What a Week!

What a week I had. I mean, I've had worse but this week just seemed really long.

To start it out TJ was out of town. He left Monday morning to go to Atlanta and was going to be gone until Thursday, which normally isn't a big deal, other then the fact that its been FOREVER since he's had to be away for that long.

I had my week all planned out until a wrench was thrown in my plan with Natalie coming into my room early Tuesday morning with the news that she had thrown up. Well I was supposed to do some shopping for mutual that night and obviously wouldn't be able to so I had to call the gal I work with in YW to tell her so she could pick up my slack. Needless to say I was pretty much home bound on Monday. Then Wed Brady started with a bad tummy. His wasn't the throwing up kind of bad tummy, if you know what I mean. So other then picking up my mom and dad from the airport I was pretty much homebound on Wed too.

Thursday was surprisingly a pretty chill day but then today was busy. And to round it all out tonight was my night for the babysitting co-op that I'm in so I have 11 kids at my house right now. How am I finding time to blog you ask? Let's just say that this tiny post has taken me about 1 1/2 hours!!!! Hahahahaha!

Reecey's First Haircut

Reecey is 2 1/2 and has never had an official haircut. When she was first starting to grow hair I would trim the back as to not have it so mullet-ish but that was about the extent of it until yesterday.

Poor Reecey has the wispiest, thinnest, hair around! That, combined with the fact that it was becoming super mullet-ish inspired me to take her to Val to get it shaped into a cute little bob!

It looks soooooooooooo much better and soooooooooooooo cute! Cutting it makes it look thicker and fuller and even makes it look like she's got more hair up front then she actually does.

Karate Kid

At the beginning of January Brady started Karate lessons! He LOVES it and has been so excited to get his Karate Uniform. Well it arrived today...just in time for class tonight!

And can I just point out the fact that he's wearing 1 sock in this picture? What a nut! That would drive me crazy but it doesn't seem to bother him at all.

On a different note my 2009 blog book came in the mail today and I'm so so so so happy with it! I love that I have the last 3 1/2 years of our family happenings printed in a book for our posterity to see and read just how boring we are! Hahahahaha! Just kidding!

For anyone who is interested in printing up a book of their own go to www.blurb.com and download the program! Its great!

As for what else is going on its just the same old same old. I've started training for the Moab 1/2 marathon in March. My goal is to hit the gym 6 days a week! So far so good for this week. I've got 3 days down with 3 days to go!

The kids are adjusting to being back in school and I'm adjusting to life after Christmas! I still miss everyone and I still think its sucks that we don't get to live near any of our siblings but its been nice to get back into the swing of things.

And that's about it! I've just been doing all the mom stuff...carpools, cleaning, laundry, sports...you know...all that fun stuff! My cousin's facebook profile said it perfectly when she said that her day doesn't start until 4:00! Such is the life of a mom and I wouldn't have it any other way!!!!!

Potty Training Attempt #1 Update

I tried to post this yesterday but for some reason it wouldn't post so here goes again.

The potty training attempt #1 is over for now. She was in panties for half of Wed and all day Thurs and after several accidents and no pee-pee or poo-poo on the actual potty I have decided to try again in a couple weeks. It wasn't all for naught thought as I learned 3 important things to help me at attempt #2.

Lesson Learned #1--She is physically able to control her bladder. She went over 4 hours without an accident and that was even through her nap time.

Lesson Learned #2--Its not upsetting to her to have an accident. She says, "uh-oh. I wet. Change me." She just figured it was no big deal because I would change her immediately. Knowing that I made her wait to be changed after her first accident. (gross I know) But that led to...

Lesson Learned #3--She doesn't like it when I don't change her right away. This will definitely be helpful in my next attempt. Not that I'm gonna let her run around with pee pants on but even just 2 or 3 minutes of being wet will hopefully be motivation enough to not wet her pants.

So we'll try again in a few weeks. I think she still just needs to figure out what it feels like to actually go potty as I think that's what she couldn't quite get yet in this first attempt! In the meantime I'll still put her on the potty to try and I may even get her a little potty so she doesn't have to on the big toilet every time. I've never really used those in the past but for her I think it might work a little better. Its funny how every child is different!!!!

c'est finis

My 2009 Blog book is done! I zipped through it in 5 days! I'm so happy!

Now, something that will not be so quick and easy? Potty training Reece. I decided to give it my first try today and so far so good. She's been in panties for almost 2 hours with no accidents, but she hasn't gone in the potty yet either. I'll continue to update how this goes. I have a feeling that it'll be a challenge. Brady and Natalie were both just too easy to potty train! I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised!

American Idol was so awesome last night. That show seriously makes me so happy! Can't wait for tonight!

Back At It and Other Random Thoughts

Its nice to be back to normal after all the fun of Christmas. Of course I suffered for a few days from the PVB's (post vacation blues) but now that I'm back into a regular routine its all good! The kids are adjusting pretty well to everyone being gone except for poor Jackson. He's been so blue since the party ended. On Saturday he told me it wasn't fair that he doesn't get to live by his cousins and why do all of his friends have cousins around but not him. That broke my heart because that's the same question I've asked myself for the past 8 years! Of course I love living in Utah and its great to have my cousins here but I wish so much that my kids cousins could live here too because then that would mean that mine or TJ's siblings would be here too. Maybe someday we'll be lucky enough for that.

So I cleaned my house yesterday and am in the process of doing laundry. There's nothing like a clean house though! I love it!

I am so excited for American Idol to start tonight!!!!! Love that show!!!!

I'm DYING to go to Disneyland!!!!!! Seriously! DYING!!!!! Marilee is there today with her kids and its killing me! We're planning on going in the summer but I don't know if I can wait that long. I love it there!

Speaking of places I love I've got a month until TJ and I head to Hawaii with my mom and dad. Talk about my happy place! I can't wait to get out of this lousy polluted air and get into the sunshine!

So I'm sitting here eating Panda Express (I know some of you may have just vomited a little bit in your mouth) and I LOVE the new Sweet Fire Chicken. If you haven't tried it I highly recommend it. Its yummers!

Brady calls an ambulance an ABLEE-ANCE. He also called guacamole BROCamole. Cute right?

Reecey says MECAUSE instead of because. It kills me its so darn cute!

Jackson is playing on 2 basketball teams this winter. A fifth grade team and a fourth grade team. We're gonna be busy with that!

Natalie starts a basketball skills class on Thursday. I'm excited to see how she does and she's way excited!

Brady started Karate last week. HILARIOUS!!!!!!!

Gotta take the kids to get their teeth cleaned now! Peace out!

EIGHT is GREAT!

On December 28th Natalie turned 8 years old. On January 2nd she was baptized a member of our church. It was a wonderful event!

Natalie asked her Uncle Taylor to be the one to baptize her. He recently turned 16 and as a result was ordained a Priest. They've always had a special bond and I was so pleased that she thought to ask him to baptize her! Not many boys have that opportunity before they head out on their missions, so its pretty special that Taylor did! He did AWESOME!!!!!

To add to an already special day ALL of Natalie's cousins, except for Daniel (sad), were able to attend her baptism! Here is a picture of all the kids who we were able to snag for a picture. We seem to be missing Heather and Steve's kids in the picture, but you get the idea! It was so fun to have everyone there and thanks to all those who extended their Christmas vacation to support Natalie and thanks to those who travelled just for the occasion! And of course we missed Ali and Phil, and Matt and Erin and Daniel.

I love my girl to pieces and I'm so proud of the decision she made to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I was very emotional that day. I can't believe she is growing up so fast!

LOVE YOU NATALIE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas 2009

We had such a great Christmas this year! It had been a year in the making and we were so excited for my entire family to come to Utah and spend Christmas together. The last time every single last one of us was together was 7 years ago!!! At the time there were 9 grandchildren under the age of 7 and now there were 18 under the age of 13! A lot has changed in our families since then but one thing stayed the same...we all have a blast together! Let's begin!!

Christmas Eve

We started out on Christmas Eve day by heading to Build-A-Bear (or Builder Bear as Brady likes to call it) to build bears to take to the local hospital. Each child who was old enough built a cute little bear that is hopefully being loved by a child who had to be in the hospital over the holidays!

Later that day we headed up into the mountains to go on a Sleigh Ride. It was so much fun! It was so much FREEZING but luckily a couple of Santa's Elves had delivered each of us a Roots Canada Toque (or beanie for all you Americans) to keep us warm on our Sleigh Ride!

We got home from the Sleigh Ride where we ate a yummy feast of soup, pita pockets and various chips and crackers and dips and then guess who showed up? Yep! Santa himself made a quick stop to let the kids tell him one more time what they were wishing for and to let them know they had all made it on the NICE list!

After Santa left we opened up our Christmas Jammies from Nana and Grandad and settled in to watch "Joy to the World" (a video of the Birth and Life of Jesus Christ. Click on the link to request a free copy for your family for next year) It was wonderful to feel the Spirit and to remind the children that the birth of the Savior is the true reason we celebrate Christmas!

After the video, a message from Grandad and family prayer we took all the presents from my house over to my parents to be added to the collection there. (It was funny to see that there was less under the tree this year as there was 7 years ago, but we have double the children now. Either we all got smarter and started to buy less or things got more expensive as the kids got older and we HAD to buy less!) As per tradition all the kids over the age of 3 slept together in one room! It was hilarious to see them all sacked out, arms and legs everywhere, not to mention the stinkiness of all those bodies crammed into one room! They didn't seem to mind though!

Christmas Morning

The time to wake up that was pre-set by Nana and Grandad was 7:30 a.m. so right at 7:30 we all piled into their bedroom for the traditional story telling! Every Christmas Morning of my childhood was like this. Mom and Dad telling us when we were allowed to wake them up, us all giddy and excited and counting down the seconds until we were allowed into their bedroom. I remember one Christmas in particular that we woke up at about 5 a.m. and we literally spent 3 hours in Ryan's room until we could wake up my parents. Time has never moved so slowly in my life since that Christmas Morning 20+ years ago! Then every Christmas Morning we'd pile on my parents bed where they would tell us stories about Christmas's when they were growing up. It always seemed like we were talking for hours but as an adult I realize it took about 15 minutes, if even that! In keeping with tradition we subjected our own children to this cruel torture, and surprisingly they didn't seem to mind too much. Then, as per tradition, we had family prayer, lined up youngest to oldest and headed down to see what Santa had brought!

I need to post a little side note here about Reece. Never have I seen a 2 year old LOVE Christmas as much as she did. She loved Santa, she loved her presents, she loved the lights, she loved the decorations. In fact on Christmas Eve about 20 minutes after TJ had put her to bed my mom had to get something in the room Reecey was in. As my mom was tip toeing by, Reece whispered, "hi Nana!" My mom told her to lie down and go to sleep so Santa could come and bring her presents. About 15 minutes after that TJ peeked in to check on her and she was sitting on the bed. TJ told her to lie down and go to sleep and she replied, "no! I waiting for Santa a come a leave me pwesents!" It was truly magical for her and I loved seeing the holiday through her young, innocent eyes!

Nanny and her American Girl doll, Julie

Brady and his "Transformer with a guy." This Bumblebee came with a little Sam action figure.

Jackson and his personalized Fathead! Yep...that's him!

Reecey in her Sleeping Beauty dress riding her new Dora bike!

All the guys in their new shirts that they will be wearing when they attend the U.S. Open in Pebble Beach in June! Thanks Nana!!!!

The traditional Un-Talent Show!

Nana truly is "un-talented" at playing the piano!

The Teens and Tweens performing an American Idol skit. Amber is not so "un-talented" at singing! She's very very talented at it. Expect to see her on Idol in a couple of years!

TJ on the guitar while my dad sings about getting older! He re-wrote the words to "When I'm 64." It was "Now I'm 64" It was quite simply HILARIOUS!

Adam and Mar's family performing "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" It was very cute!!!!

There were other un-talents performed that evening as well. Some highlights were Ryan's infomercial, Cleetus Clydesdale and the Bee Money Music Video.

It seemed that after Christmas Eve and Day I left my Camera at home so not many more pictures to post but we had a blast being together, playing games, sledding, chatting, eating and most of all laughing!

I am so grateful for my family and I'm so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ that allows us to be together as a family forever! I love Christmas and the time it gives us to reflect on the birth of our Savior. It was so wonderful to have everyone together and hopefully it won't be another 7 years before we do it again!

A Little Christmas Teaser

I've been feeling a bit under the weather so here's a little Christmas Teaser for you all until I actually get around to posting in the next couple of days!!!!