Overheard

So I overheard a little conversation between Brady and Jackson tonight that was hilarious and totally blog worthy.  Let me preface it by explaining that Jackson has been learning about George Washington and the revolutionary war.  So tonight when they were getting out of the tub this is what I overheard:

Jackson: Brady, lets play revolutionary war.  

Brady:  Okay

Jackson:  K...I'm George Washington

Brady:  I'm the white ninja!

Mommy Tag

1.  Typically what time do you wake up?  I'm perfect so I wake up to work out at 5:30.  Then I shower and get ready and make a pancake breakfast for my family.  Oh wait, I'm sorry, that's all in the dream world I call my mind!  In reality I wake up at about 8:00...just in time to pour the milk in Jackson's cereal and shuttle him out the door!

2.  On a good night what time are your kids in bed?  If I'm really on top of it they're all in bed by 7:30...much to their dismay of course.

3.  How long have you been a mommy?  I've been a mommy for 8 years, 3 months, and 23 days.

4.  How old were you when you became a mommy?  I was 20...almost 21.

5.  What is your favorite kids tv show?  I love the Suite Life of Zach and Cody, Hannah Montana, Drake and Josh and Backyardigans!

6.  What is your least favorite kids tv show?  I HATE the Fairly Odd Parents.  In fact my kids aren't even allowed to watch it!

7.  What is your favorite chore?  I don't really LOVE any chore but if I had to choose I'd say dusting and vacuuming.  I also enjoy getting all my laundry done in 1 day, but I have to be really really focused to accomplish that!

8.  What is your favorite meal to cook?  I LOVE to cook Chicken Enchiladas.  Well, its not so much loving to cook them but loving to eat them!

9.  What is the meal you cook most often?  I probably make Beef Dips most often.  Super fast, super yummy.

10.  What is your kids favorite meal?  They all like different things.  Jackson loves Chicken and Broccoli Braid, Natalie likes Spaghetti and Brady likes anything.

11.  What is your favorite thing your husband does with your kids?  That's a tough one cause TJ is an AWESOME dad and I love everything he does with them.  He plays with them, snuggles them, talks to them, reads to them.  I guess my favorite thing is just that he adores them all!

12.  What are 5 things that make you smile when you're being a mom?  Hugging my kids, greeting Reecey when she wakes up from sleeps, when sleepy Brady tells me at 3 a.m. that there are monsters under his bed, when Jackson and Natalie get home from school, hearing them laugh together and tell each other that they love each other.

13.  If you could take your kids anywhere where would it be?  Back to Disneyworld.  We had such a fun time last spring and wish we were going again this year.

14.  When was the last time you went out without your kids?  Well this morning I hit the grocery store without them...what a treat...and socially it was on Friday night when we went out to dinner with Chad and Alaina.

15.  What is your favorite past time/activity to do with your kids?  We love to go bowling together, go to movies, have family parties, go to Red Robin.  I just love when we're all together doing something fun!

16.  Name 1 thing you said you'd never do as a mom:  I have a laundry list of things I said I'd never do as a mom but that I actually do so it'll be hard to narrow it down...I'd have to go with telling my kids what it means to clean their rooms.  For example, I say, 'Jackson, I need you to go clean your room and THAT MEANS make your bed perfectly, close your drawers, pick up your dirty clothes and actually put them INSIDE your laundry basket, etc. etc.  My mom always did that and it bugged but hey...look at me now!

17.  Name 1 thing you do that your own mom did:  see number 16 as only one example.  There are many many more.  Its just that now I understand why my mom did the things she did...good bad or otherwise!

18.  What is your favorite quality that your mom has?  There are so many favorite qualities that my mom has but one that sticks out is that growing up my mom was always there to snuggle me when I was little, listen to me when I got older and she always always always waited up for me as a teenager.  That was fantastic! 

19.  What is your favorite kids book? Guess How Much I Love You

20.  What is your advice for new moms?  I'm with Heather on this one...SLEEP WHEN YOU CAN!

21.  What is the scariest or most heartbreaking moment as a mom?  I think every mom knows the fear of having a sick or hurt child.  But the absolute most heartbreaking thing as a mom is to see your children struggle with something.  Last year Jackson struggled with reading and in baseball and seeing him go through those challenges literally made my heart ache.

22.  What is your most joyful moment of being a mom?  Everything...even the really annoying, frustrating, exhausting things eventually bring joy, even if its when the kids are in bed at the end of a looooooooooonnnnngggggggggg day!

23.  When was the last time you were told 'I Love You' by one of your kids?  2 seconds ago when Jackson left to go to a friends house.

24.  When was the last time you told one of your kids 'I Love You'? 2 seconds ago when I said it back to Jackson!  I'm a lucky mommy!

NOW ALL OF YOU MOMMY'S OUT THERE...TAG, YOU'RE IT!

Reecey Roo

Here are some pictures of Reecey for you all to look at.  I've been getting nagged at lately by some of you (you know who you are) to get more pictures of Reecey up so...ENJOY

This was today at breakfast eating her nummy graham cracker.

Today at Jackson's basketball game...she was WORKED!

A few weeks ago when I pulled out the excersaucer.  We've worked up to about 30 minutes a day before she gets fussy about it.

Thug Baby

Love the fat creases!  Her legs are the cubbiest part of her little teensy body.

My Turn for the Letter

For those of you who don't look at Colton and Lindsay's blog the following is what I would write now as an adult person in a letter to me as a teenager. The idea came from the Brad Paisley song Letter to Me. If you want to get in on the fun...TAG...you're all it!!!!

If I could write a letter to me I would write...

1. Don't worry so much about boys not asking you out on dates. Most of them are losers anyways...and you should see your husband now!!!!

2. Cherish your evenings with Angie and Shannon feeling like total losers and watching chick flicks. There will be a time when you'll miss them more then you can even imagine.

3. As weird as this may sound, enjoy what you go through with TJ. "Pain like that is fast and it's rare." (thanks Brad. That's straight out of the song) Take that time to work on yourself. Without giving too much a way, just know that it will work itself out.

4. Make sure to think A LOT harder and longer before you have some Dirty Billy man permanantly ink a flower on your back. You may think its a good idea at the time but really its not.

5. Don't "unofficially withdraw" from your singing class at BYU. Stick it out cause even though the class is during Ali McBeal, you won't watch the show past the 1st season and there will come a day when you wish you could sing well again.

6. Go to class and study. You'll get better grades (thanks for that one Lindsay)

7. Write more letters to Nana when you're in college. Better yet, give her a call!

8. Listen to Gongy when she tells you how fast time goes. There will be a time when you figure out she's right and by then you'll wish you could rewind your life and cherish every moment a little more for a little longer.

9. "Have no fear. These are nowhere near the best days of your life."

(again, right out of the song)

IT'S ABOUT TIME!

So here I am a month later FINALLY getting around to Blogging.  Its been crazy since we got home and I still feel like I'm playing catch up.  We had a fantastic Christmas in Denver this year and were so blessed to see tons of family.  Thanks to Papa and LouLou for hosting us and putting up with all our crap scattered over your house.  This is a long post but I really tried to keep the commentary down to a minimum.  The above photo was taken at Brady's pre-school Christmas program.  Scroll down to enjoy more of our Christmas photos. 

Our Christmas began with...

BRADY'S EYE...AGAIN

As you can sort of see from this picture Brady had another mishap involving his eye.  We were at Lindsay's house and we had asked the kids to start cleaning up when Brady tripped and fell right into the corner of the coffee table.  The bonk re-opened his scar from when he got stitches last spring so off Marilee and I went to her doctor for a little dermabond this time. 

BYU vs. UCLA

Jackson was a lucky enough boy to get to go to the Las Vegas Bowl with Uncle Adam, Annie, Spencer, Uncle Ryan, Justin, Ben, Nana and Grandad.  They had such a blast and it was made even better when BYU won the last play of the game.  Thanks to everyone who played a part in getting Jackson to the game and taking care of him.  One funny thing was when he got back to Papa and LouLou's house we asked how the game was and he said, "What game?"  What a weirdy!

CUTE BABY COUSINS

Here are a couple of pictures of Brooklyn and Reecey.  They sure are cute!

CHRISTMAS EVE

We had a great time on Christmas Eve at the Smith's house.  They were willing to host all of us for Christmas Eve dinner and activities and we all had a wonderful time eating Ham, Cheesy Potatoes and everything that goes along with that.  Thanks to Grandma Loomis we learned some very important things on Christmas Eve...first is the TJ talks like a nut.  Second, marriage has made him look mangey (sp?) and third at one time he was the apple of her eye.  (Does that mean he's not any more?)  

Reecey in her Christmas get up.

Me and Colton having a snuggle

Brookie eating a plastic cup.

TJ and Ali

My kids, minus Reecey, in their Christmas gam gams.

CHRISTMAS DAY!

We enjoyed a lovely Christmas morning at the Smith's home.  We all slept there the night before and had a wonderful time on Christmas morning opening presents, eating breakfast casserole and scotch stew and being together.  It was a wonderful treat to have a white Christmas as it snowed and snowed and snowed all day long.  It was beautiful!  That night we went to the Christofferson's for some yummy soup and lots of fun.  It was very sad for Reecey though because she had the stomach flu and was not feeling her best.  Poor little thing.

One view of the chaos!

Another view of the chaos.

Jack posing in the snow.  (pardon the UofU hat.  He put it on before I could stop him)

Cute little babies enjoying their first Christmas!

Me and my Reecey.

Rock band at Christofferson's

More Rock Band

Sick little Reecey at the end of a long Christmas Day.

SLEDDING!!!

The day after Christmas we all went sledding (except for Matt and Erin and Colton and Papa cause Erin was puking, Matt was lending his moral support to her, Colton was at work, and Papa was de-icing).  It was so much fun and my kids haven't ever gone sledding on a hill that big since they always sled down the little hill behind my house.  Needless to say we all had a blast!

Madison and Lindsay

Annie pouting because on her first time down the hill she accidentally ran into someone and didn't want to go down again.  Mar finally convinced her to go down again and I don't know about you but I feel like its the responsibility of those walking up the hill to watch where they are going!

Joshy looking cozy and warm!

Madison wanted to be pulled up the hill everytime!  Good thing she's such a peanut!

Reecey!  She was the warmest of us all...except for Brookie who went to the car with LouLou to eat.

TJ and Brady coming up the hill.  Unfortunately for Brady he is much to heavy to be pulled up the hill like Madison.

Me and my boys!  Brady is awake in this picture.

We put all these little fools on the sled with Spencer and let them go down together.  It was hilarious!

Stay tuned for Natalie's birthday posting.  Hopefully I'll get it up in a few days, but even that is optimistic.