Update on Emily and Coachella Valley Preserve

SO we should start with some good news today! Emily just had her two and a half year old testing done and she has made great leaps again. She is now at her actual age in language and social skills and her adjusted age for gross motor skills, compensatory skills and vision. Please recall that at best, they thought she would catch up in these skills by age four and not likely until several years into school.

She is still lagging behind in fine motor skills (how much is vision, we just don't know), but this will matter for learning to write later on, self-care (as she is showing no signs of potty training) and cognition. BUT, even these are only six months delayed at this point.

SO, in my mind, she is testing at her actual age or adjusted age in everything! Praise the Lord! He is continuing His work on her and I believe He will not stop until He has completed it. I am so glad we can claim those promises and expect them to be done! Why? Because they are made by the God of the universe...and we know He has the power to follow through. :)

This week, we took off to the Coachella Valley Preserve with the intent of doing a 'hike'. When you live in the desert, these are the places you go...where there is green. BTW, I want you to know that we are not in denial of the desert having it's own beauty, it is just that it isn't our kind of beauty and that is why we don't appreciate it. We are doing our best to be content but please pray with us that we will let us live back in the green lush beauty of our northern home someday soon! :)

These palm trees are just HUGE!!

The down-side to having weekdays off?  Nothing is open.  The up-side?  You don't have to share any place with anyone else.

This was the entrance to our path...

You know how I say Em does awesome when she is familiar with things?  This is a sample of her being unfamiliar with her surroundings.  She could see the palm fronds but didn't know what they were and she was terrified.  She wouldn't move a step unless I was holding her, so M headed back to the car to get the backpacks.

K collects and carries rocks wherever we go.

A much calmer way to explore new things. even if it was short-lived.

Once we had the backpacks, the pace picked up significantly!

Oh, this preserve houses two types of lizard found no where else in the world and oddly enough, we got to see them both!  This one is called horn-rimmed (I think).  If you look closely, his scales look like spikes sticking out.  I think he looks like a dragon.

We went out in the sun and hiked on the sand for quite a while in search of a pond, but Em kept asking us to go back (it was very hot) so we did and then she wanted to walk on her own...with a death grip on my hand.

This was the other lizard...something about his toes makes him rare.  :)

I thought the girls were being kind of babies about the heat until we got back and this was the temp in the shade.

So, yes, the fault runs right through here...forgive me for not taking a pic, I am not sure how that happened, but it would have just looked like a steep hill.

Here, I went online and found it for you...


From the USGS: This view taken from along Thousand Palms Road is looking west toward the Indio Hills in the Coachella Valley Preserve. Mt. San Jacinto is in the distance. The fault scarp of the Mission Creek Fault (a strand in the San Andreas Fault zone) forms the steep eastern face of the Indio Hills and serves as a wind trap that supports one of the last remaining dune fields in the Coachella Valley. The dune field is a preserve for endangered wildlife, including the Coachella Valley Fringe-toed Lizard.


Well, I hope that was informative!  :)  We have had a very busy and crazy week so we are all tired but vacation is coming soon and I can't wait!  God Bless!!

Mother's Day

We all know that my hubby works on weekends and holidays, but I bet you did not yet know, that on this Sunday, so did my friend Amity's. So we decided to bail out of here and do something on our own. Not that this is unusual for my friends and me, but I usually don't have anyone else to join me on holidays. I am glad she called!

Anyhow, we piled the four kids in the car and went to downtown LA, starting at the La Brea Tar Pits. They have made the area around the tar into a nice park with a museum in the middle.We had a nice picnic and enjoyed the sun...

And climbed on the sculptures.

Since G was the only one who could actually get up on the bear, the other three spent forever just running in circles around it while chasing each other.

The museum is mainly reconstructed skeletons of animals caught in the tar pits but this first section allowed you to see how hard it would be to pull yourself out of the pit by pulling on the handles stuck in tar.

Emmy looking at the footprint of a mammoth.

The full skeleton of a mammoth...in LA...yes, I guess so!

G is very sensitive to dying animals so we told the kids the saber tooth tiger and the sloth were wrestling.  It didn't take long before J started pointing to the tiger and saying, "No bite!  No bite tiger!"  This of course, got Emily going and she started in, "No bite, tiga!  Time out!"  So they would run around yelling at the tiger and laughing while K and G just stared at the moving exhibit trying to decide if they believed us that they were just wrestling.

In the sculpture garden.

See?  Mother's Day!  Making lemonade out of lemons!

After that, we headed down to the beach.  The parking spot we found was at least half a mile from the beach.  I couldn't believe how long these kids walked.  They were such troopers!!

Granted, at the beach, the wind had picked up and the clouds had rolled in, so we didn't stay long.

As in, we ran out to the beach, sat for about one minute and the girls started asking if we could go back to the car.   :)

This is the girls watching all the people running and riding on the path that runs along the beach...you know, the one in ALL the movies about southern California?

I really think they enjoyed the walk more than they let on...we had a great time going along the canals and walking over bridges.

Well, to all the Mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day!  To all the single Mom's out there, God Bless you!!!  You wouldn't believe how often I pray for all of you.  I pray you stay strong without your breaks and with no relief in sight.  I believe you will be rewarded far greater than any of the rest of us.  You deserve a plaque and a million dollars and three million hugs and whatever all else you need.  Please hang in there and know it will all be worth it in the end.  May God's blessings pour into your life like a flood!

Our Nephew, B, Turns 2!

Well, it was B's birthday on Saturday. The big guy turned two!

It was a big ol' pool party in the backyard and the weather was perfect!!

So really, I just got lots of pics of kids playing...

Oh, this was funny, I was trying to get a pic of the bday boy and he was eating with GaGa.  She would try to make him smile and then I would snap a pic.  Pretty soon, we would look at me out of the corner of his eye just to see if the crazy lady was still taking pics.

Jared and Heidi were out from MN for a couple of days so they came to our house before the party and hung out with all the kids for the afternoon.

Time to blow out the candle.

K found these sunglasses and went crazy wearing them...until the real owner showed up to claim them...

J may or may not have dove in to the side of the cake to take a bite...

Hugging Percy...

Em was pretty excited to eat candy!

Seriously, his little "look" was cracking me up all day.  I tried to get him swimming with the goggle on, but they all turned out blurry so you will have to use your imagination.

When the bubbles spilled, they used the soap to clean the house...

For all my mid-westerners, Emmy on her John Deere.

Happy Birthday Big Boy!!

I took a few photos before we headed over for the party...

Pretty little Emmers...

This is Em's new "cheese" smile.  Most of these just annoy me but for some reason hers cracks me up...probably because it fits her personality so well!

Our beautiful little girl!  The other day, M and I were trying to decide just when did our baby cease to be a toddler and turn into a little girl?  We couldn't tell you, but she's definitely not a toddler anymore!

God Bless!!