Grimes Family Madness

Our little princess Zoe

2011-10-07T11:15:00.005-06:00

I can't believe my little Zoe is almost four years old. It's crazy how fast the time flies! She still seems like such a baby to me, I really need to see and treat her as a big girl now. She is definitely our little princess and sometimes changes her outfits three or four times a day. She is also a little instigator, she likes to pester her siblings, especially her little brother. I wish she understood that his screaming isn't a good thing, even though she obviously finds it funny because she's usually giggling. She says some of the funniest things and is pretty good at making us all laugh. I love her prayers and she loves to say them. She takes things a little too seriously sometimes, like when we play the wii and she wants her mii to show up or be put in the right barrel and if it doesn't happen she'll cry. She loves to give hugs and she usually makes them long ones. When she wakes up at night she'll come in and ask if she can sleep with us for a little while. One time she came in and fell asleep in bed with me, when I finally picked her up to move her back to her own bed she asked "has it been 10 minutes?". I am SO glad that this little angel is in our family, I love her very much! I hope you have a great birthday and another great year Zoe!! We love you very much!! Happy birthday on Wednesday my little zower mower!!

Updates

2011-09-24T10:51:00.002-06:00

So, I updated the pictures and the look of my blog so I decided that I should also give a little update blog as well. Things are going well here, Randy is loving his job and the girls love school. I love being at home (most days) and spending some time with just Zoe and JD. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy having a little boy here? Oh my goodness he is a cute little bug!! I love my kids, even on the days where I've had enough of their "I don't need to listen to you" attitude I still love them. They are beautiful and smart kids, I'm constantly amazed with Hailey and how smart she is. I love the things they say and I'm so grateful for their forgiveness when I make mistakes. There will be more of an update, with pictures, but right now I have to go get Zoe dressed so we don't have a little naked girl running around the house!

Healthy Lifestyle

2011-06-17T10:22:00.003-06:00

So my friends, the time has come to change my lifestyle habits. I actually started changing them in January but it's been a long up hill battle, I do have 20 pounds lost to show for it, but it should have been more. I'm still working hard, and I've started exercising along with dieting now. I started P90X on May 11th, but I'm only on week 5, confused? Looking at the calender and saying, but Jessica, that doesn't add up! Yeah, that's because I took about a week off due to sickness and then vacation. It was really hard to get back in to things after our St. George trip and I just started up again on Wednesday, but then I had a Relief Society activity last night and I ate more than I should have. Why is it so hard to be good when you're at functions like that? I wish I had the willpower to say no to desserts and definitely no to seconds (of dinner and desserts). I am human though and I make bad choices just like everyone else, I just can't wait until a night like that every once in a while won't set me back. While I'm in the mode of weight loss though I really should refrain from doing that, but oh well, as long as I get back on the horse and try very hard not to get off again. I've talked to a few people who have also done P90X and the South Beach Diet and she said the first two weeks went really well, so I'm planning on doing phase one of the South Beach Diet but also staying under my 1200 calories. The week after that we'll be camping and I'm going to focus on planning meals that can be made fairly healthy for me, although, it's really hard to diet when you're not at home, so I plan on going on the phase 1 after we get home and complete the full two weeks. I'm really hoping to get back on schedule to meet my goal by mid-September. Currently I'm 4 pounds away from my marriage weight, which is pretty cool, unfortunately that's still 25 to 30 pounds away from my goal weight. Baby steps, baby steps, I have to just focus on the day to day and not think about how far I have to go. I'm also really clueless as to how I'm going to maintain my weight once it's gone, I'm not sure how to up my calorie count without losing weight. Do you have any tips for me? I will take any at this point.

In other news, our little family is doing well, Hailey is done with school and her week of summer camp that she had. It's nice and not so nice to have her home, she's definitely excited for school to start and is very excited to go to second grade. Katie will start Kindergarten this year, I hope Zoe will handle being the only one (besides JD) not in school, when the other two girls were going to school Zoe would tell them how she had her school. I have no idea what she's referring to, cause I certainly never did school with her, I really should though, I think that would make the transition next year easier for her. Zoe is our little mischievous one, she pesters her sisters (and brother) a LOT and pays for it by getting hit, then she comes crying to me. Sometimes it's all I can do not to slap her and Katie silly when they get going. When they get along, they do awesome and they have so much fun with each other. Sometimes I look at my kids and realize how amazing life is, that we start out so little and helpless and eventually we grow up and our bodies change. It strengthens my testimony of our loving Heavenly Father, there's no way life would be possible without a higher being over all of it. I love this gospel so much and I'm so thankful to have it in my life, I don't know what I would do without it!

Well, that's enough I hope that whoever reads this is doing great, cause I'm certainly trying to do just that!

Skinny People

2011-04-27T23:19:00.002-06:00

Ever notice how when you buy a new car suddenly you notice that everyone drives that car? That's how I feel right now with skinny people. I am struggling BIG time with losing weight, I've been dieting since January 10th, and I keep having set backs where I stop dieting for about a week or so and then I get back to it. Therefore, I have been stuck in the 160's since March. I'm very VERY tired of being overweight, but especially of being stuck around 166. I feel like all the people around me are super skinny, and it makes me feel like a fat blob. Why is it SO hard to eat healthy, not just eat healthy but actually diet?? I want to lose weight so bad, the desire is there but apparently no drive cause I'm not going anywhere. I looked over a couple of the different diets that I've done, and I got really motivated, and I think I may have figured out where my mistakes have been that's been keeping me stuck. Then, not even two hours later, I'm feeling depressed and hopeless again. Is it too much to ask of myself to change a few things?? Why am I so scared to change even when I don't like how things currently are? I know what changes would help me feel better about myself and yet they're the things I'm most scared to give up. Why am I holding on to things that are so hurtful to me? I know that through Christ ALL things are possible so why am I not willing to make that leap? Why don't I have the faith to say, "Ok Father, I'm ready to really give this a go, will you help me?" I feel like I've prayed for help with these issues before, but I don't think I really had any intention to change. I'm scared and I don't know why, I know that these changes would make me a happier and better person, wouldn't you think I'd be jumping at the chance?? I want to change, but I'm not sure at all how to actually go about it, and I'm scared. So.... that's where I am.

On a more positive note, JD turned one on Sunday, I can't believe it's already been a year! Oh how I love my little man, sometimes I just watch him play and try to figure things out and it never fails to amaze me that he is a little person with his own little thoughts. I watched some of the videos we took of him in his first moments of life and it never ceases to amaze me. The miracle of birth is astounding to me! All of us are created inside someone else, it's unbelievable! How can anyone doubt that there's a higher being who is over everything. Anyway, enough of that, we had a lot of time partying with family. JD mostly got clothes which is great because kids always need clothes, he also got a singing card from his great-grandma Grimes, and I think it might have won the favorite gift award. He would open it and shake his head with a grin on his face. He played with that for probably 5 to ten minutes (which is a long time for a one year old) it was so fun to watch him "dance". He is still small for his age, but he's staying on his own curve, so I'm not worried about him, his oldest sister is still small. He weighed in at 16 pounds 1 ounce yesterday at his WIC appointment, that's up almost a pound I think since the last time he went in which was in March, so I'd say he's doing pretty darn good!

In other news, Hailey's school has been doing a program called "Reading on Down the Road" where they challenged students her age to read 1000 minutes by April 30th and they'll get a t-shirt, and I am happy to say she is going to make that goal! I am so proud of her, I never did these sort of things while I was in school and I always regretted it, and I am so glad that I've been able to help her accomplish this. I've been reading Harry Potter to them every night just before they go to bed and it's been a lot of fun for me, plus, it helps them go to sleep better (Zoe is usually asleep within the first five minutes or so of me ready).

Katie is just about done with Preschool, and I can't wait to be done paying for it! She is really excited to go to school with Hailey next year! She has such an amazing memory, I am constantly blown away by how well she remembers stuff. She still can be quite challenging sometimes because she is so stubborn, maybe that memory thing isn't so great after all. Just kidding, I'm very excited, a good memory will really help her out in life (I wish I had that).

Since I've given an update on all the others, I can't forget Zoe. What can I say about my little Zoe, I am so grateful that she is in our home, that little stinker is awesome! I love her so much, it's amazing to me how much families all fit together! Zoe will be so happy to go to school, she already talks about "her school" I don't have a clue where she comes up with all the stuff she does in "her school" cause I don't do any of it. I really should take time out and come up with a "school" she can go to. She is excited to be a big kid like her sisters, and I need to let her be a big kid. I know I baby her, and I'm not sure why, I guess when there's older kids in the house 3 doesn't seem as old as it does when your first child is 3. I have no idea if that made sense or not, oh well, if it didn't just read it a few times and think about it, it might eventually make sense.

Well that's that, I'm really hoping to start writing regularly here, so that I have a journal of some sorts, it would be good to write down experiences somewhere and I'm not sure why, but it just seems easier to blog than to write in a journal. Although, both would probably be good. Anyway, until next time!!

Change

2011-02-10T13:09:00.002-07:00

So.... I feel like we've dealt with a lot of change in the past 5 weeks around here. The first and biggest change has been Randy's new job, it's been interesting to get used to that, the second is that JD is now on formula. That was a hard switch for me (which actually kind of surprised me because I bottle fed my first two kids) I felt guilty and like I wasn't enough because I couldn't give him what he needed. However, I am better now, and I am just excited to see him so happy and content. He has been so much better since Sunday (which is when we made the switch) and I'm hoping that he'll go back to gaining weight! You see, he lost weight and both his WIC appointment and his doctors appointment, but what really sealed the decision in my mind (I'd been thinking about since the Tuesday before the Sunday we made the switch) was when Randy sweetly commented that maybe we should supplement him with a bottle. He said when he bathed him he could see JD's ribs, and that was it, I was done. So I gave him a bottle, and I think that day I already noticed a difference. So now, I don't need to stress about whether or not he's getting enough, it's EXTREMELY relieving!!

Valentine's day is coming up soon, I have no idea what I'm going to do, right now, I don't want to do anything. When did I turn in to such a party poop? For the most part I'm content to just sit at home and watch a movie here. I think this year I want to make it more about my entire family, not just my husband. I'd like to come up with a way that I can make it special for my kids too, I want them to feel especially loved on Valentines day, what are some things you guys do for your family? Feel free to leave me with some ideas!

2011-01-11T21:39:00.002-07:00

So I don't have much to say, things are going good. Randy is very excited about his new job, he's had training for the past couple of days and he'll actually start his job next Wednesday, he can't wait! He was actually hoping he would start this week, but he's done after tomorrows training. Then the real adjustment will start, I think we're all ready for it to come though so we can start adjusting. I took Katie to the doctor this morning, I was pretty sure she had a kidney infection, however they didn't get enough urine for a culture but they had enough to do a stick test which showed that it was an infection they just don't know what kind. So they gave her an antibiotic shot and then we also started oral antibiotics that she'll take every 12 hours for ten days (or until it's gone). Poor thing has not been feeling well at all today, I really hope that she'll be better tomorrow. We went to bed at midnight last night and she came in our room 3 times between then and 3 or 3:30 when she came in our room and threw up. She had it in her hair, on her hands, her feet, our carpet, our sheet. It was awful, and it smelled SO bad, I thought she had an accident as well, but nope just throw up (sorry if that's too much information). So we had to get her in the bathtub, poor thing, it was an awful experience. After I washed her hair there were too many floaties in it so we had to drain the tub and refill it, but along with her fever she had the chills. She was shaking SO bad!! So we got her bathed and then I blow dried her hair and sent her back to bed with a bucket in case she needed to throw up again. Then when she woke up this morning she came in to my room and announced that she had to throw up, so I told her to go to the bathroom. While she threw up she also peed, so we had to clean up that mess, however, I would rather clean up a pee accident then throw up. So then the rest of the morning was filled with taking her to the doctor which was crazy! I got home at noon, and at about 1:30 I crashed on the couch while they watched The Cat in the Hat. I know that we're not supposed to use the TV as a babysitter, but I sure am glad for the option on days like today. Other than that we're all doing well here! I am so grateful that she doesn't have anything contagious that I have to worry about the other kids getting. It's been awhile since I've posted pictures here, I'll try to remedy that soon, but not tonight. I really need to go to bed as well!! So, until next time, which I'm hoping will be soon because I want Sam to also write a new post. We have a deal going on now where she'll write a new post after I do. So....get writing Sam!

I never know what to put

2010-12-13T11:04:00.002-07:00

I really don't like labeling my posts, cause I really never know what to put. I now have a reason (at least I feel like it's more of a reason) to blog, my sister in law and her husband moved to Cedar City so now when they want to see how we're doing they can check out the ol' blog. I'm very excited, perhaps this will help me blog more. So, we're getting ready to go back to school, or at least Randy is. I'm really excited for him to do this, he wants to be a PT, how awesome would that be? I think he would enjoy that a lot, apparently it's a pretty competitive field, but where there's a will there's a way, especially if you include the Lord. So we've been praying and I'm pretty sure Randy has fasted and we'll see if that's what we should be doing. In other news, JD is cutting his bottom two teeth, I'm excited and a bit relieved (I hate feeling like he's slow) but I'm going to miss that gummy smile! He LOVES to play the piano with Daddy, I took a video last night, I'll post it soon. He also is starting to talk more, or should I say scream. It's pretty cute, I love my little guy. The girls REALLY like him too, especially Katie right now. She was told that she was ok to hold him, well, she's taken it to a whole new level. She'll pick him up and walk around with him, you know those pictures with kids holding cats and the cat looks like he's screaming for help? Her holding JD reminds me of those pictures, she does all right with him, except that she'll get him out of his bouncer, his crib, his swing, she's tried walking down the stairs with him a couple of times. It's frustrating when he's playing just fine in his bouncer or swing and she'll get him out which after a minute or so of her holding him he gets mad. Then he doesn't want to go back in his bouncer which is a downer for me because then I can't continue doing whatever I was doing in the first place. Oh well, at least she wants to interact with him right? I don't really have much else to say right now, and I really should be getting Katie ready to go to school, so for now I'll say adieu, but I'm sure I'll be back soon, just don't hold your breath on that ;0)

Hello, yes, I'm still here

2010-12-03T14:31:00.003-07:00

So I must admit, I have a hard time writing on my blog because I'm not really sure why I do it, all my family lives close so they have no need to check it out, I'm not sure if I have any friends that still check it out. So it's very hard to update it, I enjoy writing my feelings here and putting up pictures, but like I said, it feels like it's all in vain. Oh well, I guess I should write it just so it's written. We're all doing well here, Hailey is LOVING school, I told her we have a dentist appointment on the 21st which is the last day of school before the Christmas break. She was very upset because she doesn't want to miss school, I told her I would try to figure something out. Usually kids want to miss school, but not her. She loves her teacher and loves helping her out. SHe is such a loving girl, she loves to give hugs to everyone, and I mean EVERYONE! She can also be an amazing helper around the house when she wants to be, she is such an amazing big sister (most the time) and is pretty good to help out with the younger kids. She loves to bear her testimony, she'll ask us in Sacrament if it's the free time (testimony meeting). I love her to pieces!! Katie has been fun too, she likes her preschool, but I think she really wants to go to Kindergarten. I'm excited for next year, I know she'll absolutely LOVE going to the same school as Hailey. We just had her birthday, she's five now, she had a lot of fun being the center of attention! Zoe is still the boss around here, everything has to be just right for her. She is constantly correcting everybody! If you call her anything but Zoe she makes sure you know her name is Zoe, not whatever you called her. They all have quite the personalities! Then there's JD, he's doing really well, we started him on solid foods a month ago, so far his favorite is sweet potatoes. It looks like he's going to be like his sisters in not liking any fruit, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but whatever! He's finally started to roll over, he doesn't get very much time to practice, his sisters don't think he can be left alone so he doesn't get much of an opportunity to try. He sure is loved by all of us!

I am so grateful for the opportunity Randy and I have been blessed with to have children. They are such fun little people to have around, they constantly teach me about Heavenly Father and His love for us. What a blessing it is to be here and to be the mom to these wonderful sweet spirits, even if I'd really like to smack them around sometimes!! So yeah, we're doing well, getting ready to do some new things soon, like school, hopefully a new job for Randy and other things. Hopefully I can keep blogging, even if it is just so I have a record of things. Well, until next time, enjoy life! Merry Christmas, in case I don't get around to it :0)

It happened again

2010-10-01T15:14:00.003-06:00

It's happened again, it's been forever since I blogged, I have no idea if anyone even still looks at my blog. We're surviving here, things are tight financially due to slow business. We are getting in to the busy time of the year though, so hopefully things will get better. We're all doing well, we're getting ready to celebrate Zoe's third birthday, I can't believe she's 3! It's insane, she's the cutest little thing ever, but she can also be the biggest pain in the butt!! Her and Katie are getting along better though, which is so nice, I think having Hailey at school all day has been good for their relationship because it forces them to play together. Katie is in preschool now, and she loves it!! I really like her preschool, it's called Wiz Kidz and they do some really cute things and it's only about a mile and a half away so it only takes about 5 minutes to get there. Hailey I believe is enjoying school, she has a boyfriend named Nicky, I guess they hold hands when they walk/run the golden mile. That's where they walk around their school I believe 4 times to make it a mile, they do this every day. Then you have little JD, he's definitely growing, at his 2 month check up he was in the 3% for height and at his 4 month checkup he was in the 75% for his height. That's a serious amount of growth!!! He's the tallest of our kids, he is SO stinking cute! He's kind of starting to roll over, he gets stuck on his arm. He doesn't get very much time to practice due to his loving older sisters. They just can't seem to leave him alone!! He talks quite a bit too, we really like him! Other news on me, I dyed my hair brown, I lost weight, gained weight. I really need to diet again, but it makes me depressed so it's very hard to stick to one. Hopefully things will get a little easier and make dieting less depressing for me. Anyway, that's that, we're just plugging along. I hope all of you are doing well too!

I quit!

2010-08-04T13:05:00.002-06:00

Sometimes, I really wish I could say those words and magically all my cares and worries would disappear. This morning I woke up to a mad house and I wanted so badly to just go back to sleep and have it all go away. Oh well, we don't always get those wishes do we. It's a day, things here have been a little rough lately, but I have hope for the future, it looks brighter than the past. I'm hoping JD will start to calm down even more, and as soon as Zoe can get past this terrible two stage things will get a little easier. I must throw in here, I do love my kids, they're a huge blessing in my life. I just have my moments, but then again, doesn't everyone? Well, I don't have much to say, life is just going, I'll try to post some pics soon. There is one funny story I can share, like all the other moms out there (hopefully this happens to you) I've been losing a lot of hair since I've had JD and I just roll them in to balls and stick them on the side of the tub until I'm done showering. I'm supposed to throw them away when I'm done, but like a lot of other things it doesn't get done. So we were in the bathroom the other day and Hailey said what's all this hair in the bathtub? And I told her it was mine. Then she asked, "Are you going to be a bald grandma?" I just started laughing. What a funny kid. In other news, Hailey will start 1st grade on August 24th, I can't believe she'll be in school all day long. It kind of scares me, Katie will also go to Preschool this year, that's just weird as well. I'll have two kids in school. It's kind of scary how fast they grow up, one minute they're little babies, and the next they're going off to college! I really like the song that talks about how life goes by fast, it says don't blink, in fact that might even be the title, I'm not sure. Then there's the song You're Gonna Miss This, I really like that one too. They're all so true! I just have to remember that one day I will miss this stage, sometimes it makes it a bit easier to deal with everything. Well, anyway, I think I'll finish this up now and go get something done. Until next time, be safe!!

Sweetness

2010-07-08T18:10:00.005-06:00

So it's been a long time since I've put any pictures on here, there's a reason for that..... I'm a little busy these days. Everyone has always told me that after they had their third child they could have had a dozen more, because the third was the back breaker. Not for me, with Zoe things seemed to just slide back to regular life, we came home from the hospital on a Sunday, Randy went back to work on Monday and life went on. After JD was born, I had total separation anxiety from Randy, in fact he took another day off because I wasn't ready for him to go back to work. My emotions were extremely crazy and all over the place and I stressed about him a lot. It almost felt like he was my first baby, it was crazy!! Things are finally starting to settle down now, for the most part, I definitely have my days where I don't know why I wanted all these kids, but then they go and say or do something to remind me why I wanted them. I love my children, and even though I know I have a lot of things to work on to be a better mom, I am grateful for my children. Hopefully soon I'll get a better handle on things and become more of the mother I want to be. Anyway, here are some pictures of JD, I have others I'm going to post of the goings-on around here for the past couple of months, but we'll save them for another post. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I do.

Gone too long

2010-07-08T00:46:00.002-06:00

So it's now 12:46 AM on July 8th, and I wasn't really planning on writing a post, but here I am. I just want to let everyone who might possibly still read my blog that I am in fact still here. Things have just been a little off balance as you can imagine and blogging has taken a back seat. Hopefully though this is the beginning of a return! Things are going good for the most part, I still have days that aren't that great, but doesn't everybody? Well, I promise there will be more posts soon, and I have lots of pictures to share but right now JD is asleep in his crib (thanks to my wonderful husband) and I need to take advantage of this opportunity and get some sleep, so until later, bye!

JD's arrival

2010-04-27T11:22:00.003-06:00

So, if you haven't heard, JD is here! We were taken completely off guard by his arrival, I didn't think he'd come so early (ok, so it wasn't really that early, only two weeks). As many of you know, I wanted a May baby, and I had everything planned out, I was going to go see my doctor on Monday May 3rd and have him strip my membranes which has always caused me to go into labor the next day. Obviously Heavenly Father and JD had different plans! Friday April 23rd my back was killing me all day, and then I'm pretty sure thinking back now that I was actually contracting that night around 9, but it didn't really hurt it was just uncomfortable. It just felt like he was stretching and putting pressure on my stomach like he was prone to do. Randy and I went to bed about 11, I woke up because my stomach kind of hurt and I figured it was just because I needed to go to the bathroom. So I got up (thinking it was 5 like every other morning) and looked at the clock, it was midnight, I remember thinking Oh my heck, it's only midnight?! Tonight is going to take forever! So I went to the bathroom came back and laid down, I didn't sleep very good because my stomach hurt. Sometime between 12 and 2:30 Zoe woke up, Randy went and got her and she came in with us for a little bit. Then at 2:30 I got up again to go to the bathroom, when I came back Randy took Zoe back to her bed. I laid down but I couldn't go back to sleep, so I turned on the lamp and looked up in my What to Expect When You're Expecting book to read about Braxton Hicks contractions. In the book it said if you changed position and they were braxton hicks they would go away. So I got up and started walking. To make a long story short, I tried to get the "braxton hicks" contractions to go away until 4 in the morning. Finally I told Randy I thought we should go to the hospital because I knew if I called them they would just tell me to come get checked out anyway. So I called my neighbor Virginia to have her listen for the girls. I told her I was hoping they would just send me home, but that we were going to go get checked out. I still didn't think it was real. When we got to the hospital it took about 20 minutes to even make it up to Labor and Delivery, then we had to ring the bell for service, they had another pregnant lady there that was going to be going in for a C-section so they were a little busy. When they finally got me in the bed and checked me the nurse said, ok there's a bulging sac, and lets see about an 8 or 9. I was like, say again?? I made sure to ask her if I could still have an epidural, yes, that's right, I still got an epidural!! The nurse really wasn't sure what I was dilated to because of the bulging sac so she had another nurse come in and check me. She said she probably had the same thing so they called my doctor. When my doctor got there, he said if we had waited another half an hour to call he wouldn't have been able to deliver me because he was going to be taking his daughter to the airport. Anyway, so he went and changed and got ready. When he came back he said "Ok lets break her sac and get started." I asked him if I'd be able to get an epidural, he told me he didn't think we could. Then the nurse informed him that the anesthesiologist was on his way so my doctor said we could wait a few more minutes for him. Just at that moment the anesthesiologist walked in, oh hallelujah! So he gave me my epidural, then the nurses got everything ready and we started to push, according to me doctor he came in one push, but it was three. I think it was all in one contraction though, so that's probably why he says one push. I took two breathing breaks and kept pushing, so I guess technically maybe it was just one push. Anyway, so he came, all on his own and earlier then I wanted but there's no way I was going to put him back. We are very glad to have him here and be a part of our family, and he shares a birthday with his aunt Weslie who thinks that's just awesome!

(The very end part was written on July 8th, so if it seems a little disconnected that's why)

2010-04-20T11:54:00.002-06:00

We're getting ready for our little arrival here at the Grimes house. We finally got the crib set up and I bought a bumper set at Walmart. I decided to post some pictures up so I could share. We are all excited to welcome little JD into our home, only a couple more weeks and he'll be here. I can't WAIT!! I think I'm more excited then miserable, which is nice, I will admit though, at times being pregnant seems unbearable! The girls are so cute, and I can't wait for them to see him for the first time, they give my belly hugs and kisses, it's very cute. I wish I knew if they understood what this really means, there's no way to really know though. Hailey might understand, but I'm not sure if she even does. Here are pictures of his crib:

It's so weird to have blue colored stuff, I'm so used to the pink girly things. In other news, things here are going ok, Hailey is still doing really well in school. She's really good at math and I hope that continues as she progresses. Katie is doing well, I think she'll love going to school next year (preschool) it will be a good distraction for her when Hailey is in school all day. She's so cute when we drop Hailey off, she always yells that she loves her then when we drive away a lot of times she'll say to me "I'm really going to miss Hailey!" They sure can be pretty cute together sometimes, they can also be really awful to each other, I guess that's just what happens with sisters. Then there's Zoe, oh my goodness, what a character she is. She can be the cutest little thing one minute and the next you're ready to shove her in a box and ship her off to the gypsies!! But we sure do love her, she has been so much fun. I don't think we've ever really been able to enjoy this stage because we've always had another baby by this time. It's been a lot of fun to really be able to enjoy it. It feels like it's been forever since we've had a baby, this is number 4 and yet I feel like it's the first. Maybe it's because it's a boy and I know it will be different, but it shouldn't feel like it's been forever since we've had a baby, it's only been 2 1/2 years. Anyway, I don't really have much else to say right now. Hopefully I'll post again soon! Until next time.

Update

2010-04-11T22:52:00.003-06:00

So I realize it's been awhile, I really should try to be better at this blogging thing. Oh well, I guess there's worse. Things here are going well, we're ready for Spring, we didn't really go outside at all this week due to the weather, which is really sad because it was Spring Break. I'm down to weekly doctor visits now, which should help the time go by faster, I'm a dork and I made a baby chain. Like the ones you make for Christmas, only this is for our baby. I know, I'm kind of dorky, but I thought it would be fun for the girls (and me) to be able to see how many days are left. Not that you can really know, but it's color coded so they'll know when he can come. He can't come until May, I don't want an April birthday. I know it's odd to hear a pregnant woman wishing her baby will stay in a little longer, most are wishing they'd come as soon as they can survive. Not me, I really REALLY want my May baby!! Everything is going good though, baby seems fine, I'm fine. I'm getting more and more uncomfortable as time goes on, but I'm doing good. Nights are beginning to not be so much fun, I have a bit of a hard time falling asleep which is a really new thing for me. All my life, I have never had a hard time falling asleep. I don't enjoy it at all!! Then of course, I always have to get up at least once to go to the bathroom, and if I eat too late I wake up coughing on stuff that comes up from my stomach. That was probably too much information, but it's my blog so I can write it if I want, right? Anyway, the kids are doing well, Hailey is excited to go back to school tomorrow, I'm really glad she likes school, it makes me happy. At the end of March we put all three girls in the same room, so far it's been ok. It takes them a little longer to go to sleep and they wake up earlier, but it's been good. It will be nice to have the baby in a room all by himself. Our friend is going to let us borrow a crib so Zoe will be staying in a crib for longer which is really good. I wasn't looking forward to having her in a toddler bed. I'm just fine keeping her in a crib as long as she'll stay!!

So I've decided to potty train Zoe, I'm probably crazy because I've heard they backslide when a new baby comes in to the family, but we'll see and hope for the best. My friend let me borrow a little training potty, and Zoe seems to like it. Now I don't need to constantly listen for her to pee, I can let her sit on the potty and I'll be able to see if she goes. Today was the first day and so far we've only had one accident, it was a poopy/wet accident, not fun to clean up but thank heavens for latex gloves!! I don't think I could have taken care of the panties if I didn't have them. We use cloth training pants so it's not fun to clean up accidents. Then I put her back in a diaper for her nap time and that was a little wet when I got her out of bed but not much. We'll see how this goes, like I said maybe I'm crazy, but if I don't train her now it's going to be a while before I do because I can't train her with a nursing baby, I tried that with Katie and it didn't work! Well, I don't have much else to say, I'll keep you updated on the training and the baby. If you want to give guesses as to when JD will come and his size and weight and all that jazz, you might want to do it now :0) He'll be here soon!

Beautiful Day!

2010-03-21T21:59:00.011-06:00

Today was such an amazingly good day, it was nice to be able to spend some time as a family outside. So, I may not be writing every day, but I am writing more frequently so that's good. Lately I've been having a lot of weird baby dreams, like this afternoon when I took a nap I had a dream that I was playing basketball (not pregnant that I can remember) then I sat on the floor and my water broke. My doctor (who was one of the drs from Greys Anatomy, one of the girl ones) came and knelt down and said, ok here we go. So we went into this room and she started getting all these supplies ready. Then we went in to this big room where there were a bunch of women in beds (all delivering) and they took me to my bed, number 130. Then I was getting in the shower by my bed, and all I can remember of that was trying to shave my legs. Randy had sent out a text to a bunch of people and his sister Weslie called and was saying she didn't believe we were really at the hospital and Randy asked her why he would send the text to a bunch of people if we weren't really there. Don't ask me why the phone conversation was in my dream. Then I remember I was upset because it was still April, and it was before or right around Weslie's birthday which is the 24th of April. I was really upset that it wasn't May! Anyway, I never did actually give birth to the baby in this one, but it was still weird. I had another dream where I had the baby and I made a comment that he looked like Hailey. I had another dream where I had two babies to breastfeed, one was Zoe and then JD, I remember feeding the older one (Zoe) and then being like I don't have enough for the other one, and I was panicked. Then I said to myself, wait, Zoe's not a baby. It was really odd! So, I've been extremely focused on babies apparently, I don't understand ;0)

I have been getting so anxious to have this little guy here, I can't wait to see him! The thought of having a baby be a boy is really weird to me, I guess that's to be expected after three girls. I am also excited to see how the girls react to him, I'm a little nervous about Zoe, she can tend to be a bit possessive of me. I'm a little nervous about Hailey because she is so hyper, she can be a bit abrasive without meaning to be. I'm worried she's going to constantly be in JD's face! I guess they probably all will be to some degree. Anyway, things are going well with the pregnancy, I've been tired a lot and I'm progressively getting more and more uncomfortable! Nothing is really comfortable anymore, thankfully though, I still seem to be sleeping ok at night. I'm extremely grateful for that, I'm not sure how long that's going to stay. The other day my heart started to race, (which actually hasn't happened that much in this pregnancy) and it took a few minutes to get it kicked out of the fast cycle. I had bent down to pick something up and when stood up my heart started racing and things started to go black. So I went over to the couch and laid down and started to try to knock my heart out of the fast cycle. Usually I can bear down and it knocks it out, but that wasn't working. Then I started to sweat and get really warm so I went upstairs to lay in front of my fan. Finally my heart slowed down and I accidentally fell asleep for about 45 minutes. I'm glad I haven't had too many problems with the fast heart racing this pregnancy (there is an actual term for this, but don't ask me what it is, it was long and I don't remember it). Anyway, so with my mind being on babies, I thought it would be fun to post pictures of my girls when they were babies, I hope you enjoy! Until next time!

Hailey then

Hailey now

Katie then

Katie now

Zoe then

Zoe now

Daily Stuff

2010-03-15T23:23:00.004-06:00

So, my goal to write a post everyday hasn't really happened, but I guess it's never too late to start, right? On Saturday Randy and I had the opportunity to go to the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City and enjoy a training with WFG, it was long, we got there at 8 and didn't leave until 6, but it was SOOO worth it!! The speakers were amazing! It was such a thought provoking, eye opening experience. Then as we were getting ready to leave I heard someone say to their dad, "Dad, there's the prophet." So I start to look around and sure enough there he was waiting to get on the elevator. So Randy and I walked over by him (we were three steps away from him). We didn't get to shake his hand or anything because there was a crowd, but it was so neat to see the prophet just walking around in regular life. He was with his wife who was in a wheelchair, someone was pushing her, and I'm pretty sure he had two security guard type guys with him. He was being his usual self and joking around, when we walked over to him there was a girl giving him a hug and she was crying. She was saying, oh this is so embarrassing, President Monson said, something about not wanting to make the girls cry. Then as he was standing right next to the elevator he was standing next to a guy who was taller then him and President Monson made the comment about him squatting a little so he would be shorter then him (President Monson). Anyway, hopefully that all made sense, even though we didn't get to say anything to him or shake his hand it was so awesome to be that close to him. I'm pretty sure that's the closest I've ever been to an apostle let alone the President of the church. It was so amazing!! So that was our weekend, well at least the beginning of it. Sunday was nice, we went to church and all the meetings were great, then we went to our neighbors house for their little girls birthday party. Then after we put the kids in bed we cooked steaks and ate together (we ended up eating at about 10:30) then we watched AFV together. It was a lot of fun! Today I had my doctor appointment and I took Hailey with me. She was very excited to hear JD's heartbeat, but thought it was really funny that I had to pee in a cup. It was kind of funny to hear her tell Virginia went we got home "Mom had to pee in a cup" as she's laughing. When I got on the table and exposed my belly she started to laugh, then when we heard the heartbeat she just stood there with this goofy grin on her face and she would giggle a little. It was a lot of fun to take her, next time it will be Katie's turn. Then I think I'll continue going by myself. I talked to my doctor about what happened on the way home from my last doctors appointment and he said what I was describing was a fainting spell. So apparently for the first time in my life, I fainted, unless you count the time I made myself pass out (do you remember when that was big to lean over breath in and out really fast then stand up and put your hands around your neck and cut off the air until you faint? I did that). He didn't seem to concerned about it, then I talked to him about my heart, and he didn't seem to worried about that either. He did check my chart and make sure we had all my labs done which we have and they all look good. So we'll just take it one day at a time and see how it goes. For the most part things are going well, I am getting so ready though, walking isn't too much fun anymore, thankfully I've still been sleeping pretty well. I won't be surprised if that changes soon though, it's just a part of the last 8 weeks. Actually if you really want to get technical it's 7 weeks and 5 days! I am however hoping that it's only 7 weeks from tomorrow, that is if he follows the same pattern as his sisters. If he does I'll go to the doctor on Monday May 3 and have my doctor strip my membranes and JD will come the next day! I'm not sure if it will work this time, because I've never had a boy! We are all getting very excited for this little one to come, it will be a lot of fun, a lot of work, but a lot of fun!! Well, hopefully I can write again tomorrow and then the post won't have to be so long! Until next time, have fun.

Grateful

2010-03-11T09:57:00.001-07:00

So, I really haven't blogged a lot lately, but I've decided I want to try to write a post every night before I go to bed so that I can share all the funny and amazing things that happened. Sort of like a journal, which, I really should be keeping one on paper as well. Anyway, so I titled this post grateful because lately I have been so grateful for my kids. I am so amazed that they are mine! I've been getting really excited to meet JD and to see what he'll be like. This morning I woke up at 6 because I had to go to the bathroom, and I never did fall back asleep. JD was moving like crazy so I decided I would sit up and watch him move. In total JD fashion, as soon as I sat up he stopped moving, so I decided to read the Ensign. It was nice to sit there and read uplifting messages, it was such a nice start to my day. Then I got up at 7 so I could shower and get ready for the day, but before I did that I said a prayer. It was so nice to have a quiet un-rushed moment to thank my Father in Heaven for all of my blessings. After my shower, I was sitting on my floor putting on my make up when I heard Zoe, she was singing Angels We Have Heard on High (which she calls Gloria). It was so much fun to just sit there and listen to her. All she sings is the long drawn out Gloria in excelsis deo. She kept singing that over and over, sometimes in an extremely high pitched voice, it almost sounded like a mouse. I just smiled and laughed, it was so cute to listen to her. Then she started shouting, "I'm singing Mom, Mom, I'm singing" so I finally knocked on her door and waited for her "come in" then I got her out of bed. Last night when I put her to bed she wanted her church shoes, so I gave them to her, when I got her this morning she was wearing them. She was so cute this morning, I really enjoyed the time we had before everyone else was awake. So I was supposed to have a doctor appointment today, I was completely ready, I even curled my hair, I had Hailey all ready. We were getting into the van at 9:40, which is on time, those who know me know what a big deal that is!! As I was getting Hailey in I got a phone call, it was a number I didn't recognize but I decided to answer it anyways. It was my doctors office, calling to let me know he was coming in today and that I would need to reschedule. It would happen on a day where I was completely ready and out the door on time. Oh well, I'll just have to make sure I'm out the door on time Monday too. Anyway, now that I've rambled on and brought on the cheesiness, I'm not sure what to say! I only talked about Zoe, but Hailey and Katie are awesome and amazing too! Hailey says the funniest things! I love Katie's expressions, especially when she's telling you something that she's excited about. We've been spending a lot of time outside, and I've been trying to take more pictures because I realized the other day we haven't taken very many, I didn't have any pictures of Christmas morning. We got a video but now still pictures. That's so sad!! So now, I'm taking as many as I can! Here's some I've taken recently:

I look like crap in this picture, but Zoe is pretty cute so I posted it. She was having a hard time falling asleep so I took a nap with her.

It's a little fuzzy, but she's still super cute!

Playing outside, she's so cute.

She was so concentrated on her game!

She wanted the flower in her hair

I ABSOLUTELY love this picture! I couldn't have posed her any cuter!

Randy was helping Hailey learn to ride her bike without training wheels.

She's so flippin cute!

I don't really have much to say about this one, but I commented on the rest so I thought I would on this one too.

Such a cutie!

Well, hopefully this post wasn't too mushy for you and you made it all the way to the end. So, look for daily posts, even if they're only one liners. I'm going to see if I can do it, at least for one week. So, until tomorrow!!

St. George and stuff

2010-03-01T21:18:00.004-07:00

So this past weekend we went to St. George, it was so nice to just get away for a couple of days. We went down at the same time as our good friends Marc and Heather Grimes (no immediate relation) and we got to hang out with them a lot. We watched a movie and played games at Marc's brothers house on Friday, then Saturday afternoon we went shooting. It was a lot of fun, I even shot our 40 caliber glock and it was much better outside then in a shooting range. I also shot a 9 mm, a 22 rifle and a shotgun. We also did some skeet shooting, which I am TERRIBLE at, but it was still a lot of fun. Then we hung out the rest of the afternoon and then we went to dinner. We drove home on Sunday. It was so nice to have it just be the two of us for a couple of days, this will be the last trip before JD gets here. I'm now getting close to the 8 weeks to go portion and I'm not exactly looking forward to it. The last 8 weeks are so hard, but it will be nice the closer we get because then it will be over!! So the other day an extremely odd thing happened to me while driving home from the doctors office. I get these aches that are hard to explain, but I'll try, it feels like my body hurts because it has no energy. That probably doesn't make sense, but it's unpleasant to say the least. Anyway, so I had this a little at my doctors visit and it persisted while I was driving home, but was steadily getting worse. While I was driving down Main Street in Spanish Fork it hurt to have my arms stretched out to the steering wheel. So I tried rolling my window down a little because usually if I can have cold air on me it helps. I have to mention that I took Zoe with me to this doctors visit, poor thing. Anyway, so I get on the freeway and decide the window isn't working so I turn the air on full blast on cold ( I was in the car not the van). I did at least turn one of the middle vents off and the other one was pointing at me to try to keep it from hitting Zoe. So it is progressively getting worse as I'm driving on the freeway, after I pass the Springville/Provo exit things get really weird, my vision starts to cloud up, so I decide I need to pull over. After I did, I sat there for a minute and it felt really hard to breath, so I laid the seat back. As I was doing this my hearing also sort of went muffled too, I accidentally got Zoe's leg caught between the back of my seat and the side of her car seat so she started to cry. It took me a couple of seconds to realize why, and so I put my seat back up, moved her leg and laid my seat down. I probably laid there anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes, I was trying to sing and count with Zoe to keep her distracted. It took a lot of effort to talk, just like when you're half asleep and you REALLY have to work to get the words out. As soon as I laid back, the feeling started fading away, and after the 5 or 10 minutes I was finally ok enough to drive home. After I got home I went straight up to my bed and laid down, my body felt the same as when you go outside in the winter when it's cold and you do hard work. When you come in, the inside of your body feels warm, but the outside is cold. That's what I felt like, anyway, I slept for about an hour, got up and ate and then put Zoe down for a nap then laid back down for a couple of hours. It was such an odd experience!! I really hope I don't go through that again, I did talk to my visiting teacher who used to be a nurse practitioner and she said it's just a hormonal thing and it isn't anything to really worry about. I will talk to my doctor about it when I go in next week, but so far I haven't had that experience again. Well, I don't have much else to say right now, I'll do a post on Hailey's birthday, but I'd like her to help me write it. Since she's in bed, that's not going to happen right now, but soon. I'll also post some pictures of our shooting excursion and Hailey's birthday and other stuff. There's a lot more to update on, but for now, I'm done!!

Two down, many more to go!

2010-02-18T16:40:00.002-07:00

Today is the third day of eating on the South Beach Diet, I'm not necessarily trying to lose weight, but I'm trying not to gain anymore (thus I will be losing as I'm gaining) I have already gained 30 pounds this pregnancy, and I don't need to gain anymore. I am so proud of myself for finally taking this step, it doesn't make me like my current look, but when I look in the mirror, I know I'm doing something about it! I am so excited!! This diet isn't even really like a diet, I get to eat as much of the right foods as I want! So I'm never hungry, it's awesome! I also think JD is getting better nutrition now then he was before. Things have been much better since I've started, it's amazing how much your attitude changes when you're doing things that are good for you. I've been more productive around the house, and I don't seem to feel as tired. I am SO excited!! Anyway, Saturday is Hailey's 6th birthday, I can't believe it! It's crazy how fast the time goes by. She's extremely excited for her birthday, and for Friday night. My sister Gina is coming to pick her up and take her to dinner, then she's taking her to Build-A-Bear to let her make her own bear. Although Hailey doesn't know any of this, so if any of you readers talk to Hailey, DON'T mention this to her so she's surprised. Then next week I have a doctors appointment on Thursday, and I've reached the two week mark, so I'll go back to the doctor two weeks after that. Then on Friday Randy and I are taking off to St. George for the weekend!!! I am so excited!! Our friends Marc and Heather are also going down so we'll hang out with them for some of the time. It has been a while since we've gone away without the kids. This trip will be like our Valentines Day, Birthday and Anniversary trip all in one. I'm pretty sure I've already said that in a previous post, oh well. Anyway, things are going well, I'm excited to get past this month and on to the next one! It also gets me closer to JD coming, I'm looking forward to having him here with us and not being pregnant anymore. I'm ready for the aches to go away!! Well, I think I promised pictures, but I don't have any ready yet, but hopefully soon!

Valentines Day

2010-02-11T14:19:00.002-07:00

So, the big V Day is coming up, and I'm excited for it. We're not really doing anything to celebrate, but it will be fun to do something special for the girls. Hailey had her Valentines party at school today, she was so excited!! There's so many people I love, and I'm so grateful for them in my life! On a different note, at the end of this month we're going to St. George, just Randy and I! I am so excited!!! It will be so nice to have a weekend to ourselves, I think the thing I'm looking forward to the most is sleeping in and having an entire day where I don't have to do anything for anyone else. This trip is basically our Valentines Day, my birthday, and our anniversary celebration all combined. I'm not planning on doing much for my birthday and we won't be able to do much of anything for our anniversary (JD will hopefully make his appearance just a few days before, actually I'm hoping he'll come on the 3rd or 4th) so this will be the one and only away trip for a little while. I'm excited!! Our good friends might also be coming with us, and it would be fun to be able to hang out with them too. Well, life here is just moving along, it's amazing how fast it seems to go sometimes. Hailey will be turning 6 on the 20th, it's crazy how fast the time goes, I still remember the day she was born. I am really looking forward to spending time with just her, it's always fun to spend one on one time with kids. They're so different when it's just them. I'm sure we'll end up going to McDonalds for her birthday lunch, they like to go there because of the playplace. Then I'll take her to the Dollar store and let her pick out 6 things that she wants. She's excited for that! I have been trying to decide if I want to let her have a party this year with her friends, we've never had one before, and I'm not sure if I'm quite ready for it. Maybe I'll wait until her next birthday, I don't know. Randy and I will have to discuss it and think about it. Well, I really don't have much to say, things are going well, the pregnancy is going well, and the girls are all doing ok! Another post without pictures, but I promise I'll try to put some up soon. Until next time, be safe and have fun!!

Hiatus?

2010-01-29T14:35:00.002-07:00

Wow, it's been quite a while since I've written a post, I'm awful. Hopefully I'll get better soon, at least when I do write it's always a long one, right? Things here are going well, we finally got our van take care of and it's legal!! Yeah, I don't have to worry about it anymore, it's such a nice feeling. The pregnancy is going well, I have an appointment in a month and then I start going every two weeks. I can't believe we're coming up to that already! I'm really excited to see what this little one will be like, I can't wait to see his little face. Hailey has been so cute with this pregnancy, she always gives my belly hugs and kisses, and says she's giving JD a hug. Today when I was finished with lunch she said, "Is JD full?" I told her JD doesn't get full, but I was. She is so funny! There are times where I look at my kids and I feel like I'm seeing them for the first time, and I can't quite comprehend that they're mine. It's so odd! There are other times where I look at them and they are so cute and innocent and I just want to hug them and keep them at this stage! Let them remain thinking that everything in the world is great! Of course, then there are the times where I'm ready to give them away the first chance I get, just kidding. I love them so much, and I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father prepared them for this day and time. That he saved the strong ones to deal with all that the world is going to throw at them. So many times I hear people say they don't want to have kids because they don't want to bring them into this world, sometimes I let that fear and worry consume me. But then I remember that they truly are prepared for all that they will face, and so am I. I am prepared to watch them struggle and strive to go through this life and deal with all the trials that will come at them. I was prepared to handle all that will come into our lives. That is such a comfort to know that Heavenly Father loves me and knows all that I go through and all that I feel. I am so grateful for that knowledge! Anyway, now that I've had my little spiritual rant session, I guess I'll just update a few things. Like I said, we're doing good, we were able to finally pay off all our credit card debt!! I am so glad to be done with all of that, it's such a sickening thing! Hailey is still loving school and she is doing pretty well, she's gotten in trouble a few times for not listening, but I'm hoping that overall she's doing good. Katie is wanting to be like her big sister, I can't wait until she starts preschool next year, she is going to love it! She'll get paper and a pencil and she'll draw and she says she's doing homework. She is such a silly goose! Zoe is growing so fast! She is going to be just as beautiful as her sisters. Zoe is quite a bit like Katie, she gets pretty set in her ways and wants thing done how she wants them done. She has been so much fun, I love her so much!! Well, that's that! We're doing great! Hopefully it won't take me as long this time to write a post, but until next time, enjoy life!!

It's a boy!

2010-01-03T21:28:00.004-07:00

So we had our ultrasound on December 22nd, and the tech (or whatever they're called) put the gender pictures in our card so that we could open it on Christmas. It was AWESOME!! I loved it, the ultrasound was so much fun, he (the tech) kept saying the baby was a stinker, then he made the comment that this baby was the one that parents warn you about. So I told Randy after we left that if it was a boy his dad was getting his wish (just for clarification, Randy's dad). So after the tech put it in the card and the envelope Randy made sure to seal it and put it back in the plastic bag it came in so I couldn't cheat, he didn't need to do all that. So when we got home I decided it would be fun to put it in a box with the video (we couldn't watch the movie because it shows the gender on there. So I put them both in the box, then wrapped that and put a tag on it that said "To: the Grimes Family From: Heavenly Father" I know, it was really cheesy but I was in a really funny mood that day. So we unwrapped that one last, and LeeAnn who had stayed with us Christmas Eve recorded it and we opened it. It was very fun to be able to open it with the girls there too, I actually really enjoyed not finding out what the sex was at the ultrasound. It was nice just to enjoy the ultrasound, not knowing what the gender was. After we were done here, we went to Randy's moms house and opened our presents there and let them open the card. Randy's mom just starting crying when she saw that it was a boy! Then LeeAnn was willing to curl my hair (I LOVE it when people do my hair). Then we headed over to my family's house where we ate lunch and opened presents there. We had my dad open the card and when he said it was a boy my mom and sister screamed! It was SO funny!! We had a very good Christmas! It was a lot of fun, when we were all done with family stuff we came home and ate dinner and then just hung out. It was a fun day! So anyway, here we go with a new adventure, I'm a little nervous about having a boy, it will be a whole new thing. We are all very excited though, I don't know what Hailey would have done if it was a girl, she had her heart set on a boy. She has always said it was a boy, ever since the beginning. What a cute little kid! Well, things are going well here, we're excited to get our tax returns done and get our credit card debt paid off!! WooHoo!!!! We'll also fix the van too, I'm very excited. Anyway, yeah, things are good. I thought I'd put some of the ultrasound pictures here just because I think it's so amazing! I'll have to add some of our Christmas pictures later, I haven't gotten them off the camera yet. Anyway, I'm sorry it took so long to update my blog, it's been a really busy month! Till next time, have fun!!

So this one is kind of alien-ish, but here are his eyes.

This is a side shot and his hand is covering his face

This one is labeled, it's a profile shot

His foot is on top of his other foot, I absolutely LOVE this shot!

Perhaps this is inappropriate, but here is the famous gender shot. There's no mistaking the fact that it's a boy! Hopefully no one is offended by this shot :0)

One week to go

2009-12-18T11:44:00.003-07:00

Only one more week until Christmas!! I am so excited, I can't wait for the kids to open their presents. I will also be finding out what we're having on Christmas! I am excited and nervous all at the same time. I love this time of year though, it's one of my favorite times. Although, it's not quite the same when you're the grown up, but I still love it. Especially for my kids now, they are so excited for Christmas, Hailey made a chain at school and every morning she takes a chain off then counts how many days are left. I really don't have more to say, so this will probably be a short post which is totally unlike any of my other posts. All those who know me know I'm a talker :)

I guess I'll leave with something that Hailey did last night, I was sitting on the couch and she came and stood in front of me, and while sort of crying said she didn't want to be a mom, I made sure I heard her right and sure enough that's what she'd said. So I asked her why she didn't want to be a mom and she said "Because I don't want to leave you" I tried not to laugh as I could see she was really concerned about this. So I reassured her that I would always be there, and then I said that she had years to wait for that so not to worry about it right now. It's funny what kids choose to worry about. What silly gooses!! Right now Hailey is pretending to be Zoe, funny thing is she put on a diaper all by herself (or with Katie's help I'm not sure). Zoe wears a size 5 diaper, and it fits Hailey, also, she is wearing one of Zoe's onesies and, you guessed it, it fits! I can't believe how small Hailey still is. She weighed herself the other day, 32.2 pounds. Wow, Katie is almost caught up to her. I always get asked if they are twins. I can't tell you how many times I've said the words "No, they're actually two years apart, she's just small" I don't think they look like twins at all! Oh well. Anywho, now I really have nothing else to say, so au revoir!! I hope everyones last week to Christmas goes well!!

The Return

2009-12-09T17:04:00.002-07:00

FINALLY!! We have our computer back, it's working for now but we're also getting another one. This one is so dead, hopefully the one we're getting will be better. We also have our van back, YEAH!! We were told it needed a new transmission so we parked it for 6 months, and the battery died. About a month ago we bought a new battery so that I could at least use it to take Hailey to school. Then Randy's grandma wanted to help us get it fixed so she paid to have us take it to another car garage. The guy there looked at it, he said the transmission fluid was low so he filled it then re-set the transmission and told us to bring it back in a week to run a diagnostic. So we drove it for a week, took it back, had the diagnostic run on it, and it was fine! Nothing came up. So now we just need to get the windshield replaced, have safety and emissions done and get it registered. I can't wait, we're getting a cash back check from our car insurance and we're going to use that to pay for it. So we'll be doing it all on the 18th (hopefully). It is so nice to have a vehicle again, I don't go a lot of places but it's nice to have the option!!

In way of other news, we're doing great!! We're getting ready for Christmas, and getting more and more excited every day! LeeAnn (for those of you that don't know, she's my sister-in-law) is going to stay here with us on Christmas Eve, I'm really excited for her to be here. So far the girls have made it pretty easy, the only thing Hailey talks about getting is a remote control truck, and Katie says she wants the same thing. So as long as we get that for them I think they'll be happy!! I'm excited too because I know what I'm going to get Randy and I'm pretty sure he'll like it, I'm not going to say what it is, but I am really excited to get it for him. I'm also excited and a little nervous to find out if we're having a boy or a girl. I would love a boy, but at the same time, I think I'd be a little scared to have a boy, I'm so used to girls. We'll just have to wait and see, I'm excited no matter what the outcome. If you want to take a guess as to what we're having, you'll probably want to get your guesses in now.

Well, I've rattled on and on for long enough, hope I didn't bore you too much, just wanted to get ya'll caught up!

Pictures

2009-11-30T18:45:00.006-07:00

This is Katie on her birthday, I think she likes being the center of attention

These are some of the gifts that Katie got, we let Zoe model them too

Katie got a tea set, and they decided they wanted a tea party with cookies and gummy treats

Here's Katie will all her birthday jewelry on. She's such a cute kid

Here's Hailey modeling all her jewelry, they all looked so cute!

Here's all of the girls, Zoe doesn't look very happy

Here is the snowman Hailey made, Virginia helped with the face and the crown.

Here they all are with the snowman

Katie bundled up for the cold weather, they sure love the snow!

Here's Zoe, I love her grin.

This was sometime this fall, she looked so cute, I had to take a picture

Zoe was a "fierce" lion, I love this shot because you can't see her face.

Again, our "fierce" lion! I love the binky!

Here's Katie, she wanted to be a ghost just like Hailey

Hailey climbed up in Virginia's trunk when she was done. She was content to eat and pass out candy

I love how photogenic this girl is. This was sometime this fall, Randy raked the leaves so they could play in them.

Here are all three playing

Hailey, Zoe and Eva. They had so much fun!

*HUGS*

She is so stinkin' cute!! I really wish I was this photogenic!

Still here

2009-11-30T13:55:00.002-07:00

Wow, it's been so long since I've been able to post anything. We haven't had a computer for a couple of weeks now. Our desktop just decided to not turn on, and the cord for our laptop isn't working so it doesn't charge the laptop. So we've only had our Ipods, which wouldn't be fun to write a post on, so it's been kind of sad. Anyway, but we're still here, we're all doing well. Hailey is loving school and the boys there. Katie turns four tomorrow, we had her birthday party yesterday, it was a lot of fun. Zoe is cute and a stinker at the same time, she must be in the terrible two stage. I have learned so much through Zoe, I am so thankful to have her in our family. We've been talking a lot about the gender of this baby that's coming, and I am so grateful for the lessons I've learned from Zoe. I don't know how many know this, but when I was pregnant with Zoe I thought for sure I was having a boy, and when I found out it was a girl I had a hard time with it. I felt disappointed, and upset, and I was irrational. Then a week later once I picked out her name then I got excited. I have learned that Heavenly Father knows what he is doing. I love my little Zoe SOOO much!! I can't imagine life without her, I'm grateful for the opportunity I've had to go through this experience. If we have another little girl I am going to be so excited!! I seriously am excited for whatever we have, of course I'm hoping for a boy but it won't matter one bit if it's not! I love my kids so much, they all have a part in our family that is irreplaceable!! So I have a TON of pictures I've wanted to post, we have some fun times here. One major thing that has happened that I'm REALLY excited about, we gave our guinea pigs to a good family! Yeah!!!! I don't have to take care of them anymore! They were a lot of fun, but more work than I could handle right now. It sounds like they're going to a good family. Little Hailey was quite upset when she got home and I told her, but we are getting her a stuffed hamster that comes with a carrying case, and she's just fine now! I am so glad to have them go to a good home, where they'll play with them and give them attention.

More news, I have my ultrasound on December 22nd, but we're going to ask the technician who does it to put the picture of the gender in an envelope and then we'll open it on Christmas morning. I'm really excited! I think it will be a ton of fun to find out what the baby is with the girls sitting there. So we'll see, I think it will be fun!! Well, I'm going to put an entire post on here with pictures, I hope enjoy!

Halloween

2009-11-04T10:19:00.002-07:00

So, Halloween turned out great this year, we went to two trunk-or-treats and then we went and visited my grandma. When we returned home my family and some friends were here and we partied for awhile. It was a lot of fun, at first I was a little worried about how Zoe would react to all the costumes. When Hailey and Katie got in their costume and we painted their face Zoe was genuinely scared of them! They couldn't come near her, it was kind of funny but frustrating at the same time. Thankfully we went with our good friend Virginia and her daughter so she took Hailey and Katie in her car. By the time we got to the first trunk or treat Zoe was finally ok with them. She was so cute saying trick or treat and then thank you. All the girls did well, Hailey was so independent it kind of drove me nuts because we had to keep calling her back and she'd get frustrated that we were going so slow. We went to a trunk or treat in Woodland hills (Virginia's in-laws live up there and invited us to go) there was a guy there who was dressed up and when Katie went up to him either he made a noise or something in his car did, but it scared Katie really bad. She dropped her candy bag, screamed and ran behind Randy. She didn't seem to care about her candy bag, she just knew she didn't want to be by him. It was HILARIOUS!! They had a lot of fun, unfortunately now they have a lot of candy. We only let them have a little bit at a time, but MAN!!! It doesn't take much sugar in their blood stream (especially Hailey) to give them a TON more energy. I'll tell ya, I'm ready to sell them for a few days! Of course, I could never do that, because even though sometimes I'm ready to, I love them, and they are cute! Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures from Halloween soon, I have to install the program on the laptop because our desk top isn't working right now. Well, until then, enjoy!!

Slacker

2009-10-22T16:08:00.003-06:00

Wow, I've been such a slacker lately, I'm sorry. We worked on our computer for a couple of days and for the past few the monitor has been our tv so I haven't felt like using the wireless keyboard and I haven't had time to sit down and type. Anyway, I have so much to blog about, Zoe had her 2nd birthday, it was a lot of fun! I love her so much, our family wouldn't be the same without her, she is such a cutie!! I do have some pictures, I'll post some hopefully soon. So I set up my doctor appointment today, I'll go in for blood work and the insurance talk on November 3rd and then I'll actually see my doctor on the 6th. It's crazy that they're that far out! I went to Baby Your Baby and got on that, and now I am in the process of applying for Medicaid. I hate getting stuff like this, but it helps SOO much! I guess if we qualify why not, right?

So I'm finishing this post finally, it's a few days later but better late than never right? So our computer isn't working, it won't turn on so I am using our laptop (thank Heaven we didn't give it away) we erased everything on it and it works so much better now. It's nice to have a back up, hopefully PC laptops can fix it, if not, we're in trouble. So anyway, life is going ok I guess, we're hanging in there. This month has been a hard one, I've had really great ups but really bad lows. Do you ever just want someone to talk to who won't say anything back but the occasional ya uh-huh or nod of the head? Someone who will focus on JUST you for maybe five or ten minutes? Lately I feel really alone in that arena, it's great that I have Randy who listens to me, but being a guy he wants to fix it when I just want someone to listen. I know I used to be the kind that just talked and talked about myself (Heather can attest to this), but I've really tried to be better about that and listen to others and be there for them. I feel like I've really improved in this area (I could be wrong, but I'm hoping I'm not), but every once in a while, it would be really nice to be the one focused on and venting frustrations. Perhaps the answer I'm looking for is as simple as prayer, maybe I just need to learn to pray with ALL my heart and learn to meditate and feel His spirit. Maybe then I'll receive the spiritual nods, uh-huh's and yups I'm seeking. How come the simplest answers always seem to be the hardest things to do? Oh well.

So, on a more positive note, this week is Red Ribbon Week at Hailey's school, they have a few fun activities going on, like tomorrow! It's crazy hair and sock day and CAN"T wait!! I am going to do Hailey's hair crazy and let her borrow some of my toe socks, I'm going to put them on over her pants. I think it will be so much fun! Then on Friday it's their Halloween party and I volunteered to help, I'm excited to be able to be there for that. They also have a parade at 10 that morning, how fun! Then of course Halloween is on Saturday, and it will be fun to take the girls around to get some treats (parents are allowed to share right?) I'm way excited to see them all dressed up. Hailey and Katie are going to be ghosts and Zoe will be the Lion, the same one that the other two girls have been. My sweet mom sewed Hailey and Katie's costumes, she was here until 3:40 the other morning sewing, and then she had to come back the next day to finish. I love that woman!! Wow, this post is really long, if you made it to the end of this post you're a real trooper! I'm sure I'll have more later, and hopefully I'll be able to post pictures soon! Until next time, talk to you later!!

Fall

2009-10-06T19:27:00.003-06:00

I am absolutely LOVING this weather right now! It's fun to be able to wear scarves and hats and not be so blasted hot!! I walked to go get Hailey today ( I got to go by myself which was nice too) and it was such a nice walk! Yesterday I was a little down and stressed out and I decided I wanted to change my attitude so I bundled up the girls and we went outside for some excercise. We raced up and down our parking lot, it was really nice to get out and spend some real time with them. I think they all enjoyed it, after a few minutes Eva and Virginia (our neighbor and her little girl) joined us as well. We all had a lot of fun!

So I made a couple of suggestions to Hailey for her Halloween costume and I think she wants to be a Ghost now, which makes me happy because that won't be too hard to make and it won't cost very much. I haven't talked to Katie yet, and I think I'll either have Zoe be a Lion (the same costume the other two have worn for a few years) or an M&M, I'm not sure yet. I am not a huge fan of Halloween, I don't mind it, but I don't get extremely excited for it. It just seems to cost a lot of money. Oh well, then Christmas is right around the corner, now that's a scary thought!! I can't believe we're almost to the end of another year, it's crazy!! Another thing that's crazy, my baby is going to be 2!!! Zoe's birthday is next Monday the 12th, I can't believe it's already been two years!! It seems to have gone by so fast! She has been so much fun to have around, I love them all so much, I can't imagine what life would be like without them. Ok, so I could...quiet! It wouldn't be near as much fun though! I am very excited for the future though, I'm really excited to see how these next 90 days play out, Randy's made some goals that I'm excited to see him meet, I love watching him change and grow and become a better man (I wouldn't have thought it possible, but believe me, it just keeps getting better!!) I love him so much, there are some days I don't know why he ever picked me, I'm just grateful he did!! Well, this has been sappy enough so I guess I'll end it, but I thought I'd share some pictures of the girls all bundled up to go outside because they look SO stinkin' cute!! Enjoy, I have one of Hailey that I was going to post, but for some reason it didn't transfer over from our camera and now the battery is dead. So, I will add her picture later! For now enjoy these.

Katie wanted to wear the ski mask, except that she said they were to go under water.

Here she is with her Santa hat on, and my scarf.

Cute little Zoe!! I love this kid so much!!

Pictures

2009-10-05T13:05:00.004-06:00

Ok, so I've been promising pictures for awhile now and haven't gotten around to it so now I am. These are just a few that I thought I'd share, including pictures of Hailey's first day of school.

Katie bein cute!!

My neighbor made this skirt for Zoe, it is so cute!!

Hailey and Katie got themselves dressed so I decided to put Zoe in a dress too

They love spinning in this chair

Hailey's first day of school, she was so stinking cute!! I gave her a necklace to wear so that if she got scared she would have something of mine. I doubt she needed it, but it was a nice thought right?

Crazy, weddings, life, babies

2009-09-23T12:52:00.002-06:00

Ok, so that title doesn't really make sense, but it seemed like fun to me! So last Saturday my mother-in-law got married, it is so nice to finally have it over with. It's such an odd thing to have her be married, I'm excited for her and am so glad that she's not alone anymore, but it's very different. Hopefully everyone will adjust quickly. We're all doing good, I'm excited for the cooler temperatures, it makes it nicer to walk Hailey to and from school. I wish I could say that I was losing weight because of it, but I'm not. Oh well, that will come soon enough. Hailey is LOVING school, I'm so glad, it makes things so much easier. Katie has been doing pretty well, but she's been having some melt downs that last for 30 to 45 minutes depending on the melt down. It's very hard to deal with, but once she's done with it, she goes back to being sweet kind cute Katie. We don't really understand what's going on with her, hopefully we'll be able to figure it out soon enough. Zoe is also having some problems, lately she doesn't like getting dressed. It's very frustrating, today she walked around in just a pull up for about an hour because I didn't want to fight her to get her dressed, it was a big enough fight just to get the pull up on her (I used a pull up because it's easier then a diaper). Then she tripped in the hall upstairs and she smacked her head in to the door frame, and now she has a goose bump and bruise on the side of her forehead. After that, I was holding her while she was playing with a toy and it pinched her hand. Poor thing didn't have a very good 10 or 15 minutes. Randy is doing well, I'm so excited for his business, he's really doing it this time and it's exciting and fun to see him get excited over it. I'm glad he's finally doing something he can really get behind. We're contemplating looking for another job for him, RC Willey has been good, but it's not providing enough income for us. So, we'll see how that goes in the next while or so. I'm doing alright, things are going along normal so far. I'm tired of feeling naseous, I don't remember if I felt this sick with the other ones or not. I never throw up, I just feel like I need to, sometimes all day long. I've had a couple of days where I have been sick at all, those were glorious!! Other than that, I'm tired a lot and unmotivated which has wreaked havoc on our house. I am so overwhelmed with all that I need to get done it's depressing. Oh well, you do what you've gotta do. Anyway, sorry this post is so long, it's been a while and there's a few things to say I guess. Well, I'll have to post pictures from the wedding soon, it was a lot of fun and we have some great pictures from the night. Anyway, until then, adios!!

Rain

2009-09-14T17:32:00.002-06:00

I love rain, but I must admit, it makes it not very much fun to walk Hailey to and from school. It was kind of muggy and while we were walking there it rained on us. Hailey had an umbrella and so did I, but pushing a bike trailer up hill while holding an umbrella is difficult. Hailey is loving school, I'm so glad that she likes it, I hope she continues to like it until the end of the year. Today has been a mostly yucky day, I haven't felt that great all day, I finally feel a little better. We are now watching Jimmy Neutron for the fourth time today, at least they like it. Things here are going well, my mother in law gets married on Saturday, I'm glad for her that it's almost over. They might be moving to Springville, she seems really excited about it, I hope it works out for the best. I'm awful, I still haven't posted pictures of Hailey's first day of Kindergarten, I have a couple, I also have a video of her while we were walking to school. She is such a cute girl, I love her SO much. Zoe is now letting us know exactly what she wants. Yesterday after breakfast she was pointing in to the kitchen so I followed her and she pointed up to where we keep her sippy cups. So I got her some strawberry milk. Then tonight she pointed up the stairs so I followed her up, she led me to the bathroom door and put her hand on the knob, so I opened it, she walked over the the tub and looked at me while pointing. It was very funny, unfortunately I wasn't ready to bath her right then. What a monkey! Katie has had a couple of days where she's had some of her classic fits, but overall she's doing well, I love her so much, she is so funny. I love it when she tells stories because she is so animated! I wonder what our new little one will be like, I can't wait to find out if it's a boy or a girl, Hailey and Katie are sure it's a boy, at least that's what they say it is. I'm not sure if that's because that's genuinely what they think it is, or if it's because I've asked them before if they would like a baby brother. We'll just have to wait and see. It's funny because it's odd to think that I'm actually pregnant, I'm not entirely sure why, it just is. Well, hopefully I'll post some pictures soon, there's a couple of really good ones!! Until next time!

Baby #4

2009-08-29T10:17:00.003-06:00

Here we go! I took the test this morning, despite many attempts of others to have me take it last night. It was positive!! Two pink lines, wow, I can't believe it. It seems so strange, we're very excited to be heading down this road again. I told Hailey today, and she was very excited as well, I don't think she can understand the time concept and how long it will take. So for the next little while probably, I'll be asked every day when the baby will come. That's ok, I'm so excited to be able to share this with her. She's old enough now to really understand, and it will be fun to let her feel my belly when the baby starts to move. I still can't believe it!! Since January I've been tracking my cycles, it will be odd to not have to do that anymore, I've also been taking my temperature every morning with a basal body thermometer every morning since then too. It will be weird to be done with all of that. I've very excited to find out what we're having, if it's a boy we'll name him Joseph David and call him JD. If it's a girl (I haven't talked this over with Randy so this may not be the name but I like it) I think we'll name her Madelyn Sierra and we could call her Maddi I really like that name. Anyway, I'm sorry to keep going on about this, I'm just very excited.

In other news, Hailey is starting afternoon kindergarten on Monday. I was really hoping that she would have morning kindergarten, but oh well. I'll definitely be getting my exercise in! It will probably turn out to be a very good thing. She is very excited! Every day she asks how many days until she goes to school. My little girl is growing up! We're also approaching Zoe's second birthday, I can't believe my baby will be two!! It's crazy how fast time flies! It's so fun to listen to her talk, especially when she's playing with her friend Eva, they talk to each othe rin their own little language. It so cute!! Well, I think that's all I'm going to write for today, I think I'll take the girls on a walk to see how long it takes to walk to Hailey's school so I'm ready for Monday! Until next time, have fun!!

A long time again!

2009-08-27T17:23:00.002-06:00

Wow, it's been a very long time since I've written, again. I just don't feel like I have much to write about, and I don't really know if people read this blog or not. Well, I know some of you do, so thanks!! Hailey starts Kindergarten on Monday, it's pretty crazy, we asked for morning kindergarten but she got afternoon, which is going to stink. We only have one vehicle right now so I'm going to be walking to pick her up everyday and two days out of the week I'll have to walk her to school as well. Thankfully Virginia is just a couple of doors down so when it gets cold or it's rainy I can leave the other two kids with her. The other thing that will make it not much fun is that hopefully I'll be pregnant also, but at least it will get me doing some exercise, it probably will turn out to be a really good thing. So I should know by Saturday morning if I'm pregnant or not, I don't really think I am, but then all this week I have felt sick to my stomach at LEAST once every day. My brain is also extremely useless which, lets face it it's been that way for a while now. So yeah, I really wish it was Sunday and this week was over, Randy's been working a lot this week to get his stupid extra hours in! I hate this stupid program he's on! He'll be working from about 11 tomorrow morning until 9, and then on Saturday from 9:45 until 9 that night. I HATE it!!! Oh well, it's almost over!

On another note, Randy's mom is getting married on the 19th of October and I finally found my dress, I'm so EXCITED!! It's gorgeous, I feel bad though because it cost quite a bit but she told me the slide show better be a darn good one!! So, I am going to do my very best! I also have way cute shoes to wear too. I'm happy for my mother-in-law, I hope that it is as good as it seems. So not much else is going on around here, Zoe continues growing and changing at alarming rates. She's talking more now, and it's a lot of fun to hear her trying to imitate what we say. Every liquid drink is water, it's very cute to listen to her say it.

We taught Hailey how to open Rosie's cage so she can get her out and hold her all on her own. This is both a good thing and a bad thing, she holds her like a poor cat. It's good because Rosie is getting the attention she needs, but at the same time she's getting a little too much attention! We also got a new female guinea pig name Mya, she's not the same kind as Rosie, but she's adorable. It's amazing to me how different they are personality wise, it's easy to see the Lord's hand in all things when even guinea pigs are different! I think they'll enjoy having each other for company, as soon as they get used to each other. Anyway, I don't think this blog makes much sense, I kind of skipped around a lot topic wise. I guess that's just the way my brain works, well, that's what has been going on. I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun posts to do soon, with Hailey starting school. She's very excited! Every day she asks, how many days until I go to school? I'm glad she's excited! We get to meet with her teacher on Tuesday to go over the results from the testing they did with her. I'm excited to see if she's ahead, right where she's supposed to be, or behind. Ok, so I wouldn't be excited to find out she's behind, but I am excited to go over the results. Well, for now, I'll talk at ya later!!

Terrified!!

2009-08-05T10:58:00.002-06:00

Ok people, this is really ridiculous, but I am terrified to send Hailey to Kindergarten. I don't know why. We finally registered her yesterday and last night I was looking through the papers that they gave us and it seriously made me want to cry. I almost felt sick to my stomach. I don't know why I have so much anxiety over sending her to school. I know she'll absolutely LOVE it!! She loves being around kids and I think she really enjoys learning. It just scares me to send her to that big huge building. I also remember grade school and kids can be so mean! If I really think about it though, school wasn't that bad for me, but sometimes kids were just so mean. I have no idea why I'm so nervous, I don't really worry about anything serious happening to her and if it did, I know with proper actions Hailey would be just fine. We all went through school and somehow we managed to make it out alive. Maybe it's just a fear of the unknown, and once she goes it will be just fine. I have no idea what it is. Randy isn't freaked out at all, in some ways I wish I could be like him. I think I go a little overboard with protectiveness though. Randy plans on just dropping her off outside the door and letting her find her own way in to her class (after the first week and she knows where it is) me on the other hand? I'll probably walk her to her class all the time! I worry about her getting lost and stuff, I know she won't, but it scares me. If I had it my way I'd go with her to school and watch over her all the time. I know that's ridiculous and that her teacher will be there the entire time. She'll be fine, and so will I! I'm just freaking out. Hopefully I'm not alone, but knowing me I probably am. Oh well. I'm sure she'll be fine. Here's to the first year of Kindergarten!

Our Artist

2009-07-30T17:46:00.002-06:00

Hailey drew these pictures today, I thought they were really cute, and good for her age. I thought they were worth sharing. So... here they are.

This is Randy

This is me

I'm so glad we have an artist in the family that can draw our portraits!! I love my little Hailey.

Silence booth

2009-07-29T17:36:00.002-06:00

Monday night I was wishing for a silence booth, starting about 5:15 and going for an hour, I swear there was constant crying. It started out with Katie, she kept coming to me and saying that Hailey was selling all of their stuff, I told her that Hailey isn't selling anything. So she went back to Hailey (I didn't hear, but I'm assuming that she told Hailey she wasn't going to sell anything and based on the next part of the story she said she was) a few seconds later she comes back crying again saying that Hailey is going to sell their stuff, I told her no matter what Hailey said she's not selling anything. Then a few minutes later I hear Hailey crying so I go over there and ask her what's wrong

Hailey: Katie won't be my cattle
Me: What? ( needed to make sure I heard her right)
Hailey: Katie won't be my cattle
Me: Well if Katie doesn't want to play you can't force her
Hailey: Then who will be my cattle
Me: What about Nala, can't you pretend she's cattle? (Nala is her stuffed Nala from Lion King)
Hailey: No, she's a cat
Me: Well, Katie is a girl and you were going to pretend that she was cattle, can't Nala be a cat pretending to be cattle?
Hailey: But she doesn't know how to say moo

All of this is said while Hailey is crying and I'm trying not to laugh. Well, needless to say Katie didn't want to be a cattle and Hailey got upset and ran to her room. Then Katie and Zoe were fighting over a pink cowgirl hat of theirs, I believe that Zoe had it first and Katie kept taking it from her. So I would come in and give it back to Zoe, which Katie would still take. So I got upset with Katie which made Zoe happy but not Katie, so I asked Katie if she would like a hat, a special hat. So I went upstairs and got my cowgirl hat and gave it to Katie to wear and told her to be careful. As soon as Zoe saw it, you guessed it, she wanted that hat. So I had to tell her no, which she didn't like, of course it was all worse because I'm pretty sure that even though she was in her crib for an hour and a half Zoe didn't take a nap. Then to make things worse, Katie was walking up to Zoe, putting the hat towards her, then running of with the hat. I don't like teasing so I told Katie to stop, and told her that if she did it again she would lose the hat. She did it again so I took the hat away which made them both mad. By the time Randy came home they were still upset. I told him I would love to sit in a silence booth for 15 or 20 minutes and being the wonderful husband that he is he offered to let me go for a ride and do something if I would like. After about 10 minutes however he totally saw why I wanted to go in to a booth. I believe his exact words were something like this.. "Man, no wonder you want to go away for a minute, I've only been home a few minutes and I'm ready to go nuts" what a wonderful hour. Thankfully they all calmed down and bed time came. Oh that wonderful time of day!! I sure love my kids, even on days like this I love them. Life wouldn't be the same without my three little munchkins!!

Flaming Gorge

2009-07-22T13:54:00.000-06:00

So last weekend we went to Flaming Gorge and ran the river. Oh my gosh, it was so much fun!! I had never tried river rafting, and I must say, I'm addicted!! I would love to go again very soon. We went with my mom and my little brother and my uncle and his family. My other uncle came up just for the day with some of my cousins so they could go river rafting. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, we were gone all day Friday pretty much rafting and I didn't want to take our camera for obvious reasons (it's not waterproof). It was a blast though, there's nothing better then spending time with family. I love my uncles and their families and LOVE getting together with them, we don't do it near enough!! Other than that we haven't done much this summer. Just chillin at home (it's too hot to go anywhere!) We have some exciting things coming up, Randy's mom is engaged and they are planning on getting married in September, we also have two family reunions coming up on Randy's side of the family that will be fun. We had fun yesterday at the park, we had a picnic and then we played croquet, the girls ran through the sprinklers at the park got soaking wet and enjoyed themselves. We also invited Randy's mom and her fiance Tracy to come, so it was fun spending time with them and getting to know him. He seems like a nice guy, and we're happy for her. Then my mother in law bought a kiddie pool for the girls, she was just supposed to help, but then she ended up buying it. What a nice grandma! We sure do love her. I have pictures of the girls in the pool that I will be posting soon. I also want to post some random fun pictures from this summer, not that there's a lot, but there's some fun ones. Anyway, I promised the girls we would go out to the pool after lunch, so I guess I'd better follow through on my promise. Until next time!!

July 5th fun

2009-07-13T16:41:00.006-06:00

I know this is a week late, but I still wanted to talk about it. We went to my mom's house and had a BBQ with the family. It was so much fun!! I love family get togethers, and this one was the funnest we've had in a while. I can't wait till we get together for the 24th. We played Lasso Golf, I stink at it, but it was a lot of fun. Everyone beat me, including Hailey, yes...I was beat by my 5 year old daughter. Oh well, anyway, so here are some of the pictures from that day.

I think Katie's face is kind of funny here, but it's cute at the same time!

Hailey found this kitty across the street and called to it over and over and over. So Randy went and got the kitten and brought it over. She was so in LOVE with this cat. Unfortunately we found out when she got home she allergic to cats. Poor thing!

You can't really see it here, but she had chalk ALL over her! She was so funny.

My sister was taking pictures of everyone's butt and I decided to add my own little bit to his butt shot.

Silly kids! It's hard to see Andy as their uncle, crazy!

These two are only four months apart in age, Zoe is so short compared to him, it's funny!! They look so cute sitting together.

We sure had a lot of fun playing together! It was a lot of fun. I love family, it's the greatest thing we have on this Earth!!! I love you all.

4th of July

2009-07-06T19:03:00.003-06:00

This 4th of July was different than any we've ever had. We decided we'd go to the Temple to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks. So we went to the field just below the Temple, we were with Randy's family (his mom, Sam, Justin, and Weslie) and my mom also went. We had fun, we played frisbee and fill or bust and just talked. We ran into the Grimes family so we said hi to them. Well while we were playing our game my mother in law asked where Zoe was. So I looked around for her and I couldn't see her, so I asked my sister and brother-in-law if they knew where she was. Randy had gone to the car to grab a flash light so I was going to call him to see if he'd taken Zoe with him, but then I didn't because he wouldn't have taken her. You guessed it, she had wandered off. This was a big crowd and it was dark. So we all split up to look for her, we started asking people if they had seen a little girl walk past. I was really trying to stay calm but I was starting to freak out. I went back to where we were sitting to see if anyone had found her, they hadn't but my brother-in-law asked what she was wearing so he could describe her to people. Then we headed out again. Finally Randy came back and was looking around with his flashlight. To make a long excruciating story short, my brother-in-law Justin found her. She was at the top of the hill (we were pretty much at the bottom) just reaching the sidewalk and it looked like she was getting ready to cross the street. As soon as we heard them shouting to us that they found her I grabbed Randy and just started bawling. I was so relieved to find her!! When Justin brought her to us she was just grinning like nothing in the world was wrong. Little stinker, she was probably having a ball because no one was telling her to stop, or making her turn around and walk the other way. That little one loves to walk, and she hates being told where to go.

Since then, I can't stop thinking about the what ifs, and then I feel this huge amount of guilt. How could I have let that happen? Why was I not paying closer attention? I feel like the worst parent ever! We were actually really really lucky to find her, I still can't believe it. I am so grateful that we did. When I said my prayer that night I think most of it was thank you thank you thank you!! I feel so blessed that Heavenly Father watched out for us and led us to Zoe. I can't even imagine what I would have done if we hadn't found her. I love her so much!

She woke up last night about 4:30 and after holding her for a minute I tried laying her back down. I thought I'd gotten away with it but before I got back to bed she was crying again, and in trying to get out of her crib, she fell out. So I ran in and picked her up and sat on the floor and held her. After I calmed her down I just sat there feeling so lucky that I had her in my arms. I honestly don't know what I would do if we had lost her, especially since it would have been my fault. I'm not sure how I would have gotten through that. The 10 or 20 minutes (I'm really not sure how long she was missing, it felt like forever!) that she was gone was bad enough! I truly hope I never have another experience like that again.

Zoe's Prayer

2009-06-20T09:37:00.001-06:00

I have never seen something so cute, last night we had scriptures and afterward I said "Ok Zoe, let's say a prayer." So she folded her arms and bowed her head and started gibbering, then after a little bit she said amen, it was so cute! So then I helped her say one just like I do with the other two. She would listen then gibber when I was done, then she said amen after me. It was the cutest thing ever! Then this morning Randy wanted to hear her (he was at work last night) so I asked Zoe if she'd say the prayer so she did. I can't believe how cute it is, I love to watch her mouth when she "talks" it's so cute. I can't believe how big she is getting, it's amazing how they grow. This stage is the cutest but most frustrating, cute because they are learning and trying so many new things, but frustrating because they are in to EVERYTHING!! I guess the good out weighs the bad. I love my little Zoe so much, I can't imagine life without her, I'm glad that Heavenly Father knows what he's doing!! I'm going to try to video Zoe saying a prayer, if I do, I promise I'll share!

Death, faith, and other ramblings

2009-06-13T00:02:00.002-06:00

So my grandma's husband died on Sunday and they are flying his body back to California tomorrow for the funeral and burial. So Walkers let my grandma have family come for a while today and see his body. I didn't really know him very well (this was my grandma's second husband) but I went to support my grandma. There was a small group there, and we just stood around visiting and stuff. Then we all moved outside because we were going to be done, but my brother was coming over from Springville (we were at Walkers in Spanish Fork) so we waited. When he got there we went in to see him again, there was just me, my mom, my brother, and my grandma. I got really emotional standing there in this little group watching her touch his hair, his face, moving his fingers, and other stuff. It was such an odd experience to stand there and look at him, it just seemed so unreal. He looked asleep and it was almost as if I expected him to get up and walk around. My emotions weren't so much because of losing him (again, I didn't know him very well) but it just struck me hard as I watched my grandma touching him that one day that's going to be me. I'm going to be smoothing my sweethearts hair down, and touching his face and hands in an attempt to say goodbye. It will also happen as I bury my parents, brothers, sisters, or who ever preceeds me in death. It was such an odd moment, then it brought back memories of seeing my father-in-law lying in his coffin with all his temple clothes on and it was almost more then I could handle. Death is such a funny thing, it's a double edged sword in certain circumstances. When they suffer in this life preceeding death it is always such a blessing to see them go, but you're sad because you're going to miss them. It makes me appreciate this gospel sooo much, I can't imagine how people handle death without it.

This is such a random blog and my thoughts seem so jumbled up, I hope it makes sense. Things are going all right, I'm still looking for a job, hopefully I'll find one soon if that's what is supposed to happen. In one way I hope I don't find one, because I can't imagine doing one more thing on top of all my other responsibilities. Other the other hand, however, I'm excited for the little break it would give me from the house and all the things I deal with here. We'll just have to see how it goes. You know, if you really think about it, life truly is such a faith building experience, it's not always easy, but we really do learn to trust that Heavenly Father is in control of everything we go through. He loves us, and he is SO aware of all the things we go through. He is so willing to help us, all we have to do is ask. It's not always easy, and sometimes pride gets in the way and makes us fall backward, but all He asks for is ONE step forward and he'll help us make more. I am so grateful for this knowledge in my life, I love this gospel so much, I'm so thankful for the path it's helped me stay on and the decisions I've made in my life because of it. It's a wonderful thing!!

Not much sense

2009-05-30T15:11:00.004-06:00

Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you can't explain how you're feeling, and the feelings you can explain are stupid and you don't understand why you feel them? If you understood any of what I just said, you're pretty good. Sometimes I get in these really weird moods, and I can't quite explain why they come. There are times in my life where I feel like I need approval, approval from whom you might ask. That's the lame part, because I can't really tell you. Sometimes I feel like I am stuck in high school and I just want the "cool" kids to like me, and it still affects me today. High school has been over for eight years now, don't you think I could move on? Sometimes I meet someone who other people view as cool and I get nervous, and unsure of myself and I almost become obsessed with them, wondering if they would like me. It kind of becomes insanely important to me and I'll sit there and think (sorry for the language) what the hell? Why do I care?? I am so sick of seeking the approval of someone not really there, it doesn't matter what everyone thinks of me, so why, why can't I move on? I am so tired of living in this Hell of caring so much about what others think of me. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a good thing to be conscientious of yourself, but this is ridiculous. It makes me so mad, and sad, and frustrated, but I just don't know how to move on. I feel like I'm going insane, that there's something wrong with me. Why can't I feel happy with just having my own approval? Why can't I say to hell with everyone else, this is who I am, if you don't like it, leave me alone!! Is there anyone else who has ever felt this way? If there is, please let me know how it is you got past it, or how you deal with it, whatever is applicable. I'm sorry this is kind of a downer blog, I just really need to express my feelings, I really needed to talk to a friend, and seeing as I don't really have one to talk to right now I decided to write my feelings down instead. Maybe that will help me for a while, well, let's face it, even if I do get to talk to someone later it won't help. I have a very small window of opportunity to talk to someone before I push my feelings down deep and don't share them with people. Apparently it's really hard for me to fully open up to people, not really sure why, maybe I fear rejection too much. I really don't know. It's one of those mysteries in life that sometimes we solve and others times they remain a steady unknown.
There's one other thing going on with me right now that affects me every once in a while. Anyone who really knows me knows that I love to sing, I have always dreamed of singing in front of people. There are certain songs that I hear that just give me a magical feeling, that really touches me. It's at those times that I have a strong, fierce burning desire to be able to sing in a way that will make someone else feel that way. Then reality hits and I realize I don't have what it takes, I sing mediocre, I'm not terrible, but I definitely don't measure up to a lot of other people. So I get down, feeling like I could never be good enough, then I feel like I'm too old, I've missed my opportunity. I have kids, responsibilities that say it's over. Do I just give up that dream? Do I need to be content just singing to myself and kids? How do I do that? How do you let go of a dream that you've had since you can remember? I'm sure I'll be fine in a few hours, or tomorrow, I just really needed to get this out. Thanks so much for reading, I wish I had something cheerful to throw in here. I guess I could say we went to UP today, and it was a way cute movie, I loved it!! Hopefully that can lift your spirits UP! He He, ok, that was lame, anyway, thanks again for reading, any ideas or suggestions would be awesome!

Crazy Couple of Days

2009-05-29T16:37:00.002-06:00

So Tuesday night Katie woke up with a fever and all day Wednesday she had one and a headache as well. Then before going to bed Wednesday night her fever finally broke. Then at midnight she woke up screaming. We're kind of used to this with Katie, every once in a while she'll wake up screaming, we have to go in and calm her down and either she'll lay down with us for a while or she'll go back to sleep in her own bed. Well Wednesday night was different, she kept screaming, even while we were holding her that there were spiders. She was really hot and her fever was around 102 degrees. She would scream and say they were on her legs, or hands or that they were on us. We called our home teacher at around 12:30 am and asked him to come help give her a blessing, we didn't know what else to do. We finally were able to calm her down, but she had to lay down on top of me and any time I moved my hands I had to calm her down and let her know it was just me. Finally we went back up to our bed about 2:00 in the morning and we were able to finally fall back to sleep. Later in the night Randy put her back in her bed, and she woke up screaming again. She then spent the rest of the night in our bed. So we took her to the doctor on Thursday and he said it looked like she had the beginning of an ear infection. We asked him about the previous night if he thought perhaps she was hallucinating, he said it could have been induced by the fever. Thankfully last night she slept well, except she woke up to throw up. What a crazy couple of nights. Hopefully we're on our way to full recovery, she had an ear infection at the beginning of this month too. I sure hope we're done for a while after this one. Other than that not much is going on with us, I'm still looking for a job, hopefully I'll be able to find one soon, also, we are trying to find a good home for our pet guinea pig Rosie. I am allergic to hay and at times when I hold her it makes my arms and neck red and itchy. So, it's very hard to want to hold her or give her any hay which is really good for them. So if anyone wants a pet guinea pig, she is a very pretty animal (at least I think so). She's very fun to hold, and will for the most part just sit there. Now that I've put that little plug in there, I suppose I'm done with this post. Thanks for reading!!

Hailey's Preschool Graduation

2009-05-24T22:38:00.005-06:00

So on Thursday Hailey had her Preschool graduation, she did so good, for the most part. On some of the songs, she got distracted by a scab on her nose and stood there picking at it rather than singing. She is such a cute girl, I can't believe that she is going to go to Kindergarten next year, it's just crazy to think of my little girl growing up.

Just chillin waiting for the program to start.

Before we left, I love her little pose, the only downfall to this picture is that her skirt is pulled up a little in the front.

Again, just waiting.

This is the school loves me song, we recorded all the songs that they sang, but this one is my favorite one. Hailey loves to sing, I love to listen to her, I love my little Hailey!!

Life...

2009-05-24T22:26:00.003-06:00

I know, I know, it's been awhile again since I've written anything. It's kind of sad, oh well, at least I am now. Things here are ok, it's tight, but hopefully things at RC Willey will pick up soon. I'm starting to look for a part time job, I'm excited but nervous. I think it will be a lot of fun to get out and be around people in a professional setting. I'm looking for morning part time because Randy is home in the mornings so we hopefully wouldn't need a babysitter. I think if I could work for about a year it would really help us get out of debt. What an awesome feeling that would be!! Well, not much else is going on, just life. The kids continue to change sooo much!! Zoe is starting to say more words, so far these are some of the words she is saying: Mom, Dad, Hailey, Katie, Zoe, eye, I, love, you, bye, hi, amen, oh boy, oh man, I think that's about all. But she also gibbers, so if you ask her a question she starts gibbering like she's answering you. It's very cute!! Katie has been a little more difficult to deal with lately. Since Tuesday she has had at the very least two accidents a day and on Saturday I finally put her in pull ups because I can't handle any more pee on the carpets. I don't know if it's just a little phase she's going through, or if it's the start of another infection. I haven't been giving her her antibiotics because I haven't called to get her prescription refilled. She hasn't had a fever, or any other symptoms, so I guess we'll see. She has also learned how to push Zoe's buttons, and boy does she ever push them!! There are times where I wish I could put Katie in a cage, but then she can also be the cutest little thing ever!! Her facial expressions crack me up, sometimes she's not really saying anything funny, but it's just the way she says it and the facial expressions she makes. It cracks me up! I love all my kids so much, I just wish I didn't get so impatient with them. It's definitely something that I need to work on, it's just not always easy. I need to work on myself quite a bit, but hopefully I'm not alone. Well, now that I've dragged on and on, I'll finish this post, so until next time....bye!

Randomness

2009-05-14T15:17:00.003-06:00

So again it's been quite a while since I've written. Mother's Day was a lot of fun, I got to sleep in and I got breakfast in bed. We were way tired, and woke up late so we missed church, except I went to Relief Society so I could do my calling. That evening we went to my parents house and had hamburgers and other good food and just hung out and visited. It was a lot of fun. I have some pictures that I will post at a later time. I gave my mom a little book that I made, it was so awesome to actually make her something that had a lot of meaning behind it. I love my mom so much!

Lately I have been feeling like I' m in a rut. I don't really know how to motivate myself to do better, but I need to find a way. I don't really feel like I'm working toward something, I feel as if I am simply living through everyday. I want to feel like I have a purpose to my life. Things are going well, it's a little tight because there's not a lot going on at RC Willey. Hopefully Memorial Day will be a big day like it was last year, or even better than last year would be nice. Randy did kind of pick up a second job though, our land lord is going to pay him to do some of the yard work that needs to be done around here (and it's a lot) so that will help out. We really are doing all right though, and I finally feel like I'm getting back on track with my house work. I still have a long way to go, but I'm getting there. Well, I'm doing good, I need to kick myself in the butt and do better though. I want everyone to know I appreciate all they do for our family and for me. I don't know that I tell people thank you enough, but I want to start now. So, if you know me, know that you are loved and appreciated for all you do!! Oh, before I go I need to share something that Katie said. We were driving Hailey to school the other day and Hailey was talking about Gina's bird Zeus, you see he died and my sister buried him at my parents house in their back yard. On Sunday they went out with her (Gina) and put something on his grave and Hailey was talking about that in the car. Then Katie said, "Jesus needed a bird, huh Hailey" it was so cute! That was what we told them when Zeus died, was that Jesus needed Zeus in Heaven but that He would take good care of him. It was so cute to hear Katie say that though. I love my little girls! Well, until next time!

Free giveaway

2009-05-14T15:00:00.000-06:00

So I saw this on a friends blog and decided to do it, it's always fun to try to win stuff, plus this iron looks cool. A hair blog is giving away a Corioliss 1" Black Flat Iron - Classic Pro! It's worth $200, all you need to to is go to THIS SITE and enter. You get a lot of entries for doing specific things but I think it will be worth it! Go and enter now!
http://hairandshare.blogspot.com/

Questions

2009-05-06T17:01:00.002-06:00

I saw this on a friends blog and decided it would be fun to ask my girls these questions. Hailey's answers will be first, then Katie's.

Hailey

1. What is something mom always says to you? You say different things that you want me to do
2. What makes mom happy? me cleaning my room
3. What makes mom sad? she said a lot of different things, but in funny ways. Her first answer I believe was supposed to be when I don't do the things you ask me to do.
4. How does your mom make you laugh? You do silly things
5. What did your mom like to do when she was a child? You liked to do silly stuff that you liked when you were a kid. This was said with a question mark at the end.
6. How old is your mom? I don't know - her guess...10
7. How tall is your mom? 20?
8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV? space
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? cry
10. What is your mom really good at? Mario (Mario Kart)
11. What is your mom not very good at? watching us when we play on our bikes
12. What does your mom do for her job? Stuff that you need to do
13. What is your mom's favorite food? macaroni and cheese and beans (chili mac)
14. What makes you proud of your mom? doing stuff that I ask you
15. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Not our mom
16. What do you and your mom do together? I follow you and sometimes you follow me
17. How are you and your mom the same? we do the same thing
18. How are you and your mom different? that you're a mom and I'm a kid
19. How do you know your mom loves you? tell me that you love me
20. What does your mom like most about your dad? that he does what you ask him
21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? to your moms house
22. What is one thing you wish you could change about your mom? a guinea pig
23. What would your mom do with a million dollars? place it in a bag
24. What do you wish you could go and do with your mom? go to your moms house
25. What is one thing you hope never changes about your mom? guinea pig! Doing stuff that you like to do

Katie

1. What is something mom always says to you? you really love me so much
2. What makes mom happy? that I'm your coach
3. What makes mom sad? when I don't have something
4. How does your mom make you laugh? you play with me a lot and you laugh with me
5. What did your mom like to do when she was a child? you liked to play with me
6. How old is your mom? 5
7. How tall is your mom? big
8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV? a scary movie you laugh at scary movies
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? you be sad
10. What is your mom really good at? you get allergic from cats,
11. What is your mom not very good at? when I'm not brushing your teeth. That's very sad that you don't brush your teeth mom. (where do they come up with this stuff?)
12. What does your mom do for her job? you cook something when you do something
13. What is your mom's favorite food? the food that you don't eat, but you eat food
14. What makes you proud of your mom? I play with toys with you
15. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? just you
16. What do you and your mom do together? we have hug each other
17. How are you and your mom the same? we do something when we like something
18. How are you and your mom different? we eat cookies when we do it ( I'm not sure that I would be able to make her understand this question. She was also eating a cookie when I asked her this question)
19. How do you know your mom loves you? we hug each other
20. What does your mom like most about your dad? you hug him
21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? watch him (Randy) at work
22. What is one thing you wish you could change about your mom? I turn into a snow man I would change you into a snow man. Ha Ha, funny way to understand that question.
23. What would your mom do with a million dollars? when you don't have money, you put it in some toys
24. What do you wish you could go and do with your mom? play upstairs with you
25. What is one thing you hope never changes about your mom? that you don't change into something.

I love my girls so much!! I will never understand where they come up with all the stuff they come up with. This was a lot of fun to ask them these questions, a little hard to get them to stay in one place to ask them, but fun!!

Wednesday news

2009-05-06T16:14:00.003-06:00

I don't know why it takes me so long in between posts, I used to do write one at least once a week. I think it's a time management thing! Anyway, life here has been a little crazy, our vans transmission went out on us, so that's at the very least 450 dollars to fix, and at the most... well, I don't really know, but I've been told around 1500. Isn't life wonderful? Actually it is, I know we're blessed, but it's a little expensive at times. I guess that's a better way to put it. So, I've decided I don't like dieting, I don't know that I'll be able to do it again. What I really want to do is exercise and eat healthy, that way it's more of a lifestyle change that will allow me to not do the yo-yo effect. So hopefully I'll be able to get my butt in gear and start exercising. Things are going well here, money has been a little tight, but we're managing. The girls are growing up, but they sure are a cute handful! They say the funniest things! Like today, I was washing my hands and Katie said in a worried voice, Mom, hurry, we're wasting water! I have no idea where she really got that from. Then yesterday, I was moving from the garbage can to the counter and Hailey walked up behind me and I sort of tripped on her and my elbow hit her in the forehead (not hard). I said something about her watching where she's going and she looked at me and said "Yeah, Mom, you should look behind you before you move" It was pretty funny! I also think I heard her say to Randy "You broke my heart." I think Randy had told her to sit down and eat her food, or something like that that made her a little upset. I love them so much! I can't imagine what life would be like without them.

So Mother's Day is coming up, and a friend of mine gave me a really good idea for a gift for my mom. I'm very excited to try to put this together, homemade and thoughtful gifts are the best kind of gift!! I hope she'll know how much I love and appreciate her. She has always been a great mom and I've learned so much from her. I hope that I'll be able to show my kids the same love she showed to me.

We had our family pictures taken by a friend of mine about a week ago, and she did such a good job! I am way excited to get them back! I'll be able to put some on here soon! I'm very excited to see all of them! There were a lot that were taken, I think there were over 4 or 5 hundred. Well, not much is going on here, we're all good and happy!

It's been awhile

2009-04-22T13:48:00.002-06:00

I have been a huge blogger slacker lately, I'm not really sure why, I guess sometimes I feel like I don't have much to blog about. A lot of things are going on right now, though, some changes that we are going to be putting into place soon. I'm excited but also a bit nervous. We have been talking a lot lately about what Randy would like to do as a career. He used to be so against going to school because he didn't really feel like it did any good. On Sunday however, he mentioned that he wasn't as against school anymore, and he's been thinking about possibly becoming an RN. While this is exciting to me, it also scares me a lot and makes me a little depressed because I look at how much LeeAnn does homework and I realize that not only would Randy be gone at school but he would also be very busy studying and doing homework. I just don't know if I'm ready to have him for such a limited time. I know if he decided to go though we would work it out. The other big change is that we're going to try to sell our car, so that we could put that money toward our credit card debt and pay off all of it by next February or March. I always used to say that we would never do it with one vehicle, but lately I just can't justify having two vehicles. For the most part I don't go anywhere, the only places I go is to take Hailey to school and to go to choir on Wednesday nights. Hailey will be done with school at the end of May and my choir won't go much beyond that so honestly I know I won't really go anywhere. I am also ready to make this sacrifice to get out of our credit card debt, I am so sick of it! Then I think I'm going to rip up our credit cards!! The next big change is that I am dieting and excercising and I am going to lose weight and get in shape. I am so tired of not being comfortable with my clothes and having nothing to wear and I don't like the way it makes me feel. So... I am really doing it! I know I've said that a couple of times before, but this time is for real and it feels good. Dieting is so hard, I do really well until I see something that I REALLY want and then it just doesn't seem worth it. I know it is though, and I really need to do this for me. So, here I go. There's also other changes that we're going to put in to place that I'm really excited for. I fall short in the mother department. I know I'm not a terrible mom but I know I could be doing better! I watched a little bit on Super Nanny the other night and she was talking to this mom saying "where was your enthusiasm? It was like you were just doing another chore, just something you had to do" I'm sure that wasn't the exact way she said it, but that's the jist. Anyway, I realized (which I've done before) that a lot of the time I look at my kids as another chore, another something I have to do. Someone else I have to take care of. And that's a really sad way to look at your kids, I want to be remembered as the mom who took time to play with my kids. I don't want it to be just another thing I have to take care of. I love my kids so much and they deserve better!! So there are some things we're going to change that will help take care of that!! I am very excited for this summer, I feel like it is going to be a summer of change! I love life right now, it just seems like we're at the brink of something wonderful! I can't wait to see what will happen this summer, I have a feeling it will be great.

Easter

2009-04-14T20:32:00.003-06:00

We had a lot of fun this Easter, we went to my mom's and she made us hamburgers and macaroni salad and chips. Well ok, she didn't make the chips but she provided them. Then we had the Easter Egg Hunt for the girls, it was a lot of fun, it was so fun to watch the girls find their eggs. Afterward Randy took the girls home to get them in bed (too much sugar and not getting their way makes for ornery kids) and I went to my mother-in-laws concert. Afterward we went to a little dinner thing then came back to our place and played games. It was a lot of fun. Here are some of the pictures from our Easter.

Expensive taste

2009-04-08T16:46:00.002-06:00

So I hope this isn't a glimpse into the future! The other day the girls got themselves dressed, but not only did they get themselves dressed, they bought their clothes as well. So I asked Hailey how much it cost, here is what she said. Her outfit cost 50 dollars and Katie's was 200. Hailey's shoes were 19 dollars and Katie's were 72 dollars. WOW!! Those are expensive! I don't really know why Katie's clothes were so much more expensive, oh well. They are sure funny, I never know what they'll come up with next! So I've tried to download pictures a couple of times, and each time I try it doesn't work. Hopefully it will soon.

We've been having a lot of fun when the weather is nice, the other day we went to a park that's just a little walk away. We went with our neighbor that lives in our apartment complex in number 2. They have been fun to get to know, they have a little girl named Eva who is one. Zoe really doesn't know what to think when she is around. It's kind of funny! The girls enjoyed it. A couple of other girls that were there found a worm and so Hailey wanted to see it. So then Hailey was finding the worms and holding them. It was odd because I would have thought she would be afraid of them or think they were gross. I'm constantly amazed with the things they are ok with. I can't wait until the weather is nice all the time (or at least most of the time) but I've realized again how much I don't like hot weather. I hate wearing jeans and being sticky hot! I'm not a big fan of heat, I wish I could find some nice cotton capris that looked cute! I'd even take some cute cotton pants that looked nice. I don't generally think I would look good in things like that though. I guess I'll have to see if I can find anything, if anyone has any ideas, feel free to let me know!!

Birthday fun

2009-04-01T22:03:00.004-06:00

So yesterday was my birthday and I had so much fun! Randy pampered me, and I'll tell ya, it's nice to have a day where I'm allowed to do nothing and it's done for me. It also shows me what an awesome and amazing man I married. Randy let me sleep in, then he brought me a breakfast of waffles and orange juice in bed. Then he did my dishes, ALL the dishes, not just loading what would fit in the dishwasher and leaving the rest. He actually hand washed the rest, it was really nice. Then I used the spa package he gave me for Christmas and that was amazing!! It was my first experience with a professional massage and wow! It's amazing, it was way nice. I didn't like the sauna at first, but I liked it at the end. I was glad that my sister-in-law LeeAnn went with me, I would have been bored out of my mind in both the sauna and jacuzzi without her. Then we went to Tucano's for dinner, soooo good! One of the coolest parts of yesterday was that I totally stepped outside of my comfort zone and asked our cute waiter for his number and I'm going to hook him up with LeeAnn. I'm way excited!! Anyway, I really had a nice birthday, it was hard to go back to work today and actually have to do something. I don't work outside of the house, but as all you stay-at-home moms know, we do work! Except as I mentioned, I had a really hard time getting anything done today. It's not too bad though for me not doing anything I guess, except for the dishes. Oh well, there's always tomorrow! So I thought it would be fun to put up a few pictures of me, so I hope you enjoy!!

Ok, so I couldn't get the pictures to upload, but I promise I will as soon as I can, but I wanted to get this post done so I don't feel like a slacker anymore.

Doing good

2009-03-23T10:41:00.001-06:00

So I realized it's been awhile since I've written anything and thought I would just drop a quick post to let everyone know how we're doing. We are all good, Zoe is at the point where she is walking more than crawling, and I absolutely LOVE it!! I don't have to carry her around anymore, Yea!!! The only time this walking thing gets a little hard to deal with is when we're outside and she wants to walk on the cement. She still makes me nervous and I'm worried she'll fall and get hurt. I guess getting hurt is a part of life though and I should just let her try. Hailey and Katie are doing good, they are continuing to grow up, funny how that happens. They say the funniest things! Sometimes I'll just sit there and listen to them while they are playing, it's so funny! Not much has been going on here, but we do have a fun week ahead of us. On Tuesday we'll be eating dinner with Randy's family and discussing our year and goals we have for the upcoming year (we do this every March) I'm sure it will be a lot of fun! Then on Saturday my cousin and his wife are coming over for dinner, Sunday we're headed up to Salt Lake to have dinner with our awesome friends the Grimes and then we'll probably play games. Then on either Monday or Tuesday of next week Randy and I are going to Tucano's for dinner. The best part about this is that it will pretty much be free for both of us! I have a free meal because it's my birthday this month and Randy got a 20 dollar gift certificate from work for Tucano's so pretty much between the two we'll both eat free! I love free meals.

Other than that, not much has been going on around here, I absolutely love to read everyone's blog and I hope that everyone is doing well!!

She's walking

2009-03-10T14:29:00.000-06:00

For the past couple of days Zoe has really started walking, it's so neat to watch her walk on her own. I am so excited for her walking to continue getting better, then I won't have to carry her around all the time! Our family is doing well, the girls are continually getting bigger, it's a little scary how fast time goes by. So I think we have decided (or rather I have decided) to wait until August to begin trying for #4. I haven't had a summer where I wasn't pregnant or nursing for a couple of years now, and I think I'd like to have one. I also have about 24 pounds I'd really like to lose before I gain 25 or 30 for the pregnancy. I think I'll be able to lose it this summer, dieting seems easier in the Spring and Summer. I think it's because you're not stuck in the house surrounded by food and snacks. Drinking water is also easier when it's hot, you know what I mean? I am excited to lose weight, I wish I wouldn't have gained the weight that I did. I was only about 7 or 8 pounds away from my goal right before Christmas, and now I'm 24 pounds away from my goal. Oh well, that's life I guess, what I really need to figure out is how to maintain my weight, that's the key. Well, I really don't have much to say, things are good right now.

I'm a Believer

2009-03-07T13:12:00.002-07:00

Ok, so I've never been one that really believes in PMS, I always thought it was just an excuse for women to be ornery and something guys make fun of. However, I am now a believer! If you've read my last post, I had a very very bad day on Thursday, nothing really happened I just wasn't handling things emotionally at all! After I wrote my post I started to do my dishes and was thinking about my post and remembered I had written one that was kind of the same about a month ago and then it hit me. Yes, my friends, it was PMS and I had it. It was so comforting to know that I wasn't going crazy, I was just having a "day" and I would be better in the morning. Sometimes it's very difficult being a woman!! I have a wonderful husband who when I told him what I had discovered simply said, "I know, I think it's cute" How on earth could he think they way I act is cute? I don't get it, but he was glad that I realized what was wrong. I love him so much, when he came home from work he gave me my birthday present early and then he finished the dishes for me so I could play with said birthday gift (it was an iPod touch, coolest thing EVER!!)

I am so grateful for my husband, I don't know what I would do without him in my life, he is the BEST thing that's ever happened to me. So I'm good, I'm just a normal woman with normal emotions that go crazy one day a month. So don't be surprised if you see another "blue" post next month!

The deepest dark

2009-03-05T19:57:00.003-07:00

I just want to feel like I'm not alone in the way I feel and the things I think. I want to feel like I'm loved and accepted for who I am even though I make mistakes. I know I can say the wrong thing and I know I make mistakes and hurt peoples feelings, but I wish they knew I was only human. I wish I felt my Saviors love for me, I wish I knew it was ok not to be perfect. I wish I felt like I had a grip on myself and my life. I wish I was a better mom, I wish I could make all the bad thoughts go away. I wish I could walk in the light all the time, I wish I felt the Spirit in my darkest times. I just wish I felt like someone was with me in my deepest dark

Hailey's Birthday Celebration

2009-03-02T16:34:00.005-07:00

Ok, so here's try number 2 (actually it's attempt three) let's see if I can get this right this time. So on Sunday the 22nd, we had family over to help us sing to Hailey and eat cake and ice cream. It was a ton of fun especially because we got to see our really good friends (pretty much family) Marc and Heather and hang out with them (sorry I wasn't really involved in the hanging out process, I still had a lot of things to do, next time will be a ton of fun though because we'll be able to focus on you guys). Hailey loved everything she got, and so did Katie. Hannah and Katie were on either side of Hailey as she opened all of her gifts (she loves her Strawberry Shortcut shirt! Thanks Heather). Then we had cake and ice cream, it was a lot of fun to have everyone there, and then of course we watched the slide show I made for Hailey. I love to make slide shows for them on their birthday, it's so much fun to see how they've changed over the year. I can't believe my little girl is 5, it's crazy how fast time goes. Hailey is such a sweet little girl, she is such a social butterfly, she is friends with everyone and says hi to everyone. She always makes a friend when we go to the park, and her Preschool teacher says everyone wants to sit by her in class. She is a little "do it myself" girl, she always gets her and Katie snacks (which can be a little frustrating sometimes) and she loves to help out her sisters. She is truly a gift to our family and life wouldn't be the same without her! Happy Birthday Hailey!!

Randy decorated her cake, he did such a good job, a lot better than I did with Katie's cake!

Here's Hailey waiting for her cake to be brought out to her so we could sing.

Hannah and Katie watching Hailey unwrap her gifts, except Katie is actually helping her.

This picture is just for Heather, Jaidyn spilled his water on them, it was so funny! I wish I would have had a picture of Jaidyn's face because it was hilarious!! He was pretty upset about his water

2009-02-27T10:32:00.001-07:00

Ok, so it's been a while since I posted anything, I typed up a long post about Hailey's birthday party and it got erased and I haven't had time to do another one since. I do have a lot of fun things to post about though, so hopefully sometime later today or maybe tomorrow I will have time to post them. Anyway, I hope everyone who reads this is doing well, and keep checking, I'll post some super fun pictures and a video of Katie dancing, that is really funny! Talk at ya later!!!

Hailey's birthday

2009-02-21T10:36:00.008-07:00

Yesterday was Hailey's 5th birthday, and it was so much fun!! We took her to Dollar Tree and let her pick out five items, then we took her to lunch wherever she wanted to go, which ended up being McDonalds. Then we took all the girls outside and played because it was so nice outside!! Then we had to run a bunch of errands, but we came home and ate pizza and then I put five cupcakes on a plate with candles in them and she blew them out. It was a lot of fun, I especially enjoyed just spending time with Hailey (and Randy of course). She is such an adorable little girl, she is a lot of fun. We asked her what she thought her talents were, and she said she did whatever Bumblebee told her to do (in case you don't know Hailey is in love with Bumblebee, she even says she's married to him) and then we kind of brought up that she sings good, and draws well. She is so much fun to have in our family, she is a good sister to Katie and Zoe and is a good helper when she wants to be. Anyway, here are some pictures from the day:

In the van, getting ready to go!

Here she is with her basket, ready to shop.

She decided not to get this hat, I was hoping she would pick it because I thought she looked so cute!

This is what she ended up with in her basket, I'm pretty sure there were about 15 or 17 items she had gathered, so we helped her pick what 5 items she wanted

This is her basket with her five items, she is lovingly holding a lionness toy she got

Hailey posed herself on this one, we opened the van to get her in and turned around and she was just waiting there, so I took a picture.

This was another self posed picture, we got her out of the van at McDonalds and turned around and there she was.

I told her to get in the cave, but she did the rest herself. As you can tell, she loves her picture taken and is a good little model!

Here she is with her "cake" she was pretty excited to blow out her candles.

We had so much fun celebrating her birthday, I can't believe she's 5, she'll go to Kindergarten next year and I am freaked out. I can't imagine sending my little girl in that big school! I know she'll love it, she's our social butterfly. The other day I picked her up from Preschool and her teacher said that "Hailey always says the funniest things. All the kids fight over who gets to sit by her, she's pretty popular" I love Hailey so much, and even though she has a pretty big attitude at times (we're working on that) she is so much fun to have in our family. I can't imagine life without her!

Not too sure

2009-02-12T20:02:00.002-07:00

So I have been debating writing this post or not, but have finally decided to do it. I hope that you can all view me as a human being who makes mistakes and can love me in spite of that fact. Lately I have been feeling very lonely, it's hard to explain why, but basically I feel like I don't have anyone close to me who is in the same stage of life as me. Most particularly in the baby department, all my friends seem to have these hard pregnancies and I don't. Or, if they have easy pregnancies they have hard labors. Or they don't want as many kids as I do and I feel like they are saying I'm crazy for wanting as many as I do (which lately is now up in the air). I know it seems so ridiculous and I guess I'm searching for validation in who I am and what I want from life, and unfortunately I haven't learned how to gain this on my own but I'm working on it. Anway for about a month or so I have been going through this, and have been talking to a few people about it and I think I've come to some realizations that aren't easy to come to or admit to. This is where I hope that all of you will love me flaws and all. The question I asked myself was why am I surrounded by all these women who have hard pregnancies, and I think I realized that I am meant to learn from them. I read a post that my friend Jenna wrote that touched me very deeply and made me appreciate her so much. You see I think sometimes I take my kids for granted, I know I'm blessed to have them and I love them very much, but I think sometimes subconciously I think of them as merely something I have to do. Please don't take this to mean that I don't love my children because I do. I have been a lot better with this since I have been on depression medication but before I was on that, there were days where I didn't even think I wanted them and they were just one more thing I had to take care of. Like I said I am much better now. Anyway, I read my friends blog and I think for the first time in a long time I realized how truly blessed I am, and in a way I am envious of Jenna (please don't take that wrong). I'll bet that when she looks at or holds her little baby, she knows what a miracle he is. It wasn't easy for her to get him here and then when he did get here it was shaky for a couple of days. I love this woman so much for letting me learn from her experiences. I know she would never wish upon me what she goes through to get her children here, and I wouldn't want to go through it either, but I am so blessed that I can learn from her. Jenna, you are an amazing person, thank you so much for being an example to me and for sharing your experience with me. You truly are someone I look up to.

Next I have my friend McKenna, who would love nothing more than to have a child of her own. The world seems so unfair sometimes, why some women get pregnant so easily yet doesn't seem to want them and women who can't and desperately want one. McKenna, you are one of the strongest women I know, your example to me is simply indescribable. I know you don't think you have much to give to people or the world sometimes but I assure you, you have much to give. You are a beautiful person inside and out and one day you are going to be an amazing mother to a very lucky and special child. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with me, I can't thank you enough for your example to me.

I truly am grateful for my daughters, they teach me constantly of love, and I get a small glimpse of the love that Heavenly Father has for each one of us as his children. Yesterday Hailey had a Valentine's Day party at school and was given a heart shaped slinky (you know the plastic kind that break easily). Her and Katie were playing with it and it got completely bent out of shape and no longer worked. Hailey was so upset she was crying, I tried to explain that we could cut some of it off and just make it a smaller slinky. I was having a hard time because she wouldn't stop crying and I kept wanting to tell her it wasn't a big deal but I knew it was to her. I was upstairs and could hear her crying downstairs so I finally came down to talk with her. She was sitting on the floor holding her slinky with a pair of scissors, trying to cut off the broken pieces and just crying. I came down and helped cut off the ends and then I held her and let her cry. I was on the phone with Randy and he was totally ready to go find another one, but he didn't. After the kids were in bed we began talking and Randy was saying how he would have done anything to make it better, he seriously would have gone and found one and brought it home for her. Then he said that he knew he shouldn't because this is something that Hailey needs to deal with and learn from. It made us both think of Heavenly Father and how I'm sure that when things happen to us He knows that on an Eternal perspective it may not matter, but to us it does. I'm sure it breaks his heart to watch us go through our trials and wants to fix it for us and make it better. However, He knows that they are there to teach us lessons. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who allows me to struggle and learn the lessons I need to learn to live with him again. I am grateful for wonderful examples in my life and for the love that is extended to me. To Jenna and McKenna, I love you both so much, you are both constantly in my prayers. Thank you so much for teaching me things I need to learn. You are both amazing women and I am so blessed to have you in my life!!

Parenting Class

2009-02-11T19:32:00.002-07:00

So Randy and I have talked about this for a long time, but we're finally going to try to pull it together. We found this really good book called Positive Discipline (for those of you who are my friends on facebook, there's a good chance you've already gotten this message) and the book teaches you why children misbehave and how to handle it. We have read most of it, and it definately takes practice and learning to put in to motion the techniques it uses. However, the book is meant to be done in a parenting group. So Randy and I are going to begin this group, it's supposed to be two hours once a week for eight weeks. So, we want our good friends to come and learn better ways to deal with children. We would be willing to host it at our house, Monday, Tuesday and Saturday nights are the best for us, or possibly Sunday nights. Please if you are interested you can send me a message on facebook, or my email (piddy10@hotmail.com). We would really like to start soon and would LOVE to have anyone who wants join us. You would need to buy the book, it's called Positive Discipline by Jane Nelsen, Ed. D.

I hope I'll hear from some of you soon :0)

Valentine's Day

2009-02-11T19:22:00.003-07:00

So I've been thinking about Valentines Day a lot this week, I talked to my sister-in-law who was telling me she didn't want to be alone on Valentines Day and I got thinking back to highschool when I used to call it Singles Awareness Day. Then I was thinking how sad it was that I called it that, and that a lot of people see it the same way. I am starting to believe that Valentines Day was meant for much more than it is. It's a day dedicated to love, a day to show love to family, friends, neighbors, to significant others, but most importantly to yourself. So to all those who are single and reading this, take this day and spoil yourself! I also want to extend a challenge to everyone, write a letter to yourself expressing the qualities and attributes that you love about yourself, and what makes you unique. Then store it away and read it anytime you need a pick me up. I would also say to those of you who are married or have a special someone, write a letter to them also expressing the same things about them. It's so much fun to tell someone you love them, not just in words but in actions. Do something nice for those you love, try to make Valentines day a day of service. I am actually really looking forward to this Valentines day, not because we have anything particularly special planned, but just because I think it will be a good opportunity to remember how much I love all the special people in my life and to let them know that. Anyway, so this was kind of a lame post, but I had a lot of fun thinking about this today and wanted to share it!

What do you do with the weather?

2009-02-11T18:21:00.003-07:00

So what do you do when the day starts out raining, then turns to snow, then stops, there's some sunshine, then more snow, and on and on, you know typical Utah weather. If you're like us, you have an indoor picnic! Hailey wanted to have a picnic the other day, so I decided we would. So we layed out a blanket on the floor and ate our dinner of hoagie sandwiches, macaroni and cheese and doritos chips on it. It was fun to have something a little different than a normal dinner. I can't wait until it's warm and we can have a real picnic at a park!! Here are a few pictures

The Bucket List Tag

2009-02-07T12:05:00.003-07:00

The idea of this tag is to put an X on the things that I have done, and then answer some questions about myself. Here goes...

Swam in the ocean

Gone to Washington DC

Gone on a blind date

Skipped school X

Watched someone die X

Been to Canada

Been to Mexico

Been to Florida X

Been to a foreign country

Been on a plane X

Been lost X

Been on the opposite side of the country X

Cried yourself to sleep X

Played cops and robbers

Recently colored with crayons X

Sang Karaoke X

Paid for a meal with coins only X

Skipped out without paying for a meal

Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? X

Made prank phone calls X

Caught a snowflake on your tongue X

Watched the northern lights dance

Danced in the rain

Written a letter to Santa Claus X

Been kissed under the mistletoe X

Watched the sunrise with someone

Watched the sunset with someone X

Blown bubbles X

Can hula hoop?

Gone ice-skating X

Been skinny dipping outdoors

Gone to the movie's ALONE

Gone to a horror movie and laughed through it

1. Any nicknames? Pidget, pidgy, Jessie, and a whole lot of others that no one uses anymore

2. Mother's name? Denise

3. Favorite drink? Wild Cherry Pepsi

4. Body Piercing? Just my ears

5. How much do you like your job? I love it

6. Dad's name? Phillip

7. Favorite vacation?

8. Ever eaten cookies for dinner? Yes

9. Ever eaten mud? no

10. Ever been on TV? no

11. Ever steal any traffic signs? no

12. Ever been in a car accident? yes

14. Can you drive a standard car? yes

15. Favorite pie? my moms pumpkin pie (it's actually made with banana squash)

16. Favorite number? I don't know that I have one

17. Favorite movie? While you were Sleeping,

18. Favorite dessert? Probably ice cream

19. Book on CD or regular book? regular

20. Favorite food? mexican

21. Favorite day of the week? Monday night and Tuesday, Randy's day off is Tuesday

22. Favorite brand of body wash? Whichever one smells good, I don't really have a favorite

23. Favorite toothpaste? Any gel toothpaste

24. Favorite smells? Lilacs

25. How do you relax? either watching tv, or reading

26. How do you see yourself in 10 years? In a home, surrounded by family and friends with 5 or 6 kids maybe? And also being financially secure

27. What is your favorite breed of dog? Shitzu Maltese, I think they are so flippin cute

28. Like to celebrate by going out or staying in? It depends, I really like going out to dinner, but then I absolutely love coming home, curling up on the couch and watching a movie with my honna!

I tag Jenna, McKenna, and Sam

Baby Tag

2009-02-05T14:33:00.009-07:00

1- Where were you when you first found out you were pregnant? At my in-laws

2- Who was with you? Randy, and his family. We told LeeAnn first, then the rest of his family

3- How did you find out that you were pregnant? We were trying so I took a test just before I was supposed to start

4- What was your first reaction to finding out you were pregnant? I was so excited

5- Who was the first person you told? Randy

6-Was everybody happy for you? Yes

7- Did you go out and celebrate? Not really

8- Did you get morning sickness? No, I felt a little icky sometimes and threw up a couple of times, but nothing bad

9- Did you want to find out the sex? No, but we were pretty sure it was a girl

10- What was the sex? girl

11- Did anyone throw you a baby shower? Yes, I kind of helped my sister-in-law throw one for me

12- How much weight did you gain? 25 pounds

13- Did you lose all of the weight that you gained? No

14- Did you get a lot of stretch marks? Yes, tons!

15- What did you crave the most? apples? I didn't really have any cravings

16- Did you crave anything crazy? No

17- Who or what got on your nerves the most? All the advice and comments from others. I worked at Kmart and I heard stuff ALL the time

18- Were you married at the time? Yes

19- Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? Not really, I did go to the hospital around 7 or 8 months because of back pain but I just had the flu

20- Where were you when you went into labor? I was in the shower when I felt the first contraction

21- Did your water break? Yes at the hospital

22- Who drove you to the hospital? My husband

24- Did you go early or late? She was 11 days early

25- Who was in the room with you when you gave birth? Just Randy and my doctor and a nurse

26- Was it video taped? No

27- Did you have any drugs for the pain? Oh yeah!!

28-Did you go Natural or have a c-section? Natural

29- If natural, how long did you push? I only pushed three times

30- What was your first reaction after giving birth? I don't think it had really hit me yet, I was just glad to have her here

31- How big was the baby(s)? 6 lbs 8 0z

32- Did your Husband cry? I don't think so

33- What did you name the baby(s)? Hailey Marie

34- Did the baby(s) have any complications? Nope

35- How old is your baby today? 5 on the 20th

36- When is the next one(s) coming? Hopefully next January

37-If you could, would you do it all over again? Yup!

I tag Ashley W, Robin, Rachel Fordham, and Laura Miller

One of those days

2009-01-29T19:33:00.002-07:00

Why is it that it seems like things are going well and fine, then all of a sudden you have one of those days! One where you want to just stay in bed and hide under the covers, where you wake up depressed for no reason. Well, that was today, for some reason I woke up down and have not been able to shake it off. It's very frustrating because I end up being very hard on myself and very negative about life in general. It's no picnic to be around me I'm sure, so it's also a hard day for my husband and kids. I have felt so useless and worthless and very lonely which is pretty pathetic when I'm constantly surrounded by my kids. I get so tired of feeling this way, and while I don't have very many of these days when I'm in the middle of one it seems like I have them all the time. It makes is so hard to want to do anything at all, house cleaning, showering, cooking, anything. I honestly just wanted to lie in bed all day long! Unfortunately you don't get any days off from the wonderful job known as mom. I'm sorry this blog is so negative, but I just need to get some of these feelings and thoughts out of my head and since I don't really feel like I have anyone to talk to this is the only real outlet I have; and since it's my blog I can write about whatever I want. I just hope you don't all thing I'm this crazy psychopath who is always depressed because I'm really not. I don't have many of these days, just every once in a while. I know I'm blessed, I can look around me at any given moment in any given day and count numberless blessings. So why is it so hard to see all of them when your personal day is cloudy? Oh well, there will be more days and better ones than today, but if anyone has any ideas as to how to knock myself out of this ridiculous self pity party, please in a kind way let me know. I just hope I'm not the only one that has days like these.

Random Pictures

2009-01-28T23:44:00.003-07:00

So I haven't posted very many pictures recently due to me being a little lazy and not transferring pictures from our camera to the computer. So I decided to pick out a few pictures to share will all my devoted readers! So I hope you at least get a smile from these, I know I do!

So, Enjoy!

I love this hair style, it worked best with Hailey though
Me and Zoe, I think I look a little funny, but Zoe looks so flippin cute, I couldn't resist!

Oh, they like each other! Hailey dressed herself, just so you know (except the hat, that was added on by LeeAnn)

Don't ask me, she just started doing all sorts of funny poses. It was funny though!

Another one, different day

Katie's peace, LeeAnn took this picture, she was really proud of it

They absolutely LOVE horsey rides

For some reason it's not quite working

I don't think I'm as good as Daddy!

I had to get her hair wet to get peanut butter and jelly out and thought it would be fun to spike it all over the place! I love her grin!!

Time

2009-01-28T16:02:00.005-07:00

I don't honestly know why I picked that title, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. So sometimes I have these moments where I get so scared when I think about the world and my kids growing up. We had an incident that involved Hailey in Elk Ridge that wasn't serious but could have been a bad situation. I was thinking about that and feeling like I let her down, and then I thought about kids being abducted and how you properly prepare your kids for that. Needless to say I laid there in bed and wanted to lock myself in my house and never let my kids go outside again! Finally I prayed so that I would fall asleep, but these fears constantly pop into my head, and it makes me wonder a lot of things. Do I not have enough faith in God? Do I not really believe that He is in everything, and everything that happens was meant to be? I hate when I have those moments, I wish I could believe that if I'm faithful enough nothing like that would ever happen to my kids. I could handle sickness and death, but I don't think I could handle the unknown of abduction. It would drive me crazy!! Anyway, not much for a fun post, so I guess I should turn that around.

Last night I was making cookies for my friends birthday, the girls love to watch me bake (especially when I use the mixer because that means it's something sweet) so they were both on the counter overlooking the bowl. I had just finished mixing and was getting a spatula to scrape around the sides when Katie turned the blender up all the way. All of a sudden there's cookie dough flying everywhere and a loud noise. It took me a couple of seconds to realize what was going on. I had cookie dough up and down my shirt and Katie had a little bit in her hair and on her shirt. It was so funny, I think it scared Katie pretty bad, because I kind of yelled at her because it scared me too. It was funny!!

Then today, I decided to let Hailey do the dishes, for some reason she really likes to. Most the time I tell her no, but I decided if she wants to do them that bad, I'll just help her do them. So I filled the sink with water, cleared the counter off, put an apron on her and let her go at it. We'll see how she does, but if she does a good job and she likes it, this could turn out to be a very good thing!! Here she is in my apron, doesn't she look so cute? My little helper!

Urology Visit

2009-01-21T14:23:00.002-07:00

So today was Katie's appointment at the Primary Children's Urology unit. It went really well, the doctor was very nice and explained things to us really well although I'm not very good at relaying what she told us. It made sense when she explained it and I think I understand it, but to share that isn't very easy, especially without pictures. So I won't really try to, but for now we are going to be giving her a daily dose of antibiotics to keep her from getting any more kidney infections which can damage her kidneys which, as you can guess, is a bad thing. Then in a year she'll need to be tested again and see how things are going. If it's healing, or looking better we'll probably wait another year and then get checked out again and see how she's doing. They say sometimes the body heals itself and other times they need to have surgery but it can take anywhere from 1 to 3 years to heal itself. The surgery is she needs it, doesn't sound like it's that big of a deal and it's a same day surgery. We actually had the option to do that now, but for obvious reasons we want to hold off on surgery as long as possible and perhaps not even need it. But her kidneys look good, so that's a plus. Katie's case isn't a severe one, on a scale from 1-5, 5 being the worst Katie was between a 2 and 3 so that's really good, a 1 means you don't have reflux into the kidney, which we obviously knew she did. So we play a waiting game now and for the next one to three years we'll re-evaluate her situation every year. She was pretty cute at the doctors today, and I realized how much she is changing. It's amazing how you look at your kids every day but you have these moments where you look at them and feel like you're seeing them for the first time in a really long time. It's always such an odd feeling when this happens. It's kind of scary. I guess just because you realize how fast they change and grow up and you feel like you miss so much.

So I have some really cute pictures to post, but I can't right now because our camera battery is dead and I haven't found the charger yet, I think it's upstairs in our room but haven't had a chance to look today so I am going to have to take a look. If I find it perhaps I'll write another post later today with pictures. We have some pretty cute ones!! Until then, adios!

Should be cleaning

2009-01-17T15:40:00.002-07:00

Do you ever have one of those days, where you know you should be doing one thing and yet you do another? Today is one of those days, I can't tell you how much I don't want to be cleaning right now and thus the reason for me sitting here typing this post. I feel so thankful today for all the wonderful people in my life, I wish I was a better friend to all of you! Truth be told, I'm not very good at being a friend, I'm a little shy and unsure of myself which makes it hard for me to call people and be like "Hey, what's up? How are you?" and so to all of you, sorry. I would really like to be a better friend however, and really let go of all my inhibitions (I really hope that was the right word) this year. I'll sit at church by myself in Relief Society wishing that someone would come and sit by me and start talking to me, but it never happens. It's occured to me however, that I need to be the one to make the move, perhaps there's someone else like me sitting there wishing that someone would come and sit by them, perhaps I'm meant to be that person. However, it's easier said than done, I am not very good at talking to people I don't know. I wish I were, but unfortunately I still worry too much about what they think of me, why as humans are we so obsessed with what people think about us? Why does it matter? They don't really know us, if they don't like us, then so what? There's a lot of other people out there to meet, and I'm sure unless you're a complete grouch then someone is going to like you. Yet, we are all (most of us anyway) worried about what other people think, and so it's almost like we live for someone else, not ourselves. What does one have to do (me in particular) to totally be themselves and not worry for a second what other people think of us? I wish so badly that I could answer that question! That would be such freedom!! Wow, I sure have rambled on and on, but I guess the main point I want to get across with this post, is that I absolutely LOVE all the amazing friends that I have! You are all the best. LeeAnn, thanks for all the time you spend with me, I absolutely love talking to you and being there for you. Holly and Annie, to the best two highschool buddies one could ever ask for, thanks for getting me through those years. Heather, thanks so much to you and your family for your love and friendship, you guys mean so much to us, we really miss you! McKenna, thanks so much for your advice and teaching me valuable lessons through your trials. You truly are a gift to all those who know you, hang in there! Jenna, thanks so much for your friendship, you and Seth are awesome and I don't think you realize how much we look up to you. You are an amazing person and friend, and it means a lot to me to be able to call you my friend. To anyone I've forgotten, just know that you are amazing people, to my family and my husbands family (who I consider my own family) I love you all so much and am forever grateful for the blessings I have received by being in your circle! I just love so many people right now that it would be impossible to give a shout out to everyone. Last but not least, my wonderful husband, he is such an amazing person, who loves and supports me no matter what. Even when I make mistakes, he is quick to forgive and love me despite my flaws. Hope this wasn't a bore, it's really long, and if you made it all the way to the end, then you really must love me. Thanks so much to everyone who has touched my life!!

Christmas...finally!

2009-01-15T14:55:00.004-07:00

Ok, so here are the promised pictures from Christmas, I was finally able to get them on the computer. So I guess I should also write about our day as well. We started off by waking up the girls and letting them open their presents, yes, we did wake up our kids. It was crazy we were up until three finishing my little brothers present and then I woke up at 6:30 and made Randy get up and then we woke up the girls and brought them downstairs. They all had fun unwrapping their gifts and it was really wierd to have Hailey read the names on the presents and say who they were to, crazy how they grow up! Then we headed out to Randy's moms house where we ate crepes for breakfast and unwrapped presents there, which my sister-in-law Sam and her husband did the coolest thing ever!! Sam wrote a little story which starred our girls, then they had a HUGE box that they stuffed full of packing peanuts, wrapping paper, bubble sheets, small candy canes, and then 8 bigger candy canes and the objective was to find these 8 candy canes. The girls absolutely LOVED it!! They had such a blast swimming (literally) through everything! Then we headed over to my familys house where we had breakfast casserole for lunch and opened gifts there. After spending some time there we went to my grandma's house and visited them for a little while. Then we came home and enjoyed a nice big pancake, eggs, and sausage breakfast (that's right, we had breakfast three times that day). It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed ourselves. And now, the reason for this post being so late, some of the pictures from that day

I hope that everyone had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did!

Medical Month

2009-01-09T13:45:00.002-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything, partly because I've been trying to wait until I get pictures on to our computer so I can post pictures of Christmas. I have decided however to write a blog because I have much to say to relieve my mind of all the thoughts running through it, I will however still be posting a Christmas post with pictures from the day (it's pretty sad it's taken me this long).

So, anyone who reads my blog knows whats going on with Katie, I called Primary Children's urology unit to schedule an appointment but they needed her to have an ultrasound first and also needed my doctor to make a referral there for her. So we scheduled her ultrasound, which she did really good with (I wasn't with her, Randy took her and I stayed home with the other two). The lady who does all the referrals for the clinic we go to called me yesterday and told me I could probably call at the first of next week to schedule an appointment for her. Then there's me. About a month or so ago, I discovered a small lump in my right breast, I haven't really worried about it at all, but Randy kept telling me I needed to get it checked out, then I told my mom and she said I needed to get it checked out. Then I made the mistake of talking to my sister-in-law about it (for those of you that know LeeAnn you know why she's so awesome) and I received a daily phone call from her asking me if I made the appointment. So I finally did and my doctor doesn't really think it's anything but he told me he "doesn't mess with breasts" so he sent me to a surgeon at Mountain View Hospital. But before I see him on the 20th of this month I have to have a mammogram and an ultrasound which will happen on Wednesday. Can I just tell you, I can't wait until all this medical stuff is DONE!! I'm so tired of calling and making appointments for stuff. Oh well, I guess it's better to take care of things now.

Other than all that stuff we are doing well, I've been doing a lot of deep thinking lately (don't die of shock now, I do actually use my brain) and soul searching so to speak. I've decided there are a lot of things I need to change about myself this year, I'm sure I'm being harder on myself than anyone else would be, but that's what's great about it, I can do that. I have no idea if that sentence made sense. Anyway, I've been a little down on myself though, and I hate being that way, so if any of you have any ideas on how to be hard on yourself (so you can make necessary changes) without being down on yourself, please share them with me. Well, I guess I should go get some house work done now. Look for the Christmas post soon, I promise it's coming!

Life challenges

2008-12-29T15:43:00.003-07:00

Today has been an interesting day, I don't think a lot of people know about Katie so I will give a little background to today. On December 19th Katie got sick, she had a fever and threw up a couple of times, her fever was about 102.7, so on Saturday I took her in to see the doctor. Thankfully while we were there the nurse was asking us all these questions and it came out that Katie was complaining when she peed that it hurt her bum. So they had us get a urine sample. It came back that she had a kidney infection, so the doctor told me about the body and how the kidney sends stuff down to the bladder through a tube (or something like that, I'm not a doctor) and there's a flap that is supposed to stop the urine from going back up to the kidney. So either the bacteria got in through her blood stream or that flap isn't working properly and it came from the bladder. So we had to schedule a procedure (that ended up being today) that would check to see if the flap was working. Fast forward to today, we took her to the hospital to have it done. They had to put a catheter in and emptied her bladder, and then they put in a TON of dye, I couldn't believe how much they put in. Then they took pictures (by X-ray) and then they had her empty her bladder and then they took more pictures. It turns out that the flap isn't working quite right because there was dye in her kidney. It was miserable for Katie, but she did such a good job. I think the worst part of it was the urge to go pee, you should have seen how huge her bladder was compared to what it looked like after she peed. Poor thing!! She did such a good job though, and I got to comfort her, which amazed me. I really don't know how to explain what I'm feeling, but I was so scared for this procedure, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to handle it, but I put all my fears aside and was there for Katie. It was just amazing to me how much I seemed to step up to the plate and do what I needed to do. Anyway, afterward we went and got ice cream. Thankfully this procedure didn't have any lasting effects, as soon as it was over, it was over! She's such a big girl!!

Recommendations

2008-12-17T13:57:00.003-07:00

Ok, so I don't really have a lot of time to write a long post right now, but I just had to share a book recommendation. "The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands" it is the most amazing book, it is such a fun read. I am only on the third chapter but I've already discovered some things that I need to work on. Laura Schlessinger is the author and she is so matter of fact and straight forward that it's hilarious sometimes, I love it. I highly highly recommend it to everyone!! The other book I want to give a shout out to is actually co-written by my dad. It's called "Santa's Secret" it's a fictionalized timeline story of true experiences my dad has had while being Santa Claus, it's a very heart touching book. It's an amazing add to your Holiday book collection. Anyway, that's all I have time for today, oh wait no it's not. One more thing, I don't know if any of you watch Studio 5 (those of us in Utah) but they had an awesome idea on the other day. They showed how to make your own tutu for your girls. I was in the Provo Towne Centre Mall yesterday and saw a little stand that had tutus. I examined it closely and it was made exactly the way this lady does it, they were selling for about 30 dollars and you can make your own for about 7-14 (if you really add a lot of embellishments) dollars. And they are way cute! Check out their website at studio5.ksl.com it's awesome!!

Hello Christmas!

2008-12-12T14:36:00.002-07:00

I can't believe that Christmas is only two weeks away, it's insane! We finally got our Christmas tree up, we had to wait until we got rid of our entertainment center. (Shameless plug: We are selling our entertainment center, so if you know of anyone looking for one, we're selling ours for about $200.) We're not planning on doing anything big for Christmas this year, Santa already came to our house this year! But I am planning on buying a gift for Randy even though he's mad at me for doing so, but it's one that he really needs. You know, it's kind of depressing growing up, unlike a lot of other people, I don't particularly enjoy buying my own gifts. I don't mind buying the bulk of my gifts but I LOVE surprises!! I don't know how many people know that about me, but I absolutely love them, the only problem.... it's really hard to surprise me. I've only had one Christmas that really stands out in my mind where I was really surprised by most of my gifts. That was an awesome Christmas!! I think there's only one person that could really surprise me and that's my sister Gina, and I think that's because she knows the way I think when it comes to things like that. Anyway, I went off there for a minute sorry. So for the last couple of days all Hailey talks about is a tea party and she has been driving me nuts because she wants to make cookies for said tea party. All day yesterday I had to keep putting all my sugar and sprinkles and food coloring back because she would get them out to make cookies. She would also get out a cookie sheet and the rolling pin. It's driving me CRAZY!! I want to make cookies with her but this weekend is INSANELY busy so I'm not sure that we'll be able to make cookies until next week. We'll just have to see how it goes, maybe we can do that after Randy gets home from work. Well anyway, I have a lot to do today but I just wanted to write a quick post to let everyone know we're doing well, and I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season!!

Good Times

2008-12-02T12:20:00.002-07:00

So, it has again been awhile since I have written, it seems I'm starting a habit, and not a good one. So we've had a lot of good times lately, first we had Thanksgiving which turned out to be a lot of fun. We went to my families house this year and had a lot of fun, we didn't do the traditional meal this year. Instead we had my dad's turkey (which is seriously the BEST turkey, I don't really like turkey but his is AWESOME) and rolls and bread, and then we just had salads, chips, dip and of course stuffing. It was way good, I'm not a huge fan of all the regular stuff at Thanksgiving except for the stuffing and potatoes. I don't like sweet potatoes at ALL!! And of course we had my mom's pumpkin pie (which isn't actually pumpkin at all it's actually made out of banana squash, but it's the BEST). I'm really liking the capitalized letters, if you haven't noticed. So that was a lot of fun, and then yesterday we had Katie's third birthday, I can't believe she's 3 already. It's insane, I feel really bad though because I always make a slide show of my kids year, but Katie's birthday seriously snuck up on me and where Thanksgiving was three days before her birthday I didn't really have time to do one. But I will, I promise!

I am starting to get the Christmas bug, I can't wait to wrap gifts for others, and I can't wait to sing Christmas songs, and have Christmas parties, and getting together with family! I love the feel of this season, it's awesome!! Well, I need to go and take care of stuff, because I will be gone tonight, I finally get to go to Bunco after like three or four months of not going. I can't wait!! Until next time.... Have fun!!

Husband tag

2008-11-25T17:18:00.003-07:00

So I was tagged by my friend Heather, sorry it's taken me so long Heather, I promise I didn't forget about ya!!

And here he is, the love of my life, my best friend!!

~What is your husband's full name? Randy Todd David Grimes

~How long have you been married? 5 years 6 almost 7 months

~How long did you date? 5 months

~How old is he? 27

~Who eats more sweets? Probably me

~Who said "I love you" first? I honestly don't remember, is that sad or just pathetic?

~Who is taller? Randy by about 7 inches :0)

~Who can sing the best? Me

~Who is smarter? It depends on the subject, there are some things I know more about, and others he knows more about. So I'd say about the same.

~Who does the laundry? Me, but Randy will put in a load here and there for me, and he would help me fold the laundry if I wasn't so picky.

~Who pays the bills? Me, but Randy supplies the moula! (Thanks hon!)

~Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? It depends on the angle you're looking from. If you're standing in front of the bed then I'm on the right, but if you're lying down I'm on Randy's left and he's on my right. Confusing enough yet?

~Who mows the lawn? Probably our landlords, we're not for sure. Previously it was Randy, but I LOVED mowing it when he let me. (We had a riding lawnmower)

~Who cooks dinner? Me

~Who drives? Most of the time Randy, but there are times when I do.

~Who kissed who first? Randy, and it wasn't that great for him, because I had no idea it was coming.

~Who asked who out first? Well technically LeeAnn (my sister-in-law) asked first, she set us up and actually kind of set up the first three times we did something. But after that, it might have been me, I'm not sure.

~Who wears the pants? Well we both wear pants :0) I would say it's a mutual thing.

I tag McKenna and Samantha

Long time again

2008-11-18T10:55:00.008-07:00

So, things have been a little crazy! I've wanted to put up pictures from Halloween and such but our computer hasn't been reading our SD card lately, actually it doesn't even register that it's there, so I haven't been able to get the pictures on to our computer which has given me an excuse not to blog. But that's gone now, I was able to get the pictures on our computer today, so brace yourself there's a lot of cute pictures I want to share. First I'll share our Halloween pictures. Hailey was a witch, Katie was a Lion and Zoe was a pumpkin.

Halloween wasn't as fun this year because we ended up being in Elk Ridge all night because we had renters moving in on the 1st so we had to get things ready. On top of all that Randy threw out his back that night as well so getting things done took a lot longer than it should have. It was a lot of fun to dress the girls up though, I put make up on the girls which wasn't too bad on Hailey, but Katie was a killer!! She was not much fun to try to get to stay still. They looked so grown up!! It was kind of scary though, I got a small glimpse of the future. A lot has been going on here, the girls are getting bigger all the time, but especially Zoe, she has grown so much in such the past month! I attribute it to her being on cow's milk, and I'm getting braver in what I feed her. She has learned to crawl up the stairs and makes it all the way up, but it makes me nervous because I'm afraid she'll try to get back down and tumble her way down. Oh well, what do you do huh? I'm also ECSTATIC because we got a guinea pig!!! I have wanted one now for quite a while and I was finally able to get one. A family in our old ward was giving a few away so I nabbed one for us and one for my mother-in-law, we took the two babies. Ours is a girl, her name is Rosie and my mother-in-law took the boy. Weslie named him Joey, they are SOOOOOOO cute!! Here is Rosie with Joey, Joey is the one with the white strip on his nose.
I'll tell ya, we've got quite the array of pets, in our house we have a male beta fish named Zipper, we have a female tarantula Shiloh, and now a female guinea pig Rosie. Then my mom and sister have birds (my mom has one, Gina has two) and my sister-in-law has a snake. That's quite the collection!! I think my Rosie is simply adorable!!

Long time

2008-10-29T16:15:00.002-06:00

So I don't have a lot of time to write right now, but it's been awhile since I've blogged anything so I thought I would type up a quick little update. Things are going pretty well, we potty trained Katie this week, it's been awesome, she's done really well. She's only had three or four "wet" accidents and NO poopy accidents. It's been awesome!!! It's funny how excited parents get over seeing a poop or pee in the toilet. A week ago Katie said she had to go potty (she had been going every 5-10 minutes all day and she wasn't doing anything) so I let her go and left her to it. After a while she told me she needed me for a minute. So I went in there expecting to just help her get off the toilet. When I went in she said she had peed "Yeah right" is what I'm thinking. So I look in the toilet and I see toilet paper so then I'm getting annoyed because she wasted toilet paper. Then in the bottom I see a poop, and I started freaking out, I said "Katie you pooped!!" and then I started laughing and jumping up and down with Katie and hugging her. Katie just got this big huge grin on her face and looked at me like what the heck got in to you? It was really funny!! But she's been going now for a week and this morning her pull up was totally dry, so we'll see how it goes at night, but she's pretty much potty trained, its awesome!!! Let's see, Zoe has started crawling on her hands and knees, until she really wants to start moving, then she reverts back to the army crawl. She's started to attempt to pull herself up to things, and she said hi a couple of times now. The other major thing going on right now is that we found a family to rent the house in Elk Ridge which has meant double time work on the home to get it ready for them to move into this weekend!! It's been crazy insane!! Well, I'll be posting some fun pictures we've taken recently so be on the lookout, until then enjoy life!!

Funny

2008-10-14T23:57:00.003-06:00

So I found this video while I was going through and labeling all the movies we have on our computer. I think it's so cute! I had put Hailey's hair in curlers because she wanted me to. She looked so cute! She is such a fun little girl to have around the house, she can be a real sweetheart! I hope you enjoy these as much as I did, the end of the video is my favorite part. I also decided to post some of the pictures I took of her with the curlers in, she looked so cute, but weird because it made her look more grown up.

Birthday fun, and misery

2008-10-13T16:30:00.009-06:00

Zoe's birthday went well and we'd like to thank everyone who came over to help celebrate her birthday with us. She absolutely LOVED her cake, she ate two whole pieces of cake and she ate it all! She got a few outfits and a puzzle, it's quite interesting shopping for her, we bought her a short sleeved onesie that's a 3-6 month size, two long sleeved onesies that are size 6 months and a pair of pants that's size 9 months. All for my 12 month old daughter! It's kind of irritating buying clothes for her, but we did end up finding cute stuff, let's just say I'll be shopping at Target for most of her clothes. They had so many cute clothes there, it was hard to pick something out for her. However, turning one also comes with it's downfalls: the one year checkup!!

So I took her to the doctor today and he was a little concerned about her growth, so he called the pediatrician to see if we needed to take her to an endocrinologist to see if she has growth hormone deficiencies. After talking with him he told me they'll wait until she's two and then if she hasn't seen much growth then we'll have to go up to Children's Primary Center to see an endocrinologist. But they wanted to take a few blood samples to test her for some other things. So then he left and they gave her 5 shots, they've been out of the hemoglobin shot so she hasnt' been getting those, she also got a TB shot in her arm. Then we had to take her to have her blood drawn. They had me bring her into their "emergency room" and had me lay her down on the table and then they put the needle in her arm. Poor Zoe, this definately wasn't a very fun doctor visit. I handled everything fine until I got to the van and then I just started bawling. I don't mind having small kids, but I'm so tired of worrying that there's possibly something wrong with her. My doctor made it seem like even if she did have growth hormone deficiencies that it wasn't that big of a deal and he told me his daughter actually had this problem and she just needed to have shots. Zoe is off the charts in weight which she has been since her 3 month checkup but she's been going up. Her height dropped from the 50% down to 5% so maybe that's why he was a little concerned.

Anyway, here are some of the pictures that we took yesterday and a video of her eating her cake. There's two of them, the first is when I first gave it to her and the second I handed the camera to my wonderful sister-in-law LeeAnn so I could help dish up the cake. Both are so cute!!

It ups my chances!

2008-10-12T22:11:00.000-06:00

On October 15 a new website will be opening! It has all kinds of really cute handbags. If you go check it out right now you can enter to win a free one!! www.handbagplanet.com

Accomplishments

2008-10-11T11:25:00.002-06:00

So this morning at about 7:00 I was lying in bed thinking I was awake (in retrospect I was still very much asleep) and I was writing a blog in my head. I was thinking about what I wanted to blog but I was actually watching my fingers hit each note on the keyboard. Then I would drive myself crazy because I was going too slow so I would just start saying what I wanted to write. It was very bizarre!! Anyway, so I wanted to take a moment to talk about a huge accomplishment I've made, and I hope this blog doesn't make anyone feel bad (I'll explain why later).

For the past year I have been able to breastfeed Zoe, this is a HUGE accomplishment for me and a HUGE testimony builder as well. Let me explain why, I wasn't able to nurse my first two girls. I nursed Hailey for three weeks and the last two days were terrible but I didn't dare tell Randy I didn't want to nurse her anymore (I'm not particularly sure why). But I finally told him I would rather bash my head in with a rock then feed her. Thankfully he was very understanding (I was serious about the bashing head thing). So the whole experience with Hailey wasn't good, then I had Katie and while I was in the hospital I had a really hard time with it. I remember I felt like I started right where I finished off with Hailey. The nurses had the lactation consultant come in and she was there for 45 minutes and she was insane! I was so frustrated by the time she left that I just broke down and bawled for about 45 minutes. So while I was in the hospital I decided that I wanted to enjoy this baby and I didn't think I would be able to if I nursed her. Well, I always felt a little guilty that I didn't really give her a good try, so when I was pregnant with Zoe I decided that I was really going to give it my best shot. Here comes the testimony building part. As the due date got closer I kept telling Randy that I didn't want any help from nurses or anybody, if I was going to nurse her it would be between me, Zoe and the Lord. For any of you who have had children, most the time the nurses will ask you if it's your first child or not, then they usually ask if you are breastfeeding, or not. Well, they asked me if this was my first, I would tell them, no this is my third. Then they would ask if I was breastfeeding, when I told them yes, I think they figured that I had nursed the other two and that I was a pro. Thankfully no one asked if I nursed the other two, until they were giving me the "checkout" speeches. Anyway, I remember while I was in the hospital I would pray for help before I nursed her. It sounds a little stupid, but I was kind of scared to nurse Zoe because of my prior experiences. I remember the day after I had her was a particularly bad day. I was lonely and I really wanted Randy with me but he was home with the other two and we didn't have a babysitter. I was having a hard time with nursing her and I was getting very frustrated. So I prayed and I told myself I needed to relax, so I listened to my I-pod nano and looked out the window at the scenery. I also had to erase everything I had read or heard about nursing and just went on instincts, best thing I did I think.

Anyway, to make an already long story short, I've been able to nurse Zoe this whole time and it's such an amazing thing for me. I still can't believe sometimes that I was actually able to do it. I can't say I've always enjoyed it, in fact about 6 months ago I wanted to stop soooo bad, but I knew I would regret it. Now, I'm a little sad to think I'll be done. Now the reason I hope this doesn't offend anyone is because it's pushed so hard everywhere to nurse your baby, and I believe it causes feelings of failure for those that can't breastfeed. For anyone who hasn't been able to or didn't want to breastfeed their baby, I know how you feel. I have been on both sides of this issue and I know from personal experience, breastfeeding isn't for everyone. It's not an easy thing, and if you can't nurse your child, DON"T EVER LET ANYONE MAKE YOU FEEL GUILTY!! Breastfeeding your child isn't the most important thing in life, what's important is that your baby is loved!! It always bugs me when women are so fixed on one way or the other! Anyway, this whole experience has been a testimony builder that when you really put your life in Heavenly Fathers hands, trust in him, and fully accept that you can't do it without him you can do anything!!

I am thankful for my little one, and for her presence in our home this past year. I'm thankful to my Heavenly Father for the help I have received with her and with my other two children. I love my family so much, they mean the world to me. I'm thankful to all my friends, for your love and support. I'm also grateful for my extended family and my in-laws, they are all wonderful!!
So, this post has been kind of a weird one, oh well, I guess it suits me then doesn't it!!

Getting Ready

2008-10-10T11:22:00.002-06:00

So this Sunday is Zoe's first birthday, I can't believe it's already here! I have so much housework to get done before then and it's just simply INSANE!!! It wouldn't be so bad, but for the past week or so I've been really depressed, which makes it hard to do anything. It's amazing how many people my depression affects, when I dealt with depression in highschool it didn't seem like such a big deal. It wasn't fun, but it was much easier to deal with then! I finally decided that I need to talk to my doctor, so when I take Zoe to the doctor on Monday I am going to talk to him and see if he'll prescribe me something. This has been a very hard decision for me to make, I think that women have this tendency to feel like they are failures if they admit that they need help. It's so sad, because anyone suffering from depression just isn't themselves, and if they get help they start to feel normal again. I don't know if medication will help, but I definately don't think it will hurt. I'm kind of excited, if it helps it will be such a blessing!! I hate who I become when I'm depressed, I'm not a good mom, wife or homemaker. It's terrible!! Anyway, hopefully I didn't put a damper on anyones spirits that read this!

Anyway, not much of an exciting post, but I don't really have time to make it cutesy, as I said above, I have a LOT of work to do before Sunday. My next post will be all sorts of fun though, because I will have pictures of Zoe's birthday, I can't tell you how excited I am to watch her eat her first piece of cake, I think she'll tear into more than the other two did. Well, hope you have a great day (or night depending on when you are reading this) and come back soon to see pictures of Zoe with her cake!!

Friends

2008-10-06T11:45:00.003-06:00

Our good friends the Grimes (not related), all these pictures are kind of old.

Heather with her kids, they feel asleep and they were holding hands
Marc, what a goof ball!
Hannah and Hailey
Heather holding Zoe

How come in life we seem to always take what we have for granted, and we don't realize how much it means to us until it's gone? Lately I have really missed our good friends Marc and Heather Grimes, they moved to Salt Lake and it's not that far away, but it might as well be in another state. This past week has been especially hard, Randy and I love to have people over to play games, or watch a movie, or just hang out. The problem is, we don't have very many friends, and there have been a few we've hung out with, but I've realized there's no one like the Grimes family. Our kids played so great together, and we got along so well with Marc and Heather, in fact Marc has been like a brother to Randy, and it was so much fun to see them together (for those that don't know, Randy doesn't have any brothers). It's just amazing how much you don't realize how much you care about someone till there gone. So, Heather, I just want to thank you for being such a good friend to me, I'm sure it's not always easy to be my friend. I know many times I talked your ear off and didn't let you say much, and for those times, I'm sorry, I wish I would have asked more questions and listened a little better. But on the same token, thank you so much for listening to me, it meant the world to me! I'm sorry we didn't make more of an effort to come see you guys more while you were in Orem. We miss you like crazy!! And we love you guys, hopefully we'll get to see you soon, I think we seriously want to plan a time in the next month or two when we can come up and see you guys.

Anyway, sorry for this odd post, but lately I have been feeling very lonely, which is ridiculous, I am surrounded by people! I just think I miss the kind of friendships you have in highschool, or college, or when you work with people. I just miss having a really close girlfriend. They really are a gift from Heaven when you find a good one! I hope no one takes offense to this blog, I do have a lot of good friends, and I love each of you! I should be a better friend and call all of my good friends, but sometimes it's hard for me. My two really good friends from highschool (Annie, and Holly) are some of the best friends ever, but because I feel so different in my life circumstances (I have three kids they don't have any) I sometimes feel out of place. It's funny how your current stage in life changes how you feel the world looks at you. I wish I could just see myself as Jessica, but instead I categorize myself as a mom. Now please don't misunderstand what I'm saying, I love being a mom, I love my daughters so much and they give so much to my life! But sometimes I think I get too caught up in that and I don't know how to just be me. I don't know if this makes any sense at all, it probably doesn't. I just wish I saw myself as Jessica, who is a mom instead of a Mom who is Jessica. I really don't know how to explain what I've been feeling lately, so sorry about this blog, it probably doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's always nice to express how I feel.

My Wonderful Husband!

2008-09-29T16:57:00.006-06:00

So I am really excited for today, it's my best friends birthday! I had a really cool surprise for Randy, I bought him rounds for his gun, he didn't know I got them and I was so excited because he's wanted them for a long time now (since we got his gun which was probably about a year ago). I can't tell you how excited I was to surprise him with them ( hopefully it was a surprise!) I love his birthday so much, it's funner than mine! We're also planning on going to Chile's for his birthday dinner, totally free!! He's been earning gift cards to Chile's for about the past month or two and so we have about 65 to 70 dollars in gift certificates, I think we'll be able to get a pretty good meal for that :0)

So I saw this on a friends blog (I think it was McKenna's, thanks!) and I'm going to steal the idea because I thought it was REALLY cute!

Randy is turning 27, so here's 27 reasons I adore him (there's a lot more than that!)

1. You love me so much, and I know it. You always do little things that show me. My favorite is that my nick name (if that's what you want to call it) is Georgeous

2. You always say thank you for the little things I do for you, like hide notes in your suitcase when you go on trips. I love that you love when I do those things for you

3. I absolutely love how easy it is for me to surprise you with things! I don't know if it's because I'm unusually good at hiding things, or if it's because you don't pay attention to tiny details that would give things away. Either way, I love it!

4. You are so patient with me, I have a lot of things I need to work on and when I accomplish little things that I'm excited about you get excited for me too.

5. I love it when you do silly things that make me laugh and sometimes pee my pants (It was the day before I had Zoe, so I guess I had an excuse!)

6. I like it when you talk about tv's and even though I have no idea what you're talking about, I'm glad you talk to me anyway!

7. I love it when you catch me looking at you, you always get this really cute grin!

8. I love to buy you Oreos, it's cute that you like them so much! It's nice to give you that little treat when you come home after work. (He loves Oreos and milk).

9. I love it when you buy me a rose for no reason other than to tell me you love me. I will always remember the time you put a rose on the truck while I was working at H&R Block and then hid around the corner to make sure I got it.

10. I really liked how good you looked in those pants we got you for your birthday (or Christmas, I don't remember which). You know, the ones your family called girl pants. We need to find you some more pants like that.

11. I love that you get excited that you're getting a belly, then you get upset because you don't fit into your old pants anymore. You can't have it both ways.

12. Speaking of, I think it's hilarious that you think you have a belly, you have to poke it out just for people to see it.

13. I love that whenever you can't find anything, for the most part I know where it is. I also love it when I tell you where something is, and you look for it and can't find it. Then I go look in the same spot I told you it was in, and I find it.

14. I love that I can finish your sentences, and that our thoughts are exactly the same a lot of times.

15. I love taking pictures of you while you are sleeping! I'll never forget when you were holding the remote and fell asleep, that was awesome!

16. I love how hot you look in your work clothes. I have always liked you in Sunday clothes!!

17. I love your testimony and your strength, it gives me comfort and strength.

18. I absolutely love that you hold the priesthood so worthily, and that you are so willing to bless our family with it.

19. I love to cuddle with you.

20. I love that I drive you crazy!

21. I love your hands

22. I absolutely love your smile

23. I love your laugh, especially when you laugh really hard

24. Your such a good dad to the girls, they adore you and I love to watch you play with them.

25. I love to watch Zoe crawl as fast as she can to you when you get home

26. You turn into such a kid when you talk about sound equipment, or trucks, or tools

27. I love that I get the chance to spend forever with you! I hope you can handle me for that long!

I hope that you have a wonderful birthday, I love you very much honey!!

Tagged

2008-09-25T13:10:00.008-06:00

I got tagged by my friend Heather. "You have to take 10 pictures of the following things and you have to do it right away. No straightening, cleaning or wiping your child's nose (I mean it!)."

KIDS: This is amazing, I actually got all of them to smile. Hailey, Zoe, and Katie

BATHROOM: This is one of our bathrooms, we also have a half bathroom downstairs. The other bathroom is the one that looks cute, but we use this one the most. So there you go. CLOSET: I LOVE our closet, it's the coolest closet I've ever seen. It's a walk in closet, and it has built in shelves everywhere. It's kind of crazy looking right now. MY SHOES: Hehe, I'm not wearing any, aren't my feet funny looking? MY FRIDGE:It's crazy, we have a lot of magnets, the girls like to play with them. MY KITCHEN SINK: Need I say more? MY LAUNDRY ROOM: The stuff on top of the dryer and washer aren't normally there, I've actually been really good so far at keeping them cleaned off. Favorite Room: Ok, so it's not a room, but this is one of my favorite things about our apartment. This is my little alcove, I put in two pictures to kind of show you how cool this little landing is. ME: I look so out of it, almost like I'm on something. Oh well, this is me!
DREAM VACATION: This one was really hard, because there's so many places that I want to go, I would love to go to Australia, Ireland, and Switzerland. These are all pictures of Ireland.

Now, I tag McKenna, Sam, and Jenna. Have fun!!

I'm back

2008-09-25T12:59:00.003-06:00

Ok, so it's been a really long time since I've posted anything because we haven't had internet. So, finally I say what's been up with the Grimes Family. So anyone who doesn't know yet, we moved to South Provo, and so far we really like it here. Randy and I were commenting the other day that it's really weird, he filled up the jag last Thursday and he still has between 1/2 and 3/4 of a tank left. A tank of gas used to only last us a week while we were living in Elk Ridge. It's been nice, but I didn't realize how stressfull moving was and I'm so glad we don't do it very often! I didn't feel stressed while it was going on, but now that I look back at the past few weeks, I realize how much it threw our lives into a tail spin. It's finally starting to stabilize and feel like normal life.

So, Hailey started Preschool and she loves it!! She also starting a reading school where she also gets to work on computers (thanks Sandy for the heads up), she absolutely loves it, and looks so cute! They wear these big headphones that also have a mic on it, I'll have to take a picture tomorrow because she really looks so cute! Katie is talking more and more, and it's a little freaky! She can't wait until she gets to go to school too, that won't be for a couple of years though. She'll go to Sunbeams in January, which is going to be a little weird! For the most part they play together well, but they definately have their days. Zoe is my little Easy Come Easy Go girl, she doesn't seem in a hurry to walk or stand by herself although she LOVES to do these things. She still hasn't attempted to do it on her own and she's still army crawling. She will go up on her hands and knees, but when she starts to move, she goes right back to the army crawl. She also loves to cuddle, and she still loves me! I only have a couple of weeks until she is one, which is a scary thought to me, I can't believe it snuck up so fast. I am excited to be done nursing, I've enjoyed it, but it will be nice to just be me. I'm a little nervous that she'll have a hard time weaning, she really enjoys her morning time and bed time feedings. Zoe now has three teeth on the bottom, and I'm pretty sure I saw a third tooth on the top peeking through.

All of us are doing well, I'm really excited for some changes that Randy and I are making, I think they will really improve our lives. Life is so exciting, everyday is a chance for something better! Everyday we can decide to make our lives better or worse, or let them stay the same. I feel like we are finally moving forward, it's a very exciting time!!

It's been awhile

2008-08-20T16:38:00.002-06:00

So, it's been awhile since I've written a blog. Life has been insane!! So about two weeks ago we decided we need to move to Provo or Orem. WOW!! Making that kind of a decision sure sends your life into a whirl wind. We finally found an apartment that we are really excited about, but we need to wait another couple of days to find out if we got it. We're pretty sure we did seeing as they didn't even advertise it. It's in South Provo, which is a little more South than we wanted but it will work. Anyway, I can't wait until the next three to four weeks are over, especially the next few days. Randy and I have been so on edge and ornery lately, it's hard when you don't feel like you know what's going on with your life. We're way excited to move though, it will be a lot of fun to be closer to everything. Well, that's about all I have time for right now. I need to write another blog soon though, I have a few cute pictures I want to post. Anyway, until then, have fun!!

Ever thought you missed it?

2008-08-07T15:47:00.002-06:00

Ok, so have you ever had a time in your life where you felt like you lucked out and missed something that you didn't want to do? I've had a couple of experiences that I can think of, the first (I'm sure I've had more than this, but these are the two that I remember): You know how when you move into a new ward they generally make you speak and introduce yourself? Well when we moved to Elk Ridge, they never asked us to speak so I thought we got out of it, but I was wrong, it just took them about a year to ask us. The second, you know how just about everyone has an experience with their children cutting their own hair, or that of a sibling? I thought we missed out on that with Katie, but today she proved it's never too late to experience that. Randy changed Zoe, and in the five minutes it took to do so, Katie found a pair of scissors and cut some of her hair. Thankfully you can't even really tell that she did, but it just made me realize, you're never in the "clear" with things like that. Oh well.

I realized today just how much I love my kids, I've been sick, and I tried to take a nap today, Zoe was asleep, so I knew my window was short, I was trying to get Katie to stay in her room. Finally she did, but I only got about 15-30 minutes of sleep before Zoe woke up. Thankfully though I've found a way to be able to snooze on the couch, all I have to do is put in the Nature movie we made, put Zoe in her bouncer and keep Cheerios on her tray. So I did that today just so I could relax and hopefully get some of this pressure in my sinus' to subside. As I was laying there, all I could do was watch Zoe, I am just so amazed at kids, they truly are a miracle. We all are, it was so fun to watch her get excited over things, waving her little arms. How can you look at babies, and reflect on the complexities of the human body and not believe in God? How can you believe that we just evolved, or just happened to come about. It just doesn't make sense to me. I struggle sometimes, and forget the miracle that my children are, but I have been trying to do better at constantly remembering that they're not my children at all, they're Heavenly Father's children and he has trusted me to take care of them. How I hope I can do a job that would make him proud. I know in moments of weakness I am the exact opposite of what he wants for his children, but I also feel that in moments when I slow down and try to be understanding I am closer to the Mother that God wants me to be. I do love my children, and I love my husband!

Speaking of my husband, yesterday I had one of those moments where I realize how much I love him and how blessed I am to have him. It's been five years now since we were first married, and although it hasnt' always been easy it has always been fun. I used to think that the marriage that Randy and I share was more or less average, everyone had a marriage like ours, but I am coming to realize that's not the case. I'm sure there are other people that do have one like ours, but I've heard so many people say that there were times that they wanted to get out. I have never felt that way, Randy and I have never yelled at each other, we've never really fought, we've hurt each others feelings before, but we always talk it out and we always forgive each other and move on. I love my husband so much, for the wonderful friend he is to me, and for the awesome father that he is to our three girls. They adore their dad, I love to watch him play with the girls, and I can't wait to see him pal around with his son (just so you know, I am not making an announcement, not for another year). I am so grateful for my family, not just Randy and the girls, but for my parents and siblings, and Randy's parents and siblings. I love them all so much!
I'm grateful for the wonderful blessing of families!

Harding Reunion

2008-07-29T10:05:00.007-06:00

So last night we had a Family Reunion on Randy's mother's side of the family, the Harding side. It was a lot of fun, we had a talent show and then a dance it was kind of funny though because our family was pretty much the only ones dancing. We had a lot of fun though, I sang a duet with my sister-in-law LeeAnn, and Hailey and Katie sang I'm Trying to be Like Jesus. They did a really good job! I was so proud of them. I love to hear Hailey sing, it's so cute. There were a few other talents as well, and we found out that Randy's cousin was headed up to Salt Lake today for the American Idol auditions, he's good enough to make it so we'll see what happens!! We also got to watch Grandpa's flowers blossom. He has flowers that blossom at night and then they die the next morning. It was so awesome to actually get to watch the flower open up. Grandpa is an amazing gardner. So I've had some pictures I've wanted to post for a while now. These were taken a few weeks ago at a park in Payson. We went and met a friend of mine there and our kids all played together, she has two, a little girl whose a year and a boy who is almost three. They all had a lot of fun.

Camping

2008-07-26T20:09:00.005-06:00

Ok, so we went camping this weekend, it was a lot of fun but it's so stressful with little kids. But we all had fun, and I got to see me cousin Steven who I haven't seen in eight years, so it was really awesome!! We went camping with my mom's family, it should have been my family and all my uncles and their families. However, we haven't had everyone together for about five years now. I really miss hearing my uncles and my mom talk about growing up. Sometimes I wonder how they survived to adulthood. Poor Zoe, though, she didn't have a good day Thursday because of me. I had her in her car seat to feed her, so I didn't buckle her in. Then I took her in to the trailer and put her on the bench and was trying to set up her playpen in the middle of the trailer to lay her down for a nap. All of a sudden I hear a bang and I look over and she's on the floor with her car seat on top of her. What happened ( I found this out later when I saw her do this) was she sat up and the car seat was too close to the edge of the bench, and she fell out. I felt pretty bad!! Now she has a big sore on her nose. Then later that night, we put her down to sleep and then we brought the other two in later, well Katie threw a fit and woke Zoe up. So we brought her out with us, Randy was spraying her with Off and Zoe turned her head and the mist got in her eyes. Poor thing, on top of all this, she's cutting her top two teeth right now. It was really sad. Here's the damage:

These were taken after she had a bath, this morning as we were leaving she had a face only a mother could love, she was so dirty and her nose was so red! Poor thing, I feel like such a terrible mom. Just a note, her sore looks worse then it is. It's really just a scrape, it kind of looks like a gash in the picture but it's not. It almost just looks like a bruise, just really red. Then, I almost thought we adopted black children for a while, I can't believe how dirty two little girls can get!!
They had fun, I'm just glad I put them in clothes that I'm not partial to. We did have a lot of fun, though, we ended up going to Payson Lakes and we let the girls swim, we didn't bring swimsuits so we went ghetto style! Hailey swam in her underwear and undershirt and we just took Katie's diaper off and put her onesie on and let them swim. They had fun, and we were able to get some of the dirt off. It was a ton of fun!! Really stressful but a lot of fun!

The Zoo

2008-07-26T17:16:00.008-06:00

We were able to go to the Zoo on Tuesday, it was a lot of fun. The girls all seemed to enjoy it, the favorite part of the Zoo was the Elephants. They had a little show with them, and it was really cute to see. The girls talked about seeing the Elephant pee and poop for the next couple of days. They are so cute!!! I wanted to post a few of my favorite pictures from the afternoon.

The cutest though, was that Zoe fell asleep while I was holding her.

Then I gave her to Randy so I could take the other two to the bathroom. Randy went to the van to start it and get it cooling down. When we got to the van, this is how we found them.

It was a lot of fun, I was so glad we went. Oh, I forgot, my other favorite part was the white alligator, that was pretty cool!!

One of those days!!

2008-07-14T22:51:00.003-06:00

So Saturday was one of those days where I would have gladly given Katie to someone else for the day. Everytime I turned around she was into something else. She came into the living room and was rubbing something into her hands, and I could see something around her mouth. Now, I don't understand this at all but she loves lotion, not only putting it on, but she eats it. I know, disgusting, hopefully this is a phase she'll grow out of. Anyway, I asked her what she had and she told me it was lotion, well, I could smell it and it only took me a minute to figure out that it was Desitin. So I quickly ran into her room and I found this:

Then after I took this into our room to clean, I found another toy covered in Desitin. The next thing she did was take the strawberry syrup lid off and was eating it, she had strawberry syrup all down her shirt and some on the floor. Then she spilled water all over the highchair tray. I was so ready for bed time that night. Oh yes, I forgot the last thing I found out she did. I found the teething tablets and we used to have three quarters of them left, and now we only have a quarter left. When I asked Hailey if she ate them she said, "No, Katie did." So I asked Katie if she ate them and she said she did. At least she was honest about it. I was so tired and frustrated. Oh well, I guess that's what you get with a two year old. I just don't remember this phase, I'm sure that Hailey when through the same phase, I just don't remember. I guess it balances itself out, because one minute you're ready to put them in a room for the rest of their lives and the next they melt your heart. I guess that's kids for you!

Our little Zoe

2008-07-12T16:19:00.004-06:00

Nine Months Old

2008-07-12T16:05:00.002-06:00

So today Zoe is nine months old. I can't believe how fast time goes by, it's insane!! Just a little about our little one, she loves to eat. Anytime I put her in her highchair with cheerios she just loves it! She always gives me her new little grin and she'll sit there for quite awhile as long as I keep her tray loaded with cheerios. Her favorite food is sweet potatoes, and much to the tradition of our babies, she doesn't like fruits. She's a pickier eater then our other two, Hailey and Katie ate all the veggies, but not Zoe. She's more selective on what she'll eat. She loves to have her feet by her, and she absolutely LOVES to play with Daddy!! He's about the only one who can make her laugh. She's still very selective on when she laughs, and a lot of the time it's not a full on giggle. Katie was this same way, I don't think that girl laughed until she was over a year old. But, she grinned quite easily!! Zoe is seeming to be the same way. She does laugh, and I've even captured it on camera. The other problem with Zoe is that she gets bored, so what worked one day to make her laugh doesn't work the next. Hailey and Katie love their little sister, sometimes a little too much. I have to make sure they don't try to feed her (which they have before) and I have to really watch them to make sure they are being soft with her. Zoe is definately a Momma's girl, which to tell you the truth I think I prefer to have Daddy's girls! Zoe has gotten better, but there are times when Randy gets home and I really want a break from her and she just doesn't want a break from me and cries until I hold her. Those are frustrating times, but she's gotten better. Unfortunately it's still a regular pattern for Zoe to wake up at least once in the night, but for the past two nights she has slept all night and wakes up around 6:30 but then she'll usually go back to sleep for at least another couple of hours after I nurse her. I am down to only nursing her about three to four times a day, sometimes it's more if she's fussier than normal. I am counting down the months until she's one, I can't wait to have my body back!! I'm sure that weaning her won't be as easy as I'm hoping, but maybe a miracle will occur and she won't have problems with weaning. Keep your fingers crossed!! We love our little Zoe, and I am so thankful for my girls, even on the days where sometimes I wonder, I know deep down, I don't know where I would be without my children or my wonderful husband.

Speaking of which I need to give a little shout out to my husband. For those of you that haven't heard, on the fourth of July my husband got a ticket for lighting an illegal firework. When the cop turned on his lights everyone but Randy and his mom ran into the house. Later some people asked Randy why he didn't just run into the house and Randy said it wouldn't have mattered, he was caught, and someone told him he could have just said it wasn't us, but Randy wouldn't do that. I am absolutely in love with my husband and proud of him, he is such an example to me. He is such an honest man, and he knew he had made a stupid decision and was going to face the consequences. I am so glad that he was honest when the rest of us probably wouldn't have been, what an example to our girls. I love him so much, I don't know what I would do without him!! I only hope he knows how much he means to me. Anyway, that's my little shout out to the love of my life!!

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2008-07-10T22:59:00.001-06:00