Jessica the Super Mom

Innocent MUD!

2010-06-03T22:20:00.000-07:00

So we had an early dinner tonight and some time to kill before bed, so I suggested that we all go outside and play. Imagine that, playing outside int he summer time?! It was like torture for my kids!! They didn't want to go, they all wanted to stay inside and pick their nose or something boring like that. I kept trying to entice them with cool things like "we can enjoy the sunshine!", "We can do cart wheels" then finally I said..."I'll take some pictures of you!!" So that's what did it!

We went outside and I started shooting pictures of my kids. I wanted to get close ups of Yzabelle and Emerald because they have the cutest little freckles on their noses. Plus they are such pretty girls. So I took a few, here and there. Then the kids started doing cart wheels and it was all cute and fun. Then Emerald took over the camera shooting and took some of me. She always has to act like a grown up. She's so funny. So then someone turned on the water and started playing with the hose. Then someone else noticed this cool pile of dirt. Ug then someone put the water in the dirt and realized that it makes this really cool substance called MUD! So from that point on it was mud, mud, mud. For some reason I was liking the fact that they were playing, so I just sat there and took pictures of them. Haha They spread it everywhere!!! Of course, what do I expect....I mean it's mud right?! So here are some pictures of my kids playing in mud and getting all gross and dirty!

Frozen Pizza

2010-05-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I visit taught this lady in our Ward who was a single mom of 4 kids. I went with one of my friends, both her and I were married at the time. When we would go, I was always judgemental of her and her mothering skills and habits as a single mom. This one time we went it was right around dinner time. She was feeding her kids frozen pizza and popcorn. I was appalled at this. How could someone feed their kids frozen pizza? Meals, especially dinner, should be home cooked, and everyone should sit down at the table together to eat. What was wrong with her?
Well, this is me about 5 years later. How on earth could I have been such a brat to this lady? Who the heck am I to think these things about her and not know how hard it is to be a single mom with so many kids. I feel so bad for thinking this way about her. She must've been doing the best job she could. All of her kids were healthy and at least they were eating...and the popcorn was an extra bonus!
Now on busy days, days when i forgot to defrost meat, or don't have money for anything fancy, I thank God for frozen pizza to save the day and fill my kids' tummies.

Something's wrong with me

2010-04-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

I had a poopy day today! I hate it when I act like a typical "women" and I'm all mad and pissy for no reason. Then when I go over in my head what might be wrong, I get mad at myself cause it's usually so dumb!

The days that I work til 5 are so hard for the kids and me. Like today, I got off and ran to the store to get some stuff for dinner, I went to Navek's school cause he had soccer practice. We went home, and the kids are always so hyper when we get home....it takes them a little while to calm down. So we had dinner, taco salad. I made up every one's plate and tried to convince them it was good. Yzabelle usually tries everything, Emerald and Navek not so much. It looks and smells all pretty, but they always complain! It bugs me. I try to be strong and tell them that "this is dinner so you had better just eat it" Once Emerald and Navek tried it they ate most of it...ok ok ok I totally bribed them that if they finished it I would give them strawberry shortcake, whatever and some junk it worked! Anyway, I always feel like I'm in a hurry. A hurry to get dinner done, kids bathed, pj's, teeth, reading, calming down and finally bed. It's like I need to get them to bed, so we can wake up and freaking do it again. The mornings go the same way. Hurry get up, get dressed, quick....eat, backpack, teeth, coat, shoes, socks. Are they ever going to be in dependant and just KNOW what to do? Grrrrr! We always hurry out the door. Hurry, hurry, hurry! I need to be better about stopping.....relaxing (what the heck is that?) and enjoying life. It's hard for me.

If something falls on the floor......look at it and say to myself "no one is going to pick that up except me!!!!" Then I cry, no I don't really but I scream inside sometimes! And what's the deal with crumbs? Why does everything produce stupid crumbs! I hate them. I feel like I could sweep til the cows come home and still, somehow, there will be crumbs or lint, or a dried up booger or something on the floor waiting for my mean sweeping skills to take it away!! Maybe I should get a dog! Haha It would just be better if gravity was used only to keep heavy objects from floating up. I mean what would be the harm if messes just floated up in the air, or got sucked into some magical area where we never saw them again. Ok, I am majorly rambling. Need to go to bed!

My little Tristyn

2010-04-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

I should probably start with Tristyn since he is the youngest. This little kid is amazingly wonderful. He is so dang cute and my heart goes pitter patter every time I see him. He just turned 3 on the 16th of March. He is all boy most of the time, but doesn't mind playing house with Emerald once in a while. He LOVES Star Wars (does this really surprise you haha) he plays a lot with the action figures and sometimes he plays with Navek with them. He's so cute when he plays with these or any other toy because of the sound effects. I don't know how he does it, he was probably born with the natural talent of making noises, but I LOVE it!! He also likes to watch the actual Star Wars movies. It's weird because even at a young age he would sit down and watch a whole 2 hour movie cartoon or not!! Very interesting. A lot of times when the movie is finished he'll run over to me and re-enact some of his favorite parts. So he'll start talking about the movie and be like "Then Darth Vader cut of Luke's hand like Psshhhh....Ahhhhh....like that mom!!!" It's so funny He calls episode VI (6) "Star Wars the Clone Wars Return of the Jedi", and episode V "The scary Star Wars" I, of course, don't mind it at all!

He's such an easy going kid. I am able to reason with him more than my other stubborn kids sometimes.

He likes to pretend he's a cat a lot too. I'll be holding him and he'll just start to "Meow" He makes a really good cat noise too. He likes me to call him "Haggy" for Hagrid....the name of my sisters cat. He'll crawl around on the floor a lot and sometimes when I hold him he'll want to tell me a secret and whisper in my hear "meow, meow. mow mow mow mow" then he'll lick me, this is kinda weird, but I just let him do it cause it's so cute! I'm such a pushover for this kid.

He's a pretty good talker. I love the way he says the "r" sound cause it sounds like a "w" I think my mom said I did the same thing. So he'll say something like "I wun weally fast mom!!" stuff like that!

THis was at Christmas time.

Me and my baby Christmas morning!

Over a year?

2010-04-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

I need to get with the program and update this blog for no one but myself. It's like a cute little journal thing I can do for my kids.

Lots and lots and lots has happened! My kids are older, I'm older, life is wild and crazy. The Lord has truly blessed us all though. More pics to come as I start updating this blog! Yay!!

2 and 4

2009-03-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

Time goes by so fast doesn't it? My little baby Tristyn turned 2 on the 16th and Emerald's birthday is today...the 24th. Wow.

Here is Emerald when she was about 4 months old. She was such a happy, pleasant, easy going baby. I never really had any major problems with her. She was such a joy and a blessing to our family.

Here is a picture of Emerald when she was 1 year old. Her face is a little bit dirty, but Whoa...what a doll!

Here is my little monkey (her nickname ever since forever) when she was about to turn 2.

Here she is at 3...I love the color of her hair and eyes!

And this is my wild, crazy, so full of personality and sass today!!!

I remember being so nervous when I found out I was pregnant with Tristyn. I cried, and cried and thought to myself...."How can I have ANOTHER baby...I just had one and my marriage almost just ended!!" But after lots and lots of prayer I received a peaceful feeling that this little man was coming and he was supposed to come now. I remember like it was yesterday...I had just barely pushed him out and the doc put him right on my tummy and I looked into his big, big eyes and fell madly in love with him. The love flooded my body and I cried. I loved him so, so, so much. After the nurses washed him up they brought him over to Kevan and he just looked all around the room with his big huge eyes!! (all of my other babies fell asleep after coming out)

Another happy baby...here he is at about 4 months or so. About 5 months:)
About a 1 1/2 years here eating a corn dog..

Another one of 18 months...love this boy
Here he is today...the handsome little dude
He loves Indiana Jones....

It sure is a lot of work having a bunch of kids so close in age...but I prefer it this way...I think. They will all grow up together and be good friends.

Something about being in your 30's

2009-01-12T22:37:00.001-08:00

I freaked out when I turned 30! Did you? I was graduating from my 20's and I was no longer the "young one". Well, I decided, after looking at some recent pictures of myself and other people my age...mostly women, but yes I decided that being in you 30's is AWESOME. There ain't nothing wrong with it. I came across come pictures of me when I was younger...they weren't totally gross, but I was so young and little. My face looks the same, but I was so immature. I was looking at some friends on facebook (If you're not on...you should totally join) and they are all so beautiful now that they are in their 30's and then some. Our faces have so much more wisdom and experience. It's interesting. Sometimes when I look back I'm always wishing that I were as skinny as I was then, even though I would complain about what I looked like back then. I have lost so much weight since I've had Tristyn and separated from K that I actually like the way I look now. My boobs are still there but not AS big. Good for me! I still have fat (lots) on my tummy, but please I have 5 kids and 2 were twins! It's okay if there is SOME fat there. Anyway...there are so many beautiful people in this world and I am friends with so many of them..It's okay if we get older...that's the way it's supposed to be! Love you all!

Navek's Baptism :-)

2009-01-05T21:07:00.000-08:00

It was a great, wonderful day! My little, big 8 year old boy got baptised a member of the true Church of Jesus Christ..

Here are some pictures...

This is a before picture

This is right after he was finished getting dressed. The first time Kevan dunked him under his little foot popped up, so he had to re-do the prayer and the dunking. It was interesting.

Navek with Grandma and Grandpa Baird

Me and my boy!

Navek and some of his good buddies and cousins
The program was as follows:

Opening song "Nephi's Courage"

Opening Prayer: Keith Baird (uncle)

Musical number: "If the Savior Stood Beside Me"

by:Jessica Barid and Lindsey Eugster (aunt)

Talk on Baptism: Liz Tross (grandma or Oma)

Baptism

Talk on Holy Ghost: Missy Counter (close friend)

Holy Ghost

Bishop talk

Closing Song "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission"

Closing prayer: Karl Baird (grandpa)

It was a wonderful occasion. It was fun to see Navek so cute and so happy, and it was awesome to have all the family together!

Christmas!!

2009-01-01T21:14:00.000-08:00

Christmas is the greatest time of year! I love it so much. The feelings of love and peace that I feel don't compare to any other time of year. I love celebrating our Saviors birth.
I had a hard time getting into the mood this year with everything that's going on in my life. The thing that helped me the most was singing in church. The songs that we sang this year were so wonderful. The words and the music fill my heart with love. That may sound so cheesy, but seriously...these songs were amazing.
Kevan had the kids Christmas Eve and most of Christmas day. I thought that I was going to be all sad and lonely, but I totally wasn't. I got a bunch of stuff done Christmas Eve and the was just going to wrap presents and get things ready for the next day. I was in the living room just watching tv and someone knocked on the door and started singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" so I ran over and opened up the door and stared at the ladies trying to figure out who they were and I had no clue! Then I looked down and my front step was filled with presents! I freaked out! They helped me bring everything inside and I gave them hugs as they left and thanked them over and over again. I was crying so hard when I was hugging them because I was so grateful that someone would think of me that way. This one lady said that I was so loved by so many people. Oh my gosh. What a wonderful feeling! I couldn't believe it! I cried for a while after they left..then I called up my mom and dad to tell them what happened. They were happy for me. I think that I cried on and off for the rest of the night. Man...sometimes I just can't get over it....
Then Christmas Day I woke up and took a shower and fixed my hair and did some stuff around the house. It was snowing Christmas Eve and more on Christmas day. So the roads were crappy. But I decided that I wanted to go see a movie...so I did...I feel so free when I am by myself rather than lonely, I think that Heavenly Father helps me with that...but anyway. I went and saw the new Brad Pitt movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" it was pretty good. It reminded me a little bit of Foresst Gump. I liked the music in it to, and I thought it was so cool how they made him look as he went from an old man to a young guy. I could never really get tired of Brad Pitt anyway...dude is gorgeous! *sigh*
Christmas dinner is the same as Thanksgiving....it takes forever to cook everything then you eat for a whole 15 minutes and then you have to clean everything up. Uhg. So for the last 2 years I have made a huge lasagna. It's so yummy. Any way the kids came home later and we opened up a bunch of presents. It was really fun. The secret Santa person got us all new comforters and sheets. They were all perfect. I would have never picked out what I got...but I absolutely love it! I managed to get Navek what her really wanted...a Nintendo DS and a lego Star Wars game. Then the least expensive present that I got Belle was her favorite...I knew it would be too. It was a 24 pack of twistable crayola crayons and a bunch of pens and pencils and a couple of note books. As soon as she opened them all she did for the rest of the evening was color. We ended up opening up some of her presents for her. I got Emerald a bunch of clothes...she loves clothes. And I also got her some domestic things. I got Tristyn a manly truck...he really needed a boy toy, but still would rather play dress up with Emerald...ahhh well I tried.
It was a wonderful day! It makes me want to live my life better. To be the best person I can be so that maybe one day I can help someone feel the love that I felt on Christmas Eve!

Things

2008-12-14T16:47:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a month since I've written. Here are some things that have happened in the last month or so:

Emerald gave herself an interesting hair cut. Her and Tristyn were downstairs playing and all of the sudden it got all quiet. I knew what that meant, but I was in the middle of making dinner and they weren't bothering ME so I just let them alone. A couple of minutes later Emerald came upstairs and I looked at her and said "Why do you look different?" then she said cause I cut my hair. So I ran downstairs and found a TON of her hair lying around. I gathered it all up and I couldn't believe how much she had cut. So I took a closer look and she had cute right up to her scalp. It's like she had shaved part of her head. Nice. I know that most kids to this, but hers was overboard.

Here are some pics of her:

Do you see how close it is? It's going to take forever to grow back.

Tristyn is talking more and more. I love it! His favorite thing is to say "look" well more like "yook" and he's always pointing with his finger. He will find something or think that something is cool and say "MOM.....yook". I had just come home from work this one night and our neighbors had just finished putting up their Christmas lights and a bunch of other stuff in their yard and Tristyn was in the back seat and he said "MOM...yook....coOOool!" It was so funny.

Here are some pictures of the little man that I love;

Here's one of Navek

And finally Yzabelle!

More to come later!

Random thoughts

2008-11-13T08:02:00.000-08:00

Man alive...life has been so weird lately! I don't know what to think about it. The month leading up to the election was intense. Election day I was sick to my stomach. The day after was even worse. This kind of "change" that this new president is promising us...uhh huh...we'll see if it's really the kind of "change" we want. It's interesting the way so many people view things differently. I heard someone say that "the nightmare is over" now that Obama is president. We'll some of us think that the "nightmare" is just beginning. I don't think that there has ever been a perfect president, but I do think that some have been better than others. President Bush isn't perfect. I do believe that he has made our country a safer place. And there are other things that he has done that I have liked...tax cuts, rebates etc. But he hasn't been the "best" president ever. I am concerned with Obama. He is TOO liberal. Nothing good has ever come with making our government BIGGER than it needs to be. And the whole Proposition 8 thing in California. Wow....geez. It's really caused a lot of protesting and hatred toward Mormons even though we weren't the only ones involved. I don't like to worry...but I find myself worrying a lot lately. What good does worrying do? It's really just wasted energy. Yikes!

Starting to talk

2008-10-28T11:10:00.000-07:00

Tristyn is starting to talk. It is so dang cute! This is one of my favorite stages that the kids go through! I love little voices...girl or boy. The girls are like little princesses and the boys talk like husky little men! I love the way the sounds turn into words and such!

The other day I went over to the door and put my hands up to my face and yelled for Navek come inside from playing. Tristyn was in the back room and he cam RUNNING over to the door and put his hands up to his mouth and said "Yayekkkk!"

The funny thing about him talking is that he mostly just yells! Poor thing, our house is noisy sometimes. When it's breakfast or dinner time he has to yell "UP", "BITE", "DINK". When he comes up to me he mostly just has a normal tone.

Here are a few words with translation:
Emerald---- "Emooo"
Navek------"Yayek
Eggs -------"ezzzz"
Car--------"BBBBBbbbb" (you know...like a car sound)
Socks------"Ahhckks"
Nukie------"Ahhhkiee" (pacifier)

So the other day, actually last week on my day off, I was washing the kitchen floor and Emerald and Tristyn were very interested in helping! So I moved the kitchen table to the middle of my kitchen and swept under it and then got a bucket full of soapy water for them to help me. I got them each a sponge and showed them how to put it in the bucket and squeeze all of the water out! Easy enough right? At first they were wonderful. Then as we kept going more and more water got on the floor...I mean like puddles!! Tristyn would walk over to the bucket and end up falling down because it was so wet. I got some towels and we wiped the floor clean. Then as I was going to rinse the bucket out...Tristyn put his sponge in and took it back out and got the floor all wet again....I was like "Oh my heck"....he looked at me and said really slowly "uhh ahhh eeckk!"
Emerald and I laughed and laughed....so now I will say "Oh my heck" just so he will say it....

I couldn't smell!

2008-10-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had a cold that was so bad that you lost your sense of smell?? And we all know that if you loose your sense of smell then you can't taste your food. Ahhhh! I made broiled pork chops yesterday with yummy mashed potato's and i think it tasted good, but I couldn't tell cause I couldn't taste it! It was so annoying! My nose is all stuffy

So later that night I put Tristyn to bed and he seemed to go down easy as usual. Well around 2 o'clock in the morning, I could hear him moaning in his bed. That is totally unusual for him. He always sleeps through the night...even when he is sick! Anyway...something told me to go check on him...so I did. I picked him up and he was really restless...he couldn't position himself to what was comfy for him....So after a while I got this brilliant idea to smell his diaper and sure enough...it was poopy! How horrible for the little guy! My darn nose.... So I laid him in his bed and ran upstairs to get a diaper and wipes and changed him really quick. His poor little bottom was all red and sore! Ouch! I must have put him to be WITH a poopy diaper...too good! I rubbed a bunch of Vaseline on his little bum and he calmed down really quick. I rocked him back to sleep and he was perfect for the rest of the night! I felt so bad though...poor little guy.

I growed and growed

2008-10-21T16:58:00.000-07:00

I totally want my kids to feel good about themselves. I want them to beleive in themselves and think that they are the best things since sliced bread....if ya know what I mean. So I tell my girls on a very regular basis that they are beautiful, and I am always telling Navek how handsome and cute he is.

So today I asked Emerald how she got so pretty. And she said this:

(swallow) "Okay (brushed hair out of her face) (swallow) I just growed, and growed and then I got a pretty face (swallow) (brushed hair out of her face) and then I had pretty eyes and pretty hair (swallow) and a nice nose, and I ever ever got pretty!"

New Breakfast

2008-09-19T22:01:00.003-07:00

First of all, the next time my heading is spelled wrong will someone please tell me....I spelled never...nevar...der!!

My kids are burned out on cereal, so I got this genius idea to make breakfast sandwiches...they love them, and it fills them up better than cereal. Of course I have to apply effort and actually make them, but whatever..maybe someday someone will make one for me:) Here's a pic of what they look like

It's just scrambled eggs, a pattie of sausage (i get them frozen from Wal-Mart and just nuke them in the microwave) and an English muffin with a little butter on it...Yummy!

The value of one dollar!

2008-09-19T22:01:00.002-07:00

Who says you can't get anything good for a dollar now a days!! I got these dresses from yard sales for $1...oh yeah!

Emerald was being little miss model when I asked if I could take a picture of her. She was so funny. And the hand on the hip thing....she does this all of the time. Especially when she is ordering someone around...

Belle wouldn't hold still...but it's a light pink dress with this really pretty flower sequence pattern on the top. Sweet!

This last one is just a dress up dress....it's really twirly so great for little girls.

Aahhh to be a young twirly girl...

Never at the same time!

2008-09-19T22:01:00.000-07:00

I love my little girls to death!! Of course I do, duh I'm their mom. But seriously....they have been little pills lately. They are NEVER good together at the same time. When Emerald is all cute and sweet and helpful, Yzabelle is a little devil. She will be a booger on purpose. And when Yzabelle is kind and thoughtful, Emerald is a little devil. She (Em) has been having a biting problem lately, well not just that, but hitting and especially throwing things.
The other day she bit Tristyn for no good reason. I tried to put her in time out and she got all mad at ME for disciplining her. She ran over to a truck and picked it up over her head and was like "I'M GONNA THROW IT AT YOU MOM!" Uhhh okay and some junk. I'M the mom not you! Then she was swinging her arms at me like a mad woman. Talk about anger management issues...geez! And it's so hard to keep a straight face.. because she is so mad about the fact that I AM trying to right her wrong...
Another night we were having dinner and Belle was throwing some kind of fit cause, of course, she didn't like what I had made for dinner. She said something like "I hate it mom, it's dumb!" and Emerald said "No, Belle...mom is pretty!" Thanks for defending your good ol' mom Emerald!
Sometimes when we are cleaning up their room...one is always helpful and the other is a lazy little butt! Can't they just be on the same page every once in a while??!!

It's soccer time:)

2008-09-15T21:55:00.000-07:00

It's that time again....we hear it every Saturday morning from our windows. Parents cheering for their kids playing soccer. Navek not only loves soccer, but he is soooo good at it. He really has his head in the game. He is competitive and runs like the wind. I love watching him play. They had their second game this past Saturday. I have been having Navek run during the week so he's not so pooped during the game. It seemed to help this last game.

It was quite the game too. There were two times that Navek kicked the ball out in front of the crowd and followed through. He dribbled down the field ...the crowd was cheering "Go Navek, go Navek!" Then with all of his might he kicked it to the goal and missed my inches. He was so disappointed. Then he pulled out energy from somewhere...it was toward the end of the game and he was really tired...and he kicked it out of the crowd again. He kicked it toward the sideline and the gave it a nice easy kick back toward the goal...straighted himself out and gave it a big ol'kick and it went right in...it was very exciting. He is such a trooper:D I love watching him play. Here are a few pics of his soccer skills...

This was after his first goal....go Navek

This is what he looks like after the game.

Like I said beforeI signed Yzabelle up to play on the AYSO special needs team. I wasn't really sure if she would actually play or not, but this would be an easier team to play on compared to the regular team with kids that are competitive. This last game she had she only ran for a couple of minutes holding Kevan's hand and then she just plopped down and said that she was tired and she didn't want to play...so she was just a spectator for the rest of the game...

Isn't she so cute in her uniform!!!

Gettin ready to play

She would mostly kick with her left foot (her good foot) every once in a while she would be brave and kick with her right foot. I am so pleased with her progress:)

See she's using her right foot...go Belle!!

Very busy

2008-09-07T16:31:00.000-07:00

Life is so crazy! I started my new job last Monday and my first week was so wonderful. I think I'm really going to like it there. I am going to try and get my "pre-need" funeral license this weekend then study like a mad woman to get my life insurance license this month!

Navek had his first soccer game on Saturday. He did really, really good-as usual-! He ONLY scored 3 goals and the final score of the game was 3-0, not that I was keeping track or anything:) I need him to do more running though. I think for a 7 year old he gets tired too fast.

Yzabelle had her first game on Saturday too. There is an AYSO special needs team. I was a little hesitant to sign her up-i know how she is with these kinds of things! I told her about her game all weekend. We finally made the drive to the school. The whole time over there she kept saying "Mom, I get tweet and pre-sun?" which in Yzabelle language means "I get treat and capri-sun?" The MOST important part of playing soccer of course!! She seemed really excited! I got out and ran over and got her uniform and came back to the car and got her dressed...she giggled the whole time! Then she sat down and kinda threw a fit... New things are really hard for her. I was patient with her and eventually she got up and we held hands over to the field. She was really shy at first. As long as I was holding her hand she would play. So we ran up and down the field and she kicked the ball as best she could. It was really cute! I was so proud of her. The kids practiced for a little bit then they played a game. There were a bunch of kids there with different disabilities. But for me, it was quite the spiritual experience. These kids are so wonderful and have so much to offer the world. How great it is to have organizations like this that give these "special needs" kids the opportunity to develop and increase their self-esteem! I am so proud of Belle.

Emerald cracks me up as usual. She is so eager to start school. She catches on to a lot of what the kids are learning. I realized the other day how much I appreciate her "mothering" skills. It was one morning that I didn't have to work til later and I was in the kitchen doing some exciting dishes. Emerald and Tristyn were the only kids home. Emerald was directing Tristyn how and what to play...he totally went along with it! She is so patient and kind with him. She does the same for Belle too.

Tristyn can say a couple of words: waa woo (water), juice..with his lips stuck out! by (bite)
I figure he is a little slow when it comes to talking...who needs to talk when you have 3 other people to talk for you:D!

P.S to all of you "Twilight" fans out there. I finished the first 3 books and and half way done with "Breaking Dawn", they are so much fun to read, I almost don't want it to come to an end!! Go Team Jacob =)!! Well I actually can't decide!!

A new job!

2008-08-22T08:13:00.000-07:00

I am so happy to report that I am starting a new job in a week!! It is at Meyers Funeral Home. Yes, a funeral home!! I will be embalming the dead bodies!! I'm totally kidding!! I am going to start out in the office as a secretary/receptionist while studying to get my life insurance license. When I have accomplished that, I will start selling pre-paid funeral plans. The guy that I interviewed with said that they have a really good natural marked right there in the office. I am so excited about this opportunity. It is going to be a step in the right direction of where I want to be.

I am half-way through "New Moon" and it is so intense!! I will probably finish it this weekend! Does anyone out there have "Eclipse?" I'm going to be hanin' on the edge I'm sure!!

Navek wanted to join the Lincoln Choir at school. How cute is that!? They are going to be having practices 2x a week until December. I was trying to explain to him that this is a commitment and that he will really have to stick with it. We talked about it for a while, and I think that he thinks that this is something that he can do...we will see!

I can read!!!

2008-08-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

Well of course I can read...but do I ever actually do it?? No! I do the norm like magazines, scriptures, newspapers etc...but I can't remember the last time I read an actual book. I guess I thought that I couldn't or something, that only smart people read How silly! I remember back in high school, my comprehension wasn't the greatest and I couldn't find anything that I really felt was interesting. I can think of a ton of books that I have started, but never finished!

Soooo my sister Daisy (who is ALWAYS reading!!) suggested, and has for some time now, the Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer. From what I have heard they are very popular and ton's of people have read them. I heard that it was a vampire story...which caught my attention being that I love Buffy and Angel...thanks to Andrew(also an avid reader)...anyway

I have been feeling like I can conquer the world lately. I am in a good place mentally right now. I am determined to make my life better. I am actually starting a new job in 2 weeks with the opportunity of lots of growth and the advantage of making a ton more money (this does relate to the book I promise) I have to do this and I am going to make it work. I am going to be successful, I just am!

So on the subject of conquering the world, the thought came into my mind to try and read a book. Well not to actually try, but to really do it. So I borrowed Twilight from this cute girl that I work with and started it Thursday...my day off. Well, come to find out...I LOVE IT! I can't put it down. I read like a maniac! Me...Jessica...I am actually reading! And it's fun! Who'd a thought! I only have a 100 pages left. So I will finish it tomorrow! I read a 500 page book in 5 days!! Yay me!! It's a really fast read which makes it easy!

The book is written if first person. So I find myself, in my mind talking in first person about how my life COULD be a book. (hey there is enough drama!) It's funny. Like tonight when I was rudely interrupted by my kids after I had been reading for like 2 hours...they were hungry. So I forced myself to come to a stopping point and feed them. But in my head I was like "Then I went to the kitchen and eagerly looked through the cupboards to find anything simple to feed my kids for dinner. Anything to get back to Edward and Bella!" I would talk myself through the rest of the night. "The minutes seemed like hours as I sat in agony watching the Olympics with the kids as I waited for them to get sleepy so I could put them to bed!" Then of course there is Edward, the perfect "guy" so graceful, handsome, witty, poised and just...aaahhhhh!!! It's fun, I haven't gotten into something like this....in forever. I was a little impatient at first when reading because I wanted to know what was going to happen right then! Then I had to remind myself that this isn't a movie that I am reading...it's better. We get the insight and the feeling of the characters. So then I slowed it down a little and really just enjoyed it.

Oh by the way I conducted the rest hymn today in Sacrament...like I told you a couple of weeks ago. Well, I wasn't as nervous as I thought I was going to be. I played it cool! It went really well. It sounded great and I had a lot of support from the sisters in the ward who came up to sing! It was actually not that bad, I kinda enjoyed it!!

I am just proud of myself for reading. It seems like a small accomplishment to some but a big one to me! This just goes to show that if I put my mind to it, I can really do it!! Yeah me!!

Emerald Things

2008-08-09T21:20:00.000-07:00

We all know what a hassle it is at night with the whole bedtime thing...right...right!! Well we have this wonderful routine and it seems to: number 1 take a long time, and number 2 take a long time BUT it does seem to work pretty good. For a while I would let Emerald stay up with me at night...well I will get to that in a minute. Here is our routine:
After dinner..bath for Tristyn and anyone else who needs one
get in pj's
brush teeth, feel rat and cat
go potty
I have the kids go in the room and look at books while I put Tristyn in bed (he is the most easy to put to sleep)
I come upstairs and we read one book
We read 3 scriptures..one per child (hey, at least we are reading!)
Then each kids gets to pick 2 songs to sing...so we sing
Open-shut them
Prayer
Bed
I go down and put Yzabelle in her bed... a twin mattress right next to my bed. I tuck her in and we talk for a minute or 2 about her day. Then hugs and kisses and she is fine to fall asleep by herself
Then I go upstairs and tuck Navek into bed same talking like Yzabelle

Emerald is the one that I have a hard time with...she is ALWAYS saying that she is scared...scared of what I have no freakin idea, but none the less she is scared. So a lot of the time she will stay up with me while I write in my journal or watch tv or whatever. She will fall asleep in my lap most of the time. I started to have a little treat for myself...Hagen Daaz peach or strawberry sorbet...oh baby it is soooo good. Well Emerald would have some with me, but she would call it "Peach things" or "Strawberry things" It is so dang cute when she says it. She would come up to me in the middle of getting everyone ready for bed with her bright blue eyes and say...
"mom can we snuggle and have some peach things?"
So this one time I was trying to encourage her by bribes...such good parenting!! And I motioned for her to come to me and I said "If you can get your pj's on and be nice until it's time to go to bed, we can snuggle and have some peach things!" But I told her not to tell anyone. She was so excited that she just had to tell someone..I mean come on she IS only 3. So she said "can I tell Navek" I said no, then she said "can I tell Yzabelle" I said no, the she said "Mom can I tell Tristyn..." I said okay, you can tell Tristyn... So she RAN over to Tristyn and bent down to him and said "Tristyn...mom said that I can snuggle with her and have some peach things!" She was so satisfied!! I think that Tristyn just ran away.

New camera..new shoot!

2008-07-31T21:18:00.000-07:00

I took Yzabelle and Emerald out on Saturday evening to the Ogden Temple and did a little mini-photo shoot with my new camera. This is going to sound so lame, but I like my Cannon 35 mm better than this Nikon. And the Nikon is digital. I bought this filter thing hoping for better color.I spent a lot of money on this camera and I don't feel like it takes Awesome pictures...it just takes good pictures...tell me what you think....

Shouldn't the picture be more crisp?

Look at her hand...it's FUZZY!

She's cute but the picture is out of focus...on manual focus

They look so washed out

This one I used a flash.

Maybe I should take the camera classes that they offered me that came with the package that I bought! hahahaha

Some old pictures...

2008-07-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

I had a Princess Birthday party for Emerald in April...her birthday was in March...She had a lot of fun!

Navek and Emerald are buds!

She was really tired this one afternoon and I wanted the kids to go out and play. I was doing the dishes and she was laying on the stairs telling me all the reasons why she didn't want to go outside...then all of the sudden she stopped talking and she was dead asleep!

This is when Ezra was here...before he left on his mission. What a good uncle!

My dad had a layover in SL for an hour or so...we got a treat and were able to visit with him for a little while. Lindsey and Zak came with their kids..it was fun. It seems like the kids were more interested in the escalator than in my dad...but whatever, they are just kids! He went to a shop in the airport and bought them all treats! We had a nice hour with him...probably all for this year!!

After their treats...all high on sugar!

Posing with Opah!

I couldn't resist this cute little guy!

Too much fun at the airport!

Look a Like

2008-07-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to do this for a while....go figure that the kids look more like me...except Navek of course...Enjoy!!

Emerald

2008-07-24T14:27:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family tree software - Family history

Tristyn

2008-07-24T14:16:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family web sites - Family history

Uhhh. duuhhh!!

2008-07-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Lookie....Lookie

2008-07-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Pedigree - Free genealogy search

I'm up and running!!

2008-07-24T11:57:00.000-07:00

I FINALLY got the internet at home!! Here is some stuff that i have been wanting to post

This is Tristyn dancing back in Febuary or so...so cute and funny!!

I love the way he is bopping up and down, and has to catch his balance everyonce in a while. It's amazing how his balance has improved over the course of 5 months or so. Wow!

Here are some pictures of him outside playing in the water. I love the one where the water is dripping off his face. Don't you just love his hair too!! Little curls...aawwww!! It's geting pretty long, but I can't bring myself to cut it!! It's getting almost as blonde as Emeralds hair!!

Tid bits!!!

2008-07-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

Here is a little bit of what is going on with us:

Sorry it's been soooo long since my last post. I just don't have the Internet at home, and I am busy!!

First of all...I am so glad that Navek, Yzabelle, and Emerald were able to go on the trip to Lake Tahoe. From everything that the say, it sounds like they had a lot of fun.

Navek is at this "Camp Invention" thing this week. He is staying with grandma and grandpa in Provo, then they drive him up to Pleasent Grove to attend the camp. It sounds like he is having a blast. It's a week full of taking things apart and putting things together...using your imagination to create...etc. So he was gone last week on vacation, then home for 1 day, then off again. It will be good to have him home again...well then he starts school on the 21st of July, not much of a summer but he did have fun while it lasted!

Yzabelle will start Kindergarten in July also. Can you believe it??? My little Belle all ready for school. I am confident that she will do her very best. She is talking very well now a days and she makes her body and hand work when they need to. She has adapted. Not much to say about that I guess. I hope that school everyday will be fun for her. She has a dog that she carries around EVERYWHERE!! It's cute. She takes really good care of her. For soooooo long she didnt' really have an interest in playing with toys, or dolls, babies, etc, so I am glad to see that she is using her imagination finally. She feeds her dog and takes it to bed with her. She loves to sing, and her new favorite movie is Annie. She is always telling me that "Pungab saved Annie." Sometimes she will get stuck on the bunkbed and say "Pungab...help me!" as if she were Annie.

Emerald....I am thinking of putting her int pre-school, but not sure yet. My sister is going to put Penny, her daughter, in and I think that it would giver Emerald something to look forward to. She tends to get bored sometimes, and when the other kids head off to school of course she wants to go with them. Emerald is such a silly girl. She will be around me for a while...then disappear in her room...I will go and look for her and she will be sitting in her Princess chair nursing her baby that is really a rice bag. She shoves it in her shirt and feeds away. She really likes to be in charge too. Sometimes I play house with her and Yzabelle, and I am always the sister, she is always the mom, and Belle is the dad. This one time I was pretending to cry and say that I was sad because the neighbors were being mean to me and she looked at me and said "just don't play with them anymore!!" She is a good helper WHEN she is in the mood.
Tristyn is really enjoying summer. He ALWAYS wants to be outside. Thank goodness for my backyard!! He is so good at climbing up the ladder to the slide...then Wooosh he slides down..over and over again. He likes to jump on the Trampolin too. He likes to play with the hose...which I don't mind...it is hot you know. He drinks out of the hose and gets soaked!! He continues to be a great sleeper and is so easy to put down at night! Thank goodness!! He is sweet. He doesn't talk much yet, he mostly just grunts and groans when he wants something. He also growls (sp?), he does this all the time.

I am kinda enjoying my job. Sometimes I am the only one here for 8 hours or so, and I kinda get bored!! I also don't like the traffic when I get off at 5, it sucks. I got a letter from Ezra, my brother on a mission, the other day. It was so good to hear from him. He had nice things to say about me!! I am trying to get more into photography with my nifty new camera...and I am trying to play the piano more and learn a new song to play. I need to keep busy with activities that I enjoy.

I am the Releif Society chorister...interesting. When I first got the calling I would get up there and giggle A LOT. I couldn't help it! It was funny...me being up there leading the music! Shaa. But I have gotten a little better. It's cracks me up looking at everyone's face while they are singing. I have to get a song together for a intermediate hymn in August for Sacrament...yikes!! So I decided to sing "The Lord is my Shepard" sung to the tune of "Away in a Manger" It should work and sound nice!! But how will I control my giggles up on the stand during Sacrament???

how cute

2008-06-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

I got a job at another insurance company in Bountiful. The agent and his wife are really nice and easy going. I am excited to be here.

Just a couple of things:

The other night we were saying family prayer and Emerald was praying. She started out by bowing her head and kind of closing her eyes...she said "Father, day...nank you for Mommy, Daddy, nank you for Tristy, nank you for Navek and Yzabelle, Nank you for...then she turned to Yzabelle and said "what is that guys name?" and Belle sayd "pungab" then Emerald said "oh yeah" "nank you that Pungab saved Annie!" It was so funny and so cute I couldn't help but giggle while she was finishing her prayer. Their new favorite movie is Annie. They watch it during quiet time every day. And every day they tell me that Pungab saved Annie! Oh thank goodness he saved her TODAY!!

Tristyn is so good at running! His new favorite thing is to run into the street. Little stinker! So i have to have him go into the backyard and play, but he doesn't like it cause it's all grass and weeds. There is no where to for him to run! I hope he learns soon.

Navek's first grade class has been practicing for their 1st grade opera. The kids made up a story and words to their songs...and another teacher helped put it all to music. 2 weeks ago they painted the scenery...i went and helped...it was a lot of fun. Navek is so creative he just thrives on that kind of stuff. He comes home and sings all of the songs. He is a pirate and the opera is called "The Fight Over the Egg"! How cute is that?? I can't wait to see the final performance.

Belle has taken a liking to stuffed animal dog at home. She carries it around everywhere. She calls the dog Sala. She is so funny with it. She will tell me that Sala is hungry so we will find her (the dog) a snack that Belle will eat. Maybe she is living her life through the dog. The only annoying thing is that Emerald and Navek think that it is SOOO funny to take the dog away from her. I think that they like her reaction... it's a little mean I think! She will start Kindergarten in July. How weird is that.

Emerald is still a little mom to everyone.

I am doing pretty good. Just making it one day at a time. A couple of weeks ago when I was at an interview the employer asked me what my long term goals were. The only thing that I could think to say was "eternal life"...I didn't say that of course, but that is my long term goal. I had to think really hard about the right here and now kind of goals.... so I just BS'd my way out of it...seemed to work though...I got the job!!

Laid Off!!!

2008-05-20T12:22:00.001-07:00

I have been in this weird funk for the last couple of weeks. It seemed like nothing was going my way. Like that ever happens anyway right!!?? Usually with I feel depressed I usually have a bad day or two but it never lasts for more than 2 days or so. So three weeks of feeling this way was really hard. I was talking to my mom and she said that if I continue to feel like this then I may want to think about medication. So I thought about that and was going to go and talk to someone about it. WELL!!!......a couple of weeks ago my boss called me into her office and said that she isn't going to be able to keep me on if I didn't schedule some appointments for her. She also said that she thought I was depressed. Honestly just her saying that made me so sad and I felt like I was going to loose it. She told me think about it over the weekend and take off the next Monday and then call her and tell her what my decision was.

Like okay and some junk! Keep reading....

So I made the best of that weekend. I went to a girls retreat with these ladies from this support group that I go to. It was up past Pine View. It was a cabin owned by this ladies in-laws. It was georgous!! We got free massages too. We all talked till at 2:30 in the morning. Then before I went to bed I took a nice warm bubble bath. It was great. Then on Saturday we cleaned and packed up and went home. Later that afternoon I went to the Airport to see my Dad. He had a layover fora bout 2 hours so the kids and I and Kevan visited with him. It was good to see him, It will probably be the only time I get to see him this year. I thougt about the whole job thing and just figured that I need a job so I will just step it up a little and do better. So that's what I was going to tell Cindee...

So I was just chillin' on Monday and Cindee called me and said that she was going to have to lay me off because she couldn't afford to keep me on anymore. My heart started to beat so fast and with all my might I didn't cry on the phone with Cindee. I got off the phone and was like..."What in the heck just happened?" Holy crap I'm unemployed. What am I going to do??? I have kids that I need to support and a house payment and all this other emotional stuff that I am dealing with. Do I REALLY have to worry about a job now?? So I acted as cool as I could for the rest of the day. Then that night after I put the kids to bed I text my brothers A and E and told them the sad news. Well not 30 seconds after I sent the text my brother Andrew called me and told me how sorry he was. I started to cry....I cried and cried and sobbed and sobbed to him. I told him that I was so close to loosing hope, that I THOUGH that I WAS special so why is it always one thing after another and how I felt SO weak. He said the most wonderful, uplifting things to me, things that only he could say he just has a way with words...he was crying right along there with me. We talked for like an hour and a half. I got off the phone and went to bed. That night when I said my prayers I thanked my Father for everything he had ever given me (too many to list!!) and asked him if he would lift the burden. Pleaded is more like it. Have you ever cried so much that your eyes hurt? Well every time that happens...I sleep really good that night!! I woke up the next morning and and my heart was light again!! The pain was lifted. I felt soooo much better. Talking to my brother really helped me. Praying made it all better though. It was a miracle.

Now I just need to find a job!!! So pray for me please!! I know that it will work out, I just know it!!

This and That!

2008-04-21T11:54:00.000-07:00

I shouldn't have said in my last post that I don't mind little trials that come up! It's a bunch of crap!! I get so annoyed with my life sometimes. These past two weeks have been really hard for me! I can't seem to get out of this weird funk that I'm in. I wish that my life was just better. I almost wanted to say perfect...but please...we all know that that doesn't exist right!!?? I made all of these goals at the beginning of the year. I was going to conquer the world! I was going to really make my situation better. But then poop got in the way and I can't seem to find a shovel big enough to move it out of the way and continue on with what I want to do! ARRG!!

Anyway!!! I gave Emerald a little Princess Birthday party on Friday and it was a lot of fun!! I had all of the girls dress up on princess dresses when they came. They were all soooo cute! Emerald was so excited about her party and welcomed all of her guests by running around the Primary room at church and yelling!! We played a couple of games and then opened presents! It was so funny though. She would open a present and I would whisper in her ear that she needed to say thank you so she would walk all the way over to the room and get right next to her friend that had given her her present and just stare at them...I guess that was her way of saying thank you!! Anyway...we had cake and ice cream and them just played around. It was a lot of fun. I'm glad that I took the time to do it! She is such a doll and is so sweet!

I am soooo mad that I don't have a camera. about 10 years ago I bought a Cannon Rebel EOS 35mm camera. It was the best camera that I have ever had, and I ALWAYS had it with me and I was ALWAYS taking pictures. Well, it broke. Then last Mothers day Kevan bought me a digital camera and that broke too!! I miss taking pictures of my sweet beautiful children! I am trying to save money for another really, really nice camera but my fund keeps getting lower and lower! I hate being poor!! I hate it!!! I'll get over this junk soon though don't worry. I am determined to make it!! I'm just having a bad day!

2008-04-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

I feel bad that it has been a month since I've written! The funny thing is that I have a really nice new computer at home but I'm don't have the Internet. I always think of cute funny stories of my and my kids, but I can't spend time at work putting them on my blog! Dang it!!

Tristyn's birthday was on the 16th of March, he turned 1!! Oh my little baby!! Emerald's birthday was in the 24th and she is 3. Wow!! I have pictures, that I need to post, I just need to find the time to do it!

Life is crazy that's for sure. Navek is off track the whole month of April! It's fun for a little while then he starts to get bored with just hanging around the house. He's not used to me having to go to work everyday either. He is at school while I'm at work! He is going to start soccer this weekend. That'll be fun for him!

Yzabelle is going to be starting Kindergarten in July (we have year round school here...I hate it!) I am so excited, but a little nervous for her. She seems to be doing really good in pre-school. She is talking more and using her hand more and more! She amazes me with all of her accomplishments. We are going to start her in a regular classroom and sees how she does with that. She will be pulled a couple of times a week for special ed, speech, and OT. So that will help her a lot!

Emerald, like I said before, just turned 3! She is such a sweet girl! She is really good at playing with Yzabelle. Emerald understands everything that Belle says, so it makes playing a lot easier! She loves to push her brother outside in the swing. She loves to play with her baby dolls and she loves to dance and sing in the living room. I am going to try to get her into a pre-school for next fall. She really wants to go to "school" like Belle and Navek. So I really need to do that for her. She is one that is a really fast learner! You should see this girls hair. It is...well...white!! I love it.

Tristyn, is just so cute and funny and sweet. I can't say enough good things about this kid. He is a true blessing. He started to sleep through the night, AND I can just put him in his bed and he will fall asleep. Who'd a thought that this was possible. I put him in his bed and he goes to sleep. NO crying, No nothing....sleep....AAaahhhh!! He loves being outside. He would stay outside all day if I would let him. He seems to ALWAYS be happy and smiling. I love him, and all my kids soooo much. They are a joy and a source of true happiness for me.

As for me, well, I'm alive and kickin'!!! I am still at Farm Bureau and have decided to study to get my P & C license (property and causality) so I can make more money (hopefully) and I will have more authority to bind and write policies. I hope that it will be a positive experience for me, and all will go well with it. Life has been good to me. I am feeling really good about myself and don't mind little trials that seem to sneak up on me!!

Outta Shape

2008-02-25T11:03:00.000-08:00

Okay, last Thursday I played church basketball! It was sooo much fun. I haven't played for at least 2 years, but I scored 8 or 10 points.Maybe I'll just say 10...double digits...awesome! I couldn't believe how out of shape I was. I was panting up and down the court trying to keep up. It was pathetic!! I was breathing like a fat person and by boobs were a flappin up and down the court as well. Sometimes I think that maybe if the flap enough they will eventually get smaller...they will want to loose weight or something. I should just start saving my money for a boob reduction and lift if I ever want them to go down. Ahh well!!

My friend Missy had a funny comment on my last post. Yes, I will admit I love to dance, so maybe that's where Tristyn got his little bee bop from. When it's time for us to do chores I will put on this mixed CD that I made and the kids and me will dance around the living room for a little while. I take turns carrying them around and twirling them and stuff. It's so fun. The CD has just a bunch of mixed songs: rock, disco, oldies etc... they call it the "shake your bootie" music. Aahhhh good times!! I just wonder what people think when they drive by my house!!

Just Checking in

2008-02-19T12:10:00.000-08:00

I'm sure that EVERYONE checks my blog EVERYDAY and has been worried and anxious about me and what I have been up to!!! No worries though!! I'm here and I'm alive and doing just peachy!!

I took off the first 2 weeks in Feburay...the lady I work for is so awesome! The first week I had strep throat...and lost my voice for about 4 or 5 days. I went to the doctor and got a pennicilin (sp?) shot. It hurt, but it worked like a charm! I started to feel better about 24 hours after I got it. I am so grateful though...none of my kids got it...how lucky am I??!! So anyway, I took off the first week just because I was sick. Then I figured that I needed to take another week off just to re-energize and regroup from being sick. It was nice to just relax. I have been going, going, going, since October...non-stop!! I kinda was able to get my house in order and spend some unrushed time with my kids!

My kids amaze me! They are so wonderful. Tristyn started dancing...it is the cutest thing I have ever seen! He will hear some music and stand up, if he's not already, and very carefully bop up and down, by bending his spread apart legs! I love it, the kids think that it is funny to. I don't think that he knows how cute he is when he does this. The other day my phone started to ring, it has a cool funky ring, and Tristyn looked around and stood up and started to bop up and down. It was so funny! Sometimes he will get going really fast and fall, but he will get right back up and go at it again!

I will write more later!!

Walking

2008-01-16T14:53:00.000-08:00

Tristyn thought that it would be cool to start walking. He is so funny when he does it though. He will be crawling, then he will stand up and slowly start to walk til he feels like he is going to fall then take as many steps as he can till he actually does fall. He keeps his balance with his little hands and arms, it is so cute to watch. He is so short, but to him...I'm sure that he feels so much taller standing then crawling! He is 10 months old today. Too early to start walking in my opinion, but he just wants to keep up with older brother and sisters! What a joy to have in my life. I call him my "little man" it's kinda my nickname for him

The other day I was hurrying up Navek to get ready for school. I said something like "Hurry Navek, it's almost a quarter after!" He thought about that for a second and said "Mom, will it ever be a penny after?" What a smart little brain! I did my best to explain what a quarter after means but I think that's over his head right now!!

What will they think of next?

2008-01-07T12:16:00.000-08:00

Lately Emerald hasn't been wanting to get buckled up in her carseat. It must be annoying and uncomfortable to have a big puffy coat on and be bucked in a seat like that. I think that she feels like she can't move at all. Anyway, I was trying to persuade her to get in her chair and I said something like "You need to get in your seat it's the safest way to drive, how else are you going to me safe?" well she kind of looked around and said...dragging out her words..." Hoowwww about I hollld on toooooo thisssss" then she grabbed the back of my chair... and held on to it really tight! Too safe!! She cracks me up.

We bought a frog at a fair that we went to in July for the kids. It was just a tiny little thing. Well one day I was cleaning out the jar that he was in and I put him in a little dish. I went back later in the day and the frog was gone. I asked Yzabelle if she had seen it because it seemed like she was keeping an eye on it. She didn't know. Well, as time went by I kept wondering what had happened to the poor little thing. About 2 weeks ago i opened up the silverware drawer and was looking all the way in the back for something and saw a tiny little dried up frog laying under some plastic ware. The girls were very interested in the dead frog. I picked it up with some gloves and put it in the trash can. Yzabelle went over and looked at it and was totally fascinated by it. Now (that happened like a month ago) she loves to talk about the "fwaag". Every day she will get a piece of paper and either draw or paint a picture of a frog. Then she will fold it or cut it. The folded paper always goes into a plastic sandwich bag. She will carry it around all day. The cut up paper she puts in a cup with a little bit of water and also carries that around all day. I don't mind too much because it gives her something to do!

Other stuff

2007-12-28T11:25:00.001-08:00

I forgot to mention (Kevan reminded me) that Navek turned 7 on the 19 of December! Wow, time flies. He really is a great kid. He is such a blessing in my life. He is so good at so many things. I enjoy watching him with his little sisters and brother. He likes to put Tristyn on his shoulders and walk around the house with him. Thankfully he hasn't bumped into any walls or anything. He does the same thing with Emerald except she is just on his back. He carries her around the house and then he will come in the living room and fall on the couch with her and it makes her laugh and laugh! He is becoming a really good reader too. He can read a couple of the beginner Dr. Seuss books and he feels very accomplished with he finishes one! He has started to do this funny thing where he will say the last syllable first...so his name is Veknav, and Emerald is Raldem, Yzabelle is Belleyz. So imagine him singing a song. He will say all of the words regular and then through a funny word in there somewhere...for example..."ostyfrost the mansnow was a jolly happy soul, with a corncob pipe and a uttonba ohzno and to eyes made out of ollco" He's so funny and creative!

We had a pretty good Christmas. I love seeing the kids open up their presents. There cute little faces and their expressions are so funny. The kids played with their toys all day. It was fun to not have to go anywhere, and to just hang around the house.

Christmas is such a wonderful time of year. I felt so loved and cared for in our ward and neighborhood. So many people left presents and other gifts for me and the kids. I felt so sooo sooooo good and taken care of. I knew that they had listened to the spirit and had followed through with whatever act of kindness the could for us. Thank you so much...I have no idea who they were but I know that they will be blessed for their kindness

Merry Christmas!!

2007-12-21T10:46:00.001-08:00

Man it has really been a long time since my last post. Kevan took the computer to his sisters house, so I don't have one at home and when I'm at work, it need to work!!

Holy Crap!! Life is so busy for me right now. Here is an update on the last month or so.

We had a fun Thanksgiving with Kevan and his parents, and his sister, they came up from California. We had a nice dinner and enjoyed the evening playing games and getting ready for shopping the next day. Jennifer and Kevan got up at 4:30 and went to Wal-Mart. I got up at 5:30 and ran over to Target and stood in line for the store to open up at 6. Holy early!! It was so fun though. We got a couple of things that were such a good deal, it was worth spending what little money we had!! Later that night we went to this place down in SL, it was a "fun center" kind of thing. There were rides for the kids, and we also played miniature golf all of Kevan's family were there, well at least the ones who lived in Utah. Kevan took the kids over to Juliann's house for the night and I went up to the house and finished up some house work and a little project that I was working of for our Tree. I will explain later. Saturday I went down to J's house and we all had another Thanksgiving dinner.

Every year, the Monday after Thanksgiving is "The Festival of Trees". It is one of my most favorite days of the whole year. Six ladies, including myself, decorate a Christmas tree in memory of our babies that we lost. So the tree is just for them. I think about all of the time and energy, the love and concern I have for my 4 kids here and all that I do for them. I love them so much. Well, this tree is for Yzabeth. Oh, that cute little girl! And that stupid cord that was wrapped so tight around her neck..sorry, I just had to get that out!! Anyway, I think about her too. I think about what my life would be like if she was here with our family. I think about what she would look like. I know that she was identical to Yzabelle, but how would they look the same and how would they be different. I think of her cute little face. It just flashes through my mind. I just think of her a lot. The tree really brings me closer to her. We make, and gather things and then we decorate it. We do it in this huge conference place in Sandy. Anyway, the trees are auctioned off and all the money raised goes to Primary Children's Hospital. There are hundreds of trees, gingerbread houses, and wreaths. It is such a wonderful, spiritual thing. I love doing it! This was our 5th year!! I will get pictures from my friend and post them later!

So much to say! I will write more later!!

Junk and stuff

2007-11-21T15:27:00.000-08:00

Life is busy, busy, busy. I haven't written in a while just for that reason.

Tristyn was sick last week. He had a fever for a couple of days and I love it. That may sound weird but boyfriend is so flappy, and wiggly and always moving, but when the fever hit he wanted to SNUGGLE. Holy cow, I didn't know what to do with myself. It was fun to have his little head on my chest and for him to just want me to hold him. My house suffered from it though, I'm okay with that, he's only a baby once!

I'm doing pretty good considering my circumstances! I feel like my heart is light and I am happy most of the time. I have been very grateful for such wonderful parents. I have always been amazed with how supportive and loving they are with ALL of their children (8). They have been the best example of how parents should unconditionally love their children. I think that we were all raised the same, but we have all made different decisions and chosen different lives for ourselves. No matter what though, our parents have always loved us. They have always loved me. Silly old Jessica (Bones is what they call me!). There have been times where I haven't wanted to tell them what is going on in my life and stuff like that, but when I do, they never judge, or tell me what to do. They are the best parents, and I love them so much!! I am a lucky daughter!! I hope that I can be like them as my children get older.

Gettin' round

2007-11-06T14:51:00.001-08:00

Tristyn has officially, as of 5 days ago, started to crawl. He also has been pulling himself up on furniture and beds, and stuff. He thinks that he is sooo cool too. He is a little dare devil. He will pull himself up and then let go and balance for a second or two and let go at only 7 months old! He plops on the floor on his bottom and then crawls over to whatever interests him. He was in the bathtub the other night doing this. Standing up...and falling on his cute little bottom, then he would flap his arms like a crazy boy and splash in the water . He did it over and over again. I think that he thought he was funny...of course we did too. He can never just sit still either, he is so wiggly...is that even a word? He is always moving and bopping up and down. I am so glad that he is such a good baby. Heavenly Father has truly blessed me with such a happy spirit.

Emerald is a sassy little lady. The other day she was telling me that she needed to look at Naveks private parts, and I said no she could not. Then she proceeded to say "I have to mom.....I have to!" Okay whatever! She will say "I have to mom....I have to." about lots of things...like hitting her brother or sister, or eating candy before dinner, or just naughty things in general. Why she feels that she has to be so verbal with her intentions is so hilarious, and beyond me! At the same time it's very hard to keep a straight face and be serious, and redirect her to be nice and to make good choices. Oh my...what will the future bring.

Last night Navek was telling me that he was looking forward to voting on voting day. I told him that he had to be 18 to vote. This made him very sad...so sad infact that he started to cry. I asked him if he wanted to come with me to vote on Tuesday. He said yes. So I checked him out of school early today and he went with me to the polls. I showed him the machines and told him what I was doing. He really enjoyed it. Maybe he will grow up and be in politics!!

Every time something makes Yzabelle sad, or unhappy she will touch her eye and say "eye hurts" I'm not sure why. She has been a little moody lately. It's easy to get her to smile though...all I have to do is say "don't you smile....don't you laugh!" And she instantly starts to laugh!! That's what my dad used to do to me !!

Where have I been?

2007-10-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have been so busy, tired, stressed out lately that I haven't posted in a long time. I have been a single mom for about a month now. Kevan is living with his sister right now in SJ. The kids go to visit him every Friday night and return on Saturday. It's nice to have a little break. I have increased my hours to 20 a week. I average about 4 hours a day. My sister L watches my kids and she gets paid from he state gov. It's nice to not have that added expense, it would eat up my whole paycheck!

Navek has been off-track for 2 weeks now, but looks forward being back in school. He had an awesome season in soccer. He is such a fast runner, and loves scoring ( he averaged about 3 goals a game!) He still has the best imagination, and is so creative. I had a parent teacher conference and his teacher said that she always looks forward to seeing his work, cause it's so awesome.

Yzabelle loves going to pre-school. She gets to ride the bus, which is also very exciting. It picks her up at our house and drops her off and Lindsey's house. Very convenient for me! She is talking more and more, her teacher said that she is opening up more to her and the other teachers. Maybe she will start talking to the kids! She loves to draw and just be cute!

Emerald wishes so much that she could go to school. She has a new interest in taking care of her dolls. She loves to collect things. When we get ready to go somewhere she goes into her room and tries to carry as much as she can get in her hands. She thinks that she must bring all of it in the car with us. She is so funny.

Little Tristyn is really movin and groovin'. About a month ago he really started to get around the house my doing this really cool body flop-worm crawl. He is really fast. When he is more patient with himself he does do a little crawling. Last week he thought that it would be cool to pull himself up on furniture. What a smart little boy. He likes the feeling of being tall I guess. He is such a good baby. He loves to play in the girls room and chew and slobber on all of their toys. he pulls himself up on their bed, and the little kitchen and the bookshelf in their room. I hope that he is not walking anytime soon. He likes to eat...what baby doesn't! He is my only baby that has ever like rice cereal, of course I mix it with applesauce but he pounds that stuff down. He is always flopping too. He flaps his arms sooo much, I think that he thinks if he does it enough he will eventually fly. He is sooooo happy. He is always smiling and just being cute!

Being by myself is hard, but I am happy. We will see what is in the future for Kevan and myself. Only the Lord knows!!

Yzabelle turns 5!!!

2007-10-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

Yzabelle's birthday was last week. I have been meaning to write about her and all of her progress...this is probably a good time. Holy cow I can't believe that she is 5!!

She has grown and learned so much over this past year. I am so proud of her. I get frustrated with her sometimes because she is so stubborn, but then i realize that she needs to be stubborn to help her with her disability.

She is a very sweet considerate little girl. She is never shy and never hesitates to give kisses...I love that. She loves to snuggle and hug and be held. I think that's her idea of a good time. She is very gentle with Tristyn (at least most of the time). Her and Emerald play so cute together. Usually Belle is the baby and Emerald is the mom...does that really surprise you??

Her favorite thing in the world are the Disney princesses. Anything that has to do with Cinderella, Belle, Ariel or any of them catches her attention. I'm sure that she thinks that she is one of them.

She loves to sing. She knows all of the words to "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" and we sing it every night before we go to bed. She actually sings with me...it's so great. Her favorite movies are "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music" That movie is like almost 3 hours long and she will actually sit there and watch the whole thing...She knows a lot of the songs to The sound of music...she calls it "hills." This is major progress for her. She can remember the words and then tries to say them. Even if she can't get all of the words she still know the tune to the song. Sometimes I will sing the songs with her and stop at a certain point and she will fill in the missing word. What a smart girl. She makes up song too. Sometimes when Tristyn is crying she will go up and in her cute little singing voice say "Uh hill(ww)s a lolly day!" We don't know exactly what she is saying, but it's cute anyway!! She knows primary songs, but doesn't sing at church. I think that she knows more than we think she does.

She started her 3rd year of preschool this year. I have been trying to work with her on her colors, and shapes. I think that she knows most of her colors, I'm not too sure about the shapes.

She is talking so much more than she was last year. She can put 3-4 words together in a sentence, but a lot of the filler words are "uh". I totally speak "Yzabelle" though so I get what she is saying mostly! I am hoping that she will branch out and start to talk to other people. I think that most of time she speaks very clearly, but she is really shy and quiet in front of other people.

She is so willing to try new things. Last year she wouldn't go near the trampoline. This year it was one of her favorite things to do outside. She can jump really high and it is a good exercises because it puts pressure on both of her legs. And oh man...you should see that girl swing... This is another thing that just amazes the crap out of me. She actually holds on to the swing with both hands and pumps her feet. She goes soooo high! It is really a great thing because she has to hold on with both hands, and I know that she has to hold on really tight in order to go so high. She has really improved strength in her right hand (the one she doesn't use as much)

She also can (FINALLY) get herself dressed. She is so funny when she does it too. Her clothes are either in-side-out, or backwards, or both. But she doesn't care. Have you ever tried to put on your clothes with one hand? I am so glad that she can finally do this. She hardly ever asks for help either. Last year she used to stay in her room for 1/2 hour just trying to put on underwear. She would scream and cry because it was so hard for her, and she would get soo mad at me if I tried to help her. I eventually learned that she really did just want to do it herself. Totally determined and some junk!!

She loves to color, draw and paint. Last year she would just scribble. This year she has turned scribbling into circles and little pictures. She says that she is drawing people. They have fat little bodies and really long arms. She tries to draw eyes, and noses too. I love seeing her pictures.

She is so happy and she loves to laugh...totally just like in Mary Poppins!!

I am so impressed with her. I don't know how she does what she does. For those of you who keep wondering what I'm talking about...she has been labeled "developmentally delayed" She suffered a stroke right before I delivered her. She has right sided weakness. The doctors told me that she may never walk or talk. She totally proved them wrong. I am so proud of all her accomplishments. She is so wonderful and sweet, and so stinkin' beautiful!!

I wish that I had better pictures, but my camera is broken!

Give mamma a little kiss!!

it's been a while

2007-09-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything. Well, it seems by my comment section that no one but my sister and my friend read my blog anyway!

I have had a hard month. Time is going by so fast for me and so much is happening with my kids. I feel bad that I don't write down their every move and note their every word! I have been so tired at night so I just go to sleep instead of staying up late on the computer.

Some of the blogs that I read are annoying to me. It seems like no one has any problems or trials. Why don't people ever write about those kind of things. Life is all wonderful and perfect according to their posts. Wow what a positive happy mood I'm in!

Choo Choo

2007-09-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we were able to spend some time with Kev's parents. On Saturday we went to this train place in Kaysville called S&S railroad. There is a guy that has devoted his life to trains. He had built a bunch of tracks around his property and would give his kids rides when they were younger. It turned into sucha popular place for their friends that they expanded and opened it up to the public. Here is us on the train

This is the smaller train. It goes for a 10 minute train ride around his place. There is some cute stuff for the kids to see on the ride such as: pony's, kittens, we went through tunnels, and over bridges, and around the whole park area. It was really fun for the kids!

We had a bunch of fun. Here are the kids just playin around in the park area. Cute cute cute!!

Sacrifice

2007-08-27T21:49:00.000-07:00

I was in YW yesterday and learned something very interesting ...the definition of the word sacrifice. Ready? Okay...it is "giving up something good for something better." I repeated that in my head about a dozen times to try to fully understand it.

Then I got to thinking about how much a mother sacrifices for her family. I feel like my life is extremely difficult sometimes. I feel like I have been through a lot and have experienced many things that most people won't have to in this life. I'm not feeling sorry for myself, but it is true. Anyways, sacrifice. Giving up something good for something better. Wow, that makes so much sense. I feel like I give up "good" things like my body (5 kids in 6 years Yikes!), my time, my social life, sometimes my talents. What better things are there than this? Is it good to give up so much?

Well, after pondering for a while I decided that my kids are "something better" I would much rather hear and witness everyday cuteness from certain little people then work out at the gym for 4 hours in hopes for a better body! I would much rather have a "better" conversation with Navek then with somebody at work. My kids are so precious. They are so unique and different, but they belong me here on this earth.

I still probably don't FULLY understand sacrifice, but I will take it one day at a time. To think that Jesus gave up his good life here on earth for an even better one in eternity. How amazing to think of all that he went through. He did it for us because he loves us.

Lately I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed. It is so challenging having 4 kids so close in age. I know that we are supposed to live for the future and be prepared and stuff like that. But with all that I have on my plate it is all I can do to make it one day at a time for right now. I made it through today with out any life threatening situations so yay for me and some junk!!

A bit too honest!

2007-08-22T14:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday there was a neighbor over playing with Navek. Emerald kept hitting him with this pool floaty thing. I kept asking her to stop but she didn't. She can have a bit of an attitude sometimes! I finally took the float away from her and put it up high where she couldn't reach it. She kept asking for it back...so finally I asked her if she was going to be nice and she said "no", then I asked her if she was going to hit Coby again and she said "yes". Silly goose! Then she couldn't understand why I wouldn't give it back to her! At least she is honest with her intentions!

Weekend

2007-08-20T21:49:00.000-07:00

We had a fun time with the B family this weekend! We had a "family reunion" and the only reason why I put it in quotes is because it was a reunion of Kevan's great-grandfather. Weird and some junk. There was this guy with the last name of Parker and he had 2 wives...combined they had 15 kids...can you imagine!!?? Each of those children had between 8 to 13 kids. What a great genealogy tree. Anyway...it was at the "This is the Place Park" in Salt Lake. Totally fun. We went and met some of the family that was there for the luncheon. We visited with some distant family that we never new existed. It was cool. Kevan's mom and dad were there along with his sister and her 3 kids. We went around the park and saw attractions there. The kids really enjoyed it.

We thought that it would be fun to make a weekend trip out of it so we went over to J's house (kevan's sister)and spent the night. It was fun to visit with family. We went to church with them the next day, then came home and had lunch and took naps..of course!! Then we had a yummy dinner, packed up and went home. It was just an overnighter, but sometimes that's what you need!! Just to get away and be somewhere else. The kids had fun playing while the grownups enjoyed chatting.

K & J (Kevan's mom and Dad) had been going through pictures at there house in C...I mean boxes and boxes of pictures!! They've spent the last few weeks scanning pictures into the computer (with the help of their s-i-l in Oregon who came down to help) It has been a lot of work for them, but soon we will all have copies of all their pictures. K put the pictures on a little slide show type thing on his computer and we were able to see pictures of all the B kids when they were younger!! It was a lot of fun to see!

I would post pictures but my camera wasn't working...

Back in June

2007-08-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

I was looking on the KB family website that we have and came across this letter that posted in mid June...enjoy...(but don't think that I'm totally crazy)

Get this people...I really don't know why I put myself in positions that I do. I needed to get the AC fixed in our van Thursday and figured that I could handle all of the kids at the shop while they were checking out the car. Shaa right!! When we first got there, the kids were pretty good. They were sitting in the chairs and talking quietly, every once in a while they would get up and go look at the displayed tires in the store (very excititng). Then good turned to worse... I'm going to play the shoulda, coulda, woulda game.

Emerald has been potty training herself and been doing a great job at it. When I got her out of the car she didn't have a diaper on only underwear I should've put a diaper on her but I figured that she would be okay. Anyway, we were chillin in the store and all of the sudden she lifted up her dress and pulled down her underwear and said "Mamma I poop... MAMMA I POOPIE" Yikes!! I glanced over at her, I was helping Belle put the sunglasses back that she was trying on, and noticed that there were 2 little poop piles on the floor in the shop. That's right I said poop. Poop on the floor. I totally could've lost it but instead I just laughed, while all of the workers and people there stared in disapproval! Tristyn was in the middle of the store cause I was helping Belle, but I had to leave him there as I picked up Emerald by her side. She was flashing everyone with her poopie bottom, I raced her to the bathroom and sat her down on the toilet because she said that she had more. I was in there with her for 2 or 3 minutes, but had to leave her cause I had to go clean up the poop. So I went out into the store...Tristyn was still in the same place. Yzabelle was still trying on sunglasses and Navek was going his best to keep an eye on the both of them. I picked up the piles of poop and threw them away while huffing and puffing to keep myself from totally loosing it. We spent a little more time in the bathroom finished up there and came out. I was so embarrassed!!! I called my neighbor to come and pick me up but for the rest of the time my kids were pulling things off of the shelves and asking for treats. AARRUUGHHH. I will NEVER do that again...never, never!! I love my kids and this will go down in the books as a funny, but embarrassing moment in history!!

"mammma...i dank it oll gone"

2007-08-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

Is what Emerald said to me this afternoon with a smile on her face and unusually good smelling breath. I asked her what she drank. She said "ppaahhsis" which, in Emeral language is medicine. Yikes! She had found a bubble gum favored bottle of children's motrin and drank what was remaining. I'm sure that it tasted good to her too, hense her running downstaird to tell me...I was vacuming at the time. Then I remembered last night Navek coming into our room and saying that his legs were hurting, so I went upstairs and gave him some motrin, guess I forgot to put it away. What can I say...I'm a tired mom. I called poison control and found out that she will be okay and to just give her some food so that she wouldn't get an upset stomach! I know that they make yummy flavored medicine taste good so that the kids will take it but dag!! Maybe next time I should search for the nasty flavored medicine!!

"Normal Life"

2007-08-09T22:02:00.000-07:00

I just got done reading my sisters post from today. She said that she is having a hard time at night adjusting to being home (still). I have to say that I have had a poopy week. I really miss my family. We had the best time together. We are all such different people, but we all compliment each other well. I think that my favorite days were Saturday the 21st and Friday the 27th. It was so great to see our old friends from Indiana on Saturday. It is cool to see how their family has grown by 2 grand kids, who by the way are so cute!!
Friday was a perfect way to end the week...at the Temple with Lindsey and Zak!! What a happy family they were...what a great "place" they are in, in their lives right now. I can't explain the feeling of that day. It was too wonderful for words. After we were at the temple, we went and had lunch at Liberty Park. The kids played at the park and us brothers and sisters just stood around for at least 2 hours talking about the past growing up. We laughed and laughed...it was so great!!
I need to move on though. I haven't wanted to do much of anything lately. The other thing that I am way sad about is that my neighbor is moving, or I guess I should say that she has moved. She is one of the most amazing people that I have ever met. She has a certain spirit about her that makes her so likable. I have never felt judgement from her. She is so giving, so kind, so funny, and so insightful, so caring and so helpful (is that the same as giving?) Whatever. I am so sad that she is gone. I will still see her, but it won't be the same because she isn't across the street. She is one of the most special friends that I have ever had!

Let's hope that next week is better. Navek starts 1st grade on Monday!! My sweet boy!!

More Family Picts

2007-08-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple more pictures from when my family visited...

Here is Kathryn with Tristyn.

Tristyn is so cute with his lips.

Here are Yzabelle and Emerald at the Temple...what beautiful girls I have.

Some are a little fuzzy...I don't have the best camera in the world, but it will do for now!
Here are Devon (10), Navek (6), and Kathryn (almost 13). They get along really good. It is nice that they are semi close in age. I look forward to the future with these young kids...I'm sure that they will grow up to be friends!!

Here are Navek and Trevor on the Temple grounds playing with the pretty flowers. We kept asking the kids not to pick them, and after asking several times they finally obeyed...then we turned the corner and looked on this little wall and there were a whole bunch of already picked flowers...so thank goodness our kids weren't the only ones picking them!!

Do vs Don't

2007-08-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

I feel like I loose my patients too much, especially with my kids. It is hard with 4 little ones. I want to be a good mom, and want my kids to feel like I am there for them and they can talk to me about anything. They can't do that if I am always yelling at them...actually I don't always yell...I need to give myself a little credit. Anyways....

I decided to try this new approach, instead of telling them DON'T do this and DON'T do that I will tell them what i DO want them to do. For example I use to say "Don't run into the street." Their little brains can only handle so much...the last three words that they heard me say were "into the street." how confusing for a little kid. So I decided to say "Stay on the sidewalk." or "stay close to mommy." Now they know what they are supposed to do. Another example...we have a lot of hitting in our house right now, oh man it is so annoying. I used to say "Stop hitting your sister!" Now I say "Be nice and be soft" or something along those lines. It seems to be working because they know what I want them to do. I have to think really hard and make a conscience effort to do it. Every once in a while I will slip up and use the "Don't" word, but I am working on it, and it seems to be making a difference!

What a week!

2007-08-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

Last week was the best. I anticipated it all month long and when my whole family was finally here, it seemed to go by so fast. We spent the weekend of the 21st and 22nd with some close friends from Indiana, Devon, Brenda, Gina and Heidi. We had a lot of fun visiting and talking about the good old times.

On Monday the 23rd it was my birthday...the big 30!! Most of my family went on a hike down in Provo while I stayed home and caught up on house work. Yikes...to make the day a little better I gave myself a birthday party. It was a lot of fun. My whole family was there, Kevan's brother and sister and their families were there and some close friends. We had a bbq and visited. I got to blow out a cake with 30 candles on it too!!

Tuesday we just hung around.

Wednesday, we went to This is the place park...it was a lot of fun...then that night we got our family pictures taken. Wow...23 people, it was crazy but very fun.

Thursday evening Lindsey (my older sis) and her husband Zak received their endowments in the SL Temple...What a great experience. I loved being in the temple with my mom and dad...I felt so lucky to be their daughter and to be born into my family. I love my sister so much and was so glad that I could be there that night.

Friday, bright and early, we got up and went to the temple again to see L & Z get sealed with their 3 cute kids. It was so awesome...I can't think of the right words to explain it...It was one the best experiences that I have had in a really long time. What a wonderful thing to be apart of.

I am sad that the time went by so fast.

It was so much fun to be around all of my brothers and sisters. It is funny how we are all "adults" now (even though we totally don't act like it). But we really enjoy just being around each other...we all get a long so well.

There are 8 kids in my family 5 girls and 3 boys. I am the second oldest. The first 6 of us are really close in age, then there is a 6 year gap, then 2 more. Here are some random pictures of us.

This is Kathryn and I, what a beautiful young lady!

This is my handsome Andrew. He is the oldest boy in our family. Andrew is very smart and funny and always has a story to tell. I love this bean!!!

This is my cute Ezra. He just finished his freshman year at BYU Idaho. He is very charming and funny. I love being around him!

Did I mention that everyone in my family is good looking? Here are Mary, Lindsey and Daisy

The only one that I don't have a picture of is Devon...but I will find one. I love everyone in my family...I had such a wonderful week with them...I will miss them, and all of the laughs and good times!!!

Family

2007-07-25T07:11:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh!! It has been so long since I have written, but I do have a good reason...my family is here from Maryland. It has been 4 years since we have all been together.It is so much fun to visit and talk with each other. There are 8 kids in my family and there are 11 grand kids so it has been loud, and hectic, but also wonderful and memorable. I love my family so much and am soooo glad that they are here. I will write more later.

A prayer from Navek

2007-07-06T22:30:00.000-07:00

I had one of "those days" yesterday. I woke up in an okay mood, but that changed quickly. I just get soooo tired of picking up messes, then I turn around and there is another mess, or the girls mess up what I just cleaned up. I hate that! I feel like my house is falling apart, and what's worse is I hate that I care so much. Why can't I just let the "clean house" image go for a while. Sometimes I will tell myself to just forget about it and play with my kids. So I will go into the girls room and start to dress them up or read books or play house or something, then 10 minutes later I will start to pick up their room. Why? Is it really THAT important. I really wish that I could just maintain my house, but I can't even do that. I am always so self-conscience when people come over or someone just drops by. I'm afraid that my house stinks or it's too messy or whatever. In reality it's not really that bad, I just think because it doesn't sparkle. Anyways back to my morning. I was upset because I just couldn't do any good work. I tried to pick up the girls room and it didn't stay clean for even 15 min. I got upset and started to yell and felt like I was totally going to loose it. Navek noticed that I was upset and asked, in a very humble way, "Mom, do you want me to say a prayer that you will feel better?" I was so touched. He wasn't being a brat about it, he was totally serious about it. I appreciated it so much. I told him to go ahead. It was such a sweet, innocent, humble prayer. What a thoughtful boy! I got everyone ready and we left for the morning...I had a whole bunch of errands to run. Among other things I had to take some books back to the library...as I was leaving I noticed some sprinklers on by the high school. I looked at Navek and asked him if he wanted to run through them. He smiled at me and say "yes!!" We parked on the side of the road and got out and got wet!! It felt so good. Something that simple. I took the girls out, and we ran through them together!! They thought it was cool. I think that I need to stop and run through sprinklers more often!! Enough about having the perfect house, I love my kids and am so grateful that they are mine here on earth. What precious people they are. Hopefully they will remember times like these and when mommy was happy rather than what my house looks like. Yippee for Navek's prayer!!

Funny things

2007-07-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to jot down a couple of things to remember about my kids...this is mostly for my info so I can look back and remember how silly they are.

A couple of nights ago we were saying prayer on our breakfast and Emerald was saying the prayer. I have to tell her what to say. Belle was trying to annoy Emerald by coping everything that I would say. At one point I said..."Bless us to be happy!" Quickly, Yzabelle said "happy", then Emerald said to Yzabelle, with eyebrows bent..."NO Bello (that's what she calls her) MY happy!" the she said in her sweetest voice "happy." What silly girls.

Emerald has also started to tattle on Navek and Belle. She will come up to me and say their name and then mimmick what they did to her. It is hard to keep a straight face when she does this. Her voice inflection is so funny...and she is so serious about it.

Here are some more pictures

Emerald

2007-07-02T21:53:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have written a lot about Navek lately and need to talk about another one of my adorable children. My little Emerald is now 2 years and 3 months, and how the time has flown by. It seems like she grew up so fast. She was such a good baby. I enjoy her now that she is more a toddler. She is the most extreme in some areas...more than my other kids. She is by far the strongest. She has always had this amazing grip...what I mean by that is she can hold on so tight to things. The other day we were at the park and she was on the glider thing that was up in the air and she was pulling herself up as if she were doing a chin up!! Wow. She can also run super duper fast, her legs just go, go, go! I remember when she was younger I would be chasing her and I would go toward her and she would totally dodge me, like she were a football player or something. Maybe she will win medals in track when she grows up.

I also think that at this age, she is my funniest kid. She does the silliest things! She was playing dolls a couple of weeks ago and she would take one and start to nurse (like mommy) then she would put it up on her shoulder and burp her, then for some strange reason she would start to spank (she would say "pank, pank")the doll. Why would she act so loving then start to spank! I hope that she didn't learn that from me! Another thing...I walked into the living room the other day and she was totally changing Tristyn's diaper...she all had his legs up and was wiping his bum, as if she were the real mother. She in very animated when she talks. She likes shouting out directions to people, go figure that the 3rd one would be the most bossy. I love her sweet, funny personality!

She is very independent. If she needs or wants something she will just get it herself. I walked into the kitchen the other day and she was cutting herself some cheese...because SHE wanted some. Lucky for her she didn't cut herself. She watched me a lot as a child and she just naturally just knows how to do things!

She is starting to get a cute imagination when she plays with her toys. I just love it. I sneak up on her and listen to conversations that she has with her toys...what a crack up!

She is such a good sister to Yzabelle. She helps her and talks with her and, for the most part, gets a long with her pretty good.

She has the blondest hair!! It is really fine though, and sometimes hard to fix. She has beautiful blue eyes and is a true joy in my life. I feel like out of all my kids she has grown up the fastest. Where did all the time go? She is a very happy girl. She prefers Kevan over me...a real daddy's girl!! These are pictures when she was about 9 months old...what a cute, beautiful, wonderful girl!

Navek graduates from Kindergarten

2007-06-30T18:13:00.000-07:00

On Friday, Navek graduated from kindergarten. What a happy day! The girls, Tristyn and I went to his school bright and early for a small program they did. It was mostly songs that they had learned throughout the year. It was funny though, Navek had this look on his face the whole time...like he was too cool to be singing. I don't think that he smiled the whole time. What a goose!!

We all went back to his classroom, and his teacher presented all of the students with a memory book that she put together for them. It was so cute!!. It had pictures of him and his friends, and of his teacher, and of things that they done throughout the year. She was a really great teacher. I got to know her a little cause I helped volunteer in his class. It was a great year for him. I actually cried when she was presenting him his book. He is officially a 1st grader!!!

8 things

2007-06-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

I got this from Gina a few weeks ago, so here goes

The Rules: Players start with 8 random facts about themselves. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts. Players should tag a few other people and notify them they have been tagged

1. I think that marshmallows are the grossest thing in the whole world. They are so fake and disgusting it just makes me want to puke just thinking about them.

2. I really, really want to learn how to play the guitar. I played the violin for 8 years then taught myself how to play the piano, which I'm actually pretty good at But, I want to learn something new. I really like the way the guitar sounds and all the cool cords and picks that go along with playing it. I think that I would be pretty good at it too, cause I already know how to play a string instrument.

3. I am extremely good at multi-tasking. It totally comes naturally to me. For example, I can make dinner (without burning anything), help Navek with is homework, while doing the dishes and helping the girls put on their dress up clothes...sometimes I can talk on the phone while doing this too. Totally talented!!!

4. I really like the words "like" and "totally" and I use them a lot. I mostly use them around people that I know, who won't think that I am some blonde valley girl. I just use them to be funny and make people laugh!!

5. I have fond memories of my child hood dancing in my living room to songs from musicals. My mom had soooo many records from musicals. We would have the greatest time listening to them, then we would start to dance and sing, and just be silly!! It was so awesome!! There was always a good feeling in our house because of the music. The funny thing is that I knew most of the songs from the movies, without even seeing the actual movie itself. Go figure.

6. I like to push buttons!!! Sometimes when I go to the Target that we live by, I imagine that I am at the cash register and I get to push the buttons that they have there. They are the good buttons...there are, just so you know, good buttons and bad buttons. I like the sensation that my fingers feel when the button goes down and then up again!! My neighbor has a laptop, which has the good kind of buttons, and once I went over to use her computer just to push her buttons, it was so awesome!!

7. I really get annoyed when people leave their windshield wipers up when they have turned off their car. Like totally put them down before you turn your car off people!!! And I also don't like it when their windshield wipers are on and it's not even raining. It gives me a really weird sensation. Geezz!! (just a little pet-peeve of mine)

8. I like to cook. I think that it is fun. 90% of the time I can come up with different things to make and cook for our family, there are some dry spells here and there, but for the most part I like it. Kevan always compliments me on my cooking too!! I like eating at the dinner table together. I think that it is a good habit to get into, enjoy the times that you can be together as a family.

I wish that I could type what is really going on in my head. It always sounds so good up there, but when I put it in the computer, and I read over it, it never sounds how I want it to. I'm not the greatest writer there ever was!! Like oh well!!

Makes me happy

2007-06-24T21:45:00.000-07:00

There is something so cool about little babies. I was feeding Tristyn tonight and put him on my shoulder to burp him and the most amazing sensation came over me. Babies have magic that way. They don't have to do anything but just be themselves. I was the greatest feeling in the world! I just love him so much, I guess you could say that I am in love with him. He is the sweetest little boy. He makes me so happy and life is good when he smiles at me. I am glad that he is in my life!

My Navek

2007-06-23T22:49:00.000-07:00

Navek is now 6 years old...wow!! He will just be finishing kindergarten this week and has had an amazing year. He is learning how to read and is very good at it. It is fun to see him sounding out words and reading books and stuff. It's like a whole new world is being introduced to him, and he is so excited about it.
His teacher has mentioned to me that he is probably one of the most creative kids in her class...This kid so creative it blows me away. The things that he draw and the pictures that he colors are just so beyond anything that I have ever seen a 6 year old do. Of course I have nothing to compare him too, so I can think that he is the best!! He likes to draw treasure maps, pictures of our family, animals, cars, our house and things like that. He has always been very good at coloring things they way that they should be colored. e.g. water is blue and the grass is green... horses are brown and strawberries are red. He notices details like that. Along with that, I should mention that he is an amazing builder too (just like his dad!!) he can build the coolest things. I bought him a set of DUPLO blocks and he has a hay day building towns, cities, farms, spaceships, watercraft, churches and so forth. It's fun to watch him build!
Navek is also a great helper to me. By this time last year he was emptying the dishwasher, vacuuming the stairs, and washing the bathroom all by himself. He did an okay job on the bathroom too for being so young. He is very motivated by money too (that's how I get him to do chores). He thinks that money is like to coolest thing ever. He saves it for no reason really, but to see it grow. He counts his money a lot and like to keep it in his wallet. What a silly boy.
Navek is a great athlete too. He played soccer this year and was the best one on his team. (I'm not just saying that..he really was) He was the fastest by far, and scored the most goals. I loved watching him play.
He is into this stage right now where he asks soooo many questions. Questions that I have no idea what the answer is. Like: "Mom why is the sky blue?" Now I know that there is a scientific answer to that, but heck if I know what it is. He asks questions like "Why is there a red car coming down the street?" "Why is ice cream so good?" "Why do bees make honey?" Sometimes I don't mind trying to come up with some good "Mom" answer but please...I don't know what color Jesus's hair is.
He is a good big brother to is little sisters. He loves them very much and I have no doubt that he will be a great friend to them as they grow. He is very patient with Yzabelle and helps a lot with his little brother too.

Navek loves me a lot too. He likes to snuggle with me and have me scratch his back. I hope that lasts into his teenage years!! Oh man, how I love my little boy!!!

Getting started

2007-06-23T22:36:00.001-07:00

I would like to talk about each of my kids individually this next week so that they can look back in a few years and see what kida stuff they were doing.

What a day Mom Had

2007-06-20T21:51:00.000-07:00

Today was one very good day! I felt like I got so much done. I woke up and got Navek off to school (he only has a weekend a half left of Kindergarten), got the girls and me breakfast, fed Tristyn and then took a shower all by 10am. Yey for me and some junk. Then I picked up my room, which is of course the messiest one in the house, and Trisytn's room which is right next to mine. I picked up all of the dirty laundry in the house and sorted it, realizing that I'm really, really behind on laundry! I put in a load and continued to pick up stuff around the basement. I am trying to get my house ready for when my family comes in July. Let's hope that I can maintain it till then! Anyway, I picked up Navek from school and we went to "school lunch" over by Lindsey's house. Then we came back home, I fed Tristyn (again for the 3rd time, he is slowly weening himself on the bottle), and put him down for a nap. The girls went over to the neighbors house and Navek and I picked up his room, then vacumed it. He then went swimming with the neighbors in our back yard and I just picked up and cleaned and did laundry and stuff. I even cleaned the bathroom in our bedroom!! Kevan got home around 4:30 and I headed off to work at 5. I was there for only about an hour and a half then went to YW. I am the Personal Progress leader and it was my night for an activity. I updated all of my records and the girls in my ward are doing great with there goals.
Sometimes I sit at home and feel like I am not an accomplished lady, cause I just clean my house and watch my kids all day, but not today! I am an accomplished lady cause raising decent children in our society today is the most important job ever!! I am lucky to have such great kids, and husband.
I will figure out the picture thing soon so you can witness some real cuteness!