Well the first two weeks of summer where off track because we had family either in town or staying with us, which was great, so last was the first week that I could actually start a routine.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Summer Routine
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Labels: Everyday
Backyard Adventures
I have seen so many of these "open bounce" type places all over, (where they have all the big inflatables indoors) so I wanted to try one. I signed up for a utah kids club trial membership and I decided to take advantage of their 2 for 1 price.
This one was nice because instead of just have the inflatables, they also had one of their huge backyard playgrounds inside. My kids loved it!
Shay loved all the huge slides but Jasmine was not sure,
She did find this little one that suited her though:
Overall it was a fun time and I was able to get some work done while they played. Afterwards we went to Del Taco and had .49 cent tacos and then .99 milkshakes at Sonic, the peanut butter one is yum in case you haven't tried it!
p.s. hey if anyone has signed up for the utah kids club let me know what you think. It's a new thing (only a few months) but has like 5,000 members already. The link to it is here.
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Labels: Outings
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Five kids for Three Days
My sister and brother in law got the chance to go on Trek again. Why people would willingly submit themselves to this kind of torture is beyond me (much less twice). Just kidding, everyone that I know that has done it has said what a great thing it was. This time their two oldest daughters are old enough to go so that means we got to take care of the 3 youngest. We thought for sure that my youngest niece would have a hard time since she is still quite attached to her mom, but she did great! It has been a fun filled week. Here are some highlights.
We went to a Radio Disney party at the Gallivan Center on the first day. My little niece has a mad face but she was really happy. It was very, very, hot though.
And this was the outcome of the party (and a one hour wait in line):
That day we also had lunch and ran through the fountains at Liberty Park.
That night we went to see Horton Hears a Hoo which none of us had seen still.
Then on Friday we went to Jungle Jims.
Then the last day, Saturday I dragged all 5 kids to yard sales with me! My parents thought I was nuts. But they wanted to go, they could have stayed home with Jonas. Later we went to the Ogden Nature Center since we needed to drop off the kids north of SL anyway, and it was a free day. Of course it was deathly hot too. I was so worried that my nieces were going to get sun burned so bad because they are so fair skinned (well compared to mine), but luckily, they didn't.
It was a nice little walk, we should have worn better shoes though.
They had a pretty awesome tree house.
And tower thing,
See, she was happy.
It was a fun few days, I am glad that my kids have such awesome cousins!
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Saturday, June 21, 2008
Help! Any advice needed
So I have always suffered from some back pain but this pregnancy, I can't sleep! Plus I keep waking up on my back which is not good. I was wondering if anyone has any advice on those popular pregnancy pillows, the S shaped one or the wedges? I don't want to spend $30-$60 and then still not be able to sleep. Anyone?
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Friday, June 20, 2008
It's official...at least we hope!
We found out what the baby's gender is! To make it a little more special, we did the same thing as when Jasmine was born: we told the ultrasound techs that we didn't want to know yet and so they took a picture and sealed it in an envelope. (They had to turn the screen while they were checking on it.) Then we got to come home and share it with the kids, my nieces, nephew, and my mom. It was really cool.
We let Shayden open it and when he read......"boy" he was jumping up and down so happy yelling "boy! boy!"
Of course this made Jasmine so sad (I think his reaction compounded her disapointment because it felt like she had somehow lost at something) and she cried and cried "but I wanted it to be a girl!"
It was hard to calm her down until I offered to paint her nails because "that's what girls get to do". It was funny.
So we are having a boy!
I already knew it, ever since Jasmine was born I knew the next one would be a boy.
Yeah!
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Labels: Celebrations, Family
Ballet Recital 2008
Great job girls! You did amazing, I am glad I got to go finally after all these years!
All three of you are beautiful and so graceful!
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Daisy's Birthday
Us: "Okay Daisy, it's your birthday, so in order to have your treat you have to wear this hat for a picture"
Daisy: "What is this thing? I don't want to wear this, get it off"
Daisy: I mean it, I'm not wearing this thing!
Daisy: "Fine. I'll wear it for one picture. You happy? Now can I have it?"
Us: "Thanks Daisy!"
Daisy: "yeah, whatever, yum."
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Labels: Celebrations
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Father's Day 2008
This year we started a couple of new traditions. The first was making Jonas a Father's Day Tie. He got one a few years ago from our nursery leader with Jasmine's picture and now he has one with the 2 1/2 kids on it. He wore it proudly so I think he loved it, and we had fun making it. I think we will do one for each year.
(the purple gloves were for the umpa loompa dance we made him do later)
The kids and I made him a yummy breakfast and then after church we worked hard at creating our first annual Father's Day scavenger hunt. We made him run all over the place doing silly things for his presents, it was great. The kids loved seeing dad be silly, as usual.
Later that night we went to have dinner at my sister's home and opened presents, etc.
(my own silly dad)
I am so glad that I married a man that would turn out to be such a wonderful father.
Thank you Jonas, for all that you do for our family.
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Labels: Celebrations, Family
Venture Outdoors Festival
This is one of our favorite festivals this time of year. It's all about things to do outdoors so it totally gets us into the swing of summer! Kid races, archery, ice painting, and the most colorful snow plow in the city!
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Labels: Outings
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Our Family in Town from Texas
It has been such a fun week with my sister in law and 3 kids in town. They stayed at my sisters house so it was back and forth for us as much as possible.
The highlight for me was spending so much bonding time with my sister and sister in law. Sisters are awesome. I am so glad that my sister in law made the sacrifice and drove all the way here from Texas with three kids!
We did tons of shopping and went to the Olive Garden for a nice lunch.
I also loved watching the cousins play together since they don't see each other very often at all.
This little guy just pretty much stole my heart and he would not give it back! Ugh he is sooo adorable!
Come back soon Texas family!
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Last Day of School
This was Shay handing out his birthday treats for the class. He was kind of militant about it. He was lucky that he got to have a birthday celebration because the last day of school was the day before his birthday.
These are some of his best friends.
By the end of the year I was so done with homework and uniforms and making lunches and since Summer is my favorite season of all I am so happy to welcome in swimming, festivals, and warm, warm, warm! Also I am ready to have so much more time with Shayden, all day at school is a long time. (I am sure that by the end of the summer I will be ready for school to start too).
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Labels: Celebrations, Parties
Friday, June 13, 2008
Father's and Son's Campout
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Labels: Outings
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
New Blog Look!
My friend Jen made me the coolest blog template! Thank you Jen, I love it!
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Friday, June 6, 2008
Shayden's 7th Birthday!
Shayden turned 7 and I can't believe it!
I have officially hit the point where kids birthdays carry with them a measure of sadness. They are not just fun and games anymore, this is serious. He is so big to me now it feels like just yesterday...okay I'll stop.
We went to Lagoon the day of his birthday (Friday), pictures from that to come later.
Anyway, it not his turn for a big elaborate party so we just had a fun little get together at our house. He chose to watch a Hot Wheels movie and eat donuts, so that's what we did.
Then on Monday we had his family party. We were so blessed to have our family visiting from Texas so he got to celebrate with almost all of his cousins on my side!
Had to have a picture of the two birthday boys, Shayden was born on his cousin's C.R.'s birthday so they are exactly 2 years apart. Lucky!
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Labels: Celebrations, Outings, Parties
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Tracy, California
This is Jandy.
Her family kind of took Jonas under their wing when he was growing up and so they've always been like brother and sister. Now she lives with her family in North Carolina.
This is Yan. (pronounced "Yen")
She came from China to take High School classes in Louisiana, and Jandy's family adopted her. Now she lives with her family in California.
Yan just had an adorable baby girl, so the three of us met at her house to help out and have fun.
I only took Jasmine and she was in heaven because the other two kids are around her age too.
We went swimming in their community pool,
We went on walks,
We went shopping,
ate lot's of yummy food and we also watched some good movies.
Best of all we talked and talked about girly stuff and got to bond.
It's so great to have good friends.
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Labels: Vacations
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Last minute trip to Louisiana
The home Jonas grew up in
I didn't know when the next time that I would get to go would be, with the new baby coming.
So we made all the last min arrangements and headed out. I realized once we got there that this was the reason that in almost 3 years of working for Jetblue we had not made this trip. We fly on the red eye flight to New York and then still had another 3 hours flight to New Orleans and then still had another 1 1/2 hour drive to Baton Rouge from there!
We went first to Baton Rouge which is where his mom and a couple of sisters and nieces live. I was surprised (once again because this happened with Shayden when he went as a baby), that the kids were okay with the everyone screaming and mauling them. I had planned on warning them that they needed to be okay with that, since these relatives miss them very much and that is how they are but I didn't. Many times Jasmine gets anxious around strangers but she didn't make a peep, she let them carry her and hug her and love her. It was great. Shayden of course was off playing with the cousins. That day we went to see Jonas' nephew in the Juvenile Detention Center. It was a very good visit because it painted a better picture in our minds of how he is living and being treated in there. He is making good progress and we tried to uplift him as much as possible without lecturing too much. That night we took Jonas' mom out to dinner with a couple cousins at this super yummy Chinese Buffet.
We spent the night in Lafayette at a friend of Jonas' that was so kind to let us into their home in such short notice! In the morning the kids had a blast playing and we went to church with them to the only LDS ward in all of Lafayette (Jonas' home ward).
We only went to Sacrament and we met Mom Rose there. Then as Jonas was talking to some people and we were getting ready to leave, she had her blood suger drop and suddenly she couldn't talk or anything. (She has diabetes.) It was really scary for us to see but I am so glad that we were there. The people in her ward just scrambled all over to help and were so concerned. That was good to see because we know that she has a ward family that takes care of her. It also gave us a chance to buy the glucose lozenges that she needs so that she can keep them in her purse.
That afternoon we went back to the home where we were staying and packed and visited with them. The kids of course played.
Drea was so cute with Jasmine, they were little buddies
The last thing that we did was go back to Dricka's house to dinner and then Jonas was able to give everyone that wanted one, a Priesthood Blessing. He sat down with most everyone of his siblings, nieces and nephews and his mom, and had a talk with them, and then gave them each a blessing of comfort. What a wonderful thing that was! I am so glad that we ended up staying because we could have missed out on those experiences. The next day we left at about 6:30 am and flew back into New York.
The Atchafalaya River seemed so much higher to me than before, they have had some flooding recently. Can you believe the trees are almost covered completely?
We had a 7 your layover so we took the train into the city and went to the Sony Wonderlab which I have been dying to take Jonas too. We basically did that and got shakes at Johnny Rockets and then headed back to the Airport.
The flight back was nightmarous. We were delayed in the airport for over an hour, then on the plane for another hour, then our bags were the last ones back so we didn't get home until 2:30am! Wednesday I was a walking zombie but it was worth it!
Oh one more thing since it was a Memorial Day Trip.
On the way back through NYC airport, Shayden started talking to a soldier who was just coming home from Iraq and the man even gave Shayden some Iraq currency! (I don't even know what it is called.) What a nice man and it gave us a chance to thank him for his service. I wish I had a picture of him and Shay together.
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Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Baby Stuff
Thank you for all of your well wishes in the comments, they make me so happy and I love reading them! I am so excited that so many more people are blogging now!! yeah!
I found out on March 6th that we are going to have another baby! I was so excited but of course I had to keep it under raps. I am almost 18 weeks along now (in 2 days) which means that I get to find out the gender on June 18th! It's nice not to have to worry about that so much though, since I already have one of each. It was so hard to keep things quiet that I started a little private blog where I have been able to write all I want about the wierd transformations and things that happen with pregnancy. It's been nice to have a place to vent.
We announced it to the family on my birthday weekend. We had the kids show up to family dinner wearing these t-shirts that I made since my due date is Nov 8th so close to Thanksgiving!
So I have the whole entire hot summer to look forward to, and then some, another first for me.
I was kind of nauseous at the beginning which has never ever happened to me (please don't shoot me) but now I am all better and enjoying life with a growing belly. It's been fun to feel the baby move so much sooner this time, probably just because I know what to look for.
What else?
We'll all see how we handle three kids instead of two, it will probably turn our lives upside down!! Especially after reading Jen's post about her crazy day with three kids!
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Sunday, June 1, 2008
Mother's Day Makeovers!
It was a fun day of pampering and then we got to go have lunch together afterwards.
And here are the "after" pictures:
Here is my lovely sister. I'm so glad that we live close enough that we could all get together to do this.
Everyone says that we look exactly alike but we don't see it at all. What do you think?
We also had some taken at another place but we didn't like them as much.
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