The Cardons Have Talent!

And here's why....

Katie -- Student of the Month

Back to School Night

Primary Talent Show -- Haylie after a PERFECT performance of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"
Hu, she would have made you proud!


Katie and Brooke dancing at the Primary Talent Show

Audra, a little artist

Audra, being darling (that is a talent!)

Katie and her coveted trophy. She's quite the dancer!

I can do a bun (thanks for the lesson, Becky)

Oh! The shows/costumes that we have going on!

Too Bad You're Not a Girl

Trevor is seriously out numbered around here, and is going to be for quite a while! I never had any sisters, so once we found out that Haylie was a girl, all I cared about was that she got a sister -- and now she has 2!

Tonight after dinner we were clearing the table and Haylie really wanted to watch the music video of "Love Story" from Taylor Swift. We turned it on and all of us girls started to sing along and dance while Daddy did dishes. We were having so much fun and poor Daddy was working away! One of the big girls turned to Trevor and said, very matter-of-factly, "Too bad you're not a girl!" It was pretty funny (not quite as funny to the reader, I am sure).

Speaking of things that "it's too bad" you're not....poor Audra is not a school girl or a worker. Each morning when the big kids/Daddy leave, she tries to get ready like they do, in hopes that she'll slip out the door with them and I won't notice.

Happy Birthday Audra!

I can't believe that my baby is 2 years old! I am so glad she is here, especially since she gave us such trouble at the beginning....

When I was 9 weeks prego with her I went in for my first check up and the doctor was unable to find a heart beat, or an embryo. The doctor said that I had most likely had an early miscarriage. She sent me to do some lab work and within a week called to let me know that I was not pregnant. I was pretty sad, but still somehow felt that I was really pregnant. The doctor had me come in for a D&C and prescribed some medication for the procedure that I was to take before I came in. I didn't feel right about taking it or having the procedure done. When I went in and I told her how I felt, she sympathized with me, but reassured me that they had done all the tests and there simply was no baby. I begged her to do one more ultra sound before the D&C, and when she did...there WAS a baby after all!

At 24 weeks I went into early labor. A little bed rest and my cervix closed back up! We were so thankful. The only bummer was that she never moved back up. So, for the next 14 weeks she stayed in the birth canal. OUCH! At 34 weeks I went into labor again, and I was so excited to think that she was coming...but the doctor stopped labor and reassured me that we didn't want her to come yet! Anyway, she was finally born on May 3, 2007 at 8:00 pm.

The doctor promised me that I could come into have her on that day (I was dilated to a 3 and 50% effaced...she said she would just break my water). That morning the doctor called to let me know that there was no room in the inn. Elizabeth Postak was with me and convinced me to go in anyway. I drove myself to the hospital (Trevor worked near it) and told them that I was in labor...but it wasn't really true. I know you can't really fool the nurses once you are all hooked up, but I figured that if they just checked me, I would be far enough along and they would keep me. So, I got hooked up and I was dilated to 5 cm and 75% effaced. I love how my body has a semi-silent labor. At 7 pm I received an epidural, had my water broken and then watched the NBA playoffs with Trevor. At 7:50 I felt some pressure, so I asked to be checked. I was ready to go. The nurse had me hold off until the doctor came in. Three pushes later, Adura Jane Cardon was born. She was slightly bigger than my other girls, weighing in at 7 lbs 1 oz (Haylie and Katie were both 6 lbs 9 oz).

She's been a sweet and easy baby! We love her. Happy birthday, Audra Jane!

Opening presents at Grandma's house. She is happy to have a baby of her own!

We had a great celebration at the Mission Viejo Lake with the Walkers (who's little baby Andrew was also turning 2), Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Blake and the Flakes (apparently I didn't have the camera out when they came...sorry guys!)

Audra and Andrew with presents and cake.




The next day we enjoyed Mother's Day with my Mom. Here we are at dinner.
Yummy Cafe Rio Salad. Mmmmm.....

Ditching School for the Zoo

Haylie is an unofficial 2nd grader (since we are going to have her go to 2nd grade again next year), and since 2nd grade is when the dreaded STAR test begins, she doesn't have to take it. So, I pulled her out of school last week for a fun day at the Santa Barbara Zoo. It is a fantastic place, and the weather was beautiful!

Naydine and me with the kids.

Loving the ocean!

Notice how John is blurring in this picture? He's on the go!

Haylie, Audra and me. We missed our Katie girl.

Until next time!

Spaghetti Dinner - A Post of Its Own

Soon after we moved here, Becky and I were asked by the Stake to put on a Spaghetti Take-out Dinner Fundraiser for Young Women. It was a ton of work, and a huge success.

Here's the deal: We figured that in order to make the amount of money we needed, the YW would need to sell 800 dinners. So, we decided to set our goal at 1,000 dinners. That meant that each YW needed to sell 10 dinners. And if they fell a little short, it would be okay because we really only needed 800.

Well, when we collected all the orders, they tallied up to 1,300 dinners! Thirteen HUNDRED meals! That is a huge amount of food. So, Becky and I had our work cut out for us.

We did 2 pick up dinners on 2 nights. One night we fed 850 people, the next night about 400 came through.

Shopping trip at Costco on the day of the first dinner. On the receipt: 36 bags of rolls (each with 3 dozen rolls), 65 BIG bags of salad, and 100 lbs. of tomatoes.

Becky and I cooked 200 servings of spaghetti on the mornings of both dinners. This worked out really well because we just poored boiling water over the cold noodles. This brought them back to life! Each ward brought enough cooked pasta for 50 people, and then we cooked a bunch as the evening went on.

We have 10 kids between the 2 of us, and 2 toddlers who have a love/hate relationship. On the 2 days of the fundraiser, we kept various kids home from school to entertain the little ones.

Nothing like a spaghetti picnic!

Have you ever mixed enough salad to feed nearly 900 people? Well, neither had we. We really had to think out of the box...and came up with this great idea: a kiddie swimming pool. It worked out swimmingly, if I do say so myself:)

All and all, it was a great success. The nights went on without a hitch. I am glad it turned out and I am even more glad it is over! Too bad we won't be here next year - I think we just might have gotten into a yearly fundraiser!

Catch Up

I have some serious catching up to do. So, lets begin....

First of all, we have been having some great times with our neighbors, the Meline family. I just thought it would be appropriate to post a picture of most of us (Austin, their oldest of 7, was taking the picture). Mother Becky has an abnormal amount of energy (I think it is unhealthy). She just ran the Boston Marathon. Who does that with 7 kids!??!? Maybe she'll rub off on me....

My parents, Blake, and his friend, Aimee, came up for a Saturday adventure. We spent some time at the farmer's market, had some yummy lunch and discovered a very cool candy and soda pop shop called Rocket Fizz.

The Lienwebers or Leinwbers (after 5 years, I still haven't learned how to spell their name) came for a great visit! We had a great time watching Conference together. Katie was in heaven with her MerriLien.

The whole family at the Ventura Pier (notice the crab in Michael's hand).

The happy couple.

Alrighty. Next we have Haylie. When we moved here, she was a 1st grader. I went to enroll the girls in the neighborhood school, and was informed that they had no room for a 1st grader. No room!?!? I thought they had to make room, but apparently not. So, the school said she would need to attend another school in the district. That school had no room for a kindergartner (Katie). So, to make a long story short, and to avoid having my kids at 2 different school, we decided to make Haylie a 2nd grader. She has done really well! She has had to work extra hard in math, but even in that she is doing great.

Haylie and Mrs. Moore

Dodgers Game. Fun times with Becky and Patrick.