Should I apologize again....

So, I haven't posted in ages. The longer I went before posting the more exciting I felt my next post should be...so I kept waiting for something huge to happen! Well, nothing huge has happened lately (well my parents have arrived safely here in Utah and are anxiously awaiting the day they can move into their new home) so I kept waiting. Yesterday I took my children to play with some of their friends and when I was picking them up my friend commented that I hadn't updated my blog in ages...so here I am with an unexciting update =)

The kids are now out of school, and I am loving it. NO more homework; NO more nagging them to get up and get ready for school; NO more braving the madness of drop off and pick up times at the school. Aaaah...summer time. The kids spend hours outside playing with the neighbors. This leaves me much more time for the things I need to get done. I am sure that by the end of the summer I will be anxious for them to return to school, but for now I am going to enjoy the freedom that comes with summertime.

Both Max and Liam have played baseball this year. Both are really enjoying this season. Liam has moved up to machine pitch and is on the Padres. Max started this year and is in T-ball on the Reds. Watching Max play is always entertaining...he seems to enjoy the downtime as much as the action. When he is not required to catch the ball or hit he is usually seen rolling around in the grass or goofing off in some other manner. Having said that, he has really improved and usually hits the ball off of a pitch as opposed to needing the Tee. Liam has done very well this year also and continues to amaze me with his athletic skills.

Before school ended, the children's school hosted their first annual 5K/Mile fun run. Joelle ran the mile and Liam, Jared and I ran the 5K race. I was so proud of both of the kids for how well they ran their races! I was not able to watch Joelle in the mile as it started just before the 5K, but my sister came to watch the younger kids and was able to watch Joelle during her race. Joelle took 2nd place in the 3rd/4th grade Girls division (and this is the girl who kept saying over and over again that she could NOT do it). Liam took 1st place in the 1st 2nd grade boys 5K. He ran it in just over 30 minutes! It was a hot evening and I am so proud of how well both of them ran. Neither race was easy in the heat, but they stuck with it and did so well. Here are some photos from race day:

Upcoming events include:
-Helping my parents move into their new home this weekend
-Jared and I falling over in the Wasatch Back next weekend =)
-Attempting to potty train Dane so he can go to Kiddie Kollege in the fall
-Watching Joelle in her first dance recital (her costume is sooo cute)
-Heading out to California for two family reunions
-Two of my friends will be coming to visit in July
-Getting back to scrapbooking. I haven't scrapbooked in over a month and I am truly missing the creative outlet it gives me. I am hoping to get going on that again soon (and don't worry, I will share when I create anything).
-Be a better blogger =)

Lukie vs. the Pew

It was a Battle Royal, Lukie vs. the Pew, and it appears that the Pew came off victorious. I guess we better teach this kid how to throw a punch (or atleast not to fall off his sister's lap during church). Now he is sporting his first shiner.

Sorry, no good pics from Christmas morning...

I was looking through my picture from Christmas morning and really couldn't find much worth posting. All were spoiled royally, especially by Grandma and Poppa and Aunt Stacy. Everyone got wonderful gifts, including DSs for the older two kids and Hubby. It was pretty funny watching Jared, Stacy my dad and I playing Brain Age 2 on Jared's DS.

Since I don't have any Christmas morning pictures, here are some fun ones of the kids with Santa. Our wonderful neighbors have a fun party every year where Santa comes to visit with the neighbor kids. Dane wouldn't go anywhere near Santa, so sorry, no pics of Dane with Santa, but here are the rest of the kids:

And since I didn't have a Santa pic with Dane, I did find this one of him on Christmas morning. Doesn't he look so cute in his Christmas jammies?

A funny story about the kids and their Christmas jammies:

Usually each kid gets a new pair of jammies from my mom, and they open them on Christmas Eve before bedtime. Since my parents and sister were coming for Christmas, my Mom did not ship their jammies ahead of time. Stacy had to work the night of the 23rd, so they could not leave until about 8AM on Christmas Eve. Normally this would allow them to arrive right around dinner time, which would have been perfect...Well...there just happened to be a big snow storm on Christmas Eve and instead of taking 10 hours, their drive took them 19 hours, most of the drive in chains! Needless to say the kids did not get their jammies on Christmas Eve.

My parents and Stacy finally arrived around 4 in the morning, just in time to set out gifts and for the kids to wake up (I think they heard all of the commotion in setting out the mountain of gifts that my family had brought with them). By 5AM all but Max were wide awake and anxious to go downstairs and see what Santa had brought for them! So, as crazy as we are, we gave the kids their wrapped Christmas jammies, had them open them and of course they had to change out of the jammies they had worn to bed and put on their special, new ones! Yeah, we may be silly, but you HAVE to wear new Christmas jammies on Christmas morning for present opening!

a little funny from our trip

I wanted to add a photo to this post, but our camera battery was dead, and my sister took the pictures for us (thank goodness she had her new camera all charged and ready to go!). She uploaded them to snapfish for me, but I can't seem to copy the photo so I will have to wait to show these photos until I can get my hands on the files for them (probably at Christmas when we comes to visit! YEAH!)

So, while we were in Cali, we had a little party for Liam to celebrate his 7th birthday. We just had my sister, my parents and Jared's sister and her 5 children (who are my children's best friends! how perfect is that?). We had a great time visiting, eating Little Ceasars pizza and Crazy Bread, decorating christmas cookies, eating cupcakes with green frosting, and watching Liam open his gifts. While Liam was unwrapping one of his larger gifts, Joelle, in an attempt to hurry the process (or so I assume) yelled out, "Rip it like a MAN!" I swear we all cracked up! Where she came up with that I will never know, but it was too cute and funny!

I know...you are all on the floor, passed out from the shock that I actually posted twice today..You can get up off the floor now, I am done for the night! Maybe I will even see you again tomorrow! (and for all of you whose blogs I usually follow, I am slowly getting through the 700 or so posts that my google reader showed as unread this evening when I signed in after AGES of neglect...yeah, so I will get to you, I haven't forgotten about you!)

1 year ago today...

My week of bedrest ended with the birth of our beautiful baby boy, Lucas! That's right, our baby is one year old today! I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by! We have been so blessed by his addition to our family; what a sweet little boy. He was such a tiny little baby, and is still a tiny boy, but he is doing so well. Here's a look at him one year ago...

And here's a photo from a week or 2 ago....

A cutie, huh?

Happy Birthday Lucas!!

First days of school!

Max had his first day of preschool on Wednesday. He was so cute! He goes to a great little preschool, that Liam also attended. I am so glad that he is going to get to have this fun preschool experience!




Here are some pictures from the first day:

Today was the first day of school for Joelle and Liam. They are going to a brand new schoool, which will be great when everythign gets done...LOL..for now they don't have a Library, Cafeteria or Gym, and the front of the school where there is supposed to be grass there is only dirt...but it is really a beautiful school and both of thier Teachers seem very nice.

Here are some pictures from this morning:

My children's ideas regarding posession and ownership...

Sorry, for the lack of posts lately. My sister Stacy has been visiting (and we unfortunatley have been fighting off a mild stomach bug) so I have been busy, and have not had time to blog. Here are a couple funnies from my kids from today:

We went down to Liberty (This is a correction, my original post said Legacy Park...oops, I was tired, SORRY ={ ) park in Salt Lake City and enjoyed some time in the water play areas and on the play ground. Before we left Aunt Stacy bought the kids some snow cones and cotton candy. Instead of getting more cotton candy from the cone Liam, decided to snitch some from his sister. When asked why he didn't just get himself some more he said,"I did, I got it from Joelle's hand!"

On the way home Max had a nickel in his hand. He had been carrying it for sometime and the other children asked him where he had aquired it. Max responded, "My Stacy gave it to me!" with a big smile on his face. Stacy never actually gave it to him, but she did drop it on the ground when she went to buy the snow cones, so when he picked it up that was as good as her giving it to him, in Max's eyes!

The results are in...

from my bone scan. The Dr said it looks like I have a stress fracture. UGH. That means, lots of rest. As nice as that sounds, I am itching to run. I actually tried some jogging twice this week, before I heard from the Dr today. I only jogged a half mile each time, but this mornign, did feel some twinges in the ankle right as I was hitting that half mile mark. So, it looks like mostly bike riding for me for a while. I can try walking with some light jogging, but if I feel pain, I have to stop and rest it for another week (wherein I can do alternative exercises, like swimming an biking as long as they don't cause any pain). Luckily, it does feel like the few weeks of rest I have already given it has started to help, as I do not feel pain while walking anymore! So, I am on the road to healing, but it sounds like it will be a long road before I can run any 5Ks. That having been said, I have decided to walk the Alzheimers 5K next week. Many of Jared's siblings will be walking, so I am just gonna hoof it and hope I don't do any damage in the process!

A little funny for ya:

The other day Max was playing outside, as he often does. He had been playing for a while and I was wondering about him, thinking I should probably go check on him soon. I put it off for a bit, and soon we sent the older 2 kids outside to clean up some toys that they had left in the front yard. When they came in they told us that they had finished cleaning, and to that one of them added, "oh yeah, and Max is asleep on the front porch!" I go outside to look and he was sitting asleep in his old car seat that I had left on the porch after switching it out for his new "Big Boy" booster seat a bit ago! Here he is all cute, and sleeping out on the porch!

Another one bites the dust...

Having lost a tooth last night, Liam woke this morning to a dollar under his pillow from the toothfairy. He was quite excited about his new funds and the hole in his mouth! I guess the mention of the toothfairy in combination with her recent discovery regarding the Easter Bunny led Joelle to question the validity of the tooth fairy. When nobody was arround she questioned me and after the Easter Bunny discovery I felt I had to be upfront, and admitted that the tooth fairy was in fact not real. What was cute was she asked me, "Mom when I get a lot of money, can I be the toothfairy." I thought it was so sweet of her to want to give her money as the toothfairy.

The Easter bunny is dead!

After Easter, I had some supplies left (ie jelly beans, eggs grass, etc)and I put them in the garage where they were out of site of little eyes. I had intended to move them elsewhere, but never got to moving the bag. With an attempt at a garage sale a couple weeks ago (unfortunately, due to wierd weather, we got hailed out!) bags in the garage were shifted. Joelle was in the garage, putting a bike or scooter away and found the bag full of items, she had thought came from the Easter Bunny. She came through the door, into the kitchen and loudly exclaime, "THE EASTER BUNNY ISN'T REAL!" I quickly tried to hush her, so as not to share this news with the other children in the family, and luckily I am pretty sure they were not close enough to hear (or atleast I hope so) and I explained that she needed to keep this to herself, to keep Easter fun for the other kids. Luckily, she is at an age where she was wondering anyways, so I think this was probably just a confirmation of what she already suspected. But funny, all the same!

June 15th is a full day in 2008!

We have 3 events to celebrate today: Father's Day, Max's 4th birthday and Dane's 2nd birthday...whew, I am tired! LOL

Daddy with his kids about a month ago. We sure love the Father of our home!

I can't believe he is 4 already! Crazy how time flies!

Isn't this a cute little guy? Well he is 2 and letting us all know that he is a definitive 2 year old..LOL!

Jared recieved my completed Harry Potter Scarf (I have been working on this a bit at a time over the past 2 years...I worked very dilligently at the beginning, but my enthusiasm waned as it took so long to complete. FiNALLY, last night it was completed, and it was presented to Jared this morning. He didn't know I was going to give it to him, as I was originally making it for myself) and Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark on DVD. He also recieved a King size Reeses at church.



The boys did well, also. Max recieved a large golf club thing (hard to describe, but it is like a huge golf club with large golf balls), a skate board (this was the most exciting for him!), a water gun and a small, soft dinosaur. Dane recieved a new baseball mit with ball, a pair of new sandals (which immediately had to be put on his feet), a water gun and a small stuffed dinosaur.

We will have Birthday/Father's day cake tonight after dinner.

Happy father's day to all of the fathers!

Max and Anchie (or our first Imaginary friend)

For the last few months Max has been telling us all about Anchie..Anchie likes this...Anchie does that..Anchie lives in a big house..Anchie likes horses..etc. So on Sunday at lunch Max again tells us something about his friend Anchie. Jared then asks Max, "So when are we going to SEE Anchie?"

Max looks at us with this huge grin and laughs, "You can't see Anchie," in this tone that clearly said "Hello...are you guys idiots?"

It was the cutest thing! He truly enjoys having this "friend" to talk about. (I never hear him pretending to play with Anchie, I think Anchie is just someone he talks about) Max really only has one little friend that he plays with very often, as there really aren't any little boys his age on our street. The other kids are always playing with friends, and I think he is really wanting to have good friends like they do. Luckily, he will be going to preschool next year, so hopefully he will find many good little friends there. But, hopefully we will always remember the Anchie days...

lots of updates

I have been meaning to update for a while, but I load my photos to our regular computer upstairs (we have had bad luck with lap tops and crashing on us, so I don't trust my photos to the lap top) but I do most of my browsing and general Internet surfing on the lap top. Last Saturday (not 2 days ago, I mean a week ago) Jared's work had a Literacy Fair at the Gateway (An outdoor mall, to which his office is attached). Each child received two books (most were very nice, hardback books!) and Radio Disney was there playing music and hosting fun little games. Dane even won a game and got a Speed Racer T-shirt (which on him looks like a dress!). After selecting books, playing games and a tour of the office building where Daddy works, the kids had the MOST fun playing in the water in the common area at the mall. Around a hundred spouts shoot water, choreographed to music. Here are some photos of the kids having way too much fun getting wet!

Joelle was a bit reluctant to get in the water, so Daddy took matters into his own hands!
Liam was the most enthusiastic about the water, running everywhere and getting the most wet!
Liam and Max were quite goofy together!

While I was taking pictures Max called out, "Mom! Take a picture of me!" How could I resist that cute face?

The kids were off track this past week, thus allowing me to sleep in a bit! It was wonderful to get a little more rest, and tomorrow morning when they go back will be hard on ME! They go back through the end of June, and then they will be off for the Summer.

Now for this Saturday. The best part was NO SOCCER GAMES. Don't get me wrong, I am so glad that the kids play soccer. It is great for them, they enjoy it, and I enjoy watching them play. But, a Saturday without commitments was wonderful, and I was much lazier than I should have been! It was just so nice not to be running here there, and everywhere. We made homemade Pizza's for dinner. The kids always enjoy homemade pizzas, especially since I let them each make their own.

Yesterday I actually did a little bit of scrapping after almost 2 weeks of nothing. Here are the projects that I completed:

Papers here are scrap works (I got them as a prize from the last cybercrop at ScrapAttack Scrapbooking).

Other products used are: Cricut Expression with Opposites Attract and Accent Essentials Cartridges, Bazzil Brad, Prima Flower, HOTP ribbon, and the little bubbles are called Skittles (I don't know who makes them, they were a birthday gift from my awesome sister in law Sarah!)

This card was for a challenge over at Scrap Attack.

Products used are

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms (My Guy and the background check pattern) and Inque Boutique (Stars)

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink

other products are unknown

Sorry about the book, but it has been forever since I updated! If you got this far, Way to go!

Our new adventure

Last week we embarked on a brand new adventure! Baseball

Liam plays on Wednesday and Friday and Joelle plays on Tuesday and Thursday, so I spend 4 nights a week at the baseball field. This would be and adventure all on its own, but with Jared working nights, I am all alone, with all 5 children on these adventures in baseball!

I never played softball or baseball, and neither did any of my siblings, as the games were always on Sundays in the area where I grew up (and I really had no interest in playing). This is all a new adventure for me, so I am learning right along with the kids. They are both really doing well; getting better with each practice. Games begin next week, so I will bring my camera and take some photos to share!

Locks of Love and Elephant Nuts

Many of Joelle's cousins have been donating thier hair to the Locks of Love organization. Joelle decided that she would also like to grow out her hair and donate it to Locks of Love. It has taken her a long time, but finally we had the requisite 10 inches of hair. Here is her before picture:

Today we headed to Great Clips, who offers a free haircut when you donate, for the big hair cut!

Here she is getting the ponytail snipped:

Here's a back view of the finished cut:

And the final result, is

Isn't she beautiful?

Now, I know that you are wondering, "What are Elephant Nuts" so here is the story:

I am going away tomorrow to spend the weekend in Oceanside with my parents. While I am taking the baby with me, the other 4 children are staying behind with Jared. After the big haircut, we went next door to Smiths to fill the fridge and pantry for the weekend, so Jared would not have to go to the store with all four kids. With a big basketball game on Sunday, Jared had to buy game snacks, and one of the snacks he picked up was a bag of shell on peanuts. While unloading the groceries, Liam noticed the bag of peanuts and said, "Yes!! We got Elephant Nuts!!!" Jared and I both totally cracked up! Kids can say the funniest things.

Lucas is 6 months old

I know, this is a bit late, as Lucas was 6 months on the 22nd, but Lucas and the weather (too many clouds) were not co-operating for the photo shoot. I noticed that we were getting some nice light through the window this evening, so I gave it a try. I didn't get too many great ones, but enough good ones that I can finally post them on the blog.

I can't believe how quickly he is growing! It seems like just yesterday that I was in the hospital, trying to keep him in for a bit longer. Now he is playing with toys, giggling, rolling around everywhere, blowing raspberries, eating solid food....so many new things. I love him more everyday.

I had a very busy week.

On Monday, I headed into Liam's classroom to help with skill sets. For lunch we headed to Arctic Circle with friends to celebrate Max's friend's birthday. It was a good time for the kids, and for me as well, as I was able to visit with my friend while the kids played.

On Tuesday I had a song rehearsal in the morning, then we headed to Sam's club to pick up some treats my mom had ordered for the kids.

Wednesday afternoon I sang with 3 other ladies at a funeral. I did not know the man who had passed away, but I could tell that he was a wonderful man by the messages that were shared by family and friends during the service, and by the number of attendees. That evening I had a choir concert for the Syracuse City Choir.

Thursday was a normal day with just the normal housework, etc.

Friday we headed to Provo to have a lunch with Jared's sister Marcia and her family. They were in town to celebrate the graduation of two of their daughters from BYU. We are so proud of them! It was wonderful to spend time together. That evening the kids and I attended a ward function.

Saturday was the normal soccer routine.

Whew, man am I glad that week is over. It was busy, but I feel that I accomplished a lot. Unfortunately, because of the craziness that was my life this week, triathlon training did not happen, so it is back on the wagon tomorrow. I am sure I will be sore and exhausted after a week of nothing but running up and down my stairs!

better late than never!

OK, so I am late in posting our St Patricks day fun. We really didn't do much, but the kids were really excited about the day, so when they woke up I made them a special breakfast (ok so not so special and I am not sure you can even call it "making breakfast" but I whipped out the food coloring..LOL). Here is what they had for breakfast:

Sure it looks kinda gross, but the kids sure thought that it was great!

On othe fronts, Liam started Itty Bitty Hoops tonight. He really had a good time. His team only made 2 baskets, but he made one of them. It was so funny to watch. The kids would just pick up the ball and start running! I think it made it harder on Liam, who was really trying to follow the rules that Jared had taught him. I think he is really going to enjoy the season! I only took video this time (and bad video at that!) so no photos to share, but I will bring the camera next week for all to see!

Rawhide!

ROllin, ROllin ROllin...
Lucas is a Rollin..
Rawhide!

Lucas is officially rolling. I saw him roll from his back to his front, and just now he rolled back the other direction!

First Cereal!

Lucas had his 4 month Well Baby appointment yesterday. He is doing well, and weighs 11 lbs 8 oz (yeah, I know small..but he is growing steadily, so that makes us all happy!). When discussing how he was doing our pediatrician mentioned that we could go ahead and start trying him on cereal. While at Wal Mart today I picked up a box of rice cereal, so I decided to give it a try. For his first time, and being only 4 months old (and not really even that when you consider his original due date) he did really well. Here are some fun photos of him "enjoying" his first cereal.

Baptism Day!

On Saturday our oldest child and only daughter was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. We are so proud of her. She was so happy and excited about her day. We had gone shopping for her birthday, back in February, for a beautiful white dress for her to wear that day. She looked so sweet and beautiful. Such a wonderful meeting. Made me realize how much I appreciate our religion and affirmed my feelings about my membership. It was so touching to watch my wonderful husband baptize our daughter.

Here are some photos of the day:

Joelle in her pretty dress

Joelle and Daddy dressed in white before the baptism.