All Because Doug and Carrie make fun of Tyson....

2011-12-30T21:21:00.004-07:00

2011 In Review

I can't believe we are at the end of another year! I don't know what we did to make this year fly by so quickly, but we've had lots of fun and many opportunities for growth. Here is a run down on each member of the family. (in this picture, Lucy is not born yet and the extra boy is our cousin Izac)

Tyson - Is still working as the Director of Sales and Marketing for the Salt Lake Marriott City Center. He loves his job and the people he works with. He does a great job and works hard. He's taken this last week of the year off and it's been nice having him home. He went from being the Cub Master in the ward to Young Men's President. He's adjusted to the demands of this calling and is really enjoying it. He is still without his own cell phone, which shocks anyone who knows that, and anyone who works in any way with the youth, knows that is not possible because texting is the only way they communicate, but we've been able to make it work.

Camber - I am still teaching piano and enjoying it. It keeps me busy, but allows me to stay home with the kids and help them with their school work and other activities. I completed my first sprint triathlon at four months pregnant, and while not breaking any records, gave myself a goal for next time. I stay busy running the kids around and keeping the house in some kind of order. I maintained going to the gym most days up until three days before having baby number five and accomplished having all five kids without any pain medications.

Tanner - Turned 10 this year, when did that happen! He started taking piano at the beginning of the year and tolerates it. He actually enjoys it as long as I don't correct his timing or try to help him with a piece. The Thursday before school was supposed to start, we got an email from a charter school in our area saying that our application for Tanner had been pulled if we were still interested in having him go there. So he started at American Preparatory Academy. I love this school! He's done so much better with the routine and while his focus still leaves much to be desired, he has gotten a better handle on it. He's adjusted well and while the homework load is more than he cares for, he's enjoying the school. He's still able to say he hasn't missed one day of school since starting Kindergarten. His favorite thing lately has been putting lego sets together and got a pretty big lego set from Harry Potter for Christmas. He had it put together in two days.

Tyler - Turned 8 this year and was baptized in June. She is maturing and has become my second set of hands. She is so helpful with the baby...almost too helpful. She will jump at any noise we hear from the monitor and will go get her out of bed. We've had to talk about waiting for a few minutes before she goes in to get the baby. She has really taken off with reading and took our challenge to read the 4th book of Harry Potter and get $25. She had it finished in a month. She loves school and also started piano at the beginning of the year. She does really well with it and will take pieces I leave out on the piano and try to play the top line.

Jake - Is now five and started kindergarten this year and loves it! His teacher is Mrs. Morgan and he's enjoying learning how to read and being a big kid and riding the bus. A few weeks before Christmas break, I had walked to the bus stop to pick him up and as we were walking him, he told me not to pick him up anymore, he's big enough to walk home by himself. Our house is three houses down from the stop. He and Jefferson are buddies and will both take their shirts off to wrestle.

Jefferson - He's growing so fast! He turned three this year and when you ask him, he holds his fingers up like he's throwing a spider man web. He started preschool with Miss Hillary this year and loves going. We also have him in a weekly playgroup in between his preschool days that he enjoys. He was doing speech at the beginning of the year and progressed quickly with that and tested out of the program six months after starting it. There are still some things we have a hard time understanding, but he talks really well now. He loves his baby sister and will come give her kisses all the time, even when she's sleeping. He's such a good kid and so different than the other kids. He climbs everything and loves to play basketball and watch any kids of sport. He'll sit and shoot a nerf basketball 100 and only make a basket once, but he keeps playing. He was really in the "Peanut Butter Jimmer Time" and would always say it right before shooting the basket. Even though he's not the baby in the family anymore, he's still my baby boy.

Lucy - Joined our family November 4, at 6:27pm. She weighed 6lbs. 9oz. and was 19 in. It was a pretty easy and fast delivery and as with the other kids, I bounced back and am back into my routine pretty quickly. It is so fun having a baby girl again. It was a shock to get into the baby thing after being out of it for three years, but I think we've all adjusted well. She eats like a pro and has started sleeping longer chunks, giving me a little bit more of quality sleep. We've discovered, as of late, that she's not a big fan of bottles...we're going to have to change that. While my kids have never had many bottles, I still need that as an option in the afternoons while I'm teaching. But we are loving having her here and love the smiles that she's started sharing and are excited for all the little things she'll learn and the kids can't wait to teach her.

I love the feelings that this Christmas time brought with it this year. I felt like having a new baby around brought my emotions much closer to the surface.

As we come to the end of this year, we are grateful for the growth that has come and the many opportunities we have been blessed with. We are excited for the new year and the many things that it will bring with it.

Happy New Year

Playing catch up...

2011-07-19T21:47:00.018-06:00

Holy cow! I've totally fallen off the face of the earth when it comes to updating this blog! Tyson even mentioned something about posting something on the blog and then laughed and said, "who am I kidding, you never update the blog!" So, I should probably get a move on it and update. I'll just highlight some things from each month with some pictures and we'll call it good. Lucky for who ever reads this that I had the worst camera only up until June when Tyson got a really nice camera for his birthday and then I started taking more pictures. So here goes...

January:

We started the new year with our friends here at the house and watched the ball drop. Tyson was again at work so I brought in 2011 kissing the back of my hand...again.

We welcomed our Brazilian exchange student Amanda Rosas from Manaus the second week in January. Little did we know that she would become like a second daughter and fit in like she'd lived with our family from day one. She set such a great example of reading for our kids and was a huge help!

A week later, we were back at the airport saying goodbye to our first exchange student Han and sent him home to Korea.

February:

I flew down to Arizona to help out Tyson's brother and sister-in-law who just moved to Arizona weeks after having twins, along with their three other kids. It was fun to go down and help out.

March:

The unthinkable happened...not that we were all that surprised, but we got the positive on a test and started to brace ourselves for number 5! Yes, we are adding another little one to the chaos of this place we call our home. We've decided to be surprised and didn't find out at the ultrasound what we are having.

April:

Along with spring, comes spring break. Mandy's parents were going to come pick her up at the end of her adventure to explore so of the great US of A, but things came up and they ended up not being able to come. So we decided to have a trip on our own and introduce her to the disgusting ways of Las Vegas.We stopped in St. George on our way down for the night and went swimming. We also went on a fun little hike and realized our kids really like that kind of stuff!Apparently, that was the best part, because that's all Jefferson talks about. We drove down at night, because it's so much easier to travel when the kids sleep. I wish I would have taken a picture of his face when we got him out of the car to go into the hotel. He had the biggest grin on his face and all he wanted to do was look out the hotel window down at the pool.He keeps asking when we're going to St. George so I finally had to tell him we'd go during the summer when the kids are out of school. Wouldn't you know it, but now that the kids are out of school, he hasn't asked once when we are going.

We also celebrated Mandy's birthday, Americanized Brazilian style. We did carne esada and tried to have a Brazilian food spread. She told us she'd never eaten carne esada before. Oh well, we tried our best. :) We got her a cake with the Brazilian flag on it and she said it seemed weird to see her flag here because it had been so long since she'd seen it. On her actual brithday, she requested McDonald's for dinner, so we all went out to eat. Needless to say, the kids had a great time and Mandy, if she wasn't already, was now their favorite person because we never eat inside at McDonald's. That was a real treat for them.

May:

April showers bring...um...May snow storms. Yes, it was still snowing in May. And freezing! Mandy's mom kept telling her to pack up her winter things and ship them home so she wouldn't have to worry about trying to pack them in her luggage. We all had to laugh because she still needed them. We joked about snow falling in June back when she first got here, little did we know it was going to be a possibility. With May, came Tyler's 8th birthday. She got baptized the first week of June, which was special for us because Mandy was able to be here for it as well.
Tyler's birthday was the only one she was here for.

I competed in my first sprint triathlon. Yes, four months pregnant. I had set the goal and registered before we decided to try for another one, so I was locked in. I told myself I wasn't going to break any world records and I was just doing it to set a time for me to beat next year. It was a lot of fun and I'll totally do it again next year! Like I said, I didn't break any records, but now I know what time to beat next year. And wouldn't you know it, I didn't get any pictures. I know I had pictures taken of me, but none that I have in my files and Tyson wasn't able to make it with the kids so no one was the specifically for me and to take my pictures.

There was one evening when we had no rain and it was fairly warm, the kids ran outside one night after dinner, only to come back with Jefferson crying his, "I'm really hurt, come see me!" cry. A neighbor was carrying him back with blood dripping from his foot. He'd stepped on a piece of broken bottle and we were looking at the possibility of our first ER visit. We didn't end up taking him and he didn't get stitches, but he'll have a decent scar with a cool shape and he points to the area and tells us he stepped on a broken bottle over there.

Jake also graduated from preschool. I can't believe he'll be in kindergarten this year! When did that happen? He loved his teacher Miss Hilary and he was sad when his school ended./div>

June:

Just before school got out, Tanner had the opportunity to go to a basketball camp put on by Jimmer Fredette and Jackson Emery.The kid was in heaven, even though he only saw those two for a little bit of time. But they had most of the BYU basketball team come help out, so he got some good time with names he's heard before while watching basketball.

School got out for everybody else the second week of June and a few days after that, we said a tearful goodbye to Mandy.It was hard to see her leave, but we knew she was ready for some peace and quiet back in Brazil. She came from being an only child to a house full of four loud, crazy children and I'm sure there were many times that she was questioning her decision to come to such a chaotic house! But we still miss her! Tyson would tease her about two songs that were written with the title "Amanda". Those are the only songs Jefferson wants to listen to when we take our turns on the ipod when we're in the car.

After Mandy left, Tyson had his birthday and Father's day. Nothing real exciting, but he got a nice camera for his birthday, and the kids pooled their money together and got him a suit and new shirt for work. They really love their dad.

After Tyson's birthday was Jake's fifth birthday. He enjoyed his day and got McDonald's for lunch. I guess that's a tradition I've started now. Usually I take it to the kids for their lunch at school, but he got to eat it in front of everyone and I think that made him happy. Yes, that's a doughnut instead of birthday cake.

And now we are to July. Jefferson had his birthday and got more swords than you'd think a three-year-old should need, but he plays with each of them at least once during the day. He loves to have anyone who will give him two minutes, play swords with him. I think he likes the fact that he gets fireworks for his birthday as well. We were watching the fireworks that night and he came over and sat by me and said, "Happy Birthday to me!" He is a cute little stinker! Jake and Jefferson had their well child checks. Jake, as usual is still below the third percentile for his weight and height. Jefferson comes in at 47% for height and 54% for weight. We've never had a child with those kinds of numbers. No wonder people think the two of them are twins every where we go! Jake may need to get his tongue cut because the skin connecting his tongue to the bottom jaw is too far forward and affecting his speech, but at this point he's still too young to make that decision.

Tanner and Tyler had their first piano recital and did really well. They surprised Tyson and Jake with singing "Happy Birthday" once the recital was all over. They did a great job!!

The second weekend in July we went to Yellowstone with Tyson's family. That's a lot of time in the car! The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins and building memories. I'm not a believer that Yellowstone is bear country. We didn't see one bear. I was sorely disappointed.

And that brings us to the current. Tyson is working a lot, which is good. That means business is good. I'm still teaching piano and plan to take the week off after I have the baby and pick right up again. I've taken on some sewing projects, aside from the blankets I already do. Its been fun to make myself skirts that actually fit and don't look too bad either. I also added a crib skirt to the mix. The kids are getting big and learning new things everyday. What more could we ask for!

Food For Thought

2011-01-28T20:50:00.002-07:00

I wish I could take credit for this, but I can't. I saw it on a desk at Jordan High School while getting our exchange student registered and had to take a picture of it so I could remember it. I laugh out loud every time I read it! Enjoy!

Food For Thought
In this life I'm a woman, in my next life, I'd like to come back as a bear

When you're a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that.

Before you hibernate, you're supposed to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that, too.

When you're a girl bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while you're seeping and wake to partially grown,
cute cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that.
If you're a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs.
If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that.

If you're a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling.
He EXPECTS that you will have harry legs and excess body fat.

YUP! Gonna be a bear.

1/1/11

2011-01-01T22:50:00.002-07:00

As cool as that date is to write, nothing much happened on this day in our history.

It's a new year with new resolves and new ambitions that will probably hit the wayside a week or two into 2011, but it's a time for a fresh start and to try and be better. Why we choose Jan. 1st to put all this pressure on ourselves, I'll never know, but year after year, we do...I do.

Last week after our main lesson for Family Home Evening, I gave the kids a "teaser" for this upcoming Family Home Evening. I told them that it's a new year, and with that, we make goals, things we can work on or accomplish for the next year. I told them first we have to have a goal, then we need to write it down and next tell others so we can have their help in accomplishing those goals. With that in mind, I'm writing down my goals for 2011 on a blog that no one ever reads, but none the less, is a public place so that I'll at least have them written down, which will get me one step closer to accomplishing them. So if by chance you are the one sad soul that happens to stumble across my blog, don't be afraid to ask me how my goals are coming. I may even try and update more than twice in the year with my progress on them.

1. Compete in a Triathlon without drowning. (Already signed up for Women of Steel, women's only Triathlon, May 21.)

2. Run the Salt Lake City Half Marathon, beating my time from last year and coming in under 2 hours. (I know for some, finishing under 2 hours may be a walk in the park, but I was 56 seconds shy of it last year and it still bugs me!)

3. Keep from yelling at the kids. (please tell me I'm not the only mom that has a hard time with this. And if you don't, please give me some advice...please!!)

4. Eliminate sweets and treats/increase fruits and vegetables. (I did the sweats thing for three weeks once last year. I felt so much better, so I'm trying to bring my family in on this one. I've already told them dessert will be limited to Sundays and or sometimes Mondays after Family Home Evening.)

When setting a goal, one could look at trying to accomplish these things for an entire year is a big bite to take. But, to that I ask, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. I'll work on these things one day at a time, and after those days, find that working on them a week at a time, isn't such a big deal, then a month came pretty quick and before you know it, I'm writing down new resolutions for 2012.

So, here's to working towards a better year, and accomplishing those goals!

long overdue!!

2010-06-28T22:12:00.010-06:00

Every time I come to my blog, I see the same picture that's been there for almost three months! I'm sorry. It seems as though my blog updating has become like my journal updating. The only time things get written down are when life is slow or I'm struggling with one thing or another. Lucky for anyone reading this, its neither. I'm just getting tired of looking at the picture that pops up.
Our lives have been busy, busy, busy since my last update. We ran our half marathon April 17th and the week after, Tyson and I left for Hawaii for six days! There isn't a day that goes by that I don't want to move there and stay there f.o.r.e.v.e.r! I have a picture on my desktop of Tyson and I with the ocean behind us and both of us will look at it and daydream for a minute.
On Waikiki Beach at sunset.
At the Dole Plantation.
One of the sharks above the water from our shark dive. Yes, we dove with sharks.
The view from Marriott Vacation Club International in Honolulu. It was a paradise all itself! We could have stayed here the entire time and I wouldn't have complained one minute.
This is the picture on my computer when you start it up! You can see why we both want to go back! This was at the Ritz Carlton in Maui.

After our trip, we cam home and Tyler finished her first soccer season. She did really well. Her coach was great and was so patient dealing with a bunch of five and six year olds!

Oddly enough, even though her soccer games went through May, every single game was freezing and windy or rainy! That's why they are wearing coats as they are playing. Yes, this is the weather that Tyson and I walked off the airplane from Hawaii into. That was not a pleasant welcome back to reality!!

After Tyler's soccer, we celebrated her 7th birthday. I can't believe she's 7 already! She's getting quit the friend base and every time we go to the gym, she's introducing one friend or another from school to me. We didn't do a birthday party for her this year, because she had one last year, and I don't want to set a standard to expect a party every year. But I'd say she had a pretty good birthday despite the lack of a party. This year, the hot toy is Zuhzuh pets. Well, she got two of them for her birthday. I guess Charlie felt threatened by these little toys rolling around on the floor at his level. One day after coming home from the gym, I saw one of these pets clothing accessories on the floor and in my head thought, gee, that's too bad Tyler left her toy laying around and Charlie got to it. Later, as I was putting Jefferson down for a nap, I noticed two black plastic things and a pink thing. I knew exactly what had happened. Charlie got the the zhuzhu pet. This was not even 48 hours after Tyler's birthday, so these were her prized toys still. I remembered from the morning, Tyler put her zhuzhu pets in a basket in her room so they could take a nap while she was gone to school. Charlie has never been one to eat the kids toys unless they leave them outside. That morning, he skipped over all the other toys on the floor, and there were many, and went into her room and got that pet and tore its face apart! I couldn't help but get her another one. I know it doesn't set the best precedent, but it was a birthday present.

After Tyler's birthday, school got out. As I mentioned earlier, it was the coldest May ever, so it didn't seem like the final weeks of school. Both kids graduated on to the next grade with flying colors. Tanner now has three years of public education under his belt without a single absence.
Jake also graduated from his pre-school. He was pretty excited about that. It was a windy day, but fun none the less. They even gave him a birthday treat because his birthday is during the summer.

After a week or two into summer. I was beginning to notice a bit of a problem. Jefferson enjoys being outside. So do the older kids. However, the older kids didn't like playing in the back yard because of one reason or another. However, I can't continue on inside with my stuff if I let everyone go out front, because Jefferson doesn't know the difference between the sidewalk and the street. And the other kids can't be in charge of keeping him out of the street. So, I was finally able to talk Tyson into getting a trampoline. It's worked like I charm!! We've even had a night when the kids slept out on it. Not without the sprinklers turning on first though. :)
Then came Tyson's birthday and father's day. Both days, sad for Tyson, passed without a huge deal. But he's another year older and wiser too...well, the wiser part is debatable. He had his usual German Chocolate cake and was good to go. Unfortunately, we weren't able to take it up to his work like we've done in the past.

After Tyson's big days, came Jake's birthday. Toy Story 3 came out the day before his birthday so we decided since he hasn't had a birthday party, that we would invite three friends and take them all to the movie. He had a great time. He was a little confused as to why he's not five now. We celebrated his birthday on his birth date and his party was on a different day, so I can see where there would be confusion.

Jefferson celebrated his 2nd birthday a week and a half after that. I can't believe it took us four kids to realize that a two year old doesn't need hundreds of dollars spent on their birthday! He got a baseball tee and bat, a push car and bubbles and couldn't have been happier! Plus he got a great display of fireworks to celebrate his birthday...well, actually it was on the 3rd that we got the fireworks, but the whole weekend was a celebration. I can't believe he's two!! Those two years have flown by!

Which brings us to the present. Life is crazy, and we don't have a spare minute for anything, but we somehow seem to fit it all in. I left out some things, Tyler's dance recital, the ten things we crammed into the 4th of July weekend, the RAGNAR race I ran. Count your blessings I didn't do a minute by minute detail of our lives. You just got the major highlights.

Salt Lake City Half Marathon

2010-04-17T15:08:00.004-06:00

Before picture
We are now on the other side of our spring time half marathon. The rest of the day is not something I look forward to. Sure, it would be nice to come home and rest and take it easy, nice but unrealistic! With kids, life doesn't stop.
Carli came up and our ride picked us up at 5:45am. We got on trax about 6:15 and were crammed in there like sardines!! Once the race started, we all went our own pace and finished in our own times.
Tyson's time was 1:43:25
Camber's time was 2:00:39
Neither one of us met our goal, but Camber came closest to meeting hers. She wanted to finish under two hours. Guess that means we'll be running again next year.
We owe a HUGE thank you to Grandma Stauffer who came up and brought all three boys to cheer us on through our last mile. Grandpa Stauffer even rode his bike up to watch. Nothing is better than seeing a familiar cheering face as you round your last corner to a very long race!! Oddly enough, its somewhat emotional, for a reason I can't explain.
We also owe our great friend Becky our life for helping out with Tyler and her soccer game! Even though it would have been possible to take her and make it, our legs would have come off and clubbed us in the heads after 13.1 miles. THANK YOU BECKY!!!
Now that we're done with the race, next stop...HAWAII!! I'll post pictures when we get back. It's going to be great!!

Not Fast Enough

2010-04-15T13:41:00.003-06:00

Apparently, we weren't fast enough for Jefferson, and he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Don't stand between him and his bath time.

The other day, he had already had a bath and was walking around in his diaper. I was getting ready to get in the shower, and he came in wanting to take a shower too. I told him no, he'd already had a bath. That was the end of that. Next thing I know, Tyson's yelling to me from the other room asking if I put Jefferson in the bath. (Jake was still in the bath from before.) I told him no, and was his diaper off. He responded that he couldn't find a diaper anywhere, then checked on Jefferson in the bath and found his diaper still on. We're going to have to watch this boy!!

Summer Projects

2010-04-01T18:17:00.003-06:00

I might be getting a little ahead of the seasons, especially since we woke up to four inches of snow on the ground today, but I think I want to take on some of these fun summer projects this year. Maybe come up with something fun to put in the back of my family room. I'm excited!!
Click here to visit the site.

Tyler's tooth

2010-02-21T19:36:00.004-07:00

We have a video of Tanner losing one of his teeth, so we figured it was only right for us to put one on of Tyler. She's had teeth pulled before, but they were pulled by the dentist and with numbing medicine. She never ceases to amaze us though. The only sound that was made was just right before the tooth came out! Much different than Tanner's tooth experience, which can be seen here She did the same thing with getting her ears pierced. Tyson and I were geared up for this big over dramatic scream of pain and when it came down to it...nothing. Not even a peep from her. All she said was, "I bet they look pretty." So, here is Tyler getting her first tooth pulled by dad. Oh, and one more thing, she'll probably have the next one out in a couple weeks because its loose as well. The tooth fairy should have rethought her payment structure. At this rate, she's going to have to refinance the house to afford all these teeth coming out!

Prayers Needed

2010-02-03T21:45:00.002-07:00

I fell like I'm sending out this plea a lot lately. Not so much on my blog, as I don't feel a whole lot of people read this, but certainly on FB. This time is no exception though. My friend who just lost her nine week old baby due to complications from RSV, Whooping cough and pneumonia, yes all three at the same time, had a link to another blog of a family who is in the same boat she was just a couple weeks ago...praying with every fiber of her being to keep her baby boy alive. Every time I read blogs like this, or hear similar stories, I just want to hold my babies that much closer. This one is no exception, as I have a little guy her little boys same age. I seriously want to go get my baby out of bed and just hold him!
Last Saturday, this mom was going about her daily activities and minutes later, one of her older boys found her to tell her that the one-year-old had drowned and he thinks he's dead! If you want to read more, you can find her blog here. Just do me a favor. I know I'm just repeating the words she said on her blog, but hold your babies a little tighter, be a little more patient and know that the little things, are just that, little things. Please pray for this family!!

hE LoVes mE, He ReAlLy lOvEs Me!!

2010-01-26T21:11:00.002-07:00

Just thought I'd show ya'll how great my man is!!
Happy (Early) Valentine's Day

Christmas slacking

2009-12-30T22:28:00.005-07:00

I must admit, I let the holidays get the better of me and they took over my desire to blog. I know that doesn't make sense, because, why wouldn't I want to document all these fun times we're having with our kids growing up...well, I'm a horrible mom and the camera isn't a good friend of mine, and I forget to take pictures, let alone pictures that actually turn out.

I will say though, I did take some good pictures.
A week or two before Christmas, I was headed to bed for the night and was headed towards my kitchen window to close the blinds, when I looked out my window, and was somewhat thrown off when I saw what looked like a man, looking in my window, leaning against my mailbox. Well, as I started to get closer to my window, I saw another man looking from my front step into my kitchen window. Well, these two men, were two different 6 foot fiberglass santa's from who knows where! We still don't know who dropped these huge Christmas decorations off, but rest assured, they will be resurfacing next year...so be warned. People we tell this story to, don't realize really how big these Santa's are until they come to our house and see them in person. Its funny to see everyone's reaction.

Jefferson is getting so cute! He's a very active boy. But when he hits his wall, he hits it fast and hard. He's never really had issues going to bed or at nap time. But one day before Christmas, he must have been really tired. I had fixed the two younger boys lunch then made a phone call. Not even two minutes later, I hung up the phone, and began preparing my lunch as I heard strong, deep breathing. I turned around, and Jefferson was out! He was so cute! His little arms were folded and he just laid his head down on them. I love this little guy!

I was a major slacker, and should probably be shot for not getting any pictures of Christmas! But in my defense, we did take video. The camera is so old...like three years old, that it has MAJOR delays and by the time it actually clicks, the picture moment is gone. So rather than get frustrated, I just didn't take pictures. But I will say, Jake got a "magic bike" as he calls it. Its a little mini battery operated 4-wheeler. Jefferson loves to ride this bike. He's so fascinated by the cause and effect of pushing this little button. I wish I could have gotten the pictures I was hoping for, see excuse above, but I didn't. However, these are the best I got. He is so happy with his "big boy" adventure on Jake's bike.

Anyway, there's our holiday in a very very small nut shell. I promise to be better next year...maybe I'll get a decent camera in the days between now and next Christmas. Haha!

Let's Talk Turkey

2009-11-15T20:49:00.002-07:00

My sister-in-law sent me an email with ideas to help us have a more "Thankful" Thanksgiving. Each night, we pull a slip from our Let's Talk Turkey jar and come up with a way to express our thanks for the item we pulled out. Some of these have included being grateful for ears, grandparents, books and the like. Well, the kids know that there are two in the jar that are grateful for sisters and grateful for brothers. So Tanner and Tyler have been telling each other what they're going to do when they pull those slips. Tanner's turn was tonight, and he thinks he knows which tightly rolled up slip is grateful for sisters. Well, as he was trying to pick the specific one, I kept shaking the jar so he would just get the one he grabbed. He wasn't too happy with me for doing that, and didn't hold back in letting me know this. I just had to laugh when I opened the rolled scroll and read, "I am Thankful for my Mom!" Now isn't that just poetic justice! I showed it to Tyson before I read it to the kids and his reaction was the same. Laughter!
Well, my dear sweat little Tyler, took this assignment to heart, and quickly took a pencil to her room to write me a note. (The helpful suggestions on the paper read "Do something nice for mom! Write her a note, good chocolate, cook and clean up dinner, do the laundry, clean any room, etc.) A few minute later, she brought me a folded up piece of paper. I opened it and it read:
Mom I Love yo
I no it is hord.
I Love are famlee.
frum tyler lybbert.
I have to say, it brought tears to my eyes. Being a mom is hard sometimes...a lot of times, but these small little rewards for a hard job, make it just that much more worth it!

Wiggly wobbly woo!!

2009-11-13T20:02:00.003-07:00

Jefferson is providing a new world of boy. Each of our boys have had different, very different personalities. Nothing bad, just different from the other. And with each boy, we've gradually been introduced to the boyness of life. Tanner was very calm and could be content just sitting and reading books all day. Climbing was not something he even tried. With Jake, he loved to scare and get people and while climbing was something he knew about, it wasn't something he preferred. Jefferson has opened new doors. The other day, he figured out that if he pulled the stove drawer out, he could hold on to the stove handle and stand on the drawer to get a better view. He loves to climb onto the table and do a victory dance showing pure delight in his accomplishment of making it to the top of the table before mom figured out he was up there. He LOVES balls. If we even mention the word he starts looking for the basketball or bouncy ball to bounce throughout the kitchen. He's also been our wiggliest. Church is more like a wrestling match and cuddle time, while it does happen, is short and sweet. Well, tonight, Tyson was trying to get Jefferson's jammies on and the two were working up quite the sweat to get him dressed. Finally, he finished and Jefferson was off to his next destruction project. When shortly after he was dressed, he started making grunting/screaming sounds. He was able to walk over to us in the kitchen, to which we realized his one piece pajamas were on correctly on the top half of his body, but somehow, in his wiggles, they were twisted in the middle and turned so him right leg was in his left legs spot and left leg was in right legs spot. It was actually really funny, but you know the thought going through both Tyson and my heads was the same...he is SO wiggly!!! The three pictures were the best I could get. He was busy trying to get to a bubble sheet to walk all over and pop with the older kids!

First Haircut

2009-11-02T21:37:00.002-07:00

Yes, it is that time that comes in every child's life when his hair just isn't baby cute anymore. Jefferson reached that point a while ago, but time is just not something we have around here very often. So tonight for Family Home Evening he got a haircut. I have to say, all four of my kids have handled their haircuts really well. No one has been freaked out by this buzzing thing that keeps coming at their head...it could be the sucker that has them preoccupied, but we didn't even pull the sucker out with Jefferson until after the big buzzing thing was turned off. I would say he did really well. He didn't hold still so well, but come one, what do you expect from a one-year old?

Jefferson's first "real" word

2009-10-29T19:35:00.003-06:00

I know kids say momma and dadda pretty early on, but today Jefferson said more than those two words and more than just jibberish. However, every time I would try to have him say it for someone, he would just look at me in wonder. So, I finally broke out the camera and after many attempts, he said it again. He'd say it, just not when I was recording or when someone else was on the phone. So, to keep you all from getting endless phone calls, regarding Jefferson's first word, here is the video. Oh, and yes, he is in the bathtub, yes he did get a cracker and yes, there are now cracker floaties in the bathtub.

Crazy Jake

2009-10-17T23:21:00.002-06:00

I tried uploading this video to Facebook, but for some reason, it wasn't working...or at least it didn't look like it was working. I just couldn't help but post this. Jake was in the weirdest mood the other night. I was able to record him for a minute before he realized that I was recording him. Its too funny.

The other night, we were going through the costume box. Jefferson had so much fun trying on new costumes and wigs. His smile is priceless!!

Miss Nelson is Missing

2009-10-11T18:39:00.002-06:00

I'm sure we are all familiar with the book, "Miss Nelson is Missing", but if you aren't, I bet one look at this picture and you'll know the story I'm talking about.

If not, here's a quick summary. Miss Nelson is a teacher and her class is very rude. They don't listen and, you know, the typical school class. Well, one day, the kids show up to school, and Miss Nelson isn't there. For a day or two, the principal substitutes, but quickly realizes these kids are out of control. The next day, Ms. Viola Swamp. Miss Swamp turns out to be every kids worst nightmare. She whips these kids into shape, so much that they won't even sneeze without asking permission first. When Miss Nelson returns, the kids are perfect. They have done a complete turn around in behavior. They are just glad to have their teacher, Miss Nelson, back.

Tanner's class read it this week and had to fill out a story summary form. When he brought it home, I was going through his packet reading the questions he was answering, and his answers. The first questions was, How can you relate to this story. Well, Tanner answered, My mom is like Ms. Swamp. She yells a lot.

Nice! I've never met his teacher, but I'm sure she thinks I'm the worst mom around. Just with some of the times Tanner will call me from school or the way we do our spelling. I'm sure Tanner has helped paint a lovely picture of me for his teacher!

8 Years Old!!

2009-09-11T21:56:00.004-06:00

I can't believe Tanner is 8 years old! When did that happen!?
Tanner is such a good kid! He loves to make his younger brothers laugh and he and Tyler play so well together...most of the time. He is such a giving kid and more often than not, ends up being the piece-maker. Today, he received a cute little Thank You note from a little girl in the ward. It said, "Thanks for sitting by me on the bus on my first day of kindergarten. I was glad you sat by me the first time because you held my hand so I wouldn't trip and fall. I was a little nervous with all those kids - -some of them I didn't even know. You're really nice." That's Tanner. He'll go out of his way to make sure everyone is okay and happy.
I didn't get any pictures of his birthday. I know, I'm a bad mom. He woke up and was out of bed before anyone else was up for the day. Which toned down the celebration in the morning. He got a new bike, and not a moment too soon! His old bike he got when he turned 3! And he's long out grown it. We'll get a couple other gifts to give him on Sunday for out family celebration as well. He also got a couple of screw drivers from Grandma and Grandpa Lybbert and a birthday card with $2.00 from Grandma and Grandpa Bishop (great grandparents on the Lybbert side) and a card from Grandma Great.
Happy Birthday Tanner, we love you and are so glad we get to see you learn and grow!

Playing Catch up

2009-08-30T20:15:00.007-06:00

As much as I wanted to update, I hate to admit, but I think summer got the best of us. We got caught up in all the fun activities we were doing, and being lazy, it overflowed into my desire to update...I just got lazy. I'd like to say the photos all go in great order, detailing every moment of our summer fun, but they don't. So I'll just put a small caption under each one.

The fam at Jordanelle Reservior. Our final vacation before the end of summer. We went with five other families and had the best time...so much in fact, we've decided to make it an annual thing.
Jake...need I say more?
Jefferson and mom testing the waters. He had a hard time with this camping trip because up until that weekend, he'd never worn shoes. Lets just say it wasn't him favorite thing...but then, neither was walking on the rocks. Needless to say, he had a lot of extra energy to burn when we got home, only to get back in the car for another hour and a half drive. (More on that later.)
The Dickamore's brought their mini 4 wheeler and the kids had so much fun on it! The funny thing about this picture, as you can see, Jake is looking down at his hand, pushing the gas while Ben was still in the process of telling him how to make it go. He'd seen Tanner and Tyler do it, and knew exactly what he was supposed to do, he didn't need instructions!
Tyler gearing up for her ride around the camp pod.
Tyson and I were both very impressed with Tanner on this trip. He took right to the 4 wheeler and was driving every other kid around. He had a little friend that he buddied right up with and on the boat, that the Pettit's were so nice to bring, he was on the yellow banana with two other girls and an adult and when it tipped, he kept his cool and just enjoyed the swimming time. He also loved going fast on the tube we tried out as well. Even mom had a hard time with that one.
Becky, Jefferson and mom getting ready for bed.
Tanner and his buddy Maja. Seriously, these two went everywhere together. We were sad to see the Biggs go after one night. Oh, and yes, they are the same age. And no, she's not standing on up on something to make her taller. She is a full head taller than Tanner.
Enjoying tinfoil dinners...well, I think Tyson is enjoying the tinfoild dinner. Jefferson and Tyler were eating cantelope and smores.
One tired little guy! Summer was hard on him. His naps were never on a schedule so he had to sleep when and where he could. The crazy thing about this picture, Jefferson is the one and only child we've had fall asleep in the high chair. The others have been close, but never made it. Doesn't EVERY kid fall asleep at least once?
Jefferson LOVES being outside. He throws a fit every time I open the door to let the dog in or out because he wants to go outside. He loves it so much, he doesn't even care if he's sitting in the stroller, he just wants to be outside. Here, he's sitting in the stroller while we unload for our second trip in one weekend.
Tanner and Tyler with Desi and Marissa at the restaurant after Grandpa Greats viewing. My grandpa died the day before we left on our camping trip, Friday. (He died Thursday morning). So after we got home Sunday morning from camping, at 11:30am, we had exactly an hour and a half to unpack the car and our bags, get cleaned up, pack back up and head out the door for an hour and a half drive up to Tremonton. Needless to say, most of us had had it at the end of that day. We spent the night in the Hampton Inn, much better than sleeping on the ground! And woke up early the next morning to go to the funeral. It was fun to see all my cousins, not so fun for the purpose, but having the knowledge we do of eternal families, I'm grateful that I will be able to see my grandpa again someday and I can't wait to see the garden he's taking care of!!Me and my brother at the same restaurant. I don't think we have any pictures of the two of us.
Just some carrots we've gotten out of our garden, yes, I have a garden! Its so fun to go out and pick a fresh tomato pretty much every day to have either a toasted tomato sandwich or my new found favorite, grilled cheese and tomato! YUM!! Not such a big fan of the fresh carrots, I think their taste is just too strong. But they're fun to watch grow. And its fun to be able to give them to people I know will enjoy them, like my grandma!

Jefferson's new found joy! He LOVES opening and closing the dishwasher and climbing inside. The best is when he stands up and opens the drawer and sees all the fun things his hands have only been able to feel up to the point of this realization.
And now our summer has come to an end! Tanner on his first day of school! I can't believe he's in second grade!
Tanner has Mrs. Armenta this year.
Best buds...well, most of the time! These two really are best of friends. They have their sibling quarrels, but really, who doesn't!?
Tyler on her first day of school. She has Mrs. Sperry. That's the same teacher Tanner had last year. We've told Tanner that even though its the same teacher, she may do different things this year, so he doesn't need to give her a play by play of what they are going to do this year. Even Mrs. Sperry told Tyler some things will be different, so if Tanner tells her how its supposed to be, to let him know, this is a different year.
She looks so grown up!! When did that happen?
Jake just hangin' with Charlie, waiting for Tanner and Tyler to get home from school.
Jefferson playing around. Notice the "toy" in his hand. For some reason, both he and Jake have found these "toys" to bring hours of fun. Well, maybe not hours, but its lots of fun to pull them out of the box, and put them back in. Or not even put them back in, but walk around the house all day with them, and leave them around.
Jake and Fritz waiting at the bus stop waiting for the bus to come take the kids to school.
And that wraps up our summer. I'm not so good at taking pictures or else I'd have more pictures to document on. Now back into the daily grind of school, homework, reading and lessons. I love routine!!

My Money Man

2009-08-11T21:02:00.003-06:00

I have never been so excited and waited so patiently for a magazine subscription to arrive!! Even back in my high school days of Teen magazine and whatever other magazines that appeal to those awkward teenage years. And just for my OCD friends, yes, I would organize them on my night stand by publish date and size of magazine. But, today, my favorite magazine of all time arrived, FamilyFun Magazine. I get this magazine in hopes that my children's claim that our family is not fun, will in fact, be something of the past...we're still working on that. This months issues did not disappoint. I've been really struggling to get my kids to work and be motivated to do anything because, according to them, I never let them do anything fun, I never let them play, I always make them be my slaves so I can sit on my computer all day. Those are their thoughts. Isn't it funny how the kids make the same claims that the parents make. I swear I feel like I'm the one that does all the work, and to avoid the complaints that come when I do ask them to do anything, I let them continue playing so I can have my piece and quiet. In any event, there was this great idea for the kids to earn dad dollars to spend at the mom market. I'm hoping that they will see the money as an opportunity to buy things that they really want and would like, while not using real money, but still teaching them the value of a dollar. I can hardly wait! But here is our money man and our dollar bill! So excited!! If you'd like to do the same thing, with any face, you can go here.

I call this picture of Tyson his Bronco Mendenhall face.

And he's off!!

2009-08-05T17:26:00.003-06:00

I feel like a horrible mom, because I haven't documented the exact moment that any of my kids have started walking. Partly because I'm not exactly sure when to document it. Is it the actual "first step" or is it when they can take more than a step without falling into the ground, or is it when they are in fact walking? Well, Tanner, Tyler and Jacob all started walking at about 13 months. Jefferson was acting like he'd walk before then, just because he would take a step or two and then fall to the ground, before his first birthday. But to be able to feel like I can actually document that he is in fact walking, I felt that he needed to be able to take more than those first few steps. So, he followed the family pattern and is now walking at just about 13 months. For a while, it was something that he had to be in the mood to show off, but now, he'll get up and just start walking. I think he still prefers crawling to walking, just because he's still picking it up, but I'm sure it will be no time at all and that will change!

Our summer, Warning: Picture overload!

2009-08-01T15:31:00.007-06:00

I thought I was going to be so good to document all of our summer happenings. I'd like to say its because our summer has been non stop fun and crazy busy, but really, its just due to my laziness. Actually, I can't say that we haven't been doing things, but its just little things here and there. My sister and her kids were here for a few weeks in between moving. We were lucky enough to have the kids cousins here for the week while my sister drove her car from New Jersey to Utah. It brought back to my memory, all the times I spent the night with my cousins and how much fun we had when we were little. We spent half of a weekend in St. George. It was a quick trip, and by quick, I mean we left at 6pm Friday night arriving around 9:30pm, and were headed home at 8:30 Saturday night. We went down for my cousin to take our family pictures and we should have stayed longer, but I had a meeting to be back for Sunday morning and Tyler had a talk to give in primary, so it worked better to do it that way. If you want to see a few of the pictures she took, you can see them on her blog LC Photography. You'll have to scroll down a little bit to her entry titled "Mayhem". We've gone up to the Disney Radio fair and had lots of fun there. We've gone swimming and thanks to my mother-in-law, got free passes to the Children's Museum. Anyway, we've had lots of fun this summer, but the best is when the kids want to do something else and we say no, they go into this full on fit of how we never do anything fun blah blah blah. So we just list all the things we've done this summer and tell them if those things were not fun, then we won't do any of them next year. They're quick to take back their complaining...well the complaining doesn't end, but they just move onto something else. Anyway, I'll let the pictures show our fun.
Tanner playing news ancor at the Childrens' Museum
Tyler on the horse at the museum.
Babyland at the Childrens' Museum
Jefferson playing with the potatoes out of the Childrens' Museum garden. This really is a happy expression.
Tyler playing checker at the Childrens' Museum grocery store.
Camping out on Tyler's floor. Tyler was in her bed and cousins Marissa and Desi along with Tanner and Jake on the floor. It was one crowded bedroom!
Jefferson trying to throw the potatoes at me, enjoying his freedom to crawl around at the Childrens' Museum.
Cousin Marissa on the horse at Childrens' Museum
Cousin Desi at Childrens' Museum
Tyler and cousin Desi at Childrens' Museum
Jake at Childrens' Museum
Cousin Marissa at the gateway fountain.
Tyler pouting because she wanted to get wet, but didn't want to get wet if she wasn't in her swim suit.
Tanner and cousin Desi in the fountain at the Gateway cooling off.
Jefferson and Grandpa Lybbert at the Lybbert family reunion up Big Cottonwood Canyon. This is the one and only picture I got of the entire day. Its a little difficult to be camera happy when you are without your husband.
Radio Disney fair. They all got a free creamy for sitting in a line to put a sticker milk stash on, but hey, isn't that what summer's all about!
In front of the hotel in St. George.

Tyler learning to swim in the pool.
Tanner and Tyler.
Along with all our summer fun, Tyler had to take a trip to the dentist to have her first two teeth puller. Her adult teeth were pretty much all the way in and the baby teeth were showing no interest in coming out. Reason being, the roots were still 100% there instead of the adult tooth eating away the root, which in turn makes the tooth become loose and fall out. So, to the dentist we went. I could not believe how long her teeth were! I had to measure them. I know, gross! But both teeth were half an inch long! She was a trooper. The dentist had to pull out the pliers, every kids worst nightmare!! But he was twisting and yanking and pulling to get those teeth out! She had laughing gas and a numbing shot, but still, this was one of those times where her drama was lagit! Anyway, here are the pictures of Tyler's first two teeth!

Anyway, I warned you, picture overload!

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

2009-07-05T20:34:00.010-06:00

Just a few min. old.
Days old. Evan though he's 10x's bigger now, I can still see the same features in this picture as he has now.
I hate to admit it, but this is the most recent, decent picture I have. This is about 5 months old. I'm a terrible mom!

I cannot believe that it has been a year since my baby was born! Where did the time go! I know every mom says that, but this year flew! I don't ever remember a time where I looked and how many months old he was and thought, "Really, he's only __ months old?" I'm sure it has to do with the fact that he's the 4th child and everyone is busy with their happenings. Poor guy! I really have loved every day I've had with him. He is the happiest little guy you'll ever meet. The only time he is fussy is when he's tired or hungry. You'll know when he's had enough, because if you walk past him, he'll follow you with his gaze and once you pass him, he'll start to cry.

I thought for sure he'd be walking by his first birthday, but it looks like he'll follow the trend and wait a little longer. He'll take a step and then lunge forward. He gets so excited when he sees people and will say hi, over and over in the cutest high pitches voice. He waves hi and bye and blows kisses. He says mom and dad and even though no one else would understand it, I'll even hear an occasional Tanner, Tyler and Jake. Obviously, its not that clear, but you can tell he's trying to say it. He also get so excited with the dog is around and says dog and signs it as well. He signs more and drink also.

The morning of his birthday, Sat. July 4th, the rest of the kids had spent the night at my parents so we had him all to ourselves. He woke up and I drug Tyson in his room with me and we sang happy birthday to him. He was so excited! He kept rubbing his arms up and down his chest with such excitement and had the biggest grin on his face! Whenever someone would start to sing Happy Birthday to him during the day, he'd get the biggest smile.

Last year, as we woke up on the 4th of July, we were just laying in bed about 6:30am when the phone rang. We were expecting the phone call, as I was to be induced that day. My Dr. was fine with inducing me since I go really fast and she was guaranteed to be done with me by fireworks. Not that she wouldn't have stayed if I would have gone into the fireworks, but we had it all scheduled out. She's such an awesome Dr!! I actually shouldn't put her down like that. She's a great midwife! If she was a doctor, I would have never had him on the 4th! In any event, the call came bright and early and they said they'd take me whenever I got there. So, we hurried and got our stuff together to head to IMC. Again, my mom had the kids. Once we got there, it was about 45 min. before they started me and 3.5 hours later I held the cutest 6# 9oz 19 in. little boy I'd ever seen! (I can say that, because the other two boys were different weights and lengths!) His labor was different than Jakes. For one, I was so worried I was going to have complications again and lets face it, those kinds of complications aren't in any way fun if you don't have an epidural. But the contractions were spaced apart to the point where as soon as one was over, it was as though nothing was happening. I was fine to sit and laugh and joke around and have a conversation with no problem at all, then when the pain would worsen again, I'd focus and work to get through it. I'm so glad this little guy, well, really he's a chunky monkey, is in our family! Happy Birthday buddy!

Now, for our 4th of July, we had a crazy 48 hours! Friday night, my mom took the kids because my sister is in town and they wanted to play with their cousins and go to the hot air balloon festival on Saturday morning, which was really only doable by spending the night, they just have to get up way too early. So, Jefferson and I headed up to pick Tyson up from work about 6pm and headed to his bosses house for the evening. We've been doing this for the last few years and always have a great time with tons of really good food! After the socializing and dinner, we waited for 10pm for the fireworks to start. This is always a little nerve racking just waiting to see how the kids are going to handle the fireworks. I can honestly say I've never seen a kid so calm during fireworks. He was very relaxed and calm throughout the entire thing. He just laid up against me and every few minutes you'd hear a very soft, ahhhh. We got home about 11:30. Saturday morning we woke up, I hurried to get ready so I could go pick up balloons for Jefferson's birthday. Then we headed down to the park just down the street for our annual ward/neighborhood breakfast and parade. We missed the breakfast, but made it for the parade. Jefferson even got his picture taken with one of the firemen in front of the firetruck. He was lovin' life.

Any time anyone would say or sing Happy Birthday, he'd get the biggest grin on his face. He knew it was for him. Then we came home, gave Jefferson a nap, welcomed the other kids home and got ready for a BBQ with grandma and grandpa Lybbert. We had our BBQ and then Jefferson got his birthday cake and made the biggest mess any of our kids have ever made, and was very happy to do so.

We then came home, had naps and headed down to Provo with Gus and Becky Zamora and my family for our traditional Stadium of Fire fireworks, but outside the stadium. This is something we've done for 20 some odd years. As long as I can remember. And we had a great time walking around the booths, listening to music, eating dinner, doing fireworks and at the end, watching fireworks. Again, Jefferson was amazingly calm! He loved them and again, every few minutes I'd hear a small, ahhhh. We hurried home after that, walking in the door about 11:30, put the kids to bed, and were up by 7am to get ready for 9am church. I'm just glad I didn't have to play the organ today! That would have really stretched us. We had our occasional tired outbursts, but the kids had a great time, and Jefferson had a memorable birthday...well, at least we'll remember it. I'm just glad he gets fireworks every year for his birthday, and I don't have to pay a penny for the biggest birthday celebration! (That is, until city's cut all their budgets and we have to start paying for them!)

The birthday boy!

Poor Tyler was the unlucky one to get burned from a sparkler. They really do cause damage! She had a nice blister in the space between her thumb and pointer finger. It pretty much ruined the rest of her night, but only because she's our drama queen. I'm sure it hurt pretty bad, but I'm sure she milked it for all it was worth too!
Jake LOVED the glow sticks!
L to R Gus, Tilie, Dallan, Kailee, Tanner, Tyler, Grandma and Grandpa holding Jefferson and Tyson and Jake in the back ground. Becky and I were taking pictures.
This picture was not posed. Grandma just had a great photo opp. and took it!

Even though Jefferson looks a little stressed right here, he was just trying to reach his head to see the fireworks coming up from out of the stadium.

Utah Arts Festival

2009-07-02T17:52:00.004-06:00

Saturday we decided to take advantage of the nice weather we were having, and headed up to the Utah Arts Festival. The kids asked what that was, and Tyson told them its a place where people sell art that they've drawn or made. Well, little did we know how this would be translated. Tanner decided to go downstairs and start drawing pictures that he could sell at this Arts Festival. Imagine the look on his face when we told him he couldn't sell it at the festival. You would have thought his puppy was just run over. He started carrying on telling us how much we must hate his art work for us to have the nerve to tell him he couldn't take it to sell. I think by the end of the day, he finally realized exactly what we were talking about. Tyson did tell him the people who occupy the booths up there, pay lots of money in order to sell their goods there. I thought it was funny he was so adamant about selling his drawings.

We also decided to get the kids faces painted. Oh WOW! Is all I can say. I guess since its an art festival, the people painting faces, of course, are artists. So why wouldn't they want to use your entire face as a blank piece of paper. I was finally able to talk them out of painting Jake's whole face, not sure of how he would handle it. But she was really confused as to how she was supposed to draw something just on his cheek. Tanner decided to go with Darth Mal (sp) and Tyler is in this puppy phase, where everything she does and wants is puppy oriented, so she decided to have them draw a dalmatian dog. Sure these are cute and all, but let me just tell you the fight we had to wash their faces. It wasn't even that they wanted to keep these cute artistic expressions on their faces. Oh no, they just didn't want their faces washed. If you would have been within a 5 mile radius of our house, you could have heard Tyler screaming! And let me tell you, the black was not the easiest to get off. As it was, I used my face wash to take it off and Tanner and Tyler still looked like they were wearing eye makeup. It was fun and the kids had a good time.
Tyler wasn't very happy. She'd taken a drink of water and forgot she had paint on her face and wiped the water off, which in turn, smeared some of the paint off her face. Later that evening at a BBQ, Tyson found her in the bathroom trying to wash the rest of it off her face.

Tanner's Darth Mal. (Again, spelling.)

Jake was being silly in this picture, which is why there are two of him. He gets in these moods in the late afternoon, mainly because he's tired, but everything you ask him to do, he'll do the opposite.

There's his smile!

Tyler after her attempt to remove the pain from her face. Little did she know what was in store for the next 3o min. as we worked to get the leftovers off!! Or really, I should say, little did we know!

Tanner and his zombie face. He's entering a new phase of boy annoying. :)
This was taken "pre-wash". At this point, Tyson had gotten what he could get off with just warm water.

Look Who's Three!!

2009-06-22T21:57:00.008-06:00

Jake holding up his three fingers. If you look closely, you can see how he holds his ring finger down, but puts his pinky up.

I can't believe three years ago, Jake came to our family! Tyson and I were talking this morning about the morning Jake was born. I was being induced, so we were just waiting for the phone call. We weren't sure when the call would come, as the schedule all depends on how busy their night is the night before. We got a phone call at 7am telling us they'd had a busy night and it would be a while before they could get me in. So, we just waited...actually, I decided to pass the time by mopping my floor and Tyson went to Wal Mart to get me some Trix, as that was the only that sounded good to eat. The crazy things pregnancy does! It was only an hour or so until they called and told us to come in, but at least I got to come home to a clean house. The kids had spent the night at my parents house.
Jake was my smallest baby, coming in at a very little 5lbs 9oz and 18in. He has maintained his small size and is still just little. He is only three pounds heavier than Jefferson who is two years younger than him!
He's such a sweet little guy. He's very quiet, yet has a lot to say when he chooses to speak. I think he's just decided that he doesn't want to fight for the attention Tanner and Tyler clearly demand. He'll say the most random, funny comments. Today, we spent the day at seven peaks to celebrate his birthday and both of our tubes were stolen by someone. In line to go down one of the slides, Jake told me, that wasn't very nice of somebody to steal our tube. When I find them, I will punch them! He's not a violent kid, but they way he says it is just so cute! As I sit here typing this, he is still up due to a late afternoon nap. He has a blanket on and is sitting next to me. He keeps putting the blanket on me because I'm cold. Or so he thinks I'm cold.
As I mentioned above, we spent the day at Seven Peaks, with Tyson and everyone but Jefferson, thank you Grandma Stauffer for watching Jefferson! Jake had so much fun going down the slides again and again and again! I couldn't believe it! We'd just barely get down the slide and he's say he wanted to do it again! Tanner and Tyler had fun on the slides as well, be wanted to spend more time in the wave pool and lazy river.

The life jacket didn't last long. I held him most of the time.

One tired little guy! He feel asleep not even two minutes after we got on the road home.
We headed back to Grandma's house to pick Jefferson up and have pizza and rootbeer for dinner, Jakes birthday request, even though he was asleep and didn't even eat it. He woke up just in time for Trufula Tree Cake and ice cream. What is Trufula Tree Cake? Well, Jakes favorite book is a book by Dr. Suess, The Lorax. He loves the trufula trees and around Tyler's birthday, mentioned he wanted a trufula tree cake. Ok, how do I pull that off? Well, I did my best, and while it didn't look like a professional cake, Jake loved it and didn't even want the cake, he just wanted the trufula tree.
Ok, I didn't realize how crazy Tyson's hair looks. It has a ton of sunscreen in it from Seven Peaks.

It was such a fun day! I'm so glad the weather decided to cooperate with us and actually show us that yes, the sun does exist still! I've got the nice sunburn to prove that.

Happy Late Birthday/Father's Day

2009-06-21T21:38:00.003-06:00

So, I'm a little late posting on Tyson's birthday. It was last Monday, June 15th. He turned 31 yrs. old. Not that anyone cares to know his age. But I can't believe that I've shared 9 years with him! It was on his birthday nine years ago, in the back office of the Hampton Inn, Sandy, he first told me, "I think I'm falling in love with you!" To which I replied, "When do you think you'll know?" That first birthday we spent together, I'd spent so much time thinking of the perfect gift to give him. We'd only been dating a month and a half, so I wasn't sure what to give him. But I knew he liked the ice cream cakes from Baskin Robins, so ordered him a small one and made him a fleece blanket with the hand stitching around the edge. We still have, and use that blanket to this day. Never mind the fact its currently hung over the window as "blinds" in the boys room.
This year, I tried to come up with the perfect gift again. I have this same struggle every single year. To back track just a little, a few months ago, Tyson mentioned the BYU's opening season game was being held against the Oklahoma Sooners in the new Dallas Cowboys stadium, and he knew the perfect gift to give me for my birthday! The game is the same weekend of my birthday. He was half joking. Fast forward a few months to me getting ready for his birthday this year, and I had the perfect birthday present for him! I wish I could have kept it a secret just to see the look on his face, but having to spend that kind of money on airline tickets, I had to make sure it fit with his work schedule. But he was happy still the same and couldn't wipe the smile off his face. This will be the first vacation, just the two of us, since his last birthday trip to a Boston Red Sox game, three years ago. Are you seeing a pattern here? I need a trip just about every three years. As long as I'm spending time with him, I don't care where we are. I know, pretty cheesy!
So, we got him two tickets to the BYU opening season game, Wii Active and a Wii sensor to enhance the movements. Happy Birthday Baby! I love you!

Now, today, Father's Day, sad to say, wasn't any better than any other day. In fact tonight, Tyson mentioned he was surprised that we didn't make him cookies or brownies. We woke him up with his gifts and had to rush to get ready for church, and I think that's what threw his whole day off. I just wanted to give tribute to the man my children call dad. What a fun dad they have. He works so hard to provide for them yet knows how to come home and rough house with them. Even Jefferson knows when dad gets home, its nothing but fun and games. But at the same time, he knows how to discipline and teach them important lessons to life that will hopefully sink in as we continue to repeat them. I'm so grateful my children have such a wonderful, hardworking, loving father. I don't think they could ask for anyone better!

Now I've realized while looking through all of my pictures, I need to take more pictures of Tyson and Jefferson! I need to take more pictures of all of them, period!

where to start!

2009-06-13T21:40:00.007-06:00

I haven't updated anything in a while, which now means there is so much to blog about, I don't even know where to start!!
We are now out of school. Tyler's last day was Thursday and Tanner's was Friday. Each of them brought home their report cards for the year. Tyler got mostly four's with a few threes. Tanner got strait fours! They have both made so much progress, I can't even believe it! Each of their teachers gave them nice little notes about the progress they've made and all the things they've learned. We are excited for a long summer and are going to work hard to keep up their academic skills! I've bought workbooks, looked online for spelling tests and Tyson set up a system with them to check books out every day to read. Hopefully we can keep up on things so they don't lose all that they've learned...that's the bad thing with traditional school.

A little while ago, Tyson had a coworker who was diagnosed with Malignant Melanoma. Long story short, her family decided to put together a silent auction to raise funds for her treatments. They asked for donations to help out with the auction. Tyson and I talked about it and decided I would make a couple blankets to donate. Well, that conversation was the last time we talked about it. Until this last Wednesday when Tyson called to see if I was still planning on donating some blankets. Sure, that was the plan. Well, the auction was for this Saturday, yes, that's in three days. I hadn't even started the blankets, nor had I been to the fabric store to even get the fabric together for the blankets. Tyson said he'd contribute by watching the kids so I could go get the fabric. I informed him that if these blankets where to be finished and ready for Saturday, the house was going to be neglected...and that it was. This house was the worst its ever been! It wasn't gross dirty, just cluttered with bits and pieces of fabric. That drives me CRAZY!! Anyway, I started cutting Thursday and had most of the fronts put together by Thursday night. I was up until 12:30 doing that. Friday night, I was up until 3am getting the backs put on and the binding half way done and up by 7:30 Saturday morning to get them finished. Now, all this work was not just for two blankets. By the time I got the fabric from the store and went through my fabric at home, I had enough to put five blankets together. Anyway, if that wasn't a long enough explanation. Here are some of the finished products.

Sorry, lots of pictures!

A few Saturdays ago, we decided I told Tyson we had to clean out the other side of the basement. Its just gotten way out of control! Plus I thought maybe cleaning it out would start an itch to start working on the other side...that didn't work, at least not on Tyson. I wouldn't mind finishing the other side of the basement, but I guess its not bad enough to bother Tyson yet. Oh well. Anyway, the kids found the costume box and had a really great time.
Jake was the only one we got a picture of just because the boots were too stinkin cute on him!

Tyler had her school program a few days before school ended. She had a speaking part and did a great job! She's a bit scared to go into 1st grade because she really loved her teacher Mrs. Morgan.

Anyway, there are a lot of pictures but now we are updated on things. I'll try not to wait so long so my posts aren't so long. Tyson's birthday is Monday, so hopefully I'll have some good birthday things to write about. :)

An explanation

2009-05-31T22:14:00.002-06:00

I know at least one person has noticed the change of the blog title. Well, here is my explanation...
Tyson has a few work associates that somehow found our blog. I don't know if they found it or Tyson brought them to it, but Doug, his General Manager and Carrie, one of the Sales Managers, started teasing him about the title. "All Because Two People Fell in Love." Well, Tyson started teasing me about it and giving me a hard time, so to appease him, I changed it, because Doug and Carrie make fun of him. And that is why its, "All Because Doug and Carrie make fun of Tyson..."

Speak the language of Mayan

2009-05-23T22:54:00.002-06:00

This afternoon, we were driving home from the D.I. by way of 9400 S. in Sandy and came upon the Jordan Commons theater, also known as The Mayan. We started talking about eating there, and asked the kids if they remembered going there. Tanner then asked if we could speak the language of the Mayan. I guess I must have been in one of those weird moods, because that made me start laughing. Just the way he asked it. Tyson then told the he could. He then proceeded to speak the language of Mayan. He made a few sounds, yung ne now na, then followed it with a couple clicks of the tongue. Both Tanner and Tyler were amazed and asked what he just said. I think he told them he just said "Dad". So they both tried their tongues at this new language by repeating what he said. Every phrase ended with a few clicks of the tongue. This went on for a few minutes, with me just laughing in the front seat. I was crying I was laughing so hard! I'm sure the cars next to us thought something was seriously wrong with me. After a few tries at copying what he was saying, they both started attempting to say words in Mayan. Tyler asked what she just said, to which Tyson replied some phrase, then Tanner would do the same thing. After a couple tries, Tanner said something and Tyson said "Tanner, you shouldn't speak like that!" They were having a good time learning to speak the language of Mayan!

To mY bEst FriEnD!

2009-05-21T22:02:00.003-06:00

I know this is really cheesy, but I'm in a cheesy mood...sorry, you're the one who clicked to read my blog. :) I know I've written a post saying how much I love Tyson and how he's changed my life, but I heard this song on the AT&T commercial and just had to find it. Tyson is the best father, provider and husband I could ask for. There are days he'll come home and I'm going crazy but he'll just take over and get everybody to follow him to the backyard, or they'll play a game while I finish dinner. He understands my obsessive compulsive issues and just rolls with the punches. I find myself wondering how I was so lucky to find him.
So, to the best friend I've ever had, and to the many years we have to learn and grow together, I love you!

Happy Birthday Tyler!

2009-05-17T21:59:00.003-06:00

I can't believe six years ago Tyler made her debut! Looking back at the two hour labor and delivery, I should have known at that moment the personality we were going to see grow. She is such a strong personality! She's says what's on her mind, and while sometimes it might be very hard to understand or hear her, she lets you know what she thinks. This morning, we woke her up and sang "Happy Birthday!" while taking her breakfast in bed, which ended up being eaten at the table with everyone else. We got her a bike and two other presents to open. One was from Jake, the other from Tanner. When she was done opening them, she asked where her present from Jefferson was. We told her he gave her the helmet! Then, later, we were talking about going down to my parents for dinner and told her there wouldn't be any presents, because grandma is taking her out tomorrow for her birthday. She didn't skip a beat and very matter of factly said, "What about grandpa's present?" Really? Like you really need anymore presents! Well, Grandpa found a light up princess clock and that will be decorating a wall in her bedroom. Thank you grandpa!
Saturday, we had a Princess birthday party to top all princess birthday parties! I saw a few ideas online and put together my own agenda for her birthday party. And thanks to Michael's Arts and Crafts, was able to pull it off! I went into the store looking for things to put together princess wands and foam crowns. The lady at the store took me right to the foam isle and showed me pre-made wands and glittery pink crowns. I went a little crazy on decorations for them, but the girls had fun. And thanks to Aunt Carli, she had the perfect barbie princess cake! Barbies hair was a little singed from the candles, but nothing too big. I have to say, throwing a princess party for Tyler was MUCH different than throwing a pirate party for Tanner. Girls and boys are just so different! Here are a few pictures of the big day!
Opening her littlest petshop journal from Tanner.
Sunday morning with her new bike! Thanks dad for staying up so late to put it together!
Tyler's barbie princess cake.
Decorating our princess crowns and wands. I forgot to get my camera our while they were decorating the wands. I know you can't see the amount of glitter paint on the wands, but the one with all the red in the middle, the little girl went cRaZy with the glitter pen, we finally had to tell her she was finished.

Just to add to my statement at the beginning of this post, Tyler's full labor and delivery was two hours, start to finish. When she was ready to come, there was no stopping her! She's kind of stuck to that theme. When she's ready, she'll do it, and there's no stopping her. She is her daddy's princess and has him wrapped around her pinky finger. She loves being the only girl, but at the same time, wouldn't have complained if she would have ended up with a little sister. She's always been a big help. She loves helping with her little brothers and many times during the day, I'll have to look for her because she'll sneak away into her room to play with her girl toys. She'll have them spread all over her bed, playing her own little world, with some of them sleeping, or going to school.
I'm so glad her and Tanner are best of friends. I love when the two of them are having such a fun time playing that they keep making each other laugh.
While there are some things we have issues with, like brushing her teeth, or trying not to throw a fit if she doesn't win at a game, I'm glad she's my little girl. Love ya Tyler!

Sick and Tired!

2009-05-08T15:07:00.005-06:00

Its been a rough few days around the Lybbert household. Jefferson started out with a little tummy flu on Wednesday. He took a good chunk of a nap, noon-5pm, on Wednesday afternoon. I canceled all my students for the day, not wanting to expose them to anything. Thursday, he woke up feeling better, or at least acting like he felt better. But when everyone woke, it came to our knowledge that Jake had now come down with it. So, here I have sat, two days and a half days in the confines of my own home trying not to go crazy. And now, as Jake is seeming to be on the mend of not being able to keep even the smallest sips of water down, I decided to keep Tyler home from school due to noticable signs of the same bug taking over her body. Anyway, the recurring theme of this little bug, is sleep anywhere. Jefferson never falls asleep anywhere but in his crib. And he was just laying on the floor and fell asleep. Jake decided it was more fun to sleep on Tyson than in his bed without lumps. Last night they both fell asleep on the couch and stayed there the entire night, except the three times Jake woke me up to throw up and the one time he needed to go potty.
Tyler decided the sun felt nice and warm and laid down in Charlies usual sleeping spot. So he decided to join her in her nap.
I just couldn't help but snap the random places they've all chosen to take a rest. Charlie included. He's a most unusual dog. His favorite thing to do in the evening is to join Tyson on the love sack and curl up in the most random positions. Is it normal for dogs to like laying on their back?

I just had to add this video. This is post sick for Jefferson and in recovery for Jake. But they are playing with the fridge letters. Jefferson is adding his own singing to it.

Soooo tired

2009-05-02T22:43:00.003-06:00

Jefferson has gotten in a bad habit of nursing to sleep. Not that I don't enjoy him sleeping in my arms, but its never a good thing. So tonight, I fed him and after he finished, brushed his teeth (he actually likes the toothpaste and got mad when I put it away) then when everybody was ready for bed, he went down with everybody else. Unfortunately he didn't stay there long, but once everyone else was asleep, I put him back down. He fussed for about 10 min. and that was it. I went in shortly after to make sure everyone was covered and o.k. only to find Jefferson had fallen asleep folded in half.

He loves to nuzzle his blanket and I guess was tired enough that while sitting, as he folded over to bury his face in it, fell asleep. He's been cutting another tooth, which now makes 7 teeth, so naps haven't been too good this week, which made him extra tired so I knew he was ready for sleep. He's such a fun little guy! I can't believe we are almost to his one year mark! He's now pulling up on furniture and crawling all over the place. Not to jinx him or anything, but I really think he might be the only one to walk before his first birthday.

#3

2009-04-25T11:37:00.004-06:00

You might be wondering what these two pictures have in common. Ok, maybe, especially if you ever lost a tooth or known someone who's lost a tooth. We are all very familiar with the ol' dental floss tied to your tooth and a doorknob trick, but this time was not that well planned. See, Tanner has this really bad habit of coming in my room while I'm getting dressed and this morning was no different. So I kindly asked him to leave my room and I'd be out in a minute. This he did and while waiting for me, decided to have his mouth on the door handle. I'm not real sure where that brilliant idea came from, but whatever. So, when I was done, I turned the handle to open my door and when I came out, Tanner jumped up from picking his tooth up off the floor and stated, "My tooth came out!" He then told me how he had his mouth on the handle so when I turned it, it was just enough to knock his tooth out. Mind you, we've had to tell him to keep wiggling it because he won't let Tyson even get near his mouth! For that reason see here. In any event, we will have another visit from the tooth fairy tonight. Oh how exciting!!

bits and pieces

2009-04-22T21:39:00.002-06:00

Just an update to our true time of the half marathon.
Tyson ran it in 1:41:21
Camber ran it in 2:05:49
Funny thing is Tyson said he didn't push himself because he thought his time from last year was 1:46:something, well, looking back at last years time, AFTER the race this year, he actually ran last year in 1:40:01. Needless to say he wasn't too happy that he was just over a minute over his time from last year. Next year, he'll make sure of his time so he can beat it.

We had a conversation with the kids about a vacation this year. Of course, without hesitation, they all want to go to Disneyland. So Tyson told them there were other places to go. Then asked if there were any other places they'd like to vacation to. Sure, DisneyWORLD. Ok, so they didn't exactly get the point of that conversation. We're still working on a place to go.

...and its over!

2009-04-18T13:09:00.004-06:00

(left to right, my sister, Carli, Me, Tyson and our friend Scott George.)
Our half marathon is now behind us. All in all, it wasn't too bad. My morning started at 4:30am! I had to get some things done before we left our neighbor with the kids. I owe my friend Deb Sadler big time! She got to our house at 5:30am and stayed with the kids while we left for our race. I told her just to have Tanner and Tyler get dressed and the two younger boys were fine in their pj's. When I met up with them after the we finished, all four kids were dressed and ready for the day. Those who wanted to eat, had eaten and she was a pro! You'd think she had many kids of her own. I'm just glad she offered to help us out. My mom was supposed to have the kids, but had some last minute things that were more important, come up.
Anyway, we heard the gun shot for the start of the race, but no one was in a big hurry to go, as there were 10,000 people that had to get across the start line. They have foot chips now that start your time when you cross the start line and finish when you obviously cross the finish line. I kept a steady pace of 6.5 miles an hour. My sister Carli was close behind and Tyson schooled us all and didn't even wait for us to start the race. I didn't see him until the race was over. Tyson finished in 1:41 and I finished 2:about 6minutes. I'm not sure on my real time as I they haven't posted the official results yet and I forgot to start my watch as I crossed the start line. Tyson started his on time so he's sure of his time.

The kids also had their own marathon they were signed up for. Only problem was we were on the other side of the Gateway when they announced two minutes to the kids marathon. WHAT?!? So we booked it over to the start line for them, just in time to see the last of the kids come through the finish line. We were upset for a minute, but then I took the kids by the hand and told them we didn't need someone to tell us when to run, so we just took off. Tyson and I were very impressed with both kids. We didn't have to tell either one of them to keep going, they both kept up with my crippled pace and they crossed the finish line. They were even recognized by the announcer as we crossed and got their own medal as well. And now we sit around the rest of the day because no one can walk anymore. I don't know how people do full marathons! Tyson's trying to talk me into one...we'll see. By the way, the first place full marathoner, ran the 26.2 miles in 2:16!!!

Little Update

2009-04-14T19:31:00.004-06:00

Its been a few weeks, and a lot has gone on and I realize I am slow to update the blog lately. Not that anyone even cares, but it also somewhat serves as my record keeping. That's pretty sad. I wish I were better at documenting things, but I'm not.
In our household, the kids are quickly learning that March means March Madness, as in NCAA March Madness. This year, Tyson had everyone choose the teams they thought would win each round. After we had all chosen our picks, we put a wager on it. The person who won in the end, got to choose what we all had for dinner. Oddly enough, pretty much after the first round, it was between Jake and myself for the rest of the tournament. Jake chose pizza and root beer, I decided on Chinese food. No one was real excited about it. I won. In any event, the night of the final game, Tyson brought home chicken wings and meatballs from work, (I can't think of anything worse to eat!) and we had a picnic downstairs while we watched the slaughter. About five minutes into the game, my team was already 20 points ahead, and it pretty much stayed that way for the rest of the game. Oh well. This is something Tyson is wanting to really get into every year. It was fun.

Jefferson went through this stage for a while where if you took out your camera, he would just stare at you and nothing you did could get a smile out of him. Well, I think he's discovered that you are supposed to smile when you see this funny thing called a camera and now puts on the biggest cheese grin you'll ever see. Its so cute! He's now crawling like a mad man. Poor kid even fell down the stairs today. Yes, all 12 of them. He got some good little marks on his forehead. It was so cute though, because Jake was bringing all sorts of toys to try and make him happy again. He recovered quick enough, but that isn't to say I wasn't rattled.

The kids have been off track for the last two and a half weeks. We are actually in our third week and have managed fairly well. I would have to say it makes a HUGE difference when the weather is warmer and you can send them out to play every so often.

We have also had someone build our garden box, finally! Every year we get our tax return, we talk about it, but don't do anything with it. Well, this year, I decided that since the kids are going to a traditional schedule and will have the full three months of summer, we are going to grow a garden and pretty up our backyard so my kids don't have to go play in the front yard. Hopefully it works! I'll get pictures once the weather is nice again and I actually have things planted.

Write you a Love Song

2009-03-18T16:14:00.004-06:00

I'm trying to get a play list put together on my iPod to run to, so today had my iPod out. I decided to let Tyler listen to it once I figured out how fast the songs were that I was wanting to duplicate speeds on. Can I just tell you how hard it is to think strait when she is sitting right in my ear singing, very off tune if I might add. I think she only has two notes that she sings between. So I decided to pull out the camera and get her "show" on video. Its just about a minute long, but well worth watching...okay, maybe not as good as Tanner's tooth video, but funny still the same. I'm also going to add a video of Jake break dancing. Quite impressive for a two year old! :)

Boarderline Torture??

2009-03-12T20:08:00.005-06:00

Tanner has been bugging us the last week or so with a loose tooth. Every night its the same routine, "mom, I have a tooth ache." Mom:"Tanner, which tooth is it?" Tanner:"Its my front tooth, its loose." Every night we had this conversation. Well tonight, this tooth decided it was done being his tooth...or really Tyson decided it for the tooth, but I have never been so entertained. Tanner is a little timid when it comes to inflicting pain or anything of the sort. I'm just glad I had the thought when I did to grab the camera. Tyson was trying to convince Tanner that it wouldn't hurt very bad because the root was gone, it just needed to be pulled. Well, after further inspection the root of the tooth was only half gone. It took a little elbow grease to get it out, but 30 seconds later, Tanner now has a visit scheduled from the tooth fairy. I'm going to warn you, its a loud video so check your volume before playing it. Its pretty funny!

I hope this video works, I forgot how to upload a video...its been a while.

No Martha Stewart, but...

2009-03-08T21:26:00.015-06:00

I really do my best to try and duplicate recipes I've seen or decorations, but to no avail. I am not a crafty or creative person by any means, but I have to say, this time around, I think I did a pretty dang good job!! I saw this cookie idea here and thought I'd try it for our Great to be Eight program that we had tonight. Little did I know how good this cookie recipe was! These cookies turned out so soft. I added my own ingredient which was 2 tsp of lemon extract as well which made them that much better. I used the Soft Sugar Cookie recipe. The recipe can be found here. The frosting recipe is there as well. Mine didn't look as good as the ones I got the idea from, but I think besides the frosting color, we got pretty close. The best part was when the bishop got up to give his closing remarks, he said the only thing he's been looking at is the cookies that were placed on the table as our decoration. He's a pretty funny guy. Anyway, I will definitely be making these cookies again.

Also, these two pictures are too cute not to post. Jefferson has found one of Jakes toys which is a basketball. Well, it pulls apart to fit different smaller balls in it. This time around he was just playing with half of it, but found that when he put his face in it an made sounds, they sounded funny so he'd keep repeating the sound. He got a pretty good laugh over it.

And who can resist rub a dub dub, two men in the tub! These two are best buddies. I love that during the day, when I'm nursing Jefferson getting ready to put him down for a nap, Jake will come up on the couch next to me and give Jefferson a kiss and a hug and in the cutest little voice say, "I yuv you Jesson. He's my buddy." Then he'll go on to tell me how cute he is. We have a fun little conversation. I hope these two end up being really good buddies that get into trouble with each other. I know I'm probably going to eat those words in the years to come, but I really do hope they end up like that, then decide its better not to get in trouble and still be good buds.

Its official, I'm crazy!

2009-02-21T21:10:00.005-07:00

Well, I think I can officially be classified as crazy. Not that it wasn't already apparent, but for anyone that was still wondering, this will, I'm sure, make up your mind for you. Yesterday, I was on facebook, and noticed that one of my friends changed her profile picture to the cutest little face ever. So I had to click it and see if there were more pictures. Long story short, her status update said something to the effect of she is looking to give her puppy to a family they know, and takers? Anyway, I decided to ask how big the puppy will get and if they are good with kids. To which she called me later in the day and we set up a time for them to come over so we could meet this little pup. Well, of course, after meeting the puppy, the kids were more than ecstatic to know we were even thinking about possibly getting a dog. We told them we would think about it over night and let them know in the morning.
Jefferson woke up last night at about 5:30am. After I fed him, I went to put him back down and there Tanner was, awake and ready to go for the day. Asking me if we were going to get the puppy. He'd even come up with a solution for the bedding for the dog, we could use the bassinet. I told him to go back to sleep. When the rest of the house was finally all awake at 7am, we decided we'd let them get the puppy. From that moment on, every five minutes Tanner was asking if we could call our friends and let them know. We told him normal people don't get up that early on a saturday and to wait until 8:30. Well, that time came and we got a phone call from our friends because they had another couple interested, but gave us first say and just needed to know because the other people had already called them. So, we told them we were game and we'd pick him up at 2pm. So our morning we busy getting stuff for this little guy and making sure he has all the comforts he needs. So far, he's been really good. They let us take a couple blankets that he's slept with up to this point so its something familiar. Oh, by the way, its a mini dachshund. We named him Charlie. I think the name was Tanners idea and everybody went for it. Of course, while he's sleeping, the kids can't leave his cage alone. They want him to play all the time. He's mostly already kennel trained. And I think he really does like his kennel. I don't know if its for the familiar blanket or for the fact that the kids can't get to him while he's in there. Anyway, these aren't the best pictures, but I have never claimed to be a professional photographer. I'm also posting some pictures of the kids playing. Tyler thinks its fun to take Jefferson and move him around pretending like he's moving himself. Well, the other day she had him laying on top of her. Jake also wanted a turn so I decided to snap a picture just to show how big Jefferson is in comparison.
Meet Charlie (Tanner wanted his middle name to be chocolate and we'd give him the last name factory, get it, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!)
Like I said, not the best pictures, but just to give you an idea. I'll hopefully get a few more with the kids in them as well.
Jake "holding" Jefferson. Notice the big boy underwear on Jake, I think we're on the other side of this diaper stage with him...or here's hoping we are!
Tyler loves her little brother!

The things we teach our kids!

2009-02-21T00:07:00.003-07:00

I probably shouldn't admit to this, but its not me that taught this to our child, so that makes me feel a little better. Tyson finds great joy in teaching our kids the stupid things we did as kids. I can't think of any examples other than the one I'm about to give, so here's the story. You can be mad at us, but just admit, everyone's done this at some point, until it comes back to bite you and you just learned your lesson.
So, the other day, Tyson and I were talking about someone that we know that was just diagnosed with cancer. Tyson was giving me and update and Tanner overheard a part of the conversation. Being the inquisitive little 7-yr-old that he is, he asked what we were talking about. So we told him, someone we know is sick with cancer. To which, without skipping a beat, and in all seriousness, he says, "Oh no, was their hand bigger than their face?" Neither one of us could keep from laughing, which we felt horrible about, but he asked with sincere concern for this person. Now, to explain why he asked that question. For some reason when you're a kid, its fun to try and find a reason to smack someone in the face, so you'd tell someone that if your hand is bigger than your face, you have cancer. So what do they do? They stick their hand up to their face to test it out and BAM! You smack their hand against their face. Tyson had told this to Tanner, so when he heard us talking about someone with cancer, of course his only knowledge of this thing called cancer is if someones hand is bigger than their face, they have it. So there you go. We aren't proud of this little moment, but none the less, his innocence gave us a moment of laughter.

I hope Jake forgives me!

2009-02-09T12:59:00.005-07:00

I couldn't resist! And I know Jake's going to hate me someday for these, but every kids has to have pictures like this! Jake is slowly becoming potty trained. And by slowly, I mean I'm not doing any pushing and anytime he goes, its because he took himself. He's pretty much "trained" for the messy part of it, but when it comes to wetting, he just couldn't care less about sitting in a wet diaper all day. However, the other day we went to Target and he saw Hulk and Mickey Mouse underwear and was so excited that these guys actually have underwear too! So I told him when he can be a big boy and stay dry and go pee pees in the toilet, we'll get him big boy hulk and mickey mouse underwear. That being said, he's now wanting to use the potty more often, we still have our accidents, but they're only wet ones. He does have Elmo underwear that he wears sometimes, but it still doesn't excite him enough to go in the big boy potty. I just couldn't resist taking a picture, because for some reason, Jake thinks the hole in the underwear is supposed to go in back. He wants the pictures in front, not on his bum. We've had major issues over this. I just love that they totally ride up on his bum, and he doesn't even care! Its pretty funny. Anyway, the pictures are for my sister, and anyone else who wants a good laugh. Oh, and trying to get a picture of a two year old is not an easy task. I'd get him to stand still and a split second later, he'd start shaking his boody, and yes, he says shake boody while he does it.

I Need to Apologize

2009-02-07T22:06:00.002-07:00

Lately, its come to my attention, by myself mostly, that pay back is fair game. I believe that's the saying. But I need to apologize to all the mothers of the boy friends, boy friends being friends that were boys, that I felt I needed to call every day. Or sometimes more often. I'm beginning to see why I felt that most of these friends moms didn't particularly care for me. Mothers can be very protective of their sons. Let me explain. See, Tanner apparently has become rather good friends with a girl from his class...we'll call her Betty. Obviously, that's not really her name, but to protect the innocent, we'll go with Betty. Anyway, Tanner has been asking if he could have Betty over to play and also if he could go play at Betty's. I've been able to put him off on this request because I don't know Betty's mom, and this is one requirement I have...That I know the parents of the kids my kids are playing with, especially if they are going over to their house. Well, Thursday while I was finishing up teaching, the phone rang, I didn't pay any attention to it, because I was teaching. Then I heard a little voice leaving a message. Ten seconds later, the phone rings again. Then again, 30 seconds later, the phone rings again and another message. As soon as I was done teaching, I checked the messages. The first was Betty, saying that her mom was fine if they came over and met his mom and then they could play and to call her back. The second message was Betty again, saying, "Tanner, pick up the phone, I really need to talk to you." After we got those messages, the phone rang again. I spoke with Betty because Tanner was doing his homework, end of story for Thursday.
Well, I guess these two had made plans at school so the two of them could play Friday, because its early day, I don't teach and they don't have homework. She called 9 times, yes, 9 times in 10 minutes! I don't remember the exact series of events, but one of these messages were Betty saying, "I guess you aren't home or something happened, call me." I finally ended up telling Tanner if they got the basement cleaned, we could have Betty over and meet her mom, but they had to play here. But, they only have until 5pm to play, because Tyson and I were going out last night. They finished cleaning the basement at 4:30, called Betty and she didn't answer. Tanner felt bad because Betty wanted to play so bad, so he kept bugging me to keep calling her, which we didn't. I let him call again at 4:45 to leave a message because we didn't the first time. It was a cute message. Anyway, She ended up calling at 5:30, which was too late to play, and Tanner was trying his hardest to get her to understand that they could get together another afternoon. Neither one of them understand that school gets out so late and they have a lot of homework after school, that it just doesn't work any other day but Friday. When they hung up, Tanner said he felt bad because she was sad. A big part of me just isn't that excited to have my son play with a girl. I don't know, call me crazy.
Anyway, I didn't intend for this to be so long, but as I stated above, I need to apologize to all of the mothers of my friends that were boys for being so annoying and persistent in my phone calls to continue friendships after school. And I'm starting to realize why one of my friends moms was so mad that she came to the school to yell at me in elementary school, for playing kissing tag! Mothers are truly, very protective of their boys!

Followed by why...

2009-01-27T20:51:00.003-07:00

So I haven't been in the best of moods lately. I'm hoping that will change once my kids are back in school tomorrow. I think next year, I'll think twice about this A track break. I'm really starting to think traditional school might not be that bad. Being the fact that the weather is nice during the three months of summer instead of crummy snow and cold and smog that keeps us locked indoors for the five weeks that we had off. But that's neither here nor there. My reason for my post was something Tanner said tonight at dinner. So, let me start again. I haven't been in the best of moods lately. So tonight at dinner, Tanner was complaining about something and I was at the end of my rope. I can't remember exactly what I said, but I finished with, "and it better be followed by a why." So he responded back to me the answer to whatever it was that I asked and very innocently ended with..."why". Tyson and I both busted up laughing and my bad mood was gone. I know this probably makes no sense. But to him, whatever he was supposed to say, needed to end with the word why. So he ended his answer with the word, why.

Pictures

2009-01-16T16:17:00.005-07:00

I guess I haven't been crazy enough with the kids being home since Dec. 23rd...yes, we are STILL off track. Oh don't you worry, we still have a week and a half before they go back to school! So, I decided to REALLY test my patience skills by taking all four of the kids to Kiddie Kandids to update Tanner's wall picture and Jefferson's wall picture, and my group wall picture. The last sibling picture we had done that was posted in a frame was when Jefferson was two weeks old. I'd say he's done a little growing since then, (like 15lbs worth!). Anyway, that was quite the task. Not just getting there with everyone still looking decent, but trying to get Jake and Jefferson to smile...at the same time, takes a bit of work!! And that's not even taking into account, the fact that Tanner and Tyler hear the word "smile" and they get these funny little expressions that are anything but a smile. Afterward, we went to lunch with a friend and their kids. You should have seen us! We went to Sweet Tomatoes, so not only did we have the three kids, but each child HAD to have their own tray to get salad on, never mind the fact that none of them ate even half of the salad they had just dished up. I'm sure we were quite the site, unless of course you were the poor sap that was starving to death standing behind us, waiting for the procession to dish up their plates. It was fun though, and the kids enjoyed it. It mixed up our day a little. So, here are some of those pictures we had taken.

Mini Milestones...

2009-01-11T21:50:00.003-07:00

I have no pictures, because it wasn't really something to have pictures about, but I just needed to document for posterity's sake. As dumb as this may sound to some of you, today is the first time in the eight and a half years Tyson and I have been married, that I made Sunday dinner from start to finish on my very own. That's not to say that I can't cook, I just haven't cooked Sunday dinners...ever. Oh, I've contributed in one way or another, but never cooked the entire meal. For some reason, when we first got married, Tyson just took over Sunday dinners. He came from a family that had real meat on Sundays. I didn't. My family had chicken on Sundays. Not that it isn't real meat, its just not "man" meat. We still have it occasionally, just not every Sunday. Today I made Parmesean (sp) Chicken and Potato Casserole with salad. I was so into making this meal all by myself, that not only was it cooked before Tyson got home from his Church duties, but the kitchen was cleaned up and the only evidence that I had even been in the kitchen was the lingering smell of the breaded chicken. The salad was even made. Not only was this a major event in that way, but my kids all ate everything on their plates. We gave each child a small portion of everything that was served.
For the record, I do cook the entire meal every other day of the week. :)
Like I said though, its not a major milestone, but Tyson and I were just joking around at dinner that this hasn't happened before, so I thought I'd just document it.

Six Months!

2009-01-04T21:13:00.004-07:00

I can't believe how fast these last six months have gone! Jefferson is now sitting unassisted for big chunks of time. He still needs a pillow in back of him, but its not to keep him up, rather soften the fall when he decides he's had enough sitting time. He loves attention. It doesn't take much to get this little guy to smile, and laugh. Just tonight I was imitating the noises he was making and he thought that was the funniest thing. He's tried his mouth at rice cereal, bananas, pears, sweet potatoes and peaches. He loves his food, and has only spit out the rice cereal when I mix it with water instead of breast milk or baby food. Oh, and he doesn't like bottles that only give him water. Don't jerk him around when it comes to eating. We have our own conclusion to Pavlov's theory. I always feed Jefferson on the couch in the family room. When he wakes up from his naps, even if I think he shouldn't be hungry, if I walk over by the couch, I can not walk away from the couch without him getting mad. He lets me know that being by that couch means its time to eat. Its actually quite funny. In six months, he's rolled over enough for me to know he's okay developmentally but he could do without it. Its just not something he's interested in. He'll arch his head back so he can see what's going on, and he laughs when the kids "help" him roll over. That's Jake favorite thing to do. I know he can roll both ways, I've seen him do it, but I think now that he's sitting up, he'd rather work his ab muscles by trying to do an actual sit up. Its quite funny to watch. He'll be laying down, then all of a sudden, you'll see his little head peak up above his belly, while he's lifting his legs just a little for leverage.

When he's tired, he loves to snuggle his nose in his blanket if I place it on my shoulder. He sleeps with his blanket as close to being over his head as I'll allow it and is just the happiest little guy I've even seen. I'm so glad I get to be his mom to watch him learn and grow. I don't think you realize how fast this time goes with the first kids, but I think as you come to the end of your baby years, you start to realize it goes really fast. I'm cherishing these moments, I think, like I didn't with the other kids. That's horrible to admit, but true.
Anyway, Jefferson, here's to another crazy fun six months! I love you buddy!
I know I've mentioned this before, but I LOVE that he sucks his thumb!!

Christmas, Tanners Big day and sledding

2008-12-30T21:29:00.010-07:00

I haven't been much into updating my blog lately. I don't know if its just that I'm too stressed and in the evening when I do get the time to blog, I'm tired, but for whatever reason, I didn't blog about Christmas in fact, I hate to admit this, but I didn't take many pictures either. Sorry. I did get my Christmas tree though. As oddly decorated as it looks, its with the kids help and you can't just go and undo all their hard work.

So, here are the last few weeks leading up to this great day. Monday, December 15, I had my piano recital. That was my first major stress. It was in our home, so once that was over, we were able to get our tree. For the last month and a half, Tanner has been involved in a Draper City play, which has taken a chunk of our time every Tues-Thurs and Saturdays as well. Then for the two weeks prior, it was Mon-Thurs and Saturdays. I'm telling you, I have been SO grateful that gas has gone back down! So last weekend, they put that play on and then we were ready to begin Christmas Crazyness. On the 23rd, we had Tyson's grandmas family party, then it was Christmas Eve and we had my family party.
Then came Christmas. Oh Christmas!!! Yes, so my kids finally got to the point where their own excitement was what woke them up, instead of us waking them up. Well, that awakening came at 2:15am!! Yes, Tanner and Tyler woke up on their own that early! You might ask what we did at that point. Well, I think part of the reason I heard them, was because Jefferson was waking up to eat, so for the first little bit, they showed me what Santa brought, then as he was finishing up, I told them when I was little, I liked to get my pillow and sleep with all the toys Santa brought. That worked for about...it didn't work, they were still too excited to sleep. So I went back to bed while they kept looking at the new stuff. Well, for the next hour, they came in every 5-10 min. asking if it was time to open presents. At that point, Tyson told them to go down and turn on Disney Channel. That worked for about an hour. At that point, we figured 5:30 was good enough, so we let them encourage Jake to wake up. We opened presents and toys and in about 15 min, this long awaited event was over. Tyson's parents came over at 9am to see what Santa brought and at noon we went the their house for Christmas Ham and roast beef. YUM! Then we headed down to my families to open presents. That night, I went to bed only to wake up at midnight and bow to the porcelain God for the rest of the night. I hate the stomach flu! But I have to say, nothing brings off the Christmas poundage like throwing everything up and not being able to eat anything of real substance for the next 30 or so hours. Despite the little flu, everything was great. We had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to a great new year.
Jake proudly showing his elmo knee pads Santa brought. He got a helmet as well and a Hulk Big Wheel bike. Sadly, this is the only picture we got of the gifts santa brought. We were so tired, I don't think it occurred until after the matter to take pictures.

Today, I decided to call the dentist to see if we should have one of Tanner's teeth pulled. So we headed down to Alpine so my mom could watch the other kids. So, this long awaited day has finally come for Tanner. He has now lost his first tooth and is very proud of it. I was very impressed with his reaction to the whole thing. They did numb the area of his tooth, but that tooth was out in less than 20 seconds. I have to say though, unless we have some real serious tooth issues, we won't be taking that route again. Not only does the tooth fairy have to deliver, but this tooth cost $54 to pull out! I wish I made $54/min. :)

Tanner looking horrified, but this is just because we couldn't get a picture without him looking drugged because his eyes would be half shut as the picture took.

Saturday, Tyson decided he wanted to take the kids sledding. I didn't go with them, because Jefferson has been trying to kick a cold and I didn't want him out in the freezing cold!! So there weren't too many pictures taken, but enough to show we do like to have fun with our kids. This was also Jakes first experience. He was so excited, but from what Tyson said once he got on the tube, he had other ideas of what fun was.

Where do they come up with these things!

2008-12-22T12:41:00.003-07:00

Today, shortly after Tyler had arrived home from school, I received a phone call from the school. My first thought when I saw it pop up on caller ID was, oh great! Tanner is calling me sick! So, being the good mom that I am, I picked it up, braced for the request to pick my child up from school. It, however, was not Tanner, but Tyler's kindergarten teacher. Today, she had told the class that since tomorrow would be the last day of school for the year and they would be off track for the next three weeks on top of that (not looking forward to that one!), that they would have the fun job of taking shaving cream and washing the tables in the class room. To which Tyler quickly replied, I'm allergic to shaving cream, and my mom says if I touch it, I get really really sick. You can imagine my reaction when her teacher called to see if she was in deed allergic to shaving cream. For all those wondering, NO she is not. Tyler's way of dealing with something she doesn't like is to quickly add she's allergic to it. I hear it pretty close to daily, especially if we are trying something new for dinner. So I told her teacher this, and we came up with a solution to Tyler's problem of not wanting to touch the shaving cream. Anyway, I just thought it was funny that she would come up with an excuse, that isn't real, but she knows gets a reaction, rather than just saying, I don't like to touch that stuff, I'd rather do something else. Anyway, I'm putting this on my blog because I thought it was funny. And when I called Tyson to tell him, she started crying because she didn't want everyone to know about it. Does this make me a bad mom since I'm posting it where many more people will read about it? I just thought it was cute. Kids say the dardest things!!

Early bedtime...or not

2008-12-13T23:08:00.005-07:00

I love wintertime. I love getting ready for Christmas and the anticipation of Christmas morning, the smell of Christmas trees, wrapping presents, everything. But I have to say, one of the things I like best, is daylight savings. Don't get me wrong, there are days that I'm not a huge fan of it, but on days when I'm ready for my kids to go to bed, its a good thing. It doesn't matter what time it is, I can tell them its time to get ready for bed, and we're on our way. Even if that time is 7:30. My kids aren't to the point of being able to tell time, while Tanner can tell time, it means absolutely nothing to him. For some reason, tonight at 7pm, it seemed a lot longer than it was, but that didn't stop us from getting ready for bed, so by 7:30, we were all ready for bed. Jefferson was already on his way to lala land and the kids were headed in that same direction shortly. So, by 7:30, all four kids were in bed, and we were good to go for the day.
Imagine my dismay however, at 9:30 when I got home from grocery shopping, and all but Jefferson were downstairs watching a basketball game with Tyson. After putting the groceries away though, I went downstairs and Tyler and Jake had just dozed off. I couldn't resist taking a picture, because not only were those two asleep, but Jake decided he didn't want his pj's buttoned up, so all but the top button were undone. Yeah baby! So here is that picture.

Also, while my husband doesn't read this, I still feel that I should just let him know how much I love him. I seriously don't know where I would be without him. He can tell when I'm nearing an anxiety breakdown and steps in and helps me think things through. The last few month of the year can be a bit hairy for primary presidency's and he's taken it like a champ, picking up my slack and helping out with the kids when I have primary things that need to be done. I just feel as though the last few months we've become so much closer! I know this is really sappy, but he's so good to me. Today while I was out shoveling our freshly fallen snow, (he tried to come out and take over, but I love shoveling - I'm crazy, I know) but since I was outside, he swept and mopped the kitchen floor and took care of things inside. Like I said, I don't know where I would be without him. I love you Tyson!

All Grown Up

2008-12-02T08:36:00.003-07:00

By some definitions, this will probably put us in the bad parent category, but Tyler was persistent, and she's daddy's little girl, so those two things combined pretty much sealed the deal. Last night we went to the mall to get the kids shoes and Jake some winter pj's. Well, for a while, Tyler has been begging to get her ears peirced, so while we were there, we got her ears peirced. I know, we're crazy. But let me just tell you, it was 100% her decision. And when the girls did it, she didn't even flinch! Tyson was very impressed. When we got to the mall, she said maybe she wanted to wait until she was 7. Which we were fine with, but as we were passing the store, Tyson told her that's where she'll go to get her ears peirced. She then just wanted to go in and see what kinds of earrings they had. Once she saw the pink studs, she asked again if she could get it done tonight. Then she saw the pink flowers, and that pretty much sealed it for her. Tanner was more scarred than she was. He was pacing around the store plugging his ears, saying "tell me when its over." Like I said, she didn't even flinch. Anyway, its kind of hard to get a picture with both ears showing, and she was totally wanting to pose as well, so these are the best I got.

Pilgram Hats and Jumping Jacks

2008-11-26T21:07:00.004-07:00

I recently subscribed to the Family Fun Magazine. The other day, I was looking through their November/December issue and saw these cut little pilgram hats. They were soooo easy to make. As anyone who knows me can attest, I am not a crafty person. All you do is melt a bag of chocolate chips, get big marshmallows, dip them in the melted chocolate, place them on an upside down kebler stripped cookie and once the chocolate has hardened, get decorators frosting and draw little belt buckles. Like I said, so easy.

We brought the johnny jumper up the other day. There has not been a single time I've put Jefferson in it, that he gets upset. In fact, the other day when I put him in it, he wasn't too happy to be put down, but as soon as he realised he could jump and turn around, he was off. Anyway, I just had to get some vieo of this cute little guy jumpin' about.

Thanksgiving FHE

2008-11-24T22:08:00.002-07:00

Some days, you just feel that no matter what happens, its going to be a bad day. Sometimes those days go into weeks. These last few days would be like that. For some reason, we just get out of rhythm as a family and it takes a few rough days to get back into that groove. Today, was no exception. We were at my in laws last night talking about an inservice that my mother-in-law is required to attend on dealing with kids who have adhd, Autism, aspergers...Some of the things she was saying sounded really good to try on my kids. Well, this morning, as we were getting ready for school, I told the kids the rules of the discipline game we were going to be trying today. I would ask them once, count for ten seconds, ask them again, wait ten seconds, then tell them their concequence for not obeying. They both understood the rules and we were off. Well, later in the day, after Tyler got home from kindergarten, we got to try it out. She didn't do so well. She lost desert after family home evening. If you know Tyler, you would have thought I just cut a leg off. Next we have this evening with Tanner. I did this for getting him to put his coat and backpack away. He lost deseret after family nigth as well. Our lesson didn't go along with this little lesson we learned during the day, however when it came time to follow up on our agreement, things went down hill. They both started claiming that they have the WORST life. That they never get anything and life isn't fair. Well, I decided to nip this in the bud. So told them, that with Thanksgiving this week, we were going to make a list of all the things we were greatful for. To get our number of items we needed to come up with, Tyson said we should add all our ages together. So with Tyson's 30 years, my 22 years...ok, maybe its 28 years, Tanners 7, Tylers 5 and Jakes 2, we needed to come up with 72. We went around the family and everyone got equal say in our list. Jake of course needed some help otherwise we would have had all the Sesame Street and Barney characters. But without further adeu, our Thanksgiving list.
1. Family 2. Clothes 3. Elmo 4. Jobs 5.House 6. Toys 7. Talents 8. Barney 9. Car to Drive 10. Food to eat 11. Furniture 12.Babybop 13. Frindships 14. Gospel 15. Health 16. Neighbors 17. Shrek 18. TV 19. Piano 20. Education 21. Pictures 22. Turkeys 23. Cartoons 24. Mountains 25. Freedom 26. Night 27. Birds 28. New Toothpaste 29. Humor 30. Challenges 31. Grass 32. Air 33. Blankets 34. Play with kids 35. Church Calling 36. Zoo 37. light 38. Nursery 39. Bring treats home 40. Gym 41. Body 42. Ancestors 43. Child Center 44. Books 45. Good Advice 46. Jewelry 47. Time 48. Water 49. See Tyler Dance 50. Scriptures 51. Music Organizer 52. Teachers 53. Sippy cup lids 54. Dads good looks 55. Internet 56. Butterflies 57. Baseball 58. Wii 59. Music 60. Plumbing 61. Washing Machine 62. Christmas 63. Gas under $2 64. Jesus 65. New Years Resolutions 66. Movies 67. Presents 68. Treats 69. Someone took a chance on me(That would be one of Tyson's) 70. Building Family Memories 71. Princesses and Rainbows 72. Prophet 73. Santa 74. Snow capped Mountains 75. pet crabs 76. Other peoples junk 77. Coupons 78. Disneyland 79. Childrens laughter 80. Guitar 81. piggy back rides to bed

As you can see, we exceeded our added amount of 72. I think they might have gotten the point of this exercise...or maybe not, because they again, started complaining that they never get anything and wanted desert after FHE. Oh well, maybe after doing our Thanksgiving exercise at least ever Thanksgiving, it MIGHT start to make sense...or maybe not until they have kids of their own, but isn't that how it goes.

WARNING...its a long one...

2008-11-22T23:00:00.009-07:00

Its official, this has, without any doubt, been a bad mom day. And I wasn't even with them for a chunk of the afternoon. What, might you say, would have made me such a bad mom today? Nothing in particular, but some days are better than others. So I just wanted to write a tribute to each of my kids, even though they don't read this, but someday, when I'm six feet under, maybe they'll come across this and see that I really did love them, and appreciate all the many little lessons that they teach me. And how much I enjoy learning how to be an eternal family with them. Wich some days, like today, can proove more challenging than not. But life is a process. You may not be interested in reading this, because these are just some of my personal feelings and thoughts.

Tanner
My dear Tanner. I know being the oldest is hard sometimes...trust me, I know. I remember a letter that grandpa Stauffer wrote me when I was having a hard time with all the responsibilities I felt were placed on me. Being the oldest is not an easy job. You will hear more often than not, that your younger sister and brothers are watching and following your example. They truely are, but I know that you are a good kid and understand what a huge responsibility that is. Your mom and dad expect a lot from you, and sometimes that will seem overbearing. Be patient with us, as you are our firstborn and we are learning through this process of parenting. You are so full of love. Not only for your family but for everyone around you. Just this week you told me how dad had given you an extra quarter to buy chocolate milk with at school, but instead, chose to have normal milk, because one of your classmates didn't have money for a drink. Even though it takes a few times of asking you to do something sometimes, you never complain to do what is asked of you. I love that you are best friends with your sister Tyler. Just this morning, as we dropped you off at your play practice, she said that sometimes when you are gone, she feels alone. Even when mom and dad are with her. I know the two of you were best friends before you came to this earth. Remember how much fun you have playing together, and strengthen your relationship. Tanner, I love you and am so glad that you came to me on the late Saturday night. Both dad and I were so excited to finally meet this little guy. Every night, while I was pregnant with you, dad would sing to you and read you Dr. Seusse books. After you were born, we continued this practice as we were preparing you for bed. This is something that has carried on with you even to this day. I love that you are always so happy, that you can be heard humming a little tune, not so quietly, but you always have a tune. And your love of reading has continued to grow. You are so smart and do so well in school. Keep working hard and all of that will pay off for you as you go through your education. I love you Tanner. Thanks for being patient with me as I practice my parenting skills and try to improve on them.

Tyler
Tyler, Tyler, Tyler...what can I say. I love you so much. I know we have our female clashes, but through each of those, we are becoming better friends and that is something that I hope will just strengthen as you get older. You have such a strong personality. You know what you want, and are not afraid to let us know what you want, and you are very good to stand your ground. I love that you are such a daddy's girl. There is no doubt that you are his little princess. You are so lucky to have an older brother that loves you and even though you guys fight at times, I love that you are best friends. You are a very social girl and have lots of friends. You were so anxious to come to this earth, that you surprised dad and me by being born only three minutes after getting to the hospital. You didn't want to wait for us to get settled, and that's great. Like I said, you know what you want and you'll do what you have to. I hope that you will learn how to tame that, and use it for good. You are such a good little mom to Jake and Jefferson, and even though you are not the oldest, Jake looks up to you and idolizes you. When you first started kindergarten, he had a really hard time and always asked when you were going to be home. I love that you'll play for hours in your own little world. Whether its with you dolls or your own imagination and the friends you see, that no one else does. I wish that you would perform while we were video taping you instead of claming up in front of the camera, because you're so cute when you pretend to be the Little Mermaid, sitting on the couch flapping your fin, (legs and feet). Everything about you is girl. Your favorite color is pink, and most of the time, you will be seen wearing a pink shirt and or pink skirt. You always have a rhythm to dance to. Whether its in the parking lot at a store with no music, or in the mall shopping around, listening to the music over the speaker system. I want you to know that I love you and hope that we can be best friends when you get older and get to the age when you don't want anything to do with your parents. But I hope that we can be the exception to that rule.

Jacob
What a little tease you are. Everything about you spells mischief. You have a very contagious smile. While at the same time, looking as though you're hiding something. I love this stage of life that you are in. Most people might say having a two-year-old is trying and difficult, I'm enjoying this stage so much. I love that you love baby so much. And I think its so cute that you have given Jefferson this name of baby, because Jefferson is to difficult for you to say. I love that you are so excited about everything. You are such a little boy. From immitating Hulk Smash by hitting your fists to the ground, to finding little bugs fascinating, and finding pure delight in torturing Tanner and Tyler. You are so little, its so crazy to me to think that you are indeed old enough to be going on the big boy potty and doing the things that you do. You are very independant, but at the same time, need your mom and dad around. I love that you look up to your brother and sister so much, and in your mind, see yourself just as big as they are. While I haven't had you around for as long as Tanner and Tyler, I still feel a special connection to you. Maybe its because you gave us a scare when you were first born, being so little. You don't realise how much of a difference a pound makes, until you're holding a five pound baby compared to a six pound baby. I love that you are still little so that I can cuddle with you. I love that you will let me still cuddle with you. I just want you to know that I love you and your tough guy personality for such a little guy.

Jefferson
My baby Budha! I'm not quite sure where all of your little rolls came from, but I love every single one of them and want to just eat you up. Even though you are only four months old, I still feel like you've been with me forever. I love your little smiles and the fact that any little thing will make you smile. I love that just stroking my finger across one of your chins will make you laugh. And that you find such great delight in the simple little things like riding on my legs like a horse or flying above my head as super baby. You like when we talk to you and I love the high little squils you make in the morning letting me know you are awake and ready for your daily dose of entertainment. I couldn't have asked for an easier baby to come as number 4. Even though I have felt an impact adding another child, its certainly not because you are hard. Its just an increase in numbers I'm trying to get used. But like a champ, you tag along for the ride and take what you can get. I love the fact that you suck your thumb. You are the only one that has taken on that little habit. While I would like it if you'd take a binki, I think that sucking your thumb is just as cute. I just wish you'd use it to soothe yourself instead of feeling like you need to be hooked onto me for that. I love you and even though you should be sleeping through the night, I love waking up with you and night and the extra time I get to just sit with you while no one else is demanding my time. I'll even stay up a little longer just holding your sleeping little body smelling your baby smells that I love so much. Thank you for being such a fun, cute and good little guy. I love you!

Every day I pray for the patience I need to be a better mom, and each day I'm working a little harder to put the patience into practice. I do love my kids and I hope they know that.

Family pictures

2008-11-17T21:48:00.013-07:00

Before I start with the explanation of this post, I just have to say, we had a busy day as far as moms go. Today while I was teaching piano, Jefferson decided to try his hand at rolling over and went from his back to his front. YEAH!! He's done it two more time since then. He's almost there from tummy to back, but I'll give him a few more days on that one. Also, tonight while I was getting ready to start dinner, Jake came into the kitchen trying to take his shirt off, telling me he had to go potty. I asked him if he needed to go potty and he said yes, so we went into the bathroom, stripped him down and sat on the potty. I told him to go tinkle, I know, its a very grown up word, but after I said that, he went a little bit, so I got excited for him and he went some more. YEAH!! We might be seeing the end of his diaper days. I hope. He went again as we were getting ready for bed. I'm so excited. Now, on to the rest of the post...

A few weeks ago, I enlisted in my sister-in-laws help to get some family pictures done. For some reason, I have felt like we need to get a family picture. She did a great job! The hard part is getting four kids to cooperate so you can find a decent picture that someone isn't picking a nose, or making a funny face in. So, that being said, these are the ones that worked out and look good...now the decision as to which one of the family ones to blow up and hang on my wall. So, anyone who has an opinion, I'm open to them. These are the decisions I don't like to make.
I know a lot of these are very similar, but there is a slight difference.

I like this one. My sister-in-law is trying to manipulate the picture to see if they can't get Jefferson's eyes opened and Jakes hand out of his mouth. I hope it works.

These are just a few of the kids pictures. I'm not sure what I'll do with them, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.

We had to wake Jake up from a very short nap on the way up the canyon. He wasn't too happy about it, and as such, didn't really work with us on getting a good picture with his cute smile. Instead he has to have this terrified look on his face.

Invisible Moms...

2008-11-11T14:14:00.001-07:00

My mom sent this to me, and I started to send it to those in my address book who might also be an invisible mom, but then realized, it would reach more if I posted it to my blog. So, for all you invisible moms, enjoy. Sorry, no pictures this time. :)

Invisible Mother......
It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store.

Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?'

Obviously, not.

No one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all.

I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this?

Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30, please.'

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated sum a cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going; she's going; she is gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England ..

Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in.

I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself.

I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.'

It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe .

I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription:

'To Charlotte , with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.'

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work:

No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names.
These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished.

They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.

The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.' And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.'

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place.

It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over.. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.'
At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life.
It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on.

The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself.. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, 'you're gonna love it there.'

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right.

And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.*

Great Job, MOM!** *

Who says Lions aren't cute!!

2008-11-01T21:45:00.008-06:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
It is now November 1st and all we have to show from Halloween are two bowls FULL of worthless candy!! Our day was actually rather busy. After Jake and I sent Tanner and Tyler to school, we hurried and got ready to see them at their school parade. I wasn't going to go, but asked both of them if they wanted us to come and they said yes. So we got Jake's Elmo costume on and Jefferson's Lion costume and headed out the door. We stayed for the parade then left with Tyler and headed up to Tyson's work to have lunch with him and parade our costumes around up there. When we got home, we cleaned up the house and got ready to trick or treat.
Jake wasn't a big fan of this thing called Halloween. When we got to the elementary school, we walked in the cafeteria where the parade was to take place and he saw a witch and that was the end of that. He didn't want to look at anyone and didn't want me to put him down at all. He was crying at first, but I settled him down after a few minutes. At dads work, once he figured out he got candy, he was ready to go for the day.

I wasn't going to dress Jefferson up, just because he's a baby and usually its too cold for the babies to go out anyway, but this year was unusually warm, so I was digging through the costume box and found a lion hood that my sister sent me for Tyler's first Halloween, I think. Anyway, I decided if I could find the rest of it, we'd dress him as a lion. He is the cutest lion I've ever seen.

We went to our church parking lot around 5:45 and did a trunk or treat, then about an hour later, came home and hit up the houses in the neighborhood for candy. Like I said, all we have to show from this wonderful day is two bowls full of candy. Can you tell I'm not a huge fan of the day we call Halloween? I'm not sure why I don't care for it. Maybe its the lack of self control to refrain from eating all the candy. I don't know. I'm just a boring person. At our trunk or treat, someone asked where my costume was. I told him I hate Halloween and he couldn't believe it. Oh well.
Anyway, I've got a few pictures of the kids. Tyler was Mariposa and Tanner was Prince Caspian. They had fun, and that's really what matters.
Tyler at the school parade
Tanner at the school parade

Just as a random thing, I wanted to post this little blurb of Jefferson laughing and somewhat talking better known as squealing. I have family that doesn't get to see him growing up so this is for them. The video is more laughing than talking. He'll be squealing and I'll take the camera out and he stops. So I'll still try and get better video with him talking. And for the record, he is just a hip flip away from rolling over! That was his big thing today while we were watching the intense moments of the BYU football game. I think I was more excited about him being so close to rolling over than anybody else was, but somebody had to break the tension!!

Jake Kung Fu Panda

2008-10-22T22:58:00.003-06:00

I'm at my wits end trying to figure out how to get a video posted to this blog, without it freezing towards the end of downloading it. So I've caved in and joined the YouTube crowd in hopes that this will actually work. So here is the explanation of the video. We took the kids to see Kung Fu Panda when it first came out in theaters. First off, its a cute movie, one that Santa will be leaving at our house for Christmas. Jake really took to this movie and now, if you ask him to show you his kung Fu, he'll do a little heya and kick his leg. So that is the video. As you can see when you watch it, he wasn't wanting to perform, you wouldn't either if your mom was in your face with the camera two minutes after waking up in the morning. Sorry Jake. Anyway, he'll also do a hulk smash, or as he calls it, mash. Anyway, lets hope this works thing time. Enjoy!

Painting our Pumpkins

2008-10-20T21:36:00.012-06:00

Since we purchased our pumpkins over the weekend, Tyson felt it would only be an appropriate family night activity to decorate them. Jake wanted to paint his to be elmo, but I don't think he knew quite how to translate that thought onto the pumpkin itself. So we got the same end result we do when he colors with crayons...scribbles. But Tyson had fun painting the other side of Jakes pumpkin when he decided he was finished. That time came when I said I was putting Jefferson in the bath. Jake decided to jump in the bath as well. Nevermind the fact that he'd had a bath right before our little activity. The kids loves getting in the bath. If you just mention the word bath, he has his clothes and diaper off before you realise what just happened.
Anyway, so here are a few pictures of our finished products.
Jake telling us he wants to paint elmo
Tyler informing us of her ideas to decorate. Everything had to do with some princess theme.
Tanner posing in dads work shirt...he wore holes in the elbows this last week so Tanner was more than happy to sport it for an art shirt.
Everybody say cheese!
Jake painting Elmo...or something trying to resemble elmo.
Tanner starting his pumpkins face.
Tyler's "princess". It has gold glitter paint so that quilifies it as princess, right?
Jefferson hanging out watching everybody paint. I promise he doesn't live in his bouncer seat, but he does like his seat.
The finished product. The little center one is Jakes elmo.
The finished product again, this time with the center one sporting Tyson's paint job. Its on Jakes pumpkin, just on the other side. Tyson decided to show Jake what he painted on the other side of his pumpkin. To that, Jake said No! Tyson then turned the pumpkin around to Jakes side and to that Jake yelled, Yeah!

Good bye off track

2008-10-18T21:37:00.020-06:00

Well, we managed to make it through our three weeks of being off track, and nobody was too badly beaten. Just kidding, no one was beaten, but its not to say the thought didn't cross my mind a few times. I have to say, I owe Tanner and Tyler's teachers a HUGE thank you for taking them five days a week, most of the time, from 8:30-4:15. I don't know how some people do home school. I guess they are just better than I am. Three days into their break, Jefferson was old enough to finally be able to go to the gym's daycare, so that helped save my sanity. I'm back to going three days a week and it is SO nice. I don't know why I didn't find this help earlier. We didn't do much while they were off track because I'll be honest, it's just too hard to get everyone on the same page with four kids and one adult. By the time I have everyone ready, Jefferson is hungry and needing a nap. Once I get him fed (he can sleep in the car and more often than not, usually does), then everyone else is either wanting a meal or its snack time, then Jefferson is ready for something and its just a never ending cycle.
Anyway, with my mom being in Germany for the first half, we didn't do much. So once she got back, we decided it was time to take the kids for a field trip. My grandpa has been sick lately, so we decided to go and spend the day with grandma and grandpa great. Well, seeing as Jake would need a nap, we decided to leave for the hour and a half car ride, right around when he should be taking a nap. Key word: Should. He has gone three weeks now without a nap, and I'm not happy about it. Well, to test and see if he really truly is done with naps, we got in the car at 12:30. We drove the entire way and he didn't even get drousy. Well, that blew that plan. He's still at the point though, that if I go anywhere after 4pm, he's out in two seconds, which then messes up bedtime and its downhill from there. That's what ended up happening. So we spent Wednesday with my grandparents. Grandpa Great fell asleep before we could get any pictures with him.
Jefferson sitting in a Bumbo. He tolerates this seat. He's actually sitting in it happy a little longer each time. I think he likes being able to sit up and see.

Tanner and Tyler emptying the dishwasher. Their new job being off track. Jake likes to help as well.

So Jake has this terrible habit of coming in to our bed at night. We're so tired, most the time we aren't even awake enough to realise he's come in to our bed. This is one morning I guess he decided it was too bright in the room so burried himself in the pillows. He is really asleep in this picture.
Tanner riding grandma greats stationary bike.
Jake on the mini trampoline. The bike and tramp kept the three of them happy and busy the entire time.
Jake and Grandma Great.
Tanner and Grandma Great.
Tyler and Grandma Great
Jefferson and Grandma Great

Today, Tyson decided we would have a fun day since they would be going back to school on Monday. He decided he wouldn't even tell me what he had in mind. I did end up having a say in what we did though. He's been stuck on going to a pumpkin patch, so we did that first. We started this adventure at 3:30, and wouldn't you know, Jake fell asleep in the car. So Tanner and Tyler picked out a pumpkin for each of them. And we took a few pictures with Jefferson standing in some of the heads. After that, we decided to go to dinner at the Mayan. They've changed their menu and it actually wasn't too bad. Its not someplace I would go often, but it wasn't too bad. The kids enjoyed the divers and we got a few pictures of that as well. We were going to try classic skating after that, but we decided against that, just because the kids aren't old enough to be able to do that without our help and Jake would require too much assistance as well and neither one of us trusted our skills to hold Jefferson at the same time. So we decided to go to WalMart and get ice cream and rent a movie from RedBox. I think the kids had a good time and will hopefully remember this as a good time off track. We'll see what happens.

Tanner, Tyler and Jefferson at the pumpkin patch
Fun at the Mayan

Jake at the Mayan
Tyler at the Mayan
Tanner at the Mayan
Outside the Mayan. Sorry Jefferson about the toys in your face!!

And last but not least, Jefferson asleep. I know random picture, but I have to say, out of four children, he is the only one that will not take a binki and won't take a bottle. However, he is the only child that is turning out to be a thumb sucker. I love it!! I sucked my thumb when I was little and its something that I've tried to get all of my kids to do, to no avail. So, needless to say, I was a little happy when I saw him completely asleep with his thumb in his mouth!

Baby Gage!!

2008-10-05T21:54:00.004-06:00

New addition to the Tarin Family! In picture:Danny, Cymony, Micah and Baby Gage
Well, the long awaited arrival of my sisters baby, has come and gone, and this is the first time I've seen any pictures of him at all. I finally got into a family website that actually had pictures of him on it. Gage Arron Tarin came into this world September 27 at 11:32am. He weighed in at 7lbs 12 oz and 20.5 inches long. He had been home for a day and needed to go back into the hospital for an infection due to a little procedure he had done, but all are well now and he's hom and changing everybody's lifes. My mom had made it to Germany the day before Cymony went into labor and my dad made it to her house the morning she went into the hospital. Congratulations!! We are so excited to meet this little guy, although he probably won't be so little when we do meet him, seeing as he is half way around the world. Good thing for skype!!

My sister Cymony and baby Gage.

Today, I Marry my Best Friend

2008-09-29T11:43:00.004-06:00

...Ok, well eight years ago today. Who would have ever thought I'd be where I am now! Tyson is everything I could ask for. Caring, gentle, understanding, supportive, kind, thoughtful, hard working. He spoils me to no end, but keeps me in check so it doesn't go to my head. I feel that we both share the family responsibilities equally, although he would probably disagree, because he seems to brush all three of the kids teeth, every night. I can't help that they prefer him to me. :) Anyway, I just wanted to let Tyson know how much I love and appreciate him and wouldn't trade him for anything. Is that sappy enough for ya?

p.s. sorry the picture isn't the best quality. I don't have them saved to an electronic file, so I had to take a picture of the picture. Oh well.

BYU Bi-weeks!

2008-09-27T23:18:00.009-06:00

All I have to say is thank goodness BYU has some Saturdays they don't play. Not that I don't thoroughly enjoy watching football, I really do, but its nice to have an entire day to be able to stay focused on little...or not so little projects. At the beginning of the summer, we had someone offer to finish the other side of our basement. Well, we were hesitant because we weren't really looking to finish it, but since starting my coupon savings, our food storage has really picked up, so we decided to let him finish a storage room. Well, things happened and it didn't get finished...until today. Thanks to my wonderful, loving, patient husband who finished this little room that will make a HUGE difference to organizing my food storage and keeping things out of the way. So these pictures are what we spent our bi-week from football doing. Happy day!!

-k- well, this isn't of the basement. This was my "junk" cupboard. We couldn't find ANYTHING in this cupboard before I blew it up and started over. Now I have more room than I know what to do with. I'm sure it won't take too long to figure it out though. It never does. :)

This is the finished side of the basement after we unloaded all three shelving units to be able to move them into the new storage room. What a mess!!

More of that same mess!

Not completely cleaned up, but we're getting there.

My wonderful storage room!!

More storage room and food! Do you think we have enough cereal?

The other side of the storage room.

My very exhausted husband after a hard day of manual labor.

Who would have ever thought I'd be so excited for a storage room!??!?

Serviving another crazy week!

2008-09-21T21:40:00.007-06:00

We made it through another week. This week wasn't so bad, Saturday we actually had some breathing room. I actually got my grocery shopping done on Saturday instead of having to wait until Monday. I don't mind shopping on Monday's but its a lot better to only have the baby with me. We actually went to bed last night to a very clean house. The only thing that didn't get done, was folding the laundry, which takes its own precious time to get done. I HATE folding laundry, it seriously is the bane of my existence!! If anyone wants to torture me, just put me in front of an endless line of laundry needing to be folded!!
Right now we are on the count down to the kids being off track.
Yes, we have one week of school left before three weeks of craziness.
And I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get anything done with four kids home.
Not that I don't love my kids, but it sure is a lot easier to run errands when I only have Jake and Jefferson. The good news...Jefferson will be three months on the 4th, so I'll be able to take all of the kids to the gym! Happy Day!! And long overdue. I never thought I'd get to the point in my life where I would miss working out so much. I'm just going to have to hope that Jefferson can handle being with the daycare for two hours. We'll see how he does.
Friday night, Tyson spoiled me and took me on a date that was focused 100% on the things I would enjoy. We went to Body Worlds. Let me just tell you, it was amazing! After that we went to dinner at this very good and very expensive restaurant. Flemming's Steak House. Mmmm Good. He had a gift certificate given to him at Christmas last year and he wanted to keep going while I was pregnant, but I told him I wanted to wait so I could actually eat the food and enjoy it. And that we did! It wasn't a cheap night, but very worth it.
Anyway, I'm posting some random pictures. Mostly just Jefferson, because he's getting so big! I pulled the saucer up from the basement and while he sits in it fine, he really just tolerates it at this point. He's still a little wobbly to really enjoy it and doesn't quite know what to do with the toys. He'll grow into it thought.

I'm not quite sure what Tyler and Jake were doing, but I do know they wanted in on the pictures as well. Jake loves that Jefferson is on his level while in this little toy.

Check out the chunky arms!!

Jefferson has discovered his hands and they are always in his mouth now!

Blankets - The finished product

2008-09-20T22:01:00.005-06:00

Well, these have definitely been a work in progress!! Trying to get craft projects done with four kids is proving to be a challenge. When my sister Cymony first told me she was pregnant, she told me, Micah, her little girl, loves the two blankets I gave her, so I better make at least two blankets for her next baby. Well, there is nothing like waiting until the last minute! My mom leaves for Germany to be with Cymony when she has baby number 2 this next week. I told Tyson Wednesday, I was dedicating that day to getting her blankets done, so not to expect much in the form of a clean house. I finished the second blanket Friday afternoon for my mom to close the corners on. Anyway, I just thought I'd post them 'cuz I think they turned out pretty cute! But I might just be biased. :)The pink blanket is just an extra one that has needed to be finished for a while, and I figured since I had my sewing machine out, I may as well finish it as well.

This is my favorite! So much, that I made one almost exactly like it for Jefferson. Sorry Cymony! But Jefferson's has a different back. His has Brown bumpies. Its SO soft! The back of this one doesn't look like it goes very well with the rest of the blanket, but it looks really cute in person. Plus its super soft, and that's all that matters, right?

Tanners Birthday Party

2008-09-15T21:45:00.010-06:00

Well, we made it through another crazy weekend, with every minute accounted for. Our Saturday started at 9:45am. Tyson and Tanner had a baseball game, it lasted for an hour. At 11am, Tanners party started, it went until 1pm. At 1:30, we had the BYU football game, which they won, YEAH. And to end the day, we had a primary ice cream social at 6:30. I seriously don't know when our days got so busy, but again, looking at this week, its just as crazy. But enough about how busy our lives are. Now for the real reason for this post. Tanners fun pirate party on Saturday. We told him he could invite 7 kids, one kids for each year of age. Problem was, by the time we came up with 7 kids, we had just over half of his 1st grade class invited, so we just decided to invite all of them rather than have someone with hurt feelings. It worked out well. We ended up having ten kids over. Once everyone got here, we started a treasure hunt that my mom helped me with. She is so clever when it comes to riddles and rhymes. I asked her to help and two hours later, she emails me nine clues to find a treasure! I think the kids had fun. My great sister was up here helping me, otherwise, there was no way I would have been able to pull it off. She decorated the cake so cute, you would have thought it came from the store, but I didn't have to pay $25 for it, and it looked much cuter. Its a treasure chest on a beach. So, so cute!! We found our treasure, then came home for pizza. After that, we opened our treasure, (hitting a treasure box pinata) picked the "gold" (candy) out of the grass and came in and had cake and ice cream and opened presents. All the kids went home with a bag full of candy, a pirate patch, a hook and a pirate bandanna. There were some other little things in their goody bag as well, but just random things. It was a fun day. And now Tanner has more toys than he knows what to do with. Yeah for my birthday present to help organize them!!Easting pizza!
Opening presents.
Hunting for "gold" (candy) in the grass.
Eating cake!

Who's kid is this!?

2008-09-12T09:06:00.006-06:00

I can't believe Jefferson is two months now! I took him to his two month well baby check on Monday. When we got there, the nurse measured him, weighed him and took his head measurement. After that, we just waited for the dr. Well, when Dr. Moskowitz came in, he was looking at his papers and asked "Where did this boy come from?" He then proceeded to tell me his percentiles. For his head, he's in the 63rd percentile. His length, he's in the 75th percentile and last but not least, he's in the 94th percentile for his weight!! Where DID this kid come from!! You have to understand why I'm so floored by his numbers. Tyler, even being our most "solid" kid has never been any bigger than the 25th percentile for length and maybe at her peak was in the 30th percentile for weight. Neither one of the boys have ever been anywhere close to coming out of the 25th percentile for anything. And Jake is below the 3rd percentile in his weight. Head size though, has always been an 80-90 percentile range for all the kids. So you can imagine why the dr. asked where Jefferson came from. He is obviously, by far, my biggest kid. Its crazy!! But he's still as cut as ever.
So this isn't the most flattering picture, but it has one of the better double chin shots!
By the way, since he is so big and Jake is so small, they are five pounds away from being the same weight!
Tyson and Jefferson just after his blessing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANNER!!

2008-09-09T21:37:00.006-06:00

Tanner at 2 weeks old...wow he's grown!!
Waking Tanner up to "Happy Birthday to you!"
It was seven years ago tonight that Tanner VanNeldon was born into our family. He's been such a good and easy kid to raise. He takes the roll of older brother in stride. Sometimes its hard for him to be the oldest, but he takes those hard times and learns from them. He's such an articulate kid. There are times that he seems years ahead of his real age. He gets along so well with his younger sister and helps out more than he'll ever know with his two younger brothers. He wants to do well in everything he does. After four weeks of spelling tests, he's gotten 100% on all four of those tests.
Tanner with impetigo on his cheek and a beesting under his eye. Poor kid! Everytime one of Aut Carli's friends sees him, he has a new ding on his face. I swear we aren't beeting him!!
This morning, we woke Tanner up and sang Happy Birthday to you, which was always a family tradition in my family. I wanted to make his day special, so took him a McDonalds happy meal for lunch today. That didn't make Jake and Tyler too happy, but they got over it. When he got home, grandma Stauffer came and took him to Color Me Mine and helped him make what grandma called a Santa cookie plate. We'll have to wait a few days to see it.

Its funny how I remember having some of the "olderst Child" conversations with my parents, that we are now having with Tanner. It will be hard at times, but Tanner, I'm glad you came to our family and are such a good example to the rest of the kids and even your mom and dad. I love you buddy!

Marathon Weekend!

2008-09-07T21:42:00.011-06:00

Well, all I have to say about this weekend is I'm glad its over. I swear, we had a million things going on. And as I sit here writing this, Tyson is going over the events of this next week, and it doesn't slow down at all!! Our weekend started Thursday night when all of Tyson's family met at the Residence Inn to kick off our family reunion. We had a bbq and cake, then those who wanted to swim, went swimming and the others either went to bed, or watched Kung Fu Panda. Cute movie by the way. Friday morning, we all woke up and went to breakfast in the loby and headed off to Jordanelle Reservior for some fun on the lake. Our little family ended up taking off a little later. Tanner wanted to go to school so he could keep his 100% attendance record. By the time I got the trailer we were using, and everybody packed, Tyson was home from work and we took off. When we got to Jordanelle, Mckinsie and I got lunch ready and afterwards, Tyson took the kids on the boat and water tube. Jake loved it as did Tanner and Tyler. After they got back to shore, Tyson insisted that I go on te boat and ski. Can I just tell you how cold that water was? Even with a wet suit. Actually it wasn't all that bad, it was getting out of the water that was the bone chiller. It doesn't matter if its 100 degrees or 70 degrees, the wind on a boat still cuts to your center when you're wet. That night we had really good ribs and a fun fireside...by the fire. Uncle Josh assigned each family a story out of the scriptures. Our family was given Meeshack Shadrack and Abed nego. I know I just killed the spelling and I'm too lazy to get up and look it up, sorry. He had the kids do a fire dance and they had a lot of fun. With a big family, comes lots of cousins. Well, those who were two, had a hard time sitting still for this whole thing, so they were just wondering around. Well, as if we had rehersed it a million times, as Tyson was reading the part in the scriptures where the king was verifying they put three men in the fire, but there seemed to be a fourth, Tyson's niece walked right up and stood by the three kids, looking as though she were the fourth person. It was pretty funny and typing just doesn't do it justice. Tyson, Tyler and Tanner at Jordanelle waiting for dinner.
Tanner, Tyler, and cousin Bailee
I think something about his look here, resembles Bronco Medenhall...maybe its just the BYU hat.

That night, we went to bed, and all froze to death. Word to the wise...never go camping in September in the mountains. We even took a trailer, but I guess I was so stressed and had a million things on my mind when I got the instrucions, that I missed the part about turning the propane on so we could have heat all night. So even those of us in the trailer froze, due to my absent mindedness. Sorry guys!! In the morning, we all woke up to a great fire, thanks Grandpa Lybbert and had breakfast. We packed up camp and headed home.

Once home, it was a race to clean up, head to the store, and get our everything ready for Jefferson's blessing Sunday. Well, that would be great and all, but BYU had to throw a wrench in the day and have a football game at 1pm. Tyson surprised me when he said lets go. I thought for sure he would be worried about getting everything ready. When we got home, our house was clean. Ready for Sunday and we had nothing left to do. My wonderful sister and mom decided to help out and for my birthday came and cleaned my house. They will never know how much I appreciated it. However a part of me is somewhat embarassed that they felt my house was so messy, they needed to come in and fix it...but just a small part of me. Everyone was so tired from the lack of sleep the night before, that we put the kids in bed and they were asleep by 7:30.

Sunday morning, we got up and ready. Tyson and Tanner headed out to do fast offerings at 9:30. They were back home by 10:30 and we headed to church for Jeffersons blessing. Tyson gave a very nice blessing, and after the meeting, we came home to delicious ham and huge baked potatos!! Seriously, these potatos were the size of a small child! Everyone was gone by 1:30 and Tyson headed back to the church to count tithing.

I hate pictures!
He's holding a tent bag around his neck.
Jefferson in thought.
Tyson and Jefferson after his blessing

I'm sitting here at 10pm typing this, wondering why I'm not maximizing the time Jefferson is asleep and going there myself. That's a good question. Good night!

Sad Day!

2008-08-31T22:36:00.002-06:00

I just need to make a post in memory of Peter! For Tanner. Two years ago, we decided to venture out to the pet scene. We decided for Tanner's 5th birthday we would get him a hermit crab. We did our research and found that they do better with more of them. At the time, it was just Tanner and Tyler so we got them each a crab. Tanner got one with a shell painted like a baseball and Tyler's painted like a flower. Tanner named his Peter and Tyler, she's original, named hers flower...for the flower on her shell. Anyway, we were quite happy that we actually got them to live longer than just a few days. But as with all good things, they must come to an end. Tyson went to give water to Peter this morning and discoverd Peter had expired on us. We think he was molting and didn't have a bigger shell to move into, so his old skin stayed in his same shell with him. Tyson believes when they molt, they give off a chemical that is potentially poisonous to them and other crabs. Because he didn't have a different shell to go into, we think he died from the toxic fumes. He was a good crab. We had a little funeral service for him and buried him in Grandma and Grandpas side yard this afternoon. Thanks Peter for all the great times we had as a family. Rest in piece.

Grocery Helps

2008-08-17T22:34:00.003-06:00

-k- I added a new link to my "other Bogs" page element. This is awesome!! My sister-in-law created it and she has written up a list of great grocery deals for the week, based off of their weekly adds. the web address is http://grocerygreatness.blogspot.com. On my side bar, I have it written as Grocery Help. Its a new blog, but each week she's going to choose a different store and put together a shopping list to create meals for the week under $50. You should also check out another link on her page that can connect you to all the info you need to save even more on your grocery list with and without coupons. I attended the same grocery smarts presentation she did and you wouldn't believe how much my food storage has grown!! I found one of my receipts and was looking over it. My total price for that shopping trip was about $46, but my total savings was $110!! Tyson was sceptical at first, but now we'll be with people and somehow the topic will come up and he'll start talking about how great this is. Its fun for the kids too, when we run out of cereal, I'll tell them to go downstairs and go grocery shopping. And this week, my grocery bill was under $60 for the first time since we were first married and I have enough fill in food to make seven meals for the week. I know this isn't making any sense, but its a great program. I even get free stuff! And its not stupid cheap stuff. Last week at Harmons, I got seven bottles of Pert Plus for FREE!! Anyway, you'll have to look at the website and check it out. If its something you're interested in learning more about either contact me and I can get you her number, or I think its on the linked page to the Grocery Smarts website. Its worth a look.

First day of School!

2008-08-05T13:41:00.008-06:00

Today was Tyler's first day of school. Tanner actually had his first day last week, but mom was too tired and spaced getting a picture, so we'll just add his to today. Everyone was so excited! Even Jake got in on the excitment with his very own Hulk Smash back pack. It was kind of weird having a somewhat quiet house and only two little ones to keep me busy. I forgot what those days were like. I think Jake enjoyed the alone time. I had to teach one lesson this morning at 9am so he got to choose whatever he wanted to watch on television. He was pretty happy about that. It will be nice to be back into some sort of routine. Hopefully that will happen. We're still trying to adjust to a little baby as well.

All three kids on the way to the bus stop.
Waiting for the bus to come.

Getting on the bus.

I also couldn't help but post this last picture. It was too perfect. All four of my boys in the same bed. Obviously Jefferson and Jake aren't asleep, in fact I'm pretty sure the whole thing was a posed picture, but it still makes for a cute picture.

Four weeks or one month

2008-08-01T15:57:00.003-06:00

So technically, Jefferson is four weeks old today, which could translate as month, however, he was born on the 4th, so technically he isn't a month yet. I'm not sure just how to calculate it. Anyway, one month and he's my chuncky monkey!! He loves his food and wants to eat every two hours. It makes it nice to try and do anything because I know in two hours, he's going to want to eat. However, its not so good at night. It makes for long and slow nights! He's already had his first cold. Hazards of older siblings.
Just a few things I've learned in the last month. Jefferson doesn't like baths. He would much rather have a shower, in there, he lays there with his mouth open, tasting the water. He also looks around and takes everything in. He is not a big fan of the blue bulb seringe they give you in the hospital to pick their noses. He cried pretty good with that one a few days ago. Poor thing could hardly breath. He tolerates his tummy time. If I can get him on his tummy with a stomach that's not quite full, but full enough to tide him over, he'll spend some good time there. He's also my gasiest kid. I know he'll appreciate that one when he gets older. He could compete with the biggest guys out there and come out ahead. He's also taken on the Grandpa Stauffer look with a receeding hair line. Poor kid!
We've gotten a few smiles. I know they aren't on purpose, but its sure hard to think that they aren't on purpose when you are talking and playing with him. Tyson is the one who's received the smiles, but they were smiles. Hopefully what I'm trying to post will work and I can put a bunch of pictures on that I took today. Nothing special, just pictures to show how big he's getting. Check out his big belly and double chin. Tanner told his the other day, "He's going to be a fat kid, I can tell." We asked him how he knew that. Because he has all this skin around his neck. Well, nevermind he has no muscles to hold his head up to get rid of the double chin.

Random Pictures and hopefully a video

2008-07-30T21:42:00.006-06:00

I'm trying to get a couple videos posted of Jake and Tyler dancing, but can't figure out how to get it to load. Oh well, I'll keep trying.

Last Friday, I was cleaning the two bathrooms and Jake decided that the toilet wand I had, looked like a fun thing to play with. He actually kept it in the toilet and got mad when I tried to take it away.

This is Jefferson after his bedtime shower. He's not too happy about getting out of the warm watter, but once I start putting his lotion on, he stops crying. Tyler is going through a fase of asking me if she did things that Jefferson does when she was a baby, or asking me if I put lotion on her when she was a baby. For some reason, she was my only baby that I could tell really didn't like having lotion on after a bath. So, after a few days of her being tense, I stopped putting lotion on her. To this day, she hates lotion or hand soad or anything goopy.
Okay, so maybe this was a little posed on Tyson's part, but when I pulled out the camera, it wasn't. He just woke up when he heard me standing right over him.

YEAH! It worked! So, today Jake started running around in circles, which I think is something he starts to do when he's tired, so Tyler and I started singing ring around the rosies. We did this for probably 20 mintes before he tired of it. And I think he would have kept going, except I pulled out the camera and that ends the cute things the kids are doing. Anyway, watch him fall on his bum...ouch!

This is pretty funny video. And I'm so glad it worked! This is the song Tyler is always singing. She doesn't even know the words to the rest of the song, just the chorus. But watch closely and you'll see her mouth moving to the words of the song.

The power of words

2008-07-22T12:27:00.003-06:00

This picture was not posed. Look closely, they are both laying the same way. I thought that was cute. If only I could get Jake to sleep like that for naps. Sad to say, but I think he is slowly trying to phase them out. He's too young not to take naps!!

Currently, Jakes favorite thing to do, besides staying in his pj's all day, is pulling Jefferson's blanket out of his bed and climbing in. Nevermind he's WAY too big for it. He likes to climb in the swing and lay in the bouncy seat as well.

All of these toys are played with at the same time. They like to play preschool currently. The other day it was hotel. I can't think of what else they play, but the only thing they asked for when Tyson told them he was going on a business trip was toys and stuffed animals. Really, do you think they need any more toys!!

Ok, so the pictures I'm putting on have absolutely nothing to do with this post, but I've been able to get some cute pictures with the camera so I'm adding them whether they relate or not. Anyway, I'm quickly learning that the way to get my two year old to do something, is all in the way I say it. If I tell him to go get dressed, I may as well not have even said anything, because he says no and moves on. Jake is showing us a personality we've never seen with any of the kids before... independence. Well, if I use my requests to his advantage, it works a lot better for me, and I'm finding we are getting more accomplished, just in the way I say it. He has a nerf gun that he likes to shoot at Tanner and Tyler because they scream after he shoots them, then laugh. Well, yesterday was a day I didn't want to fight him to get dressed, so he was in his pajama shirt for a good portion of the day. As I was nursing Jefferson, Jake came up to me and wanted me to load the ball in his gun. So I took this as my opportunity to get him dressed. I told him, "When you are dressed, then I'll load the gun." No sooner did I finish saying that, did he turn around, go in his room and get his clothes. He let me dress him with no fighting at all. I tried it again with something else and got the same result. How nice!! I just need to make sure what he wants, is something that I can follow through with so he doesn't think my words are empty. Hopefully we can make it through this two year old time without too many fights. :)

Picture Day

2008-07-15T17:46:00.004-06:00

This is what I thought I was brave enough to tackle today. We went and got Jake and Tyler's birthday pictures and Jefferson's birth announcement picture along with a picture of all four of the kids. Holy cow!! I have four kids!!!! It actually wasn't too bad. I tried to get Tyler's and Jake's pictures done before Jefferson was born, but the photographer we had that day was so bad. I seriously think she had Tyler scarred to death. I know she had Jake scarred, because he held onto me for dear life when I tried to put him up on the platform. Anyway, the girl we had today was much better. Not that babies are hard to take pictures of, but Tyler and Jake even had cute pictures. The reason there isn't one of Tanner by himself is because it's not his birthday yet. Hopefully these come across okay. Its legal to put these on, the file came from Kiddie Kandid itself.

After pictures, I was even feeling brave enough to venture into Costco without any body helping me. It actually went really well. I didn't give Jake the option of sitting in the big part of the cart, so I think that helped the situation. He was buckled from the get go. I think I might be able to do this four kid thing.

One week old!!

2008-07-12T09:04:00.003-06:00

Well, we've made it through the first week and I think we all mostly survived. We had our rough spots, but I think we would have had them in one form or another regardless. Towards the end of the week, I think Jake was starting to have a hard time being second, but I think part of that was due to no nap two days in a row. Mom is having a hard time not getting out or being able to go to the gym, but hopefully I can start doing something. Tanner and Tyler have learned they get more t.v. time if they don't wake me up in the morning, so as soon as they wake up, they head downstairs. While I enjoy the few extra minutes of sleep, its probably a bad habit to get into. In two weeks, we'll be starting school and I won't have the luxury of sleeping in. Jefferson is sleeping better than he did at the beginning. He likes to be bundled. He'll sleep longer if his blankets are wrapped tight around him rather than just laying over him. Jefferson had an appointment on Monday just to be checked for jaundice. He passed, yeah!! And we didn't have to get the bili bed. That's always nice. I hate those things! His weight dropped down to 6lbs 8oz. That's normal though. Anyway, all fun things to learn with a baby. Everyday brings a new adventure.

3 days old!

2008-07-07T17:21:00.005-06:00

Seeing as babies change pretty much every day, I thought I'd post some newer pictures. The kid has HUGE feet, which I could have told you before he was born because half way through, I swear he broke a rib, even up until the day I had him, I could grab his foot. Tanner was the same way. The picutre probably doesn't do his feet justice, but I thought I'd try.

This picture is actually leaving the hospital. Its so hard to put them in the car seats, especially when they've been curled up for nine months. Their little legs just don't want to stretch out. Needless to say, he wasn't too happy about his situation, until we got him bundled up in his blankets, he definantly likes being warm.

He has grandpa Stauffer toes. Where the second toe is ten times longer than the big toe. I know you can't see it here, but trust me on it. I can't tell who he looks like now. I love how the binki is just as big as his face!!

Baby Jefferson

2008-07-04T16:24:00.004-06:00

Tanner holding his new little brother.
Tyler taking a turn.
Jake having a go at it.

Everyone say cheese!
Baby Jefferson. I think he looks a little like Jake here.

Yes, its Jefferson. No middle name, yet. He was born at 12:14pm July 4th. 6 lbs. 11 oz. 20 inches long. Everything went fine. Tyson almost had his neck bitten off, but other than that, no major problems. It was just over a four hour labor. The kids came up with my parents and Carli this afternoon. Shortly after they got here Tysons parens showed up and we just had a party. I got the kids each two books from the baby as a present to them. When they left, Jake tried to give me his books back, not understanding, but I think he was happy about it when I told him they were his presents from the baby. All in all, I think they are all excited. Here are some pictures of our new little guy.

Off to grandmas

2008-07-03T22:46:00.003-06:00

Ok, so Tyson asked why I only got a picture of Jake with his backpack, well, I've already got a picture of Tanner getting on the school bus and Tyler's first day of Preschool, plus it was just too dang cute to pass up on taking a picture. Plus for some reason, this picture makes him look so grown up! Jake's bag is packed and ready to go to grandmas house. I had a hard time getting it off of him to lay him down for his nap and the first words out of his mouth when he woke up was bag. Anyway, I thought this was cute and I'm really nervous about tomorrow so I think that's why I'm delaying going to bed even though I should get some good sleep. Oh well. Happy 4th!! Wish me luck!

A day I thought would never come...

2008-06-29T22:35:00.003-06:00

And I'm not talking about having the baby. Although, there are days that seem to drag for that as well. But, our kids have always been early birds. Like 6:45, 7am they are up and not even two seconds after getting up, they are asking for cereal. Yes, even Jake. He'll give us his own rendition of the word cereal accompanied by the sign, just in case we get confused. So regardless of what time we went to bed the night before, we are SOL if we wanted to sleep in. Well, this morning, Tyson and I were both laying in bed, not asleep, but certainly not wanting to be up for the day. Our door was open so we were able to hear what was going thinking it was only a matter of seconds that we were going to be jumped on to start our daily routine. Well, Tanner, being our responsible six-year-old, decided that it was his job this morning to get everyone their bowl, pour their choice of cereal and get the milk on it so they could begin eating. He even went as far as to come in our room and ask Tyson if he could choose who got to say the blessing on the food. He called on Jake to say the prayer and proceeded to say one word at a time so Jake could copy what he was saying.

When we did get up, which wasn't long after, they even had some raspberries washed and split between the three of them. It was cute, and nice to see that my kids can take care of things for a few minutes. But with Tanner that comes as no surprise. If he's not here while I'm teaching piano, his absence is definitely noticed. Tyler can't survive without him because apparently she doesn't know how to do anything. Tanner just keeps things in line downstairs while I do teach. I know this will be nice, especially since I'm going to be busy with the baby here in the next few days. Thanks Tanner!!