Summer Routine

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.

I used the schedule sheets I had from last summer. It's funny how last summer I really just made Jasmine a chart so she wouldn't feel left out and this year she is all grown up and totally gets it.

It just helps for them to know exactly what they need to do when they get up instead of going strait to the tv or trampoline. They have been helping each other clean their bedrooms which has been good to see. This year we have been doing our "learning time" in the afternoon which I thought wouldn't work at all but it has been met with no complaints. I have tons of workbooks that I have accumulated over the years and I just pick a few sheets out of there for them to do.

*If anyone has any ideas for teaching the letters that have really worked, please pass them along. I did tons of stuff with Shayden and now I can't remember any of it. That's what I get for having my kids so far apart. Nowadays I would have totally made a file with ideas and filed it away but at the time apparently I didn't think of that. I do have the Letter Factory movie and that is a little miracle worker in and of itself.

I realized that after this week there are only 7 weeks left of summer! That makes me sad.

So I made a calendar and decided on a theme that we will learn about each week, and we will have an arts/craft day, a science day, a cooking day (just a little snack or something that they will help with) and Monday's will be field trip day.

I made a long list of all of the places I wanted to take my kids to this summer. Then my friend and I just brainstormed and made a calendar of activities to do on each Monday. That way it is scheduled and done! Everyone is invited, the more the merrier, so email me if you want to know what we are doing.

On Tuesdays my friend and I are going to trade babysitting time and it is going to be my project day. I would highly recommend doing this, the kids get to play and I get a few hours each week. I have so many projects before the baby comes. Nesting is underway!

I also have been using Handipoints, which was working great until my computer upstairs died. It was too much work to take my kids down into the dungeon (my office) each night to fill out their charts. But now we are going to start again, for rewarding good behavior, and such. If you haven't, you should check it out.

So that is our summer routine. Anyone else want to share theirs?

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!

These pictures are hilarious, Jazzie couldn't stop dancin'...

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.

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,

And look how close this deer came to us!

See, she was happy.

I love the pretty mountains.

It was a fun few days, I am glad that my kids have such awesome cousins!

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?

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!

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!

(since she dances on "point" they only rent their costumes, so I couldn't get a picture of her in it)

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."

Today we get to find out the gender of the baby! Yeah!

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.

For one of the more serious presents, we gave him the flag from when his father passed away since he was in the military. It was in a nice hanging frame and it was perfect since it was Father's day. He was really touched by that gift.

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.

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!

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!

Last Day of School

This post is way late still had to document it.

First Grade is over and now it is on to Second Grade!

Overall it was a good year, I am very happy with the school, and his teacher was good for him. I am so glad that I got to go in and volunteer pretty much once a week because it gave me such an inside view into what was going on. I think this is my #1 advice to any mom with kids starting school. Volunteer!

Shayden and his teacher.
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.

They had a talent show on the last day which I thought was a cute idea.

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).

Father's and Son's Campout

Here are some fun pictures from the yearly father and son's campout with our ward. Looks like they had a great time. This is my favorite of the two of them:

My handsome boy

New Blog Look!

My friend Jen made me the coolest blog template! Thank you Jen, I love it!

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!

Shayden you are such a great kid, and you add so much fun to our family.

I am so grateful that I get to be your mom and so happy that you were born!

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.

Last minute trip to Louisiana

Wow, we hadn't been back to Louisiana for 3 years! We really needed to go and now that we did, I am really glad. It was stressful and a lot of traveling though.

We decided literally on Friday morning that we were leaving that night!

These were the main reasons:

We of course want our kids to know thier Grandma Dorothy and Great Grandmother Mom Rose and all of their cousins.

Grandma Dorothy and baby TJ

Our sweet Mom Rose (who practically raised Jonas) is getting older and we wanted to make sure that we checked up on her health and home, etc.

Shayden with Mom Rose, not a great picture, I wish I had more.

The home Jonas grew up in

The family really wanted to see our kids of course.

Three of Jonas' cute little nieces

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.

Then we went back to Mom Rose house for a big barbeque orchestrated by his littlest brother Trey, who is not so little anymore. The boys played and wrestled and there was minimal drama. It was quite nice and I had some really deep talks with a couple of his siblings, where I posed questions about their environment that I wouldn't have dared before. It was facinating from my little Social Worker's perspective.

Jonas wrestling with his younger but bigger brother Brock

Jonas with niece Shawndrea and her mom Shawndricka

Jonas' sister Jalana and her new baby TJ

Trey by the grill and other siblings/nephews

We had decided to leave that next morning and his sister said she had plenty of room and was planning on us staying there. So we went back to her house and started visiting. Well we ended up talking to her until 1am in the morning and she told us some things that were really devestating to hear, and by that time we were so emotionaly spent that there was no way that we could leave that day. We decided to leave on Tuesday.

Drea was so cute with Jasmine, they were little buddies

The next day was Memorial Day and we had a nice little breakfast at Dricka's house and then a few of us got to go see some horses that they own in the outskirts of a town called Breaux Bridge. Jasmine was in heaven, of course. She didn't want to leave the horsies, she said.

That afternoon Jonas went to visit his father and grandparents graves. This was one of the main things that we had wanted to do but had ran out of time the day before.

Being Memorial Day, it was perfect timing.

After that we went to this hotel where a friend of Dricka's works and they let us swim for free. It was awesome because we had the entire pool to ourselves and we got pizza and just played and laughed. It was so great to see everyone together. We were there for about 3 plus hours. The weather was so hot and muggy that it was nice to get in the water. I realized I don't fit into a regular swim suit though. I don't know what I was thinking. :)

The boys had so much fun racing!
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.

Baby Stuff

Okay there is still so much more to document for May but I thought I should update everyone on the pregnancy 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!

oh and one more thing. a funny story because this one has to go in the books.

When we told the kids what was happening, Shayden was so excited. He is so much older now so he really get's it, or whatever. He had SOOOO many questions, night and day, he was full of questions and comments about the baby. Well one random day out of the blue he says:

"Mom, I can't wait to be there when they CUT the baby out of your tummy. I know JUST the TOOL they are going to use!"

Wow. What do you say to that? It was wrong on so many levels. Apparently we need to sort out the fact that he will not be there when the baby is born and exactly how this whole process works.

So I said "Well that's one way to have a baby but it's kind of hard that way, it is major surgery so it takes a long time to recover, etc." I had his attention. I went on, "The way that I had you and Jasmine is a little bit different than that....[pause]....and one of these days I am going to explain that to you!"

The end. And luckily he left it at that.

Mother's Day Makeovers!

This post is long overdue but for Mother's Day we gave my mom Mother's Day makeovers with her 2 daughters which she has been wanting for a long time.
It was a fun day of pampering and then we got to go have lunch together afterwards.

And what's a makeover without a before and after picture? So here is the "before" pictures:

And here are the "after" pictures:

My mom looks so beautiful in these pictures, I am so excited that we will be able to cherish them forever.

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?

Here is our favorite picture of the 3 of us together. It was a pretty akward position to get into though. My dad wanted to have an 11x14 blown up of this one.

We also had some taken at another place but we didn't like them as much.