She's walking

Kiley is now walking!
it started about a week and a half ago, it's really wobbly and only a few steps at a time, but she's walking now!

We don't have any pictures or videos up yet, but she's doing everyday for us. She has not yet decided that she wants walk as a way of getting one spot to the next. She only walks to people if you stand her up first.

It's the next "step" for her growing up and we're very proud of how her.

-Shawn

The Great Escape

A 3:30pm today I got a call on my cell phone from a phone number I didn't know. Normally I don't answer my phone if I don't know the number, but today I was bored, so I answered it. It was from a guy about a 1/2 mile from my house asking if I own a dog named Darla. I said Yes and he said that she had wandered over to his neighborhood.

I asked about my other dog Hank. He said that there is another dog with Darla, but he was too fast to catch. They couldn't get close enough to read his collar. He told me he would hold onto them until I got there.

I woke Shawn up so he could watch Kiley and I jumped in the car and drove over to the guy's house. As I was pulling up, the 1st thing I noticed was Hank running ALL OVER THE PLACE. The family who had Darla was trying to catch Hank, but he was darting from house to house on the block. Then I spotted Darla. Laying on the front yard grass being pet by some kids. She was in Heaven. I quickly got the dogs into the car and thanked the family for catching them for me.
When I got back home, the dogs got grounded straight into their kennels. I doubt they cared because they were tired from their adventure.



It didn't take me long to realize how the dog's had escaped. Below are some pictures of what our fence now looks like.

Shawn has decided that after Hank and Darla pass away, we will NOT be getting another dog.


This is the side of our house...and YES that is our fence and gate flat on the ground.

Close up of the fence and gate on the ground

ACCIDENTS HAPPEN

Yes, that's right, my 14 month old daughter has a black eye! She had an accident yesterday when I was at work. She misjudged the weight of a table and tried to stand up using the table as leverage. The table was too light and she fell over backwards taking the table down with her.

The eye looks pretty bad, but she's acting like nothing ever happened. She hasn't been any more grumpy then usual. I'm just hoping that the black eye goes away before December 26th because we are taking family pictures on that day.

You'll Regret It

My Aunt Nancy keeps telling me we're going to regret not taking video of Kiley while she's this small and so much fun. Pictures are great, but videos are better. We have a video camera, but I'm not sure how to use it and I'm not even sure where it is. I just used my camera and took a few videos of Kiley. I hope I can remember to take more video from time to time because it's going to be fun to look back at these times in her life.

MURRIETA GARDEN'S X-MAS PARTY

Last night, Kiley and I had the privilege of attending the Murrieta Garden's Holiday Bash! For those of you who don't know, My G-pa Ford recently moved into the Murrieta Garden Assisted Living facility. Last night was the big Christmas Party and Kiley, Myself and G-ma Ford went to the party with G-pa.

The night started out with festive music provided by none other then the Murrieta Garden's Choir...YES, this is a choir made up of the old people who live there. I JUST LOVED IT

The staff sang a few songs and then dinner was served. When I say dinner was served, I mean dinner was laid out in a buffet style. It was chaos. Imagine 30 people in their 80s with wheelchairs and walkers trying to make it 20 feet across the room and then go through a buffet line. I think I was in the line getting food for G-pa for 20 minutes. Then I got to go back in line for my food.

Because of Kiley's unpleasant attitude, I was unable to eat my dinner. But, it's OK, because it didn't look all that appetizing.

Then, SANTA CAME! I thought it would be weird to bring Santa to an Old people Christmas party, but you would have been surprised. Lots of the old people were taking their pictures with Santa. It was pretty cute. Kiley took her picture with Santa and did NOT like it. She was not a fan of Mr. Clause. I would like to thank the Murrieta Gardens for not skimping out on renting the "Good" Santa Clause. He had a full on, REAL beard. It was a great looking Santa beard.

After dinner G-pa and G-ma took me and Kiley on a tour of G-pa's room. It's a nice room and a really nice facility.

KILEY

We haven't posted many pictures of Kiley lately. These are some pics over the last month or so of the girl. She's getting SO big!
Just an update, Kiley has 4 top teeth and 2 bottom teeth now. She is able to walk holding onto someone's hands. She can wave hello or goodbye and she can point at things or people.
Her favorite things are the bathtub, the closet with toilet paper and papertowells and the closet with all her blankets.
She knows what NO means, but thinks it's funny and does it anyways (she actually looks at you and smiles while she getting into something she knows she shouldn't).
She still sucks on her 2 fingers and can't sleep without her blanket touching her face.
She just started reaching out for people to hold her.
Most importantly, Kiley has turned into a smiler. She loves to smile now and she loves to laugh. Sometimes, when we arent really paying attention to her, she just starts laughing!

Book Report

I bought this book with a Barnes and Noble gift card I got for my birthday and took it to Hawaii with us so I could read it on the plane and where ever else I wanted to kill time.

There is not a lot that we know about the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. It was long believed that they were just a bunch of unruly pirates and prostitutes until the English took over the colony. But they are working on translating 30,000 pages of manuscript found in the Hague and a library in Albany. They contain court cases, letters, laws and public and personal records. They show a very civilized, tolerant and extremely diverse population of people who were living well.

Sounds pretty boring but it was a very fascinating book. It reads more like a novel than a text book and goes into detail about many of the characters who were responsible for developing Manhattan and the American way of life. The first representative government in the new world was started there for instance. A great book, if you live in New York it would be a lot of fun to know about all the places they talk about in the book.

I would recommend anyone who is interested in history or just likes learning different things to read this book.

-Shawn

Twilight the movie

So, I saw Twilight at the movie theaters this weekend. I really enjoyed the movie! Don't get me wrong, the special effects were majorly lacking, but I LOVE the cast and I thought the acting was good. I thought that "Bella" was Exactly how I imagined her. I really hope they make the next 3 movies! And, if you didn't think Jasper was cute in the movie, the picture below will make you realize how VERY wrong you are.

MAUI VACATION

Shawn and I just got back from our 8 day trip to Maui and Oahu. We had such a great time. We stayed at the Maui Ocean Club hotel on Maui for 7 nights. We went snorkeling and even swam with sea turtles. We also went on a sunset cruise on our last night on Maui.

On our 1st day in Maui, we drove 2 hours to the top of the mountain Haleakala to watch the sunrise. It was so beautiful. We had to leave the hotel around 4:30am to get to the top of the mountain by sunrise, but it was worth it. It was only 40 degrees and we weren't dressed for the weather, but we still would recommend watching the sunrise here. At the top of the mountain, you are actually above the clouds, so when the sunrises, you see it rise above the clouds. Its amazing.

On Saturday, we flew to Oahu to spend our last night in Waikiki. We met up with my sister Teri and spend the day/night with her. We went to Turtle beach and saw the turtle and seal (pictured above) sunbathing. So CUTE.
We had such an amazing vacation. It was the perfect place and perfect timing. This was a much needed vacation.

I receive weekly emails from Geoff Kors, Executive Director for No on Prop 8. Today, I received this email from the group of directors regarding the recent loss. Normally I would not put this on my blog, but I feel that this email should be shared. This was a cause I was very emotionally invested in.

I admit, I was not the person who put a lawn sign on my front yard for the cause. I didn't stand on the corner waving a sign and screaming for Proposition 8. I didn't go door to door to try to sway people's votes a certain direction.....But I regret not doing any of those things.

I truly thought that California voters would vote for equality. I understand that a No vote on Prop 8 would cause several business to go out of business such as adoption agencies. It's a horrible thought that a company might go out of business because they stayed strong to their religious beliefs. But anyway you look at the situation, it all comes down to equal rights.

I truly believe that every person should be treated equally and when I heard that Prop 8 passed, I felt confused and I really felt disappointed that the people of California voted Yes.

I KNOW that same-sex marriages will be legal in the state of California one day. Every person deserves the same rights, no matter what their orientation may be.



Below is the letter.

"Dear Friend,

We had hoped never to have to write this email. Sadly, fueled by misinformation, distortions and lies, millions of voters went to the polls yesterday and said YES to bigotry, YES to discrimination, YES to second-class status for same-sex couples.

And while the election was close, and millions of votes still remain uncounted, it has become apparent that we lost.

There is no question this defeat is hard. Thousands of people have poured their talents, their time, their resources and their hearts into this struggle for freedom and this fight to have their relationships treated equally. Much has been sacrificed in this struggle.

While we knew the odds for success were not with us, we believed Californians could be the first in the nation to defeat the injustice of discriminatory measures like Proposition 8.And while victory is not ours this day, we know that because of the work done here, freedom, fairness and equality will be ours someday.

Just look at how far we have come in a few decades.Up until 1974 same-sex intimacy was a crime in California. There wasn't a single law recognizing the relationships of same-sex couples until 1984 -- passed by the Berkeley School District. San Francisco did not pass domestic-partner protections until 1990; the state of California followed in 2005. And in 2000, Proposition 22 passed with a 23% majority.

Today, we fought to retain our right to marry and millions of Californians stood with us. Over the course of this campaign everyday Californians and their friends, neighbors and families built a civil rights campaign unequalled in California history.You raised more money than anyone believed possible for an LGBT civil rights campaign.You reached out to family and friends in record numbers -- helping hundreds of thousands of Californians understand what the LGBT civil rights struggle is really about.You built the largest grassroots and volunteer network that has ever been built -- a coalition that will continue to fight until all people are equal.And you made the case to the people of California and to the rest of the world that discrimination -- in any form -- is unfair and wrong.

We are humbled by the courage, dignity and commitment displayed by all who fought this historic battle.Victory was not ours today. But the struggle for equality is not over.

Because of the struggle fought here in California -- fought so incredibly well by the people in this state who love freedom and justice -- our fight for full civil rights will continue.Activist and writer Anne Lamott writes, "Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up."We stand together, knowing... our dawn will come."

- MICHELLE

We went to Utah for Halloween this past weekend. Shawn and Kiley flew up on Thursday and I met them in Utah Friday night. We had such a good time with the Sundquist family. Kiley got to meet her great grandma and grandpa Sundquist this weekend for the first time.

We went out to dinner with the family for a belated birthday dinner for Shawn at the Outback.

If anyone is interested, Kiley was the worst baby ever on the flight home. It was so embarrassing. Basically, she screamed the entire time.

Grandma Neener made Kiley her Halloween costume. She was a stinking cute lion.



Auntie Lisa and Kiley ----------------------------------------- GG-Ma and GG-Pa Sundquist, Vic, Shawn and Kiley



Shawn and Kiley in her Lion Costume ------------------------------- Grandma Neener getting Kiley ready

Learning Languages

The Marine Corps has decided to offer the Rosetta Stone Language Learning courses to Marines for free! Right now I'm learning spanish. I learned a lot in Jr High and High School already, but now I'll know it better I guess. After I finish spanish I want to go right into a new language but I'm having a hard time deciding which one, so I'm going to put up a poll for everyone to vote on so I can see what YOU think.

I understand that Portuguese and Italian are supposedly really easy if you know spanish already.

I really want to learn something kind of interesting that not many people know, (at least not people i know) like Swedish or maybe Dutch, but if not too many people know it, how useful would that really be?

Anyway, vote and let me know what you guys all think!

-Shawn

Are you as stupid as I am?

My cousin was working on a school assignment and was having difficulty solving it. I took a look at the problem and I could NOT answer the problem. I felt SO stupid. I looked at it for a couple minutes, thought about it for a while, and then just gave up. I don't feel as stupid because my aunt couldn't figure it out either. Then, my uncle Robert sat down for 20 minutes and finally came up with the correct answer. Keep in mind, this question is in a book for grades 3 - 6.

Anyone who's interested, here is the question. You may want to talk out loud when thinking about the problem, or write down what you're thinking. I'll post the answer later, but let me know if you get the answer and let me know how long it took you to get the answer.

Question: What's in a Name?

The last names of Ruth, Scott, Talisa, and Walter are Ithling, Jacobs, King, and Latimer. From the clues below, match up the first and last name of each person.

1. King, who is Latimer's grandfather, is not related to Ruth.

2. Scott is 5 years old.

3. Scott is not related to Walter or Jacobs.

*remember, this question was in a book for 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders. Makes you really feel stupid.
- Michelle

Recruiter Graduation

This morning Shawn became an official Marine Corp Recruiter! He graduated with a class of approximately 300 other marines. The graduation was down on the Marine Corp Recruting Depot in San Diego. He looked so handsome in his dress blues. He now has 30 days of leave and then checks in to his new office in Moreno Valley, CA where he will be stationed for the next 3 years.

The 1st picture was taken for Gus Gus. Shawn is standing under a palm tree next to a street sign called "Samoa"

Time to "Baby Proof"

After Kiley and I got home from work/daycare, I put her in the den with a cup of milk while I went outside to get the dogs some water and food. I was gone, maybe 5 minutes and when I came back to check on her she had found my secret stash of money. I like to keep some secret money in the house for things like Shawn's Birthday or for vacation cash. I keep the money in a box with stripes and then inside that, another smaller box and then inside that is the cash. I don't know how she figured it out, but she was loving it! I guess it's time to start putting things up a little higher.






Then, while typing this blog entry, I look over at Kiley and she has managed to tip a basket on top of her and spill out most of the contents onto the floor. Its an easy clean-up, but the basket is going to find a new home...a much higher location away from Kiley's grasp.

No More Bottles

Kiley's Pediatrician just told us that she did not want Kiley drinking bottles anymore. THIS IS THE BEST NEWS EVER. No more buying formula, no more washing bottles! Last night, Shawn was doing the dishes, but instead of washing the pile of bottles in the sink, we threw ALL the bottles into the trash can. And, the trash man came this morning and took all the trash to the dump. I hope I never have to see another bottle in my sink again. We saved one bottle (just to be safe). You never know if Kiley is going to have a freak attack, so we want to have a bottle handy just in case.

She drinks out of "Sippy cups" now. She is supposed to drink 3 cups of whole milk a day. She seems to enjoy the milk. I hope this transition isn't too difficult for Kiley, but I couldn't be happier.

I packed her a lunch today without any bottles. Her lunch included a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, some sugar free chocolate chip cookies, a juice box, some chex cereal, a pear, and some gold fish. I think she's gonna love it!

Kiley's Party

Tonight we had Kiley's birthday party. We started out with a nice dinner that Michelle's mom prepared, which was very delicious. Then we let Kiley have a cake all to herself. She was a little apprehensive at first but then got to business as you can see.




So proud of herself!



Then we let her open presents, and this duck from Michelle's grandma was one of her favorite things all night.



Thanks to grandma Steffy, grandma and grandpa ford, aunt Casey, Troy, Great Grandma Fleckner, Great Grandma Ford, uncle Joe Joe and Aunt Melissa, Pebbles Glodowski and Calie for all the great presents!

Happy 1st Birthday

Today is Kiley's 1st Birthday. We aren't celebrating her birthday until tomorrow, but thought I would share some birthday photos. We'll have more birthday pics posted soon.

WE LOVE MORENO VALLEY

Today Shawn found out that he will be a Marine Corps Recruiter in the beautiful city of Moreno Valley! Thank you everyone for the prayers...we couldn't be happier. We had no idea where we might be stationed. We could have been stationed anywhere in the United States and with a lot of luck and a lot of Shawn sucking up to the right people, we are one of the lucky families who get to stay in the area we already live in. The commute is just about the same as he's been doing now (maybe even a little less of a commute).

Shawn will get a company car, cell phone and gas card, BUT these items can only be used for work related things. He doesn't get to take the car home, but it's still great.

Just as an update on Shawn's recruiting classes...he was 5th place in the fitness/running section, and 2nd in his group during the communications/public speaking class. He also recently scored 97% on a written test. Shawn doesn't like to brag about stuff, but I like to brag about him!

Oh yeah, he also just got selected for a promotion. Next year he will be "Staff Sergeant Sundquist"

Melissa and Ashton's Visit

This weekend we had Melissa and Mr. Ashton come for a visit! Mr. Ashton and Kiley were sort of friends, but they have completely different personalities. Mr. Ashton just wants to play, have fun and smile all the time and Kiley just wants Mr. Ashton to leave her alone. She is a total beast sometimes, but I still love her.

Kiley and Ashton

Grandma and Kiley swimming

We could regularly find Joe in the same spot doing
the same thing...all weekend long.

Little Einsteins

Kiley apparently loves the show The Little Einsteins.

Whatever it is she is doing, she immediately stops and stares at the t.v. when the show comes on. Once the music stops, she might go back to playing or crawling or eating or whatever, but for a few minutes she cannot be distracted from her Little Einsteins.





-Shawn

Laundry Time

Uncle Troy let Kiley play in his laundry basket today! Troy pushed her all over the house and she loved it, but she would NOT smile for the picture.

Big Eater

Today Michelle made Kiley a Strawberry Jelly sandwich on wheat bread. We're working on getting her eating more adult foods and getting her off bottles a little more. As you can see, she's having no trouble adjusting to tasty foods!