Boys, Boys, Boys and One Sweet Little Girl

4th of July

2012-01-17T22:21:00.000-07:00

On the Fourth of July, Lainie and I went to the Provo Street Market (I know that's not what it's called but I have no idea what it really is called) with my mom. There were tons of people and Lainie LOVED it! She waved to everyone as we passed by and everybody thought she was so cute. (I'm not exaggerating too much, my mom and I thought it was really funny because people kept stopping us just to talk to Lainie. We think it's because her hair stands out)

Later that night we watched the PG fireworks from the car, it wasn't so scary from there :)

My mom has the pictures on her camera so I will get them soon....

Celebrating 4th of July early

2012-01-15T23:15:00.002-07:00

Paul and Kaiden were headed to Scout camp early July 4th morning ( I know, not the greatest time for scout camp but that was the only time that was available for the camp they wanted) so we celebrated a few days early.....

She was just happy to be outside

When the fire works started, she wasn't to sure abou them

BBQ

Father's day and Random pics....

2012-01-15T21:32:00.001-07:00

Lainie and Kove thought this was the goofy pic

Daddy making a "baby gate" for the stairs

Lainie LOVES jewerly (sorry g-grandma)

OOOH Lainie loves Maci's candy

She loves the camera too!!

Lagoon

2012-01-15T20:59:00.000-07:00

Ten Years!!

2012-01-09T22:42:00.002-07:00

Akoy turned 10 this June! I can't believe that he is already that old! He was the same age as Kove is, when Paul and I first met. That's so crazy to me! I'm not sure why we did a party for him at my in-law's house but we did. (June was over 7 months ago so I just can't remember) Akoy has grown up sooo much since Paul and I got married. He is always concerned about everyone else' feelings (except kove's :) is always asking if he can help Paul or I and LOVES helping with Lainie. We are so glad he is part of our family. Happy Birthday Akoy!! (7 months late)

Mud, mud mud!!!

2012-01-09T22:29:00.001-07:00

Debbie (JJ's girlfriend) talked me into running my first 5K and it was a big mess!! We did the Soldier Hollow Annual Mud Run in June. There was TONS of mud and we were covered when we were done!! You could run individually or as teams so we decided to get my sis, Julia (Jesse's girlfriend) and Julia (Debbie's friend) and run as a team.

I started running on the treadmills at the rec center, a few months before, because I was so nervous. I can run pretty fast but only short distances so I was worried about how I would do running very far. I know a 5K isn't that far but I am really not a runner. So, I hit the treadmill... and was actually quite proud of myself (I can brag once in a while right? ) I ran a little over a 9 min mile for 31/2 miles. I was dying but I wanted to see what I could do. Over the next few weeks I got a little bit fast and was getting close to an 8 min mile. The funny thing was, once we started running, it was pretty hard to go very fast, with all the obstacles and mud.

We started out running up a huge blow-up slide covered in water and mud. We decided to link arms and run up together. It was SO funny! All of us were slipping and sliding and laughing so hard. Luckily, all of us made it up without falling. There were huge bails of hay that we had to scale, along with wooden walls, gross mud holes, slippery tubes we had to belly-crawl through and a HUGE mud filled swamp that smelled SO disgusting. We were a huge mess when we were finished but it was a lot of fun!! I think I might tag along with Debbie on some of the "normal' runs that she does because I had a lot of fun.

Paul (with JJ, Jess and Rob) was taking video and pics of us as we were running along so we have some pretty funny video of us. I need to upload our "after" pics but I can't figure out how to get them off of my video camera, so stay tuned for those...

Brayden's graduation

2011-11-10T20:37:00.001-07:00

May, Mother's Day, Picnics, Kindergarten Graduation, 7th Grade Awards Assembly....

2011-11-10T19:28:00.001-07:00

April and Easter

2011-10-03T23:54:00.002-06:00

Lainie LOVES Cooper

I just loved her funny face

She alread likes to read YAY!

Easter lunch at grandma's

Valentines Day

2011-07-16T02:17:00.000-06:00

February and six months old..

2011-07-16T01:59:00.001-06:00

Metal Mouth

2011-07-16T01:35:00.002-06:00

At the first of february kaiden got braces YAY!! He was kind of excited and kind of nervous but it turned out to be not as bad as he thought...He looks good too..

Dad's birthday

2011-07-16T01:29:00.000-06:00

This was my dad's second birthday that we have celebrated without him...it still seems like he should be here with us. I think one of the things that makes me most sad is that Lainie will never know him. I know she would have loved him and that he would have loved her...In my heart I think they do know each other though and that maybe they were even in heaven together...when my dad died and Lainie was waiting to be born. I sometimes think that maybe dad might have had a little bit to do with how good of a baby Lainie is. He might have asked God to please let her be a sweet, happy baby, that he wasn't sure if I had a lot of patience any more. I just know that Lainie has been such a blessing in our family and little miracles happened because of her, my dad has to have something to do with her..(The pink balloons that we gave my mom last year on my dad's birthday, to tell her we were having a baby, still have air in them-crazy!)

we had a good night but it still sucks not to have my dad here. I feel sad for my mom and brother's that they don't have their best friend here any more

This is what Little Lady has been up to in January....Or WAS up to (since I am sooo far behind)

2011-07-16T00:48:00.002-06:00

January was a big month for our baby girl.....She got her first 2 teeth (She had been drooling for about a month and my mother-in-law was sure that she was teething (i was thinking that she was till too young) and one day her little bottom teeth just popped out.) She loves to suck her top lip in and show off her cute little teeth. One day I tried a hundred times to get a picture of her but the camera kept flashing in her eyes and she would stop showing her teeth. I finally got one but now I can't find the pic..I willl look again....She rolled from her back to her belly, started sitting up for quite a while by herself, would copy us fake coughin (sooo cute) and would stick out her tongue and makes noises.

Kaiden had an orthodontist consultation and I took Lainie with us...Dr. N was talking to us and then started talking to Lainie and saying how cute she was..right then, she stuck her tongue out at him and made a noise. The three of us busted up laughing, it was the funniest thing. (I know it doesn't sound so funny but her timing was so perfect...)

At her 5 month appointment she weighed 17lbs. She is in the 90% for height and weight and 60% for her head. She has the chubbiest cheeks ever and everyone is always wanting to pinch them. We call them "the Warner cheeks" because that's where they come from (except I think Kaiden had some pretty chubby cheeks too :)

She is the happiest, most content baby. I don't think she could be any better of a baby. All of us love her so much, she is such a blessing to our family...

January was sooo long ago I can't remember everything we did but we had a CRaZy New years Eve (not really) Paul, Lainie and I went and ate Chinese with my mom and JJ and then came home and (tried) to stay up until midnight. Lainie was the only reason we were able to stay up, for some reason she just wouldn't go to sleep. I think the three of us went to bed before midnight though (we are wild and crazy;) We watched the Superbowl with friends and that's about all I can remember about January.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

2011-06-24T13:08:00.001-06:00

This is so awful...It's already June and I am posting my mom's birthday...which was at the first of December. I promise I will get my butt in gear and get caught up..Here are the pics and just a quick note: I am so grateful for my mom, she is the strongest, most giving person I know. She is one of my best friends and one of my greatest examples. She has been through so much but she is still so strong and positive )even if she doesn't think so) I don't know what I would do without her, she has always been there for me..for all of us....she is the best grandma ever..I am so thankful that my baby gets to spend so much time with her..she is the best second mom to her..I have so much more to write but I will leave it at that..I LOVE my mom sooo much!!

Christmas

2011-05-26T13:14:00.003-06:00

I am SO far behind on blogging that I am just going to add my pics for now.....Just a few December tidbitsreal fast: Lainie is still such a good little baby. She sleeps through the night, is a good little eater (She is in the 90% for her weight and has soo many chubby rolls and chubby little cheeks) She got croup at the beginning of the month and had to have a breathing treatment and a steroid shot. I was pretty scared so I didn't sleep much but she got over it pretty fast, so that was great...The boys just love her so much and they are good big brothers....

Warner Family party, before Christmas. Lainie wasn't sure if she like Santa at first.......

...but then she decided she liked him.

CHRISTMAS EVE

Grandkids and Grandma Outing (and moms too)

2011-03-29T01:02:00.000-06:00

We wanted to continue our tradition with Grandma Vicki to see the SLC Temple lights and dinner but we sure did pick a CrAZy night to do it....We forgot that it was the first Presidencies Christmas Devotional and it was PACKED everywhere!! After driving around trying to find parking places for 2 cars, standing out in the parking lot to save one parking space, finding out they had closed the paking garage and wouldn't let Mandi in, her dropping off some of the kids, losing each other and not having phone service and then finding out that our wait for dinner was over an hour-and-a-half, we jumped back in our cars (Mandi still couldnt get in the parking garage) and headed back to the south end of the Valley to catch a movie and dinner, away from all the craziness. All of the movies had already started so we skipped the movie and ended up at the Myan. The kids had a lot of fun watching the cliff divers and the food was delicious!!The night started out REALLY crazy but turned out really good. I love that we have kept doing this tradition!

We stopped for one second to get our traditional family picture in front of the big tree in the JS Building

Our flaming dessert

making smashed pennies before we were seated

I think they were staring at the dessert on fire

Our First REAL Christmas tree

2011-03-14T02:29:00.000-06:00

I have had a fake christmas tree for as long as I can remember.....I LOVe the smell of a REAL tree but a fake tree just seemd so much easier than getting a live tree AND cheaper too, so I have always put the fake one up...ever since we have been marrie, Paul has teased me about the fake tree, that it wasn't a "real" Christmas treeand and that he missed the smell of a live tree...Well, this year he talked me into getting a live tree, I think it was mostly that our fake tree seemed too small for our high ceiling in our front room and he said we could get a tall one that went as high as our window ( I have always loooved seeing tall christmas trees in people's windows.) Anyway, the first part of december we headed down to his sisisters tree lot to find the perfect tree. How could we not get a REAL tree when his sister and bro-in-law have a bunch of tree lots all over??

We bundled Lainie (and Kaiden :) up and set off to look for our tree....When we got there, I had to take some pictures of Lainie and her first REAL tree. I forgot that Kaiden hadn't ever had a real tree either, so he made sure to let me know, and we got a picture of him and Lainie looking for their FIRST REAL Christmas tree. (Their pics turned out really goofy so I didn't put them on here) Paul went off on his own to look at the trees, since I was taking too long getting pictures....When we met up, we all had a few ideas of which trees we liked. There was one tree that all three of us thought was perfect...It was about 10-12 feet tall and soooo pretty...that's the one we decided to take home....I thought it looked so good in our front room...Paul didn't like the multi-colored lights that I had on the fake tree so he ran down to the store and got tons of plain lights and talked Brayden into stringing them on the tree. I hate to admit it but it took me quite a few more days to get the rest of the ornaments on the tree...but I did get them on before Christmas. (I know, I am a slacker but that's how i have been since I have had Lainie;) Having the real-tree-smell made me think of when I was growing up...I think that getting a real tree will be our new family tradition...

All bundled up

Thanksgiving

2011-02-12T11:29:00.001-07:00

I thought I took better pics at Thanksgiving, I guess not. I might have to steal some of my mom's or someone else's because all I have are the same exact pictures, just different angles. I don't even have very good ones of Lainie or the boys either, Ooops.

We went over to Paul's mom's and dad's for a little while and then over to my mom's for the rest of the day. Paul is so great to sacrifice time with his family to be with mine because he knows that holidays are still really hard for my mom and that I have always been close to my family. He doesn't complain or even say anything, it's just a given that that is what we are going to do. That's one of the many reasons why I love him. I also love that he really likes my family and gets along with my brothers and would do anything for any of them. That is so important to me because I love my family so much!! I am so grateful that his family is okay with us not being there as much on holidays. I probably should be better at going over there on regular days since we don't see them as much. Hopefully they understand, my family is WAY tiny compared to Paul's so one of us missing is half the family compared to Paul's. Sorry, I am rambling...I just don't want anyone to think we love them less, because I love Paul's family too. We have been blessed with two great families!!

We had everyone in our family at my mom's (Julia and Debbie are part of our family too) except Kaiden and Brayden. Maybe one day we can rearrange our visitation schedules and everyone will be on the same holiday schedule. You would think that after all of these years of having Kaiden be at his dad's on some of the holidays, it would be easy, but it still makes me sad when he isn't with us. Oh well, that's how it goes...We had a great Thanksgiving though. We have SO many things to be thankful for...Our families who are both so close by, the Gospel and the great ward we live in, our beautiful baby girl and our handsome boys, our new home, great friends, our jobs that we have been fortunate to have through these crazy times and that I have been able to work from home most of the time, good health (and not too many major accidents (Paul;) and so many more things that we have been blessed with...We (I) have a good life..

Akoy and Kove sat on the end with Mckay, Maci and Avery

Lainie wasn't looking in any of the pics

I forgot I had this pic- Lainie and my sis look so cute

Yay!! I FINALLY got my background to work!!!

2011-02-11T12:11:00.003-07:00

I was ready to give up on my dumb background and then I made a stupid little change (that you would never have thought would make a difference)...and just like that, my background is working. (Thanks for helping me Letecia;) Now I will just have to play around and find one that I really want to keep for a while. AND my goal this weekend is to get all the posts done that I have been working on...Wish me luck...

Little Lainie is 3 months old!!

2011-02-11T10:52:00.002-07:00

Lainie is almost 6 months old but I still want to blog our last few months so here is her in November. At her 3 month checkup, Dr. J said she is very healthy and right on track for where she needs to be. YAY!! She is the happiest baby ever, she doesn't cry unless she really wants something and she is laughing a little and smiling all the time! I love that I can be at home with her 2 days a week and have my mom watch her for a few hours on the other 3 days. It is quite the challenge to work from home and be a mommy too but Lainie is worth it. (I think Kaiden likes that I am there in the morning for him and when he gets home from school) Our little girl has been such a blessing to all of us..

I know my "3 months old" signs are cheesy-but hey, now I will know exactly how old she was when I took the pic

She was getting mad at all the pics

Hanging out at work with mom

Our cute friend Letecia

Technical Difficulties

2011-02-04T23:46:00.000-07:00

I have tried a billiion times to fix my blog background but it hasn't worked.... I'm pretty sure it is annoying to anyone that looks at my blog, because it is annoying to me. I'm going to try to get my blog all the way caught up this weekend (hopefully) and I will try a few more times to get a new background that works. (I'm crossing my fingers)

Today is my dad's birthday so we celebrated for him....It really sucks (sorry for the crappy word) that he isn't here to celebrate with us. I'm going to download our pictures from dinner and do a post for my dad.....I miss him so much...

Lainie's Blessing

2011-02-03T12:38:00.000-07:00

On November 7, Lainie was blessed by her daddy. We FINALLY decided on her middle name so she was given the name Lainie KATE Warner. Kate is after both mine and Paul's side of the family so it seemed perfect, at least to me (Paul wanted some different names but since Lainie was really his top choice, I thought it was only fair that I got to choose the middle name :)

*I'm going to add a disclaimer right here....On the Friday before the blessing, Paul was messing around on Brayden's bike outside our house on the jumps that Brayden and his friend's had built. Needless to say, Paul isn't as young as the boys, and he wrecked pretty badly. He thought he was fine and he and Brayden even laughed about it. When he came into the house he was banged up pretty hard and was bleeding a lot on his face. He said he was fine though, and went and did some work outside.Well, an hour later we decided that he needed to go into the ER because he passed out twice in 20 minutes. Paul, Lainie and I spent the next 3 or so hours in the ER, Paul had a pretty bad concussion. He took it easy on Saturday but was still a little out of it and his face looked like hamburger. He did great on Sunday but was still a little out of it. So that's my disclaimer just in case anyone was wondering why Paul's face looked like hamburger and why he looks a little out of it......

Paul was down for the next couple of days after the blessing but seems to be doing okay now. I tried to tell him that the Dr. said that he couldn't snowmobile any more because of the risk of another concussion but he didn't believe me :) I just can't believe his luck....the craziest things seem to happen to him. Lainie has already been in the ER 2 times with Paul (I guess the first time wasn't really because of a crazy accident-it was pleurisy in his Lung but she has still been there 2 times already)

The blessing day turned out to be a really neat day! Paul did an amazing job! I am so grateful to have a husband who honors his Priesthood, is a good example to our boys, (and little girl) who loves the Gospel, and is always striving to be a better person. I am grateful for all of our family and friends that came to support us, both of us have amazing families and friends!! It was a wonderful day! (I didn't think of getting pictures until almost everyone was gone but we had SO many family and friends come, we are so blessed with all of them)

My sweet mother and father-in-law

My cute mom

My cute family (I don't know whare Jess is looking)

Our handsome boys and sweet baby girl (and Paul and I;)

Add caption

You can really tell on this pic how bad Paul's face is (but I HAD to have Lainie with her daddy)

My cute nieces

Us again-Our stairs as a backdrop was pretty lame :)

My darling sis and nieces

Our Four Generations picture (I only had one and my grandma eyes were closed ;(

Halloween

2010-12-02T12:48:00.003-07:00

I was just going to get an outfit Lainie already had, and turn it into a costume. At the last minute though, I ran to Old Navy and found a cute flower costume for only $5!! I snagged a bunch of other $5 costumes for the next couple of years plus I had a $10 off coupon so it made each costume 2.50. I was pretty excited!

Our cute little flower

Lainie and I stayed home and answered the door for the trick-or-treaters (I think she got bored)

Dressing up for work

October..Two months old

2010-12-02T12:47:00.018-07:00

Lainie came to work with me for the day. I was only going to stay for a few hours but she was so good that we ended up staying eight hours. She slept for three hours when we got there, woke up to eat and was up for a few minutes and then fell back to sleep for another 3 hours. She is such a good baby!!

You can see Lainie's sad Herniated belly button. When her umbilical cord fell off, her belly button was huge but I thought it would get smaller in a few days but it didn't. The Dr. just brushed it off without explaining anything to me so I took her into Dr. J just in case...He said said that it was common in a lot of babies and that it should go away in a year. Lucky for us, it has already gone away.

Kaiden loves his little sister and she loves him. He used to make fun of me for the weird things I did to make her smile, now he is doing crazy things too...

Little Lady grew out of her only dress that I had for her so this is what I put her in for church. She might be a little over dressed but it was cute..

Cute daddy and cute little girl

We have another teenager in the house!!!

2010-12-02T12:47:00.001-07:00

September..Little Sister is One month old

2010-12-02T12:47:00.000-07:00

First Day of Junior High

2010-12-02T12:44:00.001-07:00

A few days old...

2010-12-01T11:19:00.000-07:00

I have been SO awful at blogging lately but I am going to try and catch up...Here are pictures from when Lainie first came home...She had a little bit of jaundice so we put her in the sun for a little bit, pictures of her first bath (she wasn't too happy at first (all babies have to have a crying pic of their first bath right? Kaiden has one too) I only put a few pics of some of our friends that came to visit. We had a lot of sweet visitors, thank you to everyone and all they did for us in those first few days!! Looking at the pics makes me sad, just because my baby is already getting so big. I can't believe that she is already 31/2 months old.

More pictures

2010-09-23T20:33:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what happened but my posts got mixed up so the other pictures are 2 below this post.....

The Little Lady is Here

2010-09-23T17:03:00.002-06:00

I know this is long overdue so I will put the pics up for now and then add the rest of the details.

My mom has the brand new baby pictures on her camera so I will see if I can get those.....

Proud daddy

Just a few hours old

Getting ready to leave the hospital

Going home

The cutest baby ever.....

2010-09-23T16:56:00.000-06:00

I'm really not being snotty with my title but I guess I am a little biased..... and I think our niece did an AMAZING job on Lainie's pictures. Sorry it's a big overload on pics but all of them turned out SO cute.

Three years, four boys, a little bit of craziness, a new house, a baby girl,and a lot of great memories.....

2010-09-22T15:34:00.004-06:00

Today is mine and Paul's third anniversary. Time has gone by really fast and I can definitely say that I love him more every day. Blending a family has been crazy at times but I am so glad that I am doing it with Paul (and it is getting easier as time goes on) He is such a great daddy to Lainie. I love to watch him with her, he is so cute. He is a great dad to all our boys and such a good example of a Priesthood holder. He loves my family almost as much as I do and would do anything for anyone. There are so many reasons why I love him..... I can't wait to see what the next years bring...

Baby, Baby, Baby

2010-08-10T13:31:00.012-06:00

In less than 2 1/2 weeks we will have a new baby girl in our family! If she doesn't come early, I am being induced on the 26th. It is still so weird to be this far a long. I really didn't think I would get here but I'm soooo glad that I did but it's a little weird. I am SO not excited about having cankles, (or stumps as Paul and my brothers call my LARGE ugly feet) having to get up 50 times a night is not so fun and I'm not sure what to do about my wardrobe of clothes that aren't fitting so great lately. With only a few weeks to go, I can't justify buying new clothes but I am really feeling like a scrounge lately. My little bro was even making fun of my t-shirt and sweat pant attire last night. He said that I should just get a wife-beater that comes to the middle of my stomach and call it good. I didn't think I looked THAT bad, my stomach was not showing at all but I guess my clothes are getting a little too small. I had changed out of the clothes I had worn to work and just wanted to wear something comfortable . Paul offered to let me wear some of his t-shirts but I definitely wouldn't go out of the house in them. It's just a big dilemma but one I'm not going to worry too much about, as long as I have a few things that still look nice enough o wear to work and out-and-about, who cares what I look like at home.

Really though, I am so excited that I am 37 weeks and only have a few more to go. I can put up with not so stylish clothes and uncomfortable, fat feet for a little while longer....Plus, I still have a lot to do before she gets here. We have her stroller and car seat, which is probably the most important thing but I would like to get the house a little organized, not have boxes unpacked all over the place and at least have our bed put up and some kind of rocking chair or other kind of chair set up. I still need to order the crib bedding (at least I know what I want) and it would be nice to have a crib too. I really haven't been procrastinating, but have been waiting to get into our house where we will have room to put things. These next few weeks are going to be lots of fun....(or stressful)

A few weeks ago two of my sweet friends (and Marci's cute girls too) threw me a baby shower. They put so much work into it and it turned out soooo cute. I was worried about the weather all day but it turned out perfect for us to have it in my mom's backyard. I have been blessed with a lot of neat friends and family and so many of them showed up. I got so many cute things, Little Lainie will be so spoiled. Thank you to everyone that came and everyone that helped make it a great night!!

There are tons more pictures but they are on everyone else' cameras, so this is all I have for now:

Our house is done!!!!

2010-08-10T12:54:00.003-06:00

Yesterday we closed on our house!!! I can't believe how fast they got it done. When we first started, I thought we were going to be pushing it to be done before the baby was here. I thought that with my luck, she would be born the same time we were closing and moving in. The timing has worked out perfectly though and if she wants to come now, she can. Actually, I better try to get a few things organized in our house before I have her or we will be in a little bit of chaos.

We can't officially move in until the loan funds but that should be today so we should be able to start moving our stuff in on Wednesday and have the weekend to get the big stuff. We have had some really big blessings in our life over the past year. It has been a sad year but also full of so many good things. I think we might have an extra angel watching over us....I just feel so blessed to have a sweet baby girl on the way and a new house that Paul and I built together for our little (well, not so little) family. I am excited to start out fresh, to get more organized and accomplish some goals that I have been putting off. What a better time to put those goals into practice than in a new home. Wish me luck.......

35 Weeks

2010-07-27T12:01:00.006-06:00

I can't believe that I am already 35 weeks! I made it past the 33 week mark, when Kaiden was born and was so relieved when that week was over. At my 31 week appointment I saw Dr. M who is one of my favorite doctors now. He was so great and even asked if I was a little nervous to be coming up on my 33rd week (he was reading my mind) He told me that I really only had a 15-20% chance of the same thing happening that did with Kaiden. That made me feel soooo much better. I wonder why none of the other doctors told me what the percentage of the same thing happening would be? Oh well, we made it through and things seem to be going pretty well. If I had her today, I wouldn't be too worried but it would be great if I didn't have her for a few more weeks.

I haven't had any Braxton Hicks or anything like that so that has been a relief. My feet have been swelling up a lot lately though, which was a little scary and is ugly. Maybe I am a little paranoid but I called the nurse a few times just to make sure things are normal and that it is not Toxemia. I go in today and they will run some tests just to make sure. I'm just really excited to have made it past the 33 weeks!!!

Here are some funny pics of my uncle Mike and Little bro comparing our stomachs: (oh and one of cute Letecia and I. My shirt looks a little white trash-y but I had to do it to compare the stomachs)

House stuff

2010-07-16T11:41:00.004-06:00

I'm sure no one is really excited about the progress of our house but I am doing this more so I have it. They have done SO much on our house in the last month, we should actually be in, in the next few weeks. Our final inspection was scheduled for July 30th but I think it will be bumped back a little because there were a few things that weren't going to be done in time. Paul is painting right now and it was a little stressful at first. He really needed a weekend at the end of the scheduled time but they gave him a weekend before, when he would have been doing prep work (if that makes sense) Anyway, he found out that cabinets weren't going to be done in time so he is going to finish the painting today and tomorrow, so he has the weekend to do it.

I have been in charge of picking out the appliances and counter tops. Really, both Paul and I have
but I have had to call and get bids from all these different companies. I think it would have been easier if there was just one to go with and then there wouldn't be so many bids to sift through and counter tops to choose from. We are coming along though and I am excited to have things finished...

This is the house that Knight West Built....

2010-06-10T13:32:00.001-06:00

Okay, I know my title is a little cheesy but this is the song (with the Knight West replacing Jack, for those that know the little rhyme) that has been running through my head the last few weeks. Our footings and foundations were poured really quickly after our house sold and then NOTHING, forever. When the framing started though, things started going soooo fast. Paul and I were even 2 weeks out on getting our front door when we were told that they needed it in the next FOUR DAYS!! So, we ran around trying to find a door and ended up lucking out with HomeDepotand being able to pick it up within a day of the framers needing it.

We were also really behind on picking out the lights, everything on the exterior of the house and flooring. I have been racing all over Utah County picking up samples of stucco, rock, shingles, soffit and facia (whatever that is) so Paul and I could look over them and pick out what we wanted. Who knew that building a house was soooo hard. We have had to make lighting decisions, down to where we want all the outlets and everything. I'm really not complaining, it's actually kind of neat thinking that we are really doing this. I just think someone else would probably know a lot better than me, which colors of soffit and facia match the shingles and garage door or if 6 can lights will be enough to light up our kitchen or whether or not the door should swing from the right or left. (Let's just hope that all the colors and decisions we've made all end up working out when it is all finished)

Here are pictures of how things have been progressing:

Nine Years Old

2010-06-10T13:31:00.000-06:00

Akoy turned 9 on June 5th. It seems like he was just barely getting baptized, I can't believe how fast a year has gone by. We celebrated with a party with the cousins up at Paul's moms's and dad's. He got lots of fun presents and had a really good day!

A bunch of random things we have been doing....

2010-06-10T13:01:00.000-06:00

We've moved....

2010-05-24T11:59:00.001-06:00

We were officially moved out of our house on Friday May 21. Paul, Brayden and Kaiden did most of the moving a little at at time so we just had a bunch of odds and ends to move when the house finally closed that day. Brayden is up at my in law's house and Paul, kaiden and I are at my mom's. I am so grateful for our families and the sacrifices they have made for us so we aren't stuck in some tiny apartment paying rent, for letting us cram all of our house into any extra space that they had and for helping us move all our stuff and clean before we left. I think both Paul and I have the best families ever!!

Mother's Day

2010-05-24T11:58:00.000-06:00

I had a great Mother's Day! It was kind of a busy week trying to get things packed, just in case things went through with the people that were trying to buy our house, that Paul didn't have time to go on his own or with Kaiden to get me anything, so he took me along. He spoiled me and got me a gift certificate for a pedicure, a cute diaper bag that I had been eyeing and a huge body pillow so I can try to sleep better. What a cute husband I have to think of those things for me! Kaiden was with his dad for the weekend but came home on Sunday morning and I got breakfast in bed (It was either Captain Crunch or Life, which have been my breakfast staples for the last 6 months because they don't make me sick;)

We went and visited both of our moms after church and Paul's sweet mom even made dinner for us. My mom had been talking about how she wanted to get some trees for the back yard, so Mandi, JJ, Jesse and I thought that would be a good thing to get her. We had the hardest time getting her to say what she really wanted so we didn't know what to do. JJ ran all over trying to find something that she might like but in the end he thought it might be better to get something else or a gift certificate so she could pick out exactly what she wanted. He came up with an even better idea to make a money tree for her. For all the grand kids birthdays and even our birthdays growing up, my mom has come up with some really cute ways to give us money. She has done a money tree for most of our kids, that they have just loved, so to make a money tree for her what such a cute idea. So that's what we did, actually JJ made the money tree from scratch and it turned out really cute.

I am so grateful that I have the chance to be a mom, I think it is one of the greatest blessing ever! I love being Kaiden's mom, helping him and watching him grow up has been one the neatest things in my life. I am so excited to be a new mom again I can't wait for this new little girl to get here!! (well, I don't want her to come too early) I have the best examples of mothers in my life in my mom, mother-in-law, family and great friends. I hope that I can be half the mom that mine is. I love that she is my best friend and that I can talk to her about anything. She is so strong, she has been through SO much and is still going through a lot but she is coming out on top. She has taught me that that's what you do in adversity. I admire her and love her so much!!!

Kaiden was bugged that we took him from their game of football, to take our picture, so he hurried and took it without making sure that all of us were looking. So, this is the picture we got with all of the girls......

They dug our hole!!!!!

2010-05-05T12:49:00.001-06:00

I have kind of put off writing anything about selling our house and building our new one because I wasn't really sure what was going to happen, but things are moving kind of quickly. We had an offer on our house about a month ago that was SOOOO low that it kind of made me upset. We made a counter offer that seemed pretty reasonable and was a lot less than what we were asking but the people didn't take it. Oh well, I wasn't going to give my house away.

A few weeks later, around the first part of April, Paul and Kaiden were home during the day when this couple, their 2 daughters and their realtor dropped by. (Our realtor just assumed we wouldn't be there and that we always kept our house clean, so it wouldn't be a problem for them to come through on short notice) I was embarrassed because the house wasn't really that clean. It must have been clean enough for them though, because a few days later they sent an offer to our realtor. Their offer was pretty much the same amount that we had counter offered on the first really low stupid offer, so we agreed to all of it besides the earnest money amount.

We have a closing date of May 13 and things seem to be falling into place (I am still crossing my fingers, because you never know) The appraiser came out last Thursday and OUR BUILDER DUG OUR HOLE YESTERDAY!!! I am still nervous because a few people have told me how they thought they had their houses sold and then things fell through or the appraisal didn't come in where they needed it to etc.

***I didn't finish my post when I started it, so I will now...(Today is the 13th of May) We aren't closing on our house today but hopefully in one week. I guess FHA is so backed up with everyone who made the April 30th deadline to get the 8,000 grant. The realtor working with the people buying our home has reassured us that everything is looking good but they just have to wait for the underwriters etc to do their thing. I am actually pretty calm considering everything going on right now (I know,, pretty unbelievable)

We have most of our house packed up and stored at my mom's house. Paul, Kaiden and Brayden have been SO great to get all the heavy things moved over there. I feel like a loser for not being able to help them lift things but I want to be careful too, so I just pack things up and they move everything.

Paul, Kaiden and I are going to stay at my mom's and Brayden will be up at my in-law's house for the next 3-4 months while our house is being built. Hopefully it will be three months, just in time for the baby...The foundation is suppose to be poured today, we'll see how that goes. I'm still crossing my fingers and praying that the people close on our house soon....

Pink and Blue Balloons...

2010-04-28T13:31:00.000-06:00

*Sorry, LONG post......I should have written this post a few months ago but it's better late than never....Paul and I knew I was pregnant, a few months before we told anyone. It was SO hard keeping it from my mom (I told her just a few weeks a long when I was pregnant with Kaiden) but I wanted to tell her around my dad's birthday because I knew that would be a hard time for her and maybe news of a baby would help a little... so, we waited....

It was sooo hard to keep it from my mom, I tell her everything. I even lied to her one time when were in the temple. It was in January and I had had bad morning (night AND afternoon) sickness those first 2 months, that I brought crackers with me into the temple. (Don't worry, I cleared it with one of the cute little workers) I told my mom I just hadn't been feeling well. She was excited and said, "Maybe you are pregnant!?" I brushed it off and said "No, I don't think so." She said, "Maybe you are though." I made up something about already taking a test and it coming up negative. I felt soooo awful fibbing to my mom (and in the temple too!!) but I really felt like I should wait and not tell her at some random time.

We told the boys a few days before my dad's birthday so it wasn't a big surprise to them when we told my mom. I had some pink and blue balloons tied to our stair rail, had pink and blue decorations at our dinner table, made the boys drink their juice from baby bottles and had pink cupcakes sitting out, for dessert. They had NO idea what it was about (Brayden wasn't there or I'm sure he would have figured it out) Kaiden thought we were celebrating Ground Hogs Day since it was that day. I kept trying to give them hints but it wasn't working. Finally I told them that I had a picture of something for them. When I brought out an ultrasound picture Kaiden said, "oh, that's a picture of me before I was born!" (Oh my gosh, I should have been a little more obvious) So we finally just told all of them. They were really excited and hoped for a sister....

Anyway, my dad's birthday finally came and then I worried about taking away from his day with my news. Paul assured me that it wouldn't matter to my mom and that maybe it really would make it not as sad for her. I decided to get pink and blue balloons, and a bottle filled with candy and then was going give them to my mom some time that day.

It didn't work out that I was able to give them to her before I went to work because Paul had to be to work WAY earlier than my mom or I got up. We were going to dinner with Mandi and her family, JJ, Debbie and Jesse and I definitely didn't want to do anything there so I waited....We had a good time at dinner but it was sad at the same time. It turned out to be a sad night for my mom and she didn't get home until later. She stopped by my house on her way home but I just wasn't sure it was the time to let her know. I didn't want her to be sad but I didn't want to make the night about me. At the last minute I decided to have her come in (because Paul and Kaiden were waiting up to tell her with me) We gave her the balloons and she was really excited for us. She said that she was glad we had told her that night, and it did make things not as sad for her.

My post is turning out to be WAY longer than I wanted, so I am going to hurry and finish......
A few days after my dad's birthday I was talking to my mom and she said, "I have to tell you something kind of weird that happened this morning. JJ came upstairs and said, "Oh I guess someone is having a baby girl."

My mom looked out the window, thinking that there was a sign on the neighbor's house across the street. JJ said, "No look at the balloons." My mom had tied the pink and blue balloons to her piano in the living room. She said that the three blue balloons were on the ground and all of the pink ones were still floating like normal. She knew it had to be a sign that I was having a girl. I wasn't as convinced as she was though, especially since I really wanted a girl. When we went over later that day, I saw the balloons and it was pretty weird. The blue balloons weren't just a little flat, they were laying right on the ground and the pink ones were floating just like they were when I bought them. It was REALLY crazy.

I was going to post this little story right after my dad's birthday but I was worried that if I did, I would ruin the chances of our baby being a girl. (I know, I am weird) Now it's ok though, CAUSE SHE IS A LITTLE GIRL. YAY!!! My mom took some pics of the balloons so I will have to add them so you can see the proof.

Here's OuR BaBY GIrL!!

2010-04-21T14:17:00.000-06:00

The boys jumped in the truck and Paul didn't want his pic taken, so here I am by myself.....(The sun was in my eyes, that's the reason for the weird face)

I wish you could see these 3-D ultrasounds the way they actually look because they are SO neat. They make our baby GIRL!!! look so real. I just can't figure out how to get them to post any bigger but if you click on them they look a little better. My neighbor did such an AMAZING job yesterday, I'm so glad that she was willing to do another ultrasound for us. Another great thing about going in again was that my mom was able to be there this time. My real appointment was at such a weird time that my mom was still driving so she couldn't make it. Paul, Akoy, Kove and I (Kaiden was with his dad this time :( ) met my mom at the Dr's office and Camie met us right up front. (Not even a minute of waiting, Yay!!)

The baby was SO active (it must have been the lemon bar I had on my way home from work or walking around a little before we went in :) She was waving her hands all over, turning from side to side, she even yawned a few times and we got to see it all. There is no question that she is a little girl, she wasn't afraid to show us this time. I was so excited to finally be able to say that I am having a little girl!!! All of us were really excited and I was so happy that my mom was able to be there this time (Its kind of a bittersweet thing)

Now we can start narrowing down some names, picking out furniture and bedding and I CAN GO SHOPPING!!! YAY!! Don't worry, I won't be too out-of-control but it will be really fun to look at cute frilly clothes for a change.

OUR STUBBORN LITTLE BABY.....

2010-04-19T14:22:00.000-06:00

I have been SO patient the last month, waiting for the ultra sound appointment and the day FINALLY came. I was really nervous during work on Friday though and the longer we waited at the doctor's office, the more antsy I got. Paul had to tell me a few times, to just relax. We took Kaiden, Akoy and Kove with us and after waiting in the waiting room for almost an hour, we were able to go into the ultra sound room. Oh, before I get to that, one funny thing happened while we were waiting....

Akoy got bored just sitting there so he decided to look through a magazine. He picked one up and said, "Kristen, you should read this one." It was The Stages of Babies Development. I told him that maybe I would in a while. After a few minutes, Paul said, "Kristen look at this," and handed the magazine to me. I opened it up and it was pictures of a real birth (Ooh yuck!! I don't even like looking at that) Akoy had asked Paul where babies came from and Paul had told him from the mom's belly. Akoy handed him the magazine and said, "This doesn't look like a belly."

Paul ended up telling Akoy that sometimes they have to cut the mom's belly and there are other ways that babies are born too. I'm just not really sure if he is old enough to know all the details yet.

So back to the ultrasound...Doctor B asked the boys if they wanted a sister or a brother and all of them said "a sister!!" and we told him we had 4 boys. He said we might be in luck because 6 of his patients that day were having girls. He was great to take his time checking the babies head, heart, feet, lips and other important organs. He said that everything looked really great and the baby was even measuring pretty big (well, 14 oz) The boys kept saying, "oh is it a girl?" or "Can we see if it is a girl yet?" The doctor told them that he had to check a few things and then would get to that important part. When he was looking at the arms and hands he said, "oh, I'm not sure yet but most baby girls like to keep their hands close to their face and that's what the baby is doing. That could be a good sign." The boys were really excited about that.

When the doctor FINALLY got to checking the sex, he COULD NOT SEE MUCH AT ALL!! Our baby had its little legs so squished up that there was hardly any way to see anything. The doctor tried really hard to see different angles. He did say that he could kind of make out what he thought was girl parts and was 80% sure that she was a girl. He pushed on my stomach to see if it (or she) would move but it wouldn't budge. He tried some more to see other angles and was able to see a little under the baby. He thought it looked more like a girl, so he changed his prediction to 90% girl but still said he couldn't be sure because there were so many body parts in the way.

I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT!!! I had been SO patient and we weren't really even sure. Doctor B said that he was going to put female in his notes but he wanted me to grab him at my next appointment (IN A MONTH!!) and he would do another ultrasound so he could confirm it for sure. OH MY GOSH, I HAD TO WAIT ANOTHER MONTH!! On a good note, the doctor didn't officially change my due date but he put in his notes as August 26th being the due date.

I really wasn't disappointed leaving the doctor's office, just a little more in disbelief. It was kind of funny that we really didn't know for sure. After waiting a whole month, waiting ALL day, waiting so long in the waiting room and then waiting to make sure the rest of the baby was ok, the doctor really wasn't sure. I knew that there were a bunch of friends and family that were waiting for our calls or texts but I wasn't really even sure what to say. I called my mom first and just told her the doctor wasn't sure. He said he thought it might be a girl but wasn't positive. She couldn't believe it either. I sent my text out saying that the DR. wasn't really convincing but he was 90%sure it was a girl. I know 90% sounds REALLY good but I think it was how the doctor was wording things that made us feel like it wasn't even that close. (He probably just knew all of us wanted a little girl :)

I knew I couldn't wait another month to really know what I was having so I called one of my neighbors that does ultrasounds and asked her if she could do another one for me. She was more than happy to and so today (Tuesday) I am going to go in around 5 and she will do another one for us. I hope Dr. B was right, I will let you know then....

10 more days........

2010-04-05T16:05:00.000-06:00

We only have 10 more days until we find out what we are having. I am EXciTeD and NErvOuS at the same time. It has gone by pretty fast, thank goodness. I think it's because I have been trying not to think about it. The other day we were telling the boys that we would be able to find out soon if we would have a new sister or brother. Akoy asked, "How do they tell if it is a boy or a girl?"

No one said anything for a second and then Paul, Kaiden and I started laughing. I just wasn't sure how to answer him, do I teach them about the anatomy of boys and girls right then, or give him a technical answer? Kove saved me though and piped up, "I know how! Little boys don't have any hair huh?" All of us started laughing again. Oh the innocence of little kids....

I did tell them that the doctor had a special wand that he would rub over my stomach and they could see kind of a picture of the baby. We can explain more to them at the ultrasound or when they see the pictures. This should be fun....

Oh, the little girl's picture was not meant to be bigger than the little boys, that's just how it came over..I still have to write about my mom's pink and blue balloons and what happened

We have some EXciTiNG news!!!!

2010-03-02T12:41:00.000-07:00

It isn't that we have sold our house (but hopefully now, we will sell it SOON) For those that don't already know, we are having a BABY!! All of the boys are really excited (I guess I wouldn't call Brayden excited but he IS a teenager) Kaiden, Akoy, and Kove are hoping for a girl. (and secretly I am too but I don't want to jinx us so I'm trying not to think about it too much) The other day, Kove said, "Kristen we REALLY need a girl, cause there are sooooo many boys in our family! How many girls do we need to equal the boys? Dakota (our dog) is even a boy, so that's A LOT more girls that we will need, huh?" (I don't think we will try to come close to evening out the boy to girl ratio but that was cute that he thought of that:)

My due date was the day after my birthday but it was pushed back to the 30th (which is my nephew Mckay's birthday) I am crossing my fingers that this baby will even make it to August instead of July, since Kaiden was 7 weeks early. It is a little scary that because I had problems with Kaiden, there is a good chance that the same thing will happen with this baby. My doctor said that there isn't really much I can do, just take it a little more easy than normal, so that's what I will try to do.

I knew I was getting "older" but it just makes it sink in a little more when I am told that there are greater risks of complications, like down syndrome etc. I know a lot of "mature" moms that have had perfectly healthy babies. (How about all the "older" celebreties lately?) So, I am not going to stress about it and just keep praying for a healthy baby.

On April 16 we will find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. Paul just "knows" it's a girl but I think that's because he wants one just as bad as the rest of us do. I think he will be a great dad to a little girl, he was soooo cute with my niece Avery when we barely got married (and is still so cute with her) I hope the next few weeks go by fast.....

Julius Caesar

2010-02-24T14:18:00.002-07:00

our crAzY Winter

2010-02-24T13:53:00.001-07:00

The day after Christmas I went shopping with my mom and Mandi to get some great after Christmas bargains. While we were eating lunch I got a call from Paul, this is how the call went:
ME "Hey!"
PAUL "Hey babe, have we met the insurance deductible for the year?"
ME (a little hesitant because I don't know what he is asking for) "Umm, I don't know. Probably, it's the end of the year. Why?"
Paul (A little hesitant because he knows he is in trouble) "Umm, I rolled my snowmobile"
ME (not hesitant any more because I know he is teasing me) "Yeah, whatever."
Paul "No really, I rolled my snowmobile and my shoulder is really messed up."
ME (still not upset because I know he is pulling something on me like he always does)"Reeeeally? How bad are you hurt?" (sarcastically)

By this time my mom and Mandi are looking at me really weird because they can tell that something is wrong but can't figure out why I am acting so nonchalant.

PAUL "No I really did. I had the boys on the sled with me and Akoy's goggles got caught on my throttle and I couldn't get them off. I had to throw both of the boys off and I rolled 3 or more times."

At this point I was a little worried but I had fallen for his stories so many times that I didn't know if he was telling the truth or not. I asked him where he was and he told me that he was at our neighbor's. I didn't think that he would be over there if he was THAT hurt so I asked him if I could talk to Amy. When Amy got on the phone she said, "Kristen, he really did roll his snowmobile and he can barely move his left arm."

I felt stupid for not believing him but I was mad at the same time because he is always teasing me about stuff like that and it is never true. My mom, Mandi and I rushed home and my mom and I picked up Akoy and Kove and met Paul at the Instacare. Both of the boys were pretty freaked out because they had been thrown from the sled so it wouldn't roll on them too. They weren't going very fast but it could have been WAY worse. Paul missed a week of work, has had to have a bunch of rehab on his shoulder and still might have to have surgery...Hopefully he has learned his lesson about crying wolf but I doubt it, he likes teasing too much.I'm just glad it wasn't worse...

Just a few days after Paul's snowmobile incident, Brayden went snowboarding for the first time this season and BROKE HIS COLLARBONE!! I got another call from Paul, asking me if Brayden could go to the ER and bypass Instacare because he might have broken his collar bone. I couldn't believe the bad luck we were having and wondered what the 3rd bad accident would be.

Luckily we didn't have a third accident....

HAPPY 2010!!!!

2010-02-19T15:05:00.000-07:00

I know I am over a month late but I still have to get it in here. We had a fun New Year's Eve at my mom's house. My mom wasn't there though because she decided to go to a wedding in Nevada with my grandpa. She had the craziest story to tell us about them running out of gas,getting a flat tire and a bunch of other weird things. She should have stayed home with us......

Mandi, Dave and their family, Paul and I and all our boys (minus Brayden) and JJ (minus Debbie because she missed her plane coming from visiting her family) had a fun New Year's eve. We had lots of good food, movies and fun games and ALL of us stayed up until midnight. I didn't think Avery would last, let alone myself, but we did. Avery, Maci and I even went out on the front porch and banged pots and pans while everyone inside made fun of us.

I am excited for 2010 I think it is going to bring LOTS of fun surprises for us..... (Hopefully one of them is a new house)

Priesthood, Passing the Sacrament and Primary Program

2010-02-19T15:04:00.000-07:00

Here's anothe November post that I couldn't skip...Kaiden passed the sacrament for the first time, the same day that Brayden was ordained a Priest and that our ward had their Primary Progam. We had an eventful day. It was so neat to see Kaiden pass the sacrament and think that he really has the Priesthood and what an awesome thing that is. I remember when I was younger, watching the Deacons pass the sacrament and thinking how cute they were and neat that they had the Priesthood. (This was when I was older than the Deacons, so it wasn't like I had crushes on them)

Paul did a great job at ordaining Brayden! I won't go into all the detail but the blessing was AWESOME. I am so grateful for a husband that honors his Priesthood and is always striving to grow in the Gospel.

The Primary Program was so cute, especially Kove's part in the program....Before sacrament started, Paul was telling Akoy and Kove to make sure they talked loud and slow enough so that everyone could hear them. Both of them were a little nervous so I was telling them some stories about when Kaiden was about Kove's age and some of the funny things that happened. I told them a story about one of the little boys who got up and spoke into the microphone SO loud that it scared everyone, so I told them to make sure they didn't talk too loud.

I'm not too sure that mine and Paul's advice helped Kove very well, because when he got up to the mic all you could hear was this fast "My name is Kove Warner BOHHHHHHHHHHHH) in a cookie moster voice, like he was eating the microphone. Everyone busted up laughing and Kove ran to his seat. Everyone around us looked over at us and were just laughing. Kove seemed fine when he got back to his sit and we told both he and Akoy that they did a great job. That's one Primary Program that we won't forget.....

Random November Happenings

2010-02-05T14:18:00.000-07:00

Since I am SO behind, I didn't think it would hurt to add some of the things we did in November. So here you go..... Some of my friends and I went to the New Moon movie. We weren't as die hard as some and skipped staying up through the midnight premier, but went the next day instead. I thought the movie was better than the first and even made some "oohs and Aaahs" just so I could be like everyone else in the theater.

I got some tickets from my boss to go to a dinner and comedian through "The Mayor's Art Series" (not sure if that's what it was called but it was something like that.) Anyway, Paul asked me to find out if we needed to dress up so I called the city. They said that it was just casual, so that's how we went....Well, needless to say, we were VERY UNDER DRESSED for the dinner. It was a small dinner for about 50 people, one being the Mayor and a bunch of other politicians and their wives, who were all dressed in suits and nice dresses. We felt very out of place but we stayed since the Mayor came right up to us and invited us to sit at his table (I think he wanted me to put in a good word with my boss :)

JJ and Debbie couldn't make it in time for the dinner but met us right before the comedian. They would have LOVED the food but it was so awful having to sit with a table full of BORING politicians. All of them were really nice, except for this one guy that thought it was weird that I worked. He even asked me why I worked. Seriously!!! How do you answer that? "Well, we aren't rolling in the dough like you, so I can't sit home and eat bon bons like your wife." I just told him that I like what I do. I was a little ticked though because he asked me twice. Oh well, the food was DELICIOUS

The comedian was one of the best I have ever seen. Paul thought I was going to pass out from laughing so hard. Mostly he did impersonations of singers like Elton John, Bob Dillon, Michael Jackson, Tiny Tim, Nirvana and a ton of others. All of them were right on the nail with a twist of comedy to them. We had center section, second row seats so our view was perfect. It was a fun night, even with the dinner with the politicians. (oh, I think the lady at the city must have thought that I only had tickets to the comedian and that's why she told me it was casual, because the politicians were the ones who were out of plavce their, in their fancy outfits)

Christmas lights, movie and dinner with Grandma

2010-02-05T14:09:00.000-07:00

This year for our "Annual lights with grandma," all of us (all the grandkids, Mandi, I and my mom) went to the movie "Old Dogs" (where Kove fell
asleep right at the end and missed the funniest part of the show) and then we headed up to Salt Lake. We ate at the Lion House Pantry (which was sooo good) and then looked at the temple and lights from the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building and then walked through a little of the temple lights. We have decided that it's a lot better to look at most of the lights from the inside, where it is nice and warm and then just walk through a small part of the outside lights.

I think all of us had fun! ( Kove and Maci even made a new friend with this little girl that decided to join us for dinner. It was pretty funny.

Thanks mom, for the fun night and for continuing the tradition that all the kids (and I) love every year!

Mom's birthday

2010-02-05T14:02:00.001-07:00

My mom's birthday was the first part of December, so I'm just catching up........

Happy Birthday Dad!

2010-02-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

Today is my dad's 64th birthday! He has been gone almost 6 months and it is still so weird to think that he isn't here. I miss him so much! I miss him teasing me all the time, no one does it like my dad! I miss his big deep laugh and not being able to hear his voice, even if it was just hearing him talking downstairs (as weird as that sounds). I wish I could give him a big hug and tell him I love him, one more time.....

It's so crazy though, I see soooo much of my dad in my little brothers. Jesse has a lot of his looks and his funny sense of humor. JJ is so smart when it comes to putting things together, or finding a better solution to fixing things, or coming up with some little contraption to make something work better, just like my dad did. He has a lot of my dad's wisdom too and there have been so many times that something comes out of JJ's mouth and I think, "Oh my gosh, that is my dad talking."

It is neat and sad at the same time...It is neat that all the things my dad taught my brothers, will be carried on in them. I can just imagine the great dads they will be, they had such a great example in my dad....

Tonight we are going to dinner to celebrate his birthday, I think he will be celebrating with us.

Happy Birthday dad, I love you!!

Thanksgiving Pictures

2010-02-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a LONG time since I blogged last, sorry. I'm pretty sure someone has been sitting around just waiting for me to blog about our Thanksgiving and Christmas..... LOL. If you have, here are lots of pictures from Thanksgiving and then I will get on to Christmas.

None of us knew where to look or when to smile

The annual Thanksgiving football game

JJ and the boys taking a break to play the Wii

I'M tHaNKfUL FoR....

2009-11-25T12:38:00.000-07:00

I have soooo many things to be Thankful for but most importantly, The Gospel, my family (that includes Paul's family too), my great friends, the wonderful ward I live in, my job (that has been such a blessing from the day I got it) and our health (I won't say anything more about our health because I might jinx us :)

We had a really good Thanksgiving! We spent all day at my mom's and at the end of the night I realized that we hadn't stopped over to Paul's mom's and dad's. They knew we weren't going to be able to come to dinner because we would be helping my mom and having dinner at her house, but we were planning on going over after. I felt soooo bad.... I was pretty tired from staying up later than usual the nights before so I was kind of tired throughout the day and my brain wasn't thinking as good as it usually does. (My dad or Paul would probably make some funny joke about this comment)

As it got later, the girls put on some old home movies upstairs while the guys played video games downstairs. I think I fell asleep a few times and the night got later.......I think Paul was having fun and neither one of us realized how late it had gotten. When We were getting ready for bed, I said "Oh my gosh! we didn't go over to your mom's and dad's." Paul said it was fine, that he knew we needed to be with my mom. (I had been feeling bad that we weren't going to be able to go to his families Thanksgiving, because we have gone to both since we got married. He kept telling me that it was more important that we were with my family this year...That's just another reason why I love him......)

Thanksgiving was one of my dad's favorite holidays. He LOVED getting the dressing ready weeks before by drying the bread out on the counter. My mom wondered why he didn't just put it in the oven the day before but he liked doing it his way. Everyone LOVED his dressing. I'm not the biggest dressing fan, so I didn't know any better. I always took a little though, because I knew what my dad put into it to make it. He never used a recipe, just added canned milk, broth, lots of different spices, the dried bread and a bunch of other stuff. My mom tried to make it this year but it was pretty hard without a recipe. I think it turned out pretty good though, I tried a little just like I used to with my dad's.....It was a good day but different and sad without my dad...I think things will always be different now...

FaMiLy PiCTuReS

2009-11-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

For a while now, I have been thinking that we needed to get our family pictures done, a little earlier this year. (Last year we were scrambling at the last minute and just had my mom take them in her back yard, probably 2 weeks before Christmas) Mine and Paul's niece does wonderful pictures but she had a new baby in October, so I knew we were on our own....

I didn't really want to go to a studio or anything, since our schedule with the boys is a little crazy so on a whim I asked Debbie, my little brother's girlfriend. She has a nice camera and has a pretty flexible weekend schedule so why not? She was happy to do them so I just had to figure out where, (and I thought Gardner's Village would be fun) pick a day and shop for coordinating clothes (Who knew finding clothes would be a HUGE task, but I did it!)

I had to make sure we took the pictures on a weekend that we had all the boys and nothing else was going on. That was hard enough, but then I had to make sure the weather was going to be nice.....I checked the weather reports and found a Sunday that would work perfectly with our schedules...I kept checking and rechecking the weather and everything looked good...Then Saturday came AND the awful weather. I was dying when Kaiden and I walked out of Old Navy on Saturday afternoon and there was a HUGE blizzard!! What was I going to do if Sunday was bad weather? That would mean another 2 weeks before we had all the boys and it would be that much closer to Christmas. I prayed really hard that the weather would be nice...and we were lucky, it turned out to be a good day, a little cold but no snow or blizzards.

Here are some of our pics, I think Debbie did a really good job! AND the best part....I am ahead of schedule and may just get my cards out sooner than a few days before Christmas ...

JJ kept us laughing by doing crazy things and jumping in our pictures. Of course Paul had to join in too.

Debbie was teasing Akoy about picking Kove's nose, he wasn't really but it looked like it...

Sorry, I can't get my captions to match up with my pictures so it will just have to look stupid for now... (see what I mean)

Conference Weekend and Park City

2009-11-13T10:54:00.000-07:00

My posts are still out of order but at least I am getting them posted, right? Paul and I took the boys up to Park City for Conference weekend (which was the first part of October not all the way back here, after Halloween) The place we stayed, had an indoor/outdoor pool, a basketball court, playground, arcade and a bunch of other activities going on. We spent most of our time in the pool and hot tub and played basketball a few times. Oh and I guess the boys were at the arcade a bunch...

It was nice to be able to watch Conference and have all those fun things to do, when we were not watching it. I love to hear the Prophet and leaders of the church! I always feel renewed after listening to their counsel, I feel like I can take on any challenge that comes my way (I hope saying that doesn't jinx me) This Conference, I couldn't help but feel like the counsel was centered a lot around the FAMILY, that we need to show more appreciation for those we love, to ask for help in serving our families, to seek guidance from the Lord in how to love our family members, and to do work for those family member that have gone before us.

One of the talks that really stuck out to me was the one that President Eyring gave. Here is a quote from it: "I give counsel to husbands and wives. Pray for the love which allows you to see the good in your companion. Pray for the love that makes weaknesses and mistakes seem small. Pray for the love to make your companion’s joy your own. Pray for the love to want to lessen the load and soften the sorrows of your companion."

Maybe this stuck out to me because I haven't been the sweetest wife lately....and knew I needed to be more grateful for all the Paul does. I took President Eyring's challenge and prayed to see the good in Paul and to not dwell on the bad things....(Paul has SO many good qualities but sometimes I forget about them when I am grumpy, so I decided to pray when I wasn't feeling so appreciative of him)

I'm not going to lie and say that I have done a whole 360 but when I am praying for the things President Eyring was talking about, I feel so much more peace and grattitude. Paul is soooooo great at serving others, he LOVES the Gospel and strives to be a better person every day, he loves my family......(and sooo much more) All of these things are SO important to me but I forget how important they are to Paul too and how good he is at doing those things....

I loved Elder Bednars talk also, especially when he said, "We should remember that saying “I love you” is only a beginning. We need to say it, we need to mean it, and most importantly we need consistently to show it. We need to both express and demonstrate love. President Thomas S. Monson recently counseled: “Often we assume that [the people around us] must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know. . . . We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us”

Especially over the last few months, I have realized even more how important this is. I am going to try harder to let those that I love, know it and hear it often. My family, all of them, are so important to me but I know they need to know that......

HaLLoWeEn Witches, black cats and skeletons too

2009-11-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

My new calling...and I LOVE it!!!

2009-11-10T16:17:00.000-07:00

So, at the first part of September, I was called to be the new BEEHIVE Advisor. The bishop said he wasn't sure if it would be too much for me, with my dad just passing away, but he felt like I was needed there. I was actually really excited (and a little nervous too) I was only in YW's a short time, right before I got divorced, but I LOVED it!

I have loved team teaching with Paul but I am ready to be busy, like I was in RS. I think my life runs a little more smoothly or I feel closer to Heavenly Father, when I am serving others. I have really needed a BIG push to serve, since I have been slacking on it lately.....AND I get to be around a lot of girls....I NEED that too. My house gets a little too wild and crazy for me sometimes, with all that testosterone.

"My" beehives are SO sweet! A few of them came up to me on my first day in YW's and gave me hugs and told me they were excited to have me in there. Some of their parents even told me that were excited that I would be teaching their daughters. That made me feel really good and a little less nervous. It seems like FOREVER since I was that young, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to relate to their problems, that none of them would talk during my lessons or that they might even hate me. All of them are so cute and sweet though, and it has been so much fun. I love the other women I serve with too, they are so great with the girls and have really neat relationships with them. I hope that I can be a leader like the ones I grew up with, I had a lot of fun with them and looked up to them as great examples.

We had a FUN Halloween party for one of the activites, here are some pictues: (oh, I mean they will be posted shortly)

Witches Night Out.....

2009-11-10T16:11:00.001-07:00

A few weeks before Halloween, I went with Paul's mom, some of my sister's in law, and nieces to Gardner's Witches Night Out (I don't know if that's what it's really called, but that's what I'm calling it)

My mom was having new cabinets put in and wanted someone to be there while they were installing them. Paul was so sweet and volunteered to do it, since I felt bad that I couldn't be there. The cabinet guy was running REALLY late and couldn't make it until the next day but Paul still hung out with my mom for most of the night (what a cute husband I have).

Witches night out was A LOT of fun but I couldn't believe ALL the women and their amazing witches costumes. I was totally UNDER DRESSED (I will have to start 6 months earlier to get ready for next year) It was SOOOO packed with witchy women that you had to scoot past people to get through any of the shops. It took us over 2 1/2 hours to get into the restaurant to eat. All of us were starving to death by the time we sat down but it was worth it, the food was delicious (or maybe I was so hungry that I didn't notice) I teased Paul that he would have LOVED it there, since he HATES crowds.

It was a fun night out! Thanks Jen and everyone else that organized all of us!

Kaiden's Birthday Pictures.....

2009-11-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

KAIDEN IS TWELVE!!!

2009-11-10T15:26:00.000-07:00

Kaiden turned twelve on October 9th!! I can't believe he is that old!! I think I say that every year but really, twelve is HUGE!!! I couldn't skip my tradition to decorate his room but I forgot everything at work so had to improvise. Paul was pretty sure Kaiden wouldn't feel bad if I stopped doing that, since he is getting older. I knew I would though, so I got the spiral-hangy-things that my friend Letecia used for my birthday, my tape and my bar stool (that I had fallen off a few days before) and went to work on Kaiden's room. I had to wait until he was in a REAL deep sleep, sneak in and then run out because he kept waking up. I did this about a dozen times throughout the night, but finally got it done (without falling off the stool).

I think for a little while, a few years back, I dreaded Kaiden turning TWELVE. He used to complain about going to church (I think I have written about this before). I told him if he still felt that way when he turned twelve, he could stay home if he wanted to. I'm not sure what I would have done if he still felt that way, but luckily he likes going to church and we haven't fought about it in years. Actually, I was really proud of him a few months before his birthday because of a decision he made......

We had been talking about him going to Young Men's, receiving the priesthood, passing the sacrament and other stuff, the weeks before. He went to his dad and asked him if he could come home on Sundays, the weekends he was with him. It was so neat that he did it on his own, without me saying anything. His dad was ok with it at first but now isn't sure about it, so Kaiden hasn't been to church evey week. Hopefully soon, his dad will realize how important it is to Kaiden and start letting him come home. I haven't dreaded Kaiden turning twelve, the last few years, except for the fact that it meant I was getting older too..

For his birthday, Paul and I took Kaiden and a bunch of his friends up to Classic Skating. I was so excited because I got half off gift certificates on the internet, it made it SO CHEAP!!! They got pizza, ice cream, game tokens and 3 hours unlimited Lazer Tag, skating, Blast Zone, bounce house and any of their other activities. Kaiden got to spin a prize wheel and go into one of those cash booths (where the cash flies all over inside and you try to catch it) I think everyone had a good time. Kaiden said it was his best birthday ever (I think he says that every year)

On Sunday, Kaiden's grandpa (and grandma) came from Idaho to ordain him a Deacon. It is so neat that he has the Priesthood now. I cried when they called him up in sacrament because I am so proud of the neat little boy he has turned out to be. My mom came to sacrament with us. (and then came back for Kaiden to be ordained)It was kind of a weird day because the last time she was there, my dad was there too, that made me really emotional (and my mom too) My cute husband was so sweet to comfort both of us.(Things like that make me love him even more)

Kaiden's grandpa came up to me after sacrament and told me thank you for raising Kaiden to be the good young man that he is, for raising him in the Gospel and for being a good example to him. His grandma also told me that I did a good job raising him. That meant a lot to me....

After the full block, Kaiden received the Priesthood. That is so neat to me. I am so thankful that Paul was able to stand in with the bishop and Kaiden's grandpa. I am so grateful for the Priesthood, I have seen it work many miracles throughout my life and I am so excited that Kaiden has it now.

I wasn't able to get a picture of Kaiden in his Sunday clothes because he was wisked off to do fast offerings and then went with his dad. I have pics of his birthday and will post them soon.....

Paul is half way to 70!!!!!

2009-11-04T10:09:00.001-07:00

On the 22nd of September Paul turned 35 (so now he is old like me ;) I made him my traditional (yummy) carrot cake and had our families over to celebrate. I took a bunch of pictures but Paul wanted to finish using our disposable camera so the pics are on it....Later in the week, my mom took the two of us to Texas Roadhouse for his birthday dinner. I can't believe that both of us are 35!! I remember when I thought 30 was SOOOO old. It doesn't seem that old to me any more....

Happy (late) Birthday Paul!! I love you!

2009-11-04T09:31:00.000-07:00

I realized that my posts for the last few months are really out of order, so I thought I might as well make it even worse....Here are pictures of some of the things we did this summer that I haven't blogged about yet.....

StaDIum Of FIrE FOuRtH Of JuLy

OUiRrh MoUNtAin TeMpLe

OPeN HoUsE

JuLy 24tH CAmPiNg

Happy 2nd Anniversary to my Hottie Hubby!!

2009-10-23T13:18:00.000-06:00

This year it was my turn to plan something for our anniversary (I didn't know we were taking turns but I guess Paul planned MOST of it last year, so this year was my turn) so I started planning early...(I know, that's so unlike me). Thanks to my great friend Letecia and all of her ideas, I think it turned out pretty well. I wanted it to be a surprise but Paul kept bugging me weeks before, but I never told..(Also very unlike me) I have a few pictures but for some reason I didn't have my camera (probably had a dead battery) so we took some on a disposible camera. I'll see if I can get them posted on here...

hAPPY bIRTHDAY jESSe!!

2009-10-23T12:50:00.000-06:00

My mom and and sis had a fun idea to throw a surprise party for my little brother but I had to figure out how to get him there......

6TH GRADE FOR KAIDEN, 11TH FOR BRAYDEN

2009-10-15T13:36:00.000-06:00

I did get my traditional first day of school picture for Kaiden but didn't get one for Brayden. Brayden missed his first day of school for my dad's funeral and Kaiden went for an hour that day. Kaiden has the same teacher that he had last year, so he was really excited!!! It is soooo crazy to me that he is already in the 6th grade, it makes me feel so old. If you can believe it, I can remember being in 6th grade and how cool I felt to be the oldest in the school. Kaiden wishes that he was in the 7th grade because all of his really good friends are that old. (It's fine with me that he isn't in Junior High now, i'M not ready for that yet)

Summer......

2009-09-17T13:42:00.000-06:00

Summer went by so fast, especially August with everything that happened with my dad. I will catch up in the next few posts with the first day of school and the rest of our summer pictures......

My Birthday

2009-09-08T15:53:00.000-06:00

Kaiden's and Brayden's first day of school was before my birthday but I added all my pics before I realized that I hadn't done that post yet. I'm too lazy to delete all these pictures and then wait for them to upload, SO the First Day of School post will follow.....Sorry

It would have been ok with me to skip my birthday all together, with everything that happened with my dad. My great family and friends had other ideas though.....

I missed about a week of work being at the hospital with my dad, funeral arrangements and being with my family. When I came back to work on the Friday before my birthday, my wonderful friend Letecia and her cute kids had decorated my office. All the girls at work pitched in and gave me lots of fun presents, a cake AND a ticket to Nickelback!!!! so I could go with Letecia, her sister and her friends. I was SO excited!!! Marci came and visited me and work and gave me one of the best gifts ever!! A cook book that she made with her's and her families recipes AND 3 frozen meals. I know it sounds funny, but I was sooo excited. I have been waiting forever to get some of Marci's recipes in a book, she is such a great cook. The frozen meals were a bonus!!! One of my best friends growing gave me the cutest FaMiLY plate a few days before my b-day and it is just perfect! I LOVE all my friends, (and Paul's friends and their wives) they have been so great through everything.

We weren't going to do anything big on my birthday but Paul thought my mom might want us to bring cake over to her house, instead of inviting everyone over to ours, since my mom didn't really want to go anywhere. She thought it was a great idea, so we picked up a cheese cake and had a small, low key party. JJ and his girlfriend were so great to pick up some some balloons and other fun party things for my mom.

Later that night, Mandi, Dave, their kids, Paul, I and our kids, went to dinner with my dad. It was a good birthday!

Brayden's 16th Birthday!!!

2009-09-08T15:29:00.000-06:00

Brayden turned 16 on the 14th, while we were in the hospital with my dad, so he didn't get a "real" birthday. (Actually, I told him earlier we could do something with a bunch of his friends but he wasn't too excited about that so I guess it all worked outs ok) Paul took him to lunch that day and my cute neighbor had her son and Kaiden make him a cake. (I have the best neighbor's ever!) His grandma and grandpa gave him an older jeep of their's so he is out driving on his own (watch out!)

If I had a choice of stepsons, I would have chosen Brayden. He is a great kid! He hasn't been the typical teenager that everyone worries their child is going to turn into. He is very responsible, doesn't back talk, (maybe just to Paul, once in a while) a really hard worker (He has been working since he was 15 and I know his employers LOVE him) and just a mellow teenager. HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY BRAYDEN!!

My Dad

2009-09-03T16:01:00.001-06:00

On August 15 my dad passed away from complications he sustained in a tractor accident. Even as I sit and type this, it doesn't seem real to me. He was so strong and tough that I never imagined a time that he wouldn't be here, especially not this early in life. (He was only 63 and had just retired in May). I still think that he is just on a long vacation and will be coming home soon.....

My mom married my dad when I was almost five and my sister was 2. From the very beginning, we called him dad and there was never a time that I didn't feel like I was his own daughter. Even when my brothers came along, I never felt like he played favorites. I knew he was proud of all of us just the same. The funny thing was, even though we came from divorced parents and went with my dad every other weekend, I didn't think my family was any different. I had a "real family" just like everyone else. I have always been grateful to my dad for taking on my sister and I but I think I have realized even more though, what an amazing thing he did, the last few years as I have been trying to blend my own little family. It really isn't that easy to take on kids that aren't your own, to try to be fair, to not play favorites and to love them as much as you do your own. My dad did it though, and made it seem so easy.

My dad taught me so many things throughout my life, he was one of the wisest persons that I have ever known or will probably ever know. He taught all of us to be hard workers. He taught us by his great example, he was a true "farm boy" and knew what hard work was. Sometimes he would tease us,when one of us did something dumb, and say "What are you, a subdivision kid?" We knew he was only kidding though, because he joked around with us a lot. I think that's one of the biggest things I will miss about my dad. He was always teasing and joking around. I think I might have gotten it a little more than everyone else though. I'm not sure if it was because I was an easy target or just took it better than anyone else. I loved it though, because I knew that was one of the ways he showed us he loved us.

There are so many things I can say about my dad....I know I would not be where I am today without him. He taught all of us that our word was one of the most important things we had. I always knew that if I wanted someone to be honest and blunt with me, I could go to me dad and he would tell me what he thought. A lot of times I needed that and I loved that he would do that for me. He showed us through the love and sacrifices he made, that family was one of the most important things ever. I could say without a doubt, that I knew my family would be there for me whenever I needed them. My dad taught us to be there for each other. He and my brothers were best friends, that is the neatest thing to me. He would rather spend time with them than any of his friends. He had a lot of friends too. Even though he had this tough exterior, people wanted to be his friend...I think they felt special to be his friend because he didn't let just anyone into his life.

I think the kind of man my dad was, really shows through my mom, my two little brothers, my sister and I. My dad was so proud of all of us, the way the 4 of us turned out and the adults we had become but it really is because of how he raised us...I owe so much to my dad and the only way I will be able to show him is by living the way he taught me to live........To work hard, and to teach my kids to be hard workers, (as hard as it may be sometimes) to be honest, humble, to love my family more than anything, to make life fun and make the most of the life I have been given.

I am going to miss my dad so much!! I am so grateful that he is my dad and for all that he taught me! I am so grateful for the Atonement and Eternal families, I know that I will see him again some day. There have been soooo many people that have been there for our family during this past month. Thank you to all of our friends, family, neighbors and others that have helped us in so many different ways!!!

mAN i'vE BeEN An AwfUl BloGgER LAtElY....

2009-08-07T13:18:00.001-06:00

Since I haven't blogged is soooo long I thought I would post what I had then add my pics later......So they have been added down below......

I forgot to update everyone on Kaiden's state tournament games...They did AWESOME!!!! The first day they won one game and lost one. They lost to the #1 SF team and only lost by a few runs (everyone else was losing by 12 and even 2o to this team) The next day they won both games and were going to be playing the next day (Wed) for 3rd or 4th. place. If they won that one they would play for 1st or second. I think I was more nervous and excited than Kaiden was. He is just a lot mote laid back than I am.

On Wed the team came out of the first game with a huge win! Well, 6-0 (I think that was the score) Then they faced the #1 SF team that they had lost to the first day. It was such an intense game. Both teams were back and forth with the lead, then with 20 min to play, the SF team hit 2 guys in and we were down by 2. Man, I was so nervous. I felt so sad for our pitcher and catcher because they were under so much pressure that they started crying. They aren't sissy boys either, they are those tough, athletic-type boys (I guess as tough as you can get at 12 LOL) They had come so far and could feel the weight of the game on them.....

We never pulled out ahead and SF won the state championship. The Giants did so great though and took 2nd in state!!! The whole week was pretty exciting for all of us!! I was able to take off work every day, my mom and grandma came down a few days and Kaiden got to hang out with all of his teammates, practicing and goofing around. Kaiden said that he wished baseball didn't have to end but I think it was a great ending to the season!!! NICE JOB Kaiden and the rest of the Giants team!!! Thanks Grandma and mom for coming all the way to watch Kaiden!!

That weekend, Paul and I, our neighbors and Kaiden and a few of his friends from the team, celebrated at the Lindon Pool. We had TONS of fun and are thinking about getting a family pass next year. It's a really great pool, with a lazy river, waterslide, kiddie pool, regular pool and Wave Rider (not sure if that's what it's called)

STATE TOURNAMENT

2009-07-15T12:42:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was the first day of Kaiden's State Tournament for baseball. The Giants had two games, right in the middle of the sweltering heat but they did great!!! They won both games!! The scores were 9-2 and 11-1. Today they have two more games and one of them is against one of the first place teams. I know they will do great and that Kaiden will do great!!! Way To go Giants!!! I have lots of pics and video but will add them later. (Hopefully soon, when I am updating everything ;)

Carry on.....2009 Stake Trek

2009-07-13T15:12:00.001-06:00

Sometime in February, Paul and I met with the 1st Counselor in our Stake Presidency. I was really nervous because I knew that I was being released from the Relief Society Presidency and wondered what calling I was going to get. (Stake Conference was a few weeks away and I prayed we weren't being called in for something to do with that) I was relieved when President W asked us to accept the calling to be Mas and Pas during our stake Trek in June/July. As embarrassed as I am to admit it now, my first question was, "What am I going to do with my hair?"(Yes, President W heard me say it and hopefully forgot it right after.)

I was actually really excited, because I have heard SO many great stories from those that have been on past Treks. Paul knew that it would hit me eventually what I was REALLY in for, and he was right.... I am NOT the best outdoorsy girl out there and REALLy having to rough it like the pioneers, started to worry me a little. The thing that made me worry even more though, was the idea of 6-10 teenagers that would be part of our "family." This might seem a little dumb to some, but I haven't served with the Young Women for almost 10 years and that was for only a little while, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Brayden is a great teenager so I don't know what it's like to deal with REAL teenagers. I had dreams of bratty teenage girls and cocky teenage boys, talking back, sneaking out of their tents and running all over the place. Needless to say, I did A LOT of praying before we went on the Trek.....

The Stake leaders that were in charge of getting everything ready were SO great. We had several meetings before to answer questions and let us know what to expect. My mom and mother-in-law were great to help me round up clothes for Paul, Brayden and I. My mom sewed a lot of my stuff and they turned out pretty cute (for pioneer clothes)

Finally the big day came! At 5:30 a.m. on July 30th Paul and I headed to the stake Center with all the other Mas and Pas and our Big Siblings (They were older kids that would help us out and be a leader to the other's in our family) The person in charge was calling out the Big Siblings and matching them with their Ma and Pa. There was one kid with a HuGE sombrero-looking hat that kept yelling out every time one of his friend's names were called. He would yell, "YAY! you have a family!" Oh man!! That's not my family!" and just kept yelling things out....I kept thinking, "That kid would be fun to have as our Big Sibling. He seemed really fun and crazy.

When mine and Paul's names were called, so was sombrero boy's. He ran up to us and gave us a hug and said, "I have a Ma and Pa!" Paul's first thought was, "Great we get some punk kid." As we were walking to the cars to drive up the canyon, Zach said' "I'm really not handicapped, I was just being funny." We had a good talk on the way up to wait for the rest of our family. Zach seemed like a really great kid and even proved to be so much more than that, the rest of the Trek...

Oh! I have sooo much to write about the Trek but I am going to have to finish it later.... If I would have known before how it was going to turn out, I wouldn't have worried at all. We had the BEST kids in our family!! Everyone of them pitched in pulling the handcart, helping around camp and were SO strong in the Gospel. I think I came out of the Trek with a stronger testimony of Prayer...I know that God was watching out for us (especially me because I was seriously terrified that we would have these unruly teenagers that really didn't want to be there and I wouldn't know how to deal with them.) I have tons more to write but I will stop for now. Here are few fun pics we got while we were there.....

All of the girls on Faith Hill during the Women's Pull. All of the girls were AMaZinG!! The boys were so great to walk right beside us the whole time. Two of the cute boys even carried HUGE boulders up the whole way, to put under our wheels while we stopped to take breaks. (I was there too, just in the back in this pic. All of us took turns pulling and pushing)

This is after the Women's Pull (Notice how cute I look. Hahaha.) It was really hard with just the girls but it just made me realize a little of what the real pioneer women had to go through when they had to go days, weeks and months without their husbands.

Paul and Zach doing the stick pull. I think they broke every long stick we had

Zach split his pants during the second day and thought our table clothe would work to cover it....It didn't work so great.

BIG 8!!!

2009-07-10T15:09:00.000-06:00

Akoy turned 8 on June 5th!! YAY!!! Being 8 is such a fun age!! We celebrated his birthday the day after, with cake and ice cream and all of our family.

LAGOON

2009-07-10T14:54:00.000-06:00

The second weekend in June all of us (minus Brayden, because he had to work) went to Lagoon for my companies Lagoon Day. They were so great to schedule it when we had all of our boys! Yes, they love me at work so they did it just for me. Just teasing, I helped a tiny bit with the planning. Well really just reminded the guys in charge that we should probably start planning something soon, so everyone would have time to figure out their schedules. So they asked me what weekend they should do it and I said the 13th would be a great weekend. So that's how it worked out that we had all of the boys...

Since the weather has been so weird this summer it just so happened that rain was predicted for that Saturday. I felt soooo bad because I chose the date. It all worked out perfectly though, the weather was just a little overcast and it didn't end up raining until around 4. Most people got a good days worth of rides in before it rained.

All of us had a really fun time! Paul talked Akoy into going on the Colossus but couldn't talk Kaiden into going on Wicked. Just like I thought, as soon as we got home, Kaiden regretted not going on Wicked. Maybe next year.... Next year I am going to take Dramamine before we go. I don't do as well on all the crazy rides like I did when I was younger. After riding Wicked, I seriously wanted to puke but didn't think that the Lagoon workers would be too happy about that so I rode a few safe rides like the train until I felt better. (man it sucks to get old)

Kids say the funniest things.....

2009-07-07T13:36:00.000-06:00

Paul and I teach the 6 and 7 year old kids in Primary. I haven't been in Primary for such a long time, I forgot how funny the kids can be. I've heard some pretty funny things since I have been back in there:

They were doing a spotlight and the counselor in the Presidency said "This person loves helping their sister clean her room."

The room was pretty quiet until one of the little boys, with a disgusted look on his face said, "THAT is NOT me."
All the adults in the room burst out laughing because you could tell that the little boy thought that was the dumbest thing ever,

One of the little boys whose class is right in front of us, loudly said to his teacher,"Teacher I don't want to sit by him. (again with disgusted look on his face) He told me that he didn't brush his teeth today so I don't want to sit by him." (As he is scooting to the edge of his seat)

As we were driving home from church one of our boys asked Kove where he got his sucker. He said, "The Prophet told me that I could have it." When one of them asked, "Are you sure it was the Prophet?" Kove answered, "Yeah, I was in the Prophet's office and he said I could have it."

After all of us teased him for a few minutes about the Prophet REALLY being at our church, he realized that he meant the bishop. It was pretty cute.

Slacking.....

2009-07-06T12:14:00.000-06:00

I have sooo many posts to do, so stay tuned for our Lagoon day, Akoy's baptism, Paul, Brayden and I on our stake Trek and Fourth of July. You don't want to miss out on these........

The Giants are going to State!!!

2009-06-11T13:40:00.000-06:00

Kaiden's baseball team ended their regular season with a win last night, which puts them with a 7-2 record AND they are going to the state championship!!! This is the first year that any of his teams have gone to state, so it is really exciting. (Kaiden is arguing that the first year he played, his D-back team went to state. I think it was the city championship, that all teams go to. Maybe we will never know who is right.... I guess it doesn't matter, they are going this year so that's all that matters. YAHOO!!)

Kaiden has improved SO much this year, I am so proud of him!! He is hitting WAY better, has made a lot of great plays in the infield and has even pitched quite a few games. Paul has been working with him on his pitching and hitting and he has a great coach and assistant coach. They are so patient with the boys and have put in a lot of time with them. (My neighbor and Kaiden's best friend's dad is the assistant and he has been great to help Kaiden) The state championship starts in July so the team will be practicing quite a bit until then, and then it's off to the championship. Stay tuned for an update of how they did......

Dance Festival

2009-06-01T12:23:00.000-06:00

This past Wednesday, Kaiden's school had their annual Dance Festival. I think the school has had this tradition since my brothers went there and even when Paul did (Wow! that's a LONG time.) It is so much fun, I'm glad that they have kept the tradition. Kaiden has been able to participate in it since he was in kindergarten. I'm not so sure he thinks it is so fun,especially now that he is SO old. A few days before the festival, he was telling me about the different songs they were dancing to and said, "There are a lot of girl moves that we have to do, you'll see." He was pretty cute doing the dances but you could tell that he was embarrassed. He was smiling pretty much the whole time though but I think it was more that he was laughing. I got a little teary-eyed thinking that he is growing up so fast.

I can't believe that he is going to be in 6th grade this coming year. He is so smart and a really good kid (with the exception of the few arguments we have had over doing jobs and pulling weeds :) I don't know if this is a normal mom thing or just a weird Kristen thing, but there are times that I worry that I am not teaching him all that he needs to know. I worry that I need to do a better job at teaching him to be a hard worker or a better team player or more about the Gospel or about always being nice to others. He is starting to become more independent and I wonder if I am running out of time for teaching him things. It seemed to be a lot easier when he was younger because he did everything I said and didn't question it. (well, not too much) Now he has his own little personality and he is starting to question some of the things I tell him ( not anything bad but some things like thinking I am overprotective when I want him to take my phone when I let him go over to the park with friends or he complaining about ALL the jobs he has.) Really, it isn't that bad but I start thinking about all the things my parent taught me (some that I know I hated) and hope that I am teaching Kaiden all the things he needs to know to be a good young man. Ooops, I am rambling...

Anyway, Kaiden is going to be in the 5th/6th grade class split again. It's funny to think that he was worried at the beginning of the school year, about being in the harder 5th grade class. He did a great job though and loved it! At parent teacher conferences his teacher would tell me that he was a great student, well rounded in academics and sports and he loved having him in the class. Kaiden is even a little sad that school is over, he says that it is mostly because the fun 6th graders will be gone. He got all A's and one A-. I gave him a hard time about the A- but was just teasing. I am so proud of him. I'm soooo glad that we started early on with our homework and reading routine. He always gets his homework done before he does anything else, if he doesn't do it at school, and he LOVES to read. I just hope it continues this way.....

The Weekend

2009-06-01T10:11:00.000-06:00

We had a pretty busy weekend this last weekend...... My cousin graduated on Friday night so Kaiden and I went to that with my mom. I'm not sure if I am weird but graduations make me cry, like weddings, babies being born and other things like that do. I wasn't sobbing or anything, just a little teary watching the senior video and thinking that these young kids are leaving a part of their life and starting a new chapter, a BIG new chapter.

My mom and I were talking to Kaiden about how fun high school is and we wondered what kind of sports and activities he would do when he was that age and what kind of kid he would be. We told him that he needed to try to be nice to everyone, no matter if they were popular, quiet, smart, not so smart, athletic or not, that he should be friends with everyone. I know it was funny to be talking to him about stuff like that but I sometimes I just think of those kind of things.... When I started thinking of the time when Kaiden graduates, THAT made me cry..... (I'm weird I know)

Akoy had a game later that night so I dropped Kaiden off at his dad's and rushed over to the game. Luckily it started late so I didn't miss too much. Akoy even hit a double, so that was fun to watch.

On Saturday morning we got up too early for a Saturday, to go to our towns Fireman's Breakfast. Akoy and Kove thought it was pretty neat that we got to eat in the fire station and that there were tons of fireman serving them breakfast. Of course we had to take their pictures by the fire truck.

Paul's brother-in-law built a little motorcycle track behind their house so we headed up there after breakfast. Paul was riding as crazy and fast as the boys and got pretty banged up. (I don't think his body is as young as he thinks it is) It was a busy but fun weekend....

MEMORIAL HOLIDAY.......Family Reunions, Camping, Riding.....

2009-05-26T12:30:00.000-06:00

We had a really fun Memorial Holiday!! We woke up WAY early on Saturday morning and took the motorcycle and Rhino up past Tibble Fork (Paul knows the name of all the trails and stuff but all I know is that we went up quite a bit from the dam.) Brayden rode his motorcycle most of the time unless it got too steep, muddy or we had to cross a river or something, then my dare-devil husband rode it until we got to a safe spot. There were a few times that I couldn't watch because he was slipping and sliding going up the steep rocky mountain.

As soon as we got home, Paul Kaiden and I got ready and went to a family reunion for my mom's side of the family. We ate lunch, which my mom brought for all of our family, (thanks mom) sat around and talked and the kids (and Paul) played catch and played in the park. Mckay came home with us and he and Kaiden played the rest of the day until we went up to my dad's to watch the playoff game.

After church on Sunday, we went out West with my dad and rode some more and camped over night. We got hit by a BIG rain storm but it only lasted about 20 min. Everyone kept getting on me because I had taken one of the MANY books I have been reading, that I haven't gotten around to finishing. I figured that since I didn't have a messy house to worry about, I could sit and read without feeling guilty. I didn't read the whole time we were there but I did decide that the next time we go out camping, we need to pull out some of the games we brought....

Baseball season is here.....

2009-05-26T12:20:00.000-06:00

I've probably said it before, but I LOVE baseball season. I'm not sure if it is the warm weather or the excitement at the ballpark, but I love watching Kaiden and the rest of our boys play baseball. Last week, Kaiden was given the game ball by his coaches for pitching in his first REAL game of the season. I was SO nervous for him. I think it is so much pressure on the pitcher that I worry for Kaiden when he is the one pitching. He did really well for his first time.... He walked a few of the boys, struck out two of them and didn't hit any of them (he had hit a few during practice games so this was a big thing) Every year he gets so much better so it is even more fun to watch.

Happy Mother's Day!!

2009-05-14T11:48:00.000-06:00

I know I am late on this but I can't skip a Mother's day post. I had a REALLY good Mother's Day, (even though Paul and I had to speak in sacrament.) I was a nervous wreck before church because I didn't think that my talk had come together like I wanted it to ( You would think that with a topic like "Mothers," I would have had an easy time but I really had soooo much I could talk about, that I didn't know what I wanted to say.) There was one point, right before sacrament started, that Paul had to grab my hand so I would stop shaking. (That just shows you how bad I hate talking in front of people but I'm so glad that my cute husband was there to hold my hand) My mom, dad, brother, his girlfriend, my grandma and Paul's mom and dad came to support us. I'm so glad they were there, even if at first I was hoping no one would show up (not even anyone in my ward) We made it through our talks though, and I think they turned out pretty good.......I don't know if mine and Paul's personal stories showed just how imperfect we really are, but we had a lot of people come up to us and tell us that they enjoyed our talks and that they didn't make them feel bad or guilty or like they were being preached to. I guess that's a good thing, right?

After church, Paul, Kaiden and I went to dinner, over to my mom's and dad's and then to Paul's mom's and dad's. It was a really nice day and what a better thing to celebrate than being a mom and having the best mom and mother-in-law. I LOVE being a mom!! I think that it is one of the greatest blessings I have been given. Sometimes I think that being a single mom was even a great blessing for me. Instead of having to focus on a husband and other kids, I was able to focus all my energies on being Kaiden's mom. I'm not saying that it was easy and I don't ever want to go back to being single but I think it was a blessing in disguise and a growing experience that I am thankful for. I am so grateful to be Kaiden's mom and a step mom to Brayden, Akoy and Kove. I am so grateful to have the mom that I have and to have her as my best friend. She has been through A LOT with me, I don't know what I would do without her. I have a great mother-in-law too. Paul's mom is so sweet and such a great example to me. Happy Mother's day to all the great Mother's I know!!

I love Paul because.......

2009-05-07T13:40:00.000-06:00

I have decided that I need to be more appreciative of my husband, who he is and all that he does for me and our boys. I hate to admit it but sometimes I have days that I am grumpy with him. Most of the time he hasn't even done anything, it's more of me stressing out about how hard it is blending our family, having to deal with an ex or just plain "being in a bad mood." Paul has been such a blessing in mine and Kaiden's lives and I want to have something to remind me of all that he does for us. So, every once in a while I am going to blog about the reasons I love him. Then, if I am having "one of those days," or just want to look back on all the great things he has done, I have my blog to look back on. I'm sorry if I get mushy or even cheesy but I need to do this.......

So today I have to say that I am SO grateful that he always tells me that he loves me. Sometimes he sends me cute texts during the day or tells me at night or when he is kissing me goodbye in the morning but I don't think there have been very many days that have gone by that he hasn't told me. (I never realized how great it was to have someone love you so much until I now have that someone) AND he always makes sure he kisses me goodbye ,every morning before he goes to work.(even when he is mad at me :) Oh and one more! He loves the Gospel and tries to live it every day. He is ALWAYS willing to serve wherever he is asked to. He is the cute 6 and 7 year old kid's teacher in Primary and he doesn't complain about "just being in Primary" ever. He was even ok with giving a talk on Mother's Day (not that I am too mad that I have to, also) He has been through a lot of crazy things in his life and made a HUGE commitment to the church a few years back and is strengthening his testimony every day. I love that Kaiden has a great example in our home of someone who honors their priesthood and who is so willing to serve in the church.

I love Paul for so many reasons, sometimes I forget how much I love him....It's good to think about this so I don't focus on how crazy our life is...just how great it is.

EASTER

2009-04-13T23:03:00.000-06:00

I started my Easter blog a few days after Easter but haven't finished it yet. I thought I would hurry and post what I had and then add to it later. So here you go....

April Fools and our Backwards Dinner

2009-04-06T13:38:00.000-06:00

The first of April came WAY to soon!! I didn't even have the chance to figure out any neat pranks to play or fibs to tell. Kaiden was going to be with his dad so he had a great one planned but the timing didn't really work out so he still has it for next year....

I wanted to come up with something funny for Paul but by the time I had really thought about it, I was already at work. It would have been funny to do something to his truck but it would have been really hard. I would have had to run home, get his truck keys, drive to his work and then all the way back home, plus get everything done before Bunko that night. I decided that I would have to wait until next year to pull a fun joke on Paul, so I have something for next year too...

Akoy and Kove were going to be with us so I wanted to come up with something fun for them....After racking my brain all day at work, I decided on doing a backwards dinner where we would have dessert first and the real dinner last. I knew the boys would think this was pretty funny. As I was getting everything ready I thought it would be even better if we had to eat with something different than the normal fork and spoon. I started grabbing a bunch of random utensils and other cooking items out of my kitchen drawers. I came up with a BBQ fork, an oven mitt, a big spoon and a few other random things.

When I told the boys we were going to have a special April Fools dinner, with dessert first, they all started laughing and Kove said, "April Fools! Right Kristen?"

I told him that we really were going to eat dessert first, he was SO excited. He got a funny look on his face, laughed and said, "We really get to eat dessert first? Really?"

When Paul noticed that there were no silverware on the the table he started getting on the boys for not setting it right. When I told him that I had taken all the silverware and that everyone had to draw out of a hat the type of utensils they were going to use, Akoy and Kove thought that was even more funny. Kove kept saying, "This is April Fools huh Kristen? We get an April Fools dinner."

Kove drew out the knife and Mexican sombrero (which was one of the harder ones) Akoy got the huge spoon (and then we added on a cute little red cowboy hat and the Cat-in-the-Hat hat for Brayden because Kove didn't want to keep his hat on by himself) Brayden got the HUGE BBQ fork (which turned out to be pretty hard too) and Paul got the fork and oven mitts (which wasn't too hard at all) I was lucky because I didn't have time to find any other utensils and was rushing around making sure all the food was out and had to hurry and eat to get to Bunko, so I got to eat with a regular fork.

Each new food that the boys had to eat was so funny. Akoy did fine with his spoon and dessert but had a really hard time with his salad. Kove ended up resorting to a fork because he couldn't eat anything with his knife and Brayden figured out that it was easier to stab each corn kernel because his fork was too wide. I think that our backwards dinner was a big hit so I think that we will make it an April Fools tradition. I feel sad that Kaiden missed out but hopefully next year both of us will be able to pull some big pranks and have him home for dinner...

Basketball and Baseball

2009-04-06T13:14:00.001-06:00

Here are Kaiden's basketball pictures as promised.....I remember when Kaiden was almost eight and in his second year of "real" Junior Jazz basketball. He had fun the first year he played, he wasn't as aggressive as the other boys but he had fun. The second year he still wasn't as aggressive and didn't really hustle but seemed to still like it, until we were half way through. He started complaining that he hated basketball and wanted to quit. I told him that he had committed to play that season and I had paid for him to play, so he had to at least finish out that season then he could choose not to play anymore.

The crazy thing was, after we talked and he agreed to keep playing until the end of the season, he actually had to miss 2 games because he had to go up to Primary Childrens and have sugery. He was there for a week and then he had to recuperate for another week. During that time, he started missing playing basketball and couldn't wait until he could play again. He was a little timid when he came back for his first game, because he had stitches and bandages on his stomache, but he did great the rest of the season. He became a little more aggressive and hustled a lot more.

The next year he was excited to play again. He did so much better than the years before and was even one of the better players on their team. He was running up and down the court instead of just moseying a long at his own pace. It was so neat to see become more agressive and really hustle to get the ball and make the plays.