The joy of kids growing up!

My mother raised ten children, and nine of us had braces. It is now my turn to "gladly" spend my retirement money on orthodontic work for my kids. Wow! Can you say expensive? Dominique had braces put on, and he actually has good teeth! Well, relative to me when I was his age. He will only need to wear them for just over a year. Dreyton has actually been seeing an orthodondist for two years due to an underbite, which my DNA passed down to him. He has had two mouth pieces and invisiline. As soon as he loses all of his baby teeth, he will have braces too.

Donovan and I are hoping at least one of our kids decides to go into orthodontics so that we can retire early and move in with them. At this point in time, Dreyton says he wants to be an orthodontist (mostly due to seeing a lot of "toys" some of the orthodontists we knew in St Louis had around their homes). We are keeping our fingers crossed that he continues to have this occupational aspiration!

Vegas Baby!

Each year the American Physcial Therapy Association holds a conference that Donovan tries to attend. It seems like I have been able to go with him every other year. I found out awhile ago that it was going to be held in Sin City this year, so I just "had" to go. Originally, I was going to stay with my sister-in-law, Kristen, and have some good times with some crazy girl fun, but her life changed drastically and she has since moved to Utah. I wasn't sure if I was going to go because she wasn't going to be there. But as it drew closer to make a decision about going, I decided it would be fun to go and visit other friends and spend time with Donovan. Everyone needs a vacation without kids once in a while, right? Thankfully Grandma Peterson snuck out of Utah Valley last minute to come watch our four children. It was very much appreciated! Thanks a lot, Mom!!

Donovan and I stayed in the Luxor hotel compliments of the University of Florida (gotta luv dem Gator greenbacks!).

We were able to visit with a lot of friends that have crossed our paths over the past several years. We lived in Vegas for three and a half years back in '99 to '02 . Wow! Vegas is so different now. There has been a tremendous increase in traffic and a lot more homes that have been built since we moved in Aug of 2002. The strip is still crazy, of course.

I really wanted to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, so we drove to Caesars Palace in the car we rented and had dinner there with a good friend we had not seen for a few years. Nothing like fine company and delicious food!

Donovan enjoyed his favorite dessert there, Dulce de Leche cheesecake. It was as yummy as this picture makes it look.

We "pulled a Janae" on this trip meaning we forgot to take our camera (once again!). At least we are consistent. :)

I knew this day would come!

I always knew this day would eventually come. What day is that?, you ask. It is when my children pass me up in height. Dreyton wanted me to measure his height today. Of course, we had to find out if he had finally surpassed his dear old mother's "giant" stature. Dominique and Dreyton have been neck and neck with each other, but Dominique is still slightly taller. But it is official that they are now both taller than me. **sigh** I measured the boys in the fall, but they were still a tad bit shorter than me. Since then, I knew they had grown due to the length of their pants I had bought for them increasing. Dominique didn't fit his band uniform a few weeks ago, but I wasn't going to remind them that they had probably passed me up. To keep my sons from being too puffed up, I had to remind my boys that being taller than me is not a very hard thing to do. I've been short my whole life, and it doesn't make me feel better that I'm shrinking with old age. I need all the height I can get!! It's strange not to have to bend down in order to kiss your children. I guess I'll be soon standing on my tippy toes to kiss my boys. Just as I do with my husband.

I get comments all the time. People will say, "Did you know you are short? Wow! You are short!" I think to myself, "Really...Where have you been?" I've always been short, but I don't need people to remind me of that fact. As you can see, I am feeling a little bitter of this "huge" accomplishment my two sons have met. On the bright side, Donovan is trying to have our accountant look at my decreased height as a possible tax deduction with the new Obama plan.

Jyllian's 3rd Birthday Pictures

I'm a little behind on posting Jyllian's pictures. But better late than never. While we were in Utah, I had my sister-in-law Amanda take some pictures of Jyllian. Amanda always does such a great job. It is very nice to have a photographer in the family. Thanks, Amanda.

When we arrived at Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Amanda's home, Jyllian thought we were going to play with her cousin Bailey. Little did she know! When I told her she was going to have her picture taken, she was not happy about it. It is very difficult to take pictures of Jyllian, because she does not like getting her picture taken. While Amanda took the pictures, she had me leave the room. It usually works better, if I'm not in the same room.

Amanda was not able to take a lot of pictures, but at least she was able to get her to smile in some of the pictures. Jyllian kept sticking her finger in her mouth and acting silly.

What kids eat?! The dinner of champions

The other night, we had pigs in a blanket for dinner. It's a very fast and easy meal and great for kids. Jyllian poured about a 1/4 cup ketchup on her plate. She loves ketchup! We were all finishing eating, and she said she was done too. I looked at her plate. She had only eaten one bite of her hot dog. I said, "Jyllian did you only eat the ketchup for dinner," and she said, "No I licked it with my finger." Surely, there is some nutrition in ketchup. After all it is made with tomatoes, right? She does the same thing with ranch dressing (another nutritious and important energy source). I'm not sure how much of the solid food she actually eats, but at least she's eating the salad dressing to cover the necessary fat intake recommended by nutritionists. What other "energy enriched" foods make up the diet of your children (or yourself)?

Poor Electrical Work

As most of you are aware, we moved to Gainesville in June of 2008. When we purchased our home, it was four years old. This is the third home we have purchased, and each time we have bought a house we have also purchased a home warranty plan (which usually lasts a year). Well, whoever wired our home here in Newberry must have done it Monday morning after a weekend binge with Uncle Jack (Jack Daniels, that is). Thus far, the problems we have expeienced are electrical ones. I had purchased a new dryer in Missouri prior to moving to Florida. The home we had in Missouri had gas hook-ups, and the home in Florida was all electrical. I prefer gas hook-ups, but that's another story. When the truck arrived with all of our belongings, the washer and dryer were put in their spot and plugged in. When I opened the dryer door, the light bulb exploded. This was my first attempt to use my new dryer. It was really scary because glass shattered inside the dryer. I called the Maytag warranty department, and they came to look at the dryer. Come to find out the 220 volt plug had been incorrectly wired. We had to then call the home warranty company to fix the outlet. I don't know how the people that lived in the house prior to us didn't have any problems, but maybe it was because they never washed clothes. Maybe they did and just didn't disclose it in when we bought the home. Our next electrical problem came with the wiring in the ceiling lights. Donovan was installing ceiling fans in the bedrooms (yes, shocking I know that he was actually doing a household chore...a minor impersonation of his dad that occurs every blue moon), and the swich to the fan was not working. Well, the wiring in the ceiling was not wired properly, so we had to fix the wiring in the ceiling. This week we had another electrical problem. The dishwasher quit working, so I called the appliance repair man (who is getting to know me on a first name basis by now). He looked at the wiring in the dishwasher, and it had melted together. He said the electrican did not place the proper size screw over the wiring. There was nothing wrong with my dryer, ceiling fan, or dishwasher. It has all been electrical problems. I thought electricans were supposed to be bonded and licensed. The person that wired this house did a horrible job and obviously didn't know what he/she was doing.

The joys of home ownership! We will eventually move again and get another house. It would be really nice to stay put for 35 years like my parents, but I know we won't. So I just have to hope I can have my next home custom-built. I would really like to have my brother-in-law Mike to be my contractor. He is very meticulous and would make sure things were done right. Those Whimpey engineers do a good job! If you haven't seen Mike and Annette's home, you should go inside (I can arrange a tour for a nominal fee if anyone is interested). He built it from the ground up. He did have a few things contracted out, but it's a beautiful home. I know everyone has housing issues, but I hope you had a good electrican (or a handy-man father-in-law who lives nearby!).

OU is officially Gator Bait!!

Congratulations to the University of Florida Gators!! 24-14 win over the Oklahoma Sooners. What a game for the BCS National Championship of NCAA Football!!