Our Place

Thought I'd post some pictures of our apartment:
There is more square footage than in our house (it includes the maid's quarters though)!

This is the view of the pool from our apt. Nice view, huh!

The pool is absolutely amazing!

Our Living Room & Den

Living & Dining area (had the ent cntr custom made for only $600 bucks...one of the benefits of living here!)

*A* and *L*'s Bedroom (I fell in love with the strawberry stools as soon as I saw them here...had to have them to go with their strawberry quilts!)

*P*'s Bedroom: complete with trains, trains, and more trains!

"Home Sweet Home" at last!

After living in a hotel for 2 months (with all our belongings either packed away in the U.S. or sitting in customs in Manila), we can now FINALLY call a 60-story skyscraper home. We live on the 6th floor, and have a GREAT view of the fantabulous pool!! It sure is different than living in the suburbs! And let me tell ya, buying furniture here was SO difficult!! If I ever have to experience that again I just might go crazy (like straight-jacket/mental ward crazy... seriously!!). What I wouldn't give for a Target here; where I could go in and buy everything I need all at once w/o being told the famous phrase of, "out of stock"!!! Finding old receipts is making me so homesick for my beloved store!

Our building: One of the tallest around!

The kids favorite new game has become "playing elevator". They all pile into an empty closet and pretend to push elevator buttons until they reach their floor. And of course they all fight over who gets to push the REAL elevator buttons whenever we go downstairs. We had to come up with rules for who gets to push what button. This is just not a problem I ever foresaw myself having when we lived in a "normal neighborhood"!

"Leaving on a Jet Plane" Texas to the Philippines

The fam at the airport before boarding our flight on October 4th, 2006.
Goodbye America!!

My first attempt at blogging

The tricky part is finding something worthwhile to write about....so my friends and family will actually WANT to read this! :o) Having just moved overseas to the Philippines from Texas....I'm sure we won't have to look too far to find things to write about!! Every day is quite an adventure here....from the completely crazy driving with virtually no rules to shopping in impossibly crowded stores (there are 17 million people in this city), there really aren't too many dull moments!

As a matter of fact, we survived our first earthquake!! (Note to brothers: Don't tell mom! She'll worry WAY too much!) Saturday morning, I woke up and was sitting at the computer checking email when I felt the ground moving! I dismissed it at first, thinking I was crazy, but jumped up when I noticed the curtains swaying back and forth and the door swinging.....the building really was swaying!! We are on the top floor of our hotel, so we probably felt the swaying more than others did. I woke my husband up and asked him what was going on. Still half asleep (from working all night).....he said very matter of factly, "it's just an aftershock from the earthquake last night." I said, "What!?!!?!! An earthquake...seriously???" Turns out there had been an earthquake of a 5.2 magnitude the night before at 10:30pm...that I must have slept through. And thank goodness for that! I guess it wasn't as big of a deal to the people here as it was to me because it didn't even make the morning newspaper! :o) Apparently earthquakes are a pretty common occurance here!! I guess we'll just have to get used to them!

Our kids say the funniest things....

[Logan was being a bit of a pill to Whitley, in frustration Whitley finally yelled out....]
Whitley: "You, you.....you a stinky banana!!"
5/12


[Logan, being the protective older brother]

Logan: "Don't go on the road, Whitty!"

Whitley: [turns and looks intently at the road, trying to decide whether to go ride her bike or listen to Logan...then finally deciding to head for the road]
Logan: "NOOOO Whitty!!  You'll get dead if you go on the road!"
Whitley: [stops, then gives me a very worried look]

Logan: [very matter of factly] "Then we'd have to put you in the sandbox, Whit."
Me: "Why would we put her in the sandbox, Logan?"
Logan: "Cuz that's where you bury killed people."
Me: "Really?"
Logan: "Yep.  I knowed that!"

Whitley hasn't gone in the road since!  I'm not sure she's been back to the sandbox either though?!

5/12

Me: "I love you, Logan!"

Logan: "I'm never going to forget that I love you, Mom."

I sure hope not!! :)

3/12

Whitley: [singing] "O...MacDonald...had farm....oeoeo" [stopping to look at me very seriously] "Momma, MacDonald have popcorn and french fries on his farm."

Me: "Really!?"

Whitley: "Yeah....I like popcorn and french fries!"

Now she only sings the song with popcorn and french fries! I bet you can't guess what her favorite foods are!

1/12

After I came back from getting a haircut

Whitley: [very worried] "Momma.....your hair.....it missing!"

1/12

In Sacrament meeting (In M. Russell Ballard's ward, no less...with him sitting on the stand) while trying to keep Logan quiet (he's the tough one!!), Whitley wanted my attention pretty badly. After a few failed attempts at getting me to listen to her, she finally blurted out....

Whitley: "Momma, I crying!!" [In a perfectly non-crying, pure attention wanting voice]

Now whenever she says it, I know she REALLY wants my attention! Miss smarty pants!!

12/11

During family home evening as we were discussing how to be like Nephi

Mom: "Did Nephi murmur? Who was it that murmured?"

Lily: [Rushing to beat her siblings] "I know....it was Lemon and Lamuel!"

Insert entire family busting up laughing

Lily: [Adamant] "What? It was!"

11/11

During her prayer at dinner...

Lily: "Please help us to get what we want..... [very long pause] .....some of the time!"

4/11

Talking about Whitley liking flavored milk...

Mom: "Whitely sure has a sweet tooth."

Lily: "Sugar teeth are the yellow ones....[someone who shall not be named] has lots of them!"

Mom: "You mean sweet tooth?"

Lily: "Yeah, a sweet tooth--they're the yellow ones."

3/11

Logan and Lily looking for a toy....
Lily: "Look under the couch, Logan"

Logan: [Trying to lift the couch with all his little might!] "It too heavy, Lily!!
2/11

After learning that Sis Wilkes (Primary Pres.) is pregnant
Parker: "Mom, you're pregnant and so is Sis. Wilkes. You were in Primary when you got pregnant." [Thinking intently to himself] "Does that mean everyone who's in primary gets pregnant?"
Me: No, not everyone.
Parker: [Looking very serious now] "Is being pregnant contagious?"
8/09
After noticing the onion that was sliced in half on the cutting board
Addie: "Look Mom, this onion is... [counting the rings in her head] ....7 years old!"
Me: [not wanting to devastate her by pointing out that onions are NOT like trees] Sure enough, Ads! There's 7 rings! Good counting!
8/09

While watching the movie "Enchanted"
Lily: [In a rather disgusted voice] "How come she's got a better voice than me?
Me: "Well, you have to practice a lot...she's probably practiced lots."
Lily: "I wish I had HER voice!"
7/09

Lily: "Look mom, it's the Oklahoma!"
Me: "Oklahoma??"
Lily: "Yea, you know the thing on the ship that told Nephi which way to go."
Me: "Oh, I think you mean the Liahona!"
3/09
Parker: "Mom when are you going to tell me what sour-crap is?"

Me: "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?"

Parker [very matter-of-factly]: "Sour-crap. We saw it in the store and you said you would tell me what sour-crap is....remember?"

Me: "No, I DON'T remember....what in the world---please stop saying that word!"

Parker [now pleading]: "But mom, you said dad liked it and you WOULD tell me what it was later."

Me[laughing hysterically as the lightbulb finally went on]: "OHHHH, you mean sauerkraut!!!"
[Actually, sour-crap is a VERY good word for it, if you ask me!!]
11/08

Lily: "100-infinity is a BIG number!!"
Me: "It sure is!"
Lily: "Yeah, we can't have that much sugar, huh mom!"
11/08

Addie: "It's Fast Sundy!"
Me: "And what does that mean?"
Addie: "We have to go fast!"
Me: "Go fast?"
Addie: "Yeah, we have to do everything really FAST today!"
10/08

Lily: [after I had finished combing her hair and she tried to comb the carpet] "Hey....this carpet has snarlies!!"
7/08
Me: [after spotting a dead roach in the kitchen] "Yuck, I HATE cockroaches!!"
Parker: "But Mom, Crock-Roaches are good for the environment! I just can't remember why."
[I don't care if they ARE good for they environment--they're NOT good for MY kitchen!!!]
6/08

Lily: "I want to be a mommy too!"
Me: "You can when you get older and get married."
Lily: "Yeah, when I get older I'll buy mommy clothes and put them on and THEN I'll be a mommy like you."
Me: "Yep, that's EXACTLY how it works!"
5/08
Lily: "Some people eat crabs."
Me: "Daddy likes to eat crab."
Lily: "I don't...they might pinch my tongue!"
2/08

Lily: [during her prayer] "Bless me and Addie to be just a little bit good..."
1/08
Parker: "I can't sleep."
Me: "Have you tried counting sheep?
Parker: "No, cuz counting sheep makes me think of shepherd pie, and that just makes me hungry!"
11/07
Me: "I'm going to the store."
Lily: "You going to buy our baby?!"
11/07
Me: "We need to make some family goals!"
Parker: "You mean, kinda like soccer goals?"
10/07
Addie: [After doing something bad] "Sometimes Satan is in my ears."
10/07
Lily: "I want you have a brown baby...my friends at school (nursery) brown. My teacher brown too."
10/07
Brett: [after working all night and not getting any sleep] "I'm dying...."
Lily: [with a worried look on her face] "Please don't die, Daddy!"
8/07Parker: "....when I get baptized can I wear my goggles?"
7/07
Lily: [After stepping off the tarmac in Utah into the VERY cold air and seeing her breath for the first time] "Daddy, I'm smoking!!"
6/07