Family Night

We had an interesting FHE this week. I of course always get stuck with the difficult lessons where they go over Allison's head. I know we don't have to do those lessons but we're using this FHE book and just going through each lesson. This week was the story of the "Widow's Mite." First confusing part...I made Dan the widow. Second, the pot that we were putting our coins in was a black plastic cauldron we have as a Halloween decoration (hey--you just use what works right?) Allison liked putting the coins in from her big pile of coins. I only gave Dan a few cents and we explained how the widow put in all she had. As I was telling the story I'm like---she...uh he... oh whatever. Anyway, at least she liked the coloring part. We colored a picture of a hand holding a coin to give away. So afterwards, we were playing around and we took off this walker part of our exersaucer Cole sits in and we were trying to get him to walk. he did pretty good! After, he must have not felt well from all the exersion so he decided that when Dan picked him up, he was going to puke all over him. Dan had gotten a spot on his pants at dinner and wet it down to clean it. No use, Cole took care of the rest of his pants...and shirt...and ear. Too bad it was sweet potatoes for dinner. Not the greatest smell coming back out let alone going in. Sorry Dan!

Happy birthday Madison!

I met Dan a week before Madison was born and I met Madison when she was only a couple months old. She is a brilliant young girl and has always been a wonder to us. She would recite books just over the age of one. She talked better than the 3 year olds when she entered nursery as an 18 month old. She loved to read books-which hasn't changed, and she is great at pleading her case! She hears more than you think she does and asks great questions about anything. She loves to learn and she is an EXCELLENT student just like her mom was. She likes to follow the rules at school and probably likes to make sure everyone else does too. She likes it when things are fair and she has a great imagination. We love you Madison! You are growing up to be a beautiful girl inside and out. Happy Birthday!

Results of the fire

This is my parent's neighbor's house across the street. They had to leave the company truck behind.


This is the back of the mailbox in front of the neighbor's house.


There was plenty of protection from looters...check out those guns!Yikes!


Here is one of the sifters my parents helped make for the fire victims. Sadly, even the things they did find weren't really worth keeping. I guess just for posterity sake.


My parents helped their neighbors sift through the ashes and this is how bad the air was out there.


Here is a view from my parent's driveway.


Down the street one house got lucky...all they have to do is relandscape.


Here is the new view from my parents' front living room window. They might want to add blinds for a few months.


This is what the hill looks like in the backyard now. So thankful for those water dropping helicopters!!!

Happy Birthday Dinner

Brothers will always act like brothers no matter how old.


Aren't they handsome?



The Dobron Originals



Tom and his wife Jodi


Shannon and Andrew


Me and Dan


Nick and his girlfriend Kendra


Jordan and Dan at it again


Well, we have such busy lives now that it seemed impossible for the Dobron family to get together with Pappa Dobron (Dan and Shannon's dad) so we finally made plans to celebrate not just Jordan's birthday from October, but Shannon and Nick's from August, and even Dan's birthday from June. I was glad I brought my camera to capture some of the fun. I'm not sure the others in the restaurant liked my flash going off constantly though...oops.

PROOF!!!!

Out of our whole family watching these fires on TV....the first person to see my parents' house??....Kacy- all the way in Utah!!! She didn't have audio on her camera but here's the proof she recorded from the TV. That really solidified it for my parents. Although they haven't been allowed back still, it sounds like they can come back tomorrow morning. Check out the video of my parents' house--with green grass- miraculously untouched. See my sister's blog for the two segments of video.

http://mollerfamily4.blogspot.com/2007/10/our-house-shown-on-newsuntouched.html

A sigh of relief!

My parents have not seen it with their own eyes but they have received word that their home was spared! Three houses across the street were burned as well as 7 on the street parallel to them and 21 on the next street over!!! We all can't believe it. They have not been let back in yet but are going to try again today. My brother sent us a google map and plotted the houses that had been burned and put a red marker on my parents' house to show how close it was. The map he made has since had many many more homes destroyed so it is not updated but for the surrounding area there in Westwood it's pretty accurate. Thanks for your prayers!!! Check out the map.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&ie=UTF8&msa=0&ll=33.04281,-117.077866&spn=0.024714,0.040555&z=15&om=1&msid=112544462747410301023.00043d20082275ecf00c2

The waiting game

So my parents are at my aunt's house in Poway awaiting word as to whether or not their newly remodeled house is still standing. It's a horrible feeling. We moved to that house in Rancho Bernardo when I was 3 1/2 in June of 1985. We have many fond memories there and Dan and I were just there overnight from Saturday to Sunday. When we left we saw the fires in the far off distance but never imagined it would literally be on their street the next morning. They left with only the computer, medicine, and a few wall portraits- including one taken of our whole family soon after we moved into the house. They just finished adding on a large family room and a second floor room and pretty much re-did everything--paint, carpet, door frames, door knobs... you name it, they did it. And a house full of updated furniture. The only news we've heard is that the 3 neighbors directly across the street from my parents lost their houses. We sit waiting. Hoping. See what we left the house looking like on Sunday on my parents' blog:
http://grandpahumberstone.blogspot.com/2007/10/theres-room-enough-for-you.html

Sick of it

So like I think I'm sick of complaining about mom things. I mean, I love being a mom and I feel extremely blessed to have two beautiful, healthy children to care for. I think the housework is one of the biggest complaints...or most frequent complaints I have. But I was reading an article in the Ensign a while back that talks about how not only is that one element of being a mom that is a way we show our family we love them, but it is a great way to teach our children and grow closer to them. The example in the article was to have the kids help match socks in the laundry. I mean, Allison could do that and I think she'd like it and I think it would make her feel good that she helped and that we were able to spend time together doing it.

(I guess when someone can show me how to do the whole link thing I could link you to the article.) I think I just need a paradigm shift. The silly thing is that I've been thinking about this a long time. I just haven't done anything about it... and as my mom would always tell me- that's the definition of INSANITY- doing the same thing expecting different results. It's very easy to talk with other moms and get into the rutt -- "*humf* I swear all I do is pick up and clean messes all day." Or, "I'm doing my 4th load of laundry--what load are you on--I know it's never ending." Or, "Is it just me or did I just empty the dishwasher...again." I could go on and on. I mean, two sets of diapers, wasted food, potty training, the WHINING! UG! So I'm going to try really hard you guys. I'm going to try and see things in a different light. Which means....that if any of you talk to me and I start spouting....I need a helpful reminder to turn my conversation around to what is good about all that stuff I keep complaining about.

So no, the laundry won't go away, the diapers will be around for a long while, and the whining will continue. But what's the point in complaining about it?! Does it help? NO! It just makes it that much more depressing. It's something one of my BYU professors called entropic work. It the stuff that is constantly being undone. Throwing away trash, only to have to throw more trash away the next day. More dirty clothes and more messes. A woman's work is never done. No punching out at 5 pm (I wish--that's the witches hour), and pretty much there's always something that needs to be done, but that's all part of being the mom!

Ok. I'm done. It's late. And I'm typig to myself. I guess that's what blogs are for. Right?

Happy Birthday Drew!

Don't worry Shannon--I'm on it. So Drew had his 2nd birthday last week. We went to Disneyland on his birthday and then had a family party last Sunday. He was soo excited about his toys--Dan and I totally scored with our gift--a ball and cars. And Shannon and Andrew bought him the cutest train set ever. He got the most excited look on his face. He's a true boy. Shannon makes cute cakes for her kids' birthdays and this year she made three balls-a football, baseball, and soccerball. We also celebrated Jordan's birthday. he's 18 can you believe it?! We told him the 2 represented his birthDAY-October 2nd :) So fun! Happy Birthday Drew and Jordan!

All because two people fell in love...2007

Sporting his Halloween Jam Jams...

Soooooo CUTE!

Here are some pictures of my two little neices....aren't they adorable?!?!? I had to brag.

Sick dawg!

Rolling walker

Does anyone have a rolling baby walker that Cole can borrow? He is really seeming to want to move around but he's not even close to walking. I just don't want to spend money on one right now so anyone anyone?

Without fail...

So yesterday morning, I got out of bed and got started quickly. I got right to mopping since my floor was disgusting---and Cole is scooting all over the kitchen floor when I'm in there and he had spit up on it twice last night. So I mopped the floor, empty the dishwasher and start the 5 loads of laundry. I even vacuumed the downstairs so I was feeling pretty good about myself and how much I'd gotten done. As the day progressed, I decided to let Allison play with play dough. I had been planning on getting it out for a few days but of course--I'm a moron and mop BEFORE we get it out. but no worries!!! I put a plastic sesame street mat under her chair and it worked perfectly. No play dough on my newly mopped floor.
Eventually night comes and I'm folding the last couple loads of laundry. I had just finished folding the terry cloths towels I had washed from wiping the floor after I mopped this morning and I opened the cupboard to put them away. They go in the back of this cupboard so as I reached back and brought my arm back out, I knocked out this bottle of SPARKLING CIDER on my NEWLY MOPPED FLOOR!!!!!! ALLLL over there is fizzing sticky cider and to add to it, a thousand tiny shards of green glass as far as the other side of the kitchen. And Cole is crying because he's hungry. Dan runs downstairs after hearing the scream I gave out to see if I'm ok and here's the best part.
Without hesitation, Dan says-"You take care of Cole, I'll clean this up." he proceeded to clean up the big sticky mess---getting a wound from the glass in the process, and he re-mopped my kitchen floor. I have the best most sweetest husband EVER! Many of you know how much I HATE mopping so you know how extremely p-ed off I was to have actually made the effort to mop first thing this morning only to destroy it with sticky cider! I've decided I'm going to start a log. EVERY time I mope--I mean mop!!--HA that was seriously a typo--EVERY time I mop, something big get's spilled on my newly mopped floor and I have ro re-mop it...every time. Why?