The Things We Say...

I found this Christmas card that Patrick gave to Malia the other day. He gave one of these to each kid with something cute written inside of it. Maybe I will find the other kid's cards and add the words Patrick so cleverly wrote here, but as for now, we get only Malias:





It says:

"Dear Malia,

Oooka oooka!
Waaa waaa!
Brrrrrwowzywa!

That means "here's some money" in crazy talk. Love, Dad"

UPDATE:

I found Rayas when we cleaned her room:



"Dear Raya,

Bla, bla, bla
Here's some money.

Love, Dad"

UPDATE...UPDATE:

Not sure where Carly's was located, but it turned up in Ethan's room (even after we cleaned it). No clever words, just a cute family drawing pointing out the smallest of the Durlings...



Ethan's is the only one left, but I have a feeling I threw it away :( Hopefully there is and "UPDATE...UPDATE...UPDATE..." after this!

What A Mess...

There is this viral video going around the internet of a young child who found a bag of flour and while his mother was not paying attention, he decorated the living room with it. I was able to stop what very well could have been the same fate:



Phew! Disaster adverted!

"I'm On TV...Again"

I got a text the other day when Raya got out of school that said "I WAS ON TV!!!!!" Good Day Sacramento is the number one rated morning show in the Sacramento Area. Raya and I had the oppoturnity to be on it long ago when we participated in a bootcamp and Raya just happened to be in the right place at the right time for another 15 minutes of fame...

Mark S. Allen, who is a celebrity in our area headed over to the Jr. High to do a story on their media class, which Raya happens to be in. The first part of the show was a different class, but during that segment, Mark S. Allen ran over to another classroom which happend to be Raya's homeroom. You can see glimpses of her here and there while Mr. Allen is in the class. The second segment of the show took place during Raya's period where we can see her fake working on her project in the background.


(to view this video, watch "Raya Good Day" on the DVD at the end of this book.

She was so excited that she was on TV. It reminded me of this:



"I WAS ON TV!!!" ~Mike Wazowski, Monster's Inc.

Fashion

Who needs one shirt when you can wear SIXTEEN!

Four Year Olds...

It's not always easy being four, but it isn't that hard either. Let's face it, the baby of the family is usually spoiled. I'm not talking spoiled with the most items or spoiled with the most love. I'm talking spoiled with the most mommy time. I've come to realize that as my baby gets older, it becomes a lot easier to tote her around with me. Because of this, I do a lot more and go more places than I did when I had a bunch of little kids running around. It also helps to have an older child who can babysit too. My new found freedom has been great. I frequent many places and do my part to keep the economy going.

One thing that little miss Carly gets to do on occasion is have lunch with mommy. She likes Wendy's, I like Carls Jr. It's usually her choice. Eating out is such a treat for all my kids so I do my best to take care of all the evidence of a lunch out with just Carly and I including but not limited to airing the car out because heaven forbid the other children find out that Carly got special treatment. It doesn't matter if I get the last french fry out of the carseat, 90% of the time, Carly tells the kids that we had lunch out. Ethan in particular gets so upset that tears are even shed!

The other day I was working in my bedroom and listening in on a conversation between Carly and Ethan. All of a sudden I hear Carly say, "Ethan, we had Wendy's today." Ethan of course got upset but thank goodness no tears were shed. This would not be out of the ordinary except for the fact that we did NOT eat out that day! I could not believe my ears! My little baby girl has figured out what makes Ethan tick and pushed his buttons all on her own during a conversation that was as normal as a 7 and 4 year old getting along would have. I am not sure where she learned this "ha, ha, ha, ha, ha" behavior! She's four people....four! Heaven help me!

Carly Quote

Carly had a very small sticker in her toe that she couldn't get out. I was able to get it out using my fingernails. About a half hour later, Carly says:

"Mom, thank you."

Me: "For what?"

Carly: "For getting my owee out...NOTHING CAN STOP ME NOW!"

Love that kid!

Helen Ruth Yokum Olson

Shortly after Patrick and I got married, we headed up to Oroville to visit his side of the family. We stopped off at Grandma Olson's house to visit. Being quite new to the family, I wasn't totally comfortable around everyone. I decided that I needed to just be myself and get comfortable so I took off my shoes and joined in. A few hours later I heard Grandma Olson asking who's shoes were on the floor. She called out to a few of her granddaughters, all of them told her no. I finally realized that she was talking about my shoes and so I piped up and said they were mine. Grandma Olson then replied "Those are UGLY shoes!" I learned that day that Grandma Olson was a very confident woman who wasn't afraid to speak her mind and I got rid of those shoes shortly after!

Grandma Olson passed away a few weeks ago at the young age of 94. She was still strong and very independent, living in her own home by herself. She was a wonderful lady and she will definitely be missed. One last gift she was able to give, was the gift of reuniting her descendants. She was survived by 4 of her 5 children, many grandchildren, many many great grandchildren, and was a few short months away from being a great great grandmother.



The funeral was nice. Perhaps the best part of the funeral was when Uncle Greg got up and told about the time that they encountered Bigfoot. A story that I was able to hear first hand a few short months ago. In fact, we got it on video and you can view it HERE: Bigfoot is real people!


Patrick was a paul bearer along with his brothers and cousins. Patrick's sister said at the funeral that Grandma Olson once told her that when she dies she wanted a bagpiper to play Amazing Grace while the attendants of her funeral cried and whaled over her casket. There was a bagpiper and there were tears shed over her casket...just like she wanted.





She was buried on top of her husband Cyril. I never had the chance to meet Cyril as he died before I even knew the Durlings, but apparently he was an awesome man with a love of shoes and an addiction to Dr. Pepper. Patrick thought it would be fun to bring a case of Dr. Pepper to the burial and toast his grandparents. Many of the cousins thought that was an awesome idea as well and many of the great grandkids just wanted a soda...caffiene and all.



We were able to hang out with family from Utah. We were able to get a good picture of Raya, Jenaia, and Clara who are a few short months apart. We've been doing pictures like this every time we get together. It's so fun to watch those girls. Even though they don't see each other enough, they are like best friends when they get together!



Carly shocked us by paying special attention to Grandpa Durling. I looked over at her willingly giving a hug and then later watched her climb up on his lap and hang out for awhile...all totally out of her character, but so awesome to see:



Later that night, we all headed over to Grandma Olson's house to hang out and reminisce of the past. Grandma had an elephant collection and she had written down that she wanted each of her grandchildren to get one. There was a very big one that Patrick wanted really bad. In fact, he was bribing his siblings and cousins in order to get it, but through some shady circumstances, his cousin got it. We got a good elephant...it matches my decor better anyway. I was at Tuesday Morning the other day and found an elephant that was about the same size as Patrick's grandmothers, but much cuter...It was $120! So instead of buying it, I just took a picture:



The next day, Patrick's brothers and the wives all went out to dinner after rollerskating at my nieces birthday party. It was so fun and I really enjoyed the company. Anna got pictures of us and when I get them from her, I will include them here, but in the meantime, you can enjoy these pictures I got when I was messing around with the panoramic function on my phone camera....don't laugh too hard:







Here are the pictures from Anna:





The Durling's were reunited once again because of Grandma Olson. She was a wonderful lady who lived a long life and because of her, we were able to gather once again and get this picture of all the Durlings. RIP Grandma Olson, you will be missed!