It's Only March

Ok, so it's March 2nd... technically the 3rd (it's exactly 12:00 AM as I start this post - David is currently snoring next to me, preventing any idea of sleep that I had). From now on, I am making absolutely no promises on when my next post will be... Apparently I'm not the best at keeping those promises and, frankly, I don't want to be thought of as the girl who brakes her promises. :)

My last post was about Glaiden's first haircut. Ha! There's been a couple more since then, and I hate giving them. He was fabulous that first haircut and that's probably why I posted a blog about it. You know, the proud mom... "He was SO good!". Yeah, that was totally for the camera... NOT the way it is now.

Anyway, that was October 2nd... As for the rest of October,the Little Man turned one, It was a somewhat relaxing month filled with a lot of family time. The neglected blog posts for that month probably would have included a few more pictures of the birthday boy and his cake, a post about going to Boo at the Zoo with Krystal, Brett, Berk, Holli, and Heather, and Halloween of course!

November and December were amazing months. We did our first Thanksgiving at our house this year! That was definitely a BIG deal and it turned out AMAZING! Thanks so much to everyone that came. It was so awesome! The biggest news of '09 came the day after Thanksgiving though... No, no Black Friday shopping this year.. David and I decided to get married on December 30th! A month to plan a wedding?!?! A month with my birthday, then Christmas and then a wedding.. hahaha! I laugh when I think of the whirlwind it was. Thanks so much to my family, Krystal, Holli and my wonderful neighbors for all of their help. It was definitely crazy, but it made sense to us, and I've become a HUGE believer in the idea that if it's meant to happen... things will work out for you. SO TRUE! The planning went relatively smooth and without having swatches of colors for clothes, or any real idea of the exact colors we really wanted, everything came together perfectly! I found the perfect dress with just one stop at David's Bridal. We found matching suits for both of the boys, an amazing flower dress for Jessah (and Mesia got the same one for Christmas! So I got to have TWO flower girls!) My mom, Lana came to Utah the week after my birthday and was going to be here without making a second trip... I mean really? Everything literally fell into place! I still get a huge grin on my face when I think of how amazing it was!

In between the wedding madness came Christmas. My family was thrilled by a surprise visit from my brother Kaesey who is serving in Iraq for a second time. We weren't expecting him until March! We did the crazy Christmas that is ridiculously busy, but it's our tradition and we love it! My kids, like most kids, were completely spoiled and loved every second of it. I've never seen them sleep SO well!

New Year's was spent at home with my husband. I still love the sound of that. January flew by. My sweet Jessah turned 4 (going on 14). And that was January... Wow. Productive, eh?

February... I started working at a restaurant part-time for some extra $$ and a little away time with some grown-ups. Staying at home is super rewarding, but I needed a change I guess and the little bit of income really helps us out.

The kids are fantastic. AJ is starting to read. The program at his school has been phenomenal. His teachers are amazing and we're all really proud of AJ and the effort he puts into learning. He loves to be praised and makes sure to do what is needed and expected of him in order to earn it. :) Jessah is my little queen. I would say princess, but she demands more than that. We're having a really hard time with potty training. I know, she's four. I think it is kind of a Middle Child Syndrome thing going on. It's either that, or a medical problem. I'm leaning towards the first. It's been really hard for her since Glaiden has required more physical attention and more teaching. Plus, AJ is going to preschool and I think she just feels a little left out. I'm working on that and we've done much better now than she was doing a month ago. Glaiden is ... oh boy. My tornado. He is all over the place, babbling and learning new words daily. Trying to keep up with the big kids and all in all... a nut. His new words are Joe Joe (doe doe - one of our dogs), Zeus (seus - another dog), kitty (key key), cracker (cracka), cookie, num num, dog, ruf, uh oh (not really new, just another meaning - blanket), Krystal (dyduh) and cheese! Yeah, those are my children... my crazies, but my life. I love them more than anything and I am definitely one proud mom.

I really can't believe it's been five months since I've posted anything. I hope I will post more often, now that I realize how much goes on in just a short time. No promises though. ; )

I played around on Facebook and watched a movie while I was writing this and it's now almost 1:15. I'm in my family room because I had to plug the laptop in to finish this, my husband is still snoring in the bedroom, I am completely exhausted with a huge headache on top of my cold, and I've probably rambled through half of this. I'm going to apologize profusely for that and I'm going to call it a night. Hope you all have a fabulous week, month, year or decade. (I have no clue if I'll be post before then, so I figured I'd cover my bases)

Goodnight and sleep tight!

Look At Him Go!!!

Glaiden's First Haircut

I thought I'd throw a few pictures of Glaiden's first haircut on here. He did suprisingly well for never having sissors or clippers anywhere near him. It was almost easier to cut his hair than it is to cut A.J.'s!

Here's a before shot... (best I could get anyway)

During....

The messy counter is due to putting every thing that belongs in the bathroom as far back on the counter so we can avoid Hurricane Glaiden...

What the heck is she doin' Dad?

And after...

All done!

Happy boy!

Short 'N Sweet

I thought I'd post a really short update... it's about time anyway.

A.J. has been in his preschool now for almost 3 weeks and still gets so excited when I wake him up in the morning. He loves learning and is so eager to share what's new at school. The first week of school he learned the days of the week and the months of the year. They've also already started on reading. Every week about 8 flash cards are sent home as homework. Not letters though, they are pictures from the story they read. (The Mystery Book - its the reading program and they use this book the entire year) Each picture represents a sound, not a letter, and eventually by the end of the year, the picture is weened out of the flash cards and replaced with a letter....
Anyway, we go over these flashcards once a night and let me tell you this kid has a memory like an elephant - he never forgets. I can just tell him what the picture is and he knows the sound like it's something we've done for a year already. He's so willing to learn and I hope he stays that way. :)

Glaiden is walking - kind of. He can take quite a few steps on his own, but is just not quite brave enough to go any further than that. Well, either that or its just faster to crawl. Either way, he'll be running around with his big brother and big sister very soon... Heaven help us!
He will be one next month! I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. We're planning on a family party and of course his own cake. We're also planning on getting him blessed (Yes, we definately dropped the ball on this one, but we're getting it done!) the same morning of the party so everyone can just make one trip.

Not too much is new with the princess of the house. Jessah loves having time with just her baby brother 3 days a week. I think she feels left out when A.J. is home and playing with Glaiden... she just kind of sits on the side lines. It's been really good for her to get some alone time with Glaiden.

As for me and David... We're doing great. We got some time to ourselves last week and went to Lagoon for ICON's Lagoon Day. They closed down the park for the company and their families and fed us a good dinner. It was so much fun and so nice to get out. Our friend Krystal kept the kids overnight for us and we are SO grateful to her.

So there's a little update on us. :)

I've Got To Get Better At This

Oops. My Bad. I'll get better at this, I hope. Hmm, now where to start? I'll just cover the basics, then if anything pops into my head later then I'll update again. :)

August seems like a whirlwind to me. I'm having a hard time thinking of what all happened. The Cache County Fair came and went. We went to the rodeo and hung out as a family, which is always a blast. I love going out with my family and we never have a bad time. Glaiden has his first licorice rope and LOVED it... as you can see.

Also, earlier this year, David drew out for a limited entry bow hunt for elk. He's entered in for this hunt ever since he was able to and this is the first year he drew out, so needless to say he's been looking forward to Opening Day since April. Well, the first weekend in August, he took A.J. up to the cabin (what an awesome man I have! Don't you think?) where he'd be staying to check out the tree cams and set up some things for the big day. A.J. was so excited for a chance to get out with just the boys and had a blast up at the cabin. They rode four-wheelers, hiked (David says A.J. out hiked them all!), shot their bow's and let A.J. take a few shots with a small bow... Check THIS out!

He loved being up there with David and learning how do shoot a bow so much, that for his birthday that's what he asked for.

Dave's been gone every weekend for his hunt - August 15th through September 11th - plus a little more the last two weeks. He left again yesterday for the rest of the week (or until he gets his trophy!) and I miss him already. It's not that bad during the day, and I find myself keeping really busy cleaning to try and keep my mind off of it. So far it works, except now everything is caught up, cleaned, organized, and - after this post - updated. Since he's been gone a lot more lately, we have come to appreciate eachother even more than before and have never been happier.

A.J.'s FIFTH birthday was September 3rd, and we had a party with some family and close friends the day before. He got his bow and arrow, (yes, it's a real one and has VERY strict rules, but not a day goes by that he hasn't said thank-you to me or David), a cowboy belt and buckle, a rubberband airplane, some movies, snacks, books, coloring stuff, Lightning McQueen shoes and clothes.

Which brings me to our next adventure. A.J. missed the cut off for Kindergarten by 2 days this year, so to keep him busy and not so left out that his neighbor friends are going and he's not, he will start at Read And Succeed Preschool this week and their open house was on the day of his birthday. He's so excited to be in a real Preschool environment with other kids, a teacher and to learn how to read. He can't wait. When I worked the kids went to daycare that provided preschool, so this is his 2nd year. We only enrolled A.J. so that he could have some alone time with other kids, and both he and Jessah will be able to get used to a little time away from eachother. :)

For now, that's all that I can think to update. I really do hope to be able to post a little more frequently about our family's happenings, but if not, you understand right?? I hope so.

July in Review

Hang in there with me as I post some priceless pictures and update you on our busy July! I can't believe how fast time flies lately. My baby is going to be 10 months old in a little bit, just around the corner, my first baby is going to be FIVE, and my sweet little Bear is becoming more and more like a little lady every day.

THE FOURTH OF JULY

One of my best friends from high school (and junior high), Kim, and her kids came to visit for a long weekend over the 4th. We stayed busy by going to fireworks, the Cache Valley Cruisin' Car Show and parade, the Independence Day parade and the Willow Park Zoo. It was fun to have the kids together for the first time and they became pretty good friends! Here's a few pictures of our weekend.

(Our monkeys jumping on the bed!)

(Me and my little man at the fireworks... he LOVED them!)

(A.J. and Jessah at the zoo)

(Glaiden at the Car Parade... it was HOT)

(Brookie at the parade)

(Look at how small that car is!)

(Waiting "patiently" for candy!!!)

Our weekends inbetween the 4th and the 24th seemed busy and long. There was a UFC fight with friends and David's family that came up, a wedding of a dear friend of mine in Layton, and just a lot of go go go. The 24th, however, seemed like the never-ending day!

The 24th of July (Pioneer Days)

In Utah, the 24th of July is a statewide holiday celebrating the settling of our state. There's usually fireworks and booths set up at local parks, food, fun, family get togethers and rodeos.

Logan put on a Jr. Youth Rodeo on Saturday morning and A.J. decided that he wanted to ride a sheep! David and I knew that there was a big chance going in, that A.J. wouldn't do it. He'd maybe get on, and if he did he wouldn't want to be let loose. But we entered him in anyway (hey, there's only one way to find out if he'd do it or not right?) Well, time comes to start and A.J.'s name is the first one called to ride (yeah right!). We put him on and.... yep, he cried to be taken out. "I don't want to Mom!!" Ugh, go figure. So I asked, "Why don't we let someone else go first and you can see that it's not so bad? Then you can try again." He agreed.

So a little girl gets on this little sheep and rides. Not bad. The sheep ran along the gates and someone lifted her off. A.J. got on another sheep, they open the gate and.... the sheep bursts through and a little more than 1/2 way across the arena, he has the clowns chasing him as he falls off! Stands up and comes over to the fence to a lot of people cheering and clapping for him and a score of 68! He looks at David and said, "David! I'm a Cowboy now!" I was the proudest mom there! (A.J.'s 68 held out for about 3/4 of the sheep rides, and then the older kids came along and won, but he was awesome for his first time!)

(My Cowboy checkin' out the arena!)

Now for the fun.... or, I mean... you'll see.

After the rodeo, we went home for lunch, a nap, playtime and dinner. After dinner, we decided to head over to the park to check out the booths, slides and the band before the fireworks started. We had a couple of hours and after enough walking around, we parked it by the playground and sent A.J. and Jessah to go play. Having had enough stroller time, David and I decided to take the baby to the swings...

We went to check on the other 2 (in the same playground area, but we had moved the stroller a bit so I wanted to make sure they knew where we were) and Jessah was MIA... not just hard to find, because, believe me... I looked EVERYWHERE... 3 times. I decided to wander just a little bit and I over hear a police officer asking if someone had been looking for their daughter! ME!!! Uh, yeah, excuse me... that's my daughter! She had been looking for us but because we weren't in the same spot, she kept walking. Someone found her crying and calling for Mama, and (thank goodness) they took her to the nearest police officer. I've never been so relieved in my life! I thanked the officer profusly, Jessah gave him a hug, and we decided to get a little further away from the jam-packed park.

Oh, it's not over yet.....

So we went across the street where there was a much smaller park, no booths, no band, just blankets and chairs set up with people waiting for the fireworks. I played with Glaiden, Jessah, and A.J., took some pictures of my amazingly beautiful kids, and went and gave David the camera and a kiss. Go back to play with them and.... again! She was no where to be seen. I'm not kidding! I was turned around for 10 seconds (literally), and I couldn't find her, or hear her! I kept telling myself I was just paranoid, that I was still shaken up from the first time I lost her. But I looked and looked and looked. David got mad, (I'm pretty sure that's how he chose to be terrified) and we split up and went opposite ways around the play area. Really... there wasn't anywhere she could have vanished to! We looked for 10 minutes... yes, I timed it because I knew I was going to find her and I didn't want to jump to conclusions... I knew she wouldn't have run off again! I told David to stay by the park and I'd run find a police officer to help. (They were all across the street.) As I came up to the opposite park to find someone to help, the policeman spotted me first, pointed and said, "She's right there."

"What!? She came over here???" I asked. He continued to tell me that someone again found her yelling for Mama, and brought her across the street to the "missing kid station" (my nickname for it) I burst into tears as I picked her up and hugged her. They had given her some juice and a little piece of candy to calm her down until they could find me. I took her back to David and the other kids, we found our blanket and sat through the fireworks.

When we got home, got jammies on and ready for bed, I hugged each of my children especially tight and thanked my Heavenly Father for letting us live around such wonderful people. People who didn't take advantage of my daughter's innocence or trust and take her away from me to hurt her. People who did the right thing and took her to a safe place until I could be found. I was so thankful that she was home with me and not lost with some stranger and hurt. I love where we live and that Saturday assured me that this is an amazing place to raise my children.

We were able to spend time with my family for a couple of BBQ's for my brother, Kaesey, as he was home on leave before being deployed back to Iraq next month. It was good to see him, and fun to just spend some quality time with eachother.

That was our July in a nutshell.... in this crazy, tragic, sometimes almost magic, awful, beautiful life!

A Family Really Needs Our Prayers

MckMama is a smash in the blogging world (as I've recently come to know) but her world is in a massive whirl wind right now with her youngest boy, Stellan. Here's the link to the Her Blog. Little Stellan is struggling and can use every prayer he can get. His whole story is in there as well and WARNING: Once you start reading about this little man's life, even while still in his mama's tummy, you won't be able to stop. He's a bright star and one little man who has come to this world to help us all learn a thing or two about faith. Hang in there little MckMuffin!