Dinner Anyone?

      So if you actually thought I would be offering dinner via a blog post, please stop reading now, you must be a complete stranger in the store (possibly the creepiest) and you MUST own a dog. If you have a complaint please take it up with Rhaylee and Taelyn!
    Lately, I have been struggling with the lesson of strangers. You know, don't talk to strangers, hold my hand so strangers don't take you, ect. Obviously my girls struggle with the concept! I'm not kidding you EVERY single time I go somewhere, the store, gas station, Disneyland...you name it...One of the girls will begin a conversation that starts like this : "Hi, Do you have a dog? I have a dog, his name's Meeko. I'm (Rhay Rhay/Taelyn). Do you want to come to my house? My mom makes dinner!" No joke!!! They don't even have a chance to answer before the questions get to that sudden awkward part of a dinner invite. Believe it or not but people will say yes to the girls! Um, what the heck do I say to that?! Usually it starts with a blank stare or a small smile like the smile and nod way of getting out of those weird conversations! hahaha
   Can I just say that for a 2 and 3 year old, who are probably the most non-shy kids I have ever known, they choose the craziest people in the store!!!!!!!!! Take no offense to this if you have been invited and I know you personally, come on over! :) I'm talking about the weird guy who follows us and insists on knowing their names, ages, what color the father is, my relationship to my children, what they like to eat, what they do for fun, or (my personal favorite) if they want to come over to see their dog! Yeah you....the answer to my daughter better be NO! Don't think for one second you will come to dinner to meet our dog!!!
     You ask what I am doing about this? Well right after those crazy moments I begin to explain that we don't talk to strangers and we certainly do not invite people over to our house that we do not know. Rhaylee usually says that they were nice, and I continue to say no, she will soon make them family by referring to them as cousins! Sometimes I appreciate that they aren't too shy and make friends easily, however, this one is coming back to bite me....I now need to teach them that there is a bad guy in every story. Rhaylee will see the best in everyone...even Jafar! We already know how much Taelyn loves the bad guys in Tangled! hahaha I think they got their mommy's and auntie's "fix it and fix them" personality! ;)
   Well, wish me luck as I am off to the grocery store this afternoon! Maybe we should start the stranger talk in the car... If I see you (creepy person) please know that liver and onions is on the menu with a side of brussels sprouts! hehehehe ;)


    

My Sister...

As I said goodbye to my sister, Sarah who left for Korea yesterday I thought back on our childhood. I thought about how close we were growing up! We always shared a room and never really were without each other. As we were growing up we constantly nagged our mom for our own rooms and yet I'm so grateful for the one we shared. We learned to do everything together, such as cleaning our room which meant pushing "her stuff" to "her side" of the room...If I remember correctly at one time there was actually a line! hahaha :) We had to wash dishes together (literally wash by hand, as we still to this day don't know why as we owned a dishwasher?) That meant arguments on who was going to wash and who was going to dry...we managed not to kill each other in the kitchen though ;) Funny how this is the stuff I remember. But the good stuff like painting our room, covering it in Backstreet/N'sync posters, hanging dragonfly door beads, sticking glow-in-the-dark stars on every inch, and last but not least hanging records up to cover an entire wall!!! :) My fondest memories were when we were just together! Playing in the yard, late night talks, spending the night and Nana and Gpa's house, swimming 24/7, trip to Florida, Trick-or-treating in SVL, trips to Biola to visit her at college, the drive through the mountains of Colorado to see her ( 2 months prego and nauseous over the smell of cows!). The list would just go on and on!

The reality of growing up does suck! You go to school, make friends, and then learn to grow independently :( However, through all the fights of who is "cooler", who has better grades, who is not grounded, who has less homework, who can sit in the front seat, who can go out later, who can drive the car (as we shared that too), and my favorite... who is going to graduate first (haha...of course she graduated with me!). Looking back on our senior year, it was a tough one for us, but well worth it as our relationship now is the best because of it! Sure we didn't share friends or any of the "best" memories of high school....but they really weren't as great as we thought they were then. In fact, none of that even matters! We love each other and picked up right were we left off as we began 2 different lives! Anyone will say those are the best friendships when nothing will ever get in the way and you can go on like time never got away with anything! :)

My sister left for college and by the time she graduated I had married and had my first daughter. Needless to say we chose very different lives but shared it all. She was definitely one of the first to arrive to the hospital as her niece wanted to come at 4am, no one knows how she made it from La Mirada to Victorville in less than an hour!!! :) My husband and I were there with Rhaylee sporting her Biola T-shirt as Sarah graduated and even the delicious celebration at Rutabegorz! When she was in Korea for the birth of her second niece she was on Skype at 2am and on the phone with me just after she arrived!!! :) The best part of all of that is my girls and I made sure not to miss her arrival home as we met her at the airport and she got to hold Taelyn for the first time!!! I'll never forget that!

I'm so proud of Sarah! She is doing exactly what she has wanted to do...what God's plan for her was!!! She graduated at Biola University, traveled to Korea to teach, just found the love of her life, Randy, and married him not too long ago, and just arrived in Korea this morning (again) to teach with her husband and love on some people that need Jesus! Man, I love that girl!!!! Missing her tremendously already! :(

When I look at my two daughters I can already see their relationship beginning! :) When I struggle with keeping them off of each other I am immediately reminded of the wrestling matches between Sarah and I. When they stay up giggling and talking at night I just smile and tell my husband "It drove my dad nuts too!". When I see them kiss and hug I tear up knowing exactly what that sisterly love is all about! When I see them dancing all over the place and jumping on the couches like gymnasts I think back to our love for the Olympics and how one day we were going to be like Kristi Yamaguchi and Shannon Miller (Halloween costumes one year!) :D I'm so thankful that I have Rhaylee and Taelyn and that every day I am reminded of my sister! So much so, that occasionally I see so much of Sarah's personality and "attitude" in them it's a little weird! hahaha
I love my sister with all my heart and I can only hope to pass that down to my girls and one day hear about how much they too love each other! One of God's greatest blessings is a sister!

So with all that said...please hurry home so I can tackle you with a hug! ;)

Taelyn

Taelyn Elise! CHEESE!!!!! I know they are a lil late...but beter than never :) Easter 2012  at GiGi and PaPa's house

Rhaylee

So there is actually nothing funny here....other than she is laughing like there was! HA! Oh my sweet Rhay Rhay!!! Just wanted to share some updated photos of my girls! :) My heart hurts as my sister and brother in law....Auntie Sarah and Uncle Randy are off to Korea. So I needed to laugh....this picture helps ;)

Eww Yucky!

This one is short and sweet. My ten minute conversation in the car with my girls went like this:

(Insert thunder noises here as the rain is pouring)

Girls: "AHHHHH!"
Rhay: "Mom, what's that sound?"
Me: (pausing for a quick answer that can be understood by a 2 and 3 year old) "It's God saying 'Boom Boom, I'm BIG'!"
Taelyn: "BOOM BOOM!"
Rhay: "God's BIG!"
Me: "Yep, God is so big and he makes loud noises sometimes so we can hear Him."
Taelyn: "Eww YUCKY!"
Rhay: "BOOM BOOM BOOM" (in the background)
Me: "Taelyn, what's yucky?" (much confusion here!)
Taelyn: " Eww YUCKY, God's spitting!"
Rhay: "hahahaha YUCKY God's spitting!"
Me: LAUGHTER LAUGHTER LAUGHTER
Me: "Girls, God doesn't spit, we need rain for the flowers and trees to grow."
Rhay: "Yeah, that's not very nice to spit God."
Taelyn: "That's not very nice!" (in the most serious voice she has!)

The joys of being a mom! Wonderful! :)

Family Vacation

Hello! As you have noticed not much has been going on around here....
This week we decided to take a much needed family vacation! Woohoo :) We went to Las Vegas to hang out at the pool but it ended up being cloudy and windy :( Figures!!! So we had to go with plan B...what to do with kids in Vegas??? In the meantime the girls soon noticed the castles! "That's a castle Mom!" "I want to go to the castle!" "I want to see princesses!" The funny part is we weren't even on the strip yet! haha So we had to find our hotel...I mean Tae's and Rhay's castle!!!  Once we arrived at our castle the semi-frustrating 3 hour trip to Nevada was forgotten and the fun began! We started at Silverton with the marvelous fish tank where we had to hunt for Dori and Nemo.  We ended up finding Nemo's cousin with one stripe and Dori's baby...weird...I know!  I'm learning that if a fish tank doesn't have Dori or Nemo it really isn't even a fish tank at all, at least not one to waste our time on! lol So we walked around petting the stuffed dead animals in Bass Pro! :)

As we returned to our castle the girls were so tired...that part was not that funny as we were not looking forward to bedtime in a new environment. DUN DUN DUN! :/ To my surprise I was laughing all night :D They reminded me so much of my sister and I! Rhaylee will talk until she falls asleep and Taelyn wants pitch black and silence, so we struggled in the process of them in one bed! hehehe So Kenny and I snuggled up with them until they fell asleep which took about 2 hours! While I was laying there I was just smiling and laughing! Just seeing my angels jump over one another to take turns sleeping by me and Taelyn laying in Rhay's arms, and the same irritated look on my husbands face that was all too familiar from my dad's face many years ago. I cherished every minute from their cries for their individual blankets, to tiny whispers, to girlie giggles with Kenny's slight snoring in the background. It's funny when something as crazy as that will be my most memorable moment of the trip! :)

The next day we had an adventure at the Shark Reef in Mandalay Bay where Taelyn learned to scream "SHARK!" and follow with a very loud "AHHHH!" as she looked up at the ceiling! hahahahaha That trick continued all day even at lunch in the famous Burger Bar (Kenny's and my treat for the day) where people just thought she was just too cute. ;) Of course when we tell Taelyn "shhhhh" everyone else laughs and encourages for more! :) We made our way back to the castle to try to swim in the 'wimming cool' (as Rhay would call it) and it was shivering cold :( We finished off that night with a great dinner date with PoPo! Well the visit was great... I don't think Kenny would agree the dinner was as his white shirt in between the girls didn't look so great! ;) lol But of course none of that mattered as the girls were fed and happy to see their PoPo and every role of a father seems to be a huge napkin! hahaha

Our last day on our mini vacation was at Circus Circus where we watched an amazing gymnast show and played golf with the girls! I can't figure out if the miniature golf was more hilarious than us being fooled by a magic trick and spending money on a piece of fuzz in a cup! lol I'll start with the golf story as I end with a lesson learned! :) So there were tons of rides at Circus Circus but the girls just aren't big enough so we played a round of golf. I never noticed that this course was 18 holes!!! So I knew right away this was going to be forever long, so we invited the people behind us to go ahead but they insisted they would wait their turn. Yes laughing starts now! :D So Kenny is on Taelyn's team and I have the lovely left handed golfer, Rhay.... with a huge diaper suitcase on my shoulder! Every time Rhay and I swing it's just crazy and my bag falls and moves my arm and Rhay insists on holding the club like a bat! haha Needless to say Rhay ends up picking up the ball and throwing it in the hole. lol Taelyn having an awesome time with her dad making every shot, she soon realizes that hitting the ball with the club isn't as fun as Rhay throwing it! Yep, Tae begins to pick it up and throw it in the holes. It didn't click until the end that Kenny being left handed probably would have been more helpful to Rhay than I was. haha

Yes, the family behind us is now regretting their decision to stay behind as we are chasing thrown golf balls and allowing them to put it in the hole but encouraging them to use the club.... contradicting? yep! Throwing them in the holes is faster and we were pretty much done with this game at hole 5 and telling them to at least try it with the club is "the right thing to do". hehehe Rhay is doing all right with it on her own as she has to conquer everything in her path :) Taelyn, being sleep and food deprived has now become deaf and is only worried about picking the plastic flowers apart on the course! She doesn't care about the ball, club, or holes...just fake flowers and how many she can get before I catch her as she doesn't hear Kenny or I telling her no every second! lol We barely finished 18 holes and the last hole is a pirate that " is not very nice..." because he took the girls balls! lol  Rhay didn't understand why the pirate took her ball and now being sleep and food deprived just like her sister, she couldn't care less what the reason for the ball pirating was and she MUST have her ball back!

The walk back to the car was a tad stressful! Trying to find anything that would catch their attention is where we got tricked! Earlier in the day I noticed this neat toy that was "bug like" this piece of fuzz that resembled a moving bug. Confusing, I know but we were amazed by it! So we stopped to just let him entertain the girls for a second knowing that we would not buy it as we normally don't buy the tricky aisle cart stuff. Wrong! This fuzzy bug thing was crawling everywhere and jumping up out of a cup to kiss the man and he was just too cute. He kissed the girls (the bug!) and crawled all over Kenny and I! Then the price came up! EEKK! No way! Okay girls say goodbye.... The man said, "if you buy 1 I'll give you 1 free and free cups!" SOLD! Only in Vegas.... :(

We ended our trip saying goodbye to PoPo which the girls at this point were exhausted and begging to play with their new toy, so to avoid tantrums we opened these awesome fuzzy bugs up at PoPo's house and soon enough we found this stupid fish wire attached the the fuzz in the cup!!!! Need I say more??? The girls and I waited patiently as Kenny read the instructions and apparently the bug doesn't ever wake up and kiss anybody. He is just a fuzz puppet who lives in a solo cup!!!!! Lesson learned! Consequences... 3 hr trip starting with "mom wake him up." "he's still sleeping." "mom, where is my snake (bug)?" "mom! wake him up!"
Wasn't laughing then...laughing now :)

It's a Boy!

Yep! It's a boy...a little guy that drives me crazy!
See, Kenny has been asking me for a baby (preferably a boy) and well I just can't bare the thought of another long 9 months of torture (sorry to those who enjoy being stretched and kicked) And who's to say it will be a boy??? ;) So we came up with a solution! Well...at least that is what I'm calling it as Kenny is still begging.

He's yellow, hairy, and has 4 legs and was FREE (well he started out free...grr)! Nikko!!! (yes, as in the reindeer that my girls love so much from a Christmas movie) Here is his sweet, little, digging, barking, chewing, fur face. As many times as I have had to go to the neighbors to ask for my dog back, we should have named him Houdini!
Despite the poop everywhere and the digging next door he is a pretty great dog! He listens pretty well if you raise your voice or show him the evil squirt bottle, or even threaten him with the locked dog run. He doesn't jump if you knee him, he wont bite if you squeeze his snout, he wont dig if you spray him with a hose, he doesn't chew the girls toys if Tae The Tank has anything to do with it. Overall I'd say let this be a warning to having another child!!!

Awww they are so cute! They kinda look alike?... Right?
Well that will have to do!

Nikko, son, welcome to the White family! We love you (most of the time) ;)