The Lords University

Also known as The Lords Temple, that is where we went today! I have been racking my brain with sabbath worthy activities, to do with the kids. Today in our church meetings we talked about Temple attendance, so I thought it would be the perfect place to go. Someone giving a talk today suggested that we take our little ones to the temple often and have them touch the temple walls, the kids were so excited about that! I feel so terrible because I have only gone to do temple work once since I've been out here!! My mom and I set a goal of going to the temple every friday. I always complained about not having a temple close when we lived in wichita. I have no excuses now since the temple is only a ten minute drive. I love the Mesa Temple it reminds me of the Hawaii Temple, with all the palm trees around it. I love the palm trees in the valley. It will be exciting once the phoenix, and I believe the Gilbert Temple is built. I got crazy and took lots of pictures of the blossoms. It feels like spring already! The birds were chirping and the bees were swarming. It was such a beautiful day today. One thing I am super excited about is the Easter Pageant! I believe it starts in March and goes through the month so we will have the opportunity to go while we are here, yipee!!

Updates from our slodier

I got to talk to Adam tonight!! He said that as of right now he still isn't in basic training, instead he is in what you would call Reception. He was held back a little while longer because of his delay with the security clearance, he didn't know it but his recruiter should have completed his security clearance before he even left to go in!! So consequently he was delayed going out to Fort Jackson. He spent his first day in down town Phoenix, then the following day he flew out to South Carolina, he didn't get to his barracks until 11 or 12 that night. He said today went by extremely slow! The majority of the day was spent in his barracks and the Chow Hall. To fill the time he and his buddies decided to take the mattresses off the beds and slide around on the floor, I guess the floor was really slippery. He hasn't meet his drill seargent yet, and wont meet him until he starts basic which should be Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. He still hasn't recieved his uniform ( I can't wait to see him in uniform! ) instead they have issued him a PT uniform PT stands for Physical Training, which is basically work out clothes. I don't know if they have shaved his head yet. He said that he has already made quite a few friends. He is starting to get a pretty good feel of who he is going to hang around with, he said there are several guys who use crude language, he said if ever they start to talk like that he just walks away. They have already given him the nickname of Stormen Mormon! There is a total of 27 guys in his platoon and by Monday he said they should be recieving about 300 new recruits. Also we should have more info on medical insurance by then. He said he will be calling me to let me know, but I will have to go to the nearest base to pick up our medical cards. I hope it happens soon, I really am anxious to go to the doctor.

The moment we have been waiting for

Adam is gone :( I knew this day would come but it is still so hard to say goodbye! He left at five yesterday morning. My Dad gave him a blessing just before his recruiter picked him up, and then we had a family prayer. Kenidi came in the room at eight and looked in the bed for daddy, she saw that he was gone, and the tears just started to roll! Adam wrote the kids and I a letter. He told me to keep the letter in the kids room and to read it to them often, so I read the letter to them. Unfortunately the letter didn't help one bit, Kenidi started crying even more! Adam ended up calling me a few hours later needing some information for his security clearance, apparently it was a very long process, since the processing took so long he was unable to fly out. He called me later that evening and said that he would be staying at the Sheraton, and that we could come see him. I told the kids that we would be able to see daddy again, and boy let me tell ya they were excited! He was staying clear out in northern Phoenix, so it took us a good 35 min to get there. We picked Adam up and went to fudruckers, to get some ice cream and then we went back to his hotel to play racket ball. Adam couldn't stay out all night though, his cerfew was 10 and so we decided to leave a little past nine. It just broke my heart when I had to say to the kids that it was time to leave! Today is the day for Adam to go to South Carolina as of right now he is at the Airport waiting for the flight to board. He has a layover in Atlanta for one hour, and will be getting to Fort Jackson about nine tonight (seven our time) since eastern standard time is two hours ahead of us. I can't wait to see him again, it is going to be hard not having him around.

The girlfriend

Kenidi is always pretending, she could entertain herself for hours. She especially loves role playing. Somedays she is the president of the united states of America and will find someplace to stand so that she is above everyone else, and will announce that she is going to give a speech. Somedays she is a school bus driver, Somedays she is a chef, Somedays she is a Magician, but today she was the girlfriend!! I was in the bedroom doing laundry, when kenidi came in and asked if she could wear some of my shoes I told her she could, so she picked out a pair of black heels. I continued my work and then heard her saying "Honey, Honey, HONEY"! With each time getting louder. I then asked her who she was talking to. She then told me she was talking to kaden, and that she calls him honey because they have been dating for a while. I just couldn't help but laugh, they are always married, but this time they were just dating. A little while later she came in the room holding a block up to her ear, she was carrying on a conversation with Kaden. I think they were going to meet up for a date because she was giving him directions to follow, she told him to turn onto Gilbert road, and that she would see him in a little bit. A little while later she said they were going to the ball and that they needed more fancy clothes. I just had to preserve this cute little moment.

5 1/2 months prego

I am now 22 weeks and two days pregnant. I still have not gone to the doctor! I know some would say that is pretty scary. I am not too worried though, I dont feel like anything is wrong. I am very good about taking my vitamins 2 fish oil, 2 calcium, and 2 prenatals a day.... these are not just any kind of vitamins they are Melaluca Vitamins I have tested them to see how long they take to dissolve, that is a sure way to see if you have a good vitamin. I drink one gallon of water a day, I buy the distilled nursery water and drink strait from the bottle, that way I know exactly how much I need to drink in a day. I know some people would say that Iam crazy for not going to the doc yet. That would be true if it were my first pregnancy, but since this is my third, things are a little bit different. After all when you think about it what does the doctor do anyway, the only memory I have of the doctor was sitting in the waiting room for 30-40 min only to be seen for about 10 min and then time to reschedule for the next appointment. They would do the routine blood pressure check, measure your belly, listen to the heartbeat, and then see if you have any questions or concerns. If there was something seriously wrong with the baby what could they do to prevent it anyway? Women did it back in the day, and had to deliver without the help of a doctor, don't worry I am not going to take it to that extreme, I am very thankful I didn't live back then and Iam definately all for the drugs! Don't get me wrong I think doctors are great and they are extreemly helpful in many ways, maybe I am just bitter because I have had such a terrible experience with my obgyn in the past. Well we are very excited to find out the gender, we already have a boy and a girl so I thought about possibly not finding out the sex of the baby, but with adam going into the military and everything being all crazy I didn't want to have any surprises. We have plenty boy and girl clothes but not for the right time of year, since kenidi was born in October, and kaden was born in Janruary we have warm clothing for both, I just dont know if that is going to work with our baby coming at the end of May and not only that but with very humid weather conditions... I've never been to Virgina, but I have heard the summers are warm and humid!

Hoover Dam

We left Saint George tuesday morning, we decided to take a stop at the Hoover Dam and do a little sight seeing. For millions of years, the colorado river flowed along a 1400-mile course from colorado's Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California, carrying water through the arid lands of American West. As early as 600 A.D. humans worked to harness its water for their use, and in the years of western settlement, growing populations came to rely increasingly on its waters for sustanance. In the 1800s and early 1900s, the river often flooded low-lying farmland and communities in the spring and early summer as it surged with water from melting snow. In late summer and early fall it often dried to a trickle, too low to divert. To protect the low-lying lands from flooding, and to assure a stable, year round water supply, the river needed to be controlled. In 1928 congress passed the boulder canyon project act, authorizing construction of the Hoover Dam. Construction Began in 1931, the project was completed two years ahead of schedule. It is to this day a world-renowned structure. In 1999 it was named the number five construction acheivement of the 20th century. It was such an amazing sight! The tour guide said that, 95 people were killed in the process of building the dam, that only includes the engineers who were killed on site, so for those that had injuries and ended up dieing on the hospital were not counted for! They worked 363 days a year 24 hours a day.

The bridge is estimated to be completed by the fall. They have been working on it for several years already, I personally would have thought that they would have it done by now.

Here is Lake Mead, America's largest man made reservoir. The water level is way below normal, in fact it is exactly 50 feet below!!

We went down in the tunnel to get the pipes, there are four main pipes that carry 88 thousand gallons of water per second, I could feel the ground below me vibrating!

Ron and Janett's wedding

Friday morning we left to go to Saint George Utah. It was a pretty decent drive only about seven hours. We managed to make it to Saint George on only one tank of gas!! The kids did great thanks to our portable DVD player. We had such a fun time reuniting with family. Kenidi had been asking about her cousin Kasey for months, when kenidi saw her she ran up and threw her arms around her and yelled Out " I missed you, I havn't seen you forever!!" It was so cute. Kenidi had a lot of fun getting to know her other cousins better as well. Kenidi was only one year old the last time she saw Noel's children so she was too little to remember. It was very nice for her to see them. Kenidi really clicked with Brynn and Abby. I must say they have one good looking family! Seeing family was such a treat. It got me thinking about a family reunion!! My family has always been very close, we have regular family reunions every other year. I wish we could do something like that on the Steimle side!! The gears are turning! Maybe I can pull something together in a few years. Within the past year we have managed to see all of Adam's siblings and their families except for Jeremy's family:( Well soon we will see them, we will make it work. Like I always say where there is a will there is a way, It may not be easy but it is so worth it! The kids need to have the memory of their cousins, afterall Adam's patriarchal blessing specifically says that he will bring his family together! Well I tried to document the wedding as best I could with our crummy little camera. I am not the best photographer, I just started taking random pictures. The wedding was beautiful, and Jannett looked Georgous! The night before the wedding we went over to Jannett's house to meet her children and grandchildren, She has such a wonderful family!

Kaden was not a happy camper, he just wanted to get down and run around. He had a little bit of a fall at Fiesta Fun the night before! He was given the nickname Rudolph.

Kaden is Two!!

Our little guy is now two years old. I can't believe it!!! Here is a picture I took of the kids playing in the front yard before we left to go to the party. I love that they can play together and entertain themselves with just about anything.

There is no better place to have a birthday party then at the park. We couldn't pass up the opportunity especially with the weather being so nice. The high was 74

Kaden always goes right for the slides, especially the twirly ones

Kenidi got a hold of the camera and started taking pictures, I told her that when she grows up she could be a photographer, she then said to me. Mom I already am a photagrapher, a kid photographer! The next two pictures were taken by kenidi.

After we were all done playing it was time to sing to the birthday boy. I love kadens little grin, this was the smile he had on his face while we sang happy birthday to him.

Kaden had such a look of determination on his face, he was a little bit frightened of the fire and would only blow a little.

Time for presents, the first gift was the best. He was so excited about his first pair of big boy underwear!

Daddy snuck off to the store just before we went to the park, I didn't know it but he had bought kaden his very first radio flyer tricycle. He was so thrilled when daddy came around the corner with it.

Catching Up

I am so terrible with the whole blogging thing! I have been feeling this nagging feeling lately.... you know the feeling you get when forgot to do something really important like paying a bill or something like that. Well I would have to say that since blogging is my main source for journaling that it is and should be high on the list of priorities! We have been having so much fun latley, we had a wonderful christmas but unfortunatly not a very happy new year..... but I am not going to go into the details with that. Anyways we were able to make it to the temple lights before they ended, the kids really enjoy going to the temple and to the visitors center. We have been enjoying every minute we have with Adam before he leaves for boot camp. Yesterday Kaden went poop on the potty for the first time, that was very exciting he was so proud of himself, he was so cute showing off his sticker to everyone! Today I chopped all of my hair off it is now above my sholders, I had it cut like Sandra Bullocks hair in the movie The Lake House. It is really cute but it will take some getting used to, it will be a lot easier to manage though! My sweet little kenidi is changing as always, she has been developing a little bit of a an attitude latley, my mom says that she is just exercising her independence, but she is as always a very obediant little girl always willing to help out. Earlier today Nixen was crying and Aunt Shanna was gone I was busy getting stuff ready for Andrea's Baby shower and couldn't hold him so I asked Kenidi if she could come over and sing to him, she immediatley came over and sang Twinkle twinkle, he was done crying the second she started singing!! She is such a big helper, she is going to make a wonderful mom someday. Andrea's Baby shower was today we had a great turn out Shanna and I were in charge of it. We played lots of fun games and had a good time chating. I felt so bad because Aunt Shanna gave Kenidi a piece of a Watchamacallite ( I dont know if that is spelled right) In case you dont know it's a candy bar. Anyway Shanna didn't know it had peaunut butter in it. Kenidi came over to me and had a disgusted look on her face and said it had peanuts in it, so I had her spit it out right away. The symptoms weren't so bad at first but as time went on it got progressively worse! We finally left and at that point kenidi was Complaing of difficulty breathing, and felt like she was going to throw up. We stopped off a CVS pharmacy to get some benadryl and within 30 min to an hour she was feeling like her old self again! Thank goodness, I was soooo worried. Well that is all for now :)