Father's Day

The kids did a Primary activity at church the week before Father's Day where they decorated ties. Men at church had donated ties that their wives no longer deemed worthy of wearing to church. So the kids put stickers all over them. The Bishop approved of them wearing each tie they received, and this is how Michael spent the 3 hours of church--with 4 ties. We had to make one for Cali at home.

Tyler made the tie that says, "eye love U 33 Rocks" Matthew's said, "Michael and 33" because he said they ran out of "D" stickers. I think its funny that both boys put Michael's age on the tie. Alyssa must have had help, it is the yellow one with eye's and heart DAD. We just put a few animals on Cali's tie.

After church we tried to make brownies from a recipe I found online. When it turned out terribly wrong, I emailed the girl who posted it and she said she accidently put the cook time as way too long. Yes, that is apparent from the photo below.

I gave Michael a new blender for his smoothies that he loves to make. The old one was on its death bed. We promptly threw in a bunch of fruit and it worked like a charm.

I am so grateful that I am married to a man who loves being a father. He walks in the door every evening after work with a smile on his face, ready to play with the kids. He more than just loves our children, he actually likes them. I love him more and more watching him with them.

Happy Cali

She is looking up at me telling me she is sorry for the day before.
Thursday was a MUCH better day! I had fun at my late night movie. It was an ok movie, Zac isn't the best actor and I just cringed that Matthew Perry is on the downswing in his acting career. But it was fun to get out with a friend and stay up late (movie started at 9:55pm)! I felt bad leaving my baby, but I fed her and passed her over to Michael. I found out the next morning that she was up for 20 min or so, then went to sleep easily. Nice.

So Cali was the calmest baby all day the next day. It was like her first week of life, except she was actually awake and just chillin. The past few weeks, we've witnessed more fussiness than we ever remember with our older 3. Usually we could "put a cork in it" and she'd be ok, it would just require both hands to hold binkie in and hold her. But on Wednesday, she did not want the binkie. When my efforts of pacing and singing didn't work, I'd set her down for a few minutes to cry while I did this or that. Then I'd pick her up and for the few minutes after that, it was like she was thanking me for picking her up and was a bit quieter. Then it started again. She'd fall asleep, but just for a few minutes and cry again. It was frustrating, but mostly I just felt bad that I couldn't do anything. I tried to cut out dairy a few weeks ago for 2 days, but it didn't seem to make a difference. I'm trying again. I even got Almond Milk because I just love my cereal too much. But, Michael thinks she also has a constipation problem because she only poops every 3 or 5 days. He thought giving her formula with more fiber would help, but then I read that breastfed babies rarely get constipation, and that the more solid foods stop them up. Well, we gave her her first bottle last night, and I was shocked that she took it and drank it up. I thought that us having not introduced it to her yet that she'd refuse it. Maybe I secretly wanted her to refuse it--to love food only from me, but at the same time it is nice to know that Michael can do the bottle if he needs to when I leave from time to time.


So was she happy on Thursday because:
A) She pooped twice (even though on her rough day, Wed. she did poop in the morning after 4 days).
B) she was feeling repentant
C) I didn't have milk all day (but just that one day, the day before I had a lot)

Luckily, our summertime lends itself to my 3 oldest being great helpers. Willing and wanting to hold the baby whether she is crying or not. Sometimes "crazy mommy" comes out when they are too loud when she sleeps, or Alyssa touching her when she sleeps. She actually tolerates the noise quite well, but not the sudden outbursts.


I've called Matthew the baby whisperer because he actually wants to hold her more when she is sad, for the opportunity to calm her...and he usually does. Maybe better than me. Tyler paces the halls well with her, too. It is so cute. Alyssa still needs to work on her soothing techniques (I worry about Shaken baby Syndrome) but she is trying.










And she smiles now. Only sometimes. It took longer than it seems the older 3 did, but well worth the wait. Love this baby.

Cali, Cali

Look at my sweet angelic baby sleeping. I just love a sleeping baby.

She took quite a long evening nap. 5-8pm. As she slept, I held her for a bit, then transferred her to Michael when he came home, then he plopped her down on our bed, and she stayed asleep! Do you want to know why she was so sleepy? Because this is what she did from approximately 2pm-5pm................











Too many tears. I truly feel bad for her when she is sad. I wish I could do more, but nothing was working. She did not even close her mouth enough to clamp on her binkie. She really wanted to nurse, and I tried to hold off at least an hour. After I did, she just went back to crying. Poor baby was as confused as I was. She's had a rough few weeks, but today was the roughest. Fortunately, Tyler and Alyssa were off playing with a friend, and Matthew had a friend here and was pretty much holed up in his room. So I got to focus on her. Michael is so good to come home and whisk her up and take her outside with him to water the lawn--crying and all. He even got some comment from an elderly Indian lady on how to stop the crying. Thanks, lady. I love my baby, breaks my heart. Hope she sleeps okay while I leave to have a little rendezvous with Zac Efron tonight. Love that boy...and my hubby acknowledges my little crush:)

I've been so excited to see this movie since I saw the previews last December. And its at the dollar theater!

Rainbow Cake

In my mind, I've thought that I'd do a baking day each Monday this summer with the kids and then we eat our treat with family home evening. This is the first day I did it, and I'm going to really try to keep it up for the summer. This was so fun, but I don't have a whole lot of patience with cooking and kids, so this will help me learn it. This was an afternoon event, but so fun, and the kids actually liked it (the boys didn't want to do it, but I told them they couldn't eat it if they didn't help make it). I guess it was only about an hour from start to oven, but that hour was a bit hectic. The baby was fussy and the boys took turns holding her while I helped each child mix and add things to the mix.
Here we have the line up of 1 cup of batter in each bowl and their respective fruits ready to go in.

Tyler added the raspberries, Matthew mixed the blueberries, while Alyssa did the blackberries into the batter. We added the pretty food coloring later.

Tyler is mixing the orange for which he squeezed in the orange juice. Matthew squeezed fresh lime juice into the green and Alyssa squeezed in the lemon juice. Perfect, they each got to do 2. I just LOVE bright colors, so this was especially fun to me.

so pretty!

And Voila!!! I froze the layers for a few minutes, and made the frosting and stacked it all up. I just LOVE how pretty it is--did I mention that already:)

I was so happy it turned out as pretty as what I saw. I had seen a comment from another that the layers slid all over the place, so I was glad that didn't happen to us! Thanks Tamiel for your 4 cake pans, since I only had 2. Michael said it looked "unnatural." Yes, but its so pretty!
It even looks cool just slicing through it...
And the dirty dishes look pretty, too!
After the kids only ate a few bites of theirs, and we still had a TON left, I decided to package it up to deliver to a few friends. Had to share the colorful love.
I got the recipe from the blogger, Conversations with a cupcake, but found this picture when I clicked on the sidebar to the Food Gawker (I give this link because it has several other pretty treats by the conversations gal). HERE is the direct link to the recipe. I LOVE the internet and I love blogging! I'm excited to try a few of her other recipes. Now if only I could find a place that makes simple dinner recipes, I might get excited about that. I'm in such a dinner rutt.

Favorite Church Activity

I've decided not to pack my bag full of tricks for my older kids for church anymore. The boys take care of themselves and usually just read their scriptures during Sacrament Meeting. I've stopped bringing church books for Alyssa because she barely looks at them anyway. So I bring nothing. Her favorite activity is to watch Michael draw pictures. The boys actually like this, too. He's done this for months. I've saved a few because I think Michael is a pretty good artist. He will often draw pictures of the kids, and as he was drawing a picture of Alyssa last Sunday, she wasn't liking it. He will draw what they look like at that moment, and she had her big flower clip falling in front of her face and covering her eye. She kept telling Michael to draw her other eye and we would whisper (and tell her to whisper) that her eye is under the flower. She was persistant and kept whispering louder. Michael and I started giggling, and then it became uncontrolable. I told him to just draw an eye and when he did, we both just lost it. It looked funny. You know how you are trying to be reverent in church and while sitting in the middle of lots of people, you are just trying to contain yourself. We were quiet with our laughter, but got a little red in the face. It was just funny and one of those moments that I just love to remember. So here is the drawing.

Alyssa's 4th Birthday Party~Cinderella Theme

Preparations began the night before her birthday. I told the boys we were going to pretend they were going to bed, so Alyssa would go to bed. They did, and she fell asleep quickly. When they came out, we began blowing up balloons and putting up streamers for her to wake up to. To me, it isn't a celebration without balloons. The boys were so excited about their secret operation, and kept talking about how excited Alyssa would be in the morning to see what they'd done. I loved that. It was hilarious watching them--especially Matthew blow up the balloons with all their might. Bugging out their eyes and getting red in the face to put forth all their effort. I was just glad they were so willing because it meant I didn't have to do it:) I put together the goody bags (I was very pleased with the contents I found for it--see picture below) for the party and Michael hung the streamers. We also hung up 3 large Cinderella posters (life size). I wanted the boys to really be a part of her celebration, and they had a role to play at the party, too.

I made a cinderella cake, and though it wasn't perfection, Alyssa said she loved it and thats all that mattered to me. Throughout the party, we played out the Cinderella story. First, Michael ready the story to the girls. Then they took rags and pretended to clean as Cinderella did. Then there was a ring at the door the the "Grand Dukes" delivered a message that there would be a royal ball. Matthew and Tyler put on their tux shirts, and mostly Matthew yelled out the message from the door while Tyler waited in the wings. It was really cute. They were embarresed, but did it anyway. The girls then danced at the ball, played pass the wand, and made their own glass slippers (out of tin foil). We played pass the glass slipper to determine whose present Alyssa would open (musical chairs-esque).
It was lots of fun, and as always, glad when it was over:)

A Mother's Book of Secrets

Now how could I turn away from a books' title like that? I first saw it here and when I purchased it, I was very pleased with the stories and heart of the women writing. I was also quite impressed at the photograhy inside, I could tell it was a GOOD photographer, and not just stock junk that seems to be found in most books. I then realized after reading, that the photographer was also the co-author of the book. It is written by a mother/daughter team. The mother happens to have written several other parenting books, a few that I have in my arsenal. A woman whose name I have heard throughout my life, because my own mother admires her, and began the program, Joy School (which I participated as a child).

Linda Eyre and her husband raised 9 children, and her 2nd oldest daughter, Shawni now has 5 of her own. She can't be much older than me, so the book was a really great read because of that and to hear their thoughts and reflections on motherhood as 2 women in 2 different stages of motherhood.

Then to my utmost delight, I found at the end of the book, a link to Shawni's blog. I have enjoyed perusing it the past few weeks. I am not a big fan of regularly blog hopping to blogs of people I don't know. I do it occasionally, but mostly I stick to my friends "IRL." As I said, she can't be much older than me, and her kids range from 12 to 2. She had a photography business (you see how I can relate) but has put it on hold to research and fight for her youngest child at a crucial time. Her baby has Bardet-Biedl syndrome that she will most likely be blind by the time she is 4. She posted here about her visit with a geneticist and all the things that will go along with her syndrome. I am impressed with her faith and her strength. Her blog is titled "71 toes" because her youngest was born with 11 toes--something that goes along with B-B syndrome.

Here writing is inspirational, and right up my alley. She makes goals for herself and her family, and writes about the value of hard work. A mom wanting to be fun for her kids, be present for her kids, do this and that and the other, and still do things for herself. She is cute and spiritual. She recently posted about her son turning 12 and that she wanted to do something special to commemorate him obtaining the Priesthood. It is a great read. I'd link up a few of her entries, but you may just enjoy backreading as I did. I am not quite done with the book, but if anyone wants to borrow it, let me know. Or you may just want to buy it and keep it around like I plan to. We could all use a book of secrets!

Alyssa Joy turns Foy

She still has the cutest little girl talk, where her "r's" sound like a "y." She is sassy and spunky and Such. A. Girl. She loves her hair pretty's and bracelet's and necklace and doing 2 pokey piggy tails in her hair. She likes to play wiith my hair and asks to give me a "butterfly haircut." She asks for a touch of my lipstick, and I make sure she pops her lips just after to spread it around. She has learned to sweet talk, and also knows how to tease her brothers. She sees the bond they share and wants a part of it. But just goes about it the wrong way. She wants to hold Cali, and will wake her to do so (which she often gets time out for). She talks our ears off, just likes to hear the sound of her voice....with conversations such as:

her: "mommy, whats 2+2"

me: "4"

her: "what is 4+4?"

me: "8"

her: "what is 8+8?"

me: "16"

her: "what is 16+16?"

and so on and on and on....

Since I've had a digital camera her entire life, I thought it'd be fun to collect some images for a collage. Well, as usual, I went overboard and couldn't stop myself. This IS the peared down version. The downside of digital is I don't have a whole lotta prints, so I'll print these 8x10 size collages for her album. Click on them to enlarge.

Alyssa's 1st year of Life

Alyssa's 2nd year of Life

Alyssa's 3rd year of Life

Alyssa's 4th year of Life

On her 4th Birthday, June 12th

Thanks Aunt Kriste for the "4" shirt and Miss Emily for the big pink flower hair pretty.

*P.S. If you are like me and look at the dates on posts, I am keeping this birthday date, even though it is 5 days later.

Cali's Blessing Day

Sunday, June 7th 2009 Cali on her blessing day. My mom made this dress 4 years ago for Alyssa to be blessed in. She used the left over material that she had from my wedding dress 6 years earlier.





Here (below) is Alyssa on her blessing day August 2005
Here is a not so greatly lit shot of our family outside of the church.
Below are our guests that came specifically for this day. I invited 5 different friends who aren't a member of our church to come, and they all came. 3 of my closest neighbors: Brad, Clair, and their daughter Violet (sitting next to AJ) and Guy and Sara (they are the older couple in the back). Both of them came for Alyssa's blessing, also. Then Maggie and her daughter Cassie (in the black and red). Then 2 friends I've met through the boys school. Katrina (she is next to me here) and Mina (in the back behind Michaels dad) and her son Cascade (in the coat by Matthew).
Our extended family includes: Michael's brother David, wife Kriste, and 4 boys came from Ft. Worth. His parents came from California, my mom from Houston (my dad was in Nigeria), and my brother Russell and his wife Kim from San Antonio.

After church, we had a nice relaxing Sabbath. The kids played, the adults chatted, and we had a mini birthday party for Michael's mom whose bday was the next day. All the kids made cards (this is Alyssa showing off hers).
Kriste and I sneakily made a cake with a flag on it, she loves Americana stuff.
G-ma Duke with all but 2 grandkids.
Kimmie (with C.S.D.) my mom, and Russ, my bro
Boys playing Bakugan Battle

AJ also got her presents from the Dukes (yes, her bday is in 2 days, we don't stop around here).

Matthew is just too cute. He was feeling pround that I let him hold Cali while standing up. I've slowly eased him into it because he's over confident. But he does well.
Saying goodbye to the cousins: Tyler and Mason are just 3 months apart (both 8)
Matthew and Kyle are just 1 month apart (to the day--both 6)
Alyssa and Peter are 9 months apart, and adore each other.

It was a great weekend.