Waiting for Santayard

Reader Beware- There are Santa Clause's secrets unveiled. Must be mature and receive parents approval if under the age of 10.

Ever since Friday I have been counting down the days till Christmas. Friday is the day Santa dropped his present off in our backyard. Thanks to his Jimbo Elves and help from many other elves. However Mrs. Clause insisted that the kids wait till Christmas to see this present. So one whole week of no backyard or even looking into the backyard.

I did my best, by putting a tarp over a side of it, which only drew more attention to the big blue floating tarp. I then put paper all over the windows that look out into the backyard. And the third step was making sure the backdoor was locked at all times.

There have been several close calls butI finally see light at the end of the tunnel, Christmas is tomorrow!!! Hallelujah.


This year for Christmas we are getting our backyard back.

LULU is 9 Months

Louise is such a cutie. I just love this baby stage. Not as much as the immobile stage. She is a really fast crawler. She loves to swipe things that are in her way and throw them behind her. She doesn't love to cuddle. She is a great eater. She loves carrots and avocados and corn. She hates being left out of the action. She loves it when Ruby crawls with her. She loves to growl. She is 23lbs and in the 85% for height and 95% for height.

Ruby likes to show off to Lulu, when she can do a new trick or looks pretty. She doesn't like lulu touching her or anything that belongs to her. Ruby calls lulu a "Skermer Wormer" or a squirmy worm.

Halloween Costume Times

See if you can guess what we all are-

1. LULU
2. BEN
3. Katie
4. Ruby

Group Shot

You know your an idiot when...

So while at Arco, waiting for my gas to be pumped. I was wondering about this $0.45 charge for using my debit card, and how it effects the per gallon charge. So after the pumped stopped I did the math. I busted out my calculator and discovered that the per gallon charge is actually $0.03 more. Surprised at my discovery I drove on, only to discover I was dragging the pump hose behind me and the gas station old guy was chasing after me!

I gave him my cell number and my drivers license number. The owner called me later on and told me a professional has to be called out to fix the hose. My thoughts, "A professional?! It is a snap on hose, can't you just snap it back on?" My Words, "Oh I understand, so you need $100 for his charge? K, I'll drop it off later."

The bummer is my $50 fill up, ended up costing me $150.

The best part is that now I have the Brea Arco owner's cell phone number.

"There is something in my leg."

This is a Rubyism:

After Ruby goes to bed for the night she likes to delay the inevitable: "i'm sick" "I need some water" "Mom can you get me some books" etc. Tonight was the best yet. She called me into her room to help her. She asked me to help her get something out of her leg. I couldn't find what she was talking about. She said there was an egg in her leg. So I finally found what she was talking about. It was her ankle bone. She just discovered her ankle bone. I showed her mine and told her it was her bone and I have one too. She was okay with this explanation and went right to sleep.

These pictures are Ruby's hiding spot when we play hide and go seek. she also has a really good one where she puts her face in the shower curtain.

Mike Moore- A Tribute

This is my Uncle Mike Moore- He is more like a brother to me, ever since I can remember he has lived with and been a part of the family. He has some really amazing things happen to him.

He loves CS Lewis (loves to read)

I do not know why crazy things happen to him ALL THE TIME. It is like bad karma just follows him around, sprinkling misfortune upon him. Just in the last year he has accidentally texted a cute girl in church about herself, spent the night in jail for an outstanding parking ticket warrant, and just recently...

Mike and Ruby have a special connection ever since he gave her a build a bear that he built with him bare hands and even kissed the heart that is stuffed inside of the "Fluffy Ruby Bear" (Name on the Bears Birth Certificate)

Mike was on a first date. Mike lives in Bakersfield and took the girl to Disneyland. Impressive. So while at disneyland they went on the roller coaster ride that does an upside down loop through Mickey's Head. While upside down Mike's keys come out of his pocket. Not Impressive. So they talk to the costumed employees about their situation. They try to enjoy the rest of their day knowing that they are just putting off the inevitable car issues that await them in the Daisy Parking Lot. Mike calls my Dad, who loves a good laugh so cruises over to disneyland to help out. They call a lock smith, who can only do so much because the new key needs to be coded by Honda. Girl in the mean time is texting away. My dad finds out from her what she is texting: "Mom if I never make it home from this date you can have my scrap-booking supplies, and sister can have my clothes."

The Honda place was not open until the morning so they decide to sleep over at my parents house. Girl sleeps in Cody's Room and Mike sleeps in the guest room. She was beyond tired and fell right to sleep. The only thing about sleeping in Cody's room is that the walls have an under the sea mural on every wall and on the ceiling is a silhouette of a hammer head shark. Kinda spooky. REALLY SCARY if you have a big fear of the ocean like this girl does. She woke up in a panic.

They ended up getting the key coded and heading back to bakersfield just in time to miss church. She had a really good attitude about the whole thing. And Mike (so cleaver) sent her 34 Daisy Flowers for their 34 hour date while the car was stuck in the daisy parking lot.

Disneyland-(a different trip) I love how he is shielding Ruby's face from the sun. What a nice uncle.

They still have a connection

Thugs

if I'm not going forward- I'm going backwards

I have been thinking lately (weird), about life and bad things happening to good people and about my faith. As a youth I had unshakable Faith. I used to bear my testimony and say that I look forward to trials and tribulations in my life to help me to grow and become even stronger. I just knew whatever was thrown in my path I could get through it. What has happened? I now pray that everything will go smoothly and that nothing will go wrong, I get upset when something bad happens to good people and question - WHY? Why is this happening?

This has been an interesting week. Everyday this week (6 of the 7 days) I have babysat kids,either for the whole day or part of the day with one sister in law who just had a baby and another sister in law needing some extra help, a best friend whose grandfather in Utah passed away and left the kids with husband who works, and having it be my co-op day (babysitting swaps) -I have been, as Ben calls me, Mother Hubbard.

I had a crap day on Tuesday, seemed like everything was going wrong, I was the target of an offensive judgmental comment from a silly old Gossip in another ward (she was talking to someone else and saw me and said, "I remember when you were in the singles ward and decided to go on a mission to force his hand" Wow what an awful thing to say to someone who doesn't even know me... Yah I am not going to go there, even though I really want to, that is not what this post is about, Later that day I was thrown up on by Lulu (projectile vomit) just as I was leaving and in a hurry to pick up my nephew from pre-school. I had to change myself and Lulu for the third time today thanks to an earlier event that was also very messy. Last event of the day -Ruby locked me out of her room and when I tried to take the door knob off neither one of us could open the door. I just about Had it. Ben came home and I took off, just needed to get out of there. Just as I was leaving my SIL Heather texts to see what I am up to and offers to do my hair. What a great way to end such a crap day.

All I am saying is I want to be that Faithful Katie I once was where a crap day, or family tragedy, or worry will not get me down or bring down my spirits.

PS things that make me happy: Lulu's gap front teeth, Ruby asking me if I love her, Ben winning me a wet suit from dress up day at work, and ease dropping (can't help myself)

Pumpkin Spice

I love Halloween! I love the candy, the decorations, the anticipation, and the smells. Several Years ago I bought this Pumpkin Spice Oil Scent. It made my house smell so festive. This year I pulled out the oil and set it over a candle. Half an hour after lighting the candle Ben complained of a head ache due to the pumpkin spice scent. This confused me because just recently I read that Lavender and Pumpkin Spice are mens most favorite scents. So I blow out the candle and try to air out the house.

Monday I was in a hurry to leave and accidentally knocked over the pumpkin spice oil and It pour all over my feet and pants and other items around that area. I jumped in my car and knew I made a mistake to not change my pants/shoes instantly, but I thought by rolling down the windows it would dilute the smell. After I got home a couple hours later I took those fragrant pants off and wondered if washing out the inside of my nostrils would help get the smell out of my nose.

Tuesday- again in a hurry with not much time to pick out an outfit, grab the pants from yesterday. Leave in a hurry to my Parenting Class (more on that later) then on to Target for an amazing deal on tupperware (which they were out of and had to get a rain check). Again the Smell haunted me all day long. Why didn't I change my pants when I got home? Beats me! Then again left the house to go to the Brea Target Grand Opening - Which was awesome!!! They were giving away all sorts of goodies and they had plenty of tupper-ware for me to buy.

After Target we went to the Library to return our books, Ruby loves to put the books in the book return slot on the outside of the building, then we went inside to pick out a couple books. When we checked out the librarian dude asked if we had just returned books because we smelled just like the books he just checked in... like pumpkin spice!

Youth over nighter

So Ever since I got the confirmation from my mom that she would be able to watch Ruby and Lulu overnight I've been super excited for the Youth Water Ski overnighter trip. And for some reason every time I would tell people this they would chuckle and look for my reaction- Nope not being sarcastic. To top things off Ben would be coming along (He's really good with the youth). So I had done my preparations: Girls at my parents CHECK, Jay-Co from Nan's CHECK, Camping gear rounded up CHECK. Then an hour or so before it is time to take off one of my girls calls me and her and her mom are not agreeing on her decision not to go... and I am in the middle of it. So her mom guarantees me she will be ready for me to pick her up at such and such time. Needless to say both were pissed.

After leaving a couple hours behind schedule from our meeting place (you know church things), which was excruciating because this girl was so bummed to be there and refused to interact. Then we finally got on the road and thanks to Ben's I-Phone we did not get stuck in the bad traffic.

We arrived after dark and after everyone in the caravan took the wrong turn up to the State Prison that was 1 mile away from our campsite. We had an awesome spiritual discussion by our bishop and I lead the game (Wink Murder). Which Ben tried to sabotage by telling the girls next to him to just start winking at everyone and to pass it on. That pissed me right off, if you can imagine.

Then we got to the lake, almost all the kids tried Wake boarding and tubing. The girl that did not want to go, had so much fun-i've never seen her smile so much-EVER. I did some sweet wake boarding, and the day was almost completely accident free (One of the girls wiped out pretty hard wake boarding and kept having trouble remembering events that just happened, later checked out at the doctor, she had a concussion.

Yay for having fun

Tubing was the hit of the day

Yay for outings without the kids

That's what I'm talking about

Sweet footage, while all the kids were out on boats, the adult leaders entertaining ourselves, notice one of the leaders behind me talking trash, about my performance not being as good.

**** Thanks mom and dad for watching the girls!!!

Lovely Louise

Louise is 7 months old

Stats: At her 6 month check up she weighted 19lbs 13 oz= 95% , height 27inches = 90%

developments:She has her bottom two teeth and her top right tooth coming in. Lulu is also very mobile. She scoots, crawls, or rolls to whatever she is determined to get. She is also pulling up on some furniture

Bat Habits: She likes to growl or let out angry yells- could be teething, but I would love for it to stop.

Good Habits: Good eater, Sleeper, loves to laugh at Ruby

Little snip-it of Lulu's personality

Schultz Fam Reunion Carpenteria

So this year for the Schultz Family Reunion we had an awesome time camping in Carpenteria State Park. Everyone was there, which alone makes it an awesome trip (Harrison from Idaho, Christy and Brian from AZ before they move to Deutchland, Sam and Ainsley from Utah). We spent a lot of time on the beach, we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo, played a lot of games, did some bike rides, and just hung out.

Fat Baby Lulu

Just an awesome baby

We played a lot of Disco's (Argentine Game kind of like beach horse shoes)

Ruby had so much fun, she was constantly dirty, even after taking a shower

Us loaded up to walk down to the beach, Lulu is on Ben's back

Talent Show:

and the winner goes to (Drum Roll)

Grand Prize: Nan and Myles (Special message in Bubble Language)

Runners Up:

1. Rocky - with his off color jokes into the mic

2. Heather, Ryan, and Harrison - All the Single Ladies, for the best use of costumes and Dance Moves in High Heels

3. Me and Ben- Originality (syncronized swimming routine with matching flower swim caps)

Honorable Mentions

Ruby and Piper's Talent

Santa Barbara Zoo

Such a cute, kid friendly zoo. Our favorite was the Elephants that put on a show for us, our least favorite was the coach roach exhibit (sick).

so fun they had this hill that the kids could slide down on cardboard

Waiting in line for the train ride around the park

Myles found this Butterfly that just emerged from his Cocoon.

Ruby was a little freaked out by it

Cute Buhrley family- Amber is three weeks away from her delivery date, and is a crazy woman. I was sitting down to takes rests and she was up snapping pictures and gathering her kids up.

Xoe and Xanthie were so good with Ruby, they are like mother Hens, always gathering up the younger cousins and making sure everyone is getting along.

Sunday Meeting:

We sat around in a circle and had a nice meeting by Harry and Nancy. We talked about Parenting and goal setting, and the goal of our Schultz Family. Really nice.

Ruby and Piper leading the Music

Ruby lasted the whole thing, just hanging out in this little chair

MORE BEACH:

The water was a perfect Temp. Discos was so much fun, and the kids had a blast building castles and digging holes.

Stinks (Harper) always trying to disrupt the game

My favorite part of this game was the banter with Scott

Harper peacefully playing with a shovel

Ruby trying to rip the shovel out of Harper's hands. Ruby is a very peaceful girl except when it comes to Harper, she loves to bully him. It really bums me out. I showed this picture to Ruby when we got home and asked her what was going on in it, she said (she was taking it from Harper to help Piper out of the hole) Her heart was sort of in the right place.

Catching some rays

Myles was Ruby's adopted Daddy for a day. She shadowed him all over the camp and would constantly call his name.

This is what it is all about!

The train that you couldn't help but notice all day long and parts of the night and early morning is not what it is all about- that was annoying

Long Time No Blog

Some of you may be able to relate to this occurrence- it is called Blogging Funk.  I have been trying to pull myself out of it.  I have neither the motivation to check blogs or update my own.  I am happy to report that I believe this Funkademic has passed, no promises.  Thanks for your patience and here are a few pics to reward you for checking this blog.

Ruby LOVES Eliza, she dresses her up, and announces: "Introducing... Princess Ruby"

Ruby Shakes when she gets excited- this is her shaking

Eliza is trying to Pose, Ruby

Oh Boy