THE WESTON FAMILY

It's Real

2012-01-27T13:19:00.000-08:00

The fact that we are moving a week from today has all of the sudden hit me the last couple days and it's very real and very nerve-wracking. Before nothing was finalized and it was hard to really wrap my head around it or plan on anything because nothing was set in stone. But as of Wednesday, all the papers are signed, our flights are scheduled, we've signed a 2 month contract on some temporary, furnished housing, and the movers are all set to come next Wed., Thurs., and Fri. Pretty crazy if you ask me. I guess this is really happening. I am making lists about everything and getting all anxious and stressing out about every little detail, because that's what I do. I just go over and over things in my mind, even if I don't have any control over how it will turn out. But time will pass and it will all work out, I'm sure.

We've been trying to keep ourselves busy. We've had fun going to the mall and playing on the play place. I also bought myself 2 pairs of boots on sale. How convenient that all the winter stuff is going on sale here, and we're going to need it for pretty much year-round :). Yesterday we attempted to go bowling with Natalie and her kids, but about halfway into it we couldn't get the kids to bowl anymore. They found all the arcade games and it was over. So we paid for half a game of bowling which is stupid. I would have finished off the game for them because I love bowling, but I didn't want to buy myself shoes and the guy was such a stickler. I threw one ball for Bryn and he walked over and got after me. Bryn also had a major meltdown right before we left and cried for probably a good 45-60 minutes afterwards. I swear, that girl.

I realized I had several pictures on my phone that I haven't put up here. I can't remember what days they're from now, but here they are...

(Don't worry, we have since cut Tyler's hair...)

Tyler is currently obsessed with the show, America's Funniest Home Videos. It cracks me up just to watch him watch the show. He has had me record him several times doing what he thinks are "funny things" because he wants me to send them in so he can be on the show and win a free trip to Disneyland. He firmly believes he would win. He always quotes the show and tells me "You don't win if you don't send it in!" hahaha.

Brynlee misses her daddy a lot, and talks about him all throughout the day. She is obsessed with the color pink, and although she's very girly, she loves to play anything Ty plays with. She will tell me that we need to buy "pink lizards", "pink dinosaurs", or anything her brother plays with--she wants a pink version of it for herself.

Madison brings me books dozens of times throughout the day, sometimes the same book over and over again. I think she's figured out that I always stop what I'm doing to read to the kids. She knows she will always get up on my lap and have a book read to her, if she just brings it to me. I do that because I want them to all love books, but I think she's just using it to her advantage :). She also loves to hug Brynlee randomly throughout the day and it's so stinkin cute.

Not Much

2012-01-24T18:23:00.000-08:00

Kenny was able to come home for the weekend and it was SOOOOooooo nice having him home. None of us let him out of our sight for a second and we all mauled him with love and attention :). I don't think he minded a bit. We picked him up at 8:20 p.m. on Thursday night, and dropped him back off at the airport on Sunday around 2 p.m.
The kids were all over him the whole time, especially his little girls. I sure enjoyed having someone here to help hold these needy girlies! (Madi wasn't always crying with him, she just happened to get hurt right as I pulled out the camera...of course)

We are really looking forward to him being with us for good again (Feb. 1st!!). I'm so glad that he's not in the military, or in a job where he travels a lot and is gone. I don't like it at all.

I know I've been a bad blogger. I don't have much to report. Not only that, but I think it would end up being a little too negative or pity-party-ish and I don't think anyone wants to read that. I'm having a hard time right now, and that's all there is to it. But I've got my big girl panties on (that's my mom's favorite expression for when you have to do something hard in life. She just says, "put on your big girl panties".) and I know it won't last forever, even if it feels that way. Maybe just several more months...or years. Hopefully not years. Anyways.

Here's our cute little Madster saying "cheese" for the camera. This girl is a handful. Make that two handfuls. It's a good thing she's so dang cute.

The kids finger painted today, and Brynlee turned it into a little body art at the end. Not only did it leave a nice blue residue in the tub, but she looked half-smurf the rest of the day.

Well it's 10 p.m. and even though the dishes aren't done, I'm calling it a night. Good night.

Missing You

2012-01-15T17:29:00.000-08:00

Just woken up and looking at the freshly fallen snow. It's beautiful.

Dear Kenny,

You'd think this would get easier, or that we'd get used to you being gone, but it hasn't, and we're not. The last few days have been hard for me, and we're so glad you're going to make it home this coming weekend. Something to look forward to!

Madison is especially struggling lately, and it dawned on me today that maybe it's because you're not here. Or she senses big changes like a new little sister coming, or that we're moving. Goodness knows she has several reasons to pick from, so I can't blame her. I'm trying to be more sensitive to the kids and all that's going on. I rarely sleep alone at night, all 3 sort of take turns climbing into bed with me for various reasons but I don't mind.

As I was shoveling the driveway yesterday and all the kids were out playing in the snow, I realized that I really need to get some snow boots and snow clothes before we move to Alaska. We will all definitley need them. Tyler really wanted you to help him build a fort, but I told him there will be plenty more opportunities to build snow forts where we're going. Madi always looks so cute all bundled up. Poor gal can't get up when she falls down cuz of all the snow gear haha, it cracks me up.

I find that I really relish my down-time at night right now. After the kids go to bed it is so nice and quiet. I watch a movie, or read. This week I read the book Sarah's Key, and then I found the movie in Redbox so I watched it too. They changed a lot of the story, but I always love love love to hear french. Don't forget you promised to take me back to Paris someday...someday. It was a good book, but so depressing. My project the last couple nights has been cutting up all your old jeans to use as scraps in a rag quilt. I'm so glad you suggested that before we dumped them off at Goodwill.

The Palmers had us over for dinner tonight which was so kind of them, as Sundays can get really long. James did all the cooking and it was delicious. The kids were excellent at church again today, I was so proud of them.

Well I guess I'll go back to my jean cutting.

I love you.

Linds

Wednesday

2012-01-11T16:05:00.000-08:00

Dear Kenny,
I am glad to report that I got the oil changed in the van today! I know that will make you happy. I dropped Tyler off at Amy's for Joy school, then we went to wal-mart and took the van in. I let the girls wander around and look at whatever the heck they wanted while we waited. We even went to McDonald's (the one inside wal-mart) and split a hot fudge sundae and small fry between the 3 of us. 11:20 a.m. isn't too early for ice cream is it? Nah.

Brynlee found a barbie at the store that she wanted. She asked if she could get it for Christmas and I said, maybe for your birthday. So she says "Ok!" and throws it into the cart. I put it back on the shelf and told her that her birthday wasn't until February 9th. She's been telling everyone it's her birthday all day. Then she'll say, "Today is my birthday in February" haha, she's so confused.

We had to have an emergency evacuation tonight during bath time. Madison had a fecal explosion! Tyler had to shower in our bathroom (thankfully he hadn't gotten in yet). I got them and the tub and the bath toys all cleaned up and taken care of, and wished you were here. We will all be so glad when this darn stomach bug is over with. It sure does hang on for a long time.

Tonight while trying to clean up dinner, Ty and Bryn were being dogs. They would crawl over on their hands and knees with a stuffed animal in their mouths. I would take it from them and throw it as far as I could into the other room, then they would go "fetch" it and bring it back to me. Fun game huh? It kept them busy for a while. It reminded me of when I was little, I used to love pretending I was a horse, or dog, or cat, or dinosaur. Being a kid is the best.

Did you know the Roku remote has been missing ever since you left? Did you pack it in your suitcase? Seriously, I can't find it anywhere. Thank goodness you downloaded that roku remote app on my phone or we would have been without tv the whole time!

I'm sort of going crazy waiting for you to call right now. I hope you do soon. I love you so much.

Linds

Tuesday

2012-01-10T16:44:00.000-08:00

I just got the kids to bed, even a few minutes early! I opted out of going to Young Womens tonight. I figured it would be a little pointless for me to try and be there with these 3 crazies. Today started out with Madi having a nice big blow-out first thing this morning. Ya know how I set that goal to wake up 30 min. earlier than the kids and be showered and have my scriptures read before they woke up? Well it turns out Madi also made a goal at the same time, to start waking up between 6 and 6:30 now. That kind of ruins my plans.

My visiting teacher, Tacie Kerr, came over today with her cute daughter Cambrie. I just love that woman, she is a great example to me. She also brought dinner for us. Homemade spaghetti sauce, french bread and noodles. Nice and easy to throw together. Although every night that I make dinner, I wonder why I bother. The kids don't eat anything, I swear. I suppose the developing fetus needs more than cold cereal or chicken nuggets. But it still seems like such a waste most nights.

We went to the library this afternoon. I decided to not bring the diaper bag, thinking that we could make it for that short time without it. But Madi decided to poop again (diarrhea, remember) approximately 4 minutes after we got there. I knew it was only a matter of time before it oozed out of her diaper and through her clothes, so I was really trying to hurry us out. Only problem is Madi didn't want to be hurried out, or put in the stroller. She wanted to walk like a big girl around the library and pull books off the shelves. That's so much funner. I also didn't realize I had taken off the library card from my key ring and put it onto yours a while back, and they would NOT let me check out without it. Plus my drivers license is still from Idaho, which caused all kinds of confusion for them. Madi was screaming so much when I put her in the stroller that I couldn't hardly hear this lady that would not work with me, so I got Madi out. I was trying to see if there was any way they could just look up our dang account. Meanwhile, Madison found some piles of papers behind me and was dispersing them all over the floor. Awesome. I scooped up Madi, awkwardly bent down with my massive belly to pick up the stupid papers, put our books on the counter and said, "could you at least hold these for me?!" I forced Madi into the stroller, still screaming, and left. She cried the whole way home. I wanted to yell "throw me a freakin bone here woman!!" But instead, we went home and changed Madi's diaper, found the library card, and went back and got our books. I left them in the car that time. Don't you wish you were here to join us on our library trips? I do. I'm not sure we'll make it to the library, or anywhere else for that matter, once we have this 4th child. T minus 8 weeks baby.

P.S. We have a three dollar fine.

Monday

2012-01-09T16:35:00.000-08:00

Hello again darling. So I have the most adorable picture of Madi to show you. Sometimes I just can't believe she is mine, or rather, ours. She is so stinkin cute I could die!

I love how she just tries to keep up with her big brother and sister. I always forget how big the gap is at this age between what they understand and know, and what they can communicate.

She just wants to be one of the big kids, and she knows exactly what's going on all the time. She didn't even want to get in the stroller to go walk down to the park today. She just wanted to walk like a big girl. And for a long time, I let her. But she also doesn't understand that the street is off limits, so she finally ended up back in the stroller, kicking and screaming about it.

Ty got a little practice on his new scooter. He sure loves his snow boots, and calls himself a Sergeant when he wears them.

Brynlee was pretty difficult today and threw more tantrums than I care to think about. That girl has no sense of obedience, and is so independent and stubborn sometimes I just honestly don't know what to do. I think she could run the world someday if she can figure out how to channel all that strength in a positive manner.

I was supposed to have a dr. appt. this morning, but I had to cancel it again because the kids have all caught the stomach bug we had. Brynlee was throwing up and Ty and Madi both have diarrhea. So we ended up going to Wal-mart instead for a few essentials: Coke and crackers for their tummies, A&D ointment for Madi's poor bum rash, and some chocolate to help me get through the day :). We also picked up the movie, Mr. Popper's Penguins. I really can't stand Jim Carrey, but Ty and Bryn liked watching the penguins. At the end during the credits, we were all up off the couch dancing to the song "Ice, Ice Baby". I decided it was a great theme song for our family this year. Don't you agree?

I had Tyler writing some numbers today and he did more than half of them backwards. I realized we have been focusing on letters and neglecting numbers for several months. Good reminder for me.

I'm glad you weren't really affected by the tornado down there today. Scary stuff those Texas storms. I checked the weather here and it was 40 degrees. I looked up what it was in Anchorage and it was a whopping 1 degree. I'm sure going to have to change my perspective on what "nice" weather is. I think what we had here today is going to be balmy weather in our near future. Crazy. I kept having the quote from Charles Swindoll come to my head..."The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day." I love that.

Well I miss you and love you so much. Good night.

4 Days Down

2012-01-08T11:38:00.000-08:00

Dear Kenny,
Has it really only been 4 days on our own? Lame. Well here's what we've been up to lately. Thursday I took the kids to the indoor Rainforest place at the zoo. It's nice that it's free with our membership--too bad we won't get to use it much longer. We got there right as they opened so we had the whole downstairs place to ourselves! It was so nice! Madi loved walking around and looking at all the animals by herself, without anyone to get in her way. She loved the fruit bats and the fish the most. Of course I forgot my camera, so I only got a couple lousy shots with my phone, but better than nothing.

Natalie Palmer and her kids came over for dinner that night because they were husband-less/father-less too.

Friday we had joy school over here again. That was my last time teaching, and I'm sad we're leaving that early. Tyler loves it. They're good kids, and it's fun to have them all play together.

Ty and Bryn love playing in the snow. Madi is so cute to stand by the door and watch (she doesn't last nearly as long as they do). They like to throw snowballs at the glass and smear it around her "face", they crack themselves up.

Brynlee's new place to play--Madi's crib!

Saturday around noon, Joslyn came over and trimmed the girls' hair, and cut my bangs too. I didn't get a picture of Madison's first hair cut, because I was holding her. But she did a pretty good job, especially when I bribed her with chocolate chip cookies.
It warmed up to high 40's, maybe even low 50's the day before. So all the snow is melted and the sun has been shining. I'm still glad you bought all these big balls. The kids love them.

I know I told you I would blog more often so you could get funnier details of the day, but I obviously haven't done a very good job of that. I'll try to do better this week.

I didn't get much sleep last night because more stomach/heartburn/digestion issues. Oh and Tyler slept with me because his tummy was hurting too. He really loves not having to sleep all by himself, and I don't mind. I love having my children close to me. I sure miss your warm (or rather, hot ;) )body next to mine, though.

Church went well today; everybody is so kind. Amy Franklin and Beth Herod were happy to take Madi so I could teach young womens. I was the only leader there for young womens today, so it was nice that I didn't have to worry about Madi too. We left the kids' backpack there, so I'll have to go back and get that. I broke down crying while driving home from church, because I just love everyone here so much, and I'm sad to leave them. Everyone is so kind and keeps trying to help and wondering what they can do to help us. My biggest struggle with moving is not saying goodbye to people, but feeling like I can never truly thank them or let them know how much their friendship and kindness means to me. It's like we're being mean by leaving after everyone has welcomed us here so readily.

Well we miss you like crazy and look forward to hearing from you when you get back from church.

XOXO, Linds

Let The Craziness Begin!

2012-01-04T18:46:00.000-08:00

big news: We're moving to Anchorage, Alaska!

We found out yesterday that it's for real. We are being re-located there with Kenny's current company, URS Energy and Construction. We are expecting to be there for 2-3 years. Kenny flew to Houston, TX this evening and starts work there tomorrow. He'll be down there for the next month doing some training, then we should move up to Alaska the beginning of February. Yes that puts me 3-4 weeks away from delivering this baby, and yes I'm sort of freaking out inside. We're kind of caught up in this whirlwind of events, and I'm afraid it's not going to subside till at least April. We are trying to figure everything out and praying for help as we go along. We may be bringing this little girl home from the hospital to a hotel, but as long as she's healthy I suppose it doesn't matter. I'm hoping the next 4 weeks pass really quickly, as I already miss my man. We're excited for this next adventure in our lives, and feel like it's a good opportunity for Kenny in his career. This will make our 4th state within a year! Hopefully things will settle down for us a little bit after this. I'm voting for no more babies or moves for at least 2 years! :)

Welcome January!

2012-01-03T10:21:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's already 2012! Wow. Let's see for a little catch up...
New Year's Eve we went out to eat at a yummy Chinese restaurant (Vieng's Asian Bistro in Crocker Park) with our friends James and Natalie Palmer. It was so much fun to get out and go on a double date with them. Emma babysat for us again, and we told her the kids could stay up till we got home. Unfortunately dinner took for-eeeee-ver. So by the time I got back from taking Emma home they didn't get to bed till 11 p.m.!! Yikes that's a record for sure. Church came bright and early at 9 a.m. the next morning. I stayed home with Madison because she had been running a fever all night...again. This girl is cutting one molar after the other and I swear it's going to kill me! Kenny got a stomach bug on Christmas, a few days later I caught it, and I'm still not fully over it. Nothing like a good purging cleanse for the new year right? So we're hoping for some sleep in the next few days...but I'm not holding my breath. I think madi's officially confused as to which bed is really hers now. Her most favorite spot is nestled right in between her mom and dad. It's not my favorite spot for her, that's for sure.

It's been snowing a lot the last few days and the kids are sure enjoying it :).

Below: Brynlee is so excited that "her sister" is out with her in the snow. For some reason she never refers to her as Madison, or Madi. It's always "my sister". It's so cute.

Kenny had work off yesterday and it was a nice little family day. We had fun just playing, a little cleaning, and drinking hot chocolate. Below: Kenny set up some new targets for Tyler's Nerf gun other than his mom and sisters :).

Our family theme for this year is taken from Pres. Monson's first presidency message from this month. We are going to CHOOSE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE. It was really sweet when we were talking about it last night during FHE. I realized that my children are such good examples of this. They really help me to see things in a better light, and they are just so naturally happy and full of light. I'm so grateful I have them.

Christmas Day

2011-12-28T08:24:00.001-08:00

Christmas morning: I finally started making noise to get the kids up around 7:20 because we didn't have much time to get ready for church after that. So we woke up Madi, and they all came out to see how much Santa spoiled them this year!! They were thrilled with the loot and it is always so fun to watch them. Some of Ty's favorites: a scooter, a light saber, some cool books. Bryn's favorites: a doll with lots of accessories, and strawberry shortcake. Madi's favorites: Baby doll and balls.

We had to be at the church at 10 for one final choir practice. Kenny and I both decided to do it this christmas since they had babysitters before church for it. It's been a really fun experience. I love being in choir, but especially singing Christmas songs. Sacrament meeting started at 11, and the Pattees were kind enough to sit with our kids for us. The program went really well and the spirit was strong. I don't understand why we don't go to church every Christmas, no matter what day. It really makes a difference, I think.

We came home, had lunch, and opened up the rest of the presents under the tree! I was so excited about the cricut expressions (!!!) from my parents, and a cool vegetable steamer, and boots from Kenny. We got Kenny some new basketball shoes, running shoes, and a calendar I made through Shutterfly he can hang up at work. We enjoyed just taking it easy and playing with the new toys the rest of the day. Oh, and we had a big google chat with everyone in my family. We surprised my mom with the fact that we're sending her and my dad on a cruise Jan. 16th! That was fun to watch her reaction :). I wasn't so great at taking pictures, because we were recording a lot. But here's a few of the kids playing with new toys on Sunday and Monday.

These are blocks you have to build and make ramps and stuff for the marbles to roll down.

Bryn got bath baby from Grandpa and Grandma A that she just couldn't wait another minute to get in the tub and play with her.

Madi likes to take a pretend sip from the baby's bottle herself, then give it to her baby. She is such a sweet little mommy. It is amazing to me how natural and strong that motherly instinct is even at such a very young age. My mom made some darling blankets and a "diaper bag" for my girls to put all their baby stuff in. It's perfect!

Fingerpaints and tools are always a hit.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-28T07:57:00.000-08:00

For Christmas Eve we didn't want to be alone, so we invited over 2 other families from the ward who we knew didn't have family around either. James and Natalie Palmer came with their two kids, Scott and Sara. Justin and Joslyn Pattee came, and brought a friend Jeni, who's from France. I made the traditional ham and augratin potatoes, with a yummy salad, rolls, and corn/peas. They brought desserts and we loved sharing that evening with friends. We read through Luke 2, and part of Matthew 2 and the kids somewhat acted out the nativity, yet again.

We visited for a little while, then they all went home. Then it was time to open up the Christmas pajamas I made them!!

Love my 3 little hams.

Don't look too closely at Tyler's pajamas...the print is upside down! All except for one sleeve, haha. That's what I get for trying to work on sewing projects with the kids awake and bouncing all around me. I realized the mistake after cutting it out, but I was not about to go buy some more material. While laughing at my own stupidity, Tyler says "That's okay mom, they can just be my crazy pajamas!"

We read "The Night Before Christmas", and Tyler slept in the girls' room so they could all be together. Kenny and I stayed up watching "It's a Wonderful Life" while drinking sparkling cider, cleaning up dinner, and setting out Christmas. I just love Christmas time.

Calendar of Events for December

2011-12-27T07:52:00.000-08:00

Dec. 3rd: Ugly Christmas Sweater Party at Keith and Lexi Bielozer's house! Kenny and I got some great sweaters at goodwill that afternoon, I made cookies to bring, and then our babysitter called and cancelled on us. :( But since they live in our neighborhood and I had been looking forward to it for so long (Lexi throws the best parties!), I snuck over there for a little over an hour. Kenny was supposed to go when I got back, so we'd just take turns. But he didn't want to. Anyway I had a really fun time while there and it was funny to see everyone in their sweaters!

Dec. 14th: Mary Kay Party! I love mary kay stuff and have been going through withdrawals lately, so it was fun to go there and get a few essentials. Although after Kenny saw the price, it was hard convincing him they were indeed, essential! :)

Dec. 15th: We had the missionaries over with a cute girl, Erica who is investigating the church. Kenny played with the kids in the other room while I sat in on the discussion with them. Her 3 year old son bit Brynlee in the calf really bad and left a good mark for several days. He is one scary little kid. But the good news, is she's getting baptized next week :).

Dec. 16th: Ward Christmas Party!! It was a fabulous event that they put on with the theme, "A Night In Bethlehem". Everyone dressed up, they had the whole gym decked out like it was back in time. Each family had a basket and 5 gold coins they could use to pick up some food to sample that they ate in Jerusalem back then. We all sat on blankets on the floor and enjoyed the people acting out the story of Christ's birth. I didn't get a picture of all of us, but here's Bryn dressed up before we left.

Dec. 18th: There's a lady in our ward that collects the little "Christmas Village" things and displays them in a room in her home with a big train set going through the village. We went over to the open house to see it and mix and mingle with other ward members. It was a pretty impressive collection! After that we went over to the Palmers and decorated gingerbread houses with them. Joslyn Pattee came with us too, but her doctor husband was working. Below, Natalie Palmer is on the far left, Joslyn in the middle, and me with no make up on the end. That's a story for another day...maybe.

I can't remember what day this was, but it was warm enough to jump outside on the trampoline. Everybody was warning us about the "horrible winters" here, but so far it has been better than anywhere else we've lived, except of course Texas.

And another pic off my phone...Tyler helping make sugar cookies.

Dec. 19th: For Family Home Evening we decided to go to Kirtland where they have a big display of nativity scenes from all around the world. We went and picked up Kenny from work, then headed out to Kirtland. (We got his car on the way home, and I went and did some christmas shopping all by myself which is my favorite way to shop!)

We discovered that downtown Cleveland was all decorated and lit up!

This was a huge display they had in the visitor's center. Some man bought it in bethlehem for real and lets them borrow it to display it at Christmas time. And a blurry Madi walking in front of it.

Along with all the cool nativities from around the world, they showed a short video (Luke 2) and there's a room where the kids can dress up and play. It was a fun night and I'm glad we went. I love living so close to church history places.

This is just random, but here's Madi getting tangled up in christmas lights. :) She sure is cute.

Dec. 22nd: All the kids in Tyler's Joy School put on a nativity program for us. The Lassen's hosted it, and it was a fun night, even with 2 of the kids (and their families) missing. It just allowed for more siblings to participate, haha. Tyler played the role of Joseph.

Here's a group shot of the kids. Only 4 are actually in the joy school. Tyler in the middle, and working to the right we have Julia Lassen next to him (whom he's going to marry) and of course she was Mary. On her right is Grant, and next to him is William. They are O'Neil brothers and we just love their family. Ty and William are really good buddies.

It's been a wonderful month with lots of fun, christmas-y activities.

Picture A Christmas

2011-12-22T08:48:00.000-08:00

When I picture Christmas of 2011, I want to remember a few things...

My cute girls in their darling skirts that my mom made them. I love the hug-turned-choke-hold going on :).

We have given away a plethera of cookies this month. We take our sugar cookies very seriously around here. The kids were frustrated that we kept giving away all of the treats we were making, so I made sure to make our family represented in gingerbread people, for us to eat. I can't believe we'll have 6 people in our family in a couple months. Yikes!! As you can see, Ty and Bryn each decorated their own, Kenny accidentally got decapitated, and the frosting on the word "baby" melted together so you can't really tell what it says. But the cookies were devoured joyfully.

A few things around the house: Our stockings. My mom made mine and Kenny's when we were first married, I've made the kids' stockings, but I'm not sure what we'll do when we need another one next year. I think I"m out of that fabric and she'll be the only one not matching. Oh well, that's a problem for later. The table runner was something my mom and sisters made at girls week this summer which I wasn't able to attend :(. The wooden trees and stable were crafts I did with my sisters-in-law at Bear Lake this past month. "The Mansion" is our Christmas book this year that's been on display all month, we've only read it once. But it is a keeper, Pres. Monson recommends it and reads it each year, so we figured we should get it. The other fabric trees displayed on my quilt rack was a gift from my mom last year (we get a new one each year cuz she's awesome) and I just love it.

Our beloved (and blurry) Christmas tree with beautiful presents underneath that the kids just can't wait to open! Notice how the bottom third of our tree has no ornaments, and the lights hanging off the lower branches too. That's because I have a one year old.

And this is our house. Looks like some of those lights got caught in the rain gutter--guess we'll have to fix that.

We are really loving this Christmas season. The holidays are so much fun and so magical with little kids! I love this time of year!!

Updates on all of us, including our newest member

2011-12-18T17:52:00.000-08:00

I will start off by saying that we did not have our baby yet. That would be scary early, we still have 2 1/2 months to go. But we do have a little elf that joined our family December 1st. His name is Joey. I had never heard of all these "Elf on the Shelf" things but luckily my sister, Steph, is a lot cooler than me. She sent our family one in November since they have us for Christmas and I am SO glad she did. The kids LOVE Joey. It is the last thing Tyler talks about before he goes to bed at night, and the first thing he and Brynlee look for when they wake up. Seriously, I think they're way more excited about Joey every day than Santa coming haha. But it's been a lot of fun for them to find him in a new spot every morning. Thankfully we haven't forgotten to move him yet, and Kenny is much more creative at finding a funny spot for him then I am. But it's a fun new tradition.

Madison: I cannot believe how quickly she picked up on walking, and really well. She just walks around the house like the other kids now and it's so cute to watch her. Her climbing abilities have also improved, thanks to her frequent practicing. She keeps me on my toes, that's for sure. Church is pretty difficult with her, and I'm already couting down the months till nursery. She thinks she's one of the big kids and just tries to do everything her big brother and sister do. She gets really, really mad if you don't let her try and do everything they do. She has also figured out how to pull the elastics and clips out of her hair, so she often looks like an orphan child because she never leaves anything in for very long.

Brynlee: She's still sort of like Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. Totally sweet and perfect angel child one minute, and will turn on you in a second. She occassionally resorts to "baby talk" and acting a lot younger than she is, which worries me for this baby coming. She's very needy about being hugged, held and loved a lot. Sometimes I think I'm going to hire someone to just sit here and hold whatever child needs it so I can get something done, or not have them fighting over my lap. It's even more awkward with my ever-growing belly. But we sure love Bryn and she loves to sing and talk in the cutest little voice. She pretends to read books all the time and always begins each page with "One day..." Bryn's very good about cleaning and picking things up when she's done playing, if it's something that's obvious or an intentional game, if that makes sense. Like she carries a lot of little knick knacks around and leaves stuff out all over the house, but if it's something we get out like a bin of legos, or the play-doh, or a game, etc. she is very good about picking up after herself. Everybody loves her curly hair, and I often get asked how I do the ringlets when she has pigtails or something. She's just a natural babe :).

Tyler: He loves going to Joy School two days a week, and always has such a fun time playing with friends. There's a girl in his primary class, and joy school with him named Julia, and they always say they're going to marry each other. I've tried to get him to stop talking about it so much. It was funny and cute at first, but then I think it was starting to get a little overboard for 4 year olds. But they are good friends. He is such a good big brother and really helps me out a lot. He thinks he is hilarious and tries to make up "funny jokes" all the time, and we try to give him our best laughs :). He's in the "silly" phase of childhood, but he's still pretty well behaved. We still do preschool at home each day with our own Sonlight curriculum, and mostly he just soaks up all the books. He can't get enough of reading books, and I don't mind a bit. He's actually getting pretty good at reading on his own and sounding out words.

Me: I am doing fine. Tired a lot, but fine. I hate wearing maternity pants more than anything else in the whole world (random sidenote). I was looking at some home videos from back when it was me and Ty and Bryn, and I was missing the old me. I used to be not nearly so chubby, a lot more energetic and fun. Now I feel like I can't keep up with anything, or I just don't even want to try, and I'm tired. I have a lot of dreams of me running, or being back in highschool playing basketball, and then I wake up with leg cramps, or because I have to pee again. So I'm really looking forward to not being pregnant anymore, which is too bad because I still have 11 weeks to go. I'm still trying to be patient with waiting to hear on where we're moving; some days I do better than others.

Kenny: Seems to handle everything much better than I do, and I'm grateful for his strength in that regard. He works out every day during lunch, they have a nice gym in the same building as his work so that's a good outlet for him. I feel bad making his shorter than everyone else's, but he really hasn't changed, haha.

So that's us in a nutshell. I don't have a single picture to put on here, but we'll get to that this week, hopefully.

Come what may and love it.

2011-12-14T10:31:00.000-08:00

I saw this the other day on deseretbook.com and couldn't help but get it. It's my new motto right now. I needed it up in my home every day where I could see it and be reminded of the attitude I need (and want) to have. Kenny's work has thrown us for another loop again, and we are once again on the verge of moving. We expected a good year and a half, or two years here in Ohio. But the week before Thanksgiving, the project they are working on got cancelled. Shut down. Now there's no work to do here, and they are finding places for everyone to go. Everyone that didn't get laid off, that is. So we are waiting to hear back on a few different places, and waiting and waiting. Kenny was in Austin, TX interviewing with a different company yesterday, so we'll see how that turns out too. I wouldn't be quite as stressed if we weren't having a baby so soon. I just hate not knowing what's going to happen and plan on even a few weeks in advance. But as we've really fasted and prayed, and poured over the words of the prophets I've received several times over, comforting words and feelings. I know that we'll be okay, and it'll all work out. Even if it is hard, and perhaps that's what I'm afraid of. I realized after several weeks of praying for patience, that that's not really what I meant. I just sort of expected the Lord to "give me patience" so that it wouldn't be hard, that it would just be made easeir for me. But I see now that I was missing the point of trials entirely. So I've changed my prayers, and work daily on having a good attitude about it. We have so much to be grateful for, and the fact that Kenny is still employed is up there at the top right now. So throw at us what you will, life. Come what may--because we're gonna love it.

Madison's 1st Birthday--December 5th

2011-12-07T18:16:00.000-08:00

Look who turned 1 year old!!
My baby girl is growing up so fast! Lately she has really started to look like a little girl, and not a baby. She's also started walking and it is so fun! She progresses pretty much hourly, and I love watching her figure it out and gain confidence as she goes. Today she was going across the whole room! Her birthday celebrating went a little like this...

Checking out her presents (2 from us, one from Gpa and Gma Andersen). Yes, that's Christmas wrapping paper--that's all we have right now.

Loving on her new baby doll. She really, really loves dolls. She even feeds her the bottle.

After opening presents, we had a little cake and ice cream. I used the same giant cupcake pan I did for Bryn's 1st b-day.

Nice and clean starting out...

And this was her by the end!! I think she's the first one of our children to smear it all over her hair like that. We headed straight to the bath tub, for her second bath of the day. Baths are one of her favorite things, so she didn't mind.

All cleaned up and playing with her toys. The grocery cart is what my parents gave her, and she cruises around the house with it. (It's also a big hit for Ty and Bryn!) The ball popper is on the floor behind it, those are her 3 gifts.

We sure love our little Madi Lynn! She is such a fun, lovable, and stinkin cute little girl. We just can't get enough of her. Some of my favorite things about Madi:

How she points at everything

She sits on my lap and loves to read books

She tries to climb everything

The way crosses her sweet little hands over each other when we say "fold your arms" for prayers.

How she waves her chubby hand and says "ba ba" for bye bye.

The way she wrinkles her nose when she smiles and laughs.

The satisfaction she gets from emptying out every kitchen cupboard, bookshelf, or dresser drawer she can reach...several times every day!

How tight she squeezes when giving hugs

We're so glad you're in our family Mads! We all love you so much!

Nov. 28th-29th

2011-12-02T20:45:00.001-08:00

Sunday we drove to Mt. Green and stayed with Chris, Stacie, Caiden, and Traegan. Kenny's parents, along with his sister Shariane and her two kids decided to come down with us and stay there too...so the party continued! Our poor kids were so exhausted pretty much the whole trip, and so was I. I just love this sweet picture of Madi, hugging Bryn's new doll to fall asleep in the car.

Monday we took the kids to a bounce house in Roy, UT. It said online that they were open at noon, but when we got there they said it was a mistake, and they weren't open till 3. But since it was their fault, and we only had little kids, they let us in anyway. It was like having a private bounce house for a whole hour, which normally costs like $750 to do that for real!! Pretty ridiculous, but we sure loved having the whole place to ourselves. The kids jumped and ran to their hearts content and wore themselves right out. Even Kenny, who's just a big kid, had fun jumping and playing around with the kids.

Kenny also thought it would be funny to tackle his dad into the huge pit of foam! It was funny, but I felt bad when it came time for him to get out... haha.

This was a normal scene...Madi trying to get away from anyone that tried to hold her. It was extremely annoying the WHOLE freaking time. She wouldn't go to anyone but me or Kenny, but mostly me.

These cool TV's had a 15 second delay so you could do a trick, then watch yourself on the tv and see what it looked like.

Monday night we went down to Temple Square to see all the pretty Christmas lights!! We all ate dinner at The Lion House, then walked around. It was cold, but we had fun. Jeni and Eric, and Kyle and Keli and kids also came so we had a big group.

Brynlee is the exact opposite of Madi. She attaches to people really quickly and wants/needs lots of attention and love and snuggles from any willing family member :). She loves all her grandparents.

We said good-bye to everyone for who knows how long. The next day we flew home (2 flights again, always a layover in Chicago) and got back around 6:30 at night. The kids were such troopers. It's not easy changing time zones, and switching houses/beds every day or every other day. We stayed with 7 people in 12 days, that's a lot of moving around and they handled it as well as could be expected. The airplane flights went pretty well, obviously Madi had a hard time holding still for 3 hours at a time but it was SO much better than the 30 hour drive would have been. We'll never be able to do that again because it's way too dang expensive, but I'm glad we did it this once. We also had a little sickness at the beginning, lots of stomach issues for Ty and Bryn. And Madi was pretty difficult a lot of the time. Not just because she wanted to be held all the time and was scared of everyone else, but because she isn't used to stairs. We don't have any in our house, and she was obviously fascinated with them. Everyone but Cami had stairs, so it was stressful constantly keeping her safe and alive. She did have one fall down the stairs at Bear Lake, but she wasn't hurt at all, thank goodness. She can go up and down, but she doesn't get that she can't just stop and stand up, or try to sit back while on her way down. But what's a vacation without some sickness and stress, right? :) Overall, it was a great trip and we were so glad we got to see so many family and friends.

Nov. 23rd-27th

2011-12-02T20:03:00.001-08:00

Kenny's parents were kind enough to rent a house in Garden City, UT at Bear Lake. We are getting too big to go anywhere else, but with over 30 people in a house, it's still a little crowded :). We had a great time with everybody. There were lots of activities! Some are pictured below, others are not. We had a photographer come out and we got family pictures taken, with everyone except Kenny's youngest brother Mike, who's on a mission. Thanksgiving seemed to come and go all too quickly, sort of like any other meal. But we did have a great discussion that night and everyone went around and said something(s) they were thankful for. I sure am grateful for such wonderful families on both sides. We have so many many people who love and support us, and we love them too. Big families rock! We also did some Christmas celebrating: a white elephant game, presents from grandparents to grandkids, acted out the nativity scene, built gingerbread houses, etc. There was a huge movie theater room that the kids really enjoyed, a pool table, a hot tub, and lots of games and just visiting. They went sledding twice, I didn't go either time. But Kenny took Ty and Bryn the first day, and just Tyler the second time. They rented a snowmobile one day, and the boys had a lot of fun with that.

Sunday, we went to a sacrament meeting there at 9, packed and cleaned and were gone around 2 p.m. From there we headed down to Mt. Green, UT and stayed with Chris (Kenny's bro.) and Stacie. To be continued again...

Nov. 20-22nd

2011-12-02T18:06:00.001-08:00

Saturday night we ended up staying at Kyle and Keli (Kenny's sister) Clemons house in West Jordan. We went to church with them at 9:00, left after sacrament mtg., ate, and drove up to Idaho Falls, ID. We got to stay with Kim and Caleb and cute little Sam for 2 nights. It was so fun to spend time with them. On Monday we went to Rexburg for a couple hours and visited Andy and Shalee. They live in our old house, where we lived for all but a few months of our married life in Rexburg :). It was pretty weird to go back, but fun to reminisce. We walked around campus and saw how much it has changed! Holy cow!! I really wouldn't know how to get around now, I can't believe how much is different. The BYU-I Center is pretty dang cool. They were building it when we left. On Tuesday, on our way out, we went to Reed's Dairy to sample their superb ice cream. It also happened to be the only time I pulled out my camera...

All made from the cows right there...

This one was especially friendly and kept licking the kids, or Kim's hand.

These guys had a great time with their cousin, Sam. Tyler especially loves him!

Thanks for a great time, Baker bunch! :) I didn't take a pregnancy pic. with kim because she barely looks pregnant, and it's a little embarrassing to stand next to her, haha.

So then we drove up to Rockland, ID. That's Kenny's hometown where he was born and raised. The sign says Population 350, there is one flashing light, and one gas pump. It's a whole lot of nothin but farm lands for a long time when driving out there, but it sure is beautiful.

Oh yeah, and Madi's in a forward-facing car seat now. We switched her over the week we left. She's technically not 1 year old till Dec. 5th, but she's been over 20 pounds for many months so what the heck.

Tyler had a great time playing with Josh and Skyler. He and Josh are only 6 weeks apart in age, and they are the best of friends when they get together. Gotta love close cousins!

We stayed Tuesday night with Grandpa and Grandma Weston there, then packed up again and left for Bear Lake, UT on Wednesday. To be continued...

November 17-19th

2011-12-01T15:57:00.000-08:00

Thursday, Nov. 17th at 8 a.m. we headed to the airport. We picked up my friend Joslyn, who just lives down the street, who was kind enough to drive our van back to our house for us. Thanks to the 2 hour difference, we gained some day time and made it to SLC around 2 p.m. if I remember correctly. We got all our luggage and our awesome (ugly orange) dodge caravan that we were renting and drove down to Spring City, UT. There we stayed with my Grandpa Backus. The kids warmed right up to them and it was so fun to see him and Joyce again. I love staying there. Even Madi, who is afraid of everyone, let both of them hold her. She sat all through breakfast on Grandpa's lap and ate scrambled eggs off of his plate and everything :). It was so cute.

We left late morning to drive to Provo, where we stayed with my sister Camille and her husband Tyler. We also got to spend time with my brother Jeff, whom I hadn't seen since he got off his mission back in August. It was so great to be with them again. I can't believe I didn't get a picture with Jeff, I was really not good at picture taking this trip. But we had a great time. It took the kids (and us) several days to get adjusted to the time difference. They would wake up between 4:30 and 5:00 and just not be able to go back to sleep. But we eventually got 'em figured out. We took the time to stop by my Grandma Andersen's house and say hi to her. She is 91 years old! I hadn't seen my grandparents in years so it was great to be there. My Aunt Kathy also happened to be there with her at the same time, and so I'm glad we got to say hi to her, too.

Cami is due January 9th with her first, so it's fun to be pregnant together. Along with our other sister, Kim, due March 5th--2 days before me! And we're all having girls so you can bet we're excited. Too bad I'm like the same size as her and 2 months behind!!

Friday night I got to sneak off for a couple hours and go catch up with some of my best girl friends from high school, Polly Harrell and Kaylynn (Lunt) Snowball. It was SO good to see them again. We chatted over yummy cupcakes and hot chocolate from the Cocoa Bean Cafe. Kaylynn's having her first baby (also a girl) due Dec. 24th. (Yes it's awkward that I'm on my 4th and all my friends are having their first, or maybe their second. I'm the weirdo.)

Saturday afternoon, one of my most favorite people in the world, my cousin Charlotte Allsop, came with her husband Ben and two adorable boys Troy and Liam, to visit for a little bit. It was so good to see her again and catch up with them. We just love their family and wish we lived closer! Again, no pictures unfortunately. I just love going out there and seeing so many family and friends. It is good for the soul, I believe.

Thanks Cami and Tyler for hosting us. Can't wait to see you again!

We Are Alive!

2011-12-01T06:14:00.001-08:00

Well we are back from our 12 day trip out west. What a fun vacation that was! We are more than glad to be home though, and trying to get back into our regular routines (and readjusting to the 2 hour time change). Nothin like sleeping in your own bed! I will post about all of our many adventures while in Utah/Idaho. But first, I wanted to record on Wednesday, November 16th, Tyler got to play with his friend Jacob Reed! These two were best buds in Illinois, and he misses playing with him. It was cute to watch them--they had a great time together! It made it nice for me too, to have the kids occupied while I got stuff packed and ready to go for the next morning when we left.

Week Catch-Up

2011-11-12T19:01:00.000-08:00

Today, Sunday 11/13: Tyler gave his first talk in primary!! He did a great job :). The topic was how being reverent during the sacrament can help him to remember Jesus Christ. He did a trial run before church on Grandma Andersen, Uncle Tim, and Aunt Sarah, on google chat.
This morning I started the day off right by waking up early (as in like 6:15, which is early for a Sunday) to make a pumpkin pie. :) It was nice to just be baking and listening to beautiful music. My early-bird, Tyler, joined me after not too long. He's always the first child to wake up, and he colored pictures for me and kept me company. I gave him some extra pie dough dipped in cinnamon and sugar, just like my mom used to give me when she made pies. I love passing on simple traditions. We had choir practice again before church. I forgot to mention that Kenny and I are doing ward choir just through Christmas, because that's the best time to sing. But I feel like it's too big of a commitment for the kids to do year-round. But we do love it.

Saturday 11/12: It was a beautiful, sunny day. We figured it would probably be the last nice day we'll have this year, so we took advantage of it and headed down to Cleveland together. We stopped at the Westside Marketplace, which I guess is really well-known around here. Lots of delicious smelling and looking produce, along with meats, cheeses, and bakery items. Then we drove down to this little dock thing by the Cleveland Browns Stadium and walked around. Here's us in front of Lake Erie.

After a quick lunch we headed to the Rainforest (and indoor) part of the zoo. It was free for us since we've been to the zoo a couple times and more than covered our fee for the membership, so that's nice. The kids had a great time looking at all the variety of animals they have there.

Other things we got done this weekend that have been on my to-do list for a while: Clean the fridge inside and out, organize the kids closets--out with summer clothes or whatever they've grown out of, and clean the stovetop burners. Yuck. Also put new windshield wipers on the van, replaced our license plates with Ohio ones, and organized the garage so we now fit both cars in, so Kenny won't have to scrape ice in the mornings.

Friday 11/11: Happy Veteran's Day! I taught Joy school over here, and also had the kids on Wednesday. Kenny and I went on a date that night! :) The kids loved playing at the Palmers and we had a good time walking around Crocker Park, and eating at 5 Guys (our first time ever). Can you say heart attack?

Thursday 11/10: For the last month or so we've been going to this homeschool group (which is more just like a playgroup for us since we don't have any school-age children). But it's held at the Westlake Rec. Center and it's so much fun for the kids! They run around the gym and play with all the balls and toys for an hour, then we go swim in the pool for another hour or so and they have such a blast. My friend Loni from my ward told me about it and Tyler is really good friends with her son, William. They paly so well together. We bring lunches and eat there with them afterwards, then come home and the girls are ready for naps! :) It's a nice place to get a lot of energy out, and not at the expense of my house or me cleaning anything up!

Also that night was the "Warm up to Christmas" Relief Society Dinner. It was a delicious dinner, and for the program part, I sang a song with a group of girls called "What Shall We Give". It's a beautiful Christmas song and it's so fun to sing again!

Saturday 11/5: It was our ward temple day which means free babysitters there!! So we drove down to Columbus and dropped the kids off at the church next door with abajillion other children and one wonderful couple. We didn't get on the list for the endowment session since it filled up so fast, so we did sealings. We haven't done sealings since probably our first year of marriage, and it was wonderful. The sealer, Elder Tobler was amazing! He used to be the temple president here and he was just really good at stopping often and teaching. He talked about the specific words that they say, the meaning behind them, and his feelings. It was a really great experience.

Afterwards we went over to COSI which is this really awesome science place in Columbus. We plan to go back every time we have to go to the temple, as kind of a reward for the kids. Plus it's a really fun and educational place. Here we are below in the 3D big-screen showing of African Adventure. It was hilarious to watch Tyler with those 3D glasses on, he really thought it was cool.

In the kid-playing zone upstairs. Madi is pretty dang close to walking. She does great pushing things, stands by herself for quite a while and can lower herself down slowly. She's almost got the standing with no help, too. It won't be long my friends.

Okay so this is getting super duper long but here's one more picture. It was taken on November 1st in that forest place near our house. Fall is quickly turning into winter, but we sure have enjoyed this last month or two.

Halloween

2011-11-04T11:43:00.000-07:00

We finally got around to carving pumpkins on Saturday, October 29th. I learned something wonderful about pumpkin cleaning...it goes A LOT faster when they are COLD! It is SO much cleaner!! I am sure there are lots of people laughing that I didn't know that before. But seriously, it was the fastest pumpkin cleaning/carving we've ever had, and it was the most pumpkins we've ever had, so that's saying something.
Brynlee's pumpkin on the left with the "scary face" (that's what she requested). Mine is the polka-dotted pumpkin.

Kenny's is first up on the left, Madison's is the spider in the middle (we obviously decided for her) and Tyler chose circle eyes, triangle nose and rectangle mouth. So that's exactly what he got, and he was very pleased with it :)

Monday was Halloween (and Sarah's birthday!). We went to a fun dinner at the Bielozer's before trick-or treating. They are friends from the ward and in our neighborhood. There were several other neighbors there and everyone brought a big pot of soup. We had yummy bread bowls too and hot dogs for the kids. It was delicious! Then we came home to get ready for trick-or-treating. Tyler was a knight, Madi was an alligator (or crocodile...I have no idea) and Brynlee was a butterfly. Madi hated having the head piece on, so this was as good of a picture as we got haha. Her costume lasted like a whole 10 minutes, but that's okay. I should have waited till Kenny was home to take them. I took Ty and Bryn out to collect candy and Kenny stayed here with Mads to pass it out. The kids didn't last very long (thanks to the cold weather and thin costumes), so we were home after like 20 or 25 minutes haha. Then they warmed up and Kenny took Tyler out again for round 2. It was a fun Halloween, but the faster we get rid of all this candy, the better!

Sleepy Heads

2011-11-02T19:24:00.000-07:00

Brynlee is in a rough transition stage with a lot of things right now. For example, napping. When she does nap, she won't fall asleep until like 10 or 10:30. So I cut out her naps a few months ago and tried putting her to bed earlier, between 7 and 7:30, instead of 8:00. But now, if we've had a really busy day or she plays extra hard outside, she's exhausted. This is often what happens while I'm busy making dinner. She just lays down on the floor and is zonked out. This girl can sleep almost anywhere.
I couldn't help but be reminded of her daddy, who was (...is) the same way. I love this picture of him, asleep on the floor at about the same age. :) So sweet.

Halloween Party

2011-10-29T08:31:00.001-07:00

This week it was my turn to teach/host joy school. We have now moved to 2 days a week, Wed. and Fri. instead of just on Wednesdays. I know Ty will love that. Well on Friday we had a Halloween Party in place of regular "preschool", and invited all the other 3/4 year olds in the ward to join us. Including a few siblings that had to tag along with their moms, we ended up with 18 kids!! Thankfully I wasn't all on my own :). The other moms from the joy school (plus one more) stayed, and Kenny also had work off that day so he was home. And boy did we party!! There was coloring, crafts, apple bobbing, balloon games, a pinata, and of course FOOD. Kenny and I had so much fun staying up the night before and decorating the house--the kids thought it was so neat to wake up to that! I have never been a huge fan of Halloween, but maybe I should just decorate more because it's pretty fun :).

My mom made these darling skirts for Bryn and Madi. I got a few good shots of them, then realized my memory card was not in the camera! So I tried to get some more, but they were done...this is as good as it got :)

This is the view of our house standing at the front door.

Kenny had the great idea of stealing a table and chairs out of the nursery at church to use for our party. We had to rearrange our furniture, but it worked out so well!!

We even got some dry ice that morning for the kool-aid! :)

All the kids rushing to get the loot after the pinata broke.

Also last night we got to go on a date. We've been doing a babysitting group trade-off thing with 2 other couples in our ward. It works out so well. 3 Fridays a month (if it works out) so you babysit once and get 2 dates! We ate at a yummy, slightly overpriced Italian restaurant called Brio. It's just really nice to get out for 2 hours and talk and just be together.

I'm In Love

2011-10-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

These two have had more of a love/hate relationship lately. They seem to argue better than any other 2 kids in the world. But when there is love, there is SO much love!

I'm in love with the fall season, and really wish it would last longer.

Butternut Squash soup and pumpkin streusel muffins (those are from Costco). The best part for me, was when Tyler said "there's no vegetables in this soup!" hahaha. That's like all there is, it's just blended up nicely :)

I'm so enamored with my kids lately. I mean sure there's times or even days when I swear I'm going to send them away for a while. But seriously, I am crazy about them. I love when it's Brynlee's turn to pray and she asks for Tyler to be the one to help her say it, and he does such a beautiful job. And I love when Madi gets upset and Brynlee sings to her "I'll build you a rainbow..." and does the whole song, truly believing that will make her happier. They melt my heart and seeing those precious sibling moments each day makes me so grateful. I wouldn't trade that for any other job in the world.

I'm also loving that my house smells cozy and yummy from making this apple pie this evening. It was delicious!!

(Yes this picture was shot with a self-timer...from the ground. It was a gorgeous Sunday evening walk)

I'm in love with my growing little family and the incredibly joy I feel with and because of them.

Overall, I'm in love with my life.

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we headed out to Amherst, OH and went to a cute pick your own place. Right now they've obviously got apples and pumpkins. Unfortunately, not a single picture turned out of the kids and pumpkins, but that's okay :). The sun was super bright, and to get all 3 kids to look at the camera AND smile is in a word, impossible. Exhibit A: Below Tyler is sticking his tongue out in his cheek, Brynlee is pouting, and Madi is playing with the pumpkin haha.
They also had some animals and a hay maze, but our kids were too scared to go in it, and they made it so that it was too short for adults to fit in. Brynlee kept saying "I smell something!" haha, welcome to the smells of farm animals and hay, Bryn.

One of my most favorite pictures ever.

We had a hay ride pulled by this tractor out to the apple trees. Madi is checking out the feel of hay for the first time.

It's hard to tell, but Madi is devouring that apple :)

We weren't planning on canning any this year, so we just got the smallest bag--a 1/4 peck. Perfect for an apple pie this week :). We also bought the BEST apple fritters ever, and some apple cider from their little store. It was a fun morning. That night I went to a stake youth fall activity and Kenny stayed home with the kids. October is going by all too quickly!

Nature Center and Trunk or Treat

2011-10-22T19:35:00.000-07:00

Friday was another rainy day. But we decided to head out to the Rocky River Nature Center, which is only like 15 min. away. The kids had a lot of fun indoors. By the time we were done inside, it had stopped raining so we walked around outside for a little bit. One thing I know for sure, Ohio sure knows how to do fall. It is gorgeous everywhere we go. I will soak up every bit until winter comes.

That night was our ward trunk or treat/chili cook-off. Tyler really wants to be a knight for Halloween but we didn't have a costume yet so we just dug around in our costume bin and he decided on being a cowboy. Brynlee wanted to be a butterfly, and Madi used the dog costume that all 3 of our children have worn at Halloween :). I am not a huge fan of Halloween, but I sure do love seeing my kids dressed up cute and getting so excited about it.

They had a great time playing some of the games and getting candy. I even won (sort of...I guess they chose 3 winners?? I wasn't there when they announced it) the chili cook-off too, so that's fun. I just use the Lion House Chili recipe and we love it. It's sweet and spicy. Anyway it was a fun night and we all came home exhausted. Although not tired enough, it seems, because the girls took turns keeping me up all night. Bah!

Around Our House and TOFW

2011-10-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a few random shots of my kids last week...

This one they came up with on their own...laundry baskets + blankets=fun??

This one is obviously not in our house but this playground area is just down the street and it's so nice. We are really enjoying this cool, fall weather. I am obsessed with this picture of Madi, her little wrinkle-nose smile melts my heart. Below: It's a fun challenge to keep all 3 swings going...Ty should really figure it out on his own soon.

I like to fill up both sides of the sink with water and dish soap so they can "wash dishes" or just play in the water and get wet while I do some real cleaning. Yes, I still do have to clean up their watery mess, but at least it's contained while I do the rest of the house, right?

Tyler decided to share his cheetos with Madi during lunch one day. She LOVED them so much I couldn't take them away haha

Playing drums on the kitchen floor is a classic childhood experience, right?

This past weekend I got to go to Time Out for Women with some super awesome women from my ward. We had SUCH A BLAST!! oh my gosh it was the best weekend I've had in a while. It was so emotionally draining though! I haven't cried so much and laughed so hard for 2 days straight ever! Lots of great conversations and womanly bonding going on :). We had a fantastic time and I'm so glad I got to know them all better. It was in Cincinnati, OH so we drove about 4 hours to get there. We stayed at Shanna's parents house. Shanna's sister lives in Columbus, and also brought a group of girls with her so there was about a dozen women spread all over the floor and couches throughout the house. The presenters were fantastic, the spirit was so strong and I had some incredible experiences while I was there. It was really great to be able to go, and I felt rejuvenated and ready to come back home and be a better wife and mother.

L to R: Shanna Olmsted, Katie Kirkham, Laura Petterson, Natalie Palmer, Lisa Ybarra, and me.

I don't know if you can really tell from the picture but I got my hair colored and cut. I have never colored my hair before, so I was a little nervous, but I needed a change. I love it. My friend from my ward, Joslyn Pattee is my new hair dresser here :).

An Announcement and Catching Up

2011-10-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

First of all, the most exciting part....WE'RE HAVING ANOTHER GIRL!! I am so excited. I'm sure I would be just as excited if it were a boy, I really never care. I just love love seeing my little baby when I have my ultrasound. It was this morning, and Kenny and the kids came. It was seriously hilarious. Here's a few comments from the kids as they watched the screen:

Tyler: It looks like a dinosaur!
It looks like you're feeding a fish...

Brynlee: It's a creature monster!
(When she switched over to a 3D image, and the screen changed...) It's an orange baby!

She kept having to wait till I stopped laughing to continue because my stomach was obviously moving when I laughed, making the pictures go all funky. But the kids were cracking me up, seeing it from their perspective. Unfortunately, all the joy left the room (for Tyler) as soon as she said "you're having a little girl". Tyler's whole countenance changed and I really thought he was going to cry. I immediately turned to him and put my arm around him and he said, "Another girl?" Poor kid is not that excited. But I know he'll love her so much once she's here. But we are thrilled. Anyways, here's a little catch up on our weekend.

Saturday we completely spaced Tyler's soccer game, and I'm so mad about that. I don't know how we forgot, but we did. Kenny was working on his talk ALL day because he had worked late every day last week so he hadn't had a chance to work on it. Late like, anywhere between 8:30-10:00. But Stake Conference was that night and we had one of the young women come and watch Ty and Bryn. I brought Madi with us since she was still kind of fussy/sick. Kenny did an awesome job speaking in the adult session of Stake Conference. I was so nervous for him haha, but he really did great. It was on spiritual preparedness.
Sunday: Obviously another day of Stake Conference. Tyler got to go up and sing with all the other primary kids. I always get comments from his teachers/primary leaders how they always love to hear Tyler sing so loud and he knows the words. That night we went over to the Henrichsen's house for dinner. We brought over some pumpkin choc. chip cookies with cream cheese frosting. Brynlee has figured out that if you show up at just the right time, you don't have to help do anything but lick the beaters :).
The family had a big dog, a guinea pig, some fish, and a python. I'm not even kidding, we all held it. I was freaking out. Kenny has pictures on his phone. Tyler was way more brave than I was. He let them wrap it around his neck/shoulders. I wanted to die it was so gross and freaky. But we all lived haha.
Monday: we did some fun fall things. We went over to the Critchlow's since we haven't seen them since their litle Caleb was born. Then we met up with the Palmers at the park to let the kids play and collect leaves. The fall here is GORGEOUS!! OH my heck I never want to come inside because all the leaves are just so pretty. Scott is in between Ty and Bryn in age, and they also have a daughter a little younger than Madi.

Tyler did a little craft with all his leaves when we got home.

That night for FHE activity/treat we made some caramel apples. YUM!

Fall is seriously the best.

Grizzly Bear

2011-10-07T07:50:00.001-07:00

We often refer to Madi as our little grizzly bear. Or for short, grizz.
Similarities:
-Brown hair (or fur)
-round and pudgy
-waddles bum when crawling
-growls at people
-moves pretty quickly on thundering paws when she's after you

We love our Grizz. And I wish she was feeling better. Ty and Bryn are on the mend (minus a little cough that Ty's hangin on to) but Madi was the last to get it, and so is the last to let it go. She was up a lot last night, so this morning she lays around a lot. Mostly on me. But here she crawled over, found her bottle, and plopped onto the bean bag, letting that cute gut hang out.

But then because I gave her attention, she quickly dropped her bottle and came after me (on those thundering paws...)

And proceeded to climb on top of me and maul me like a grizzly bear. :)

See my own big gut pokin up into the picture? Maybe it's not just Madi after all haha.

All she wants is for me to hold her and love on her. And that's just fine with me.

Also on the list to do today:

Cut Tyler's hair

Get my own hair cut, and maybe even colored?!

Persuade Kenny to not work late for the only night this week--that might take a lot of effort

It's supposed to be date night...

Clean the yucky bathrooms

Take care of the bills that I've neglected on the counter for the last 4 days.

Happy Friday to you!

Takin' it Easy

2011-10-04T07:24:00.001-07:00

All 3 kids are sick. We don't go anywhere (except emergency trips to the store when we run out of medicine), and if you should happen to come over you'd find us all in our pajamas. Yeah, I decided to join them in that today. Normally this white board has our dinner menu for the week. Right now it just looks like this...

And this is about how general conference weekend went down...

These poor needy girlies just want to be held all the time. Although I still managed to honor the conference tradition of making scones on Sat. and cinnamon rolls on Sun. yum!
Being sick is the pits. And I'm just so grateful I've been healthy enough to take care of them. We all just take naps whenever we can, or when their poor little bodies just poop out because we don't sleep well at night. There's a constant chorus of coughing and crying (try and beat that alliteration!) day and night. I even have a notebook where I write down each child and what medicine I gave them at what time, because it's too much for me to remember on my own. Pathetic, huh. Normally I just get kind of angry when my kids are sick. I don't know why, I just hate seeing them like that when there's nothing I can do about it. So this time I've decided to be upset with the pediatrician. I took Brynlee in and she said it was just a virus. It very well may be, but I think she should have done a better job checking her, at least do a throat culture. Luckily, she has no idea I'm directing my anger at her. But today the sun is actually shining (it's been a while, you see) so my spirits are up today. So let's talk about happier times (like last week) since it's been a while since I've blogged.

First of all, BIG NEWS!!
Brynlee is potty-trained!!! Woo-hoo! She really caught on fast this time and it wasn't hardly a big deal after a few days. I'm so proud of her. 3rd time's a charm right? It was a couple Thursdays ago and we were shopping at Kohl's. She saw a pair of Dora panties and really wanted to get them. So I told her we could, but we'd have to start wearing them the next day, so she needed to use the big girl potty. She just said "okay". So we went for it and she's done great!! This picture was taken on the first day she's proudly showing off Dora and holding up her dum-dum pop after going in the potty. (I think that was after 3 or 4 accidents...but it was the first day.) I told her that when she went 3 days with no accidents she could get a new baby doll. When we got to the store, she decided on some ponies instead and that has been a nice little pick-me-up for her during these sick days.

Here's our sweet Madi, she loves to tinkle those ivories :). Seriously, she always crawls over to the piano and pounds out a little number--whatever those fingers can reach haha. She is so sweet, but has developed a serious attachment to me. As in, a lot of times not even daddy will do. But she is at that age. She also has decided that she won't fall asleep anywhere but in my arms. She used to just lay down in her crib and go to sleep with the other kids...no more of that my friends! She is demanding a little more attention, and I am inclined to give it to her since she won't be the baby for much longer. She walks along furniture and loves to play games.

Our big Ty man is doing great too. (Or was doing great...remember these are the happier days we're referring to.) He is loving preschool and soccer and being a great helper. Some days he feels like he looks especially cool with whatever outfit he chose, and requests I take a picture...

He usually sings himself to sleep, and they're always made-up songs that he creates on the spot. He keeps us laughing all the time with things he says. He likes to use the word "hypothesis". A while back I had made bread for the first time since moving here and he takes a bite and says "Thank you, Mom. This bread is delightful!"

Last night during family night he got to choose the opening song and he says in all seriousness, "I Pray to The Man". After several minutes of me laughing so hard I was crying, I finally composed myself enough to figure out that he meant "Praise to the Man" hahaha. I told Kenny we might need to have another lesson on prayer ;).

These pics are from a few weeks ago we went to another one of the metroparks they have here. This one had a lot of cool birds in different cages. Bald eagle, owls, vultures, etc. Then we went ona nice walk in the little forest part.

Just ignore that sign that says keep off the rock wall...my kids obviously do.

Well I hope you are all taking it easy this week, too.

A Few Thoughts

2011-09-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

1. Last night was the General Relief Society Broadcast. I LOVE this time of year with all the conferences we have. It's so inspiring and motivating. It was really nice to watch it from home, since this is the first year we've had BYU TV thanks to our Roku. Anyway, it seemed as though they kept hitting on things I've been thinking about lately. Especially Pres. Uchtdorf--he made me cry again. Yesterday as I was walking into the library with just Brynlee (by the way, she's my favorite child to run errands with) I had a thought hit me hard: What am I rushing to or for? Why am I hurrying from one day to the next, when it will never end? What am I waiting for, and as a result, what am I missing along the way? I find that I am always trying to rush things. I'm always trying to hurry my family along too. We have to hurry and get dressed so we can hurry and go to the store so we can hurry and get home, etc. Hurry and eat dinner so we can really quickly have a bath so we can rush through scriptures and hurry to bed! I feel like the days and weeks are going by so quickly, but it's partially my fault. And for what? Nothing, I realized. So I was really grateful for Pres. Uchtdorf's talk yesterday when he talked about not searching for the golden ticket, but enjoying the candy bar itself, or noticing the forget-me-nots along the way. It really helped me stop and think about the little things I miss out on during the day with my sweet kiddos. Their lives are so joyfully simple and care-free, I want to enable that and keep it that way for them while they're so young.

2. This body of mine...the one that I'm never satisfied with and always wishing it looked better, different, or whatever. I have been humbled lately to realize that chubby or not, my body is doing exactly what it was created to do. My body is a temple, but it is also an instrument of service. It's something I voluntarily give away every day to my family. I literally give of my physical self to my husband and children. It is mine to give, and I do it knowing full well that it makes my shape, size and weight fluctuate and change.
I don't really enjoy being pregnant. I have only met one woman in my life that says she did enjoy it, so I don't think I'm alone in that. But I have been reflecting on what an incredible thing it is. I am partnered with my husband and God himself in creating life. My body miraculously forms little, tiny bodies within me to house eternal spirits--God's children, and mine and Kenny's children. Then once they are born, my body automatically creates nourishment and sustenance for that child. It gives them everything they need to be healthy and strong, and sustain their life.
My arms give hugs and hold the ones I love. If I sit down, you can bet my lap will soon be filled. My shoulders are there for babies to sleep and cry on. My lips can give passionate expressions of love to Kenny, or tenderly kiss away bonked heads and skinned knees. My legs usually have a little one clinging to them while I'm making dinner or trying to get something done. They wrap their bodies around my legs when they want to be held, or use them to stand up and support themselves. My hands and brain do all the other work, mostly menial tasks, but still crucial nonetheless; washing dishes, scrubbing bathrooms, paying bills, washing and folding laundry, making food, etc. etc. My voice allows me to teach, discipline, sing and talk. The list can go on and on, but the point is, I've had my focus redirected, my perspective renewed.

The Week

2011-09-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

Monday: Took Madi into get her immunizations since her shot records finally got transferred. No fun, but she's a tough little gal. I really can't remember the rest of that day. I only know that happened because it's on my calendar.

Tuesday: My friend Natalie Palmer came over with her son Scott, who is Tyler's friend. She also has a little girl Sarah, but she and Madi obviously don't play yet :). That night was YW.

Wednesday: Tyler's first day of preschool!! I am doing joy school with 4 other moms in the ward. most of the kids are 3, so it's really not for him to learn anything new. It's really just for the social aspect of it, and they have a good focus on character building and values, not just abc's etc. We're doing it just on Wednesdays for the first 6 weeks, then we'll do Wed. and Fri. from 10-12. Day one was definitley a success. He of course loved getting a new backpack that he picked out (super heroes). Bryn just had to get a backpack too and wore it around all morning just like Ty. She kept asking where he was. It's fun to have girl time while Ty's gone. We went to the park and then made some snickerdoodles before going to pick him up. That night I was gone again for pres. mtg.

Thursday: Kenny's department (project controls) from work had a dinner at the house of one of his co-workers. It went alright, I suppose. Lots of breakable things in their house and Madi was being a stinker. She is definitley in the exploring stage where now that she's mobile she's everywhere and into everything, but she was cranky on top of it so I wasn't enjoying it that much. But it was good to meet some of the people he's with every day, including his boss. I like to have a visual image of people when he talks about them. Kenny got to go play basketball that night which is always fun for him, even when he comes home a little beat up :).

Friday: Kenny has every other friday off, it's called his flex day. It's pretty much on my top 5 favorite things of my life that we have a 3-day weekend every other week. Anyway, it also happened to be stake temple day. We haven't been since we came here, so we figured it was time for us to go. We drove the 120+ miles (2 hours) down to Columbus, OH. We got there at 2 p.m. It's one of those really small temples. The plan was for Kenny to do initiatory work first, then I was signed up for the endowment session at 4. Only problem is I didn't know that you had to call ahead to get on the list for intiatories too. It was full, so the kids played outside until it was my turn to go in. I hurried out afterwards so that Kenny could go in at 6:00 (he was able to sign up for that one luckily) since we were staying to watch our friend's baby while they went and did sealings at 6. So I stayed in the church that's right next to the temple (they share parking lots) with my kids and a 2 month old baby. Luckily they were only gone an hour. The kids were hungry, and had really had it by this point. Plus Brynlee had bad diarrhea and got a super bad rash on her bum so she was not very happy either. It was a REALLY looong day. We grabbed some drive-thru dinner and got home around 10 p.m. We'll never drag the kids out to do that again. We'll either take turns going every other month or try to find someone crazy enough to babysit for 7+ hours so we can go. I was feeling guilty this morning during church when the high councilor talked about how some people don't get to go to the temple at all, or only once during their lives and we have one so close (relatively speaking). I have never been this far away from a temple, but I was realizing that I should be counting my blessings.

Above: the temple, but not a very good pic. Below: playing outside while waiting and waiting and waiting. They had a bridge with a little stream underneath and obviously some fun rocks.

Saturday: same ol' stuff. Tyler had another soccer game and he had a great time. I stayed home with the girls cuz they were napping.

Sunday: We went to dinner tonight at the Bielozer's house, along with the Pattee's. We had a really fun time. They grilled ribs and it was SO yummy. Then we made s'mores over their fire pit and enjoyed getting to know them better. The weather was gorgeous and it was just a really nice evening.

Kenny's B-day

2011-09-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

This has been a pretty busy week! First of all, I want to say that I had no idea how much it rained here, and how little the sun shines. I think it's safe to say that Edward and the rest of the Cullen clan would be very happy here. The next twilight movie should be filmed here. Seriously it's kind of depressing, and winter's not even begun. But anyway. We've been trying to not let it keep us in too much, so I bought Ty and Bryn their own little umbrellas so they'll still go outside even as it rains off and on all day every day. They love those umbrellas.
There's a little forest area with a nice path through it in our neighborhood. Last week we went on a family walk and saw some deer in there. We weren't so lucky this time, but it is a fun place to explore. And no, it wasn't actually raining at this time, they just really like those umbrellas. Mostly I just love the way Brynlee says the word "umbrella". I think you can click on the collages to make them bigger. I thought it would save space by not putting up so many pictures.

Tuesday was Ty's first soccer practice, and Young Womens.
Wednesday Madi had her 9 month well check-up. She actually hasn't been in since she was 4 months old because we were in between states during her 6 month time and by the time I found a doctor, they said just hold off since she'll be coming in soon. I am sad I left the papers they gave me so I don't remember all the exact stats. But I do know that she is 26 pounds! No wonder my arms are falling off when I hold her. She's way off the charts for weight, but she's also between 90-100 % (I can't remember exactly) for height and head circ. so basically she's just a big girl. In the afternoon we went to one of the young women's volleyball games. That night I got to go to the Collis' house again to sit in on another missionary discussion. They are adopting a girl named Brandy, and she's one of my mia maids so it'll be very exciting if she joins the church. She's a real sweet girl, but such a rough background.

Thursday was Kenny's 28th Birthday!!! My friend Amy had her baby early that morning, so we kept her daughter Natalie for the day. We weren't able to run errands or get much ready, but we still celebrated that night. We went out to Cici's pizza for dinner. The plan was to pick up an ice cream cake from Cold Stone, but once Kenny saw how much they cost, he refused! I was so sad. I always make cakes because I love doing it, but we wanted to try an ice cream cake this year. But instead we went and picked up a Boston Cream Cake and some ice cream. We got him a remote control helicopter for his birthday haha. (He's really just a big kid.) But he and Tyler have a blast flying it together. We watched The Beaver that night after the kids went to bed. We thought it was supposed to be funny, but it was quite a depressing show... about depression. But anyway he's going to get a new suit and some brown shoes for his birthday also, we just need to go shopping. I don't dare pick out things like that for him, he's far too picky. :) I sure am grateful for Kenny and all he does for me and our family. We have gotten even closer over the last few months as I've been sick, and quite an emotional wreck. He helps me out so much and really steps up each week as I am gone a lot more for young womens stuff. He's an amazing father and works really hard. I love him so much.

Friday: Kenny came to the rescue again. He came home early from work so that I could go to a leadership training meeting. Sister Mary Cook from the Young Womens General Presidency came to speak to all the ward presidencies in our stake. Elder Ellis (I think??) from the seventy also came to speak and it was a really great experience. It went from 3-5:30. Then I went and grabbed some dinner, then went back for the fireside from 7-8:30. Sister Cook spoke again, this time to all the YW and their moms. Again, it was really neat to be there. She's an awesome lady, and I feel like I have a lot more clarity and direction with what I need to do. This is indeed a great work to be a part of. I got home a little after 9 and Kenny had taken care of everything again. The kids had a great time and were all fed and sleeping soundly when I got home. I told you, he's a rock star.

Today was Ty's first soccer game! Unfortunately, only 3 teammates showed up, and there were 6 on the other team. So they got creative and did some one-on-one games for a little while, then rotated one player from the other team come over and play on ours. The kids had fun and Tyler is starting to get more aggressive, like he's figuring out the game. It's fun to watch him improve. That place was a big mud bowl and all the kids got muddy. Brynlee, especially had fun playing during the game. Good thing another mom had given me the head's up and so I brought towels.

Labor Day and 9 months

2011-09-06T06:43:00.001-07:00

I was sad to have Kenny go back to work today. But it was a nice 4-day weekend with him home. On Monday it was chilly and cloudy so we thought it would be a good zoo day. I knew it would be a better experience since this time we brought Kenny (who can actually read those zoo maps!), and the camera, and we rode the tram up the big hill. :) I dressed up the girls in their cute animal print pants and they looked so cute. We had a great time, and probably could've even used jackets--it was chilly! I loved it so much I cracked open our windows at home and made chicken noodle soup for dinner. I'm so excited it's fall.

We brought a lunch and enjoyed eating by the lake with flamingos, swans, and ducks. We really tried to get a cute picture of the 3 kids, but this is as good as we got.

Madison turned 9 months old yesterday!! She is so much fun and even though she's still a really good baby, she has been showing more of a feisty personality lately. She crawls really quickly now all over the house and stands up to things really fast too. I was worried that because she's so heavy that it might slow her down developmentally, but it hasn't. She is really strong. If she sees the bathroom door open, she speed crawls over to it and heads straight for the bathtub. Taking a bath is her favorite thing to do, but Ty and Bryn get annoyed quickly with her excessive splashing. She jibber jabbers and spits her food and all those other things 9 month old babies do. She keeps us laughing all the time and we all still ooh and aah over her. She has beautiful eyes with long eyelashes and her brown hair is filling in nicely. You are guaranteed a laugh every time you wipe her bum when changing a diaper. She is pretty ticklish and thinks it's so funny to have her bum changed. She has discovered the greatness of big people food and would MUCH rather eat off of our plates then a jar of baby food. I don't blame her. We love our mads to pieces!

Train and stuff

2011-09-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

Hello again! It's been a little while. Things are going pretty well here. I think I'm pulling out of the worst part of pregnancy for me, so it's nice to be feeling mostly normal again. I'm sure my family is more than grateful also. I'm on some pill for hypothyroidism, which they've never told me I had before during pregnancy, so I find it odd. But whether it's the medicine or just me getting over the first trimester, I feel more and more like my old self each day, just with 10 extra fat pounds. But we won't go there, it really doesn't help with the whole depression thing.
So what have we been up to the last 2 weeks...?? I guess same ol' stuff. I took the kids to the zoo last week and that was fun. I figured out the free tram thing at the very end, so next trip will hopefully be much more successful, and I'll come home much less sore. For some reason they built their zoo on like the biggest hill Ohio has, and put the sharks and other cool animals at the very top, like 59 miles away. I was pushing a double stroller...anyway. Next time we'll know better, and we won't go on Senior Safari day ever again. Hundreds of oooold people in the way never helps a zoo experience.
We gave talks in church last week on emergency preparedness and I suppose it went well. Nobody boo'd us off the stand, so it's good to have that over with. The kids were less than pleasing, but that's most Sundays so what can I say.
I really can't remember what else we've been doing, but I do remember this weekend, plus a couple random pictures so I'll just get to that.

Brynlee is ALWAYS carrying around several toys/animals/things around that she finds around the house. Usually it's lots of small ones. But when she gets all her dolls and stuffed animals involved, she has to bust out the stroller. Then she pushes everything around with her, wherever she goes. It's hilarious. This particular morning she wanted to share in the joy of all her "stuff" with Madi. So after I finished feeding Mads her breakfast, Bryn piles up all her toys on her tray haha. Madi was very pleased.

Kenny had Friday off this last week and I love his days off. We went swimming for what I'm sure will be the last time this year. It hasn't been great swimming weather here lately, just like in the low 80's or high 70's so we haven't been going much. But all of the sudden it was in the 90's, so we went to the pool and recorded the kids and the progress they've made in swimming. Brynlee is really not that much better skill wise, but she still has no idea what to be afraid of so she just jumps in all the time and kicks her little feet till she gets to you, or till you pull her out of the water. You have to watch her carefully. But Tyler does awesome and I'm so proud of how far he's come. Kenny grilled us some hot dogs and corn on the cob for dinner and it was delish. I'd never grilled corn on the cob, but I loved it.

Saturday was great. Tyler has been praying to go on a train ride for a couple weeks now (I think he thinks prayers are more like wish lists...we're working on that.) But anyway we thought we'd make one of his little prayers come true so we went to the train station and only Kenny and I had to buy a ticket cuz kids under 6 are free! We rode the train into downtown Cleveland to see where daddy works and walk around a bit.

I'd say the train ride was great! They had fun watching out the window and looking at all the scary people that ride trains. Seriously I'll never do that by myself without fearing for my life. When we were standing by the tracks waiting for the train, a couple other trains would pass by and Brynlee was terrified! Thankfully Kenny was already holding her, because she was shaking and making the saddest face ever. It was a little loud and windy for her, but inside the train was fine.

This is daddy's cubicle he works in. He's part of a great big "cube farm" :).
And below is Tyler pretending to do "daddy's work". I remember going to see my dad's offices and I always thought it was so cool.

Below is the building he works in, called Tower City Center. It's a really nice building, with a big gallery mall and stuff. We ate lunch in the food court where he usually eats and just got a little taste of where he is every day.

Behind is some cool soldiers and sailors monument. Poor Madi is passed out in Kenny's arms. She was so so tired.

On the way back home we were sitting backwards...ty couldn't get over it haha.

We got home and I finished making my fancy chocolate cream cake (from the lion house cookbook--go make it!!) because I have been craving chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for days now! We also made some guacomole and mac and cheese for the kids, then went over to Deron and Kaitlyn Hook's house (friends from the ward) to watch the BYU game!! There were a few other families there and we ate yummy cafe rio pork salad and enjoyed a fantastic game! Go cougs!! And yes, we did bring the cake to share, although today I'm halfway regretting that decision, because I want some more! :) It was fun to get to know some other couples better, we really love this ward and the great people in it.

Daddy time-outs

2011-08-23T07:30:00.000-07:00

The other day while in the waiting room of my doctor's office, I was pretending to be involved with reading one of those lame magazines they have on the table. But I was really eavesdropping on the family across from me. (People-watching is probably one of my most favorite things to do.) The mom was with her little 2 year old boy for quite a while before the husband showed up. The little boy had been running up and down this hallway and playing around, having a good time. It's hard for 2 year olds to wait for doctors, you know. The mom was fine with it, and would watch him and occasionally call him back over by her to settle down a bit. No big deal. Then the dad showed up and within a couple minutes, the boy was off his lap, running up and down the hall again. The dad told him to come back and sit down. He didn't immediately obey him, probably because he had been doing it for a long time before dad showed up. So the dad declared a time-out and held him firmly on his lap. The mom was kindly trying to explain how she had been letting him do that and didn't think it was a big deal. The dad says, "well he should have at least listened to me". I wanted to laugh right out loud, but I was pretending not to notice anything. I just thought it was so ironic how sometimes that's exactly what happens in our family. I guess moms can't really demand perfection from their kids because first of all, it's unrealistic. Second of all, they would all probably spend the entire day in time-out. Nor do we have the energy and time to be constantly disciplining them. I always feel like dads should have an ample amount of patience for the kids when they come home, and sort of help relieve the mom. But it rarely turns out that way. I'm not putting Kenny down by any means, he is a fabulous father. I just have to laugh when dads think little kids should be perfectly obedient, submissive, and reverent at all times. Or maybe I'm wrong, and should expect perfection from kids. Let it be said that I do indeed put my kids in time-out, and they do have bad consequences for bad actions. I guess I just pick my battles, instead of trying to fight every single one. So is it just me and the lady at the doctor's office? Or does this scenario happen to anyone else??

Where is August going?

2011-08-20T16:11:00.000-07:00

I just saw that the last time I blogged was 10 days ago. What is happening to this month? The days just keep going by, and I'm glad about that. I am looking forward to feeling well and energetic again. But life hasn't slowed down too much, let's be honest. The past two weeks have been full. There's this Tae Kwon Do place nearby where Ty did the free trial class (actually we smuggled 2 free classes out of them because he hated the first one so much). Then he was in love with it and so we signed up for the great deal they have right now, 2 weeks worth of classes for $30. So they have classes for his age group Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, and Saturday, but we didn't go to that either week. Now we are trying to decide if he will stay in it or not. It's pretty expensive each month, and the times of classes are the worst! They're at 4:30 on T, Th or 6:00 p.m. on M, W. So I doubt it. But he loves it so much and he looks so stinkin cute in the little uniform. I hope we get to keep it. I think it would be a really good thing for him to do, just maybe not this year. We did sign him up for soccer though, which starts in Sep. and he's very excited about that.

I also had Young Womens on Tuesdays, which is fun. Last Saturday I went to the YM/YW Stake Activity. And this past Thursday I got to sit in on a missionary lesson with a family that's being re-activated, and they're adopting a Mia Maid so that's why I went. It was a neat experience, the first time I've been to one like that. Bummer that I missed out on my friend Amy's baby shower that night.

Playgroups are on Thursday mornings, and we had dinner at the O'Neil's house a couple Sundays ago. I just love Loni. Friday was a ward family game night. We made cupcakes and everything and had our games all planned out. But my head hurt so bad I couldn't hardly sit up, and the girls were ornery so we stayed home. Today we went swimming with the Critchlow's again. Kenny and Mark work together, Amy and I are good friends, and our kids play well together. They're also in our ward. I love having a pool. I still can't believe how cool it is here. It's pretty cold when you get out of the water, really not swimming weather but we keep going anyway.

But this past Wednesday was a big day!! WE GOT A TRAMPOLINE! (see above) It has been fabulous already. I think Tyler is the most excited about it, and I think it is the best thing for him anyway. We were debating between a playground/swing set thing or a trampoline, but a tramp is much easier to move. Plus I think it gets used more. So that's been a lot of fun for the kids (and therefore for me too :). ) Also on Wednesday, MADI STARTED CRAWLING!!! I absolutely love that I am home to witness all those first things. Kenny got to (sort of) witness it via cell phone, cuz I was talking to him when she did it haha. Hopefully this will help her lose a few rolls :).

My parents are in Prague right now picking up my brother Jeff from his mission. My dad already set him apart in the hotel (isn't it handy to be a member of the Stake Presidency in times like those?). They're just enjoying touring around and I think Jeff loves showing off the area and people he loves so much even more. We got to Skype with them today and it was so fun to see him! He can't believe how grown up my kids are, and he saw Madi for the first time. I do love technology :).

Friday I went to my first doctor's appointment. Kenny got off work early to come because he loves to see the ultrasounds. Which meant he brought all the kids in that little office with him. Which equals craziness. But Ty and Bryn liked seeing the little baby in there and everything looks great! Measuring exactly on with how far along I am, and good strong heartbeat. I didn't love my doctor, and am thinking about switching. It's just so foreign for such a young couple to have so many kids, and the usual response is that we must not know what we're doing. Her comments after Kenny and the kids left about her wanting to "help inform me about all the various forms of birth control and contraceptives, maybe even something permanent..." Yeah I know we're crazy. I can understand it from her eyes. She looks at my chart, I'm 24, and this is my 4th child. Surely I just don't know how to stop getting pregnant. If I had any guts I would have said something to her about how I'm not just ignorant, but we actually do love kids and want them in our home. It's hard for other people to understand, and I have a hard time dealing with their reactions/opinions.

After I had Madison, I kept getting the impression that another child would be joining our family soon. I would bring it up to Kenny often and say, maybe I feel that way because Madi is such a good baby, or because I'm not nursing her, or some other reason. But then I got pregnant, and yes it caught us off guard. But I have had some powerful confirmations that this is right. This is what is supposed to happen and this baby is meant to come to our family at this time. I am grateful that the Spirit has given me that reassurance, because it's not easy now, and it's certainly not going to be easy later. And what I probably struggle with even more than just handling the kids, is that I know what other people think, and I see how they judge me. I know that's silly, and other people's opinions should be my last concern. But it's something I struggle with every day.

Okay so I wasn't meaning to just write that all down. But things are going well here in the Weston household. I'll try to take more pictures for the next post and not ramble so much.

Car Wash

2011-08-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

Today was gorgeous. Who's ever heard of August having 70-75 degree weather? We're not complaining. We spent the morning eating french toast, dancing to music, going on a walk, and vacuuming (and scrubbing) out the atrocious van. Then we decided to give all the toy cars a wash. So I filled up some bowls and a bucket with water and dish soap--because you can never go wrong with water and bubbles. I think the kids ended up getting more wet than the cars. But it was a hit.

The morning completely did me in and I'm sorry to say that this afternoon has not been much fun at all. Darn pregnancy sucking out all my energy. But back to the happy parts of the day... :) Obviously the kids loved it. And I think those cars needed a little soaking too. Perhaps tomorrow we'll do the plastic animals?

Videos

2011-08-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

The one above was for our 5-year anniversary (I made it back in April) but I couldn't figure out how to put the music on. Kenny showed me yesterday so I was able to finish it. That, and we finally have our own computer back. The one below is of our pictures when I went to California with my sister, Steph and her 3 kids. Once again, I was waiting on having our computer, and figuring out music. Good thing Kenny knows more than me or all my projects would be halfway done.

Our 5 Lives

2011-08-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

This is our cute little house. I think it's about 1700 sq. ft. It's amazing how long it is taking us to get totally settled. I'm still working on getting things up on the walls, etc. Saturday was once again spent just "getting things done", other than the couple hours Kenny was gone helping a guy from work (and the ward) move. It pretty much takes up all our time. But we're getting there.

I just had to throw this picture in. Brynlee sharing her apple with Madi (who finished it off for her). Don't mind the bag of frozen veggies on the walker. I was trying to make dinner, and she is teething and especially ornery so the noisy, cold bag was fun for her to chew on.

Our sweet little Michelin baby. Madison is 8 months old now and as cute and rolly as can be. She just won't stop teething, it's ridiculous. She's got two more on the top coming in, which will make 8. She's about to crawl any day now. She pushes up real well onto her hands and knees, but only rocks or goes backwards so far. She rolls and scoots and squirms to get around, it's pretty cute. She has figured out to scream and/or growl really loud if her siblings are bugging her. If she's not noisy, it probably goes unnoticed.

Our beautiful Brynlee is always dressing up. This morning she was sporting her snow white dress, rain boots and a pirate hat. Right now she's in a skeleton costume. Every morning she says, "I wanna wear a princess", which is a dress. She loves to be a "pretty princess" and I'm pretty sure she's aware of how cute she is. I love hearing her talk in complete sentences. Although, unless you really pay attention you might not have any idea what she's saying. She loves to ride her little bike, carry around teeny tiny toys and stuffed animals all day long, and keeps us on our toes with her big attitude. She can also be an absolute angel, it just depends :).

Tyler is still very into animals and always spouting off facts about various animals throughout the day. He's very inquisitive and loves to learn. The picture below is of his shoe-tying "skills". He insists on doing it himself sometimes. Luckily only his church shoes have laces. The funniest part is how it stayed put the whole day. Somehow all is looping and knotting worked and it didn't come undone. I hear really good feedback about how reverent he is during primary, and that makes me glad. He has recently started taking Tae Kwon Do classes, and I think it's going to be a really good thing for him. We're still trying to find solutions to his flapping. I've been reading different books and what not, but I don't think it's anything that will go away anytime soon. And that's okay. He has the most thoughtful prayers, it's so sweet to hear him. He always thinks about other people.

Kenny and I are doing well also. I'm still feeling awful the majority of the day. I like night because at least I'm not aware of how I feel when I'm asleep. I got called as the 1st counselor in Young Womens yesterday. I think that's going to be a huge time commitment for not just me, but my family too. Kenny's going to have to fill in a lot for me at home, but he's very willing and able so it'll be fine. He just got called yesterday as the sunday school teacher for the 12 and 13 years olds. He's glad to be interacting again with the youth, as he misses that. His job is going well. Not his dream job by any means, but it does provide for our family and he always does a great job at whatever's asked of him.

Our June Surprise

2011-08-02T08:53:00.001-07:00

There's no sense messing around so I'm just going to drop this bomb.

I'm pregnant.

No, I'm not kidding. First we were shocked, then extremely scared and worried, and now we're very excited, but still kind of nervous. I'm 9 weeks along, and the due date is about March 7th. I have yet to find a doctor here, but I'll get on that in the next few weeks. So Madi and this next little one (which Tyler swears is a boy) will be barely 15 months apart, depending on what day this one comes. Madi was born on Dec. 5th, so we'll see.

It has definitley been that extra challenge over the last couple months. Moving is hard, with little kids and a baby it's even harder, and being sick and pregnant on top of that makes it my limit. But I will say that I haven't been nearly as sick this time as I have been with my previous pregnancies, and I know that is a blessing from the Lord. I have no doubt that I have been strengthened and sustained. Not only that, but Kenny has been amazing and I've grown to love and appreciate him even more.

So 4 kids in 5 years...ready or not here we go!

Family Cheer

2011-07-31T15:46:00.000-07:00

For our first family home evening in our new home a couple weeks ago, I gave the lesson. I read the story in this conference talk by Richard J. Maynes. He quotes a story about a little boy that likes to go roping with his dad. I had some rope that the kids held and unraveled to show the individual strands that make up a rope. We talked about their analogy of a rope being like a family. Then I introduced our new family cheer. So now, every night after family scriptures and prayers we chant 3 times,

"We are the Westons and we are strong!"

The kids absolutely LOVE this part of the evening and are pumping their fists and flexing their muscles like crazy. We talked about how we are not just strong in our muscles, but we want to be strong in faith, strong in our love for each other, strong in our unity, testimonies, etc. That little phrase means a lot to our little family. Sometimes I hear the kids saying it randomly during the day.

My major at BYU-Idaho was University Studies. That's obviously nothing to brag about, and not very interesting at all for conversation-making, but I loved it. I had to pick 2 minors, and I did Home and Family Living and Marriage and Family Studies. So basically I went to school to be a mom, because that's all I've ever wanted to do anyway. But anyway, we talked a lot during these family classes about how family traditions can be so important because it gives the children a tightly-knit system that they're apart of. It helps create consistency and they have a life where they know what to expect at certain times. Not just Christmas traditions, but even nightly traditions like reading books together and singing a song before bed, or whatever it is. It provides that stable environment that gives them security.

I just wanted to share a little idea that's been a lot of fun for all of us, not just the kids. Ours is very simple, but it's ours, and that's what matters.

Photo catch-up

2011-07-27T13:51:00.000-07:00

We are alive and doing well. We just got the internet this morning, so I'm going to try and quickly catch up. I just put a bunch of pictures in a previous post, in case anyone's interested (mom). Here's a bunch more random pictures...

They have these really cool parks here, I think it's called the Cleveland Metroparks and there's lots of them all over. We found one, without realizing at the time what it was. People were fishing and just out enjoying nature. We only enjoyed it for so long, then the mosquitoes drove us away. But it was really pretty, and we're excited to go back. Beautiful wooded areas with animals and lots for kids to explore.

See the frog below? It jumped ("into the pool where it was nice and cool") right after I took this.

Enjoying a fun ride on daddy's shoulder.

This was during our hotel stay. Brynlee managed to give herself a huge goose egg, but I thought it was cute how she tried to smile when she realized I was taking a picture of it.

Also in the hotel. These silly kiddos stole mine and Kenny's glasses. It made us laugh so hard! What is it about kids and big glasses that looks so funny?!

This is here in our new home. Yes, we are moved in now. The kids emptied all the toys out of the toy chests and climbed in for a good hiding spot. They love to hide from daddy when he gets home from work and he has to come find them. I remember doing the same thing with my siblings when I was a little girl.

And some cute bath pictures of the chubbiest baby known to man. Holy cow this girl is heavy. But if she weren't the cutest, sweetest baby in the world I'd worry about her. :)

She loves her reflection. I love this picture.

That about does it. I'll put up pictures of our house when we finish getting unpacked and settled. Our lives are returning back to normal now, and it feels good. I was telling my mom how I think living with other people and in a hotel was so hard on me because it was like I was unemployed for so long. I am a homemaker, and I had no home to make. But my life of juggling little kids with laundry, cooking, and cleaning is quickly returning and although most days I'm sure I fail miserably, I am happy.We are very grateful to be all living under the same roof, and in our own home. It's a cute little 3 bed, 2 bath ranch house in a darling neighborhood. There are lots of young families, and my favorite feature: a neighborhood pool. That's where we go to escape from the boxes and what not.We've got new library cards, we're making friends, and we're settling right into our new lives here. If only the boxes would disappear faster...

Ten on Tuesday

2011-07-12T10:54:00.001-07:00

1. I am really bummed that I cannot put pictures on for now. Not only are they more boring to read, but it's going to take me a while to catch up when adding them later, before printing it off. Maybe I should just go buy a cord for my camera and this lap top, instead of waiting to be able to stick my whole memory card in on our desk top.

2. The movers are in Katy, TX at our storage unit loading up a big truck with our stuff at this very moment!! I CANNOT WAIT TILL IT GETS HERE!! Oh my goodness to have our own things again is going to be wonderful.

3. Last night we went and finalized our decision for the house we've been looking at. We will move in on Saturday, even though our stuff's not coming until Monday or Tuesday. Looks like we'll be asking around for some spare blankets from ward members until then. But we don't want to stay more days in this hotel than we have to. Ugh.

4. Speaking of ward members...we totally fell in love with the ward on Sunday. It was our first time attending and everyone was so very welcoming and kind. There are lots of young families which we are SO excited about, including a few in our neighborhood. Hooray for not being 20-25 mintues away from everyone like we were in Illinois. There are a handful of guys that work with Kenny that are also members of our church, and they're all in our ward! How cool is that!? We can't wait to dive in and really get to know everyone.

5. The longer we are in this hotel with TV, the more I am convinced that we will never get TV!! We haven't had it the entire time we've been married. At first it was just a luxury we really couldn't afford, but even after graduation, we had no desire for it. What a big fat waste of time! Instead of watching a couple favorite shows a week on hulu/netflix, the kids are constantly wanting to turn it on. Tyler, especially, has developed an addiction. He also happens to be a big sucker for advertisements and has a big long list of toys and other things he wants (and needs!!). It's actually kind of funny. He'll say "Mom did you see that! Those bags make your food healthy and fresh just like a fridge! We have GOT to get those at the store, okay?!

6. I am grateful for parks, especially when there's other kids there for mine to play with. That's where we go every morning for a couple hours. Okay so Brynlee doesn't want to get out of the swing the entire time, but Tyler says "I'm going to go make some friends" and then goes and plays with people. Although it's pretty obvious he's been very sheltered and doesn't understand how some kids work. He doesn't realize how mean some kids can be. There's a daycare, or some kind of program for kids whose parents work all day, and they're usually at the park too. This morning Ty was playing soccer with a few of the other boys, and 2 of them started fighting. Like, real kicking and hitting. I told them to stop (they weren't being very well supervised by the staff whose job it should have been to stop them). Tyler said, don't worry mom, they're just practicing their karate moves, and he starts doing a few of his own off to the side of them. hahaha. He's such a sweet boy. But we had chat about kids and fighting, and what he should do if he has a run-in with a bully at school. I was worried that he seemed kind of excited, and almost hopeful that a bully will attack him at school. He had a smile on his face as he explained how he will dodge his punches and go under, and fake him out, etc. Apparently he watches Kung Fu Panda and The Furious Five too much.

7. Madison has been teething for a while, and now has 5 teeth. I knew she had been cutting her top 2 teeth, but a couple days ago I noticed a third one coming in on the bottom. Poor girl. Teething for babies is the pits, although she seems to handle it much better than my other two did.

8. The hallway outside our door smells like some animal died and is decomposing in the heat. I nearly lost my breakfast.

9. At home I would vacuum my floors every day, or every other day at the most. Here I have to wait till Wednesday when they come and clean. Our floors are disgusting, and I'm sure Madi's going to get some awful disease by the time we leave here.

10. Okay, no more complaining about this hotel. It's only 2 weeks. I can do anything for that long, right? Right??

Swimming

2011-07-10T18:52:00.000-07:00

I need to write about this evening before I forget. It's not a night I ever want to forget. A couple days before we left Houston, we went to the pool for an evening swim. We had already been earlier that day and tried to get Tyler to swim without his floaties again to practice, but he wouldn't. He was very resistent to the idea and so I let it go. Later that night we went back with Kenny and my parents. Kenny got Brynlee to take her floaties off and practice swimming without them. That's not even a big deal for Bryn in the fear department; I don't think she even understands what she should be afraid of, if that makes sense. She looked so cute! She stays just barely under water the whole time, and keeps her little eyes open under water (without goggles unfortunately), and just kicks her feet as fast as she can. That girl is fearless, and so adorable.

Tyler watches her swim back and forth from Kenny to the wall, and can't take it anymore. He made up his mind that he was going to swim, and Bryn--his younger sister--wasn't going to out perform him. So off came the floaties and he just went at it. HE WAS AMAZING! He was swimming, like full on swimming! He had a good stroke, and was kicking hard and could move pretty fast! I was just so so proud of him! I was like bursting at the seams, and it just kept getting better. His confidence grew as he realized what he could do. He kept swimming farther and farther. Then he decided he could go off the diving board. So my dad got in the water with him and he would jump off and swim right to my dad. Eventually my dad got out and he would swim all the way to the wall to get out. Then he did tricks off the diving board. Then he learned how to come up for breaths, and keep swimming again.

It was such an incredible feeling watching him get so much confidence and joy as he just quickly progressed from one thing to the next. Tyler is a very cautious boy, by nature, and has always been scared of lots of different things. So for him to go and do those things, to really conquer those fears was just so fun to watch. I love being a parent. Being a mom is the best job in the world.

Cleveland thus far

2011-07-08T04:07:00.000-07:00

Well we gone and done it. We moved to Cleveland, Ohio. We left my parents' house on Thursday, June 30th in the morning. We were glad that we were in no rush, and took our time getting there. We stopped in Jennings, LA and got to hold and pet some baby alligators (or were they crocodiles?) and that was pretty exciting for the kids, especially Ty.

That night we stayed in Jackson, MS. We ate at Cracker Barrell that night and because we were feeling so southernly-influenced I ordered chicken and dumplins with cornbread, and Kenny got some beef brisket and fried okra. :) I really love the South. Everybody drinks iced tea and eats fried chicken, and everybody has deep southern accents.

Day 2 of our trip we stopped at some Dinosaur World place in Kentucky. It cost too much money and would have taken way too much time, so we just let the kids explore the gift shop and pick out a small toy. They were happy with that becuase they didn't know what they were missing out on. We stayed that night in La Grange, KY, just past Louisville.

Saturday, we made it to our hotel here in North Olmsted, Ohio. We dropped our stuff off, grabbed our swim suits and went over to the Buckovich's house. Our good friends from Illinois, the Reeds, were here visiting her parents for the weekend and it was so fun to see them again. We met another family there, and we'll actually be in there ward now, so I think it was such a blessing we were able to go that day. We had a great time eating, swimming, and visiting. It's so nice to come here and not be totally lonely. We went with the Reeds to church on Sunday and ran into our old friends from our 3 month stint in Richmond, TX, the Thompsons. Debbie was my visiting teacher and I had Brynlee during that time so she was so sweet and brought meals, etc. They are in the same ward and it was fun to see them after over 2 years.

Monday, July 4th: Went to the Thompson's home for a big breakfast. On our way back home we caught the end of the little parade (mostly made up of local kids riding their decorated bicycles...I loved doing that when I was little). Then we saw there was a big to-do going on at the park, so we went and had a wonderful time eating free food and playing on all the free stuff. Really missing our families this day. Wishing so bad I was in Provo for both of my family reunions going on, but maybe next year. Kenny replaced the brakes on our poor van while the kids napped. We had a fun pizza picnic outside the hotel on a little patch of grass. Tyler and I went on a little mommy-son date to watch the fireworks in Strongsville that night while Kenny put the tired girls to bed. By the way we all wore matching shirts and I loved it :).

We've just been doing A LOT of house hunting while we've been here, and even before we came too. We put a deposit down on a house that I think we will love, even though we will probably still be kind of cramped. It's in a great family neighborhood in North Ridgeville. We'll go back on Monday after it's been cleaned and look at it again before we sign the contract for a year lease. We've been to the beach (Lake Erie) twice and had so much fun both times. Wonderful playground, beautiful area.

I seriously underestimated Ohio. We love it here so far, even if we are staying in a nasty 2 room hotel. We spent the day yesterday in Kirtland, Ohio and that was neat too. I'm pretty sure we ruined the entire tours for everyone else with our tired/noisy kids. Hopefully they were still able to feel the spirit, because I sure wasn't able to concentrate.

Speaking of our kids though, I have to say that they are being such troopers. I feel so bad that they've just been yanked from one house/hotel to another, dragged across the country several times and lived out of suitcases for the past 3 months. They are the best. We're trying to make everything a very positive experience, but I am dying to give them some consistency and stability. We can't get into the house until the 15th, but who knows how long it will be till they get all our stuff up here. I am praying it will be very soon.

The Week

2011-06-27T04:40:00.001-07:00

So at the beginning of the week I got to spend a lot of time with Cami. She and Tyler came and stayed over night on Sun. and Mon. It's always so much fun to have her around. We even went and played tennis Monday night and that was the first time in probably 2 1/ years I've been able to play. I wish it could happen more often, but maybe someday.

We went swimming every day of course, because it's obviously far too hot to do anything else here. On Saturday Kenny came swimming with us for a bit and helped the kids practice swimming without floaties. We keep saying that Bryn will learn before Ty because she's fearless. They both swim very well and will do pretty much anything with floaties on. Ty's just scared to death to take them off. He keeps saying he needs to wait until he's 5 years old haha. Oh and it even rained a few times this week! Houston's in a major drought this year, so any rain is much appreciated.

On Thursday we took the kids bowling and that was lots of fun for them. Tyler is getting so big. He wanted to do it all by himself and he did. He'd walk up and grab the ramp, push it over to the lane where he wanted it, come back and heft a huge bowling ball using his whole body to carry it over to the ramp, then push it down with pride. He liked to help Bryn on her turn too.

Friday night my parents and siblings all went on a youth temple trip. Kenny and I drove down to the temple with our kids and met up with them there after they finished. We switched cars, they took our kids home, and we got to stay and do a session. We called on the way home, thinking they'd be putting them all to bed or have them in bed since it was 9:00 and they were all out swimming!! hahaha. Ty and Bryn loved jumping over grandma's head, and into the pool! :) I'm glad they were making fun memories with their grandparents since we'll be leaving this week, I say just soak up all the family and fun you want. But Kenny and I decided since we never get to go out anymore that we'd go catch a movie since we were already out. We saw Super 8 and it was a good show, considering I had no idea what to expect going into it. Mostly it was just fun to get out together for a night.

Saturday we took a family trip to Ikea again, but this time walked away with two new beds for Tyler and Brynlee. I'm so excited to get into our own house so they can use them. That night we went and watched my sister Sarah sing in a stake Show Choir. They put on quite the performance and it's always fun to watch her perform. Sarah rocks the house, she seriously is an amazing singer.

Sunday we got to substitute teach a primary class and it was so nice to actually do something again. We've both noticed how uncomfortable it is to not have a ward right now. We haven't been able to have a calling or pay tithing or anything since we left and it's very unsettling. Hopefully we'll find something very quickly once we get up to Cleveland.

Father's Day--June 19th

2011-06-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

This is a little taste of how our family pictures go:

Notice: Bryn squeezing her cheek and Madi grabbing my necklace

Notice: Bryn's had enough and decides to walk away

Notice: Ty's face, Bryn's hands, Madi with my necklace again

Notice: Ty's face, and it is finally brought to my attention that she keeps grabbing my necklace.

Notice: more funny faces and necklace issues

What is going on anyway?

BUT, we finally got one

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO THE WORLD'S BEST DAD!

I'm so glad you're the father of my children

P.S. We sure make cute kids ;)

Westons and Webbs--Vegas Pics

2011-06-20T06:22:00.000-07:00

The order of children's ages: Tyler 4, Eva 4 (they're like 6 weeks apart), Leighton 2 (will be 3 next month), Brynlee 2, Dean 9 months, Madison 6 months. What a party!!

Here's a few pictures from our 2 weeks there...

Having a water gun fight

Finger painting, and possibly ruining the porch cement

Eating at the buffet

Other fun non-photographed memories:

Steph and I working out every morning together at 6 a.m. GO GYMBOX!

Watching the kids get to know their cousins better and having so much fun

Playing at the park

Swimming

U Swirl frozen yogurt and yummy food places

Costco trip--all the shopping trips actually

Loading 6 kids into 6 carseats to go anywhere

Being so worn out at the end of every day and winding down with a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich and watching a documentary (America: The Story of Us) or So You Think You Can Dance

California--what were we thinking??

Having at least one child crying what seemed like all the time!

One meltdown after another tantrum after another fight...it never ends!

Doing preschool together since Ty and Eva use the same curriculum

I loved having someone to talk to all throughout the day. Steph is amazing and I'm so glad I got to spend that time with her and her beautiful kids. We dream of the day when we can all live closer and visit each other more regularly. As for now it's either we live together in the same house during the visit, or we don't see each other for like a year at a time. Feast or famine--it's annoying, but it is what it is.

Our California trip will have to wait (again) for yet another post because I'm having some computer issues.

Pictures from Hoover Dam--June 11

2011-06-20T05:36:00.000-07:00

Back from the dead

2011-06-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

I absolutely hate not blogging for a long time because I have so much to catch up on and then I leave out all the details, which is usually the funnest part to remember. But here I am with several weeks behind me, and the catch up game begins...

Saturday, June 21
My parents' stake held their annual 5K and 1 mile family walk/run. My mom was so nice to take my kids on the family 1 mile walk so that Kenny and I could run the 5K. When Tyler woke up that morning, he was so excited and all geared up for his "race". He put on his lightning mcqueen underwear and shoes, certain that they would help him run extra fast. So instead of a nice 1 mile walk, my mom ended up chasing Tyler, while pushing the double stroller with Bryn and Madi in it haha. He was determined to win, it was so cute. The 5K went well also. I really didn't know how I'd do, I haven't raced that since like highschool, so I just said my goal was to get under 26 minutes. I finished at 25:26, and ended up getting 1st place for women 20-29 (which there were obviously not very many of if I won 1st place with that time). Kenny finished a little bit behind me, but had a sore ankle from rolling it the other nigh at basketball. But anyway we all had a great time. Certainly not like the times I used to get in highschool, but I was happy, and it felt good to be in a race again.

During the weeks we didn't do much. Just a lot of playing, really. Continued preschool with Tyler, he has mastered the Wii, esepcially sword fighting and wants to ask Santa for one for Christmas :). There's a little boy next door named Walker, and he and Tyler are really cute friends. We also jumped into doing playgroups with the young moms in this ward, and of course loved going to the park and swimming often.

The next weekend, Saturday June 28th, we made a last minute decision to go visit my sister, Steph in Las Vegas. Her husband, Andrew, just deployed to Iraq and we figured since I didn't have anything here that I needed to stay for, why not go out and visit her. We made the decision, packed up the car, and were on the road within a few hours. Sometimes we are just a little bit nuts, and this was one of those times. Kenny quickly got on the computer and bought a ticket to fly back, after driving us out there. But once we got on the road, a couple hours into our trip, he realized that he bought the ticket from houston to vegas, isntead of from vegas to houston!! So Steph helped us fix it since we were computer-less and he got the last seat on the only flight left the next day. But it was going to be short on time. We didn't have a choice though, so we were bookin it! Thank goodness LV has a 2 hour time change btwn. here and there. We had some close calls and miracles on the way down. Like when we ran out of gas on the exit ramp and literally coasted up to the gas station pump. And when a bird hit the windshield in the middle of the night while going about 85+ mph and cracked it really bad, but it was on the side by the bar. Had it been a foot over towards the middle, it would have totally gone through the window and hit me. But after that 22 hour road trip straight through the night we only had one speeding ticket, and zero accidents. We went straight to the airport and without even seeing Steph or her kids, Kenny had 55 minutes to catch his plane back home. Phew!!

I stayed there for 2 weeks and it was, in a word, INSANE. Seriously, 6 kids ages 4 and under is a lot of work for two single moms haha. I will do a separate post about those two weeks later. But we did a whole lot, including going to California for 2 days to play on the beach. We were very brave (and probably stupid) but we made some great memories and isn't that what it's all about.

Oh and I forgot to mention how a couple days after I had posted on here that we were moving to Cleveland, Kenny's company told us to hold off again, because it was no longer certain. We had been getting yanked around so so much before, and I waited several days after hearing the news to post it on here because things change all the time with this company. But I thought it was for sure, and then it wasn't again and we continued to wait. We got our hopes up again for going to Idaho Falls and were so looking forward to that. But after a couple more weeks we were finally told that Cleveland was for sure again, and now we're starting once more to look for somewhere to live. So that all happened while I was away, which was a nice distraction to be at Steph's while we waited to hear the news. But anyway, we're getting very excited to start our lives there, and we'll be going up there July 1st (at least that's the plan for now).

On Thursday, June 9th, Kenny flew back to vegas and got in around midnight. He stayed the next day and we had a good time. Friday night we all took the kids to a buffet at one of the big hotel casinos and it was yummy. We were joking about how we looked like polygamists with Kenny, me and steph, and our 6 kids hahaha. Then we went home, put the kids to bed, a babysitter came over and we went to a Cirque de Soleil show!!! It was absolutely amazing!!! I have never been to a show like that and I totally loved every second of it. The next morning we packed up the car and headed home. We stopped at Hoover Dam on the way out and that was neat to see.

The ironic thing was the day after we left for Vegas, my sister Camille and her husband Tyler arrived here in Houston! I missed them by one day. And I missed my sister Kim, by one day the other way, since she had just barely left Steph's house. Pretty poor planning on our part in both directions, but oh well. I have loved being near Cami since we've been back. It's so much fun to hang out with her again. So basically we just sleep in every morning, go swimming every day at least once, and do lots of shopping as well :). We're still getting things sorted out with moving, and it's coming up all too quickly and yet not soon enough at the same time.

Well I realize this post desperately needs photos but I will have to do that later. I promise it will be soon!

Sis. Beck Rocks

2011-05-22T07:17:00.001-07:00

Sister Beck has done it again. She inspires me so much and I just LOVE all of her talks. I just read this talk this morning that she gave at the BYU Women's Conference, and it really lifted me up this morning. I know what my divine purpose is, and I absolutely love being a wife and a mother. Sometimes I start to get distracted, or selfish, or listen to the rest of the world and their opinions. I start to care more about what others think, than what my Heavenly Father thinks. This talk helped me to remember, so powerfully, what this life--my life--is all about. Just wanted to share.

City Fishing

2011-05-21T12:43:00.000-07:00

One of the parks that's just a few miles away from this house has a nice little man-made lake with lots of fish, ducks, and turtles in it. Kenny bought Tyler his own little fishing pole last week and they've used it several times since then. Tyler really likes it, but still doesn't like to touch the fish. I don't either. I think the whole idea of fishing sounds great and all, and it's fun to be together, but I hate the way they look, feel, and taste. I don't like prying a hook out of an animal's mouth because I feel so cruel. (It was even worse when they caught a turtle and a duck by mistake...) But I don't let Tyler in on any of that. It's just good bonding time with his dad.

Reeling it in

Holding up the little guy

Madi is a good sport and loves to watch everything that goes on. And check out those rolls!!

Uncle Tim likes to come along too, and it's fun for everyone.

P.S. I caught the biggest fish

Announcement and lots more stuff

2011-05-13T11:50:00.000-07:00

ANNOUNCEMENT: We just found out a couple days ago that we are moving to Cleveland, Ohio!! I will admit that when I first heard, I cried. I was really set on being here at least through the summer, to spend time with all my sisters. I really miss them. But we should be there beginning to mid-June. (So much for that half-marathon in San Antonio, maybe we can find another one in Ohio.)We are really excited about this next adventure! Since we don't get a choice in where we live, we've decided to just love it all. It's a darn good thing they told us when they did or we would have signed some kind of contract for renting a house or apt. within a few days! So I'm very glad about that. We are getting relocated there, so they would have had movers come and take care of all our stuff which is ironic because WE already had to do ALL the work. It's nicely packed and sitting in a storage unit. Lame. I'm trying to see if Kenny can get the money they would have spent on that anyway from them so we can get something out of it. The tentative plan is that we'll be there for about 18 months before they try to get us out in the field, which means another project. Isn't life exciting?!

My mom had a birthday yesterday!! We had a theme: Celebrate 48! She was gone at the temple in the morning with my dad so it gave us a little time to get some things ready. She came home to 48 balloons in her bedroom...
48 chocolates on her bed

A $48 gift card to her favorite nail salon. Also a large card with 48 things we love about our mom (all of the kids except Jeff added to it). And we had her favorite strawberry cheesecake that night with what should have been 48 candles.

Happy birthday to my wonderful mother!

Last night we finally took the girls to the instacare and they both had fluid in their ears and are now on an antibiotic. Hopefully we'll see an improvement within the next 24 hours--I hate having sick kids. I don't seem to be getting any better, and might even be getting worse, so I'll probably do the same thing sometime soon.

Mothers Day and More

2011-05-13T11:23:00.000-07:00

All of these pictures are from last week. We've been loving the hot sun here, and the kids have had a blast doing all things related to water. Including jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath...

This one of Madi was when they were swimming at the neighbors across the street. They have a pool in their backyard but are living across the world for a while. My mom and Tim take care of the house, yard, mail, etc. so they let us swim whenever we want.

And of course the pools, of which there are an abundance here in Houston. The waterpark one opened up last weekend, and we had a grand ol time. Madi's first time swimming was definitley a success (even though I couldn't find her swimming suit anywhere--it's brand new too! she still has yet to wear it).

My brother Tim is a lifeguard so he was working while we swam. But during his break he helped Tyler learn to swim without floaties. He's no pro yet, but he's getting there.

Brynlee is a little water-baby and was in absolute heaven the whole time. It's always a fight to get her out of the pool when we have to leave. She would sleep in water if she could.

I was starting to not feel well, the night before and thought it was because of the hard run Kenny and I went on. But I was still supposed to do 8 miles that day (half-marathon training) and I didn't want to miss out totally. So that night I went and felt like it was a huge accomplishment to do 5. I walked one more and went home, thinking I should probably listen to my body. The next day, mother's day, I woke up sick. And so were my girls. So we all stayed home from church, and I barely made it out of my pajamas for the yummy dinner. My dad made a yummy breakfast that morning of omelets, bagels, and strawberries with nutella! Kenny had taken the kids to the store the night before and let them each pick out a necklace for me, and flowers :). It was so cute when they walked into my room, each wearing the one they picked out. So sweet. I sure feel like the luckiest mom to have 3 beautiful, wonderful children. I think they're just the greatest things in the world. I also feel so blessed to have such a fabulous mother. She is an incredible example to me and I love her so much. Being a mom is one hefty, eternal calling. But it continually brings me closer to the Savior and teaches me so much. I am so grateful that I am a mom, and that I'm surrounded by amazing women who teach me how to be better. Happy mother's day to all the lovely ladies out there.

Holy catch up

2011-05-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

Wow! I really need to catch up here.

Okay so Easter was Sunday, April 24th. It was a rainy day, and we did not take a single picture. Which is pretty much like a sin on easter, because that's THE day to take family pictures. Fortunately, we had some done the previous week by a professional, and this is what one looks like. I put up a lot more on facebook. But this was my favorite family one. Church was great, the kids looked cute, they ate too much candy, and we talked about the Savior and His resurrection. The Pearsons were kind enough to invite us over for easter dinner and it was SO delicious. Rochelle is a fabulous cook and they are great friends. The kids did a little easter egg hunt and we visited and then went home.

That week was absolutely crazy packing up and loading the U-Haul and getting everything ready to go. On Wednesday Lisa Bowerman took the kids for the day so I could get a lot done. On Thursday my 2 friends Kaylene and Lorren showed up (along with their husbands) and helped clean and rearrange the truck to fit more, and watched the kids while I took a trip to Goodwill, etc. They were all basically heaven-sent angels and I couldn't have gotten everything done without them. We really did think we could and would get it all done by ourselves, but I was humbled and taught a very good lesson...ACCEPT HELP! I was very grateful for them recognizing the fact that I wouldn't ask for it, so they just showed up or demanded to help and it turned out I really did need it all.

Friday, April 29th was our 5-year anniversary, which is pretty funny. Funny, because we obviously weren't able to celebrate at all.

We had been up till 2 a.m. the night before, loading the truck more, cleaning out the garage, and the house, etc. We got up early that morning and Lisa showed up again to help. Kenny only worked for a couple hours, then came home and we finished up everything. We flew my brother Tim up to help me drive down with the kids. Kenny drove the U-Haul and pulled his car on a trailer behind it. Tim rode with me & kids in the van and we took turns driving. We picked him up at the airport and were on our way. We stopped in Jackson, Mississippi that night in a hotel. We joked about how most people stay in a hotel for their anniversary, but they don't bring along their 16 year old brother, and their 3 children haha. The next day we finished the trip, between 7-8 hours each day so not too bad. It was extremely helpful to have Tim there.

When we got here, we took the U-haul straight to the storage unit. I dropped the kids off with my mom, said hi and bye. Tim had called some buddies and we had several people help us unload the truck so it got done pretty quickly. Again, we were so grateful for the help. People are just so kind. I hope we can serve and help others the way people have helped us.

Since being here we have just been trying to get a little settled and look for somewhere to live and figure life out. I still have dreams almost nightly about either packing and moving, or looking for houses/apartments. I will just wake up and not be able to go back to sleep for a long time. Can we say stress? So things are still up in the air, but we are so glad we can be here at my parent's house in the mean time while we figure it out. Sarah gave up her room so we have 2 bedrooms and a bathroom all to ourselves and we feel very spoiled. The kids love the trampoline, the swimming, and of course, all the extra love and attention from family. On Saturday, Kenny and I got to go to the temple together for a early morning date, sort of like a late anniversary date. It was a much-needed time and we really love the free babysitting :)

Well I still have a lot more pictures, and mother's day to catch up on but this is long enough so I'll try to do that later (and hopefully before another week passes).

Goodbye Edwardsville

2011-05-01T19:36:00.001-07:00

Well we made it here safely yesterday, but I want to first catch up on some stuff. Here's a few pictures from our last week in wonderful Edwardsville, Illinois.

Kenny with his young men
L to R: Craig Foust (leader), Cameron Foust, Brandon Ryan, Dominic Barnard, Kenny, Carson Foust, Chandler Reed. Austin Bogle was there, but left early. (Missing: the 3 McLean boys)
Tyler's last soccer game with his 2 friends from church: Ashlyn Porter and Liam McLean

Me with all my girl friends eating out at Grace Manor, 2 nights before we moved.

Standing L to R: Kirstin Lindsay, me, Karla Russell, Rochelle Pearson, Charlene Kraude, Ann McLean, Terra Reed, Melody Sever

Sitting L to R: Kaylene Foust, Heather Porter, Lisa Bowerman, Lorren Ryan

We will surely miss all the wonderful people we've known and loved there. We have such wonderful memories of that place and learned so much from so many people. We are grateful we got to be part of their lives for 2 years.

Deets

2011-04-23T20:17:00.000-07:00

A lot of people have asked me about our situation--Kenny's job/moving/etc. I realize I have not been very clear about the whole thing. So here's some details...

Kenny works for URS, and he got hired on in Houston, Texas. That is what we call our "home office". After moving to Houston and him working there for 3 months, we got transfered temporarily out here on a project. They were upgrading a huge refinery in Wood River, IL. Kenny is part of project controls, and mainly did scheduling, and cost stuff. We knew it would be temporary when we moved out here, they told us 18 months. Then as we were here, they said we would be leaving at the end of August. Then it got pushed back to September, then December. For a while I was really stressed that we would be moving the same month that I was having a baby. I wasn't thrilled about it, especially knowing how this company works sooo last minute. Anyway, then they extended us out to May 2011, and then finally pushed it back up to April. And now we are leaving. We have been waiting to hear the next project we could go on. There was one in Idaho Falls that was supposed to happen, and we both got our hearts set on it so much, thrilled at the thought of living by family again. But they postponed that for another year, and they currently don't have anywhere to place him. So on Friday, the 29th, we are headed back to Houston. We are going to stay with my parents for a couple weeks until we have a better idea of how long we will be there. We may quickly get sent out somewhere else, or stay in Houston for a while. We shall see. It is very unpredictable, and causes me a lot of stress. But we are very grateful to have a job, a great job at that.

I need to be clear, it's not the moving around that I mind. In fact I love moving. My whole growing up was spent moving around all over the world, so I think that's why I get a little restless when I'm somewhere for too long. I love the change, and the fresh start. Meeting new people, learning new things, seeing new places and gaining new experiences. It's really fun. It is always sad to say goodbye to friends, but the most important people are coming with me and living under my same roof, so that's all that matters. I just wish we had more of a head's up. SO that's what's going on.

Things from this past week: We are having some insane weather. It will be hailing in the morning, 80's in the afternoon (see pictures below) and then hailing/thunderstorms/massive winds/tornadoes again at night. The other night we went outside to watch the storm roll in, and saw all of our neighbors out doing the same. Seriously those were the greenest clouds I'd ever seen. It was amazing and daunting, and beautiful. Nature will never be in our control, and it's humbling to think about and watch it in action.

I took the kids to the zoo on Thursday. I was feeling very brave. We went first thing when it opened so that we could get in the children's part with a petting zoo, etc. for free, and ride the carousel for free. But it was still really cold, so it wasn't as much fun as it could've been. But we did have a good time. And it didn't cost a cent since I parked down the road and walked up. We got some lunch and tried to have a picnic at Forest Park, but the kids were shivering a lot so we finished our meals in the car and went home.

Friday night we went over to the Ryan's home. The young men in the ward were throwing a little good-bye party for Kenny. They are such cute boys, and Kenny has had such a blast working with them. He'll really miss that calling, and those boys.

This morning I got up early and went running outside. I haven't done that in a loooong time, and it felt so so good. It was warm enough, and sprinkling a little, and I loved it. A lot of times when I run, I don't always have the right attidue about it. I can't stop thinking about the weight I still need to lose, and how my body isn't what I'd like it to be, etc. But this morning I just felt so grateful that I have a healthy body that allows me to get out and run like that, and I just want to take care of it and show respect for that incredible blessing. I want to feel like that more often, it is a much more positive experience.

Kenny went and picked up the U-Haul today. I've been packing for a while and we loaded up a lot, including the couches (I'm so buff) and made some good progress. Moving is just a lot of work and there's no other way around it. Well this has turned into quite the novel so I'll be going to bed now.

Words of Joy

2011-04-20T17:24:00.000-07:00

Experience #1:

Last night I was helping Tyler get his shirt right side out so he could put his pajamas on. Out of the blue he says, "I love you cause you're the best Mom ever".

"Oh thanks Ty! I love you too! How come I'm the best mom?"

"Because you give me hugs, and make me good food... you just do all the right things!"

And off he ran to play some more.

A lot of people say that parenting is a thankless job, and usually I agree. But not with my sweet Tyler around. That was a "parent pay day" right there.

Experience #2:

First I need to preface this by saying that every single time I go out in public with the kids I get at least one comment from a stranger. It is getting annoying.

Wow! You sure got your hands full!

I can see they keep you busy!

Looks like you got a lot of little helpers!

And my personal favorite: Are they yours? You look too young to have kids, especially three! (My age is probably my my least favorite and most embarrassing topic ever. I would much rather they asked me how much I weigh, or some other personal info. but please, not my age.)

When you have one, or even two children, folks will comment on the baby itself or maybe even the cute quilt or something. But I have discovered that with three, they no longer see the kids themselves, just the situation, if that makes sense. They notice the number of people and level of busyness, not what color their eyes are or if they have on a cute outfit.

So today we were at super wal-mart and got stuck in a long line (they were all long lines). We had been waiting a while, and the kids were getting really impatient. Candy, magazines, and toys started coming off the shelves faster than I could put them back on. Madi was starting to scream (she has some good lungs when she chooses to use them), and I was anxious to get out of there. There was a lady behind us and she started talking to the little boy in her shopping cart (I assumed it was her grandson because she looked a little old to have a boy so young but I didn't dare ask) and saying, isn't that a cute baby? What do you think she's trying to say? It caught me off guard. She was so calm and sincere, not annoyed in the least at the scene before her. She started talking to Tyler about what a good helper he must be at home, and she could see that in him. Seriously this woman was heaven-sent. Then she says to me, "All of your children have such beautiful faces." I wanted to cry and hug her. She made my day.

It taught me a good lesson. I hope I can look at others better too, when I'm out in public. Really look at people, and see them for who they are, not the disruption they might be causing in the grocery store.

Highlights and Funnies

2011-04-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

My 3 little helpers making almond poppy seed bread with me

A few more highlights from this week: Thursday I had my LAST presidency meeting with these wonderful women. We had very little business, but brought a lunch at the park and had fun. It's been a lot of fun working with them and learning from them. That night, Kenny went out to eat (on the company!!) with everyone else in their division. The project is ending here in the next 2 months so they're tapering off the employees pretty quickly. Apparently it was a pretty nice restaurant, and they had a good time. Saturday morning I got to go listen to Stephanie Nielsen (nie nie) speak. Her parents are the mission presidents here for the St. Louis mission so that's why she came here. It was a really neat experience. She's just an amazing woman, and very inspirational. I cried a lot, as did everyone else. After she spoke, they opened it up for a Q and A and it was fun to get to know her better. To just hear her talk as she normally would, not reading from a paper. After 2 hours I left even though they were still going, but it was great. I went shopping at the mall that was right there to take care of some exchanges for kids clothes, and look for an outfit for myself. It is much easeir to shop alone, than with 3 little crazies. But I always miss them when I'm away!! That night we went over to the Borden's in our ward for dinner. I made dinner, and it was supposed to be something I dropped off to them. But he is a very persistent man and insisted that we stay and eat dinner with them. They're an older couple, with his mom living with them, so it was interesting. But fun to get to know them better. Funnies: Tyler made up the term "boom-kick". He got the game Yahtzee Jr. for his birthday, and we honestly play every single day, at least once, but usually between 3-5 times. He LOVES it. This week he came up with a boom-kick, which is when you get a yahtzee in one roll. Bryn's new favorite phrase is "I can't bewieve it mom". It's always over the most random things. For example she's chasing butterflies and when they get away she says, I can't bewieve it mom. Or she'll be wearing a dish towel on her head and come over to me in all seriousness..."I can't bewieve it mom". Kenny has had the opportunity twice now to feed Madi her cereal/baby food. He is always trying to come up with a different way of doing things. He wasn't liking how she spit out 3/4 of the food with each bite. So he fed her with a syringe medicine dropper thingy. I laughed so hard. Good thing I'm here or our kids would never learn how to eat properly from utensils! :)

***Will somebody tell me how to keep my paragraphs when I post?! This is so annoying.

There Was a Little Girl

2011-04-16T18:52:00.000-07:00

There was a little girl,

And she had a little curl

Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good

She was very, very good,

And when she was bad she was horrid.

(The beginning of a poem in our book "The Children's Book of Virtues" and couldn't pass up the opportunity to quote it with this cute picture)

There should be a name for this

2011-04-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

You know when you're engaged to be married, and you are really happy and everything is blissful and sweet. Then your wedding date starts to approach and as it gets closer and closer, you're still really happy but you start to just get really impatient? It starts to really bother you that you have to say goodnight and leave your significant other at all. You still love being engaged, but you know that your life is about to be like a thousand times better, and it just gets annoying that time won't speed up!! Or when you're in college and you're at the end of the semester and you've loved your classes the whole time, but you are just so anxious for them to end, just because they're about to...(that example's for you Cami and La) I'm in that phase right now, but with my house. We have loved this house and have been so grateful that we found it, and at such a great price. But it's certainly not perfect, and the closer we get to moving, the more impatient I am with it's problems. For example, spring time=the return of spiders and ants. Every time I see one I just think "2 more weeks!!" And it's like that for all the little things that I've just lived with, and would go on accepting, if it weren't for the fact that we're moving. I know (or at least really really hope) that the next house we live in will be that much better, so it's getting hard to wait it out.

Mon. and Tues.

2011-04-13T04:53:00.000-07:00

On Monday, Madison had her 4-month check up. This girl is a tank. She weighed 18 pounds 1/2 oz. (99th %) and was 26 1/2 inches long (97th %). Head was 16 3/4in. (90th %). I had started giving her cereal the past week because she was just hungry all the time, but I was afraid to over-feed her because she was already so big, but she was really fussy a lot because she was always hungry! Our doc said to start her on veggies, then fruits, once a day at lunch, then give her cereal for dinner as well. Madi was smiling and "talking" to her a lot. I told her that Madi liked her so much cuz she's giving me permission to feed her like she wants! haha. The ankle rolls and triple chin aren't going to be so cute when she's like 17, but for now it is so adorable! We can't get enough of our big girl. For FHE that night we went to the church and played basketball and soccer. I love playing one-on-one with Kenny. I love basketball so much, and I love him so much, so what could be better than combining the two?! Then we stopped for ice cream on the way home and it was just so fun to be together. Tyler is pretty obsessed with soccer right now, and I love it. He wants to play all the time (although by watching him in his games, you wouldn't suspect it! lol) Yesterday I took the kids to our playgroup we do once a month. It was our last time to go! They enjoyed playing with their friends on the playground, and decorating Easter bags for the Easter egg hunt. It was funny to watch Bryn discover the fact that there's stuff inside the Easter eggs--always an exciting moment. Ty also had another soccer game last night. It's like one hour of pure entertainment for all the parents on the sidelines. I love it. Kenny met us from work there, then we switched cars afterwards. He took the kids home and I went to recipe club, which was fun to eat and chat with other women. I left a little early and went shopping for Easter outfits/family pictures. Of course, I found something for everyone but me. That always happens. I hate shopping for myself, it never works. (Sorry this is all one paragraph. Blogger is being dumb and keeps ruining it.)

Weekend Fun

2011-04-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

On Friday night we went over to Jared and Terra Reed's house for a fun get together. There were several other families there (Pearsons, Lindsays, Porter kids, Ryans, and Davis'). We threw hot dogs on the grill, and some roasted them over the fire. The kids ran around and had a crazy-good time, while the adults enjoyed talking. My kind of night. The weather was perfect, too. Here's a cute shot of Tyler with one of his best buddies, Jacob. I looked around at everyone that night and felt a little sad. I'm really going to miss the wonderful friends we've made here. We love them all so much, and have felt so much love from them, too.

We've had some crazy thunderstorms during the nights and Friday and Sat. a.m. I took the kids on walks for the sole purpose of finding puddles to splash in. We have pretty crappy roads in this neighborhood, and no sidewalks, so it made it easy. Saturday I brought my camera, and I'm so glad I did. They had a blast. First there were only little puddles...

Then medium-sized puddles...

Then a very large puddle where Madi and I sat watching them for over 10 minutes in just this one place. They were completely soaked by the end, and they loved every bit of it.

I think I know why these are called galoshes. That's totally the sound they make when they're full of water. It was funny listening to the squishy galosh sound with each step they took on the way home. When they sat down to take them off, it was like in the cartoons when all the water comes pouring out of them haha.

Kenny got to go paintballing with some guys from work that afternoon. Although he came home with welts all over his back, he had the time of his life!

Time Flew

2011-04-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

2 years ago this month, we moved here to Illinois. This is a picture of Brynlee, about a month after we moved here.

2 years later, Madi is about her size (plus several pounds...)

And Tyler... he was Brynlee's size

Now look at them.

My how time flies.

As of late

2011-04-06T14:03:00.000-07:00

Things are going well around here in the Weston household. Last week Madison got her first two teeth! Naturally, she's been more fussy and cranky than her usual content self, but she has a dang good excuse. Poor babies and teething--no fun for anyone. But they have come up now and are nice and sharp. Conference was fantastic! Seriously one of my most favorite weekends of the year. I am most grateful that we can read and listen to them later though, because I don't get to pay attention nearly as well as I used to during the actual sessions.

I bought myself these tulips to cheer up the cold, cloudy days we were having last week. But the sun is out now, and it is beautiful. The blossoms on our tree are coming out, and we've been spending more and more time outdoors. All my windows are open and it feels SO good!! Oh this has been one long, awful winter. I guess that makes the spring all the sweeter huh?

I love Tyler and Brynlee, and I love the relationship that they have. They are the best of friends, and it makes me so happy. They do everything together, and get along the majority of the time.

(Above: watching bunnies in our yard. Below: sharing a gatorade with straws.)

I've decided that if I had to sum up my day to day life in one word, it would be tricky. It's not impossibly hard, or depressing, or overwhelming, just tricky. Everything I do involves 3 little ones, and that naturally makes things tricky. Keeping the house clean, yard work, preschool, packing, running errands, working out, keeping them all happy, etc. it's all just a little tricky. But I enjoy the challenge and trying to figure it out each day.

We will be gone in 24 days, and still don't know where we're headed...I'm dying here!!

Out with the old, in with the new-er

2011-04-02T07:47:00.000-07:00

When we were engaged we started shopping around for a car. We were definitely going to need one, as we were planning on going to install security systems for the summer (thank goodness we didn't end up doing that...). So one night we drove down to Pocatello to look at some cars at a dealership that Kenny's dad had recommended. Kenny had been talking to his dad about it because his dad buys and sells cars like some people go through underwear. So anyway we spent a little while looking around, and there was a salesman showing us around the lot and helping us look in our "price range". Those cars were pretty crappy, to be honest. We were so broke. After a while of this, we were both feeling kind of discouraged and wondering how we were going to get a car that would last us, or even get us where we needed to be. Then as we were about to leave he took us around to the front of the dealership and we were thanking him for his time. He gestured to this gorgeous white car, a '99 Pontiac Grand AM GT and said, "what would you think about this car?" We both laughed and said, oh yeah that would be great! Maybe in the next life! And he said, what if I told you it was yours? And it took us a minute to get that he was totally serious, and he hands Kenny the keys and told us what happened. Kenny's dad had already bought us the car and totally surprised us with it!!! What an incredible gift! We have never forgotten that and were always SO grateful. We were so elated as we drove it around that night, and couldn't believe what had just happened! That car has lasted us the last 5 years, and has been so great.

(These pictures were taken by the dealership for us--isn't that nice?)

Unfortunately, that car was wearing out on us. It was having all sorts of problems, and overheating like crazy. Kenny would have to fill it up with a lot of water before he left, and couldn't go for more than 25 minutes before it overheated again. The front bumper was also ripped off because of an accident back in December when Kenny slid off the icy road and into a field. It was totaled, basically. The cost to fix everything would be way more than what we could get for it, for sure. So Kenny had been looking around for a new car for a while. He found a great deal on ebay and bought that car. Last weekend we took him to the airport at like 4 a.m., he flew out to Phoenix, looked at it in real life and bought it! It only has 40,000 miles on it too! He drove it back home and got back Sunday evening. Yesterday, somebody came and looked at our old Pontiac, and bought it on the spot! I didn't even get a chance to take a picture of it before we said good-bye. So anyway, that's the story of our cars. Pictures of the new car coming soon!

Last Night

2011-03-30T06:27:00.000-07:00

I must have had a memory lapse last night. See, I have been feeling bad lately about lack of ambition for dinner-making. I love to cook and was in a real kick of trying new recipes for quite a while. But ever since Madi was born, I have been quite lame. So last night, (with my memory momentarily gone) I said, no more of this! And I decided to make spaghetti and meatballs. I've never made meatballs before, and this was sauce from scratch, not from a jar. Oh, and breadsticks, my favorite part. However, as soon as the dough was supposed to be done rising, I discover Madi's blow-out! (She's not usually a blow out type of girl, and I assume it's because of her antibiotic since it's a daily occurrence lately). So I obviously have to take a while to clean that up. Later, just as I get my hands good and covered in raw meat, eggs, cheese and seasonings, Brynlee yells "potty!" and runs to the bathroom. Only she couldn't quite get those darn panies off in time... So I wash my hands off, clean her up, and start a load of laundry with all the poop stuff from Madi, and the pee stuff from Bryn. Wash my hands again, and resume making meatballs. Then, as I'm trying to get the sauce made, I'm also bouncing Madi around on my hip and singing to her to try to get her to stop screaming. All of the sudden those jars of Ragu I passed at the grocery store were lookin pretty good. So anyway, distracting Madison meant that my mind wasn't really on the food. I halved the recipe, up until the seasonings, which got the full dose! That sauce did not lack flavor I'll tell you what! I then stopped again to feed Madi. The breadsticks burned/stuck to the pan like cement glue (only on the bottom though, the top 3/4 were really good). Not to mention, this whole time Tyler and Brynlee have completely trashed the house and emptied my cupboards to play hide and seek in there with glow sticks. To top it all off, Kenny didn't even get home until about 7:00, so he missed dinner. (Although he did have nothing but high praise for it when he got home, that made me feel a little better!) Now I remember why I don't do dinners like this very often. Thank goodness there's enough for left-overs tonight! :) I think they should do a reality tv show with moms cooking dinner for their families. All those fake reality tv shows they have with a time limit or whatever, that's nothin. The real challenge, is doing it in your own home, with a bunch of needy children! Also last night, our power went out. It was pretty random. Luckily, it was really good timing, and ended up being fun instead of scary. We had put the kids to bed already (except the baby of course), it was about 8:30 p.m. Glad we had cell phones to find the candles and light them. We had all sorts of scents going on--cinnamon vanilla, apple cinnamon, pumpkin spice, etc. it was weird, and romantic! :) We couldn't do anything else but sit there and talk to each other in our dimly-lit house. We put extra blankets on the kids in case it didn't come back on during the night and even went to bed early. We should make the power go out at night more often. No distractions. At 12:51 a.m. it came back on and I got up to turn off the lights that spontaneously came on. I am grateful we normally have power to wash clothes, dishes, computer, lights, etc. I always forget how very dependent I am on it.

Honesty is (usually) the best policy

2011-03-25T05:08:00.000-07:00

We love pizza around here. Ever since I got my new pizza stone a couple months ago, we've been having homemade pizza every Thursday night. I do one cheese pizza for the kids, and try something new for me and Kenny. Last night I did chicken alfredo. We also like veggie, hawaiian, supreme, BBQ chicken, and whatever we can throw together. But the whole cheese pizza thing for the kids week after week sounds not so healthy. But let me tell you my tricks... I use freshly ground whole wheat flour for the dough. Also, the sauce is made from sauteed spinach and crushed tomatoes. And they eat it! Well, mostly. I occassionally catch them pulling out a piece of spinach out of their mouths and saying "eww, yucky!" But I've convinced them that it's just the "sauce" so they keep going. Tyler is on to me though. He says, are these vegetables? And I have to lie through my teeth--no, it's just cheese pizza. I know, I'm so sneaky. But if you knew how little of vegetables this kid really eats, you'd be cheering on my deception tactics.

And just for fun, here's a picture of Brynlee perched precariously on the kichen sink, so she can reach the tap. She likes to repeatedly wash her hands and play with the dishes in the sink. I did get her a taller chair after snapping this picture to avoid an accident, but then she completely soaked herself and we had to change her clothes. So I don't know which way is better.

And look at my little Madi Lynn propping herself up on her elbows! She can halfway roll over haha. She gets her top half, she just can't swing her big legs over. I finally took her into the doctor on Wed. to see why her cold won't go away and she had an ear infection. So hopefully this antibiotic will get rid of it for good.

Wish List

2011-03-24T05:15:00.000-07:00

As we get closer every day to moving, I can't help but dream about our next home and some of the things I would like. We have definitely outgrown this little house and I have been making up a mental wish list--much to Kenny's dismay ;).

--At least 3 bedrooms, but while I'm dreaming big let's just say 4 or 5. I'd love to have a place for family to sleep besides an air mattress in the living room! I could really use a craft room to keep my sewing machine and other such things away from little fingers.
-A pantry!
-A fence around the backyard to keep the kids in, and creeps out. Plus, Kenny and the children really want a dog, and I will not cave until we have a fence so that dog can stay outside.
-Walk-in closet. Or at least a closet that's bigger than 4ft. x 2 ft. Seriously--our closets are teensy.
-2 bathrooms! Like a master bath, and then one for the kids to use.

I guess I'll wait and see what we can get. A girl can dream, right?

Bryn's Latest

2011-03-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

So Brynlee's latest acts of diva queen consist of her getting upset, running to her room and slamming the door shut!! WHERE does she learn these things? Seriously. I thought that came with a teenager--not a 2 year old.

She also likes to try to blame Tyler for everything. He was sitting on the counter helping me make bread, when Bryn comes over crying (because she fell down or something) and says, "Tywer hurt me". It ticked Tyler off (...NO I didn't Bryn! I'm sitting all the way over here!), so now she does it all the time. Anytime she gets hurt she tries to tell me Tyler did it. Sneaky little thang. She has proven quite the match for Ty and his teasing. She's quickly learned ways to dish it back.

It cracks me up how she tells me "good job Mom" for any little thing I do. I guess I say that phrase more than I realize, when she always says it back to me. WHen I put her shoes on, "good job Mom, good job" haha.

My favorite, is that every time she runs into a room she yells, "Surprise!" No matter how long it's been since you last made eye contact with her, it is a "surprise" every time :).

And on a totally different note, here's a cute picture of my baby girl. I am so obsessed with her cheeks and her smile. I try to eat her up all the time, just ask Kenny.

p.s. Why didn't I have one of these bouncy play things with my first two kids? This thing is a life-saver!! I love it, and so does she!

Way too much

2011-03-19T16:43:00.001-07:00

I have way too much to catch up on, and although I shouldn't, I'm going to do one looooong post. So here goes!

Last Saturday, March 12th I went to a fun fashion show/brunch thing that Lisa invited me and several other gals to. It was fun to get out for a few hours and look at cute clothes and jewelry. Later that afternoon my parents, my brother Tim, and my sister Sarah came up to our house!! It was their spring break so they took advantage of the break and came up here to go to Nauvoo. That night we went over to Lisa's (she's moving to Katy so she and my mom had fun getting to know each other and talked about houses/areas, etc.) we ate Papa Murphy's pizza and watched the BYU game!! Pretty dissapoing that time though.

Sunday morning my family left early, and took Tyler with them to Nauvoo! I stayed home with the girls from church because they both had fevers during the night and colds. This picture is from that evening when they were both still feeling miserable, and somewhat dramatic. Poor things. Kenny said that he is putting a request in for boys :)

Monday: Not much happened. I spent the entire day taking care of sickies, and cleaning, to get ready to show the house that night. Our landlord is trying to find a replacement renter for when we leave at the end of April so I had to get it looking presentable. Oh, and it was totally snowing all morning.

Tuesday: I missed my presidency meeting, and the kids missed their gymnastics, and we just were taking it easy because they were still not doing great. No fevers anymore, just still yucky colds. I hate when babies are sick. This is my sweet Madison zonked out on the couch. She is such a sweetheart. She loves to have her hands up by her face, and she's usually sucking on her thumb instead of the pacifier.

My family also got back Tuesday night. I really missed Tyler! I'm so pathetic, I hate being away from my kids. It was fun to see them again and spend time with them.

Wednesday: my family left at 6 a.m. and I really can't remember if anything happened that day. Kenny went to Young Mens that night as usual, that's about it I think.
Thursday: St. Patrick's Day! I normally hate this holiday and I don't understand why our whole nation celebrates it when we're not all Irish. I think it's pretty silly so I've never done anything for it. Even when I was little, if I did remember to wear green it was only to avoid being pinched by stupid kids. But this year I was eating my words as I was in charge of the playgroup we do once a month. I decided since it was on St. Patty's day I better put it around that. So we had a couple crafts for it and I made some rainbow jello. It really didn't go all that great becuase not many people showed up, and it was ridiculously windy so it was really hard for little kids to do crafts. We were all chasing a lot of papers around the park. But in the end, it was just fun to get out and play with other kids on the playground. I was just bummed that I wasted money and time on it, but that's okay.
It also got over 70 wonderful degrees that day so we really loved playing outside and opening all our windows. Brynlee's getting the hang of riding a tricycle, and it's pretty cute to watch her learn.

And we watched the BYU game online that night. Go Cougs!! My whole family is having a friendly competition with the brackets--I'm not doing too bad surprisingly enough!

Friday: I decided to be brave and take the kids out to Chesterfield, Missouri (an hour away) to the butterfly house. March is supposedly the best month to go and we had a fun time! It was really neat to see all the beautiful butterflies. I laughed a lot as my kids were dodging them like they were some deadly, frightening creatures. There were hundreds of butterflies and it was really cool.

They had a cool case of tons of Chrysalis' in all different stages. They get new shipments of butterflies in every day since they only live for a few weeks. It was pretty cool to see, and Tyler loved it!

After the butterfly house we decided to hit the fun mall that was right there by it. We shopped around and got lunch, and didn't go home until they were all exhausted. All in all it was a success, and I'm glad we went. I had to hurry home and clean again because we had to show the house again that night. And I got to make lots of crepes for the next morning. After the kids went to bed, Kenny and I watched the movie "Life as we know it" and I teared up several times. Cute show.

Saturday: Tyler had his first soccer game!!! It was really cold and windy, but I think it was an awesome first time. He's on the same team as 2 friends from church, Ashlynn Porter and Liam McLean. Ann McLean is their coach and so it's lots of fun to go there. We lost 3-2, but they don't really keep score anyway :). Ty's sad that he didn't score a goal, but we told him maybe next time. It's pretty cute to watch this swarm of kids chase a ball around. Only a few really know what to do, so it's hilarious. He feels so cool wearing shin guards and soccer shorts, he is really excited about the whole thing.

This is my favorite: his defensive stance. I'd definitely be intimidated if I was on the other team!

From there, Kenny dropped me off at the church for a Relief Society birthday brunch. It was lots of fun, and really well-done. (That's what the crepes were for.) It was all about purses, and the diff. bags we carry throughout our lives. Super cute, and fun to be there. The rest of the day has been Saturday stuff. Washing and vacuuming out cars, running, house cleaning, and now Kenny's at a Stake dance shakin his bootie. Just kidding, he saves all his best dance moves for me haha :)

It's been a long, good week. If only we could get our little girls healthy again, I'd be thrilled!

Quote

2011-03-13T18:44:00.001-07:00

'The true end of life is not mere existence. The true purpose of life is the perfection of humanity through individual effort, under the guidance of God's inspiration. Real life is response to the best within us. To be alive only to appetite, pleasure, pride, money-making, and not to goodness and kindness, purity and love, poetry, music, flowers, stars, God and eternal hopes is to deprive one's self of the real joy of living."

-David O. McKay

Chub-a-licious

2011-03-11T08:55:00.000-08:00

Some of my favorite things about my sweet 3-month old:

How she sucks her thumb

Our daily/nightly chats--she's very conversational with me

She's happiest when she's naked, or when she's having her diaper/clothes changed. Whenever she's fussy, I just lay her down and act like I'm changing her diaper or her outfit and she just starts laughing and smiling!

Her soft baby skin

Big, beautiful eyes

She has lots of dark hair

Love this little naker bum

2011-03-10T07:01:00.000-08:00

She put her boots on and said, "ready to go!"

That's my girl!

Just stuff

2011-03-09T09:43:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday Madison laughed for the first time! Before she would do like a one-chuckle thing, but this was a real laugh!! I had her in just her diaper, about to give her a bath and I was tickling her and she laughed!! I love love love it. She turned 3 months old on the 5th, so last Saturday. I can't believe she's already that old, but at the same time I think it's weird that she's not older. I know that doesn't make sense. She's super big though. We tried to weigh her at home on our scale and she's over 16 pounds! She's such a joy to have around. Seriously she makes everyone happier. My mom said the other day how your first two kids you usually get are hot and cold, and the third one is just right. That's certainly true for us. And by the way, let me just mention that I am also the third child :)

I have been thinking lately how babies just come as they are. No matter what you try to do as parents, pretty much their personalities and natures are going to stay the same. You just try to work with what you've got. They are who they are from day 1--actually from before since their spirits were existing, but let's not get too technical. Like Brynlee, for example, was a really hard baby. She cried a lot. I realize now that I have another baby, how traumatized I was from her. haha, I know that sounds awful. But still, to this day, she is my hardest. 90% of the time, it is Brynlee having a melt down in public, or running away, or mouthing off to me, or hitting, or waking up at weird times, etc. I will also add that she changes pretty fast, and can be as sweet as sweet can be the next minute, full of loves for everyone! But anyway, I was just thinking how cool it is that we are all unique, and to not fret so much as parents about the way our children act, (to an extent; I'm not saying they shouldn't still be taught and disciplined) because they are pre-wired that way.

Tyler asks me the neatest questions. They come totally out of the blue, too.

How do our bodies float up to God?

How do trees stay standing up?

Which bear is the biggest?

How do babies get here? Like when you're a mom and a dad, how do you just get a baby?

Why do people do bad things?

Why does that girl have 2 dads?

And on and on and on. Leads to a lot of discussions about the resurrection, root systems, homosexuality, etc. that I never thought I'd be having with a 4-year old. All on his level, of course. But I am continually amazed at how high his "level" really is.

This past weekend we had Stake Conference. Saturday was fun becuase Kenny and Jared went up early for another session with a bunch of men and Terra, Charlene Kraude, and I came later. We got a babysitter, Cassie, for the evening and the kids had fun with her (though I had Madi with me). We loved going out to eat with our husbands at Qdoba before the adult session. It was like a triple date and we had a great time. On Sunday they broadcasted it from Salt Lake so we got to have it at just our church, instead of driving 45 minutes again to the stake center. It was a great weekend. This is getting really long.

Friday Evening Storm

2011-03-04T18:34:00.000-08:00

I was tired tonight. Madi was up for about an hour during the night, Bryn woke up twice, and Kenny was up off and on the entire night coughing and what not (until around 3 a.m. when he finally went on the couch). Have I mentioned he's sick again? He came home from work with a fever the same day I was finishing my antibiotic. I said "oh heck no", and have made sure he stays far away from all of us. But anyway, after a long day today, I was worn out. I climbed into my sweats a little early, and was wondering what am I going to do to entertain these kids, on this Friday night, with very little energy? Thankfully, a storm blew in. We turned all the lights off, and pulled up the blinds. I sat on the rocking chair to feed Madison, and Kenny got some chairs for Ty and Bryn to watch it too. I was sitting directly behind them, and it reminded me of the little boy and girl in The Cat in the Hat so I made Kenny take a picture of them. :) And yes, Brynlee's wearing a princess dress over her clothes. Ty is sporting his spiderman costume with a pirate hat, and he had a sword. It was a memorable moment though. We opened the windows to hear the thunder rolling, the frogs croaking, the wind and rain, and even a train in the distance. Thanks to the street lamp we could watch the rain hit the street, as the puddles got wider and deeper. The lightning was so bright! We could feel the cool breeze flowing in, and smell the clean rain scent. Tyler had his head pressed up to the screen and said, "It's a beautiful night!" :) And it was. It was just what we needed to help pass the time, peacefully. Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for bed. Thank you storm, you're welcome here anytime.

Update

2011-03-02T11:34:00.000-08:00

So I have somehow managed to steal a few minutes to myself because all 3 kids are napping at the same time! That never happens, because Tyler doens't nap anymore, and it's rare enough that I get both girls asleep together. But Ty peed the bed last night (shouldn't have given him a drink) so he woke up super early because of it, and we played outside today which we don't normally do...so anyway he was tired and I insisted.

Life is good around here. I'm trying to remain patient as we anxiously await to hear our fate of where we will be living come May. That's the crazy thing about Kenny's job is you just never know till last minute (sometimes literally) and it's hard for me, a huge planner-preparedness person, to not be able to plan our lives for even 3 months in advance. But I do have faith that we will end up wherever the Lord wants us to be, and that we can choose to be happy wherever we live. There's a few different places being tossed around as options, we just have to wait and see.

Ty and Bryn are taking a gymnastics class at the YMCA, one right after the other, on Tuesdays and they're loving that. It's a fun outlet, and I wish I would've known all along that you could take classes at the Y, even if you weren't a member. I've wasted a lot of money at The Little Gym, but oh well.

We still do preschool with Tyler every day and I'm trying to teach him how to read, so we do a little lesson or two every day for that as well. Brynlee, on the other hand, still needs to learn her colors. She says everything is green, even when I think she knows the right answer. She's also started asking to go potty the past few days. Although she hasn't actually gone in the toilet, I do let her sit on it whenever she asks, and that's about it.

I love having a treadmill, and my days go the best when I can get my fat butt out of bed in the morning to run before the kids get up. Still have a good 10 pounds to lose. I'm grateful that my health is back and allows me to work out, it makes me feel so much better, and be so much more productive. I think I'm starting to get the hang of 3 kids. It's proven to be a much bigger number than 2 most days. I remember when I only had to do laundry once a week...those were the good ol' days hahah. Just kidding, I am loving my life right now.

Madison is an excellent sleeper, probably because she's a formula fed baby. For reasons which I will not discuss on this blog, I only nursed her for 5 weeks, and anyway we do bottles now. She's the most perfect baby and I'm wondering how much of it is her personality, and how much of it is that she's bottle fed. But in any case, it sure is nice. She's also started sucking her thumb this past week, and it is the cutest thing ever. I know most parents don't like that at all, but she can put herself back to sleep without me having to get up and give her a pacifier. And she doesn't do it very often, so I'm letting it go.

The sun was shining today and even though it was still only 40 degrees outside, we went on a nice walk and the kids rode bikes on the driveway for a while. We can't wait for Spring!!!!

Back Home

2011-02-27T17:21:00.001-08:00

On Friday, we left at 5:30 a.m. for the looooong drive home. After one speeding ticket, and being stuck in traffic for a horrible accident outside of Little Rock, AR, we got home around 9 p.m. The next morning I got up around 6. I went to the temple with the RS presidency. It was great to go and do that with those wonderful women. Grabbed some groceries on the way home, getting back home around 1 p.m. and the kids were taking a nap. I ate a sandwich then left at 1:30 to take my mom to the airport. I still can't believe the sacrifice she made (she hates road trips too) just for us to be able to come there. I love her so much. But that night as we were sitting in the living room playing a game together as a family, I just felt so happy. You just can't replace the feeling of being together as a family, safe under one roof. It's good to be back. But we did have a wonderful time.

One day we went to the Bear Creek Park to see the fun animals there; birds of all varieties, donkeys, buffalo, emu, pigs, chickens, and probably other things I'm forgetting.

This cockatoo was hilarious. It brought back good memories because these were in our backyard often when we lived in Australia. This one said "Hello!" And, "I love you!" he was putting on a show for us.

We loved the warmer temperatures and Brynlee loved to run around pants-less.

Madi and my dad became good buddies. He loved to feed her a bottle, and hold her until she fell asleep in his arms. She watched a little too much sports on tv! :) Oh and that reminds me, I got to watch 2 BYU basketball games while down there and it made me so happy!! We don't have TV so I haven't seen a game this season and I miss it so much.

And now this is my kids tonight, just being silly. I put Madison in her bumbo and Tyler ran and got a chair to sit by her and thought he was pretty funny. So of course Brynlee ran and got herself a stool to sit on. Tyler has a big red line above his lip becuase he keeps licking his lips and it looks so painful.

They are such troopers to put up with all these long road trips. I sure love these cute kids.

SOS

2011-02-18T12:45:00.000-08:00

I've been telling Kenny almost daily, "I've just gotta get out of here." We needed warmth and sunshine. Then it finally came to us, and we were all too sick to care. I needed some help, and I hated admitting that.
On Wednesday night, my mom flew in to the St. Louis airport around 9:35 p.m. Kenny worked late again so he just went straight there to pick her up. We were so glad to see her. The next morning we took Tyler in to the doctor at the earliest time we could, 9:30 a.m. He had the beginnings of pneumonia, and pink eye. So although it set our trip back several hours, I was so grateful that we left with an antibiotic, an inhaler, and eye drops. He's finally starting to get better. We didn't get on the road until about 11:30. It was a long road trip--it always is. But finally at 3 a.m. we pulled into my parent's driveway here in Katy, Texas. It is so good to be here. I'm glad to have some help for a week, especially until we all get our health back. Someday I hope to be closer to family so that it doesn't take hundreds of miles and dollars to see each other. But I'm so grateful to my mom for flying out to drive us back, only to drive us back and then fly home again in a week. My parents are the best. And so is Kenny for being understanding and letting me come whenever I need to. I'm so excited for uncle Tim and aunt Sarah and Grandpa to come home so they can meet little Madison for the first time. They are anxious to see her, and I'm happy to show her (and her big rolls) off. And, you know, sometimes a girl just needs her mom.

Valentine's Day??

2011-02-15T12:13:00.001-08:00

I keep hearing about people's big valentine's days and I think, when was that? Oh yeah, yesterday. We're all sick here; round 3 for all of us being sick this winter. (Have I mentioned how much I HATE this winter???!!! It pretty much sucks, and I don't even use that word.) As I mentoined in my last post, Kenny got it first, then Madi soon after. Saturday evening Bryn came down with it. Saturday night was horrible. Bryn slept in between me and Kenny, and Madi's bed is to the side of me so I had two sick-o's on my left and one on my right...it was only a matter of time. Sunday I took Tyler with me to Sacrament meeting, and by the end I was really feeling horrible. I came home and took some advil and crashed. Last night, Tyler finally caught up to the rest of us and now he's on the couch. It's a fever and flu and cough, and we are all feeling lousy. So Valentine's day came and went with absolutely no candy or chocolate, but lots of medicine and cough drops. Kenny did remember to bring me a single long-stemmed red rose, which is our little tradition. And I love him for keeping it alive even though I was down and out yesterday. As soon as he got home, he took Madi from me and I went and crashed on our bed. Although really, we don't have the best history of Valentine's days. Our very first one as a married couple, I got home from the hospital that day with Tyler. Then one normal one, then the next one I had just had Brynlee. Then a normal one, and now we're all sick. So 2 of 5 is not the best record haha. But next year should be an "on" year. We're hoping for the best.

Tyler turned 4!

2011-02-13T19:30:00.000-08:00

On Friday, February 11th, Tyler had a birthday! He's pretty much been looking forward to it since his last birthday, so it was much anticipated. Kenny had come home from work a few hours early the day before because he was really sick, Madi quickly caught it, and they both were MIA the whole day. I took Tyler and Brynlee out to get donuts for his birthday breakfast, (along with chocolate milk) because that's what he requested. And the birthday boy always gets what he wants :). After that, he opened all his presents. He was so glad he didn't have to wait till the evening, since daddy was already home. We made him get out of bed for the present-opening, then he immediately went back to bed haha. (Poor guy was miserable, as we all soon found out.)

We wanted to do something fun, so I decided to make a little bike loop in our home for them. I rolled up the big run, pushed all the furniture together and that created a giant circle for them to ride their bikes around and around. Tyler loved it! And Brynlee walked her bike around, since she can't yet figure out the pedal thing.

The rest of the day, I am sorry to say, was pretty lame. We played outside for a little bit while I used a big flathead shovel to chop up the ice on our driveway, and shovel it off. It was sunny, so it felt good to be outside. Ty and Bryn also ran some errands with me, and that was pretty much it. I felt bad for Ty, but knew that he was awaiting the real fun, his first birthday party!

Saturday, February 12th, Tyler had a birthday party!! He was so excited to have all his friends over. Please excuse this atrocious cake. It's supposed to be a rocket. Towards the end of January we were learning about outer space and stuff in preschool, so that's when Tyler decided that's what he wanted for his birthday cake. In my defense, Kenny did most of the top. But I love him for trying to help me out haha. And anyway, there more important things in life.

I could kick myself for not taking more pictures, but the birthday part was seriously craziness. I meant to get a picture of everyone that was there so we could remember all his friends he has here once we move. But there was way too much going on so I'll just list them instead: Brady Hasquin, Jack Ward, Jacob Reed, Elijah (and Isaac) Pearson, Ashlynn and Payson Porter.

We played lots of games like duck-duck goose, musical chairs, and balloon games, did a pinata, ate papa murphy's pizza for lunch, had cake and ice cream and opened presents! Luckily I remembered to get him blowing out his candle.

Happy Birthday Tyler! I really can't believe he's already 4 years old!! Tyler is such a great kid. He loves books more than anything else probably. He loves babies and is very tender with them. He's also very sensitive to other people's feelings, and pays attention to others around him and what they want and need. Very smart and emotionally mature, in my un-biased opinion :). He is a fantastic big brother to his two little sisters, and a great example for them. He always wants to do what's right and be my big helper. We love you so much Tyler!!

Brynlee Turns 2!!

2011-02-10T12:20:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, Feb. 9th, was Brynlee's birthday. She turned 2 years old!!

She loved waking up to a room full of balloons! These provide lots of entertainment.

It didn't take her long to find the cape I made her. Pink satin on one side and white minky on the other, with hot glued jewels in the shape of a B. Fit for our little princess. Now she won't have to steal Tyler's cape all the time.

We went to a place called The Sports Academy to play. It's kind of like a really big McDonald's play place, but most of it is suspended in the air, including slides and bouncing things. they had a blast! It was even funner when Heather came with her daughter Ashlynn. It's always fun to have friends around :).

When daddy came home that evening we had dinner then let the party begin!

Certainly not one of my best cakes, but she liked it just fine so that's all that matters.

Brynners:
We are so glad to have you as a part of our family! You have adjusted amazingly well to becoming the middle child and you are so sweet to your little sister. It makes me so happy to see the good relationship you have with your brother, as well. We love you for your adventurous personality. You are extremely independent, and you always know what you want. I appreciate all the hugs and kisses you give to us so freely. You have gorgeous blue eyes and a smile that lights up our house. You are so much fun to have around! I feel so blessed to be your mommy. We love you beautiful Bryn!

Just bloggin

2011-02-07T18:23:00.000-08:00

So it's 8:30 p.m. right now, and Kenny's still not home :( Tyler kept saying tonight "I wish daddy were here to play with me. Call him again" poor kiddo. Daddy coming home is like the highlight of the day, and when that's taken away it's kind of lame. He also worked all day Saturday, but thankfully he got paid for it. We are very grateful he has a job though, so we'll definitely take late nights and weekends if we have to.

On Saturday night we went over to the Reed's for a "work people party". There's several LDS folks that work for URS and I've never met them. So Jared and Terra were kind enough to have us all over so we could be better acquainted. Some of them couldn't come, but we still had fun. I am totally embarrassed but my arms are STILL sore from playing the kayaking game on the Wii. Pathetic, I know. But I haven't lifted weights since before I was pregnant, so my arms are weak sauce.

Here's something that was one of those "precious moments" that I caught the other night. After baths, Ty and Bryn were in their pj's and rain boots (just because they like them) and they were reading books at their cute little table. Tyler would read to Brynlee from memory and it was just the cutest thing. I watched them from their doorway, and looked down at sleeping Madi in my arms, and I felt very happy to be a mother. And I felt like maybe I'm not doing such a horrible job after all.

Saturday was also Madison's 2-month b-day. She is huge, by the way. But she is just as sweet and well-behaved as can be.

Hurry up, spring. Today I've been drowning my winter blues in chocolate and it's not helping me get rid of alllll this baby fat. We want to go outside!!

That's about it.

I had a birthday...Hooray!

2011-02-06T13:44:00.000-08:00

It's true, I am now a whopping 24 years old. Isn't that great?! I had a fun birthday. We did ty's preschool just like every day, thenI took the kids to story time at Border's, then we went to McDonald's for lunch. We met up with a bunch of ladies and kids from the ward and it was fun to see people and get out of the house. This winter is seriously depressing me. Anyway, we got home from that and all took a little nap. Kenny came home at 3:30!!! I love when he surprises me like that, and he brought home a bouquet of pretty flowers which is always nice. We drove the 45 minutes out to Fairview Heights and went to a restaurant called Lotawata Creek (as in, a lot of water creek). It was fun. We only had one big spill, but it was water, and it was on the floor so the trip was a success. And Madi did pee through her diaper onto her clothes, but I was prepared so again, disaster averted. Anyway the portions are massive there and I wish we would have got only one meal for the 4 of us to share! But we've been enjyoying the leftovers all weekend. We got home and made birthday brownies. (We've got 2 more birthdays this week so I really didn't want to do cake) It was already 8:00 though, and the kids normally are in bed by then so we didn't want to wait for the brownies to cool off before we stuck the candles in to sing. Anyway the candles totally started melting into the brownies and they were more colorful :). we didn't eat those parts.

blowing out a 2 and 4 candles :)

I felt very loved with all the phone calls and well-wishes. It's a great year to be 24!

What would I do?

2011-02-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

My children make me laugh so hard, for different reasons.

Today during preschool, Tyler was sitting on his feet so he'd be higher up while writing at the table, and his foot fell asleep. He said, "my foot is sparkling" hahaha.

A few weeks ago Tyler found something I was looking for and I said, "Ty, what would I do without you?". He really liked that I said that. I know, because he reminds me almost daily.

"Mom, remember that one time you said, what would I do without you Tyler?"

Or he'll say, "What would you do without me mom?"

Really, I don't know what I would do without these sweet kids. They fill my life with so much joy. Real joy.

Ice Storm

2011-02-02T14:09:00.001-08:00

As you can see (in case you haven't watched the news), several states are experiencing quite the winter storm. It looks beautiful. But we stay inside and don't go anywhere. I am grateful for it because it means that Kenny has worked from home the past 2 days, and we love having him around. I'm so glad that our power hasn't gone out (knock on wood...). Hope you're all staying warm and cozy inside. I would have hated to live here before heaters were invented!

"I wanna build a man entirely made of snow"

2011-01-30T14:38:00.000-08:00

Am I going a little overboard with all these White Christmas quotes? I think not. Anyway, yesterday was absolutely beautiful, it got up to like 44 degrees or something. The sun was shining, and it was perfect snow-man building weather.

My favorite feature is the fireman's hat on his head haha. Isn't that ironic?

We went to St. Louis Mills last night, as a family. It was fun to all get out together, but here's some advice: Don't forget your double stroller when you go to the mall. (Don't forget a regular stroller either.) When we got back the snow man was leaning way back, and was totally ruined this morning. As we backed out of the driveway to go to church I pointed it out to the kids "Our poor snowman fell over! Maybe the wind blew him down." Tyler pipes up from the back seat, "No mom it wasn't the wind. Don't you remember the song?" Then he and Bryn sang me "once there was a snowman...etc." Obviously, snowmen only get melted by the sun. Silly mom.

Easily Entertained

2011-01-24T21:46:00.000-08:00

Today I was sitting on the couch feeding Madison, and chewing gum. I blew a bubble with my gum without thinking about it. Brynlee saw it, and ran over to me and got real close to my face, staring at my mouth. So I did it again. She started laughing. I blew a big one, and she laughed even harder and said "another one!" Pretty soon Tyler caught on to the excitement. They both stood in front of me shouting "again!" and "another one!" as I blew bubbles for the next 15 minutes. (That doesn't sound like a long time, but believe me, my tongue and jaw were tired.) They would laugh so hard after each one, especially if it popped on my nose or chin. They were throwing themselves onto the ground in fits of laughter. It was awesome. They are so easily entertained sometimes. I suppose I am too with certain things. Just ask Madison how entertained I am by her smiles and her cooing and gooing that she's recently started doing. I try to get her to do it the whole time she's awake. I'm sure she gets tired of it too. Which is why she would only smile for her siblings earlier today. I work and work to get her to crack a little smile for the camera. Then I tell Tyler to come over and stand by me...instant smile. Her face lights up around Ty and Bryn, it is so sweet. She's such a chunky monkey now--I love it! Check out her double chin! It is a sign that a) she is definitely my daughter and b) she eats a lot. :)

Trying to eat Tyler as he leans in to kiss her.

p.s. I think this midnight blogging with Madi on my lap is starting to become a tradition.

"Must be beautiful this time of year, all that snow"

2011-01-23T17:31:00.000-08:00

Gold star to anyone who can tell me what movie that quote is from. (Except for my sisters, I know you guys know!) We got a lot of snow this week, and today it snowed the whole day too. It is really cold, and I'm really ready for winter to be over. I only like it for about oh, 2-3 weeks. But Ty and Bryn were so glad to have their daddy home to (finally!) take them out and play in it yesterday.

That evening we had some friends from the ward over for dinner, Jason and Lauren Lawson and their son Jace, and Jacob and Katie Haws and their two boys. Our small house filled up quick but we had lots of fun with them.

Today we enjoyed a "linger longer" with soup and sandwiches after church, followed by 2 baptisms. It was a long church day, but we loved it. Now it's 11 p.m. and I'm really wishing I were in bed, asleep. But Madi looks like she'll be in it for the long haul again tonight. What happened to my great sleeper?!!

Friday

2011-01-21T13:59:00.000-08:00

I'm so glad it's Friday. I remember Monday night I said to Kenny that I couldn't believe it was still only Monday. I was already ready for the weekend. It was a long week, but we made it.
Madison is still coughing and still congested, but we're gettin there. She looks beautiful in white today, matching the 10 (or so) inches of snow outside.

Brynlee's doing much better now at week's end. She's even sleeping in her own bed again so we're all feeling more rested. We got an inhaler for her at the beginning of the week (she and Madi got seen by our doc), and it's been very helpful. She loves to talk on the phone to anyone that will talk (or even with no one on the other end). But she mumbles and it's really hard to understand what she's saying half the time. It gets frustrating for both of us sometimes, but mostly it's just funny and cute as she tries so hard to talk to us.

Tyler floating paper boats in the bath tub today. He is so funny with numbers lately. He hands me a pile of books and I say, "you want me to read all of these?" And he says "Yes! Millions and millions of books!" And later he handed me a pile of construction paper and wanted "hundreds and hundreds of boats!" The other day Kenny asked Tyler how old he thought Kenny was. Tyler answered with a confident, "14".