While the men are away, we will PLAY!

One of my best friends, Jana, came to visit this week. Upon discovering that our husbands were going to be away on business at the same time, we conjured up a plan to get together and she came here from Washington with her two cute babies!!

Between the two of us we had a five year old, four year old, two year old, one year old and 2 month old, so you can imagine what a fun time we had! Actually, we did! We have always been great at entertaining ourselves by doing silly things. We danced for our kids to some of our favorite old songs. We laughed our heads off trying to get a group photo in the pool - watching Jana set the automatic timer and throw herself into the water to make it in time was hilarious! We watched the Olympics every night, ate lots of treats (our diets start tomorrow...) and just enjoyed being together again.

It is always a treat spending time with her. Of course we missed our loves Tyler and Adam and look forward to getting the four of us together in Seattle soon. I love you Jana, Lauren and Rylan, thanks for coming!

Better late than Never, Birthday Girl!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Shelly Belly, Happy 15th Birthday. I hope you know I love you even though this post is a day behind... I didn't want to be out-done by Ali and Maddie! :) We all love you SO much!! My kids say hello and wish we saw you every single day! You are so much fun and are always happy and chipper.

Sorry about the picture... it's the best I could do. XO XO XO forever.

Two year olds and Poison Control

I just got off the phone with poison control. I was in the shower this morning when Jake came into the bathroom and banged on the shower door with the jar asking me to open my thyroid medicine for him. I said "No. That is yucky medicine!" He walked away and I didn't think another thing about it because the child-proof (yeah right.) cap was on. When I got out I found him happily watching sesame street with my empty pill jar next to him (luckily there were only about 10 left)! I grabbed the phone and made a phone call to poison control, and found out that he will be fine. The effects should hit him in about 5 days, with rapid heart rate, maybe a fever and increased activity. I can't believe he got that thing open!!

This reminded me of the few other times I have had to call poison control. When Luke was almost two I found him licking the top of the powdered Clorox can, he had the stuff all over his face. He was fine. And a couple months after that I saw him swallow a penny. Poison control instructed me to "mark his stool" by feeding him corn and when it came out the next day we had to check to see if the penny had come too. It had.

Thankfully prayers work. I always pray for my children's safety and rely on the Lord for help daily!

Oldies, but Goodies

Tonight I was organizing my office closet and came across a couple of disks with photos stored on them from 2004-2005. I took some time to upload them to the computer and found some 700 pictures that I are so fun to look at. I wanted to post a few.

Putting in the pool... which my mom contracted for us. I think these are so cool!

Our sweet little girl at one year old.

Little Lukey at two.

A trip to Seattle for my great friend Jana's wedding, took us back to our old stomping grounds. A ferry ride and my dad's building in the background...

Some rare finds - new pictures with my dad and the kids. Precious.

And grandma... and her three best bed buddies.

Nana and Ash, both so pretty.

And Popi doing what he likes best...feeding the ones he loves! :)

And oh. How did we ever do this?! 12 months apart. I lived it and I still can't believe it when I see pictures!


What a find these pictures are. Thanks for strolling memory lane with me!

Happy Birthday to Jake!

It's hard to believe that two years have passed since our Jabob was born. When I think back on the time just before we had him I always remember the strong promptings we felt to have him. I, being the planner that I am, was not wanting to have our third child until the following year, but I could not deny the feelings that I had to go ahead and try. From the moment that we knew we were pregnant I was filled with excitement and joy. Since then I have felt on countless occasions that the timing was right, as he has been a perfect addition to our family. He brings life, laughter, action and love to our home. We all adore him!! I browsed through pictures from the week he was born today and wanted to post a few of them. I just love seeing the ones at the hospital when the kids saw him for the first time and we took our first family photo as five. He was such a cutie, wasn't he?!




We really had our hands full! So now he is a big two year old and such a fun kid. We went to dinner last night to celebrate at the Rainforest Cafe because he loves Jungle Animals right now. He had a blast seeing the elephants and monkeys and tigers and believing they were real. He is just precious that way.




Today we invited my cousins over for cake and ice-cream and all the festivities. He was very aware of the excitment surrounding him and loved it. He opened presents and got a Build-a-Bear with a voice message (so cute!) in it from Nana, a jungle animal set from Grandma (perfect!), an automatic bubble machine from the kids, a puppy book and $2 from Grandma Goesch (thank you!) and a Thomas the train scooter from us. He was a happy, happy boy.






As per my journal which this blog has become, I want to write down a few of the great things about Jake at TWO YEARS OLD:
His favorite requests - "The Giraffe One" (video), "That One" (as he taps the bottle of Hershey's Syrup in the door of the fridge wanting me to add it to his milk), "La, La, La" (the story he likes, Moo, Baa and La La La), "Bi Bo" (wants to be a 'big boy' when we get into the car and not have to sit in his carseat...doesn't get that very often, unless we are staying in the neighborhood) and "I do it!" (Self explanitory!).
His favorite foods - Nug-nugs (chicken nuggets), grapes, oreos, strawberries, hotdogs, and pancakes.
His favorites pastimes - swimming, reading books, watching Barney, Teletubbies or Baby Einstein videos, dancing on Luke's bed to 'Spiderman', playing with our marble tower.
Other - He still loves his bottles and his blankie. He usually naps each afternoon for 2-3 hours. He is learning to share and not hit, push or bite his friends... and he has been close to potty-training. He is a smart, coordinated and handsome boy. And I really love him if you can't tell!

I am so happy!

We just got home from 'Meet the Teacher' night at the new school and I am so happy! After months of debating about what to do with the kids this year and enrolling them back and forth in a couple schools we decided to put them together at the charter school near our house. Everything I hoped for came to true for us tonight as far as really nice and experienced teachers go, darling classrooms and a wonderfully diverse curriculum.

One of the many things that I love about this school is all of the options that are available to the students. They have ponies and horses as well as other 4H farm animals on campus and lots of gardens. Luke will be going to Science on Mondays, Art on Tuesdays, Band/Music on Wednesdays (they teach piano as an option!) and have Horsemanship once as week where he will get to learn about and ride the horses! Friday afternoons are reserved for exploratory classes that range in subjects from tie-dying to gardening to astrology. I'm excited for Luke and feel like this school has his name written all over it!

Ashley's classroom is very cute with a big park-like mural painted on the wall. They have a kitchen (which was most important on her list) and several class pets that they will learn to care for. This is great for her because we are not pet people here at home. Her teacher is a little tiny lady who will be great. Ashley is so excited to start class!

Anyway, it is a nice thing to see their two classroom doors right next to each other in a little school where everybody will know their names. They got their uniforms on together tonight and looked good! I was so hoping that we had made the right decision for us and finally tonight I think we have!

P.S. All of that is not to mention the Patriotism they teach there and the core values of respect, hardwork, service, obedience, etc. that are emphasized... its just a good environment!

P.P.S. School started today and Ashley has 14 kids in her class and Luke had only 12 today (20 enrolled?). Crazy.

The Real Deal!

Yesterday he did it! With 5 days to spare before turning TWO Jake swam the length of the pool all by himself! Everytime we see this baby enjoying his time in the pool we are filled with awe and amazement (and a little anxiety) at how comfortable he is in the water! I wanted to share his exciting feat.



In this video Jakey is doing his favorite trick - a little dive down deep and float back up. He does about 40 of these a day until his little eyes are burning red (won't wear goggles...I tried.) And, he can even dive the 5 feet to the bottom for rings. I tell you, its crazy the things he is doing.

A week shy of Two, and Swimming!

I tried to capture Jake swimming last weekend, but my camera is a dinosaur and doesn't have sound, nor take very long clips (Dear Santa...) I got a couple crazy clips of the kids having fun in the pool but what I was trying to catch is the way Jacob is swimming. He loves to run and jump in, he can even dive (I will get that some other time) and he can swim on his own about 5 feet. I am usually on the edge of my seat when I watch him, but he is really pretty good.

Friends

These are my friends. This is what my crew looks like when I go out. I took these pictures last week when my kids and I and two of their friends, Mason and Rylee went to the Children's Museum. They are a good little group to hang out with.

Mothers and Sons/Mothers and Daughters

Last week our ward held a Mothers and Sons lunch and a Mothers and Daughters dinner. It was a great excuse to get out with the kids one and one (Jakey napped instead of joining us) and we had a good time. Luke and I won 1st for the three legged race! And Ashley gave me a gorgeous new look by doing my nails and make-up. She insisted that my lip gloss be used on my cheeks to make them more pink like the Disney Princesses... and my nails.. it took me a while to not think I had cut myself whenever I glanced down at them. It was a day well spent!


.
>

Ashley Reacts to School Uniforms!

School starts soon and we've been getting ready for Ashley to start Kindergarten and Luke to be in first grade! Hooray! The kids will be wearing uniforms to their school this year and Ashley was less than impressed with how she looked when she first saw herself. It was adorable. Thankfully she is a kid who comes around quickly.