Swine Flu

It was a rough couple of weeks here
tuesday on came the fever
and it just kept climbing....
wednesday to a doctors appointment I had made a week earlier for some thing totally not the flu
so the appointment came in handy
so there was a lot of this

thursday more fever and a couple of these

friday fever low then gone
hooorraaay
in the fleeting moments of low fever we did get some art in

saturday night fever came back and stayed for another four days
a week and a half for dakota to be inside
is way too long

more posting to come on our healthy family

Super Hero

My conversation with dakota is as follows
d- Mom you want to know something?
me- yes what
d- I am a super hero for reals...in real life
Me-really real
d- really real
me-what is your super power
d- i get good things and give them to bad people
me -whoa i believe that for real, in real life.

yesterday

dakota has been dressing herself for awhile now and usually her outfits are pretty darn cute but yesterday was one of a kind

Introducing

Roller Dakota

and her team mate
the snoozer

after a long day of work it is nice to cool off in the pool

i think we need to post a no diving sign

Our weekend

(no talk of marriage this time but come on look at them:-)

Amy and family were coming to town and yahooo how we love to see them. Then dakota got the sniffles and amy and family are headed to d-land next week so the last thing they want is sickness. So after some chatting we decide to go for it and just be careful not to let the kids share food or drink, I went so far as to say no hugging, which I think totally threw them off.
Then shortly after arriving in ventura layla gets tummy sick so again after chatting we agree that it sounded like she gagged on something not that she was sick. So we finally get together at the park yay. And after awhile dakota and noah find their groove of easily playing together.

sweet layla

It was funny because it seemed like they were having a hard time finding that groove and at one point I was calling out to dakota who was playing in the sand with some other kids 'hey dakota you should play with noah he isn't going to be here for long' and noah corrects me and says it is okay because dakota is making a surprise picture in the sand for him, after that I let it go and they were in the zone.

leela watching the big kids

unfortunately we didn't get together sunday before they left, it was just one of those things, so that was a real bummer but at least we got a couple hours with them on saturday. Thanks for coming you guys.
Today dakota had a bake sale at her school
and I was lucky enough to come while she and marie were working the walk up window. However there was a shift change right when I got there so she never finished my order, apparently they take their shifts very seriously.
The kids seemed to be really enjoying it. We timed it just right because while I was there buying my goodies grandma cha cha and great grandma margaret came so they got to see leela and dakota.
Now I am off to eat some of the goodies I bought yum yum.

Our Wild and Crazy Weekend

Let me first say that when we were out of the car we had a great time.
But we were in the car way too much.
I really thought it would be fine (and it was) because leela is a good sleeper and she has never been much of a car seat fusser. Well she is now.
We headed up north to visit friends and family.
My cousin is going into the Navy so we wanted to go see him before he went in.
We also wanted to see some other friends in the area while we were up there.
So friday morning we get on the road at about 640am and we start off great.
Mom is in the back with the girls leela is snoozing dakota is happy about the adventure and very awake.
In important sidenote instead of taking the larger of my parents two cars somehow we (they) decided to take the smaller car. So as you can imagine the back seat was absolutely uncomfortable.
So they we go cruising along laughing, singing mama mia all seems right.
Then stop number one somewhere on the grapevine to switch drivers.
I start driving and dad takes a snooze mom is squished in the back entertaining the girls.
Stop two is about an hour after stop one, Leela needs to eat. Again more laughter because we pull in to this town, it is a sad town. Pull into a grocery store parking lot. My mom is running laps in the parking lot, dakota is pushing a shopping cart (dad send me some of those photos) she looked like a little cute homeless girl and my dad was taking her picture it was comical.
So leela eats and we get back on the road however the freeway, which is supposed to say the 5 says the 99. I was not paying attention and got us on the the 99 who knows how many miles back.
So we look for the right place to cut back over. In the midst of that stop three occurs, leela is done she is screaming mad and done done done. So mom and I switch places and I nurse for a bit and then we get on the road again but by this point leela is furious that she is still in the car seat. So at this point I do the lean over the car seat and nurse, totally dangerous but at that point we had already been in the car four hours and still had a ways to go.
I think there was another stop in there somewhere, I tried to drive again to no avail.
We made it to Larkspur, where the ferry stops crossing the sf bay.
From there my parents headed to jenner and my girlfriend picked me up to head to her place in santa rosa. Tisa has joey d. (4) and violet (2) so the kids were just thrilled to see each other as were tisa and i.

We finally made it to her place around 4 and we were thrilled.
The kids got right to playing and i got right to my first glass of wine, yummy.

It was great to see tisa.
For dinner we went to this awesome indian place, so so good.
And there was belly dancing.

And as we were sitting there waiting for the dance dakota turns around to the young man sitting behind us and says 'there is a belly dancer here'
to this he replies 'i know she is my girlfriend'
dakota was amazed as was joey d.

So out she came and the kids stopped eating.

After the yummy dinner back to tisas for more wine and bathes and bedtime.

The morning came and my parents came too quickly.
But we did have a nice leisurely morning, complete with breakfast tisa made and then lunch, thanks my friend!

So we left there heading for some Dennis and Sandy's house in sacramento. Lucky for us the drive was pretty uneventful.
Dennis and my dad have been friends almost their whole lives. Their two daughters, erin and kelli, our derek's and my age about and they were there too.
And lucky for us they have a pool.
So we got there got in our suits and visited in the pool.

Dakota who has been leery of big pools and dunking totally conquered that fear she was dunking and jumping in and loving it.

Sadly that visit was too short maybe, two hours.
From there we headed to our hotel literally unloaded our car freshened up and headed over to my uncle and aunts house for dinner.

My aunt and uncle live right across the street from a great but weird park.
Some the the structures/apparatuses were just way off but dakota could have cared less.
We got a nice family photo in and some good time chatting.
I do love my family both immediate and extended.
The next morning we did mcdonalds for breakfast.
I have to say I don't like mcdonalds but their breakfasts are not half bad.

Dakota got all dressed up to go, pretty cute.

We did a quick dip in the hotel pool but it was a bit too cold for her so we headed out.
The drive home was similar to the drive up except i stayed in the back the whole time
ouch.

'mom can I say fock'

are you kidding me.......
she is 4 and this is a question i have to field.
dakota has met and little boy who lives on my parents street.
he is sweet but.........he has three older brothers.
so today we were over at my parent's house
she and the little boy were playing in their backyard.
we don't know him that well so i was hovering (really i hover no matter what)
they were out of ear shot.
then dakota comes over to me
'mom can i say fock'
i had to hold it together just because of her pronunciation of it.
i just calmly said no that word isn't a good word.
dakota looks over at her friend
'no i can't'
obviously i will be hovering a lot closer the next time they play.

Oh leela

Leela decided to turn on to her belly today!
She was pretty proud of herself.
Then she was a little frustrated.


At first I thought it was an accident but then she did it a couple more times, she even showed her daddy. Everyday she amazes me and if it is possible to feel someones spirit I can feel hers and it warms mine, she really is amazing.
And her sister dakota is equally amazing, she is cracking me up these days.
She cracks me up when she says 'mom you crack me up'. She and I have decided to take weekly photos of her on her rock, the rock outside her school. It will be fun to look over the weeks and months.

She is so beautiful, inside and out!

pre waking

this morning in the pre-waking hour I moved leela to the center of the bed, usually it goes leela, me dakota randy. it doesn't start that way but sometime around midnight dakota finds her way to the "big bed". I have mixed emotions about our cozy queen bed, I wish it were a cozy king size bed really. I don't usually put leela next to dakota because dakota is a crazy sleeper but this morning I was awake and wanted to turn. So there was my husband and our two beautiful girls all facing me all asleep. Then dakota kind of woke up saw leela and cuddled right up to her wrapping her arm over her side and I was just... not even sure of the right word to use but it touched me. I was going to get up and try to take a picture but that would have stirred the bed and the moment would have been over before I could have gotten a photo. So I have it in my mind. I love my family so much I love my girls and my husband, our life is good and I am so lucky to have this family.

cleaning up

sorry if anyone received a ton of posts...
I was cleaning up realized I had tooooo many post labesl so if you got each one sorry....

Mainly a photo entry

But I am sure I will think of some things to say too.
First off I want to say thank you to my loving husband for taking this photo

Good stuff right there. I thought it would be a good laugh for anyone reading.
Leave it to your hubby to catch you at your best.
I had no idea I slept with my mouth open.
Leela was having a day this last very hot weekend, where she felt the need to sleep on me and laying her down was not an option, thus the great photo.
We went to a big pool on sunday and
while dakota has been swimming up a storm in her pool she was a little more timid with the big pool. She swam around everywhere with her floaties but didn't want to dunk or take them off.
Leela has just been hanging out really just wanting to do whatever we are doing... hehehe

She is so cute it just amazes me. She is smiling all the time and trying to stand and still trying to figure out those darn hands. I think she may be a thumb or finger sucker, what do you think. She still can't quite control them but it doesn't really bother her.

I have a feeling we are going to be in trouble with dakota and leela, both girls on the go.

She is starting to try and laugh it sounds more like a cough right now but we can tell what is to come.
Today we had some friends over for some pool time.
I am not enjoying the heat. I am so ready for fall....

More dakota photos and other pictures

Dakota has been playing with the camera again.
I love her self portraits.



















Then the other night when everyone had gone to bed except leela and i
we did a mini photo session....

I should have woke dakota up.
And then dakota being a great big sister.
She has a lot of love to give!!!!!!!!!!!