Oh Holy Night!

Darren and I go to the San Diego Temple together once a month. My mom lives in La Jolla so we are fortunate enough to be able to bring the kids down and have her watch them while we are there. However it's usually late by the time we're done so after visiting with my mom we take off and go right home so we can get the kids to bed. Well when we were at the temple this month I felt it to be important to bring the kids to the Temple grounds and see the beautiful Nativity and amazing lights they have up. The kids loved it. It gives me such great joy to know I am sealed to my family forever. They are wonderful!

Flat Abby

My niece Abby is in the 3rd grade. I guess her class just read this book about Flat Stanley. A boy that ends up flat and is mailed around the world. So her class all made flat selves and mailed them out to family or friends. So Abby sent us her "Flat Abby". We were asked to take it along to places around our town and get pictures with it. It was accompanied by a journal that we can log our happenings in and paste pictures as well. Our kids loved this idea. So far we have taken Flat Abby to the beach, the temple, to see Santa, and we're going to get a picture of her with her newest cousin due this month. We then asked our cousin in Samoa if we could mail it to her so she could give Flat Abby the Polynesian experience. We're trying to get Flat Abby to see as many places as possible around the world before April 1st. How fun will it be for her to read the journal and look at the pictures with her class when she gets her back.

You got me good!

Ok so the pieces to the puzzle finally fit together. My girlfriend Beth tells me a while back that she wants to throw me a shower. I tell her no, no it's my 4th kid, 3rd girl I'm good. We talked about it a little after that, but I thought that was that. Then she finally says well we want to do a small dessert night with just a couple friends at least. I say ok that I can do. So she comes and picks me up with 2 other dear friends. We go to dessert and are walking across the restaurant. I then see a table with a bunch of our friends. The first thought that came to me is oh how funny they are probably doing a group visiting teaching dessert night. Funny we see them all. Then I realize there is my girlfriend Su from Pauba area, Andrea Profancik my dear friend who now lives in Orange county and others that couldn't be here for that. My mom then peeks around the corner. I was shocked. How Beth do this? How did she get these people out here? How did she get my mom's info? While wondering this I get a tap on my shoulder. It's my little sister Kim from Arizona. She flew her out to surprise me. I was speechless. She is a true master mind. I had no clue. Darren didn't even spill the beans. Come to find Darren told them don't tell me anything because Sarah will get it out of me. He said, "She'll ask me who was that that called? And he would answer Oh it was your sister Kim. The she'd ask what did Kim want. Darren would then say oh she just was saying hi. Then I would say to him, No she must have called because Beth is planning a surprise baby shower and she is planning it with you!" (Darren's got a great sense of humor) So needless to say he was afraid he couldn't keep it from me so he just told my family to keep him out of it. He said that way he'd be more surprised when they showed then I was. We had a great night. We laughed, ate and opened the cutest little gifts. I'm so grateful for good friends and family. I feel so blessed! Even today I'm shocked at all the planning she did for months and I couldn't have been more in the dark about it. She truly is a friend forever! It was one of the funnest surprises I've had.

It really was kidney stones!

Every pregnancy I have had I have passed kidney stones. I always end up going to the hospital they do the routine ultrasound which tells us how many there are and then they drug me up and I wait to pass them. Well sure enough I'm 9 months pregnant and I feel the pain and by now the 4th child know it's a kidney stone. So I go to the hospital and expect the "standard procedure". Well my ultrasound comes back and the doctor said that the kidney stone is still high up in my kidney, but there is fluid around it. So he felt that the pain was actually from the pressure of either the baby on my kidney or the fluid. With that said he gave me 2 options. He first told me they were admitting me to the hospital. I would stay the night and in the morning I would have an amnio. If the babies lungs were developed they would induce me and that would solve the pressure on the kidney. If they were not developed then they would take me in for surgery and place a stint in my kidney to drain the fluid. To me a lose lose situation. I was terrified of an amnio and did not have anything ready to take a baby home. No bags packed, no baby clothes washed, no car seat out yet... I also did not want to go into surgery 9 months pregnant. I talked it over with Darren and he said we just do what we have to do. So 2 minutes after they admitted me and moved to to a delivery room I decided to use the bathroom before they re hooked me up to all the baby monitors. The nurse told me to filter my urine just in case. Sure enough 2 large kidney stones came out. The pressure almost instantly left and with in a 1/2 hour they released me from the hospital. Stinking kidney stones. I oddly enough was grateful for them and not having to have an amnio or surgery. I felt like I knew my body and knew that was the cause of the pain. So here they are world my 2 kidney stones. I was given them to take to my doctor and get them analyzed. So I'm waiting to hear back on those results. In the midst of this that evening we were supposed to get together with a bunch of old friends from Escondido who were throwing me a couples shower. Needless to say I had to cancel, but encouraged them all to continue on with the festivities. While getting ready to leave there shows up 2 of my dearest friends who drove down from Temecula with beautiful orange (my favorite color) flowers. Talk about good friends! I just felt bad they came down probably expecting me to have a baby shortly and come to find it was kidney stones. They got the raw end of the deal. A baby would have been much cuter to look at then the stones!

Sneak Peak!

These are the picture we ended up using on our Christmas cards. We thought they turned out as well as expected for 3 kids under the age of 6.

Indian Names

Even though I'm probably one of the fairest skin people minus the freckles I do have Indian (Native American) heritage. So early on in our marriage Darren and I were hanging out at my mom's house with my little sister and for some odd reason we decided to come up with Indian names for each other. The names have stuck with us ever since, but recently we decided to carry the tradition on with our children. And so we are going back to our roots: I give you our Indian names:

Darren: Sharp toe - No matter how often he cuts his toe nails his big toes always seem to scratch me. I feel like it's a little dagger he could use for protection if needed.

Sarah: Wild hair - My hair is out of control if I do not fix it. It dries wavy/curly and there is just so much of it. So if I don't tame it with products or blow dry it, there's no telling how crazy it will be.

Malachi: Big talk - Right now he is not pleased with this name, but I told him the chief decides not him. He would rather be star wars boy or video game player, but that's not how it works. Simply put Malachi talks a lot. He could carry on his own conversation for hours. And he sometimes lacks volume control. We are constantly reminding him to talk softer or tone it down. We do love this about him, he's quite the thinker.

Naomi: Curly love - I need not explain the curly part. Love is because in Naomi's own words "I love everything." She's always saying, I love every animal or I love every color. She is just such a happy go lucky girl. Her sweet little personality is quite charming. Not to mention her amazing imagination.

Cassidy: Dancing monkey - She loves to dance. If she hears any sort of music she'll start moving side to side and pretend like she's snapping her fingers. She's got rhythm. Monkey because she climbs on everything and has since she started walking. She climbs on the counters, on the bar stools, on the beds, out of the crib... (I don't even want to approach that subject again, little upset over the crib situation). So we call her a monkey for climbing on everything.

Liberty: TBD!

Oh it's on!

If you were a fly on the wall in the room right now you would hear Cassidy singing "Nudey, nudey, nudey, nudey." She does this while she puts her hands in the air and sways her hips side to side. First off I'd like to claim she does not get this from me. With that said I've never had a nudey kid. This girl loves to be naked. She loves to tear her clothes and diaper off. I think she's in a diaper 60% of the time people come over. She just pulls the rest of her clothes off. She'll dress and undress constantly. I'm ok with her being in a diaper it's when she decides to take the diaper off that the battle begins. I end up chasing her because she runs from me and thinks it's a game. I just don't want to end up with pee on my carpet other wise I'd let her run wild. So I'm continually telling her to keep it on.

She has hands down been my most challenging child to this point. The above is one example. She also just got out of the habit of biting. She would usually do this if her and another child were fighting over a toy. I'm guessing her thought process went a little something like "I bite them they release. I get toy." I've never had a biter before so this was all new to me. Luckily she's been doing good with that and hasn't for a long time.
On to the next challenge, the crib. She has learned how to climb out of the crib at 20 months old. Why!!!! She is now like a pro gymnast dismounting from the crib on average 5-6 times a night. It wouldn't be that bad if I wasn't delivering another child next month. I don't know how we are going to get any sleep around here. We are planning on working on keeping her in her room with out leaving her crib, even if she wakes up over Thanksgiving break. I'm sure your thoughts are with us or you're catching some zzzzz's.

Let me explain myself, even though it's my house!

So I love Christmas? Most people that know me know that I love to decorate for Halloween and Christmas. Halloween I usually decorate for over labor day weekend. Since there are no major holidays between 4th of July and Halloween my thoughts are let's get our stuff out and get some use out of it. As for Christmas, taking our Halloween decorations down is such a big production that we're already pulling tupperware out in the garage and packing things up might as well make a day of it. So for the last 2 years over Veteran's Weekend I have pulled my Christmas decor out while putting Halloween away. If you think about it there's only a month and a half before Christmas let the season begin. Plus by the time Thanksgiving comes Christmas is around the corner and all that work is for not when we're taking Christmas down weeks later. I just loving having Christmas up. It gets the kids all excited and we have lots of fun with it. We do wait to put the tree up and decorate that over Thanksgiving if that makes some of you feel better. I've just had friends stop by shocked that our home is ready for Christmas when maybe others should reconsider when to start putting their stuff out too. (Tis the season)

Battle of the curls

Before...

After...

So I finally bought myself a Chi flat iron. My first trial run of it to see just how well it works was to test it on Naomi's hair. If it can straighten her hair it can do wonders on mine. Well I did a section of her hair and it was amazing. So Naomi was begging me to do all her hair. So Sunday morning for church I straightened her hair. She was so excited. I guess it was the something new feel to it. But I feel like I opened a Pandora's box. Now she wants her hair straighted all the time. First of all I love her curls. Second of all it took a long time to do her hair, even though she was extremely patient. Third of all I expected the day to come when she hates her curls and wants her hair straight (just like we all wish we had those curls) but at 4 years old? I thought I'd be dealing with this years down the road. Luckily as the week has gone by I think she realizes it ain't gonna happen!

"You're joking, you're joking I can't believe my eyes!"

Ok I had to give a shout out to my lil' sis. She not only dressed as Sally from the movie Nightmare before Christmas but she made her costume. Then her husband decides to be the Oggie Boggie Man from the movie too. So they made that costume too. Then their nephew joins in and dress' as Jack the pumpkin king. They even made a dog zero. So impressed. To top it off they made a pumpkin that looked like Cinderella's carriage. It won an award at their carving contest. Kudos. Now at least you all know where all the creativity in our family went!

Props to my Peeps!

This has been a touchy subject for some, but it really has been a defining moment for me in my life. It is actually the reason why I started my blog to begin with. I was at a stake meeting and one of our high council members said that we have been told that we all should have a blog of some sort. This is because it gives us a great opportunity to bear our testimonies or state who we are. It also gives us the opportunity to share our feelings on issues such as prop 8.
We were out as a family knocking doors, hanging fliers on doors, I got a group of girl friends together and stood on the street corner holding signs twice, and as a family kids and all holding signs twice. As much time, money and energy as we put to this I'm grateful that it passed and our sacred views of marriage between a man and woman remain.

All dressed up with places to go...

Cassidy was a little 50's girl.
Naomi was Minnie Mouse on Halloween. For our trunk or treat she was Mulan.

Malachi was a knight. Peter from Narnia to be exact.

I couldn't find much to fit me being in my 3rd trimester. So I made my costume. Even the baby was included!

Darren is was all game for his costume. He was the game Operation.

Getting in the Halloween Spirit

Girls Visit the Pumpkin Patch

We took the girls to the pumpkin patch. They had a lot of fun. There was a petting zoo, corn maze, lots of pumpkins, pig races...

THE END!
oh yeah pun intended.

Our little pumpkins!

Our family LOVES Halloween. We love to decorate for it,

we love to dress up for it, we love to go spooking... Yeah for

Halloween! What a great time to be a kid.

Soccer Season

Malachi has become quite the little soccer player. His team is the Red Rockets this season and he is #6. He gets so excited when he scores a goal and has to run over to his family and give them a high five on the side lines each time.

2 Peas in a Pod

Naomi and Cassidy are so cute together. They both have fun little imaginations. When they are playing together Cassidy will follow Naomi around the house doing what ever she does. When they play seperate they both talk out load to their toys, dolls or act out what they are doing. It's fun to be a fly on the wall and just stop what I'm doing for a bit and just watch them play. To be a child again!

Simply HUGE!!!

Ok the first question that came to my mind was how did I get so big? And I'm not just talking about being pregnant. Crazy what having 4 kids does to your body. Next step: climbing a bunch of steps at the gym after this baby comes.

Just incase you didn't know

For those of you who have had to do a double take, yes Darren is a twin. His brother Derek and his family live about 5 miles from us in Murrieta. So there have been sitings around town of "Darren" with another woman. Now you know it's his twin or he's in big trouble! (Derek and Darren)

Summer Vacation

We flew out of Vegas to get to Montana this summer. The kids loved the lights from the hotel. We tried to keep them inside the hotel most of the time and just did the pool. Not the most kid friendly place on earth. Ok Darren can't stand Vegas.
The Missoula Montana airport had a bunch of cool stuffed animals (I'm not talking dolls). The kids liked the Grizzly Bear behind them. There was also a really cool one of a mountain lion pouncing on a mountain goat. (GO GRIZ! Had to do a shout out to the UofM)

Being "home" was so nostalgic. My brother Seth owns 9 acres of land where he built his 5400 sq ft home. It was a blast we rode ATV's, watched deers, fished in a neighbors pond, had bonfires, played horseshoes, played guitar hero, watched old home video... It was a great trip I'll cherish in my heart. (Uncle Seth giving Malachi a ride on his land)

We were able to be in Montana for our niece Abby's baptism. She looked like an angel. She is the oldest Tollefson Grandchild of 9 (almost 10 kids). This is Seth's family: Seth holding Anders, Aidan in front, Abby, Ari holding Sophie.

We had the chance to stay at my brother Nate's home also. He has a 1/2 acre on a golf course where he built his 5200 sq ft home. Both my brothers in Montana each own their own construction companies. Their homes were amazing! Nate and Jenny have Aubrey and Porter. We had a bon fire and roasted marshmallows in their fire pit, Nate bbq'd organic steak which was heavenly. We played a pretty crazy game of Apples to Apples.

Cousin's are Great

Drago Family Cousins: Cassidy, Samuel, Malachi, Naomi, Jaden, and Sophia
All the Tollefson family cousins (minus baby Sophie who was sleeping). We went to Montana in August to visit my siblings and had a blast.

Darren Drago Soccer Camp

Darren started his own soccer camp in the area. He has play soccer for about 30 years now. He was a division 1 player at San Diego State University. He is a great coach and loves doing it. He used to coach at Oceanside High School, but with the commute it was too much on our family. So last year he opened the camp in Temecula. This year we had 38 kids come. It was great!

Summer at the Beach

Cassidy playing in the sand.
Malachi and Naomi getting ready to run in.

Our little surfer girl.

Malachi catching some waves.

A very fun part of living in Southern California is being able to go to the beach any day of the week. Our kids could stay there all day. It's so much fun, until we all come home looking like lobsters.