picked him up all I hear from David is uh-oh. He had leaked out the sides. I think he had too much apple juice because it was horrible. It was all over his pants, shirt, blanket, carseat, and me. I think it took me a good 30 wipes and 30 minutes to clean him up. I would have just put him in the tub if we were home but even the sink in the bathroom was way to small for him. Ewww it was nasty. Thanks Kameron. When we were in Bangkok we got some medicine from a pharmacy to help kids sleep on airplanes. We had tried it out before hand but it didn't really seem to do anything for McKaila. We decided to try it again anyways on the airplane and sure enough it worked (along with the lack of sleep). I think out of the 12 hours of that flight the kids slept about 7 hours. Not too bad. They would wake up and cry for about ten seconds and then you'd cuddle them and they'd fall back asleep on you. This happened several times with both of them. Overall it wasn't too shabby of a day. Oh I almost forgot. So on the flight to Dulles they only had one child meal for our two children. It was around lunch time and they brought us a tray. We where so excited. It was chicken nuggets, french fries, applesauce... you know kid friendly foods. We give that to Kameron first because he was more hungry than Kaila was. We told McKaila that hers would be here in a few min. When a few min. had passed we asked where her meal was and they said they only had one child meal requested for us. We were so upset. Mainly because when we checked in they told us we had all meals requested. Then when we were on our first flight they didn't have any and they said they'd call the ground crew to let them know to have it for your next flight. A flight attendant took my name and my two kids names and I saw him write 2 kid meals. Even the captain called the ground crew. Then our next flight they only have 1 meal. This is so frustrating to me. When we were flying to Bangkok from Idaho 8 months ago we didn't get any meals for the kids. They had forgot them also. Geez United come on. Make our life a little easier by giving us kid meals like we requested. The pursor was really nice and gave us a card with a number on it. We are to go onto United.com and complain. Last time we did this we got bonus miles. She apologized over and over and even brought McKaila some ice cream. At meal times she would ask what of the items we were having she could bring extra of (bread) that Kaila would eat.

We finally arrived in Dulles and once again we waited till the plane was empty before we got off. They had told us customs was backed up and it would be a while. I didnt' think it could be that bad but I was wrong. The line came all the way into our jetway. I think we got about 10 ft off the airplane and had to stop because of the lines. It was going to take us forever to get to our hotel. Luckily a lady came back asking who was staying in Dulles and since we were we got to pass everyone. Apparently everyone else was waiting for plane transfers. I hope they made them. Finally after 26 hours of travel time we made it to our hotel. We walked over to a Target to get a few groceries and the kids crashed on the way and way back. They woke up about 2 this morning and I went in gave them snuggles and they went back to sleep. Its 5 am and I'm wide awake typing this. Sorry that this is going on and on.

Oh I forgot to mention. My feet got really swollen on our last flight. I have to say my feet have never been fatter. Honestly it was that bad. You'll see in the pictures. It wasn't just my ankles either. It was all the way up to my knees. My legs were rock hard. They were that swollen. I had no ankles. I could barely move what would be my ankles because they were so swollen they didn't have a lot of room to bend. Even when I was 9 months pregnant I never had this big of feet. The swelling has finally gone down and my feet can move freely. I have ankles again. YEAH.

( I tried to download the picture but it isn't working so it'll have to wait)

Juice please

Kameron can really throw a tantrum. Here is the proof. He was upset because he asked for juice and I mistakenly gave him chocolate milk since that is what his sister was having. He didn't even try it. He saw that it wasn't juice and he ran away to his playroom to throw a fit. He started throwing things and getting upset so we put him in time-out. He does really well and stays in there by himself till he can calm down. What a smart kid. This fit went on for about 5 minutes (not joking) after I shut off the camera. Then he willingly took his chocolate milk. The thing that makes us laugh is he puts his head against the wall when he gets really upset. He doesn't smack his head against it he just nicely rests his forehead on the wall or the bookshelf. (the reason the bookshelf is empty on the bottom is because the kids keep pulling movies off of there). Enjoy.

My little ballerina

A few weekends ago David and I took McKaila to a ballet class. I am glad it was just a trial class. The class was for children between 18 months and 3 years. It was a little too advanced in my opinion. The owner had her hopes set a little high when she expected everyone to be quiet and cooperate the whole class. She wanted a lot of toe pointing and nice and gentle movements. You don't get that with kids this age. Atleast not with my daughter. They had a balance beam, a bar, and some other climbing toys off to the back of the room and McKaila would rather have played with that. I think gymnastics is more for McKaila. She was awfully cute though in her little leotard and tights. Once they brought out wands and wings the kids seems to cooperate a little better. Of course McKaila was still running around. Thats my daughter.