Noah's afraid to go to sleep

I need some help! The last few nights Noah has complained about being scared to go to sleep. He says there are monsters in his closet and he has "nightmare dreams". What should I do? We've tried telling him there are no such things are monsters. We've turned on the light and looked in the closet with a flashlight to show him there's nothing in there. We've told him he can pray/sing church songs to make him feel better. He actually does feel better then, but a few minutes later his mind starts wandering and he's scared again. He's been wandering into our bedroom too after he gets scared (sometimes at 2am, sometimes 7am). Anyone else dealt with this? Please share your parenting secrets. I want to nip this in the bud before it becomes a big issue. Oh we also read "There is a Nightmare in my Closet" and he went to bed with a gun so he could shoot his nightmare.

Cruise anyone?

I just thought I'd throw this out there...

There are 10 of us in Rob's family that are going on a cruise in May. We booked space for 14 of us, but only 10 are going. Does anyone want to come along? You can spend as little or as much time with us as you want (but I can promise you that Rob's family is all like Rob--tons of fun to be around). Email me if you are interested. It's a five day/six night cruise out of San Diego for $520/per person which includes all meals, taxes and fees. We'll be heading to Mexico. C'mon all you California friends...leave the kids with your parents and party with the Kisers!

just some fun pics

These are just some fun pics from our trip to SLC for Amy's wedding. Missing are Joseph and Maddie. There is one of all the gorgeous girls, one of the 3 youngest Kiser kids still living at home and 2 of the whole group (goofy of course...those are my favorites).

Gneiting wedding and misc stuff

Seriously, they are soooo cute. Last week before church...

Rob's sister Amy got married to Scott Gneiting on Friday. We flew to SLC and then drove up to Rexburg for the wedding. They live in Newport Beach, CA so it's been fun getting to know Scott and seeing them get ready for marriage. Super duper cute couple. Here is Amy with her brothers/brother-in-laws and a pic with cousins (minus Noah who was still cranky from the cast hurting and Maddie who was in CA).


Issy and her Daddy.

Josh was definitely going for broke catching the bouquet. Who knew he wanted to get married so badly?

Noah and Ben were adorable dancing with each other. They noticed that everyone had partners so they became each other's partner. They were getting DOWN!

Rob's favorite mission companion, Ray, stopped by with his cute wife, Tapia and their daughter Sierra. Ray made Rob's mission totally worth while (Long Beach, CA Cambodian speaking).

Sunday morning back in SLC Rob got to go up to the Capitol to see his dad's office. His dad is in the State Legislature and is about to run for his 4th term.

We got to visit our dental school friends the Dansie's in Idaho and the Larson's and Jone's in Utah. Super duper fun to catch up with them and see how life after school was treating them (awesome!) The next reunion for us won't be until after Japan as this was the last trip to UT.

I'm growing Noah's hair out (since I can't control Rob's I figure I can control my son's). I love it because it kinda curls up on the end and has a really nice wave. Basically, I'm jealous of his locks. Anyway, Noah loves making it stand up after a bathtub.


Rob's cute sister, Micaela, is visiting from UT. The oldest(30) and youngest(12) Kiser siblings had a bonfire tonight and it's fun to see them interact. Mickey, Josh, Justin and the Kiser parents are in town for our brother, Joseph's, graduation tomorrow. Congrats Joseph!

Our bi-annual trip to the SLC ER

In our 4 1/2 years since we had Noah, we have never visited SLC without a trip to the ER. The first trip was for RSV for Noah when he was 4 months old. We've had visits for strep throat, ear infections, staph infections. You name it, we've been to the ER in SLC for it. This trip for Amy's wedding was no exception. The first morning there Noah got hurt while wrestling with his Uncle Greg. Greg was throwing Noah and all the other kids on the couch (big and fluffy). He must have landed wrong. For the next couple hours while we had Amy and Scott's wedding shower, Noah was purched on Rob's lap like this.

After the shower, we had to drive up to Rexburg, ID (4 hours away). Noah was still whimpering and babying his arm. This was unlike him so we tried to stop at Hill AFB on our way up only to discover they don't have an ER. So we made the poor kid wait until Rexburg, where Uncle Bart is a radiologist, to get it looked at. And the verdict...a broken wrist. He broke both the bones in his arm. Here's a pic with Uncle Bart, Rob and the oh-so-happy Noah.

He's getting more used to it now. He can even go down the fireman's pole at the playground with it. It is certainly not slowing him down. 3 more weeks until it can get taken off. I'm just glad it didn't happen during swimming season.

When you're given lemons....

We decided to squeeze the lemons we picked to make lemonade.  Instead of adding the sugar to make it sweet, we all drank it straight up.  100% pure lemon juice.  Here are the beautiful shots of our sour faces in all their glory.












Last night we went down to O'Neil Lake and fed the ducks.  Afterwards, I was in the mood for a bonfire so we came back to the house and cooked hot dogs on a stick for dinner (for the kids). We never got the fire going very big (on purpose) so most of the flames had a lot of smoke in them from the paper.  As a result the hot dogs had a black coating on them which came off on the boys face.  We also discovered that the boys will eat anything if it is on a stick.  We had shihkabobs the other night and they ate it up.  Notice Noah eating grapes on a stick....he would never eat those in real life.  

Five Star Furniture

We have these super cute cousins, Lorin and Kelli, who started an online furniture store recently. If you're in the market for some fun, chic furniture then take a look. Even if you don't want to buy anything, their stuff is super cute and very reasonably priced. Click on the icon to the left!

Hair-the good, the bad and the ugly

Rob took a razor to his head. He said he liked my haircut, but he still decided to shave all his beautiful, wavy red hair off. So sad. Hopefully his sister Amy forgives him as her wedding is in two weeks. Here is what he looks like.


It made me start thinking about all the strange things we've done to our hair since we've met each other. One of the reasons Rob was first attracted to me was because I was wearing pigtails.

When we first met, Rob's hair was growing out, but he still liked to do weird things with his facial hair. One look I really detested was the handlebar mustache.

I've had short (noticed the boy band frosted blond Rob has too).

I've had short and REALLY blond.

I've had medium.

I've had long and straight.

I really don't like "doing" my hair, though. Maybe that's because I didn't have any sisters so I didn't spend hours growing up doing each other's hair. I've always wanted to do that, but since I don't have a sister I didn't.

Rob's had his fair share of odd. He was bald when Ben was bald and fluffy when Noah was little.



He's had greasy.

He likes to wear a baseball cap a lot. I kind of like that.

Here we are getting a static electric charge at the Science Museum in Cleveland.

But, I really, REALLY love Rob's red hair. It was the first reason I was initially attracted to him. I wanted red headed little babies and it was the reason I asked him to procreate with me on our first date (eventually, not that night, of course). Now it's gone and I have to hold on to the faith that after this stint in the military he will have gorgeous locks of love again. Until then, I'm in love with Mr. Clean.