Manning Memories

Friday, December 7, 2007

Rebecca's 3rd Birthday Party

For Rebecca's 3rd birthday, we had a Jojo Circus Party at our house. We decorated with balloons and streamers in the Living Room to make it look like a Big Top, and we also hung some in the kitchen and family room. We invited all of Rebecca's cousins (Lily, Emma, Tate, Alana, and Peter) and 2 friends from our ward (Lucy and Nathan). We also had 2 grandmas, 5 aunts, 2 uncles, Aaron and I, and 1 other mom there. I was a little nervous about having so many people there, but it turned out to be a great party and I think everyone had fun. I know Rebecca did, which is the most important thing anyway.

We played "Goliath's" animal guessing game (see Jojo's Circus to figure out who the characters are). We also watched a 15 minute clip of Jojo's Circus so the kids would know what Jojo's Circus is all about - plus it gave me time to set up and clean up the piggy banks!

We did cupcakes again instead of a cake because it is so much easier to hand out an individual cupcake and the kids seem more likely to actually eat them (from my experience). Here is Anson anticipating his cupcake!

These are some pictures of Rebecca opening her presents. The first one is with her friend Nathan, and the second one is with Lily and Emma. Nathan gave Rebecca a Barbie movie, bubbles, and a little blue fairy doll, and Lily and Emma gave her a pony. I took other pictures with someone else's camera, but I don't have access to those pictures right now. Suffice it to say that she got a lot of fun stuff.

We decorated piggy banks for one of the activities. Rebecca had broken one of Lily's on accident a while before, so she saved up her money to buy Lily a new one. I found a package of 16 for only $6 more than one would cost on another web site, so Rebecca paid me $5 and I bought the big package of pigs. It was a fun activity, but would have been a disaster if we had not had so many adults.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Rebecca's 3rd Birthday at Grandma and Grandpa T.'s House

Rebecca turned 3 on July 25. We celebrated with my family on the Sunday before her birthday. I brought cupcakes - strawberry, per her request - which we ate after Sunday dinner. I don't think she really knew what strawberry cupcakes taste like. I think she just liked the color! My sister Julie, her husband Dustin, and their daughter Alana were there too. Alana will be turning 3 this Sunday. Rebecca is 4 1/2 months older than her, so we are way behind on posting this!

Singing Happy Birthday! She blew out all 3 candles!

The birthday girl! Cousins! Alana & Rebecca

Anson decided he had to make a call at the party!

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Father Daughter Camping Trip

On October 13, Aaron and Rebecca went on the Father Daughter overnight camping trip with our ward. There were quite a few setbacks, like not much notice, not reserving the campsite, and changing the campsite at the last minute, but it all worked out in the end. They had a great time. Here are some pictures!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Update!

Ok, so its been a REALLY long time since I posted. I actually did try to post in September after our vacation to Virginia, but as I tried to publish the post my computer froze and I lost the whole thing! I was really disheartened because I had just spent a whole 10 minutes writing it and even putting pictures in so I gave up until now.

In any case, there hasn't been much exciting happening anyway. We took Rebecca and Anson to Virginia the first week of September. Aaron's parents and brother Thomas came with us too. We had a 3 bedroom penthouse! It was so beautiful and spacious for all of us! We stayed in Williamsburg and the resort had a golf course right outside the building we stayed in. There are so many trees everywhere and we had a great time exploring the woods around the golf course in the evenings. We went to the city of Williamsburg, saw Monticello, went to Jamestown and Yorktown, and we went to the National Arichives and Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C. We all had a wonderful time.

The one downside was another trip to an emergency room there for Rebecca. She stopped taking her antibiotics on the Tuesday while we were there after being on them for 20 days. The next day I noticed a small red spot next to her right eye. That night it was a bigger red spot, and in the morning she looked like she had been punched in the eye. It was so swollen and we were afraid that she would have to have another surgery next to her eye! We went to the emergency room and we were in and out in an hour. I didn't know emergency rooms could be so fast! Apparently she had a different kind of infection and they put her on a different type of antibiotic for another 10 days! This girl seriously needs acidophilus (sp.?)!

Rebecca started preschool on September 10. She loves it and is learning a lot- especially about interacting with others. She goes on Mondays and Wednesdays. It is a co-op preschool, so the mothers take turns teaching. I end up teaching once every 5-6 weeks. I enjoy teaching the children, and I get a break most of the time. We definately love the arrangement and the children like to have the preschool in their own home every so often.

Anson has been doing a ton better at talking and understanding things. It seemed like almost overnight he was able to say his animal sounds and repeat a lot of words. He is also responding better when I ask him to do things. He has always kind of been like this. He showed no interest in learning to crawl around the time that Rebecca had started. About a month later though, he seemed to decide that he wanted to do it and was really good at it from the start. He did the same thing with walking. A week before he turned one, he decided he wanted to walk, and he did great from the start!

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Rebecca In The Hospital

Wow! Its been such a long time since I've posted anything! We have had a lot go on, but I'll have to update about that later. Last Saturday, August 11, Rebecca woke up with a fever. The fever kept going back and forth between going way down and going way up. The missionaries came over for dinner around 5:30, which Rebecca slept through, then left around 6:15. Rebecca woke up after they left and we gave her some tylenol because her fever was way up. Then Aaron and Rebecca were reading a story on the love sac when Anson bumped Rebecca's neck. Aaron looked at it and there was a huge bump sticking out of the side of her neck - about the size of a golf ball. We immediately got our things together and rushed out to the car to go to the emergency room. We went to Banner Desert and got there just after 7:00. We waited until about 11:30 when we finally saw the emergency room doctor. He ordered blood tests and a CT Scan to see what was inside of the bump. The blood tests were normal, but the CT Scan showed pus inside. They admitted her to the pediatric wing of the hospital at around 5:30 in the morning. An ear, nose and throat specialist saw her in the morning and performed surgery around 10:30 that morning to drain the pus. They grew the bacteria that was in the pus and found that it was a staph infection. We are not sure how she got it. She was in the hospital until Wednesday morning. We went to the specialist's office this morning to get the stitches out.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

California Trip

I'm finally getting to writing about the trip we went on June 1 - June 7 this year. (I finally got the pictures downloaded onto my computer.)

Dana (Andrea's sister) and Bryan, Maria, and Tate S. (Aaron's sister's family) came with us to California during the first week of June. Our family and Dana arrived on Friday night and got settled into the hotel. The S. Family didn't arrive until Saturday night, so we spent Saturday going down to the beach (no swimming, it was too cold!), riding the carousel, and going over to Balboa Island on the ferry.

Anson didn't like the water much! Rebecca burried Daddy's legs!

I was surprised at how much Anson absolutely loved the Carousel! He was all smiles the whole time!

The carousel again! Aaron and I on the Ferry.

Dana and Rebecca on the Ferry. Anson kept leaning over the boat trying to touch the water.

On Sunday we went to church and walked around the resort. Newport Coast is beautiful!

Anson by a fountain. The view from our balcony.

On Monday we all hung out at the resort and relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. Maria, with a little help from Aaron at the end, grilled steaks for dinner while I helped set the table and get things ready inside.

We all went to Disneyland on Tuesday! We found out early on that the M. side and the T. side do Disneyland very differently. Dana and I are used to being there when the park opens and rushing to the main attractions first while the lines are not as long as they will be later. In the afternoon we can relax and be a little more leisurely. The M. family likes to take it slow the whole time. They don't mind getting there an hour or two after opening. You will often catch them all standing around trying to figure out what to do next. I have done both ways, and so has Aaron, and we both still prefer the way we grew up with. We did determine though that Disneyland is the only amusement park that I am set on doing this way. If we were at any other amusement park, I wouldn't care as much, though I still don't like standing around trying to figure out what to do next. I'm all about planning ahead and standing in line as little as possible. I think it keeps everyone happier anyway. So there is the explanation of why our family and the S. Family split up, although I think it worked out well for them because Maria couldn't go on the big rides anyway. I may have a slight bias for my way of doing things, so I hope this doesn't offend anyone. I offer it only by way of explanation. In any case, we had a great time with the kids. Here are a few pictures.

Becca, Dana, Anson and I outside Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. Anson, Dana, and I on Dumbo.

Daddy and Rebecca on Dumbo. Rebecca watched the movie before we left, so we just had to go on Dumbo!

Winnie the Pooh!

Anson loved the costumes. He kept patting Pooh's and Eeyore's soft heads. Rebecca was kind of scared, though she did give Pooh a little hug. She wouldn't even think about going near Eeyore though.

Rebecca and Anson on It's A Small World. This is one of our favorites because the really little ones love to look at all of the dolls. Lots of time for mom and dad to enjoy the kids' reactions!

It's A Small World again. Rebecca during the Parade. This was one of the highlights of the day for us. We were in the front row and all of the characters interacted with us a lot. We all really loved it.