Happy Mother's Day to me... early!

May 2010:

Beene came home from school one day and was being very secretive with her daddy!  I was told that I could not ask any questions, nor could I come upstairs for atleast 5 minutes... to which I complied.  She had made me something at school, and her teacher told her she was to wait until Mother's Day to give it to me! 

Well, she is her daddy's daughter, and they both don't do waiting very well!!  So, the same night she hid her gift, she begged me to let her give it to me!  So, I gave in and when she handed it to me, tears started coming and it was the most beautiful thing I had seen!!!

Stunning...don't you think?!

I love her handwriting and how she spells things at this age!  It says, if you can't tell... My mom likes Choklit (chocolate), My mom wants Noo Clos (new clothes) My mom is good at Mkeendinr (Making Dinner) and I love my mom because: SHE LOVES ME!!  Boy she is smart to know that!!!  I do, I love her more than words!

Muffins with Mom

May 2010:

For Joy School this year, I was in charge of May.  It just so happend that one of my days was before Mother's Day.  Well, I decided that we would do something special!  We had Muffins with Mom day.  The kids made super cute gifts with handprint hearts in a pie tin.  It said, "my hands may be small, but my heart is big!  Happy Mother's Day  2010!" 

On our fun day, the mom's came and we dined on muffins... we had blueberry, raspberry, apple, and bran.  We also had some fruit and juice and milk!  It was all very tasty and everyone loved it!!  I had made little booklets for them to do together about things that they liked.  But, you know how it can get when you get 6 mom's chatting and little kids playing around... yeah, they got sent home to do later... we had too much fun talking and eating!  Then we read The Kissing Hand, which is a wonderful story about a mommy raccoon and a baby raccoon and... oh I could go on for days about this fabulous book...its a must read for any family!  The kids gave thier mommies kisses on their hands and the mommies did the same to their kids.  That way, when they are away from eachother, they can put their hands up to their cheeks and feel that they are loved! 

It was very cute, and very fun to just be able to chat and catch up with everyone!  I am a little more than bummed that I didn't get any pictures!  Darn! 

Fare the well...

May 2010:

my little car...

We sold my Neon!  This was my first car that I paid for!  I got it when I was assistant manager at Provo Towne Foot Locker, and I loved this car.  I put a gazillion miles on this baby when Jonathan and I were dating, and when I transferred up to Salt Lake to be do my manager training.  I bet this car cried tears of joy when Jonathan and I got married, so that it didn't have to see the freeway as much... until he started to drive it down to SLC and American Fork (2 hours away from home) again! 

This cute little car was dubbed "The Strawburry" by my sister, and for a car warming gift, she even got me a glitter strawberry ornament that hung proudly on the mirror.  My daddy got me a license plate holder that said, "Jamie's Baby" on it, and my first cd I ever played in the cd player was Madonna.  I spent many hours in this car... it was with me through tears and laughter, through having three little boy bum's sitting in my never before sat in back seat, to having Beene puke in it several times because it had no air conditioning towards the end.  It sat in the driveway for a year, and when we went to get it working again, we found that it had become the home of wasps... they were everywhere.  It was a good little car, and then it started to get old...and loud!  I could hear Jonathan coming down the street in that baby!

Goodbye little red car!  I hope you make it for a few more years with your new owners! 

Party time... excellent!!

May 2010:

Cinco De' Mayo just happens to have extra special celebratory reasons in this family! 
It is my Gramps bday... this year he turned the young age of 89.  For this memorable big birthday we had a HUGE party!!  When I say huge, I mean huge!!  There were 32 of us stuffed into Gramps little house!  There wasn't any room to park on his street, because it was lined both sides with OUR cars.  My Aunt and Uncle and their two dogs even came from Reno to be with him!  It was tons of fun even though he wasn't feeling so hot.  He was sick, but that didn't stop us from celebrating!  He was such a trooper, and I bet was so excited when we all left and he could actually hear himself think!  It got a little loud... but the weather cooperated and the kids were able to play outside, which made it a little less loud!

A little about my Gramps...  He was in WW2.  He was a paratrooper in the Battle of The Buldge.  They were fighting and a German tank was firing at them, it hit and killed his friend next to him, a piece of shrapnel hit his arm, they couldn't save his arm, so he has his "stump".  The kids all love his stump and think it is funny when he waves it at them.  I guess in a way it is a good thing that he was injured because that is how he and my Grammer met.  She was working at the hospital and they fell in love!  He was awarded a Purple Heart, and was featured in a photograph in Time Magazine.  He doesn't talk much about what happened.  As a matter of fact, I had never heard the story until one Thanksgiving he and Jonathan were talking and all of the sudden he started telling it.  You could hear a pin drop in the room, it was so quiet.  For almost all the people in the room it was the first time hearing the story.  My mom said that she had only ever heard in one other time. 

He is a super hard worker and does amazing things with his one arm.  He mows his lawn...twice a week, he sharpens the mower blade, and he keeps a mean looking yard.   A few years ago, he got cancer in his throat.  He had to have Chemo, and even though we had to fight him to do it, he did and we are glad that he is here with us today! 

The cake: it was huge, and VERY tastey!  He loves to watch Bull Riding with my cousin Chris.  Very fittingly they put a little bull on his cake so that he could have a toy to remember the big day!

 The girls loved having cousin time.  Not all the cousins were able to be there, but these three are usually attached at the hip at any family gathering! 

We love you Gramps!  Happy 89th, and here's to as many more as we can have with you!!!  LOVE YOU LOTS!!!

April Turns 1!!!

April 2010:

Wow, how time has flown by!! Our little grandbaby is one! She is such a peanut with a great disposition! She is a happy little girl who is always on the go! I love when she gives me big hugs and plays with my hair or pats me on the back.

Joseph's mom had a birthday party for her at her home. Lauries parents and sister came, and so it was a full house! She sure has a lot of people who love her, thats for sure! I think there were about 20 of us, and she ate up all the attention!

Here are a few of my favorite pictures that capture her personality to a T.

This is one of her smiles that makes us all giggle! It is her "my smile is so big its going to swallow my face"... but it is so stinking cute! It is a definate favorite!

She was glued to these books that she got. She cared about the frog, and the books... that was about it. She could have sat there the whole time, and not cared if we were there or not! She is so smart and loves books!

This right here is my all time favorite smile of hers. It has her all over it! She is very sweet, and at times very calm...she definatly has her wild times, but never a bad wild...that I've seen! She is a snuggle girl and will give you a smile and a hug, and sometimes a kiss when you need one! I love her little munchkin voice, and she is trying to talk so much. She says "hi!" and she can sign some things as well.

After presents it was time for cake... she wasn't so sure of all the people standing around her highchair and the flame on the candle... but she was awesome and gave us a good show of her eating!

She LOVES chocolate!!! She is definatly her daddy's little girl! I am so proud of Joseph and the dad that he has become! He loves his little girl to the ends of the earth and more! Laurie is a wonderful mom, who adores her little peanut more than life itself. They have both grown up so much in the last year. We are very grateful that this little baby girl is in our lives!!! She is a keeper for sure!

Fun with friends...

April 2010:

My friend Gina and her hubby were taken on a vacation to Mexico for her birthday. They have a little girl, Abby that is a great friend of the girls. They have never left her overnight, and it was now time. They had another friend have her nights, and then she came over to our house during the day. The girls had a great time, and they played and played!! They wanted her back the whole next week!



Buddy had fun too. We got to spend a lot of time outside, since the weather was really nice. We loved having Abby at our house! Friends are fun, and we miss our friends from our old neighborhood badly!

A boy and his dad!

April 2010:

These two are like peas in a pod! They love to be around eachother and they make eachother smile all the time. Buddy hates hats or anything on his head... but when Jonathan puts his hat on him, he starts to play a game... its cute and I can't get him to do it with me! Whenever Jonathan is doing something, Buddy has to move his cute little body over to where he is... he has to be right in the mix of things!

It is fun to see them together!

Easter 2010

April 2010:

For Easter, all the grandkids on my side of the family try to get together for dying eggs. So, we went down to my sister Stacey's and we got our eggs on! The kids had a blast and I was surprised that our car didn't stink of boiled eggs on the way home like it has in the past. Thank heavens!!!
Because my kids love holiday's so much, my Stacey is always getting them cute things to help "egg" on the spirit of the holiday. This time it was rabbit ears! So, here is Aunt Stace and the kids in their bunny ears! So cute, and my kids love them!

Beene in her egg dying "daddy shirt" waiting for her eggs to come out all pretty!!!

Julles looking a little spacey, but was having a great time!! She even wrote her name on one of her eggs.

The Easter Bunny came and left bunny fur all over our house and on our welcome mat outside. He gave the girls candy, candy and more candy and he brought Buddy a jar of babyfood... Carrots of course!!!

It was lots of fun, and we had the Joseph, Laurie and April and Jeremy and Jason there with us to celebrate as well! It was great to be with family on a holiday like this!

Leprechan mischief and silliness

March 2010:

St. Partricks Day is another favorite holiday at our kids. I think I have come to the realization that my kids just LOVE holidays... period!!! Anyway, we had so much fun and those silly Leprechans made some major mischief in our home.

First...

The kids all woke up with Leprechan kisses all over them! There were tiny green dots on thier legs, arms and even some on their faces! Beene was a little upset that there were only kisses on one of her legs... she slept with the other one tucked tightly under the covers... how were those little guys supposed to get in there? From there they found in the bathroom that those silly little men used the potty and it was all green and what is worse??? They didn't flush!!! When we came downstairs there were little green footprints EVERYWHERE!!

The night before we left "treasure cans". We read a story about how if you leave a treasure box out the night before st. pattys day, a Leprechan will come to your house in search of gold. If it gets in your treasure box, then it is stuck and can't get out unless it leaves you something in return. So, this is what the girls found amidst all the green little footprint chaos!

I think those little guys knew that we REALLY like all those candies and treats, we were happy kids!!! Then we found that our milk was turned green, and shoes were up on the light fixtures, the highchair was ON TOP of the kitchen table, and the brand new box of Lucky Charms cereal was dumped out into my cake stand. We had Green French Toast and Rainbow Fruit Salad with some green milk to wash it down! It was a tasty breakfast indeed!

mmmm...tastey!!!

Every year on St. Patty's day when I was growing up, we'd have Corned Beef and Cabbage. I always thought it was a true Irish tradition... Well, as I was looking around this year, I found that it is NOT... but we don't care... we like it to much not to have it! So we had Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potatoes, Carrots, green Jello, and Green Watergate Salad with Green Kool-Aid to drink!

It was so much fun! But now I have set a tradition and so now I have to be this creative EVERY year... good thing I have pictures to remember everything!

This is not the best picture of them, they are all three VERY tired from a busy fun filled day... but I had to get a picture of them in thier GREEN!!!

Happy St. Patty's!

A present from the aunties...

March 2010:

Jonathan's sister's Lori and Andrea came for a visit. It was their first time seeing Buddy and the girls hadn't seen them in a long time either! We eagerly waited for them, and finally they were here! Beene came hom from school to a big surprise and lots of hugs and kisses! The aunties also came with little gifts for the girls and a different one for Buddy!

They knew that we all were wanting spring to come quickly and so they gave them bags of Spring items... for outside, Easter and thier bellies! For Buddy though, it was a tad different! They brought him his very own Fire Truck! It was so cute! What made it even better is the reason they got it for him.

When Jonathan was a little munchkin, he had a toy Fire Engine that he could ride on and that had a ladder that really moved. He loved that thing... it had a key and everything. Well, they got Buddy one so that he could be just like his daddy!!! So fun!!

After our fun visit, and they had gone home... he and I had a little photo shoot to show off all the sitting practice we had been getting in!

"Mom, whatcha doin?"

"Oh, OK... this could be fun!!"

"Ok, this is not as fun as I thought it was going to be!!"

"Oh fine, just 1 more... that is is!!!"

"Is this what you were looking for mom?"

Yes, Buddy that is exactly what I was looking for... you did great!! We had lots of fun with the Aunties and hope we see them soon!!! Thanks Aunt Lori and Lynnie... you are awesome!

Chillin' in 3D!!

March 2010:

So, we have movie night with the girls atleast once a week! They love it and we have fun watching them be so into something! So, we decided to have them try out something different...

3D baby!!! They thought they were stylin. They kept having to put them back on because they were a little big, but we watched a Hannah Montana Concert in 3D, and then before we called it a night we wanted them to see something VERY cool with those glasses!

Enter...

This movie is way to scary for little kids to watch all the way through, but the begining is the coolest thing in 3D ever to watch! They loved every minute of it, and kept trying to reach out and touch or swat thing that "were in front of them"! It was a very fun night indeed!!!

We have sitting...

March 2010:

My little Buddy is the best waker upper in the family! He is always so happy and pleasant! We could all use a few lessons from him, I think! He is always up as soon as the sun shines in his window... which doesn't always make me super happy... but I'm working on it!

Anywho... one day he was taking his morning nap and woke up, and I heard him chatting away and went in to peek on him... this is what I found (so much for peekin')!

Such a happy handsome boy!! He just makes me melt when he looks at me like that!!! You?

On to the topic at hand here...We have been working on his strength and the whole sitting up by himself thing for a while now and so I thought we'd give it a try...

We're sitting...

We're getting excited and starting to lean...

Ohhhh! It was a good try, and a good lesson that doing it in the nice soft crib is better than doing this on the hard floor!! Good Job Buddy!!! You are almost there!

Tooth Fairy Away!!!

February 2010:

We were driving around running some errands and Beene said, "Mom, Dad... my tooth just came out!" She wasn't freaking out, but you could see it was coming soon, so Daddy turned around, (I was driving) and chatted with her and they laughed about how cool it was. She calmed down and daddy kept it safe until bed time!

My little girl and her FIRST lost tooth!! Jonathan and I are wondering where she got those genetics from... we both didn't start losing our teeth until 2nd Grade, and here she is in Kindergarten!!!

The tooth, it was nice and pearly white... the Tooth Fairy I am sure was proud of it!!

When I was little, I had a little pillow with a pocket in it for my lost teeth... at our house we have a baggie!!!

Here she is putting it under her pillow... the Tooth Fairy better come quick!!! She was sooo excited!!!

Well, the Tooth Fairy had a really hard time getting under her pillow to switch the tooth for cash... so she called in a helper, we'll call him the Molanator... and he was successful at the switch! It was hard for the Tooth Fairy because Beene sleeps next to the wall, and she had to climb on the bed without waking up 2 little girls in the meantime!!!

But, our first experience was a great one!!! I am sure it will happen again soon, she has a total of 6 loose teeth now!!!

Oh Buddy!!!

February 2010:

So, after 2 weeks or so of being clear of RSV, it strikes again!!! Poor guy! This time though, no hospital... but a nebulizer!! I have never had to use one of these before, which they were shocked about because Julles has asthma... but she uses inhalers! He loved the thing! I was expecting to have to hold him down and have him screaming because that is what I always hear in the ER when I am there in the winter time... instead we see this...

He kind of uses it like a Hookah... and he gets REALLY mad when you take it away!!! Luckily this one didn't stay around for too long, and the nebulizer is in the closet for future use! Dr. A said that now that he has had it once, he is more likely to get it again and again! So, we are prepared with more than enough medicine for when we are faced with it!

Onto other "oh buddy" items:

So, one night he and I were in our night time routine... I feed him baby food and cereal before he goes to bed so that he will sleep through the night better. Well, this particular night he was dining on peaches and oatmeal. He ate it up, and went to bed like an angel. Well, at about 5 a.m or so, he started stirring and grunting and crying a little. So, I went in to check on him, but only with the hall light on. I didn't want to wake, wake him up! He was grunting really bad and he was rubbing his face with his hands and looked like he was trying to rub him eyes out of his head. I got him out of bed to go and make him a bottle. We got out to the hall... and the lights and his face looked like he had been beaten!!

Exhibit A:

His poor little face got bigger and bigger adn his eyes were little slits. So, I was getting packed up for the ER when I decided I would call first. They told me that I could give him benedryl and see how he did... if his breathing got rough to bring him in. We drugged him and it went away slowly through the day. Dr. A said to just hold off on the peaches, since everywhere they touched his face left a burn/blister... for atleast a month or two. Yeah, a lot longer than that... SCARY!!!

The long-awaited...

February 2010:

Valentines Day!!

One of the girls favorite holidays...for reasons unkown! It has been this way since they learned their colors and now they look forward to it as soon as Christmas Day! They would love if I would take down Christmas decor and put our Valentines stuff up immediatly. I make them wait atleast until after New Years! But, over the years we have gathered some decorations... some years they are harder to come by than others. We also have some traditions that we do to make it fun for them.

This year, they got Valentines Day outfits, and got thier hair done all pretty and wanted to be photographed at once!! I abliged and thought that this one was absolutly perfect!!!

These two are Best Friends and most times are attatched at the hip! They fight just like any sisters do, but they are quick to say sorry and start right back where they were when they were happy!! Love them!



Our Jaxson "Buddy" is getting so big!! He sits up with the help of the couch cushion crack, and loves his feet! He is the happiest baby I have ever seen, and he smiles constantly!!! Here he is in deep thought and looking very handsome too!!! I really think I could eat him!!!

Everytime we would take the girls to the store, they would see those huge mylar baloons and ask for them... we always say maybe another time. So, for Jonathan's present to them, he ordered... days in advance some fabulous presents, that were sure to make some very excited girls! We were supposed to pick them up Saturday night because the store wasn't open on Sunday...

But because Jonathan can't stand a surprise (too often), he went bright and early Saturday morning to get these babies...

Julles LOVES ladybugs, and thought she had died and gone to bug heaven!! She was gitty!!!

Beene is a butterfly fanatic and didn't let go of her's until it was time to pry it out of her hand to go to the bathroom!!

They had so much fun, they loved every minute of it! We had strawberries, and when everyone came for dinner, we had heart shaped meatloafs and it was tastey!!! Oh we had lots of fun times as a family too!!

Until next year... Happy Valentines!!

The big 1-9!!

February 2010:

February 3rd, our Jeremy had a Birthday!! Not just any... he turned 19!! He was at school in Ephraim over his big day, so we waited patiently until it was our turn to celebrate with him!! For our Sunday dinner we had everyone over... even his cousin's roommates from school. IT was a house full... but wonderful!

You can't forget the cupcakes... with all 19 candles on them!! Yeah, we were waiting for the smoke detectors to go off because of all the smoke that was coming off those babies!! But we ended up ok... good thing the birthday song isn't that long!!!

We had to do some decorating. The girls got squares of scrapbook paper and drew pictures of what they wished him for his birthday. They came up with some pretty "out there" things, but he asked us to save them for him... so they must have been keepers!

We also put signs up all over, and Jonathan made paper balloons, because we forgot until it was too late at night the night before to go and get the real thing... but it went well with our "paper decor"!

We love our Jeremy and were glad to spend some time with him before he had to go back down for school! He had a great celebration and is glad that he'll be home for his 20th!!

Feeling Sick...

February 2010:

Buddy was under the weather, not doing well at all!! He is such a happy baby, that he wasn't even really that fussy. However, we could tell that something was not right with our little guy!

He had been coughing and coughing and it was sounding really bad. His breathing was a little frightening and he kept arching his back. He had a fever for days and nothing would take it down.

So, we packed everyone up, and took him to the dr. Dr. Armstrong said the word I hoped my kids would never get... RSV! Not just a little RSV, but he needed to be admitted into the hospital to get some oxygen and be monitered and have some tests ran. Terrified, but knowing it is better that he is there sick then at home sick...we all went to the hospital to check him into the Ped's unit. First off, it was a full house! They had 4 infants there besides Buddy with RSV, some even newborns!! SCARY!! Because we had the girls with us, Jonathan took him back to get him situated, and I hung out with the girls until it was my turn to go back there. When it was my long awaited turn, I just wanted to hold him... but he had to be stuck with moniters and such, and the nurses made me wait! Even though he was so sick, he still had the nurses in smiles because he was smilin' away! They kept saying that they wouldn't have thought he was sick just by looking at him! We got him settled and then I ran home with Jonathan and the girls to get some things for the night and to get the girls settled and a little less freaked out because they didn't like leaving their brother at the hospital alone... EITHER DID I!!!

When I came back to his room, they had him laying on the hospital bed, watching Sprout! He loved it and was totally content. He was even sporting a hospital gown!!



He and I did some snuggeling, played peek-a-boo, had some crying, watched tv and did a little eating as well. We talked to Daddy on the phone, and sent video's of him to the girls. He finally fell asleep after some major drugging, and I put him and all his wires into the little hospital crib... not so little though, now that I think about it. It was hard to just sit and watch him, he was having such a hard time. The nurses were doing all that they could for him, but it was a restless night! I would have loved to have put him in my bed with me, but that was a no-no!!

I got up in the morning and went home to get the girls ready for school. Luckily he had done well enought throughout the night that he could go home. That was a happy thing to tell the girls when they got done with school! They were beaming!

He is a trooper, and I hope that this doesn't come back to haunt us later!

Grandpa fun!

January 2010:

My parents came up to see the house. The girls were excited as always and could not wait to see their Grandma and Grandpa!! We had to decorate for Valentines day as soon as we could find the decorations in our piles of boxes...because we have kids who are HOLIDAY NUTS!!! So, to make for some more Valentines fun, my parents came up for the day and just so happend to have brought some loot for the girlas, and a high chair for Buddy!!!

Here you see my dad, aka grandpa being a VERY good sport!!! They had lots of fun puting in clippies and trying to put his hair...what he has left anyway... into ponytails. We laughed and laughed because this picture is he and I 20 someodd years ago... I used to do this to him everyday!! What a great guy!!!

These girls LOVE thier Grandpa!! He spoils them and will let them do whatever they want to him!!!

Kids... fun, fun kids!

January 2010

The kids make me smile on a daily basis! They are always doing something crazy silly! These are just a few things that I thought I would share!

Buddy and April are good friends! She is older than he is, and so he is watching her every move, and wanting to be mobile to catch up with her. They are really cute to watch! We love our babies!!!

This was the day after we moved in... Joseph and Laurie and Jason came over to help us unpack some things and eat with us for sunday dinner. We had so many things out and about on the main floor that it was NOT kid safe in anyway. Our gate was lost in the mountain of boxes and so the crib parts were the next best thing! The girls kept pretending that they were locked up in a tower and that a prince was going to come save them. April did not think it was so cool... she wanted her mommy and daddy!!

Buddy has found his toes! He loves them and is found in a little ball at all times! He is amazed that they are attatched!!!

My babies! They are so stinkin cute, I just can't stand it!!! I'm sorry... I just can't!

The girls had a twinner day... twinner hair, twinner petshop shirts, and twinner apples!! It was a fun day!!!

Jeremy is at school at Snow College for the semester, and we miss him horribly! I actually cried when he came to say goodbye!! Luckily we will see him on some weekends.