Is having octuplets ethical? Yes!

Many of you may have seen or read about the woman who just had octuplets. For those of you who don't know, that is eight, yes eight, babies at once! Wow! After having two inside of me at once I can't even begin to imagine how uncomfortable that woman must have been! Okay, back to my point. I have been watching and reading how people think that she was being unethical by having that many babies at one time. She received advice (pre and post birth) to terminate, i.e. kill, most of her babies. There was a doctor from San Diego on Good Morning America today who said that they used to encourage women who had 4 babies to abort 1 of them, now they encourage women who have 3 or 2 babies to bring them down. I can't even imagine how upset I would have been if my doctor had encouraged me to kill one of my girls! I can't imagine my life without them. I would have ended up switching doctors, that is for sure. So, anyway...I find it appalling that in our society today there is no problem or concerns with aborting your babies but there is a problem with having them. If this woman had decided to abort all of those babies there would never have been the question of if she was ethical or not, but because her beliefs led her to have all of the babies she is called in to question? The scriptures tell us that in the last days good shall be evil and evil shall be good. This is a perfect example of that. I believe that we have a right to make our own choices, but I also believe that there are consequences that go with all choices, whether good or bad, and we can't choose the consequences. Getting pregnant is a consequence (again it could be a good or bad consequence) and I believe that we should have to deal with those consequences. In our world today we have made it so that 'dealing' with that consequence can mean getting rid of the consequence. I strongly believe that there will be additional consequences to that choice. It makes me sad to see us, as a society, going down this path. This woman's children will have a greater risk of having some health and or mental issues. This is a sad thing to happen, but there are a lot of families who have children with these issues and the family does not love the child any less nor is the child's life worth any less. I am sad for people who have to face these challenges and I am not diminishing their difficulties when I say this next statement. I believe that it is better to have a spirit brought down to this earth into a body that is physically or mentally challenged than to not have that spirit come down at all.

San Diego Zoo

We bought memberships to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park this year. The kids love seeing all of the animals. One thing that I love about this zoo is that there is TONS of shade! Now, don't get me wrong, the Hogle Zoo is fine, but this Zoo is just so much bigger and has so much more too see. The baby koala bear is so darling, not to mention the Panda bears. Another thing that I love about the zoo is that you can take your own food in to it. Much better than the rules at Disneyland, Sea World, Legoland, etc. When you have to buy multiple meals for 6 people it gets kind of pricey! One of the cutest things that I have seen was in the orangutan section. My kids were all sitting in front of this glass wall when one of the orangutans came up and sat down right in front of my kids. He put his hands on the glass and was just watching the kids. Ireland leaned in to kiss the glass and the orangutan leaned in as well and kissed her back! It was so darling! Everyone oohed and that embarrassed her. I of course did not have my camera ready so I asked her to do it again, but she looked around at everyone watching her and decided she DID NOT want to do it again! It was so sweet!

Kearney with the momma and baby koala in the background.Aren't they so cute?!

Parker's grandpa (my dad) brought him back a small frog just like this from a small African village. You run a stick on its back and it croaks. I HATE it! It gives me a headache, but Parker was thrilled when he saw this!

Lots of beautiful shade at the zoo!

By the Apes

This is the orangutan that kissed Ireland. So cute!

Parker and one of the twins in the petting area. Lots of goats everywhere!

Kylee and Ireland in the 'skyfari' ride. We rode this back to the entrance after the polar bears. Too tired to walk!

This is what Ireland's feet looked like at the end of the day. YUCK!

They have arrived!

It is official! The Navy Blue Angels have arrived in El Centro! For those of you who do not know who they are, they are what James refers to as the 'Navy's dog and pony show'! lol Really, they are to help the Navy recruit people. They are UNBELIEVABLE!!! They do things in the air that are crazy! The do their winter training here in El Centro. We have a Navy Base here and it is good weather all winter. Some people do not like having them train here (they are REALLY noisy), but I love it! I love hearing them fly over. It cracks me up that they are so loud they set of people's car alarms. I love to watch them do their maneuvers in the air. My kids really enjoy watching them. Last year we were blessed to be able to go and see their show from the VIP section. I am not expecting it again, but boy would it be fun. We got to meet them and have our pictures taken with them. It was pretty awesome. So, for the next three months I get to enjoy the massive amounts of noise they make and see them in the sky! Go Blue Angels!

Newer Phone Withdrawl

Many of you have heard the sad news that my cell phone was stolen by one of the kid's friends. At first I thought that I accidentally threw it away, but 2 days later my mom got a phone call from some giggly girls, so we no longer thought that it had been tossed. After offering McDonalds as a reward for whoever turned it in and having no takers (must be too scared!) I had to get a new phone. I was really dreading spending the money. Well, we realized that James has an old phone that he got more than 5 years ago. We decided that I would use that one (I think that he should have volunteered to switch, but he said I am the one that left mine out...sigh) instead of buying a new one. It stinks! There is no camera, I can't see the pictures of who is calling, I have lost my rings (Dann talking to the twins, my mom singing to the girls, a lovely Rascal Flatts song for when James calls), videos of Parker diving, etc! Hello! Who can function with that type of phone! lol I know that it sounds crazy, but I really am going through withdrawls! I probably should get a grip, but I think that instead I will try to get T-Mobile to give me a new one if I sign another 2 year contract! Keep your fingers crossed! I don't like living in the 'dark ages'! BTW, I did have a few requests to post pics of my new phone....that is not happening with this sad little phone. When I get a good one you get pics! haha

New Years

I think in the 8 1/2 years that we have been married we have had only 2 New Year's Eve nights together and one of those I was enormously pregnant! Needless to say, this year James had to work as well. So, we went to Sea World the day before to celebrate as a family. We had year passes this year (and went 6 times....kind of Sea World out!) and they expired on the 31st and we wanted to get one last visit in. It was wonderful. The day was warm and the kids had a blast. We did the things that we had never done before (the pet show....surprisingly it was really good!) and rode the roller coaster a MILLION (okay, only a few) times. The second time we were on it, we were at the top waiting to go down and it started to really shake. My eyes got huge and James looked back at me and said 'earthquake'. I think he could tell that I was starting to freak out and so was quick to tell me it was actually the car that had just gone down that was causing the shaking. He was lucky that I could not reach him or he would have been pummeled to death! They still had the park decorated for Christmas and we went to a few Christmas shows. The final show we saw was the Shamu Christmas show. It started at 7:30 so it was dark, really foggy and VERY cold! It also was so spiritual! I was so surprised by that! I bawled my head off. They had a man play the most beautiful rendition that I have ever heard of O Holy Night on his sax and then he played Silent Night (I thought of you mom) on the Oboe (usually not my favorite instrument). Through out the whole show they only had 2 secular Christmas songs and the rest were all Savior related. They also had the whales behaving appropriately to the music. Whenever it was a sacred song they were not jumping all over. At the end of the show they had us all stand up and sing all the verses of Joy To The World. It was truly amazing! We also ended up seeing a family that we knew in our stake in Salt Lake. They moved to San Diego in July. The wife is also friends with people that I know in El Centro! How random and weird is that?!

On New Years Eve, I took the kids to the store to get some treats for that night and Kearney blessed us (and WalMart's cleanup crew) by throwing up twice in the store. The second time was at the checkout stand! I figured that it was better there then on my carpet back home! Poor girl. The girls did not even make it to 9:30 that night, but Parker made it to midnight (barely), banged his pot and spoon and then promptly went to bed! James came home from work stinking like fireworks that were going off in Mexico (that along with the guns that were being shot in the air...seriously, don't they, the gun shooters, know that the bullet has to come down somewhere?!).

I am glad to start off this new year. I am (along with a million people) making goals for this new year. Yes, I am setting a goal to loose weight. Well, it is more a goal to exercise 5 days a week, 3 using weights, and to eat healthy (most of the time). I figure the weight should come off with it. I am also going to try and get my spiritual booty in gear...you know, be better at my scripture reading, praying, and not yelling at my kids. I think those things ought to get me off to a good start. Now, I am only putting these things down with the hope that because someone else (besides my husband) knowing it will spur me on to succeed! Hope springs eternal! Happy New Year everyone!