Approximately Normal

Resolutions, smesolutions

2012-01-15T12:57:00.000-08:00

I know that having Christmas over with can be kind of sad and all that, but I actually like this time of year. I even like this sunny weather, though it feels weird to not be able to go sledding yet and I know we need the moisture. Anyway, I don't like February and March that much, but I do like January. We are back into a sort-of-schedule, and I get this burst of organizing energy. Notice I say burst - it usually doesn't last long, but I'm going to enjoy it while it does.

This year I am not calling them New Year's Resolutions - I am calling them long-term goals. Hopefully this will help me make it past the month of January. Also, as a twist, I'm not really setting any new goals for myself, just recommitting myself to some old ones. President Monson said,"Courage is required to make an initial thrust toward one’s coveted goal, but even greater courage is called for when one stumbles and must make a second effort to achieve." So there. The prophet said it was okay. And I am being very courageous, by the way.

For the kids, on the other hand, Jef and I have "helped" them set many new long-term goals. First and foremost: a goal to help keep our house cleaner and to treat each other more nicer. We are doing an excellent job of "supporting" and "supervising" them in their new goals. We even have this fancy little chart and tickets that they're supposed to earn, etc. Honestly, it had better work because I think I've spent longer keeping track of the tickets than it would take me just to clean up their messes myself. I hope I am teaching them how to fish and all that.
We did get a treadmill recently and I have used it 3 times so far. Already exceeding my own expectations. I will not ever tell how long I actually used it, or how much of my time on it involved walking at a very slow speed. I used it, and that is progress. I achieve much more when I spend less time feeling guilty.

Now, somehow my baby has turned 6, almost 7 months old. I do not like that. I usually love to see the kids reach their important milestones, but this is not the case with Grant. I fell so sad every time he learns to do something new. I am sad to be getting rid of our baby stuff. And also, it makes me feel very old to think of not having a little baby around. I have looked forward to this for a long time, but now I am worried I will not know what to do with myself if I am not pregnant or nursing. Now you may say, "If you are so sad, that must mean you want to have another baby." I want to point out that I said sad, not sorry. There is a difference. One can experience many emotions at the same time, and there is a bit of relief in there somewhere, too.

I started taking some pictures of him the other day. I took like over a hundred and he was still smiling for me. But his nose was turning red, so we went in. Here are some:

Hannah's birthday isn't until December, but I get to take her to the "8 is great," tonight. This is a very fun milestone indeed. She has already planned what she will wear - it is so special that she has to wear a different dress than the one she wore to church today. That girl will use any excuse for a wardrobe change.

Stuff that is SO LAST YEAR

2011-11-30T21:13:00.001-08:00

If I've said it once, I've now said it twice. Take a long time to update your blog - then when you finally do post it makes it makes your life seem way more exciting because you have lots of news and fun pictures. So here's just a few of out pictures from October to December:

Hannah learned to ride her bike with no training wheels on her first try. (It helps if you wait until you are almost 7 to take your first try.) She is loving the freedom of only 2 wheels.

Halloween. Jono a Power Ranger, Jane a Fairy Princess, Hannah a cat, Taylor a BYU football player. Logan refused to wear a costume, but still enjoyed all of the benefits of free candy. Grant went as the cutest baby in the world and didn't even need a costume. Best of all, we managed to beg and borrow enough that we didn't even have to spend a penny on the awesome ensembles.

Good times in the basement with me, the three little boys and an entire Geotrax and Cars village.

Hannah and Jono wanted to do a photo shoot of them jumping off furniture and other frivolity. Here are some results.

Grant has started solid food and is loving it! He has also learned to get from one side of the room to the other in a steamroller-like fashion.

Decorating our Christmas tree. We did it downstairs for the first time. We may buy a really nice big tree with fancy ornaments one day, but for now this little guy was just as loved and much more appropriately suited for the affection and decorating and redecorating of our enthusiastic children. I told Jef that he could put the star on so that the kids would stop fighting over who got to the honor. As you can see, it was a spectacular ceremony.

Hannah turned 7. She got her ears pierced, had her first friend party, and received a Rapunzel nightgown that has been worn constantly.

Tried to take a family photo for the Christmas card in our backyard using our remote control. Let's just say that family photo shoots are not for the faint of heart. It is a miracle we got at least one with all of the kids in it and no one crying or running away.

For some reason, Jane has dreamed of owning a stuffed snake for ages now, so we decided to be all creative and make one. My first completed project with the sewing machine I bought months ago. Jane helped sew a little too. You can tell the parts she sewed herself - they are much better than the ones I sewed!

St. Nicholas Day shoes - pre-presents

Beautiful temple square on a freezing cold night.
Taylor getting the old Webelos award. First pack meeting I've actually been able to sit through since Jef was out of school and stayed home with the other kids. Yea for Christmas break.

Jono never leaves Grant's side - they are even starting to look alike.

The Gingerbread house FHE is becoming a tradition. This year we did a train too. Both were completely eaten within a couple of days. Gross.

Taylor showing off a BYU tie on Christmas Eve at my parents. He can now complete his goal of wearing a BYU article of clothing every day of the week.

Some people leave Santa cookies and milk, but not our kids. They made a sort of Santa shrine and left it by the tree. Top right is a box with perfume in it and a note to Mrs. Claus from Hannah. I guessing that is a first for the lady of the North Pole. Very classy, Hannah, very classy indeed.

Grant opening his first-ever Christmas present on Christmas morning.

The ladies in their matching pjs and all of the kids minus Logan Christmas morning. He doesn't like being in group pictures.

Logan chilling on his new couch Christmas day at Jef's parents. (Make note of his hair length.)

So, so so cute. Can you believe he's 1/2 a year old now?

We usually go sledding at the park over Christmas break, but I'm not complaining too much. We had some really beautiful sunny days.

This is how Jane and her siblings pose nicely for a picture before she opens her birthday presents.

This year after Jane's parties with family, we had some of the girl cousins stay for a sleepover. Grandma even had one for the boys at her house so they wouldn't feel left out. It was quite the New Years Eve celebration. (A night early, but who cares, we didn't stay up till midnight anyway - thank heavens.)

Last but not least, Logan with his new haircut. He tried to cut his own hair and so we had to even it out. (Even meaning nonexistent) If you ask him where his hair is now, he says "all gone."

Free Bunk Bed*

2011-11-14T19:56:00.001-08:00

Anybody need/want a free bunk bed? Bottom bunk is a full and the top bunk is a twin. Very sturdy. A few scratches here and there. I am at a loss for the manufacturer name and date of manufacture. However, for you bed-make-and-model sleuths out there, I did find a half-torn sticker on the bottom rail. Though it was difficult to read the print on the sticker, I believe it said "made in China." Hope that helps.

If you would like the bed, post a comment or send us an email.

*As-is, no warranty. Mattresses not included. Instructions for set-up not included. Delivery not included. Pick up times are very flexible. You will need a truck or trailer to haul the bed -- the bed pieces are quite large.

Once you name it, you start getting attached to it.

2011-10-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

Things happening with us lately (may or may not be exciting to you as well - read at your own risk of boredom)

We have a new pretend pet. Well, it's a real animal, but we're just pretending it's ours. "Pumpkin" the cat showed up around our yard several days ago, and is the case with all animals who come near to our children, pumpkin was mobbed. As it not usually the case, she seemed to enjoy it (as opposed to running away in terror.) We think pumpkin is probably being missed by some family somewhere as she appears to love our kids and our home. In a shocking turn of events, my husband the alleged cat-hater has taken a liking to her and went and bought her cat food and made her a little cat house. We can't find out who she belongs too, and supposedly, we are going to take her to the animal shelter as soon as we get the chance. Supposedly.
We are growing quite attached to another little creature as well. We started calling him Grant, and feeding him and he's been hanging around for almost 4 months now. We decided to make it more official a couple of weeks ago by giving him a blessing. It was a special day in our house with much family around. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that we like Grant infinitely more than we do the cat, which is saying a lot. He is such a good and happy baby and continues to sleep well. A miracle, to say the least.One of all of us on the big day. Thanks, Mom for taking the picture - someday we'll get one where we're all looking at the camera. And here are a bunch of pictures of Grant too, just in case you didn't believe me when I said how much we like him.
In his own eloquent words, Taylor "got a rock chucked at his head" on the way home from school a few weeks ago. A worried mom walking her kids home called to tell me that my son was gushing blood all over the place. It wasn't too bad once we got it all cleaned up, but I did take him to the dr. and they did give him a staple. In piecing together the various accounts from friends, little sisters, and the school we have determined that there was no fighting involved, just a little boy who likes to chuck rocks. Boys just like to do that I guess. I don't know. Anyway, Taylor was too excited to be mad. He loved his attention and has saved the staple in a nice ziploc bag to go in his journal.

Logan got his tonsils out and another set of tubes in his ear. After two weeks of healing and a lot of codeine and gatorade, he seems to be doing well. He sleeps so soundly now that we are tempted to check if he's even breathing or not. He has been talking a lot these days, so we are hoping that his hearing is doing better as well. He was a very good little trooper and we are thankful to have it done with and that all went good.

Soccer is mostly done, except a couple of make-up games, and there is only one football game left, as well. It has been fun, but it will be nice to have things quiet down a bit. (relatively speaking, we don't actually know what it's like to experience quiet!) Hannah is in the above picture and Taylor in the below one. A big thank you to Jef's mom Sandy for all her work throwing me an awesome party last weekend. Since we weren't really in need of any baby stuff at this point, she threw me a "Pamper the Mommy" shower. A great idea, and one I highly advocate. We had bracelet-making, mini-massages, and nail painting (yea for Holly!) and lots of girly fun. I will not deny, I enjoyed being spoiled, and it was a truly nice break.

Oh, and last, but definitely not least...We have officially moved our oldest 3 children into the basement! The inspector came Thursday and gave all our work the okay, and now we have 8 people in 6 rooms instead of 8 people in 3 rooms. If you don't think that makes a big difference, try it for a while and you'll understand how great it feels. We still have a lot of odds and ends to finish up (like the entire bathroom) but we'll take what we got and are very grateful for it. We spent a very long and back-hurting day moving stuff down yesterday and the first night was a success. (No walls fell down, no beds collapsed, no children were eaten by basement monsters, etc.) Thank you again to all of the people who helped make this moment possible. We appreciate you.

3 Hornets, 2 Cougars, 1 Falcon, 1Tiger, and a Vikon

2011-09-04T12:51:00.000-07:00

First of all, the three Hornets - Jane is now in 3rd grade, Hannah in 1st, and Taylor in 5th. They have loved being back in school so far and I am thanking them all of the time for picking the early schedule - yes, I was the one who did not want to be on it, but now I love it. We are much more productive this way. Also a big thanks to Grant for making it possible by actually being a good sleeper. I have heard rumors and tales of babies who sleep well when they are only 2 months old, but until now, I never believed they actually existed! I like this, I like this a lot.
And also, the three little ninos and I are loving our time to hang out and go run errands with only 3 kids. (There was a time when I would have thought that was terrifying - it's all about perspective.) Jono is the only one who doesn't like the new schedule as much. He complains that he is soooo bored.

Now, if we could just get to bed earlier, but that is trickier. We have one Cougar back in school as well - Jef is now in like 20th grade. He is on the later Wednesday night schedule again and says that school is boring. Some kids are harder to please than others! (Maybe I should've gotten him a fairy lunch box too.) The good news - only 9 months till he's done for good. (Or so I like to believe.)
What's the other Cougar you ask? You thought I meant Taylor because he thinks, talks, and dreams of nothing but BYU football, but no, I was referring to the rumors of Mountain Lion sightings in mountains above our neighborhood. These rumors have caused certain children in our family to keep looking out the window and insisting that they see something moving. Hmmm...

The Vikon. Half Viking, half Dragon. Some might call him a Draging. He went to one of his first friend birthday parties ever and had the time of his life. This is how he came home and how he stayed for quite a while. Logan saw what was in the box and went crazy - he kept following Jono around saying "Candies! Candies!"

These pictures have nothing to do with the title, but are of a fun family party up the canyon last week. Above is an intense game of Red Rover starting up with the girls against the boys. I argue that the littlest kids like Logan did best because they would just run underneath the arms.
We don't know what this game is called, but if it includes sticks and getting dirty, they are happy.

Hannah and Mitch are not smoke-breathing Vikons, that is the Root Beer Uncle Chris is making.

The Falcons, Jane's soccer team. She always asks the coach if she can play defense, which he likes because none of the other kids like to. Guess they are only in it for the glory. Anyway, Jane does a great job of getting in there and kicking the ball - and makes sure to wave and smile to us each time she does so!
While I was taking this picture, I noticed that someone's little kid was running onto the field. HeHe. Oh snap! That is Logan! He is so much faster than he looks.

What of the Tiger? Well, I didn't take the camera to Hannah's last game, but she is loving her soccer team as well. She has proven much more interested and aggressive than we had anticipated. It is fun to go and watch the games and visit with all of our neighbors who have kids on the teams.

I also left the camera in the car for our exciting day at the airport this weekend. Jef's parents just got home from four months in Jerusalem. We all loved seeing them again and are so glad to have them back.

Taylor starts Flag Football this week, so there will be many more pictures to follow in future posts. But for now, that is all. Happy Fall time. Julie out.

Time flies when your having a baby

2011-08-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

First of all, a big thanks to Jef for keeping our blog updated all summer long and here's to hoping he'll add his insights more often. We are sure you enjoyed reading about our baby's BMs. And I don't mean birthday memories. Seriously though, if it hadn't been for Jef, the last three months would include no posts at all. We have been overwhelmed with children - but in a good way. The summer went by just as fast, if not faster than they always do. School starts next week! We had a new baby, which was awesome enough in and of itself, but we also managed to have a little fun too. Contrary to my warnings to my children, we even got out of the house once in a while.

Summer Summary:
We enjoyed almost weekly trips to Grandma Grace's pool. I would never be able to take all 6 of the kids swimming by myself, so thanks to Grandma and the Aunts for helping us have so much fun, and for keeping my kids from "draining," as Jono always puts it.
We enjoyed the last of Tay and Jono's baseball season and this week we are starting soccer for Jane and Hannah. Taylor is going to be on a flag football team as well and calls it "the opportunity of a lifetime" for him. He has been begging to play on a team and I wouldn't commit to the time and money of the full-pads team that some of his friends are on, so we were really happy when some neighbors told us about this league.
Strangely, we are about where we were a few weeks ago in terms of the basement. We only have a few little things left to do before we can start "moving down," but those little things have been hard to get around to.
Jef is now in the EQ presidency and Julie a RS teacher. We are loving our ward and nice neighbors. Kids have played with friends pretty much every day. Sometimes multiple friends multiple times a day. Their last summer request is to have a "lateover" at our house this weekend.
We went to KungFu Panda 2. We went up AF canyon for a picnic with friends. We mowed our lawn sometimes. (Usually Taylor doing it.) We even got a couple of things to grow in our very small and neglected garden.
We paid our children to do all kinds of jobs around the house and are loving that Jane especially earned so much money. This is impressive considering I only pay her like 30 cents to empty the dishwasher. I am slowly having to raise the wages as they realize what things cost at the store, but still think I might be breaking some child labor laws.
We got out the slip and slide a LOT and filled many, many water balloons. Many times we didn't need to get the water out as we just played in the abundant rain. Much easier, but with more laundry. I did an extensive amount of laundry.
We went to the school library and the city library and read a lot.
Jef and Logan both got stitches. (So did I, now that I think about it!) (Sorry, too much information.)
We loved the new splash pad at the park for about a week before it became passe. (Does that word require an accent mark?)
We went through at least 3 boxes of otter pops and an entire case of microwave popcorn.
We rode a lot of bikes, scooters, rollerblades and took a lot of trips to the park(s). Logan is learning to pedal his trike, mostly backwards. He is wicked fast on his Buzz Lightyear push-toy thingy.
We loved seeing Jef's brothers and their families for the fourth of July and watching the stellar fireworks.
We loved welcoming Aunt Jessica into our family and getting to see Great-grandpa and Grandma come for Kevin and Jessica's reception.
Hannah lost her 2 front teeth. Grant learned to smile.
We might have watched a few movies and played a bit of wii. Just maybe.

I am both excited and sad for school to start. Here's to hoping I survive the earlier schedule this year and that my kids will finally decide that they want something better than crackers in their lunches everyday. Oh and here are the last couple of weeks worth of pictures:

Congrats to the happy couple.

All 18 of the cousins together - quite a feat.

Me and the boy in his "formal" onesie.

My family.

My significant other.

Thank you Uncle Tommy! We are so glad you are around to patch things up for us.

A shot of some of the wildlife up the canyon.

Kid rock.

Toothless, and loving it.

Throwing rocks in the river - the childhood activity that never gets old.

This is before he really starts to get dirty.

One very cute baby. Taylor helped me catch these smiles just this morning.

Milk Turds and Purple Shirts

2011-07-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

This is not a post of many words. I just wanted to add a few pictures of the children. It is all about the children. And I had to include the very bottom picture so that the pattern of picture placement would be complete. The picture itself is irrelevant. Except that I am wearing a purple shirt. That in itself is very relevant. Purple is the new navy blue. Mark my words. Purple is making a comeback with a vengeance.

The wife and I decided to add some laminate flooring in the basement. According to the laminate salesman, the installation was to be 'fairly easy and straight forward.' I somewhat agree. The installation only included two episodes of anger-out-loud or 'AOL' from the installer. No LOLs on this job. Only AOLs.

A few pictures of the children. Including a picture of feet. Yes feet. When in infancy mode, everything is cute, including: baby fat, elbow dimples, crying, spit up, diaper farts, even those cute little milk curd poopy diapers (milk turds?) are cute.

The wife bought some sort of hair curling contraption. She used it on two willing experimental subjects who act like girls on occassion.

That is all. (Remember, it is all about the children.)

Mom & Dad, This Post Is For You

2011-07-15T19:20:00.000-07:00

Hi Mom and Dad,

Your middle son here; I thought I'd post a bunch of pictures just for you, Mom and Dad (files were too big to email). You can click on each picture to see its full size. The city built a splash pad in the park by our house; we took a few pictures there so you can see how we have been enjoying the summer sun. I got a 50mm lens for the Canon today. It is FANTASTIC. Some of the below pictures are taken with the 18-55mm and some are taken with the 50mm - see if you can tell which is which. Jay and I met up for lunch today. We went to a falafel place downtown. The guy who runs it is from Jerusalem. His food isn't quite as good as the 'real' thing, however, it did bring back a lot of memories.

I Don't Know If It Is Art, But I Like It

2011-07-14T18:35:00.001-07:00

So, we've been making some progress on the basement. When I say 'we,' I mean other people. People with actual skills who know what they are doing. Or convincingly pretend to know what they are doing. Me on the other hand, well, my craftsmanship is... I'm not even going to pretend. Luckily, all my friends who have finished their basements tell me that they aren't bugged by the mistakes they made. This bring me a lot of solace. The carpet was installed earlier this week. The only tasks that remain are:

Craft room flooring
Bathroom (which might have to wait for the next income tax return)
Door painting
Finish work caulking
Finish work painting
Door knobs
Few more lights
Phones and low-voltage finish work

The Chia-Carpet has Finally Grown

Children Frolicking on the Chia-Carpet

Stairs. Who Knew Stair Skirts were so Complicated to Install?

Julie Cary Grant No More

2011-06-20T12:49:00.000-07:00

They boy arrived! He came 10 days earlier than expected (but 4 days longer than hoped). Because Taylor and Jane both came 2 weeks earlier than their due dates I guess I had this expectation that all of the children would be born earlier than their due dates. In the long run, 2 weeks is nothing, but in the moment, I guess I got a little impatient. And I wasn't even the person who was pregnant.

Here are some pics:

The boy seems to be pretty low-key and laid-back

He likes to eat

As you can see, the boy will be pretty tough

ICD9 787.3: Flatulence Eructation and Gas Pain

2011-06-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

For those of you interested, ICD9 codes are the method by which hospitals encode health conditions for reimbursement purposes. All patients that are admitted to a hospital are given an admission diagnosis that corresponds to an ICD9 code.

One day, a fairly (in)competent healthcare analyst wanted to know how many individuals were admitted for influenza, which has a corresponding ICD9 of 487. But instead of typing 487, a fat finger accidentally typed a 7 in place of a 4 to get 787, which produced some interesting results.

As it turns out, ICD9 787.3 is the code for a severe condition characterized by... Actually, let me back up a little bit. The word 'eructation,' have you ever heard of such a thing? Let us turn to the interwebs for a little assistance. According to dictionary.com, eruct means "to emit or issue violently, as matter from a volcano." Think about that. Think long and hard about that. Take a moment to let your mind consider all the possibilities that arise from such a combination of the following words: flatulence, volcano, violent emission.

How is such a diagnosis made? Do emergency rooms have windsocks handy for such occasions? "Nurse, I'm gonna need you to go fetch the windsock out by the helicopter pad, I'll need it to see if this patient is truly eructating." What kind of treatments are available for such conditions? Do patients get to have their own rooms after they are admitted? How long does this last? How do you know when to go to the hospital? I have so many questions! I guess I'll have to wait until the Foundation on Flatulence Eructation develops a educating PSA.

While we are waiting around for informative PSAs to be created, why don't I show you some pictures of my basement. Give you a little status update.

All the open spaces are being threatened by urban sprawl

No more bikes in the basement

Is it square? Meh. It'll buff

Mmmm, I love the crunchy strands of insulation that get into your mouth. Electrical work was completed by The Sparky Boys

Sheetrock is installed

TB Drywall hung, mudded, and taped the sheetrock

Walls are painted and doors are installed

Julie is READY... for the basement to be finished

End of the Term / Full Term

2011-06-04T13:56:00.000-07:00

What a month! We had all kinds of fun and craziness with book fairs, field days, egg drops, read-a-thons, class socials, school programs and doctor's appointments. Much to my disbelief, school is officially out for summer! (Except for Jef's -his break starts next week - but if he has any musical programs I need to go watch, he hasn't informed me.) I am a little scared because I am full term next week (yahoo!) and will get to spend the next few weeks (or maybe less - I can always hope!) trying to entertain 5 very lively children while waiting anxiously for the 6th to arrive. I have kindly tried to warn the kids that we won't be going out on quite as many grand adventures this summer and could they please come up with a long list of ideas of things they can do that don't require me to move very much. We'll see how it goes. As impatient as I'm getting, I must say that I'm feeling a lot better at this point than I did with the last couple pregnancies, and I'm grateful for that. (Or maybe I'm just busier so I don't notice as much!)

Yesterday my nice mom came out and babysat so that Taylor, Jef, and I could go the funeral of a very special boy in the ward who has been in Cub Scouts with Taylor and I the last few years. Although his death was a terrible tragedy, I was grateful that we were able to go and feel the peace of being with ward friends and hearing his wonderful family bear their testimonies. Thanks Mom! The kids had so much fun and I am worried that you set too high of a standard for me to live up to all summer long. Mom's are never as cool as grandmas.

Today was the Pony Express Parade - always a great summer kick off. We got about as much candy as the kids got for Halloween, especially Jane, who was very intent on getting every freebie possible. It was awesome. We pretend that the carnival down the street is only there for decoration and just enjoy the free events like the parade. Taylor is discovering that the Webelos Den is more fun than Bears (or maybe it just feels more fun to me because I don't have to actually plan the activities!) and he and Jef are off on a hike and cookout this afternoon.

Last, but not least, Jef has been super-busy helping his large wife cart the kids around and finish up his school term and has still managed (with some help from his brother and some nice neighbors) to paint the basement. We had doors and trim delivered yesterday and next he will be busy painting and installing those, etc. Then carpet (a nice ending because all we have to do is pick it out and watch the pros take over) and then we are shipping kids downstairs. Thank you to all the people who have helped us out with this LONG process. I hope it really does end someday.

PS The good news about all this rain is that the boys have had so many baseball games canceled that even though their seasons should be pretty much over by now, we still have several more reschedules to attend. That should keep us busy for a little longer.

Due to weather conditions, their new favorite game - entitled "beach fun" - is played indoors using little actual sun and much imagination. Yes, Jono is wearing a Dora life jacket.

Screams when he gets food spilled on him, but doesn't mind decorating himself. He has become the great imitator lately and copies everything his siblings do, including the girls.

I'm not going to lie - he did a better job than I sometimes do and I was a little impressed to find him thus. The cuteness ended when he threw the nail polish bottle in the tub and it shattered everywhere.

Jane in her patriotic program telling about how America has rich deposits of minerals. I was unable to explain to here exactly what a mineral is, but thankfully Taylor is studying them this year and could help me out.

Hannah the Kindergarten graduate. I got a picture of her singing "Baby Bumblebee," but it is blurry. I know I already said it, but I seriously can't believe the school year is already over. She already has a lunch box and got to practice eating at the school last week in preparation for the big 1st grade.

Sadly, I have somehow managed to get no pictures of Taylor dressed like the governor of the Eastern States and helping to hammer in the "Golden Spike." I know I got some video of it, so hopefully he will forgive me. Please know, he looked very handsome and aristocratic and stuff.

At the parade trying to get the candy-thrower's attention.

Showing off his free hat and enjoying last day with his BFF before BFF goes out of town for the first month of the summer. Taylor will be heartbroken (as well as very bored.)

Yee-haw
Standing in the street waiting for the fire trucks.

Vote for Summer!

Double Digits

2011-05-16T09:03:00.000-07:00

Taylor will turn ten this week - yikes! We celebrated early this weekend by taking him to eat and bowling and letting him bring a friend. It was great fun, but in another month 1/2 we won't have room in our car for anymore friends. I guess we'll have to start driving 2 cars on these occasions. I am so impressed with the kids my kids choose to hang out with and feel lucky that there are so many good kids around for them to choose from.

Taylor also had what my kids refer to as a "cousin" party with my family. They really look forward to these. The theme was BYU, BYU, and more BYU. We loved having everyone over and are so glad they all came for the fun even though it was embarrassing how our lawn didn't get mowed that day. Our "to do" list is longer than we have time/energy for lately. At least we are never bored.

We've had a ton of baseball/tball games this month and are enjoying watching the boys play. My parents and brother's family even came out for Taylor's game the other night, despite the fact that a dirt road was involved in getting there! Now that is support.

There are also lots of school programs coming up. I like the end of the school year and all of the exciting things the kids get to do. They should spread it out more, though, so that it's not all in one month. This Thursday we have three things scheduled for one night! (Thank heavens for video cameras.)

Jono ran away for the 100th time of his young life. I finally found him walking home from Jef's bus stop - he was "Just going to get his Dad." He has not clue how much anxiety he causes when he does these things.

Taylor may or may not have broken his nose at school playing football. It looked pretty nasty to me, but the doctor said it was mostly swelling and didn't look bad enough to need a set. (Phew!)

I loved Mother's Day more than ever this year and got a ton of school, primary, activity days, and scouts presents. The kids even kept them a surprise (except the ones I helped with, of course.) It was a fitting way to spend my last week with Taylor in Cub Scouts - he is moving up to Webelos and I am getting a nice long calling break until after baby Grant is born. The counselor who released me said to let him know when things were settled and I was ready for a new calling and I said just to notice when I stop coming to church with red, tired eyes. That may be pushing it a little too much. We love newborns, but we sleep little when they are around!

My Mother's Day shrine the kids made. It has two lamps behind it lighting it up and came complete with Lucky Charms in bed. (Which Logan helped me eat - and wear.)

Hannah has been begging for some picnics and I am so glad it is finally nice enough to accommodate.

Logan and his Geotrax. He and Jonathan get these out every day without fail. We also have about 4 DVDs that came with the different sets, but all of them have the same stupid cartoons on them.

Jonathan took the bowling very seriously this time around. He actually had the highest score!

Jane - one of the few people to coordinate bowling with dancing.

Bday boy and friend. They dress like this pretty much every day, but prove that even the biggest of rivals can be good friends.

Jono rounding third base with his "big hat" on.

Taylor, about to whack the ball. (Unfortunately, it was a foul!)

New hoodie

New Jimmer shirt
Cousin Fun

Two Much Fun

2011-04-29T12:02:00.000-07:00

Well, we had TWO exciting Days this week - Easter and Logan's TWO-year-old birthday. Back to Back. The kids were only upset that we didn't have a "cousin" birthday party at our house. There was just too much other Easter stuff going on. Luckily, Taylor's bday is right around the corner - I have been receiving updated birthday lists from him for several months now!

And last week, the day before Logan got his cast off, Jono had to go in to get TWO stitches on his chin. He fell going up the cement stairs in the garage. I consider this to be completely my fault - not because of negligence, but because when Logan broke his arm I said, "At least we've never had to get any stitches." These are words no mother in her right mind should say aloud.

We bought Logan a huge Geotrax Christmas train set for his birthday. Yes, it is a bit weird to hear all of the Christmas songs playing in April, but made for a really good deal. All of the kids were actually with me when I bought it, so as soon as we got home they retrieved it from the hiding place on the shelf in my closet where I had naively placed it. Jonathan was most excited for Logan's birthday and in the days beforehand, if ever I couldn't find him, I would just look in my closet where the train set was now laying on the floor. He and Logan would just sit in there and stare at it for hours. I can't believe it stayed in it's box until the big day.

We had a fun Easter and got to see both sets of Grandparents that weekend. Mr. Easter Bunny left everyone a book, and of course candy. We are thankful for the special day it was and for the reason we celebrate it.

Easter Morning. After an hour of trying to keep them quiet, I am about to give them permission to go wake up Dad and Logan.

Jane's friend told her she looked funny when she did this, so she wanted to see a picture of herself doing it. Yep, pretty funny, but in a cute way.

Reading Logan his train book. Not sure which of the three has loved trains more.

Stitch Boy

Dying the Eggs. Fun for kids, unnerving for Mom. But I'm feeling better now that I've seen it spill all over Jane's shirt and then wash out nicely.

Post-texturing. Now paint ready. Yea for TB Drywall!

Yea for cake!

Opening and Enjoying the Christmas Train.

Blue frosting makes any birthday a special Day.

Last but not least, Jef and Hannah walking to the bus stop on their way to take-your-kid-to-work day. One of the highlights of Hannah's young life. She is NOT and early riser, but on this day she came into our room at 4 am asking if it was time to go yet. I know you can't really see them in this picture, but I forgot to take any until they were leaving the house and so barely caught them walking away.

Sheet Rock and Roll

2011-04-20T15:46:00.001-07:00

Fiberglass man

Jono and Logan watching the big truck deliver the sheetrock. Logan sat there completely still for a good 20 minutes watching. We really ought to have sheetrock delivered every day.

Jane's room - before and after

Ahhhh, more space!

The exciting news around here is that the walls are up! With some help from my brother, brother-in-law, and father, (Thank You!) Jef was able to get all of the insulation up and the last of the wiring finished last week. He was doing finishing touches till about 1 in the morning on Friday, then the Drywall crew arrived on Saturday. This week they are doing the mudding. It is awesome and I can't believe that our basement looks so different now. We plan on doing paint, trim, and carpet and then beginning to move the kids downstairs. They might not get a bathroom or maybe even closet doors for a while, but we are anxious just to get them down there. We are just going to love the space. We have informed them that the basement is now part of our house and therefore no more riding bikes and running around like ruffians downstairs. We'll see if they listen or not.

Other news:
Jef is finishing up Winter term and has spring term left before a short summer break. (During which I will be having a baby, so it's not like he'll get much rest, but we'll be glad to have him around.)
The boys have started baseball and t-ball practices and the games start this weekend. Jonathan calls his mitt his "catch" and his pants his "t-pants."
I have hit 30 weeks of pregnancy and am starting to stock up on baby diapers and get out clothes and such. (I must do it now while I still have some remaining energy.)
Logan gets his cast off in two days and has not managed to pull it off so far, for which I am relieved.
We've had some colds and Taylor is enjoying an ear infection.
Jef's brother gave us an electric back massager that the kids (and I) have been fighting over all week. Logan is actually scared to sit in it, but likes to push the buttons.
We are looking forward to Easter and Logan's birthday this weekend. Happy Easter to everyone out there!

Taking a Break (in more ways than one)

2011-04-10T12:37:00.000-07:00

An indoor picnic - sitting by the door pretending it's warm outside. I think they're being monsters of some kind.

He is enjoying wearing some of Jono's shirts since we can't fit all of his over the cast. He likes to sit and look at the signatures and pictures we all drew on it.

The crew with Dad on his birthday. Jane was really mad he had to go to work on his birthday - she said it was a "rip-off."

Usually when I think of April Showers, I don't picture snow, but I guess as long as we get the moisture. The snow looked very pretty the other morning when we went to my niece's baptism - Jane said it was a nice way to celebrate a baptism, and I agreed. That being said, I sure am hoping for at least a little sunshine since Spring Break starts tomorrow.

Speaking of breaks, our big news for this post is that Logan broke his poor little arm. I do not wish to comment on the large amount of broken arms in our family in case someone from Child Services reads this, but I will point out that we have yet to have stitches, or any other broken bone for that matter. It's just a strictly arm thing. He fell off a playground toy and I guess he just landed wrong.

It was sad to the witness sheer amount of crying that Logan underwent, especially when I had to leave him in the hands of the hospital staff to get his xrays. (I couldn't stay in the room -the whole pregnancy thing.) They had to call in 3 extra people to help hold him down. The good news is, that is wasn't a real bad break and his cast should come off after only 3 weeks of wearing it. If we can last that long without him pulling it off himself... He is amazing, though at what he's learned to do with one arm. I wish us adults were as resourceful and adaptable as kids are.

Also, I am so happy my brother and his family live in Utah now, and I hope they know it's not just because they live close to the hospital and are willing to babysit during emergencies!

Other stuff :
Jef had his birthday a few weeks ago. I hope he had a good one, because we enjoyed decorating the house and cooking him a big dinner.
Jef and I got to attend one session of conference in the conference center, which was a first for us. Thank you mom, for making it possible for us to go. I'm sure my one session of uninterrupted listening meant very little listening for you!
We are very nearly to the sheetrock stage of the basement. This reminds me that I ought to go take some pictures of it. If I posted them here, they would look like the last pictures after we got the framing done, but with heat ducts and wires everywhere. Also a little insulation. And I'm happy to report that we didn't flood any more workmen out of the basement in the process.
Taylor has started baseball practices, but so far at least two have been cancelled due to weather, and another took place in a giant windstorm. I don't understand why they start his season so early - isn't that what summer's for?
Hannah and the kids enjoyed April fools day. She kept telling me she saw spiders in my hair and a mouse in the house. I am sorry to say that I wasn't very nice about that and didn't laugh one bit.
Well, that's the news from here. Happy April.

Happy Birthday to Me, I'm 103.

2011-03-17T09:09:00.000-07:00

The fun of having grade-school students in the home is that you get to hear all of the playground songs and rhymes you'd forgotten as a child. Some of the classics remain intact - Jane called Hannah a "naked movie star" just the other day. However, some of them have evolved and I have to correct my children now and then and they are usually quite startled to find out that I know the songs too. Jane taught me a birthday one I'd never heard before, but I only remember the first line - "Happy Birthday to Me, I'm 103." It was stuck in my head my entire birthday and I still can't quite get it out. I'll have to work on learning the rest of it.

For my birthday I told the kids that I wanted the presents of no fighting and doing whatever I said all day. It worked for a little while.

They also made me some cards. I loved all of them, and thought I'd share the one Taylor made me. He was home sick that day so we couldn't really go anywhere and used the excuse to sit around watching movies that afternoon. It was very nice to just relax for no reason at all and not feel guilty. Yea for birthdays!

Jef stayed up late the night before to make me a homemade ice cream cake. I don't know what got into him, but he made one for the Young Men a few weeks before and I liked it so much I requested my own. It even had a layer of caramel in it - my favorite. Thank you Jef

We had a heating and air guy come to give a quote on the basement yesterday. While he was downstairs Logan kept flushing the toilet Jonathan had stuck a cup down the day before and flooded the bathroom. I was discovering the disaster and turning the water off just as the nice man came upstairs to tell me it was raining in the basement. All I could think of was that it was a good thing the basement wasn't finished yet and also I bet that the man thought I was completely crazy. At least he has some fun stories to tell his coworkers - I'd imagine that was a first for him.

Since my kids don't like the menus items I pick, we've been having them help plan what we'll have for dinner each week. They have to have some kind of main course and at least one fruit or vegetable. It is much easier to shop and cook for their meals, but very hard for me because quite honestly, I don't like what they pick and am sick of the same thing every week. At least they don't complain as much.
Here's some menu examples:
Jane - Homemade mac and cheese with bacon and carrots.
Hannah - Eggs and toast with carrots (we need to branch out a bit on the vegetable department.)
Taylor - rice with poppyseed muffins and peas
Jono - Boy cheese sandwiches with french fries and carrots. (Apparently, he thought we had been calling them girl cheese sandwiches instead of grilled!)

You'll notice that bacon is the only meat this week. We are quite the healthy family. Oh nevermind, there's eggs too. Phew.

One more story if you are still reading this long entry - I like to read the Children's Friend with the kids each morning before school. Taylor informed me today that all of the stories in there are so predictable. I told him I could start getting him the New Era if he wanted. He wants to know if sometimes the stories in that end better, like a kid has to give a talk in church and while he's speaking the church blows up or something like that. Hmmm, I don't even think moving him up the Ensign will help him in that area.

It does not really go along with anything else in this post, but I feel bad not mentioning that my Aunt passed away last week and her funeral is today in California. I wish I could be there for it, but my thoughts are definitely there. My mom's aunt passed away this week as well. I am so glad to know that we will be able to see them both again someday.

"March"ing Along

2011-03-09T08:42:00.000-08:00

Well, I send Mr. Groundhog my thanks. I actually never heard if he saw his shadow or not, but February seemed to pass extremely quickly, so I'll take it. I am glad for the warmer weather and the hope of springtime around the corner. We did manage recently to go to the park for the first time in ages. Logan almost died of disbelief when I set him down and told him he could go play. The toys were very crowded because it was too muddy to do much of anything else. They have started putting in a splash pad at our park for this summer and I couldn't be more excited.

We survived a round of the stomach flu without too much drama. The bad things are the laundry and inability to leave the house. The good news is that it passed through fairly quickly. Hannah was the only one who didn't get it. She told me, "I never get sick. If I feel like I'm going to throw up, I just swallow it back down." Isn't that a nice visual image? Apparently mind over matter works for her. Although, she did miss one day of school when Jane did, with what I will refer to as "sympathy flu." My kids have had a lot of this lately, and I wish there was some kind of breathalyzer test that mothers could administer that show when kids are really sick or just don't want to go. I guess I should be glad they actually want to be at home sometimes.

Last winter we were at the Pediatrician like once a week. This winter has been so much better, and I am thankful. However, we have had a ton of dentist, eye dr. and orthodontist appointments to take their place. Is this the next phase of our lives? We discovered that Jane needs glasses. Here is a picture of her in them. Although she was kind of excited at first, she is having a hard time getting used to them. Thank heavens glasses are so much cuter these days than my first pair was. Dear Jane, we think you look beautiful and especially hope that you can see better!

Here is a little walk we took by Utah Lake on Saturday. Taylor opted to stay in the car. Is this also the next phase of our lives? Lately it is much harder to get the "older" kids and the "younger" kids to jive. We're also starting to have some boy/girl divisions where the girls go in their room and lock the door. I've always known it will happen eventually, but I still dread the day when my kids decide they are embarrassed of me. It's not that I blame them, it's just that it's nice to feel needed. Already when they ask a question I don't know the answer to, they say they'll just ask Dad. Remind me to enjoy this new baby and keep him close. On the other hand, it is fun to be able to do some things with the older kids. It's nice that they now are open to watching movies and reading books that are a little more fun for Mom and Dad and also they have moved to games beyond Candyland (oh, how I hate Candyland!) While the kids and I are driving to all of our appointments, we like to listen to books on tape in the car. Last night we were just looking for an excuse to drive around so we could hear what happens next. Don't ask me why we didn't just bring the CD in the house - that would have been much too easy. Speaking of good books and movies, we highly recommend the "Avatar, the Last Airbender" series that is on Netflix instant play. Every single person in our family liked it, which is saying a lot. Oh yeah, and it was very important to Taylor that I take a picture of this car city that he made and put it on the blog. He worked very hard on it (I think the hardest part was keeping the little brothers from destroying it.) Very impressive, Taylor.

A Well-imbalanced Family

2011-02-18T14:53:00.000-08:00

We are having another boy! You'd think marrying a statistician would mean I have things even and neat, but no, the boys have officially taken over! He is so healthy and cute (considering all his bones were showing) and as soon as we come up with a name and I stop mourning the fact that I'll never use all of those cute girl clothes again, it will be super-exciting times getting ready for his arrival. The ultrasounds get cooler with each baby. My Ob now has a huge flat screen to watch them on and we could actually see him yawning at one point. (The baby, not the Ob.)
He measured bigger than his due date, which is a first for us and prompted me to eat several guilt-free zingers upon arriving home. (I have a feeling I'll be using his largeness as an excuse for many more disgusting snacks in the days to come.)
The kids are excited, although Hannah still insists that she'll be moving downstairs when we finish the basement. This means that I'll either have to repaint the one bedroom we've actually painted or hope the kid doesn't mind pink. Some other food for thought - with our three boys in a row, there is a high possibility that we'll have a missionary in the field for six consecutive years!
We are soooo thankful that he is doing well. Consider dear Jane in your thoughts, who took the news hardest of all. I remember feeling that way once to at her age - darn Kevin. It's a good thing you turned out to be such a good little brother.

Four to Go

2011-02-13T14:06:00.000-08:00

Jono is four now. He has been asking for his birthday for quite a while and enjoyed it immensely. When Hannah informed him the day after that his birthday was over, he cried. Apparently the two parties he had were just not enough. The trip to Chic-Fil-A (his choice, he calls it Chic-the-fil-a) for family dinner and playing on the toys was just not enough. The oodles of presents were just not enough. Quite honestly, I can't say that I blame him for being sad. It was fun galore to see him loving his special day.

Waiting for the time to open his presents

Modeling the Buzz Lightyear Snuggi

Hanging out with the newest members of the family, Slinky-dog and Rex

Tools to "help" with work on the basement

And speaking of which, our basement framing is pretty much completed now. I am so dang excited that I feel like I am the one getting the birthday celebration. Here is Hannah enjoying her "new bedroom." I can't wait to post more pictures as it goes. It is super-fun to watch the process. Our house size will double. Our kids will stop fighting. Everything will be more organized and clean. (Okay, the first statement was true, but don't stop me from dreaming!)

PS. Ultrasound this weekend. Finally, we can stop calling the baby "it."

Dear Groundhog, Please help me out this year. Love Julie

2011-01-28T18:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, not much here to blog about by way of stuff going on. Just general winter blah stuff. The good news is, I always start to feel this way this time of year, so I know it's normal and will pass. It's just that once Christmas is over, winter really isn't good for much except for making us appreciate summer more. The days are starting to get longer again, so there's something. And we're working on the new years goals and all that. It would be a great time to get some projects done if I weren't so exhausted all of the time, so I've just been watching lots of Netflix instead. (What? It's better for the baby!) The nurse at the OB asked me if I'd passed the "tired" stage of pregnancy yet. I was honestly speechless. I really didn't know it was supposed to go away. I guess if you consider it a 9 month long stage then I'm almost halfway through! Starting to feel the baby move a little and feeling less quesy all of the time, so I think I can deal with tired. It's fun to hear Taylor pray that the baby will be a boy and then hear Jane and Hannah pray for it to be a girl. I hope we don't end up with some kind of mutant! Ultrasound in a couple of weeks...

We've had the typical winter colds and ailments among the children. Also a few cases of "tummy aches" that seem to go away as soon as mom tells them they are allowed to miss school.

We haven't been getting out much. The gas bills for the minivan have been really low, but I find that I do more and more shopping online lately, so that's a blessing and a curse. Jono's bday presents all came in boxes on my doorstep yesterday. It was so cool, but disturbingly easy. A person could spend an awful lot of money without even leaving the house.

The younger kids and I have been trying to get out and get some exercise by walking to meet Taylor and Jane as they come home from school. Two entire laundry loads of muddy clothes later I am wishing we hadn't gotten out at all. Wet snowy clothes are suddenly less of an inconvenience.

The kids seem to entertain themselves by inventing lots of inside "fun." I endure by telling myself I will laugh about their antics someday. There's the general raiding of the pantry and dumping out cereal boxes and stuff, but also some new material. Twice now, I have come out of the shower to find Logan sitting in my bathroom sink and sticking my clean clothes in the water so they are nice and soggy for me when I am ready to get dressed. Yes, twice, because I was not smart enough to put them in a different spot after the first time he did it.

Lest you think this post is really disappointing, let me include some fun facts:
Jef is right around his 1/2-way-done-with-school mark.
We have lived in this house for 2 years now - just a few more months and we'll brake all previous records for living in one place for the longest amount of time.
Jane has started Activity Days and is loving it.
Taylor signed up for spring baseball and Jono requested that he get to play too. He thinks he's going to be on Taylor's team, so he might be sad when he realizes he's on one with other kids his age, but I think once he gets his own shirt he'll be appeased. He is so ticked off that he has to wait one more year to go to school, so I'm glad he's got something to look forward to. The girls have opted to wait and play soccer in the fall.
The kids finished off the partially-broken switch that turns our computer on and off, so I got my first ever laptop. It even has flowers on it. Unfortunately, I am selfish about sharing it when I consider how our last computer ended, but I have to because the children have to do homework and stuff on it. (Seriously, Jane can do her math homework online and it reports it to her teacher - how cool is that?) I don't think I even sent my first email until college.

Well, this is starting to bore even me. And to add salt to the wound, I close with no pictures. Please, don't hold this post against me, but at least I'm not waiting 3 months to post again.

Newly Mormon

2011-01-11T13:59:00.000-08:00

Jane got baptized this weekend. It was a special day with lots of family and fun. She even decided to get up and share her testimony in church on Sunday, making her much braver than the rest of us. Way to go Jane!

Best of all, some of the menfolk stayed after the post-baptism lunch to help us start on framing our basement. Thank you to everyone who helped with everything! The kids especially enjoyed uncle John letting them take their turns with the nail gun.

Out with a bang (and also some throwing up)

2011-01-05T09:39:00.000-08:00

So, all of you people who regularly update your blog have got it all wrong. The best thing to do is wait a few months and then put in tons of pictures and news and it makes it seem like you are doing all sorts of exciting things.

Example: Since my last post we have celebrated Thanksgiving, Hannah's 6th birthday, Christmas, our 11th anniversary, Jane's 8 birthday, New Years, and the three boys enjoying a round of some kind of weird stomach flu that ends with a horrible cough (ironically, they have thrown up more from the coughing than the upset stomachs.) Now I get to try and cover this all in one post, but if I had been updating this all along, that would just be like one exciting thing every other post or so.

The only problem is, that things that probably deserve their own post, will just be inserted in like they aren't really that big of a deal - even though they REALLY are. Example: We are expecting another baby in June. Now that is a big deal. I should probably close this post and make it it's own, but pregnant ladies get a lot of slack. We can just say - hey, I haven't been feeling too great for the last 3 months, and then no one complains about our lousy blog work.

But seriously, the most exciting thing was telling the kids. I was honestly curious about how they would accept the news of having their attention divided by 6 instead of 5, but they were so happy. Taylor couldn't wait to call his friends on the phone and tell them. Jane points out my growing belly in every kind of public place and sometimes even adds details about where the baby is going to come out . It's all very exciting, and we are happy that everything seems to be going well.

Now, that's the news, here's some pictures -

Trying to keep Taylor busy over Thanksgiving Break, I purchased a nifty knitter. Needless to say, he loved it and it kept him busy for an entire hour or two. This is my new favorite picture ever. The post it note says, "Taylor made this scarf."

Hannah requested a bday dinner at Applebees and enjoyed getting sung to and eating her bday ice cream very slowly in front of the rest of us. She also had some fun parties with our families later in the week. The highlight was seeing her dance around in her new tutu and dress up clothes and remembering that this was the same girl who ran and hid when we tried to sing to her a few birthdays ago.

Gringerbread house frivolity.

Jane at her 2 grade sing-along. She LOVES stuff like this and waved to us every few minutes.

Hannah right after a new haircut. She requested that it reach her chin. It still didn't reach some of the "bangs" of her own cutting, but looked very good. Jane opted for a small trim since she is currently infatuated with pigtails.

While waiting for Christmas to come, why not have fun with all of the packaging. Thank you amazon for the mural provided in one of your boxes. What will we do with ourselves if we ever finish the basement and can no longer paint and ride bikes indoors?
Jane after a foam roller attack.

If you think seeing him wear this is cute, you should see him walk in it!

Bruise #1 on his forehead. He fell again and hit exactly the same spot a few days later for an even bigger one. At least he is consistent.

Christmas Eve at my parents and the kids in the traditional Pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa.

Christmas morning in our home. Taylor and Jane were the first to wake up at 2:44 am. Mom very kindly encouraged them to go back to bed till at least 6:00. They made it until 7:00.

At Jef's parents Christmas day. Jef loved this present so much that he ended up getting two of them. They make a great Home Evening activity.
Jane opening bday presents and enjoying cake with her cousins. She is saying "peace out."
New Years Eve bday equals fireworks in the arctic weather. The good news is that in the winter you can light them at like 7pm and it's already nice and dark.

Happy New Years, everyone.

Smell my Feet

2010-11-07T13:10:00.001-08:00

Happy Fall,

We have been loving this awesome, awesome weather. We had a fun UEA last month hanging out with neighborhood friends. When I asked the kids what they wanted to do over the break, they chose: having a lateover; earning some money and then going to Walmart and buying toys in the dollar section(they aren't patient enough to save past a dollar before spending); and going to the park and having a picnic. Who knew you could give kids such a good time so easily and inexpensively? They did, of course, want to go to grandparents, but both sets were out of town. Luckily, we've seen a lot of them since. Maybe more than they bargained for...

I finally had a nervous breakdown with the whole small uninvited guest situation in our home and spent several nights at my parents house. Jef was very kind to keep an eye on the house and dispose of the ones we caught and here's to hoping that we get no more (for the rest of our lives). I'm glad that my family has been so patient with my weird issues - it's been very traumatic for me.

Halloween we had a lot of fun with our BYU baseball player, our witch, our Princess, our Thomas the Tank Engine, and our Bumblebee. (An actual bumblebee, no Transformers involved.)
As mentioned, we spent a lot of time with our wonderful families, went to two different costume parades at the school, carved the pumpkins, ate more candy than is advisable, etc.

Makes me excited for Christmas and Thanksgiving! Now, here are just a bunch of pictures:

Logan and Jono the cowboys

A scenic drive up the canyon. It made Jef feel so visionary.

Look what's in our oven.

Big brother proud of his special touch with Logan.

Costume parades

Trick or Treat

Random list #3 or 4 or so

2010-10-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

They say every cloud has a silver lining. I had to look very hard for the one on this cloud, but here's what I came up with. Gratitude in all things, baby.

10 Good things about having a mouse (mice) sneaking around in your home and violating your basic sense of security and sanity.

1. If you have a mouse in your house, you never have to exercise. Your heartrate goes up everytime you hear a rustle or have a stray hair brush your arm.

2. You clean your house like it has never been cleaned before and you plan on giving it another cleansing as soon as the mouse is actually caught.

3. You get out and visit family and friends as often and as long as possible.

4. Your floor never gets dirty because every time you sit down, you find a way to keep you feet from actually touching the ground. This makes your legs stronger as well.

5. You no longer forget the date because you know exactly how many days it has been since you first saw the mouse.

6. You don't scream at your kids anymore because you've mostly lost your voice from screaming at the mouse. It is definitely as scared of you as you are of it. (almost).

7. You actually want to go to Walmart because as much as don't enjoy your weekly shopping trip, at least you've never seen a mouse there.

8. You don't waste as much time watching TV, but spend every spare second excercising your brain with more important ponderings - How did they get in? How many are there? Can they climb into beds? How can I make sure this never happens again in my lifetime?

9. You have a renewed love of all cats everywhere.

10. Your husband and children appreciate the old you so much more and actually want her back.

I realize that this sounds a little dramatic. I tell myself that there's nothing to be afraid of - I grew up on a farm for crying out loud. But there's just something about mice that freaks me out. Please wish us luck in our quest to rid this pest from our lives. Oh, and other than the whole rodent problem, everyone here is doing good. Happy Halloween this weekend.

No news is good news - But very boring

2010-09-25T07:49:00.001-07:00

The same old same old. Everything is getting routine around here lately. And yet still manages to feel so chaotic.
School for the kids, school for Jef, Scouts for me and Tay, Scouts for Jef, Gymnastics for Hannah, Soccer for Jane. Jono has been having a hard time with all of this. He gets bored without the others home to entertain him during the day. He is constantly asking if we can go to the dentist or the doctor or Wal-mart. I realize from this that we never actually leave the house to go anywhere fun anymore. This sends up red flags to me that I ought to take the kid and his little brother somewhere for themselves once in a while. I have really enjoyed morning walks with him and Logan and we try to end up at the park when there is time. I hope this weather lasts longer.

Playing hard, but not so hard she can't take a minute to wave at the camera. Go fireballs - they are undefeated so far. Or at least they would be if they kept score.

This is at cub scouts. I wasn't sure if it would be cool to put in all of the other scouts. Privacy issues and all.

Has been wearing this leotard constantly at home and is so excited for a chance to actually need it. Shows me her muscles after every class.

Logan so ticked off that Dad won't let him "help."

Jono probably saying something about how Dad is being "mean" to Logan.

Watch out Santa - we might actually have a place to hang our stockings this year. We're getting close.

This is how projects go down around here - Jef has not time to do a project all at once, so they are spread out into a few minutes here and there over the course of several weeks (or months and so on). Julie's job is to keeps the kids far far away and to teach them that those words Daddy is saying are acceptable only when doing home improvement or working on a car. Together we make a great team. Sometimes I say that next time I will do the project while Jef watches the kids, because I think that the person doing the project gets all of the credit while the person watching the kids gets none. Then I remember that I know nothing about building shelves and laying tile and I look at the finished project and think that maybe Jef does deserve a little credit - or rather a lot of it. Good job Jef.
I will just wait until the kids are all grown up to decide if I want to take credit for them or not. Ha ha.

One exciting thing that happened to us was that our ward got split last week. This is not exciting to you reader(s) I realize, but our house was the cut off line, so it was big news to us. Yes, this means our next door neighbors are not in our ward anymore. Good thing we still live next door to them, because we like them a lot.
Although our ward will be smaller, our callings haven't changed much. We are glad we don't have to start over in a new ward because if we make it about 6 more months in this ward, it will be our longest time ever living in the same place since we've been married. WooHoo!

This last news may go into the category of non-boring, but is definitely not the kind of exciting I am looking for. After falling off the bunk beds, Hannah had another unexplained seizure-type episode this week. I am glad I wasn't there to watch her last one a few months ago because I was there for this and it really freaked me out. She is fine now, and we are working on getting some answers about what is going on. She had all kinds of neurological tests done last time that all came back normal.
The next day (whilst I am still recovering from the previous traumatic experience, mind you) Jonathan opened the door for Logan and let him out to play while I wasn't looking. When I noticed that the house was quiet (always a huge warning sign) I ran outside to find Logan running down the middle of the street with a car waiting patiently behind him. Thank you nice lady in the car for helping me keep my child safe. Somedays it seems much harder than you'd think. I am glad I don't have to do it alone and I definitely know that in addition to helping hands all around me, there is also a lot of help that I can't see. I am sure of it.

Taking the Fall

2010-09-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. Time to say goodbye to this...

And hello to this...
Jane and Taylor on their first day going back to the big bad elementary school. They seem to be enjoying it so far.
Jane on crazy hair day. (Yes, she is wearing the same shirt, but this is like a week later.) She saw a girl with this hairdo last year and wanted to try it. At the last minute, her courage ran out and she opted for something more subdued. At least I got a shot of it because I thought it was pretty dang cool. She has also started on a soccer team and likes it a lot.

Hannah's first day. (Kindergarten starts a week later than the other grades.) She was crying when I picked her up the first day. Because she missed me - no, because she wanted to ride the bus home and her teacher wouldn't let her - yes. As the bus doesn't even come in our neighborhood and I have no idea where she would've ended up, I am grateful. I appreciate my children's teachers more all of the time.
At times she isn't quite sure about school, and at other times she loves it. I overheard her say to her carpool buddy on the way home Friday - "Kindergarten is the best!"

Very excited to ride her scooter on the first day while me and the little boys walked with her. She made it about two houses down before she got tired of it and we stashed it in some bushes for me to pick up on the way home.
She has also started a gymnastics class. She was commenting on how many things she is involved in now and I asked her if she was too busy and what we should get rid off if she was. She did not hesitate to tell me that she thought we should get rid of church.
Random family picture that we had Jef's dad snap for us the other day. Yes, I realize that Hannah is showing a little too much neck and Jono has created some nice goggles for himself, but please believe this is the best family photo we've come up with in a long time. Yes, Mom, I will try to get you a copy soon, I know you are sick of the very outdated one hanging on your kitchen wall.

Even though we've had an entire summer to do fun stuff, knowing that it will get very cold soon has prompted us to spend a lot more time outdoors than we had been. Also, it is so perfect right now, weatherly speaking. The kids and I took a fun trip to Bridal Veil with some of my family while Jef slaved away on Labor day. I didn't get a group shot of all of us, but it was fun times indeed. Above is Hannah on her bike (this time she made it clear to the very last stretch before I had to carry it!) Below is Logan after a nice big slobbery kiss from Jada my brother's dog.

We love how Jono is always pointing at us and telling us what's up. We think is especially endearing how his aim is always just a little off so it looks like he's pointing at something completely different than what he means to be.

Taylor and his buddies built a fort out in the hills behind our house. One very awesome Mom took some pizza up there and sat with them last night while they watched a movie in it on a battery-operated TV. We stopped by to visit and the kids helped themselves to some pizza.
I hope it stays warm long enough for them to have a lot of fun in it.

I have all of the usual fall emotions. It is nice to have just the two little boys home in the mornings. It is not nice to have Jef back in school and gone more again. It is nice to have a lot going on and things have been more exciting around here. It is not nice that school just barely started and we've already gotten all kinds of strange illnesses going through our home. Logan and Jono have had hand, foot, and mouth disease all week. Bleh. Here's to wishful thinking that this is just a fluke and not a sign of what's to come in the months ahead.

Ore-gone too soon

2010-08-17T07:45:00.000-07:00

Dear State of Oregon:

I have been looking forward to seeing you for a long time. I find it very upsetting that our first meeting went by so very quickly. I thank you profoundly for your good weather, great company, and fun memories. However, I do not think that you should have placed yourself quite so far away from Utah, and request that you somehow situate yourself into a shorter drive for next time. I am willing to overlook this shortcoming due to the fact that you have beautiful views and beaches and most especially, that you are home to some of our very awesome family members. We hope that you give them back to Utah eventually, but in the meantime, meeting you was a wonderful experience. Maybe once our minivan recharges and I learn how to pack suitcases like Mary Poppins (and as cheerfully as her) we will come and see you again. I hope so.

Sincerely,
Someone who is trying to get back to the real world after being on a stellar vacation for a week.

PS Jef is sorry he ignored you so much by bringing his Droid on the trip. Ha ha, just kidding, Jef. It sure was nice to have GPS, but next time I will not give in to the temptation to check my emails while on vacation. That just defeats the purpose. We have way to much technology these days. I am almost proud of the fact that we made the entire drive without a DVD player in the car. (With special emphasis on the almost.) Go books on tape!

Now, this will seem like a lot of pictures, but I'll have you know, it is only a fraction of what we took...

We enjoyed getting to see the Columbia River and the State of Washington on the other side of it. On the drive home we stopped to drive across a bridge and then turn around and drive right back across again. We couldn't be that close to a new state without saying we'd set foot (or tire) in it.

For days before we left, Jonathan grew upset if we called this our trip to Portland or our trip to Oregon - we were only allowed to call it our trip to "the beach." We were not exactly sure if he even understood what a beach was, but he was so excited to go there. So I had the camera ready when he got his first view of it - this is how he looked.

Random Ring-around-the-rosies in a parking lot by Seaside beach.

Brotherly Bonding

Are you sure I'm really allowed to be playing in this?

Baby legs in the sand

Completely soaked and freezing and asking for a popsicle. He always demands popsicles whenever he gets wet - it's like his after-swimming tradition.

The crew at the first beach we stopped at - Seaside beach, where Jef's Grandma lived while his Grandpa was in the Navy during WWII. We also drove passed Cannon beach right after this in honor of the Goonies being filmed there. (Don't worry, I didn't do the truffle shuffle.)

So happy to be in Oregon

Logan stayed in this backpack most of the time. We were okay with the fact that he wasn't crazy about the cold water since that meant one less kid to chase. But he did get out and "run away" from the waves a few times with the rest of them.

Jane and Bo-daner at Pacific Beach where we stayed

Cousins, water, and sand. A recipe for fun.

Taylor just chilling in the frigid water like it's no big deal.

Favorite place to play in the townhome - the closet. There's no explaining little kids.

Little Buddies. After they spent hours building in the sand, we decided that everyone should have a sandbox for a front yard.

Shots by the Cape Meares lighthouse
Jane enjoying the sunny day - we felt lucky we got to see some

Logan at the lookout by the lighthouse.

Waiting for our food at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was followed by a taste of delicious ice cream.

So much fun + so little time = pure blissful exhaustion

Showers - both Rain and Meteor

2010-08-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry to keep blogging all day, but I just want to share this information with the world because it is so cool -

First of all, I think that seeing my kids and their neighborhood friends dancing in the huge rainstorm we just had was the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. Who says rainy days are gloomy?

Second of all, if you go outside about 9:30 tonight and look in the western sky, you can see 3 planets at once all right by each other. We did this last night and it was awesome. They are supposed to be closest this weekend. They are Venus, Mars, and Saturn.

Then, next week there is a meteor shower that will reach it's peak on the 12th. We are planning on viewing it and would highly recommend it as super summer fun.

Time Flies When You're Having Sun

2010-07-18T18:07:00.000-07:00

All year-round, our family talks and plans for all the fun things we're going to do over the summer, and then all of the sudden it's almost over already! How does this happen? Okay, I admit I have secretly wished for school to be back in session a time or two, and with 6 of us home all day and toys scattered everywhere I have really been feeling the need to get the basement finished, but overall we've just enjoyed the sweet freedom. It has been especially nice to have Jef out of school for the last few weeks. We have loved all of the time we've spent with both of our families. We have tried to keep busy with some projects around the house and yard but mostly we've ended up just hanging out and never seem to get too bored. Funny how that usually happens. Now that there are only 3 weeks left I feel a little panicky about all of the we didn't get around to. Luckily we have some of the funnest stuff saved for last. And our house and yard projects will still be there waiting for us when it's all over.

Anyway, here's some things we've done this summer since last I posted:

Jono gets a summer buzz. He was so excited and kept rubbing his head saying "Dad shaved me!" A couple of days later he changed his mind and wanted us to put his hair back on.

The annual Pony Express parade. It's still just as fun our third year as it was the first.

Jef runs in the RAGNAR and also in two 5ks. And he loved it so much he wants to do it again next year. He inspires me enough that I've stared running one lap around the park once in a while. Almost the same thing.
He also replaced his old truck with a bigger, newer one. Now he's been called as the Young Men's President. Coincidence? We are curious if we will ever see him once school starts again, but he will do a GREAT job and hopefully have some fun too. Our bishop told me that I would be blessed with energy here at home while Jef is gone more often, so I am excited for him to get started because I could sure use it!

A happy end to a fun baseball season. Go Twins.

Fun times lighting off fireworks with my WHOLE family. Every single one of us.

Fun times in Park city with Jef's WHOLE family. Every single one of us. My kids saw every cousin, aunt, uncle, grandparent and great-grandparent they have in the same week. How cool is that?

A trip to my old hometown in Idaho for my Grandpa's funeral. (Also the same week -yes, it was a busy one!) It was, of course, very hard to say goodbye to Grandpa, but is always a neat experience to show the kids where I grew up. I got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in ages - both family and old primary teachers and such. I am glad that Grandpa is with Grandma and can't wait to see them both again someday.
One of Jef's good friends also passed away that week. We were sorry to miss his funeral and hope his family knows that they are very much in our thoughts and prayers.

Me and mom at the cow mailbox. Memories like this aren't easy to top.

Logan enjoying Fine Cuisine

Taylor at our Cub Scout Day Camp.

Jane, just being silly. She starts on her soccer team this month.

Hannah losing her first tooth and getting super excited for Kindergarten

Summer is especially good for just hanging out...

and relaxing.

Armpit Accent

2010-06-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I haven't posted in about a decade. And for once, we actually have some fun things to blog about, so here goes. Please prepare yourself for a lot of words and a lot of pictures.

First off,
Taylor is nine. He (and I) have moved up to the Bear Den in scouts and the whole family got to enjoy our first ever pinewood derby last month. Our ward had 32 scouts entered, which is really quite a lot. It was a fun (but extremely long) night, and Taylor and Jef are proud to report that their car, Certain Death, placed 4th overall. Also, Tay is playing on a baseball team for the Twins this summer and is enjoying it much.
Taylor is very much like how I would picture Jef as a nine-year-old. Of course, I have no idea what Jef was like as a nine-year-old, but I do know him now, and Taylor acts like he does, so there you go.
Here is an example of the sense of humor that they share and which we all get to enjoy so often: Taylor was talking about a girl who had an armpit accent. Naturally, I was curious to know exactly what constitutes an armpit accent, so I asked. According to my firstborn son, an armpit accent occurs when everything someone says sounds like the noises made when you put your hand in your armpit and flap your arm up and down. Come on, you know which one I mean. So, now just picture a girl talking like that and there you go - armpit accent.
Anyway, to celebrate the big oh-nine, a few Saturdays ago, Taylor got two awesome parties with doughnuts, cupcakes, granparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nice weather, a team baseball game, and a cousin baseball game. On his real birthday, we went shopping for a wii game and picked up Little Ceasar's hot n readys. They are Taylor's favorite pizza and he begged for them, so who were we to deny him such an extravagance? The real fun began when everyone got to eat them in the living room. The difference between this and every other meal is that this time they actually had permission to do so. My kids seem to have an aversion to sitting and eating at the table, especially Jono. I find his food in some of the most unusual places you can imagine.

Second of all, school got out. You might have noticed all of the mothers at Walmart with tired looks on their faces and a long line of kids behind them. It has been a blast so far in a completely exhausting kind of way. We took an overnight trip to the metropolis of Torrey, UT and spent some time in Capitol Reef National Park. It was beautiful and really great to go somewhere awesome so that we can put pictures on our blog and feel like we actually do get to do fun stuff once in a while. Jef's parents were kind enough to come with us and we were grateful for the company and the extra helping hands. Living close to Grandparents is a blessing.

That's enough blabbering, now here's all the pictures.
Hannah and Jane wore matching skirts the other day, so we took a bunch of pictures. I know the skirts aren't actually in this picture, but lets face it - even if they dressed identically, they look nothing alike. And yet still, they act much alike.
Won't sleep in a bed, but will sleep in a high chair. He looks the way I feel.

Taylor a little ticked off at his trick candle. I guess a doughnut that good is just not safe to eat without a helmet on.

The cousin baseball game. But who are all those old men playing with them?

Don't worry, the person taking the picture is not the same person who is going to catch him on the way down.
Jane and Katie didn't want to play baseball because they just wanted me to take their pictures. I guess it must be nice to be so dang cute.

Pizza, pizza and wii, wii.

Group shots at Capitol Reef. If we look so tired in the second picture it is because we all completed a nice long hike and are pooped. We did not leave Hannah home alone, she just was too tired to get in the picture.
And here's a shot for those who say that Logan looks exactly like his Dad. I agree that they share the same rugged good looks, but I do believe those are Bauer eyebrows. Anyway, he's saying, "Summer is AWESOME!"

One is NOT the Lonliest Number

2010-04-29T08:41:00.000-07:00

Logan, is one. One year old. One awesome kid.

This kind of occasion calls for a party!
Well, two parties, actually because that's just the way we like things around here.
(Note to unnamed cousin - you will see that Logan has taken to wearing clothes again while spending time in his "special place" - we hope you choose to go this route as well.)

Jono played the part of the typical jealous older brother very convincingly.
Here is Logan on the new Buzz Lightyear couch.

Here is Logan off the new Buzz Lightyear couch.

Here is Logan surrounded by adoring fans. He should definitely feel loved.

Here's the happy kid with frosting on his face. He also ate a big chunk out of his candle before we noticed. Guess he can't tell the difference between my frosting and a giant piece of wax. Hm.

Working away to assemble the new picnic table.

Testing out it's durability by sitting on top of it. Yep, it's satisfactory.

Out of the infant stage and into the toddler. Fun times behind, fun times ahead.

On a more serious note, we spent the days before and after Logan's birthday at the dr. He was having a cough with breathing issues (in that he couldn't very well.) We've been giving him steroids and breathing treatments and the consensus is that he has a little bit of an asthma problem. He is also not gaining weight very well (oh, that I could say the same!), and the two issues together caused enough concern for the dr. to recommend he be tested for cystic fibrosis, just to be safe. He tested negative (phew!) but the one sleepless night I spent thinking of how different things would be if we found out he did have it gave me only the smallest taste of what some parents must go through. To the friends we have who deal with these kind of medical issues all of the time, thank you for all you do, and you are awesome.

Speaking Kiddish

2010-04-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the funny things our kids have said lately. Sometimes I want to follow them around with tape recorders because I want to remember everything hilarious that they say. Well, at least I'll remember these.

Jonathan, when trying to describe our trip to the mall last weekend referred to it as "The Big Wal-mart." Obviously, we don't go to the mall much, but we do go to Wal-mart A LOT.
When he's mad at me lately he yells, "Go to your room!" which, honestly, I would love to do.
He was also very mad at me when he woke up the other morning and Jef was gone to work. He didn't believe me when I told him his dad was gone and yelled, "Mom, you bring him back, RIGHT NOW!"

Hannah was kissing the washcloth in the bathtub last night. Then she apologized to it. "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were Luke." Condolences to all other hopeful candidates, but Hannah is determined to marry our neighbor Luke when she grows up. We just hope she saves all real kissing for many years down the road. She has also informed us quite honestly that she is crazy in her primary class on Sundays and tells her teacher her name is "Poopy Johnson Nacho." This is her made up name that she constantly uses and I have no idea where it came from.

Taylor, in all seriousness informed me that he would rather play wii with his Dad because he "likes more of a challenge." He also started singing along with his ipod in his wonderful opera voice. My very favorite is to hear the lyrics that the kids come up with for some of the songs they like. For example, Hannah thought "Eye of the Tiger" was "I have the tiger," but Jane thought it was "I am the tiger." My very favorite misheard lyric of all time came from Taylor long ago when he sang "I am a child of God with parents kind OF dear." So true, my boy, so true.

Jane was sick at church last week so I took her home early. After we had changed into more comfortable clothes she wanted to play and watch movies. "Shouldn't you be resting," I asked, "I thought you were sick?" "Mom, I'm sorry I lied." was her reply.
She still shows no remorse when caught eating any kind of food off of the floor as well as certain items from her nasal cavities. When called out she simply shrugs and says, "What? It was good."

Logan can't really talk much, but I'm sure he'd have a lot to tell you if he could. He did climb into the bathroom cupboard naked after his bath tonight and that was pretty funny. It's his favorite place to hang out these days, but only after he throws everything out of it first.

April showers bring...snow?

2010-04-11T12:58:00.000-07:00

So, it snowed over Spring Break again this year. I think the problem with spring break is the name. If the school district called it "Random Break in April" or "No school for a week, just for the heck of it," I might have lower expectations. But when I think "Spring break," I picture sunny skies and swimming at a beach or something. Well, we may not have gone somewhere really warm, but we had a really good spring break, nonetheless. And there were even a few nice days once the snow melted.

Visits with family, a late-over with neighborhood friends, Happy Meals and the McDonald's playground, lots of wii and movies and books, kite flying, sidewalk painting in a windstorm, a ward breakfast, even a little sunshine here and there. Best of all, Jef took a day off work on Friday, and we got some yard work done and went swimming at the Legacy center (a feat which I would never have attempted without him there, and which the children LOVED.)

We also had a great Easter/Conference weekend last weekend and got to see all four grandparents and a good chunk of Aunts, Uncles, and cousins in the same day. We are proud to report that after several meltdowns last year, this year we survived 3 family Easter Egg hunts with minimal fighting and no tears - we avoided all non-family egg hunts all together. The Easter Bunny was kind enough to drop a little note to the kids asking them not to fight, which may have also helped our cause. The said bunny brought the kids each a swimming suit and a book. Last year they each got a little toy, and I was worried that they might be disappointed, but they actually all seemed to love their presents and even seemed excited about their books. Sometimes the stars align.

Other stuff that's happened recently (it sounds like we do all kinds of fun stuff, but it's really just because I never blog anymore and then try to cram everything in one post):
Jef celebrated his birthday. Jane had her much anticipated 1st grade program - she's been practicing the songs and dances for weeks now. Taylor had his 3rd grade biography fair - he was Dr. Suess. Jane had strep throat and between that and spring break has only gone to school one day so far in April. Logan is somewhere between taking a few steps and really walking all over - he has also reached the important milestone of being tall enough to reach the toilet water. Jonathan bolted about 300 times in sacrament meeting yesterday and surpassed his record of making it just out the door before we caught him and got all the way to our car. (Hey, it's hard to run in a skirt, and he is very, very fast.)

And speaking of cars, we got a new one. I'll let Jef write the eulogy for the Expedition since, in truth, I don't miss it nearly as much as he does. After a year of owning it, I started having minivan withdrawals, and we traded it in for a Sienna, which I love. Those of you who suggested this in the first place are probably rolling your eyes at our slowness to see the light. But we did have some good times with the Expedition and it's swing-opening back doors (and Jef's truck has the dings to prove it.) It did have a lot more leg and shoulder room, but we traded a little squishiness in the back seat for ease of loading kids (thankfully, some our kids are finally moving past the carseat phase - someday we may even get to let one sit in the front seat.) My favorite feature of the new car is the gap between the middle seats and the back row that allows the kids to get back there without having to fold any seats down! Jef is really, really missing the truck engine, but he has been very graceful about the fact that his wife's dream car is a minivan. In the meantime, he is hoping that someday we can upgrade his old pickup for something a little more to his taste.

Well, that's all I have to say now, here are a few pics:

The kids on Easter morning with their new books and swimwear

Logan, very happy about his new bunny.

Dying Eggs

I threw this one in because it's pre-hair cut. If you will notice in the bunny picture, he later got a buzz.

Theodor Suess Geisel

They will do anything to take a nap in our bed - even get along!

On her way to the first-grade program. Her class did the Mexican Hat Dance

Random List Frenzy

2010-03-19T17:15:00.000-07:00

It was my birthday last week, and it was a very good one. There was lots of sunshine, great company, and food. On your birthday, you get to eat lots and lots of treats, put the kids in front of movies and read a good book, do very little housework (you know, all of the things I normally do) - but on your birthday, you don't feel guilty about it. You just let yourself enjoy life. We should all have birthdays more often except then I guess they wouldn't be as special - plus I'd be even older.
At least Jef has a birthday close to mine. That means he gets older along with me. Also, since his is right after mine, I can see what he gets me before I decide what to buy him.

So, here are some random lists to help me celebrate the last 31 years of my life:

Top three ways I know I'm getting old:
3 - I look at the clock at 10 pm and say, "Oh, I didn't mean to stay up so late."
2 - I get sore from weird simple things, like painting or playing catch.
1 - When I drive Jef's truck I find every single station is set to talk radio. True, that makes Jef old and not me, but it makes me feel old to be married to such an one.

Top three naughty things my kids have done lately:
3 - Peed and/or pooped places that they shouldn't have. (No names mentioned, to protect the not-so-innocent.)
2 - Snuck food out of the pantry and ate it in my bed while watching movies in my room. I hate this because when I go to sleep I can feel crumbs all over the sheets.
1- Plugged the sink in my bathroom, turned the water on full blast, and let it run for long enough to run all over the floor and directly down the heat vent that is also directly over the furnace. Luckily, the one night we spent without heat for fear of starting an electrical fire passed quickly (and the kids stayed in bed better than usual.)

Top three ways I've wasted my time lately:
3 - Trying to beat Taylor at Mario Cart. This is only a waste of time because it is impossible. If I could actually win, it would so be time well spent.
2 - Trying to get the laundry done and the house cleaned. (I mean come on, five minutes later you can't tell I did a single thing.)
1 - Watching every movie available at the local redbox while Jef has been doing his homework.

Top five things that cheer me up when I am frustrated:
5 - Listening to music.
4 - Good books and warm baths.
3 - Jef watching the kids and me getting to go to the adult session of Stake Conference alone. I forgot what it felt like to sit through a good meeting. *Note, looking forward to Stake Conference might also go on the list of ways to know when I am getting old.
2 - Going outside in springtime weather.
1 - The gap in Logan's teeth when he smiles.

Top three expressions used in our home:
3 - You never cook what I like.
2 - What? I don't see anything that needs cleaning up.
1- That is so not fair!

Top three dates Jef and I have been on lately:
3 -
2-
1 -
(Does taking turns walking Logan in the middle of the night count?)

Top three things I like about being a mom right now:
3 - When I see the kids doing nice things for each other. Like today when Hannah and Jono were holding hands.
2 - That my kids are not old enough yet to be embarrassed to be seen with me.
1 - That I have excuses to play fun games, read children's books, make silly faces, and color pictures of trains and princesses.

P.S. Here is a video of how Logan "crawls." He is super fast. And he always crawls like this, even when he's not pushing a train.

Totally Tubular Times

2010-02-23T11:17:00.000-08:00

Since I only have random miscellaneous things to say, I'm going to make a bullet list. Then my thoughts will appear to be organized, even though they are not.

Logan slept better last night than he has in months. I believe that this is due in part to his 2nd top tooth poking through. I woke up early and got about a billion things done because I felt so good. Sleep will do that to you. I think I overdid it though because it is only lunchtime and I am ready for bed again.
Jane is getting tubes put in on Thursday. She has had several ear infections over the last few years, even though she never had them as a baby. I didn't think kids as old as her needed to get tubes until the doctor said something about it. Since then, we've noticed she is not hearing well, even in between infections. I used to think that she just had problems saying her letters, but now am realizing that she's just hearing them wrong to begin with. How frustrating for her, but she is enjoying the attention and is very excited to miss school for the surgery. Don't tell her I said this, but I am hoping that once it is done she will not talk and yell quite so loudly! Seriously though, I do think it will help her out a lot.
Logan has had two ear infections since getting his own tubes last month. The puss is draining nicely, so we feel like those tubes have already proven their worth. Jane is grossed out by it and won't sit close to him because she doesn't want to see it. Wonder what she'll do when she gets one of her own. And this is coming from the girl who licks hot dog juice off her plate when she is done.
We have a family bet every now and then. Last summer we bet on what day the snow would be melted off Timp. More recently, we bet what day all of the snow would be melted off the yard. So far my date has come and gone, but everyone else did much better at guessing next week, which looks likely at this point. Yea for sunshine. I have officially deemed it warm enough for the kids to walk to and from school again. It is quite nice to not have to load the car every morning and is good for them as well, I think.
Speaking of school, I registered Hannah for Kindergarten yesterday. She is so eager to start. So very eager. I can't believe I will have 3 kids in school. How do I decide who gets the box tops?
I get to experience my first Blue and Gold banquet this week as both a Cub Scout leader and a parent. Next will be my first pinewood derby. It doesn't get much better than this! I am guessing that Taylor's car will be painted blue with BYU logos on it. That is his latest craze.
Speaking of Taylor, he coughed up his slopes fund last weekend and he and Jef went to Sundance. Taylor did really good at saving, but didn't have quite enough, so Jef covered the rest. Then he wrote a book about it called "The parable of the slopes," which he sold at Deseret Book. Just kidding, I hope that's not sacrilegious. Taylor said he fell a lot, but still had fun.
Since the boys were planning their slopes trip, I recently signed the girls up for this thing put on at our city center called "Princess Academy." They LOVED it. Dressing up, crafts, even a little lunch served. I got to go follow them around and take lots of pictures. It was fun to see Hannah sitting in her princess get up and fake burping in the other girl's faces. I am so proud of my little ladies.

Some pictures at the park in this tropical weather we've been having

Princess Academy

I stand corrected

2010-02-16T06:57:00.000-08:00

I was reading over the last entry and hope no one got the wrong idea or is going to try and refer me to counselors. I wrote that a after a really long night and now I am thinking it sounds very dramatic and lame. I guess Logan isn't the only one around here who tries to get lots of attention! We all need to vent sometimes right, but seriously, Julie. Anyway thanks for the nice comments. Great advice.

Joined at the Hip

2010-01-25T12:59:00.000-08:00

I have not felt like blogging in a long time. I have not kept up on a lot of things in a long time. I have not slept in a really, really long time.
I keep thinking - why has our family been so busy lately and why have I been so stressed out and tired? I've blamed Jef's school, I've blamed our church callings, I've blamed the laundry, the messy house, the playgroup, the holiday rush, recuperating from the holiday rush, the projects we've been trying to do, even the fact that it is February and therefore just a depressing month. These things are all true, but they are not the real issue.
I think I'm finally coming to terms with the fact that our dear sweet Logan, who I love so much, is a very, very time-consuming baby. More-so than other babies. Much more, more-so. I haven't fully embraced this truth before because I haven't wanted to make him feel bad. I really like him a lot, but it's time to face facts. I thought once he got out of the newborn stage it would help. Then I thought once he had his tube surgery done it would be better. But it's not better - in fact, I think it may actually be getting worse.
I am holding him as I type this. I shower with him crying outside the door. I sleep (in spurts) while holding him. I wear him in my backpack while I cook dinner. Jef and I even took him on a double date with us last weekend because we didn't want to overwhelm the babysitter. After trying to hold him in one arm while simultaneously helping the Wolves with the projects they were doing for Den Meeting this week, I turned to my fellow den leader and exclaimed in exasperation - I might as well just have him surgically attached to me! I've been pondering this idea and am not sure it's such a bad thing.
When I was pregnant with said child and seeing the doctor for one of my final check ups, the doc told me that I seemed very calm for a mother of 4. I loved this compliment (I was nine months pregnant and would have loved ANY compliment.) But then he turned to me and said, "This might be the straw that breaks the camel's back...." I may be adding things to my memory, but I'm pretty sure his voiced echoed and I got the chills when he said that. It was like it was prophetic or something
So, with all due respect to Logan I tell you this. We've given him enough excuses - ear infections, swine flu, Roseola, RSV, colic, allergic reactions, and getting teeth excuses. But I'm tired of excuses. His siblings are growing restless. Jef and I are worn thin. Our Logan has way too much spirit for such a small body to contain!
Anyway, if you've actually taken all of the time to read this really long post that probably sounds quite whiny and complainy hang in there - my point is coming:
In finally accepting the reality I call Logan, I've had a revelation. I am not a camel, I'm a person. This Mommy thing is not just something I am doing until I can get on with my life. It IS what I want to do with my life. I don't even care if Logan never grows out of this stage. I wouldn't trade him or any of my other kids. I am lucky to have him. I going to try harder to put off what commitments are put-off-able and focus on the basics. Relax a little more. Pray a lot more. And just take things one day at a time. I've had some sobering eye-openers lately reminding me how lucky I am to have what I do. Cliche though it may be, I'm thankful to know that Families are Forever.

P.S. Here are some pictures of us.Understandably jealous Jono. We have not forgotten you! We hope you had a happy third birthday!!

Taylor and Jane "helping" him open his new Woody and Bullseye.

The sheriff enjoying his cupcakes served on Lightening McQueen plates while wearing a Diego backpack.

Just a couple of small projects we got done. A coat rack and painting the girl's room. It is fun to have them done, although the room looks much more like rainbow sherbet than I originally anticipated.

Good times at Hogle Zoo with awesome cousins

Logan. You are adorable.

Once in a Blue Moon

2009-12-16T16:24:00.000-08:00

Last week, according to my husband, who is the king of random cool information, was a blue moon. This means that there was an extra full moon this year, which is rare. I thought it was fitting that it happened on Jane's birthday, since now it is verified that girls like her only come along once in a blue moon. Also, that's about how often I've been updating my blog lately, so I'm going to try a super-post to wrap up 2009 and recap things that have happened in the past while.

We'll start with the birthday girl Janiecakes, who is now the big 7.
Received almost all things Littlest Pet Shop for Christmas and her birthday, and therefore got exactly what she wanted. Informed me that even though we usually light off fireworks for her since her birthday is on New Years Eve, she doesn't really like it that much, so we skipped it this year. Likes coloring, doing crafts, and being read too, but does not like writing in the journal her teacher asked her to keep over the break. Loves hot dogs, sausage, and bacon. Got strep throat on Christmas day and had to wait it out since for some reason we couldn't find a doctor's office open anywhere that day. Likes to eat snow, no matter where she finds it.

Jonathan. Who is called Jono so often he may not even be aware that he has a full name.
Learned to pick bathroom/bedroom doors with a butter knife resulting in no privacy as well as a strange trail of cutlery scattered throughout the house. Loves pretending to turn down his hearing aid whenever someone does the Junior Wilderness Explorer call. Is the most fearless of all kids on the local sledding hill. Hits people in the face to get their attention and then promptly apologizes as though he had no idea he was going to do such a thing. Would rather be visiting his Grandparents than anywhere else in the world.

Jef. Who finished his first semester of his EMPA program, as well as his leg lamp. The real question is, which was he more excited about? Got to (had to) be home with us the last two Wednesday nights and didn't even have homework to do the rest of the time. Helped Santa get Taylor a snowboard and therefore gets to take Taylor to the slopes at least once this winter. It's about time he used the skiis in the basement. May have started a new Christmas tradition by shooting his marshmallow gun at the kids shortly after they acted out the Nativity. As of last week, has been married to me for 10 years.

Taylor. Has started a "slopes" jar to save money in so that he can help Jef pay for the big event. Saved up $6 last month and asked to be taken to the dollar store so that he could buy us each a Christmas present. Loves his new Wii Resort game and begs to have someone play it with him - he does not enjoy "alone" time. Has discovered that he likes reading and vows to have Percy
Jackson read before the movie comes out next month. Is quite the little comedian and does not believe in straight faces, or even just regular smiles in any photograph taken of him.

Logan. Rang in the new year with ringing in his own ears and will probably have to get tubes put in soon. Can pretty much crawl now, but adapts to our wood floors with his own kind of bum scoot/crawl. Discovered that wrapping paper is not only pretty, but absolutely delicious. He loves other solid foods as well and is very advanced for his age in his eating abilities. After months of sleeping in his own bed, decided that this being sick business causes Mom and Dad to hold you all night, which is much, much better. Apparently, requires a very small amount of sleep to keep highly energized. We think he much have some kind of new lithium battery that allows him to keep going with little recharging. Loves his older siblings, but is also learning to antagonize Jono and they fight over mom and dad's lap space. Likes to clap and his favorite place is the bathtub.

Julie. Thanks to Jef even her children refer to her as Bruce some days. Would like to know how to replace her batteries with some of Logan's. Doesn't want Christmas Break to be over yet. Is waiting for her new present of blinds on the front windows to be installed so that they neighbors can't see her walking around in her PJs much later than is socially acceptable each day. After all of the illnesses passed around our home so far this winter, is thinking about going back and getting a Medical Degree. Did almost all of her Christmas shopping online this year and recommends it to anyone with small children and a long way to drive. Thank you sister, for informing me about Walmart's sight to store.

Hannah Banana. May be one of the only people I know who wears dresses and skirts under her snow pants. Idolizes her primary teacher. Can quote movies with the best of them. Has learned from Jane every song and rhyme that a 1st-grader comes home with, and is getting impatient to start school herself. Loves to dance and pose. Is the excuse queen for reasons not to go to bed and apparently has magical powers as well. The other day after she told me that cleaned her room, she somehow enchanted all of her toys to scatter themselves all over the floor again. She swears that she really did clean and that somehow they did this all by themselves, so I can come up with no other explanation.

Anyway, Happy New Year! We hope this next year brings as much fun stuff as the last, and maybe even more.

A Whole Handful

2009-12-02T21:02:00.001-08:00

Hannah turned five this week. My Grandma Callister used to tell me that when I got to be five I would be a whole handful, and Hannah loves this story. She's been telling everyone that she's now a whole handful, but I think she has been for a while! This afternoon I took her to get her five-year-old check up and shots. She now thinks that she needs to start Kindergarten immediately, and asked me tonight if she will be going to school in the morning. It is hard to explain to her that she will start when she is five, but not until next fall.

I've decided that since Jef and I have 5 five kids now, that means we have a whole handful. I admit (and you may have sensed from my last few blog posts) that I've been feeling a little overwhelmed lately and sometimes I get a little sarcastic/whiny about it. But I want everyone to know that I am thankful for this life I have, for my family, for our blessings. I wouldn't change it. I am thankful for the peace and love I always feel during this Holiday season . I am thankful for our Savior and all the ways I can see his hand in my life.

Now, here's some pictures of the last little while:
Logan isn't crawling, but seems to get around pretty well. He has learned to do the old scoot backwards-and-get stuck under the couch bit, and so I took a picture of it.

The other night Logan pulled himself up to standing in his crib. Jane and Hannah called for us to hurry and get in there and see. We all cheered and laughed and took pictures and even lowered his crib mattress to be safe, but he hasn't done it since. I talked to Jane about it again the next morning and she admitted that she may have "helped" him. Taylor used to do the same thing with Hannah - telling us she could roll over, but somehow she only seemed to be able to do it when we left the room. Ah well, at least we got some cute photos.

Here's one last shot of Hannah as a 4-year-old. Just posing like she always does.

Thanksgiving dinner with Jef's family and Jono at the head of the table (with his shoes and socks off - his latest obsession.) I don't think I've ever been out to eat for Thanksgiving before, and I must admit, it was pretty awesome to get lots of good food and fun and not have to cook anything or wash any dishes. We also went out to a movie afterwards, something we haven't done in ages. Thank you Jef's family for a fun day. And Jay, Taylor has been bragging to all of his friends that he has ridden in a mini-cooper AND a Scion.
Everybody loves parfait.

Jane thought that the food coloring I always put in when I make birthday cake frosting was what made it so good, so she tried drinking some. I think she was quite surprised to find that it doesn't taste nearly as good as it looks. Somehow we didn't believe her when she first told us that she didn't do it - the purple mouth might have given her away.

The birthday bash with my family. Hannah came out all dressed up, so we spread the word that everyone else who wanted to was welcome come in costume. Apparently, all of the kids wanted too. And they looked awesome.
I always refer to these as "cousin parties," but Hannah kept asking when all of her "friends" were coming over. I'm glad that her cousins are some of her best friends. Yea for cousins.
Cousins pictures. I loved these shots.

In the midst of all of the holiday/birthday excitement, poor Logan had a rough couple of weeks. He had a cold and an ear infection and then had an allergic reaction to his antibiotic. He got hives all over and his his entire face swelled up. I know this picture is so sad, but this was actually taken after he was doing much better. I didn't even put the saddest ones on here. I am happy to report that he looks and feels much better now, and we are so relieved to have him almost back to himself.
Jono really love the movie "UP" and keeps putting lotion in his hair and saying, "I'm Mr. Fredrickson." I'm not sure how the two connect, but it is always cute to hear a 2-year-old say the words "Mr. Fredrickson," regardless.

Taylor showing how we have mostly decorated for Christmas. We still need to put the finishing touches on Jef's leg lamp.
The stockings were hung by the chimny with care - in hopes that a mantle soon would be there...
Jef got some new home improvement-type tools for his early Christmas presents. He has already made some awesome improvements to our kitchen cupboards and uncompleted wood floors. We have great plans to start finishing the basement, but we've lived in this house almost a year now and are just getting to this point, so don't hold your breath.
Hannah's real birthday. (We had her party a little early.) She really loved this 5 candle. She made me put it in the hot dogs she was having for lunch and sing to her.
Since the kids get so many wonderful and much-appreciated presents from their Grandparents, cousins, and even Great-grandparents, Jef and I don't need to buy them much. So way back when Taylor turned two, we decided to start a tradition of using the money we would've spent on presents to go do something fun - we went on a steamboat ride to be exact. The tradition has kind of evolved to simpler things and we don't even spend much money most of the time, but we still try to do something around each kids birthday. On Hannah's birthday night we went out to eat and then to see the lights on temple square. It was a really fun and special night. We love you Hane-bo-daner.

I'm feeling just swine, thank you

2009-11-11T20:17:00.000-08:00

Well, it's a good thing we squeezed in a vacation when we did because we spent the rest of the the month of October getting sick, then getting better, then getting sick again. By some miracle Jef was the only one who never got sick at all. As punishment for his doing well while we all felt horrible, he was forced to take care of us and listen to us complain. He handled it quite well, but I have a feeling that it wasn't the funnest vacation time he's ever taken.
The silver linings: I didn't eat nearly as much Halloween candy as usual this year, we got to spend lots of quality time together watching movies and not having to change out of our pajamas, we have become close friends with all of the lovely people at the Pediatrics office, and we don't have to get vaccinated for the swine flu. Please do not call it H1N1. The swine flu is definitely the more appropriate name.
Also, when we have all been able to get out and do stuff, we certainly appreciate it more. This has been one of the prettiest autumns I remember in a long time.
Logan at the park. Can you believe he is 6 months old now and has gotten his first tooth. He also says Dada. So far the score is Jef -4, Julie - 1. Jonathan was the only kid to say Mama first.

This is the stone pillar at our park that says "park" on it. I think it used to say the whole name of the park at one point, but all we really know is that Hannah likes to climb on it and do some major belly dancing for the whole neighborhood.
Taylor at his school costume parade. Jane didn't go to school that day, but she wasn't really sick that day, she just refused to go. We think there was a little first grade drama going on, so we tried to be patient and firm at the same time. We told her if she was going to stay home, she was absolutely not allowed to have fun. It was a little hard to monitor, but it must have worked a little, because she was anxious to go back again on Monday.
Where Jef found Jono watching TV. He may be just a little jealous these days. The other clue is the fact that he follows me around hanging onto my clothes and fake-crying. He has also started trying to change his own diapers. A step towards potty-training, I suppose, but not a very sanitary one.
This is Halloween night. Hannah was "Sick-or-treating," which means that she had to watch out the window. You can tell she didn't feel good because she hardly complained. Good thing she dresses up like a princess all of the time, so she will still get lots of chances to use the costume that we didn't have to buy for her to begin with. Taylor and Logan were both in bed at this point, and didn't even bother to go to the window.
Little does he know, his turn will come in a couple of days. He is just enjoying being a really useful engine.

I got this dog costume for Taylor when he wasn't even two yet. Talk about one size fits all. I love it that Jane didn't even ask for a new costume and just figured she'd use something we already had.
Please tell me if you notice anything out of place in the above picture.
Happy late Halloween everyone. And hello Holiday Season - I am sooo excited to spend our first Christmas here in our home. Last year we really enjoyed the time spent with my parents, but it will be fun to be able to get out our own tree and all that stuff that was in storage last Christmas. We've already started watching Christmas movies.

BYU & UEA, FYI

2009-10-18T09:18:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, you've heard all of the jokes before. But it's not often I get a chance to say it and mean it without feeling guilty afterward, so allow me this indulgence - We went on the best dam trip ever last weekend!
Jef was going to go the the BYU game in Las Vegas with some members of his family. Somehow at the last minute we all managed to get ourselves invited. It was fun all around with lots of good memories. My mom always says that no matter how much fun you have on a trip, it's always the things that go wrong that you remember the most. Not much went wrong, luckily, but here are some of the weird things that we'll all remember:
-Frantically packing late Friday night and leaving early Saturday morning.
-Lots and lots of gas station and fast food restaurant bathrooms.
-Jonathan's heart-stopping sprints away from us in crowded places.
-Seeing the funny looks people all gave us as we walked through the casino to go bowling in the bowling alley that had like 100 lanes.
-Explaining to the kids what slot machines are. (Later Jane described them as machines you put money into, but not as much money comes back out.)
-Jef gambling away the kids' college funds in a matter of minutes. Ha, just put that in to see if you were listening... Our kids don't even have college funds!
-Hannah becoming enchanted with Jef's cousin Kevin and not leaving him alone the rest of the trip. Don't worry little brother, she called him "another Kevin."
-Jay and Taylor in their new BYU hats, and Taylor's first Cougar football game.
-Taylor exclaiming every time we passed a sports car.
-Jane falling out of the hotel bed in the middle of the night.
-Hannah waking up and realizing we'd moved her into Jane's bed and then wandering around the hotel room requesting me to get her towels from the bathroom so she could make her own bed on the floor.
-Waiting in lots of dam traffic.
-Logan being amazingly good most of the time and then inexplicably screaming his head off on the way home.
We've been talking lately about trying to get away and take a long road trip and discovered on this one that a 6 hour drive and two days was plenty long enough to do for quite a while. How did we ever manage to drive from Minnesota and back? Anyway, thanks to Jef's parents for the fun time!

Outside a Carl's Jr. No matter where you go in the world, isn't it comforting to know that all fast food restaurants basically have the same facilities?

Sam Boyd Stadium or Bust

While some of the kids argued that they most enjoyed "swimming" in the hotel's hot tub, the rest of us agreed that going to Hoover Dam was our favorite part of the trip. We didn't take the dam tour, but we did think just walking around looking was really cool. They are building this HUGE bridge above the dam so that people don't have to drive on the dam anymore. The bridge was nearly as cool as the dam. I hope we can go back someday when it's finished.

Come on, vamanos!

Possibly the first person ever to cross Hoover Dam while simultaneously devouring rice cereal.

"I'll turn this bus around!"

Jane was really worried about getting back by Monday so that she wouldn't miss her handwriting segment in school, but she tried to have fun for our sakes.

Jono trying to explain to Sandy that he "NEEDS to run faster."

Now Jono is trying his tricks on Ray, but he is foiled again! Thank heavens for quick grandparents.

The whole dam family
(Sorry, but it's just not getting old for me yet.)

What could cause such awe? We were passing a train when I took this picture.

If the trip last weekend wasn't good enough, we had UEA this weekend so there was more fun and two days off school. On Thursday the kids and I went to my Mom's and we all visited my Dad in his office at the BYU.

Thank you, Mom for always being willing to help me take the kids on fun expeditions.

Grandpa has the coolest stuff in his office!

Thanks for the candy Grandpa!
But maybe we'd better go now - I don't think this office is used to such "excitement."

Nothing like the good old Bean Museum.

Tarzan, meet Jane

Taylor and the Kodiak

Just when you thought this post would never end, here are more pictures. Logan's first haircut. Doesn't he look different and older?

He's learned to tilt his head. Quite a fun diversion when you're 5 months old. It makes everyone around you laugh too.

Suckers are necessary equipment for haircut night. Only the boys got the cuts, but apparently all enjoyed the suckers.

Last but not least, Jef doing more really neato stuff with our camera. Have each kid take a different glowing device and wave it around. Fun for them, fun for Jef, and makes a really cool picture.

So, some much needed fun and vacation. We have not seen much of Jef lately with his new school schedule, so we were excited that he took a day off on Friday. He spent the last two days doing some projects around the house and hanging out with us, which was really nice, especially since Logan has been sick and the extra hands are welcome. The older kids played with their friends like crazy in the nice weather. Since we moved into this neighborhood, they actually like to stay home and hang out instead of constantly begging to "go somewhere." Jono even managed to run away yesterday and made it to the next neighborhood over, but that's another long story.
Today Hannah and Jono are getting sick, too. It's getting to be that time of year, I guess because I've heard that lots of kids have been missing school lately. What can you do? Just give them lots of love and attention, and enjoy the excuse to have some down time, I guess. The result is this very long blog post, so there you have it.

What DO I do all day?

2009-10-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true, I lead a glamorous life.

Okay, maybe it doesn't sound that cool to someone who's never tried it, but it keeps me busy and happy and learning a LOT. I can't stand it when people say I'm not a "working mom." I know that I am really, really lucky that I've been able to be with the kids full-time, and I don't want to sound ungrateful. I just don't like being referred to as someone who's not working!
I thought once summer was over and things were more "routine" that I might have a little more time on my hands, but it hasn't felt much like that so far. In fact, it feels like our family has been really, really busy. Busy with what, you ask? Well, I don't really know.
I've come to the conclusion that motherhood is like running on a treadmill. You work really hard, but rarely feel like you are getting anywhere. For example, I clean the house, and yet, it never seems to be clean. I cook the food, and then I have to cook more. I change the diapers, and they always seem to fill up again. I ask the kids to do things and they look at me like I am completely crazy. Also, Jonathan throws his sippy cup at me and calls me an idiot.
I do it all with the hope that somewhere down the road I will suddenly realize that my kids have grown up into very cool people. I get glimpses of that all of the time, and think that maybe we're all getting somewhere after all. In the meantime, like a treadmill, I know it is definitely making me a much stronger person. Also, even when it seems really sweaty and gross, I have a lot of cool songs on my mp3 player. And then there's Jef, of course. He's like the guy at the gym who always turns the TV to stupid channels. Ha, ha. Please know that is a joke, I'm just not one to gush about my EC in public, but we really do love each other and all that.

Here are some pictures of the last month since I haven't blogged in ages. I've already written a novel, so I will try to give condensed explanations.

Jono, bath. No sippy cup thrown, but much splashing.

Goodbye summer, we will miss you.

Logan in crib. Wide awake as usual, but cute enough to pull it off.

Cousin party. So fun. Thank you coolest Aunt ever.

Lord of the Dance.

Mom, why are all the people at Wal-mart smiling at me? Well Hannah, I think they really like your hat.

May not look a lot alike, but act much the same.

Woah, Logan and solid food have really hit it off.

Midair shot, nicely timed, Jef.

Windgardium Leviosa to you too, Taylor.

Train conductors hat meets fashion diva.

Yes, dear, your hair does look okay in the back.

One more tooth to go, and you'll be able to sing that song for Christmas, Jane. You know which one I mean.

Toby, Oh Toby.

No tea parties here, but plenty of kool-aid parties.

Pop Quiz

2009-09-06T17:41:00.001-07:00

School is back in session. Let's see how you do on this:
Who did we spend the most money on school supplies for?
A. Jane and her Tinkerbell lunchbox
B. Taylor and his colored pencils.
C. Jef and his new laptop computer.
Yes, the answer is C. Jef's new laptop. I don't have a picture of it, but he might.
Anyway, Taylor is a big third grader this year and Jane is in first. I do miss having them around, but it is also fun to have time to spend with the other three. It is also nice to not have anyone in Kindergarten so I can actually go places during the day. The other morning I dropped the three youngest off with Mom and went to the temple. In the middle of the day. How cool is that?
Anyway, I thought the kids might be sad to leave me, and so I offered to drive them on the first day, but Taylor and Jane sped off on their bikes with no problem. I guess that's a good thing. They both have people they know in their classes so that's nice too. I don't really like packing lunches, but actually have found I don't need to. Apparently the kids can go play at recess as soon as they are done with lunch, so mine just don't eat theirs. Well, sometimes they drink their Capri Suns and down their fruit snacks, but that's about it.
Jef has started the EMPA program at BYU's Salt Lake Center. He will be gone every Wednesday night for the next three years. If anyone wants to come up for some chick movies, you have a standing invite for Wednesday nights. He was gone three nights last week for orientation - they had to do a ropes course together one night. I feel like I'm sending him off to EFY instead of a University! Ha ha, just kidding Jef, I'm only saying that because I know how much you enjoyed it.

What is one of Taylor's favorite movie quotes lately?
A. Who ordered the poopoo platter?
B. Even Mantis has those "thingies."
C. You are a sad, strange little man.'
D. Cherry red Ferrari for freeeeeeeee.
The answer is B. Even Mantis has those "thingies." (bonus points if you know the movie...) The other quotes are the favorites of Hannah, Jane, and Jono.

What are we reverently gazing at in this picture?
A. The new Dollar store being built in Saratoga Springs
B. Jono running speedily away from us.
C. The new temple.
C. The new Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Since the majority of our family weren't old enough to go to the dedication, we drove up that night to see it. But if you guessed B. you still get points because I think that's true too.

Which of these children underwent surgery last week?
A. Jono
B. Jane
C. Hannah
D. Taylor
E. Logan
The answer is A. Jono. He joined Julie and Taylor in the official "No tonsils" club last Thursday. (The drs have been trying to get Jef to join too, but he won't.) Jono also got new and improved ear tubes. He has had a rough and long recovery, including a trip to the ER late Friday night to receive fluids after he absolutely refused to drink anything the entire day Friday. He is finally doing better now, but still up a lot at night. Luckily Logan doesn't ever sleep, so we are up anyway. Jono was already our skinniest kid, but looks even slimmer after his IV diet. We love you Jono and even though we have enjoyed your extra hugs lately, we are excited to be reunited with the boy who doesn't hold still.

What part of Logan gets too hot when he sleeps?
A. His head because of all his hair
B. His back because of his cute back-fat.
C. His toes, but we don't know why.

That's right. It's C. Those darn toes. Otherwise why would he stick them out of his blanket like this?

Last week during safety week the kids got to dress to a different theme each day. Hannah participated every day even though she isn't in school yet. This picture is taken on crazy hair day. The question is, who in our family wins the award for craziest hair?
A. Taylor
B. Jane
C. Hannah
Ha! Trick question.
The answer is D. Logan. He didn't even try, it just always looks this way.

Lost and Found

2009-08-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

Lost: Some money is missing from our bank account.
Found: We found a camera mysteriously delivered by FedEx.
Coincidence? I think not.
If you didn't know it, Jef and I both LOVE taking pictures. We especially love taking pictures of our kids - which is good, because we've got plenty of subject matter. Anyway, we've had a blast with the new camera so far and have already taken hundreds of pictures. Seriously. Jef has done a really good job of researching and reading up on how to use it, and I'm trying to follow in his footsteps. We are even going to try to justify our purchase by taking "professional" pictures of the kids ourselves this year and foregoing school pictures altogether. We've already discovered by some trial and error that Walgreens does a better job than Walmart of printing them off. These are two of the stores that we have close, but if anyone has suggestions of someplace else that does a good job, let us know. It would be worth the drive.

Lost: On the way to Trial Lake in the Uintahs, but only lost for a second.
Found: Jef's Cousins, Aunts, and Uncles for a family get together.
That was me and the kids' first trip there, but not Jef's. We had a great time. Not only was the view beautiful, but the company was great. After playing with Spencer for only a few minutes, Taylor informed me that he was one of his best friends. That's what you call family bonding. It was really cold up there, and I never heard - did anyone actually brave it and stay the night? We felt brave enough just going for the evening. Logan unexplicably cried most of the way home. We wondered if the high elevation hurt his ears? Anyway, he was all smiles as soon as we got home. Go figure.
Lost: Jono, about 20 times.
Found: Lots of rocks to throw in the water.

Lost: Taylor's skateboard.
Found: A new sport. Driveway Luge.
I have a neighbor with lots of boys who keeps telling me that boys are so much crazier than girls. I think they are all crazy - girls just look really sweet to fool us, and that's when the trouble starts.

Lost: TV privileges for not keeping our rooms clean.
Found: Taking away the TV just encourages us to make more mess. And also causes other problems, like the kids playing together and using their imaginations. This is a two story house with a built in generator and secret tunnel to get upstairs, just in case you were wondering.
(PS - the first pictures were taken with our old camera and the rest with our new one. Can you tell a difference? Say yes, even if you can't because it will make us feel better.)
Lost: Track of time. Where did the summer go? We actually needed jackets to go play at the park last week. Just a reminder that we need to squeeze in as much fun as we can while it lasts.
Found: Out who the kids teachers are. They have several kids from our street in their classes, which is so great. This will be Taylor's first time actually starting school at the same place he went last year!

Lost: A lot of sleep due to a strange sucking noise in our bedroom at night.
Found: A thumb.

Lost: Our regular time to regroup and catch our breath after putting the kids to bed.
Found: A meteor shower that was well worth letting them stay up for. For this picture Jef figured out how to take special nighttime pictures. We think he actually caught a shooting star. You'll have to look at the picture closely, but it's there.

Lost: Some of Jonathan's apprehension towards Logan. He ignores him less all of the time and even gives him kisses now and then. Don't they just look like they will be making trouble together soon?
Found: Out from Taylor that Uncle Jay's car is "sweet! Because it has black rims." Also, Hannah will pose for any picture, anytime.

That's all of the lost and founds I can think of, but here's some more favorite pictures.

Closed Captioning

2009-08-04T15:19:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks: (In no particular order)

What's that shiny thing your holding and pointing at me? Put it down and get me out of this stroller.

Hey Jono, want to try something really fun?

Tell me, before you take that picture, does my hair look okay?

Mom, as soon as I'm old enough, I'm dressing myself!

Yeah, nice waterfall. You ready to carry me the two miles back to the car?

Sure Grandma, we'll keep hiking - just as long as you keep feeding us.

Okay Taylor, hand over the camera back and no one gets hurt.

Hey Mom and Dad, you can sleep in our beds if you want. Yours is occupied.

Phew! Being an artist is hard work.

I'm too sexy for this tub.

That's right, I really can do this all by myself. And sometimes I sneak over and try it without the life jacket, just to make sure Mom and Dad are paying attention.

Take that picture quick before one of us falls in!

Gee Dad, how come you don't have us come see your new office more often? And why is everyone here so quiet - are they having meetings or something?

Strange things are happening to me

2009-07-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

My left elbow has been very sore lately. While going about my daily activities, I often experience numbness in my hand and tingling in my fingertips. I have a confirmed case of LBS, Lugging Baby Syndrome. Sometimes I get so used to carrying him around that I forget I'm even doing it. His increasing weight is doing a good job of reminding me!

Wouldn't it be great if it was cute for adults to be this chubby?

Taylor wanted this picture included because he took it of me getting Logan to smile.

The biggest smile came for Taylor though, and not for me. Logan really likes his siblings.

Yet another example of Jono wanting to decorate himself more than paper.

And here's one of Hannah stealing Mr. Potatohead's accessories.

Jane came to me this morning and told me that their nightlight was making weird noises last night and that Hannah put a pipe cleaner in it. I have no idea how we escaped without injured children or a burned-down house, but fortunately, the only casualty was the new night light. Pictures have not been included because of the disturbing imagery, but I will say that a very crisp pipe-cleaner was found wrapped around the prongs of the said night light.

Hannah did not deny the allegations against her, but ran and hid behind a chair when confronted about her part in the tragedy. Later, she pleaded cute and innocent.

Jane defended her sister bravely, suggesting an accomplice may have been involved as well. Further investigation will be completely neglected by their mother due to the fact that ignorance is bliss.

In other news, Taylor learned to sew at Grandma's house. (Not from his Mother, mind you, or this bean/bing bag would not be recognizable as such.)

He also authored a book as a gift to Janie. It is entitled "Littlest Pet Shop #5, The Battle of the Fallen Revenge." Above is an illustration.

Not quite a haiku

2009-07-06T14:07:00.000-07:00

I remember doing these kinds of poems all of the time in Elementary school. What they're called, I couldn't tell you, but here one is describing what we've been up to lately:

S- Sunshine (finally!), Swimming at Grandma's, Sprinklers in the backyard, Strep throat (poor Jono), So many friends to invite over, Staying up late, Sleeping in,
and, Smiles from Logan U- Uncles (and aunts, cousins, great-grandparents) all in Utah. The kids saw all of the cousins they have all in the same week last week. Good times. Thanks for coming, everybody. Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera with us most of the time we were with them.

M- Mischief, mayhem, mood swings, and missing school (mostly mom).

M- movies. Lots of movies. And meetings. Pack meetings, Den meetings, Planning meetings, weekly meetings, and even taking the 11-year-olds camping. (Taylor, Jef, and Julie are all involved in the scouting program right now.)

E- Eating. Judging by how much food I've had to purchase lately to fill our fridge and pantry, it is the cure for boredom on a hot summer day. Also, this little guy likes it too. He's almost doubled his weight since birth...

R- Relaxing, recreation, rolling down the hill at the park.
Reading. After being convinced by the kids that they would like to do the summer reading program at the library, I've dragged them to the library every monday so that they can run away (Jono), request leaving after 1 minutes (Taylor), refuse to get out of the car and go in (Hannah), and really enjoy it (Jane).
Rest. Or lack thereof. Realizing that the summer's already a third over, so wanting to enjoy it while it lasts.

Random List #2

2009-06-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

WORDS I HAVE EATEN:

1. I'll never, ever, wipe my kids' noses with my hand.

2. No matter how busy I get, I'll always find time to stay in shape.

3. I won't let my kids watch TV and play video games all day.

4. I'll never be married long enough that my husband and I feel comfortable burping and farting in front of each other.

5. If I keep at it long enough, eventually I'll become a good cook.

6. I'll always make sure I wear clothes that are in style this decade.

7. I'll never talk myself into cutting bangs again.

8. I'm not going to breastfeed in public, that's disgusting. (I do cover up, by the way.)

9. I'll never offer to give one of my children to someone else, even jokingly.

10. My house will never be so dirty that I'm embarrassed to let people in the front door.

Ahh, young Julie, how naive you were...

Summertime... and the living's easy (ish)

2009-06-07T13:28:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind on blogging. Okay, I'm a big behind. Ha ha, and I have one too. Anyway, May is long gone and I'm not sure where it went, but summer is here now and there is no turning back.

I was worried about the kids being bored once they got out of school. Taylor has informed me that it's all my fault when he gets bored because I never let him do ANYthing fun or go ANYwhere fun. This has put a lot of pressure on me. Fortunately, the first week of summer went very well (thanks largely due to the lots of nice kids in our neighborhood and Taylor's new bike).

Here are the highlights of some stuff we've been up to since last I posted:
Jane's Kindergarten graduation. She's in there somewhere. Wearing a pink shirt (does that really help if I tell you that?) The award that she got from her teacher was the "hardest worker" award. I thought that was a good compliment. My award to Jane is the "most quotable" award.

Example: Jane had a friend over playing the other day and I heard her inform her friend that Hannah doesn't need to wear sunscreen because she is Chinese. No, I corrected, she is not Chinese, she just has dark skin. To which Jane replied, I know she is Chinese because she speaks Spanish really well. I guess I could have given her the "most culturally aware" award.It was really warm one day, so I told the kids they could run through the sprinkler. Did you know you need swim goggles for that? Unfortunatley, by the time we got properly equipped and set things up outside, it was cloudy and cool. I actually like this sunny and rainy weather mix we've been having, but it does put a damper on the water sports. (And obviously has still not helped out our lawn all that much - except to make the weeds grow taller.)The rain won't bother you at all if you are Jonathan and you like drinking water from rain gutters. I'm sure this water is full of minerals and who knows what else. I'm not sure if this is better or worse than seeing him get down on all fours and lap up water from a puddle a few days before. He does own a sippy cup, just for the record.

We all took a trip to the Bingham copper mine last Saturday to celebrate school being out. It was really cool. I've lived in Utah all this time and never new that there was a hole as big as an entire mountain over there west of Salt Lake. Utah doesn't have a Grand Canyon so we made our own.Jane learned to ride her bike with no training wheels after I offered to buy her a pack of bubble gum. It was a good investment. It also provided us with another great quote from her. Apparently, riding a bike causes her a bit of discomfort in the seating area. I was trying to get her to hold still while I was tightening the straps on her bike helmet when she very calmly and seriously informed me that, "It's hard to be patient when you've got a wedgie." I can't argue with that.

The second year we've been able to attend the Pony Express Days parade. This year we lived closer to the very start of the parade, whereas last year we were at the very end. We quickly discovered that the start is much cooler and the kids got a whole bag of candy each, a frisbee, several toothbrushes, some shirts, otter pops, balloons, a pen, and a lanyard. Please come and join us for next year's parade - you won't regret it. And best of all, you don't even have to get up at 5 am to get good seats - we just walked on over about 5 minutes before it started yesterday morning. Hannah especially liked waving to all of the "Princesses" in the parade.Last but not least, we had a very special afternoon yesterday. Taylor got baptized and Logan got blessed. Jef always says that he loves seeing our kids in white clothes, and I agree. We are proud of both of these guys. Thanks to all of the family who came and made them feel like celebrities. Sadly, our camera has not been working very well lately and a bunch of the pictures I took did not turn out. Phew, imagine if it had happened on a really important day or something like that.

Who do we appreciate?

2009-05-20T10:33:00.000-07:00

In the midst of all of the new baby excitement, Taylor celebrated his very momentous eighth birthday. We wanted to make sure he was getting enough attention on this milestone of accountability, so we hosted our first ever "friend" party. Usually, we just have all of the relatives over.

The "theme" (which basically just means what kind of paper plates and hats he got to pick out) was Spongebob Squarepants. This can be attributed to the 2 months we spent at my parents this winter, enjoying their large variety of TV channels, as my kids had never actually watched an episode before that time. Anyway, we had a pinata (I originally tried making one myself, but that's another story - lesson learned: no, you don't get points for trying, you should've known yourself better than that and just gone to Walmart in the first place.) and pizza and cake (don't worry, I just put yellow frosting on and didn't even attempt to decorate). I even had some games planned, but the kids opted to just play soccer instead.

Soccer. Just so you know, our lawn hasn't been cared for since sometime last June. We're working on it.

Wii and Mariocart.

Pizza and Pop. Lots of pop.

Taylor got a new bike and I don't think anyone has even been so excited about a present. It is kind of hard to hide an entire bike, and he found it a few times before we actually gave it to him. This only served to heighten his excitement, and he was little ticked we didn't give it to him sooner.
Now that the Captain is 8, we are very excited for people to ask us the ages of our children. What are they? Why, I thought you'd never ask. Our children are 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8. How cool is that? It would have come in handy a few months ago when we had to introduce ourselves to lots of people in our new ward. Of course, we planned this as part of our master plan when we first got married, along with everything that's happened along the way. We are just very organized people. And never sarcastic.

Yes, this is Tayor's post, but Logan is growing so fast we just can't leave him out. So far, no nicknames have really stuck except Logachugasasa, which Taylor came up with many month ago. It is a little dissappointing that we actually call him this, but even Jono does it from time to time. We are hoping something else pops up. Also, we keep calling him Jono and Rocky by mistake, which are actually Jonathan's nicknames and makes Jonathan a little irritated.

Mama Mia

2009-05-12T18:29:00.000-07:00

I put these pictures on an unpublished post over a week ago. I was going to write a really nice tribute to mothers day, how much I appreciate being a mother, how much I appreciate my mother and Jef's mother, grandmothers, etc. It was going to be spectacular. I was even going to mention primary and school teachers and how glad I am that my kids have such good ones. But I couldn't seem to get the post done because my dang kids kept interruppting. Go figure.

April Showers

2009-05-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

This has been such a great month for us -

First, we got an express bus in Eagle Mountain. This means that instead of driving to Lehi every morning to catch the bus, Jef only has to WALK around the corner to the new bus stop. We couldn't have picked to move into a better neighborhood! The bus goes straight to SLC from here, so his trip is shorter than it was; and, best of all, the bus is less crowded, so he never has to stand up the whole way to work. Take that, stinky bums.

Second, our new Wal-mart opened this week. Enough said - you all know how I've been looking forward to it.

Third, What was the other good thing that happened this month? Oh yeah - I remember...

Logan Joseph is home and adjusting well. After his post-delivery scare in the hospital, he's been doing super. He sleeps all day and sometimes at night too. We just love having him here - he is way more fun out of the uterus, that's for sure.

It feels a little like the day after Christmas because the awesome Relief Society meals have stopped and Jef has gone back to work, but life has to move on at some point. At least we don't have to exchange our gift - we think the one we got is perfect.
Jono is taking the dethroning rather well, considering. This morning Logan started crying and I wasn't able to get to him right away and I heard Jono in there saying in his angry voice, "Stop it baby Logan, stop it!" He likes Logan best when he's in his swing or his bed and asks me to put him in one of the two frequently. Not only does this open up a space on Mom's lap, but he thinks it is fun to push the swing. I was alerted the other day when I heard the words, "ready, set, go." Hopefully he doesn't try any underdogs.

System.out.println("Hello World!")

2009-04-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

I once had a goal to learn how to write the "hello world" program in as many programming languages possible (it is just a simple program meant to get a novice familiar with a programming language). Well, I only learned how to do it in Java, C, Perl, R, Splus, and SAS. Not to impressive from my original lofty goal. But I don't care because the "hello world" program is just a bunch characters compiled into a bunch of 0s and 1s which in turn tells a computer to do something insignificant.

Well, something significant happened today. We had a REAL "hello world" experience. And this is the real deal. Behold:

The boy gave us quite a scare this morning. When he arrived, the umbilical cord was tightly wrapped around his neck and body. He took his first breath just fine, but for some reason his body remained very pale and his breathing was erratic, shallow, and fast. He was rushed to the nursery and given an IV, blood tests, and a chest x-ray. I guess when an umbilical cord is wrapped around a baby during his/her leisurely stroll down the birth canal the blood supply to the baby can be crimped leaving the baby with low blood pressure. And stuff. Yeah, I've worked in healthcare for the last 7 years but I really have no idea what was being explained. Please consult someone smart for a better explanation. Anyway, I was too worried about the boy to be concerned about these minor details. To make a long story short, the boy was monitored closely in the nursery for 5 or 6 hours before the docs said that he could leave to be reunited with his mother. That much time for a mom to be separated from her newborn is an eternity! By the time Julie was finally permitted to see the boy, he had pretty much grown up and was eager to have a conversation about the theory of special relativity.

Here are a few more pictures for your enjoyment.

P.S. Julie is doing great! The baby was birthed at 2:00 am on April 25th weighing 7lbs and stretching 18in long. He has already filled his diaper 4 times with substance similar to that of the La Brea Tar Pits. And he has been held in the loving arms of many aunts, uncles, grandpas, grandmas, and cousins. He knows he will be loved. That is for sure.

Springtime - Utah Style

2009-04-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

Here's our Easter and Spring Break (in the condensed version, but with lots of pictures):

2 Easter Egg hunts with 2 sets of grandparents, lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Who could ask for more? Jef and I sacrifice our own health for our children. We eat all of their candy so that they don't have to.

1 Annual Eagle Mountain Easter egg hunt - and only 1 - ever. Thousands of eggs, but millions of children. 3 out of 4 kids crying. Kind of sad, but Taylor was nice to share all of the candy he got, and candy cheers children up quickly.

3 Warm days, 2 rainy days, 1 really windy day, and 1 day with several inches of snow. Bike rides, walks, a picnic at the park, friends and cousins over, lots of Wii time, lots of movies and computer games, more trips to the grandparents. Thank heavens for lots of family around to keep things exciting.

5 family members who are patient with the other 1 and 1/2 during the final stretch of pregnancy. We're getting close...

Random List #1

2009-04-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

Things I am becoming an "Expert" at that will probably never do me much good in an academic setting, (or even in a game of Trivial Pursuit) but that help me a lot in my chosen occupation.

1. Where you can find the closest bathroom in every Wal-mart, Smiths, Target, and Maceys along the Wasatch Front.
2. The names of several different antibiotics and the effect they have on each of my children's digestive tracts.
3. The names of most (if not all) Disney characters, Thomas the Trains, Transformers, and Speed Racers.
4. How to translate frantic sign language while trying to carry on a phone conversation.
5. How long is the perfect amount of time to cook Easy Mac, Hot Dogs, Bagel Pizzas, and Chicken Noodle soup in the microwave.
6. How to snap Polly Pocket heads back on in 30 seconds or less.
7. Finding "lost" toys, blankets, and sippy cups. (Hint, always check the most obvious places first. The best way to trick a kid is to put something where it actually goes.)
8. The difference between a "fighting scream," a "playing scream," and a "something is actually wrong, go see what it is," scream.
9. How to make cats out of Play-doh.
10. Which child is approaching our bed at night judging by only the sounds their feet make running down the hall.

Chronological Order

2009-04-02T14:31:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure exactly what's causing it - maybe it's the fact that I turned 30 last month. Probably it has something to do with the baby about to come to our family. But whatever the reason, I have been very sentimental lately. I can't believe it's been almost a whole decade since first my father offered Jef a Geo Metro as my dowry and he said yes! Anyway, here is a slide show of our growing family. So much has happened in such a short amount of time...

I wanted to stick some really groovy dating and wedding pictures of us in here, but we didn't get the digital camera until after Taylor was born, and I can't find the cord for the scanner. That's okay, just picture us about 2 years younger and skinnier.

One of our first family pictures I could find - we lived in a sweet one-bedroom basement apartment in Orem when Taylor was born. The neighbors were crazy.

Just for the record, I'm pretty pregnant in both of these pictures. Poor Taylor didn't get a whole lot of time being the youngest, did he?
Anyway, this one with the Christmas tree was taken shortly after we moved to to our townhome in Minnesota and shortly before Jane arrived.

It was hard to find a family picture of us during this time, but here's some of the two kids alone. Sigh, I remember thinking that two kids was enough to keep anyone busy. Well, actually I still think that - I even believe that's true about one kid.
This one underneath is our right after we moved into our house in Minnesota.

Jane was our only kid not to have brown eyes right away. They were blue for like 6 months.

Now Hannah comes into the picture. This picture was taken on Easter in our backyard. If you look close, there is snow all over the backyard.

After we moved back to Utah. SLC to be exact, but you could probably tell that.

This picture is pretty random, but I just had to throw it in because it made me laugh. Hannah has probably changed the most look-wise out of all of the kids. She was such a cute little tank (she's still cute, but no longer a tank.)

This is our townhouse in Lehi not long after Jono was born (he's the little one with drool all over his clothes.)

This is right after we moved to Eagle Mountain (the first time). If you're really bored, you can go back and see that this is kind of where our blog started, so we've come full circle.

Hopefully it won't be too much longer before we post some pictures of a new baby. Those of you who know me well know that the last month of pregnancy is torture for me. I just get so dang impatient, and cranky. Sorry if you thought I wasn't that way, but it's important that you know the truth about me and my bad attitude. I will try hard to do better. I will also try to remember that in ten more years, I will probably feel even older and crankier and wishing I could remember what it was like to be so young and lucky to have a house full of cute little kids. Oh my gosh, in ten more years, we'll almost have 4 teenagers. That thought definitely makes helps me be more patient!