The forgotten blog...

I have been neglecting my blog due to things being chaotic at home but that is slowing down some so hopefully I will be able to write and keep you up to date more.

What's been happening?

BATHROOM:

The bathroom is almost complete (I can take a shower, bath and brush my teeth in my own bathroom).
Richard has been working VERY hard on it and it looks FANTASTIC!
We still need to texture, paint, install baseboards, install door and toilet.
We are also waiting for a window to come in to put in above the bath.

EVELYN:

Has been thriving and is even reading a little. She sounds out words all the time. It is adorable.
Had surgery for bladder infections but found that everything was okay so hopefully we won't have anymore issues.
Enjoying Preschool and Music class. She sings ALL THE TIME. I love it.
Finally hit the 30lb mark which is nice.
Loves her sister and family.
Has been asking a lot of questions about Papa Joel and him being in Heaven.
Loves to color, sing, read, and ride her new scooter she got for Christmas.
Says "I love you" about 10 times a day.

CAMILLE:

Is now 3 years old. CRAZY!
Is 35lbs and 40inches tall.
Knows how to write most letters of the alphabet (We didn't know she could do this until she asked to spell some names.) She has a great R.
Loves dressing in Princess dresses and often runs around town in them.
Enjoys school and music.
Loves to dance.
Happiest child in the morning and just after nap. ALWAYS wakes with a smile.
Loves to whisper "I love you"
We are having her tested for speech since we are having a hard time understanding her and see that she is getting frustrated. Hopefully we can get her help early.

RICHARD:

Working hard and home and work.
Made the bathroom (with the help of the contractor) BEAUTIFUL!
His company just launched 6 more satellites. YAY!
Great dad!
Great husband!

ME:

Working and loving the people that I am working with!
Enjoying my new bath!
Reading a little here and there.
Loves listening to music over watching T.V. (have some on as I type)
Signed up for SacFit and am training to run a half marathon in April.

Overall, we are all doing well and have each other and our health. For that I am thankful.

We went to Church on Christmas Eve with Lavon and the girls were great. Hopefully we will start going more regularly in the new year. After we went back and had a nice dinner with her before coming home.

We had a great Christmas at home with the girls and Lavon. They had a nice day and were able to ride their bike and scooter and play with everything throughout the day with nowhere else to go. We made a cake for Jesus' Birthday and they loved it. We celebrated with the rest of Richards family the following day. Christmas is more about the kids and less about us and that was nice. We talked ALOT about Jesus' birthday and the meaning behind that. We chose not to give gifts from Santa (sorry if you think that is wrong). Evelyn said on Christmas morning, "I got my bike and Santa didn't even come." She also drew a picture of God picking a flower for Mary because she was going to have a baby.

I am loving the ages and stages that we are in. We have been baking, singing, dancing, riding bikes/scooters and truly enjoying them. We are happy.

Here are some pictures as of recent. Hopefully the chaos will settle and I will post more. Here's to a great 2012!

Christmas Season!

One of the reasons I have been gone...

Here are some pics of the bathroom renovation. You can see it from the beginning of the process to where we are now. We have the shower and vanity installed and the marble tile will be installed on Monday. Tomorrow my bathtub is being delivered. All the pieces are starting to come together. We will post more pictures of the next steps soon.

Enjoy!

Bathroom Remodel

Girls Weekend

I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful husband when asked said I could take a girls weekend with a dear friend that I hadn't seen in too long. He asked which weekend and I was ready to go.

Marissa came up late Thursday and we set off for Tahoe on Friday morning (after packing WAY too much). Marissa had never been to South Lake Tahoe before and thought this was a great time to go.

On Friday, we headed up the Gondola to the top of Heavenly Mountain and had a nice lunch with drinks. My wine was filled to the brim and Marissa's Bloody Mary was one of the best she said she had ever had. It was nice catching up. Even though we haven't seen each other in a while, we pick up right where we left off and didn't really stop talking the whole weekend unless we were taking a nap.

We went out to a couple of nice dinners and had some drinks. I got a new pair of shoes because the ones I wore broke while we were out walking. We went kayaking around Emerald Bay which was absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend it to anyone going to Tahoe if they have the time. We laughed, we cried, we drank and we just had a great time seeing each other.

We have vowed to make this an annual trip and I hope we stay to that vow. Times like this reminds me how much I miss her and how truly great of a friend she is. Thanks for the good times Marissa.

Tahoe Girls Weekend

Finally....

Finally things are starting to slow down and allow for time to blog (that I am sure will be short lived as we are starting our bathroom remodel) and I realized it has been WAY too long.

We finished off our summer in Las Vegas celebrating my grandfathers 80th birthday and had a great time. We stayed for a week and got to have some fun while we were there with the girls. We went to Shark Reef and The Secret Garden with the girls to see the animals. For Evelyn's birthday we went to lunch at Rainforest Cafe which was a lot of fun. Camille wasn't so sure about the elephant at the table but enjoyed it once I told the elephant not to take my food. Richard and I were able to see Bodies Revealed which was amazing and so interesting. I loved it and I think Richard enjoyed (found interesting and intriguing himself) it as well.

School is back in session and I am loving the team that I am on and working with. They are amazing people who are about the students and helping them succeed, which is who I am as well. It is a breath of fresh air. I think this is going to be an amazing year for me, my students and our team. So excited!

Evelyn and Camille are doing wonderful. Evelyn is now 4 and we took her to the doctors last week for her annual checkup. She weighs in at 29.8 and is 40 inches tall. She is at the 5th % for weight and 50th% for height. Right on track for where she always is. She is meeting all of her milestones and is doing great.

Camille is growing like a weed and I suspect that it will not be long before she is as tall as Evelyn. I believe she is measuring about 37.5 inches tall and 34.5 lbs. Love it. She is learning more letters all the time and we are still working on her speech. We can understand more and more but it is still hard to understand. I can't remember if it was this way with Evelyn but we are monitoring it anyways.

The girls are FINALLY sleeping in their beds in their rooms again without one of us with them. It has been about 5 months of off and on being in their room or them with us. It was too much so we decided on Friday to make them sleep in their beds. They both cried for about an hour but have been in there since. It is nice to be all back in our own beds.

The biggest news is that we have started deconstruction on the master bathroom and it is going to be a MAJOR project. We are hoping that we can keep cost down with doing some of the work ourselves but we definitely cannot do it all. Wish us luck and hope there is nothing more that we find.

I have added some pictures because it has been such a long time. Did you forget what the girls looked like? Hope not. Hopefully I can do this more often but I am not making any promises.

Las Vegas

Busy Summer...

Well to say this summer has been busy is an understatement. A couple of weeks after school got out we went camping in Bishop with my family. We had a great time and the girls loved sleeping in the tent and going to the lake. They really wanted to go fishing but I feel that they are still a little too young. Maybe next year. We will have to practice at the duck pond by our house.

While in Bishop we went to Mammoth and walked around. Visited Schat's Bakery where they have the best bread and ginger bread cookies.

After Bishop, my parents took the girls and I to Riverside for some time with them and then we headed out to Havasu for a little over a week. We had some much fun. The girls loved playing in the water. WAY more than I anticipated. They jumped right in and splashed around. It was fun to watch them enjoying themselves and exploring.

While in Havasu, we decided to go to Vegas for a couple of days to visit my grandparents. The girls did great on the trip and it was nice to see my grandparents. We caught them on their anniversary which was nice. The girls warmed up to them quickly. We enjoyed swimming in their pool, eating ice cream and playing with hula hoops. Evelyn got to be pretty good at it.

After a couple of days we headed back to Havasu to finish out the week. We swam, took naps, ate ice cream, sewed and did "fun stuff" (crafts according to Evelyn). It was a wonderful time. I truly enjoyed spending some good time with my mom. I don't get to often but cherish it when I can. Thanks for showing my how to sew. Love you mom.

When we got back to Sacramento, Richard picked us up at the airport. Evelyn and Camille went RUNNING to him and jumped in his arms. They truly missed him. It brought tears to my eyes to see them running to him. He missed them a ton too (he also missed me).

Now that we are back home, we are focusing on remodeling our master bath. We have some problems we HAVE to take care of so we are focused on that.

Richard is in Louisiana for business this week and then we have one more vacation planned before heading back to work on my birthday. It has been a whirlwind summer but has been a blast. I will post pictures when I get them from my mom. I didn't take a camera as I already had too much stuff and was traveling with two kids by myself on the way home.

**** Forgot to mention, during this time we got Camille completely potty trained (using Ice cream as a reward). It was great. She has not had any accidents in about a month. I love having no more diapers. YAY Camille!

Summer has begun...

how can you tell? My house is clean and has stayed cleaned for several days now. It feels so good to have a clean house all the time. When I work, I find it hard to keep it clean and picked up all the time.

The other way you can tell is that I am making Richards lunches for him. I think he enjoys it and it is a nice gesture for me to be able to do it for him. I still have to ask what he wants but at least it saves him time in the morning with me making it for him.

We are enjoying out time so far. All 4 days of it. We haven't done much but are enjoying sleeping in and doing what we want when we want. We have played outside with the water table, read LOTS of books, had friends and family over and just enjoyed not getting dressed for the day until the afternoon arrives.

It is going to be a fun summer with lots of trips planned. I am looking forward to traveling and seeing family and friends.

The girls are doing great. They are enjoying staying home. They are sleeping in their beds without us mostly so that is nice. It is nice to have Richard and I in the same bed again. The vacations will probably mess it up again but it will all be okay.

Summer Time!

The end is near...

of school that is. I am in my final week of school and cannot wait for Summer to begin. I am ready to spend time with friends and family and especially the girls.

I have finished up both credentials and my autism class so things are settling down here. Thankfully I have a great husband that took over when I needed him to. It would have been impossible to do without him.

The girls are great. They are playing together more and more which is fabulous. We often hear them playing "doctor" in the playroom. One is usually laying on a large block while the other is examining them. It is funny to watch.

Evelyn is growing like a weed and shows us multiple times a day how big she is. She even grows at nap time. :0) She is excited about mommy being out of school so we can have some time together to "cuddle".

Camille is good. She is still working on the potty training for #2 but it is getting better. She has her moments of greatness followed by moments of kicking and screaming. I guess this is the terrible two's we all hear about. She truly is a joy. She has started singing songs that she knows and dancing it is hilarious to watch. Her vocabulary is growing more and more so we can actually understand what she is saying.

Richard and I are doing well but both happy that school is almost out. I am looking forward to a relaxing summer with everyone. We are looking into having to replace our master bathroom soon due to leaks that are not good under the house. Hoping we can do it nicely but fairly inexpensive. We are thinking it will have to be taken down to the studs. Thankfully Richard is handy and has some good friends we can call upon to help. Hoping that it is not too bad once we start. Wish us luck!

New Beds!

Spring Break

Spring break has been over for a couple of weeks now and sadly this is the first chance that I have had to sit down and write up our adventures.

The second week of spring break we drove down to Southern California to spend the week in Escondido, CA at our timeshare. It was beautiful and was right on the 17th hole of the golf course. It had about 5-6 pools and recreation centers with fun activities throughout the day. We spent some time at the pool, some time making sundaes and some time painting ceramic owls and cupcakes. We had fun.

We arrived Friday afternoon and just hung out since we had been in a car for 8-9 hours. (The girls did great). We didn't do much since we got there late, we had to stop at my parents house in see them since we were driving right by and hadn't seen them in a while. We went to dinner with the family and were lucky enough to be joined by Scott and Nicole, Tyler and Shalena. So happy to see all of them.

Saturday, we settled in some more, went grocery shopping and met my parents for a while. We went to the pool and played in the splash pad area and then eventually ended up in the pool. Evelyn still had her cast on but since it was waterproof it worked out fabulous.

Sunday was Easter so we headed to Riverside and celebrated with my mom and dad, brothers, sister-in law, girlfriend and grandparents. It was a fun occasion filled with laughter and love. The girls LOVED it all the great stuff they got in their baskets. We had dinner at my grandparents house and it was a really nice time. The highlight though, was my dad and grandpa competing to see who was better at golf. My grandfather beat out my dad. Sorry Dad!. We all got to hit some balls while the girls ran around in the grass playing. It was a beautiful day with family.

Monday was DISNEYLAND and the girls did not know anything about it. We got up, dressed them up in princess outfits and were on our way. We had a wonderful time and met lots of princesses and rode a couple of rides. The girls were great and LOVED going. They wanted to go back.

Thursday we headed off to the San Diego Zoo with both Yayas, which was a rare treat. The animals are phenomenal and the park is beautiful. There are some wonderful exhibits and the girls are in love with all things animal so it was the perfect time to go. We saw the new Elephant Odyssey exhibit which was great. The coolest thing we saw were two rhinos playing with each. One actually lifted the other off the ground. It was a fantastic moment. Too bad both girls were sleeping.

Friday we checked out and headed to my mom's work to celebrate my grandmother's retirement. It was neat to see her happy and surrounded by family and friends.

After the retirement party, my mom got to do something that is so rare it has only been done a couple times before. We got to get pedicures together with no kids. It was FABULOUS and just what I needed. I got alone time with my mom to talk in person. Thank you mom.

Saturday we headed home again. The girls were great the entire trip and I am so glad so many people could see us and the girls. I miss my family so much but times like these make them so much more special. I love you all.

Enjoy the Pics.

Spring Break

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to the love of my life! I love you and I hope that you have a wonderful day. You have made my life more meaningful and wonderful.

I Love You!

CRAZINESS...

That is all that can be said for the last couple of weeks. We have had a rough couple of weeks on every front and I fear Evelyn had the brunt of it. Since my parents left (I am not blaming you for leaving and this all starting...not completely :0), Evelyn has thrown up, got an ear infection, a bladder infection and fractured her wrist. She has been through so much these past few weeks and I feel so bad for her.

The bladder infection came on just before my parents got here. She started peeing herself every day at least once so I knew something was wrong. Wednesday, I took her to the dr. and they said it was a bladder infection. While waiting for the doctor, the nurse asked if everything else was okay and I was about to say "yes" when Evelyn said her ear hurt. Sure enough the doctor checked it and she had the start of an ear infection. Started antibiotics for both of those and thought we should be good now. Fast forward to Monday morning about 3:30, all is quite, both girls are sleeping in bed with me and "THUD" Evelyn falls out of our bed and starts crying. No biggie, I get her back in bed, thinking she is crying because she fell, but she wouldn't stop and said her wrist hurt. Richard came in and we looked at it but couldn't see anything so we went back to bed.

The next day, Evelyn was good but said he wrist hurt so we kept an eye on it and told daycare to do the same. That evening she didn't want to move it and the next morning she wouldn't do anything with it so I took the day off so we could go to the doctors. 2nd time in a week. The P.A. couldn't tell by looking at it so we were off to get x-rays. She was a trooper! Got them done and waited to hear from the doctor. They finally called at 3:30 saying it was a "buckle fracture" and needed a cast. Richard took her the next morning and she got a Hot Pink cast put on.

She will wear the cast for 3-4 weeks. It will be a long 3-4 weeks as she already doesn't like it and tried to take it off. She told me "I don't feel pretty with this on." How sad is that? We will make it through and she will heal. I just wish it was her left hand so she could color and write still.

That was just Evelyn!

I won't bore you with everything about Richard and I but we are hanging in there and working HARD!

Camille is doing great. She is staying dry all day and all night. Still working on #2 in the potty but happy there is an end in sight. She is talking and singing up a storm. She has these conversations with us and they are adorable because she knows EXACTLY what she is saying and has all these gestures to go with it and Richard and I are just like "uhhuh..." It is cute.

The girls now share a room and Camille's old room is now a play room. We are hoping this will help with them sleeping together and not with us. I will let you know when that works for us. I like the separate rooms and I think the girls do to.

Spring Break is coming up in a couple of weeks and I am ready to relax! I need a break!

Enjoy the pictures! Remember to click on the picture below to see more.

Casts, Walks, and Sillyness. Oh My!

Updates on the family...

Camille: She has had a language explosion the last couple of weeks. We recently had a parent/teacher conference and this was the biggest area of need and she must have known we were talking about her because she all the sudden has more words and is putting longer sentences together. We had a dentist appointment yesterday and she did great. She got x-rays and her teeth cleaned. She barely cried. She has 19 1/2 teeth (molar still coming in) and they all look perfect.

The tantrums are still there but have been a little better. They happen most often after watching "Mickey Mouse" so we have limited it even more. She is stubborn and funny as ever. She can be the happiest child (usually in the morning when you get her out of bed) and she is becoming quite adept at potty training. We have few "wet" accidents but are still working on "#2" with her. It will come in time.

Evelyn: She is growing like a weed. She is taller and her hair is longer. I can't open the kitchen cabinet without hitting her head. A while back she had growing pains so bad that I slept with her and rubbed her legs so she could sleep. She comes up to me and says, "mommy look how tall I am. I am growing big." It is adorable. She loves school and we are starting to teach her how to spell and sound out words. Last night, she sounded out: cow, sat, dog, and frog. I sit back in awe as I watch her eyes light up and take in the knowledge.

On St. Patrick's Day, we got to school to find the leprechaun box was missing. The class later then went on a search through the whole school to find it in hopes that they left treats. They got back to their class and it was trashed (tables turned over, glitter on the floor, tissues everywhere, etc.) and they continued to look for the box. Evelyn found the box behind the block area and her teacher said her eyes were huge and she could barely talk.

Richard: Still working hard and helps as much as he can. He has been watching the girls while I go to some classes. He is amazing. I don't tell him enough. He is still at Globalstar and hopefully that will continue for a little while longer. Who knows what the future holds?

Mandy: Working hard and trying to balance it all, which can be hard at times. I love what I do but it can be exhausting sometimes. I have a job next year so that is a weight off my shoulder. They are looking to hire a couple more Special Ed. teacher so I won't be low man anymore. YAY!
My weight lose has not been good. I am not sure why but I can't get focused on it. Maybe I am focusing on too many things (work, school, family, money, etc.). Maybe soon!

We are all doing great and looking forward to Spring and spring break. Have some fun things planned for us!

Best. Weekend. Ever.

This past weekend I geared up for bunco at my house. The house was clean, the girls came over and we have a great time laughing and drinking. The girls and Richard stayed home and stayed out the way for the most part. It is hard being at home and not wanting to be with mommy. Oh well. It was nice to have some friends over. We had such a good time talking we didn't even play. Sometimes that's better.

During the evening, Richard heard a knock on the window and looked up to see my mom and dad standing outside. They surprised US! Neither of us knew they were coming and it was perfect timing because I had just gotten done telling the girls how much I missed them and POOF! there they were. I need to stay out loud more often if it gets them here.

It was a fabulous weekend filled with Folsom Zoo, playing at the park, pizza, candy, Mexican Train, and swim lessons. Oh and LOTS of laughing. I love my parents. I love being with them. I love seeing them with my children. I love everything about them. I could do without out Papa's snoring but then again that wouldn't be Papa so I love that too.

I was sad to see them go Monday morning, but I know that I will see them soon when we go down for Spring Break. Happy I got my mom and dad fix before then.

Surprise Weekend!

Parent Teacher Conference

So this week was busy. Monday started off with taking Evelyn to the allergist to get tested for cashew allergies. Scratch test came back negative so we had blood drawn and just found out that was negative as well. YAY! We still don't know what caused the reaction which is a little scary but hopefully it won't happen again.

Tuesday we had a parent teacher conference with Evelyn's pre-school teacher. Evelyn is doing great. She can identify all upper and lower case letters. She can also identify numbers 1-9. She can follow most directions on a coloring paper (color 2 squares blue, color 1 square red). She did not color in the first and last square correctly so we will be working with her on those. She is writing her name well and getting good fine motor skills.

It was a good meeting and good to hear that she is on-track. She LOVES learning and that makes me happy. Hopefully the progress will continue and she will keep thriving.

Camille is scheduled for a parent-teacher conference for next week. I am curious about Camille because I think the Camille we see at home is different than the one at school. Should be interesting.

Tonight we had snow (hail still on the ground) so the girls got to play in it. Sadly, I wasn't home to enjoy it with them. We are expecting more but I won't be home tomorrow either to enjoy it. I am at a conference all weekend. It is a fabulous conference but I will miss some fun times tomorrow if it snows tonight.

Swimming and Allergies

The girls had another swim lesson and it went pretty well. Evelyn went with me this time and Camille went with Richard. Both girls were putting their faces in and blowing bubbles like no big deal. It is nice to see some progression. Hopefully they keep going.

Today we had an appointment with the allergist. I must say that I was not impressed by the doctor. They did a scratch test for cashews and it came back negative so we got her blood drawn as well. We will get those results in a couple of days. It is the saddest thing to see your child cry and scream because they don't want to do something. Evelyn did great after it was all said and done. We went and had ice cream and just spent the day together. It was nice.

Camille did not like the fact the Evelyn did not go to school and once she caught on she SCREAMED the whole way to school. Luckily the wonderful ladies at daycare could tell and welcomed her with open arms and happy faces (they always do). Camille was the first kid there since it was a holiday so she got some extra attention which was great.

Here are some pics from recent things. Enjoy!

Weekend Fun!

Pee...poop....and potty training...

Things are a changing in the Burstiner household. Camille is potty training and doing FANTASTIC. We have gone several days without any pee accidents. Poop is a whole other ball game. She is doing good and is so proud of herself. Evelyn cheers her on and asks her often if she has to go to the bathroom. It is really cute.

I am soooo looking forward to having no more diapers. At $45 a box, it will be nice to put that toward something else. She has been dry during naps most days but we are working on the overnight. She stayed dry one night but it is a start.

What else about Camille? She is throwing tantrums which is not fun but is part of the age I guess. We never had it with Evelyn but it is something Camille likes to do when we tell her no. Bad parents we are telling our child no and causing a tantrum. Hopefully they are short lived. We try to hold her and comfort her but that usually makes it worse.

Evelyn is doing great and becoming her own person more and more each day. She has really come out of her shell at school and has a great teacher that works well with her and Evelyn LOVES her. She is also getting more sassy and girly. She walks around in high heels staring at herself in any mirror that she can. I know, this is EXACTLY what I did when I was younger, but I have to admit it is pretty cute to watch.

She is learning to spell and write more. She can spell her name, Camille's name without any help and can write most letters all by herself. It is amazing!

The girls started swim lessons last week and they did not go well. They screamed the whole time and didn't want to go back. So bad that they would start crying as we drove to the place. This didn't sit well with us so we talked with the owner and decided to do a parent and tot class this weekend. It was GREAT! The girls were happy to go in and eventually warmed up to the teacher. Camille was blowing bubbles, going under the water, jumping off the step in no time at all. She loved it. Evelyn took a little longer to warm up but by the end she would go under without too much fight. It is nice to see them learning about the water. It feels good that they are not screaming and crying the whole time. The icing on the cake that we made the right choice was that tonight during bath they were both blowing bubbles and were ok with water on their faces (even Evelyn). This is a big step in the right direction. I look forward to the next lessons instead of dreading them.

Richard and I are doing good. I am back in school so he has the girls when I have class which isn't too bad this semester. It is my last semester. I am so excited about being done.

I am working hard trying to finish school and BTSA. I am still trying to lose weight but have gotten a little side tracked. I will get back on it soon.

We have been enjoying the nice weather by working outside in the yard, playing with the girls and going on bike rides. The girls enjoy being pulled in the trailer. We just go around the neighborhood or to the park. It is nice to get out of the house and get some exercise.

Nothing too exciting happening around here. Just enjoying the girls and the house. Trying to fix little things around the house. This house is a wonderful place to live and we can't wait to get things exactly how we want them even if it takes a while.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Hope everyone has a great one. Tell those around you that you love them. It doesn't have to be a spouse but can be friends, kids, or family. Without their love you wouldn't be who and where you are today.

Enjoy the pictures.

2011 Pictures

Happy New Year!

New Year. New Joys. New adventures. New goals.

I hope that everyone had a safe and Happy New Year! We were in bed before the New Year arrived. Surprise surprise. We did have a great night before that celebrating Christmas with Richard's family. It was great and the girls had a wonderful time.

Today is the start of a new year for everyone. I have a feeling it is going to be a good year. I am turning 30 this year. Is that good or bad? :0) The girls are going to be 3 and 4 and we have a vacation planned that we are looking forward to.

My goals (new year's resolutions) are:

1. Keep up on the blog. I do really mean to do this, life just gets crazy. Good thing we aren't buying a house again this year.
2. Lose 30lbs by my 30th birthday in August. I can do this and will do this.
3. Start exercising more.
4. Spend more time with the girls and not be on the computer so much (expect to blog about their wonderful selves.)
5. Bring our marriage to a new level. We are doing great but things can always be better.


Not to far out of reach and definitely something I will strive for. I hope that you find health and happiness in 2011!


Enjoy some pictures from our Christmas in Tahoe.

Christmas and Silly Girls!