Another thing to

waste spend to much time on.  I have recently gotten the photoshop CS5 program and am in love with it.  I can edit our photos, create custom photo cards and I am playing with creating custom blogs.  I created all the stuff on this blog.  It is really fun and I am getting better at it.  It is really fun to edit pictures. 

Mom always told me

Never go to someones house for dinner empty handed.  So with that in mind I am bringing these treats to Bryan's Aunt's house tomorrow night.  She said I didn't need to bring anything, but there should be many people there and someone will eat them.  I also have a little something for the ladies, but am not going to post pictures yet, because there is one person that still reads the blog.

These are Marshmallow Pops!

Peanut Butter Balls, Avalanche Bark and Peanut Butter Fudge

Side By Side

A couple up close.

All wrapped up!

Update

We just got back from our Thanksgiving trip to Cali and it was very eventful.  Here are a few highlights.

There was a party for Bryan's Grandparents 60th wedding anniversary.  As a gift for them, all of the siblings in Bryan's family with children got together and had a picture taken of the kids.  I made the shirts and took the picture.  I am definitely a rookie with this whole photography thing, but this is a good picture because it shows all the kids personalities.

We were able to attend Bryan's company work party and I made this dress for Alex to wear, when it was done, it had a second ruffle on the bottom.  She wears a brown sweater with it.

We also went to Knotts Berry Farm with my sister, her husband, and their kiddos.  Bradley and Alex had a good time.  They had a station where you could spend $2.50 for a big cookie and they had had red, green and white frosting and lots of sprinkles to decorate with.  Bradley loved it and I let him go nuts.  He was loving it.  There isn't a lot of rides he could ride so he spent at least 30 minutes icing this cookie.  There was so much icing on it.  A man made a comment about how much icing Bradley was using and I looked at him and smiled and said you only live once, and he is having a blast.  The man then went on to tell his WIFE how many buttons the gingerbread man needed and how she wasn't doing it right.  We also got his face painted.  He loved it.

 

I have been doing a good day amount of sewing lately and made Alex this coat.

I made chocolate covered marshmallows for Bradley's teachers and the gal I visit teach.  I used the super jumbo marshmallows and white and milk chocolate.  The white chocolate ones have either crushed candy cane or red sugar sprinkles on them and the milk chocolate ones have crushed graham crackers or flaked coconut on them. 

I made a Christmas Tree this year for our house.  Ther is no way I would be able to put a big one up with ornaments witht all the little hands we have around.

 

I ordered a BYU Scentsy Warmer and LOVE IT!

While in Bakersfield I took Bradley, Little Bryan, and Darek shopping with me.  We went to Target, Walmart and Hancock Fabrics.  People looked at me like I was nuts.  They were pretty good.

We had our annual family picture taken for our Christmas cards.  Here are a couple good ones.

Bradley's School and more

Bradley LOVES pre school.  He asked if he can go everyday.  Everyday when I pick him up in the car ride home I asked him what he did that day, he always says "nothing".  But about 10 minutes later he tells me about recess.  Lately he has started telling me about his friends.  He always tells me about Emily, and how he chases after her, because he is a ninja turtle and she is scared.  A few times he will talk about a couple other friends that are boys, but he always tells me about Emily.  It is really cute and Emily actually goes to church with us to, I just hope that Emily thinks this little game of chase at recess is cute. 

I have been trying to teach Bradley some manners that I think are important.  I have been working on him for a long time now about holding the door open for people, especially girls and ladies.  He will open the door and now hold it open every time.  He likes to hold it open and when someone walks through he will say "I am holding the door open like a gentleman".  Most of the time people look at him and say good job, thank you or you are being such a gentleman back to him.  We are also working on being more gentle with our sister.  He loves to play with Alex but can get kinda rough.  She doesn't mind, I think she likes it.  If he is laying on the ground she will walk up and jump on him and then laugh.  She is really tough and loves to wrestle.  He likes to give her kisses on the cheeks, but she still tries to kiss his lips.  

The last couple days out of necessity I have had to take the kids to run errands with me.  Usually this is a huge pain in the rear, but Bradley has been really good.  He was so good yesterday that I let him pick out where he wanted dinner.  He told me "I want Panda, because Chinese is my favorite.  I only want the noodle stuff you can spin with your fork, but I want to use chopsticks."  So went to Panda and he had chow mein.  He is very good at sharing with Alex.

Alex is getting so big and loosing the baby look.  She is starting to give some funny looks when you say certain things to her.  She knows where her belly is and will show you if you ask.  I have been trying to get these tennis shoes on her that I bought and I finally realized that her feet are to chubby to fit into them since they don't tie.  So I had to buy her tennis shoes that tie in a size bigger than she really needs, just so I can get her fat little foot in there.  She is a very good helper and if you give her something and tell her to take it to someone she will.  She loves phones, remotes and batteries.  She has figured out that if she throws the remote on the ground enough times and hard enough the back will pop off and she can get the batteries out. 

Both of the kids still have good appetites and play really well together, hopefully that lasts.  Sorry no pictures this time.  I will hopefully get some soon.

Funny Pics

I was going through some more of the pictures I took of the kids the other day and came across these two.  They were taken in this order.

Apparently Alex already doesn't like kisses from her brother!!

A visit

My dad and my aunt were able to go and meet Mkrtich Asatryan in Los Angeles before he left for Armenia.  They had an amazing visit and were able to Skype with a sibling in Armenia.  The sibling in Armenia didn't speak any english so Mkrtich tried to translate but my dad said by the look and gestures of the brother he was very excited to see them.  The family in Armenia had been searching for 40 years for the family in America.  As a last resort Mkrtich got on Ancestry.com and searched for his grandfathers American name.  He got what I had on there of our family tree and took a chance and emailed me.  We also know that Mike (my dad's dad) took a couple of trips to Armenia in 60's.  The first trip he was escorted around by the KGB because Armenia was still under Russian control at that time.  They weren't allowed to speak freely and had to watch what they said and did.  Another trip he tried to take money in a money belt to his children and the KGB found it and kept it, but he did buy all of his sons new cars.  There are 5 half siblings still living and the oldest is 90.  We really want to get over to Armenia and meet them.  I worry that if we don't go, then the stories and history will be lost forever. 

Here is a recent picture of my dad and Bradley and Brayden (my sister's oldest).  My dad got asked to be the host at a St Baldwicks event in Bakersfield the morning of the event and surprised everyone when he said if he could get $150 in donations he would shave his head and his beard.  My mom sent out a couple texts and had the donations.  My dad hadn't shaved his beard in 33 years.  St Baldwicks is an organization that shaves heads as a fundraiser for pediatric cancer.  One of my dad's great friends from high school grandson has cancer.  http://www.stbaldricks.org/events/bakersfield Here is a link to the organization.

Bryan and I took the kids out to the Botanical Gardens to get some pictures of them in hopes to use for our Christmas cards.  I took about 80 shots and got some that might work.  Here are a few I think are cute.

This is my favorite, but Bradley has his eyes closed.

 They have these odd cement balls/shapes and Bradley was playing on them and Bryan decided he was going to jump over one.  I decided I needed to be ready to get a picture.  He made it!

New Family in Armenia

A few years ago I started an account on Ancestry.com.  I did their free trial and then every year I pay for a month here or there and update and do some searching.  All I have on my family tree for my dad's side is his biological parents names, approx birth dates and death dates.  We do not even have the correct spellings of their names because when you came to the USA they always got changed.  My dad and his family immigrated to this country when he was 4 months old.  His oldest sibling was 5.  A few years after they arrived their biological mother left the home and their father did his best, but wasn't able to provide care for the children while he worked, so social services stepped in and took them away.  One brother was adopted at birth and we were able to meet him many many years ago.  One sister is mentally challenged and has always lived in a home where she can get the help she needs, I have been told she is at the level of around a 3 year old.  My dad, his brother John and his sister Toni all went into foster care.  They bounced around from homes for a while, my aunt went to live with their biological mother and my dad and his brother spent most of their years with who we now consider grandma.  Back then they didn't like to keep the children in one foster home to long because they didn't want them to get attached.  My dad's biological father always kept in touch, sending money and visiting, but there wasn't much known about him or his history.  We knew he was born in Armenia and was a prisoner of war in Germany.  Married my dad's mother in Germany and then they came to the USA.  We did know that my dad has a half sister in Germany, but no way of contacting her.

So this is where things get interesting.

Yesterday I got an email through Ancestry.com from a Mkrtich Asatryan, saying he was named after a Mike Assaturian (Mkrtich Asatryan) and has been looking for the family of Mkrtich that he had in America.  He left me his phone numbers and email.  I emailed him back and he called last night.  We talked for 20 minutes and it is definitely family.  He said that his father and his siblings had been looking for their father's family/siblings in the USA for over 40 years and they have contacted so many people in vain.  He immediately sent me some family history and some pictures to verify we are really related.  He is currently visiting his wife's family in Los Angeles, so hopefully my parents and Aunt can visit with him this weekend before he goes back to Armenia.  He said he called Armenia and they are going to look for more pictures and things to send.  I had never seen a picture of my dad's biological father and the family resemblance is scary.   He was so happy to have finally found us, he said that the family would always say there is no way he could find us because there was no information about us, just some pictures.  My dad and his siblings all have very Armenian names and come to find out they were named after his siblings and family. 

Here is brief history that Mkrtich sent me.

Dear Kety,



Mkrtich Asatryan was born in Western Armenia in a big and prosperous Armenian family. He had seven brothers. All of them lived together, so the houshold consist of 20-30 peaople. In 1915 the Armenians genoside took place and Asatryans family was sloughterd like 1.5 milion Armenians in Turkey. Only Mkrtich Asatryan and his brother Hunan survived. They escaped to Estern Armenian. The many Armenians died from starvation or malaria after surviving the genoside. It was cruel time. He met my an orphan Tsotse and they get married. They had 7 kids, 3 doughters and 4 sons. They lived in village in Soviet Armenia called Martuni. When second warld war started Mkrtich Asatryan was mobalized to army and soon was caprued and brought to Germany as military prisoner. In germany he married with german women who was about 20 years younger than he. This lady saved his life, because otherwise he would share the doom of million other prisoners. After war they emigrated to USA. In 1962 and 1965 Mkrtich came to Soviet Armenia and met with his first family. In 1967 this kids receive an message from USA that their father died.


This is just a part of legend about Mkrtich Asatryan, who survived genoside, Stalin repression, world war 2, had 14 children in different parts of world.


After that more than 40 years my father and his brothers and sister tried to find children of their father in USA. They live in the country (Soviet Unio) where even a trial to have contacts in USA could be very dangerous.


As I am the only nephew of Mkrtich Assaturian (or Mike Assaturian) who was named after him I continue the search. I contacted a lot of people in my life, but all in vain


The story of your family/ ancestor had a lot of coincides with the story of my grandfather.


Please, review the photos attached. I have seen these pictures all my life in my family albom and always know I have relatives in USA.


If you Identify them. The the search will be completed.

Here are the pictures he sent and I have added who they are.

This is my dad's high school graduation picture.

This is my dad's biological father.

.

This is my Uncle Jim who was adopted at birth.

 

This is a younger picture of my dad.

It is truly amazing and a blessing that Mkrtich was able to find us.  My dad's middle name is Mkrtich, we spell it different.  We have emailed throughout the night and exchanged more pictures.  Mkrtich said he is going to try to get more pictures and send them from Armenia. 

Bryan and I have decided tat Armenia is now on the top of our list and we hope to get there this next year.

Out of my dad's 7 half siblings in Armenia 5 are still alive and the oldest is almost 90.  It would be amazing to get back to Armenia and meet them and learn all we can about the Assaturian (Asatryan in Armenia) side of the family.

New Blanket and BYU Football

Bradley has been asking for a blanket to take to school and snuggle with during his nap time. I have had these minki squares for a really long time and decided to make them into a quilt/blanket for him. It is my first time making a blanket and I think it turned out pretty darn cute. It is a little girlier than what I would have liked for Bradley, but I honestly think that Alex will take it over pretty soon. The back is solid blue dot minki and the binding is lime green dot minki.

 

We went out to TCU to watch the BYU football game.  BYU lost but we had a good time with our friends.  It was way more crowded this year than 2 years ago, but TCU is ranked in the top 5 this year so people are coming out to support them.  BYU had a good showing of supporters too.

Update

We will stay a family 4.  I have miscarried pregnancy #5.  It wasn't completely unexpected since my 1st sono didn't look amazing.  But it has happened and we can't change it.  So here is a list of things I keep reminding myself to try to stay positive considering I have miscarried double the children I actually have.

We will be out of diapers in our house in under 12 months.
We do not need another car.
I can eat Sushi again.
I can start running again and training for another marathon.

These things might seem simple and stupid, but it's what I have right now.

Baby update

So this is really boring post.  I had my first OB appt a few days ago and things didn't go as planned.  My record with babies and miscarriegs is 50/50.  The doctor gave me a 50/50 shot of carrying this baby to term.  My inside and outside measurements don't match and the heart beat is not very strong and there is some extra blood where it shouldn't be.  I go back in a little over a week for another ultrasound and we will see what happens.  We are just leaving to the Lord since there isn't anything we can do about it and I have realized that I can't worry and get all stressed out, it will just make things worse.

On a happier note, we landed in Cancun today and our hotel is amazing.  We have an amazing view.  I didn't bring my new camera but I brought old digital camera and will get pictures up soon.  This hotel is JW Marriott and it is very high end.  A big thank you to Dealersocket and the amazing benefits we get from the travel Bryan does.  We got back in room after being out a little bit and our bed was turned down with mints and the room had been cleaned.  It is awesome.

Pics

I got a new camera for my birthday and it is more than a point and shoot camera.  I took the kids out to the stockyards today to play with it.  I was only able to take 2 pictures because the bigger memory card I ordered hasn't come in yet.  Here is my first shot of Bradley.  He had his eyes closed in the other one.  The camera is super nice and I really want to get into some photography classes to learn how to use the extra lens and flash.  I am hoping to be able to get a lot of good pictures of our kiddos and not pay an arm and leg.  If anyone is willing to let me practice with their kiddos or family, let me know.  There are a lot of good places out at the stockyards and I am sure there are a lot of other fun places around here too. 

Nothing really new is going on around here.  Alex is starting to try to talk more which is cute.  Bradley likes to play football with her (it's just him tackling her) so she has gotten really tough.  She has her own little personality and screams or grunts when she wants anything.  I am trying to teach her some sign language to help with the screaming, but she isn't into it and is starting to say more.

So far the baby #3 seems to be good.  I go to the Dr for the first time on Friday so we will see what she says.

A few things...

Last week Bradley decided that going to bed wasn't for him.  He will sneak around the house thinking I don't see him, but I always do.  So I have started shutting down the house at his bedtime and going in our bedroom and shutting the door, so if he comes out of his room it is completely dark.  Well I went one night around 10 to make sure the alarm was on and this is what I found, it was completely black. 

I moved him to his bed and he didn't even move.

Today I purchased a used juicer from my friend and immediately went to Central Market and bought organic carrots and apples to juice.  I grew up on carrot juice and love it and Bradley will usually pick it over chocolate milk if I give him the option.  Carrot juice is expensive so I don't have it as often as I would like but with a juicer it is much cheaper and probably better for you.  Here is my first glass.  It is so easy, I am going to try the apples tomorrow.  Bradley loved it, so we will definitely be having it more.  I am hoping to be able to let Bradley help more with the juicing.  He has never been a big fruit juice drinker and that is fine with me. 

A friend of mine from the gym recently had twin baby girls.  I found these adorable bathing suits at Macy's and made towels to match.

"Bryan wake up...

I have something to tell you."  Is how I woke Bryan up a week ago.  He rolled over and said what and I told him "I'm pregnant."  He about had a heart attack since we had decided to re visit the subject of a 3rd child next August when Alex turned 2, but apparently our decision was made for us.  We are really excited and this will be a new adventure for us.  Bradley and Alex are 3 1/2 years apart and we really enjoy that.  Alex and baby #3 will be under 21 months apart.  I have already had blood work done twice and all of my counts look really good.  They are higher than then normal so that is a positive and we will keep our fingers crossed that everything is ok with this pregnancy.  I am more nauseous than usual with my pregnancies and my sciatic nerve is already acting up, but I am thankful that my blood counts are good.  I will post more when I know more.

Bradley's First Day of Pre - K

Bradley started Pre-K on Monday and he loves it.  We weren't sure we were gonna be able to send him because of our travel plans for the holidays, but since we changed those he will hopefully get to go 3 days a week.  He loves it and is getting back into the swing of things. 

I asked him to say cheese and did this pose.

He was not wanting to be serious for a picture so this is the best I got.

A friend of mine from the gym is having twin girls any day now.  I missed her shower because we were in Idaho so I am droping her gift off today to her.  I found the bathingsuits in Cali and I made the towels to match.  I love the way everything turned out and coordinates.

Alex is 1!!

Yesterday was Alex's 1st birthday.  We had cake and ice cream with our immediate families and had a good time.  Alex has gotten a great personality lately.  She is very energetic and keeps up with her brother.  She loves to follow Bradley around and loves to wrestle.  I know that she will very tough and will be able to handle herself in any situation.  She lets her opinion be known and loves to snuggle.  She can say Mama, Dada, Papa and what we think is Grandma.  Papa Nick taught her to hold up one finger when you ask her hold she is and she also will give hugs and kisses and wave goodbye.  We also had a combined birthday party for Alex and her cousin Grant at a place called the Party Corral.  It is a little petting zoo place that has a bounce house, pony rides and train rides.   Thanks to Grandma Karen for making the Party Corral amazing for all the kids.

I got Alex a princess cake from Costco.  You can't beat Costco's cake for the taste or the price.

Alex eating her cake.  She ate the whole piece like that.

Bradley and Bryan helping Alex open her presents.

For Alex's party at the petty zoo, I made her a shirt and matching hair bows.  It looked super cute and was really festive.

While in Cali Bryan took me to San Francisco for my birthday.  We had a really good time.  We went to 2 comedy clubs and got to see Ralphie Mae perform.  We discovered Yelp and I fell in love.  People are really honest on their reviews, so we had good food the whole time.  It was really nice to have some grown up time for a couple of days.  I didn't take one picture the whole time.

Video and Pics from Idaho

Here are some more videos and pics from our time in Idaho.

Here is Rachel with her cake.

Blayne, Rachel, Mia and Darek

We went to a BBQ at Blayne's business partners house and Bradley's swim trunks would not stay up.

Here is some video of Bradley doing the slip-n-slide.

While Blayne and Rachel were gone, I made cupcakes with the kiddos and let them each frost their own.

Here is a video of the kids and their cupcakes.

After church we went and feed the ducks in the river that is in front of the Idaho Falls Temple.  It was really pretty.  The boys feed the ducks and girls ate the bread instead of feeding the ducks.

Blayne and Rachel have a huge backyard and Blayne borrowed a riding lawnmower from a neighbor.  For some reason I thought it was funny and the boys loved taking turns on it.