Winter pictures of the kids

Cavelle





Taniyah





Jayda



Makkiah




Jaleel



Destini



Brayana



Raquel




Ladaria



Tyreque

Baby Push Ups

My little guy is growing to fast.

This is his newest trick aside from the new tooth.

He says first you get in this position:




Then you keep you back straight like this:



Make sure you keep your chin up:



And then strike a pose:

First tooth

The first tooth came in on December 1st.

Unfortunately my camera was not working and I didn't get a picture of it.

It got knocked off the table by one of my kids while I was transferring pictures.

Thankfully I had bought insurance on it and it was replaced.

I wasn't sure that I was going to have a camera for Christmas.

I sent it in on December 4th.

It was supposed to be repaired or replaced in 10 business days.

On December 21st when I still had no camera I called.

No one knew what was going on with it except for the fact that I was getting a new one.

The problem - no one knew if it had shipped or not.

An email was sent and I was told to call back on Monday.

Monday I called back and the one person who could answer the question was not there.

I was told I could buy a camera and return it when mine came.

Not what I wanted to hear at all.

So I went and took a shower so I could get ready to go get a new camera.

When I came out there was a PINK box waiting for me.

Christmas Eve and what showed up?

My new, upgraded, 2 lenses included CAMERA!!

And along with it -

The ability to take pictures of this:

An arrest has been made

Family photo
Angelina EspalinOCEANSIDE – A year-long investigation into the death of a 4-year-old girl ended Monday night with the arrest of her young foster mom, Oceanside police announced Tuesday.
Dania Haros, 23, is being held without bail on suspicion of murder and violent assault on a child. She is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.
Angelina Espalin died on Nov. 19, 2006, after suffering blunt-force head injuries, according to the Medical Examiner's Office.
Haros and her husband took the unconscious girl to Tri-City Medical Center at 8:30 a.m., and concerned hospital staff members reported her head injuries to police, said Oceanside police Sgt. Leonard Mata.
She was airlifted to Rady Children's Hospital, where she died later that day.
The death was ruled a homicide a few days later after an autopsy.
Investigators said it didn't appear a weapon was used.
Angelina and her 2-year-old sister lived with the couple for five months before she was killed, said Oceanside police Sgt. Karen Laser. Her sister was placed with another family after the death.

Sweet Angie

Sweet Angie
It's been one year since you were taken from this earth. One year of sadness, of pain, of heartache.

You were not born of my body but you will always and forever be a child of mine in my heart. You will always hold a special place in my life.

You were very much loved. Very much wanted. I'm so sorry that the wrong people were able to make such life altering choices for you.When I sit and think about what you went through and how you must have felt it hurts my heart. It rips it to shreds.

The peace I have is in knowing that while you were here with you knew that you were loved. You knew that you were wanted.

I remember the smile on your face, your laugh, your little way of doing things "Angie style" and it makes me happy. It makes me smile to know that I was a part of your life and you were a part of mine.

I thank God each and every day that he gave me the privelege of being your second Mom. Of holding you in my arms, of loving you. I am thankful that you are no longer in pain. That no one can ever hurt you again but how I wish that things had been different.

I wish so much that you were still here on this earth. That I could still have the oppurtnunity to share you and your life with your family. But it is not to be and it is not for me to understand at this point. Maybe someday, maybe never.

We all love you sweet baby girl!

Making biscuits

First you roll out the dough.


Then you put it on the pan.



Then you have yummy biscuits.

It's finished

The fence is finished! 150 feet of new fencing.

It looks so different now that the old falling down fence is gone. Both the old wood and chain link has been replaced. So we now have new fence all the way around the house.


Once we get the front cleaned up I will take a picture of the front of the house.

Fence Progress

An update on our fence progress as we got a lot accomplished today.

We got the brackets and rails put up

Here's one half of the fence line with some rails up

And the other half of the fenceline before the rails got put up

Then we started putting up faceboards.

We got about 40 feet of faceboards up in the back and it looks so much better than it used to

We called it a day as the sun was setting and the sky was beautiful

Rod's shoulder

On Friday before all the craziness began Rod injured his left shoulder playing softball at work. I got a call from one of the guys saying that he was hurt and he'd bring him home when they were done.

So he came home in obvious pain and off we headed to the Balboa to get a sling as they didn't have any left. They made a make shift sling for him to stabilize his shoulder.

Monday morning we headed to the clinic and found out that he has a complete Grade 3 AC seperation. A complete tear of the AC ligaments and the coracoclavicular ligaments is a grade three AC separation. This injury results in the obvious bump on the shoulder. You can read more about it here - http://www.orthogate.org/patient-education/shoulder/acromioclavicular-joint-separation.html

Yesterday we went back to the clinic and he did some ROM excercises. He will be temporarily assigned to a training center on base right across the street from the clinic so he can walk over for his appointments since he can't drive. He sees the doctor in two weeks to be reevaluated.

Back Home

The wind changed directions and the fire has headed in a different direction so we felt it was safe to come home.

We came home last night around 9:30pm and we all crashed.

Will and Marsha were so gracious to let us stay at their home for three days. The kids all did really well and spent most of the time playing games and watching tv since they couldn't go outside.

But it's always nice to be home. The vehicles were covered in ash as well as the sidewalks. The newspaper was discolored from sitting outside but other than that the house is still standing!

Hopefully we are here to stay

Firestorm 2007

Well I'm sure that everyone reading knows that San Diego is being consumed by fires at this time.

We live in Spring Valley and we were evacuated last night from our home.

The fire is less than 4 miles from our house.

We live near the 94/125 connector and just above the Sweetwater Resevoir.

We are at a friends house right now and doing well.

To see updated fire maps you can go here - http://cbs8.com/ or here http://www.fox6.com/

The Harris Fire and the two smaller fires on the same map our the two fires that are threatening us.

A Birthday In Heaven

I heard you crying yesterday

And felt your heart-sent love

So I’m sending you this message

Now, from Heaven up above.


You’re wondering if I’ll celebrate

My birthday (way up here)

I know you’re missing me today

I feel your essence near.


God planned a special day for me

He told me with a wink

He’d ordered me a special cake

(It’s Angel food, I think)


I’m getting lots of hugs from God

He’s really good at that

And every time that I walk by

He gives my head a pat


Balloons will fill the streets for me

They float up through the clouds

And we have lots of clowns up here

That make us laugh out loud


There is a birthday carousel

Jeweled horses ride the wind

With music playing oh so sweet…

The magic never ends


I’ve made so many friends, you see

We laugh and play and sing

We ride our bikes and play jump rope

And sleep in Angel’s wings


We’ll have our cake and ice cream

And open gifts, surprise!

But we don’t blow out our candles here

Instead, they light the skies



© 2005 Written by Kris Smith

Another fence

Two years ago we did one side and the back fence. We weren't going to do it yet but the windstorm that we had that year had other ideas.

Then we did the sideyard fence.

Then we took down the chainlink fence in the front and replaced it with a picket fence.

Then we did the fence around the BBQ area to keep Taniyah in the backyard and all of the kids out of the BBQ area. We still have the gates to do for that part but they should be pretty easy.

Now we are starting the last side of the fence. Once this is done we will we be finished with all of the fences.

Today I took down the wooden fence on the last side and the posts. Let's see how long it takes to get this side completed.

Jenny and Andrew's Wedding

Today after church we were honored to attend Andrew and Jenny's wedding.

We've known them both for 7 or 8 years from the San Diego Youth in Action. That is the team that Tyreque and Ladaria originally got involved with when they were much younger.

Several years back we were honored to attend Jesse and Stuart's wedding - Jesse being Jenny's twin sister. What a blessing to be able to watch these two girls grow into beautiful Godly women.

The wedding was beautiful. I teared up when Jenny was walked down the isle. I told Ladaria I'm gonna be a mess when they start getting married - I cried at Jesse and Erin's wedding also. Jenny looked absolutely stunning.

Rod was armed with his camera and took photos to give to the bride. They had a photographer but Rod got some fun shots that really show the personality of the bride and groom. I need to do some editing before I post them.

I do have one photo that I will leave you all with tonight though.

Shelves

A couple years ago we redid our living room. We built steps from the living room into the library changing the flow of traffic between the two areas.

In the process we also built a closet on each side of the stairway.

One of the closets has the hot water heater in it. The other closet I put a small set of shelves in with the intentions of doing built in shelves.

Today it rained so I thought it would be a good time to do them.

Rod and I bought the boards to make shelves and the supports. Cleaned all the stuff out of the closet that was piled in there and set to work.

It was actually much easier to do than I thought it would be and in no time at all we had the shelves in.

I got the stuff from the closet sorted out and put into bins and back into the closet. Everything is neat and organized. I also cleaned out one of the hall closets and one in the kitchen. Now all my photo props are in this closet and easier for me to find as well.

We also replaced the track to the closet door. It works so much better now!


And a picture of Cavelle from this evening as a bonus in one of is rare quiet moments.

Somebody said.............

that Taniyah always has the same face in her pictures.

This just proves that she doesn't -

New Climber

I love Craigslist! I had been looking for this particular climber. It's big enough that more than one child can play on it but small enough that it doesn't take up the entire backyard. It also has no swings on it so need to worry about kids getting kicked while trying to traverse the backyard.

Well I had looked around for this climber but I couldn't afford to pay full price for it and I had only seen one or two listed on craigslist. Well I went on Thursday to look at something and decided to search for this climber to see if any had been listed. This one had JUST been listed and was half the price of it new.

I emailed the person and they said it hadn't been spoken for so we drove up to get it after church today. It was up in Carlsbad but still cheaper than buying a new one AND it was already put together. We took the seats out of the van, removed the bridge and all the pieces fit right in.

Now we just need to get the rest of the fence finished. The climber is two years old and it still looks brand new!

A day at the park

With all the other kids in school we headed off for a playtime at the park and to get some pictures.



Well we got a few pictures of Cavelle and Taniyah

But true to his nature Cavelle didn't last long in his stroller

and Taniyah pretty much just wandered around seeing what all the other kids were doing but didn't want to play with any of them so our trip to the park was short lived!

First Day of School 2007

All the kids are back to school for another year.

Makkiah is in 1st grade, Jaleel is in 4th grade and Destini is in 5th grade.

Brayana and Micheal (our neighbor who practicly lives at our house) are in sixth grade

Raquel is a Freshman this year!

Ladaria is a Sophomore!

Tyreque is a Junior!

The younger and middle kids all started school on August 15th. The high schoolers all started school on August 20th. They are all glad to be back in school. Glad to see old friends and make new friends. Glad to see some teachers but not others.

Looking forward to another year of growth and learning. It's hard to believe that next year I will have my first graduate!

Is it time

to update yet? I'll try to come back this evening and do that. I have pictures from the first day of school and the baby.

Hello Everyone!!

I was taking pictures for my Mom to update my blog and while looking through the ones that I had taken I came across this. I thought it was funny that he's got the same posture in both pictures.

13 week ultrasound picture

20 days old

Birth Story

On Thursday I went to see the midwife and was a good 3cm dialated but she said she could easily stretch me to a 4. She said she didn't think I would make it through the weekend without having a baby. I was hoping for a 7/7/07 baby, a Sunday baby as my normal midwife would be there or a Monday baby since Rod was supposed to be home by then.

On Friday I woke up and wasn't feeling very good. I ate a bowl of cereal and then walked around some. About 11:30 or so I started having "contractions" that hurt in one line across the top of my belly. My belly was staying hard most of the time but the "pain" was every 5 to 20 minutes.

I walked around, sat on the couch, laid on the couch, laid on my bed, and walked some more. I also decided that maybe I should pack my bag and get the camera together since I hadn't gotten anything together.

About 2:30 the "pain" across the top of my belly was happening pretty consistently at 7 minutes and had been going on for a few hours now so I decided to call the midwife and see what she said. Since I have pretty fast deliveries she told me to come in so we could see where I was at.

I called Marsha to let her know that we were headed to the hospital. Mom and the girls got stuff loaded into the van and we headed for the hospital.

They put me on the monitor and I was contracting every 7 minutes or so with lots of smaller "irritability" contractions in between. The baby had one decel when I first went on the monitor and when the midwife checked me I was 5 cm so that earned me an admission without the ability to go walk around.

So we headed over to a LDR room and got hooked back up to the monitor, got an IV and blood draw, and Mom went down and got my bag from the car. In amongst all the people coming and going from my room Mom and Marsha fixed the curtain which was not hanging correctly.

About 6 pm I sent Mom and Marsha to eat with the promise that I would not have the baby while they were gone. Since I had not been able to get up and walk things weren't going anywhere quickly. I called Apryl to let her know that I had been admitted and didn't have Jen's phone number in my phone.

The dr came in and I was 5-6 cm so not much progress had been made. At that point the plan was to run a course of antibiotics and to then start pitocin.

The dr then came back in and told me that they had decided not to do the antibiotics and they would start pictocin instead.

Marsha and Mom came back and Marsha was looking for something when she discovered a bag of M&M's stashed in the bedside table. She asked if they were mine and my response "Where would I have gotten a bag of M&M's from?" She discovered that housekeeping hadn't done a very good job and took a picture of the evidence.


About that time the nurse brought in the bag of antibiotics and pictocin. The nurse was laughing because she had gone into the wrong room before coming into my room. I questioned her about the antibiotics since the dr had said he wasnt going to do them. She didn't seem to believe that I wasn't supposed to get them and finally decided that she would check it out. I wasn't supposed to get them.


They started the pictocin and let it run for a while. The contractions started getting closer together and they were going up off the monitor but they weren't hurting at this point. I was watching tv while Mom and Marsha watched the monitor. They couldn't believe that I was still smiling at that point.


The new dr came in just after 9pm and broke my water. There was a LOT of fluid in there and I felt like I lost about 10 pounds and was sitting in a swimming pool! You could hear the fluid pouring out. I got up and went potty while Mom and Marsha changed my bed out and the nurse came in to say that I needed to get back on the monitor since the baby was having decels.


I'd had about 3 contractions that hurt (I'm not sure that it was the actual contraction that was hurting. It felt like the baby's shoulder was stuck on my pubic bone and that's where all the pain was at) and the baby wasn't liking them at all so the nurse laid my bed flat and gave me an oxygen mask to put on. At 10:03pm the nurse checked me and I was 8cm. She said she didn't think it would be long at that point and left the room.


With the very next contraction I felt the need to push and couldn't say anything. Marsha went to tell the nurse that I was pushing and Mom stayed right there by my bed. The dr came in and I was +3 and they didn't have anythign set up. She keeps telling me NOT to push so they can get the bed broke down and the table set up. I was trying not to push but at that point it's a little hard not to.


After what seemed like forever they had everything set up and I was ready to push. I kept hearing "Push, push, push" but I couldn't get a good breath with the oxygen mask in my face. I kept putting it on top of my head and it wasn quickly replaced on my face. At that point all I was hearing was "You need to push this baby out!", "Push", and "You need to take a deep breath, hold it and push". My response was "I AM"! I finally managed to get the oxygen mask off my face long enough to get a GOOD DEEP breath and pushed him out and heard "IT'S A BOY!" Official time of birth was 10:16pm.



According to Mom the baby's heartbeat had gone down to 40 and the doctor had paged another doctor and was looking very concerned so the baby needed to be out. He came out looking at my leg instead of facing the floor!


Rod called right in the middle of the pushing. Mom told him to call back as we were having a baby right then. Right after that they hit a dead spot so he didn't get to call back for another couple hours.