J IS 6 MONTHS OLD!

Time is FLLLYYYYIN'. J is already 6 months old and a heart breaker. And (knock on wood) she's all healthy.

In other news I just have to tell this one funny story about S. This morning (like all mornings) he climbs in my bed and plays drums on my face begging me for a banana and breakfast. So I kept saying "okay, I'm coming," only to roll over and pray he would get distracted with something (even if it was my nostrils or eyelids) just so I could get a second more of sleep. But then he said clear as day, "Mom, you can DO it....try again!" HA! I laughed myself out of bed and and got him his banana. Looks like my attempts at teaching him dedication and perserverance comes back and bites me in the kisser!

I love this

I know I sent this to some of you through email, but I just thought it was so perfect

"Mom" help needed

Alright so like many of you, my kids are or have been sickly! ugh! Seth had strep and so Disney on Ice got replaced with a hacking cough and "Pajama days" on the couch. Anyways after a few days of anti biotics he was good as gold. But then Jaquelle started getting sick. She didnt get strep but she had quite the cough and a really stuffed up nose. Well the first night she slept a long time 12-13 hours without eating. Then the next day because she was so stuffed up she didnt eat much. I took her to the doctor and they found that she also had an ear infection which is the reason I believe she didnt eat well for the next two days. After another long night and day of not eating well I think my milk is gone! I called the lactation consultant and she told me to pump every couple of hours and so I have been doing that, even in the night when Jaq's asleep. But seriously, I got nothin! Okay so normally that wouldnt be a problem, its been 6 months and I really would be fine if I was done nursing except she WILL NOT TAKE A BOTTLE FOR THE LIFE OF HER! What do I do? Now that she's got her appetite back I think she is starving and Im afraid she's going to get dehydrated. So in other words she's not getting anything from me and a bottle is not happening...please any suggestions? I know I probably should have started with a bottle months ago, but I really saw no need and Seth transferred to a bottle with no problem. Are there any tricks or wives tales out there for me to try?

2 NEW BEDS

Okay so S's bed for the past couple of weeks has been a twin mattress on the floor cause we needed the crib mattress (that was in his toddler bed) for J when we moved her into her own room. Well so I've been wanting a twin bed for S but they all have been too expensive. So C finally told me if I listened to Tradio for one week (its like a craiglist over the radio) and listened for a used one someone was just trying to get rid of for cheap and I still couldnt find one I could go buy one. So I listened and the first day within the first 15 minutes someone had one! Well its not bran new but its way durable and S couldnt care less and I think we paid like 20 bucks for it. So it wasnt my first pick but hey atleast he finally has a bed and his mattress is off the ground.
Now onto our bed...Back when we moved into our second apartment we went up north shopping for some badly needed dressers. Well we found some that we loved that were on clearance because someone had bought the other peices and bed probably that matched it. Anyways so we got a good deal on them but thought it was going to be impossible to ever find a bed that matches it. But then this last week we got some ad for Boulevard Home Furnishing and there it was a queen bed (thats the size matress we have) that matched almost perfectly to our dressers! So C did something very unprecedented and we just called them up and bought it on impulse. Those kind of purchases can be very scary especially since we hadnt ever really seen the bed except for in an AD. But once we got it we loved it and it made it all the more worth it that it was on sale! Anyways I dont know why Im taking so long to post the fact that we got new beds! But its fun.

A FORT night :)

S and I have been having so much fun latetly. C has been so busy lately that we've had lots of time together, but its been cool. The other day we made this awesome fort, unfortunately it was much more fun for him to jump on top of it and crash it down then it was to just sit under it, so the fort didnt last long, or rather mom got sick of "fixing" it.
Then on Friday S and I went out on a date. I really wanted to get out of the house and C was working late so S and I went out to dinner at the Pizza Factory. It was actually really fun and he was great. We just talked and he scarffed down olives. I love that I can actually have conversations with him now. Its hillarious. Although him learning new words sometimes gets confusing. Let me give you an example. Sometimes when he like accidentally does something wrong like tripping and falling on his sister, I say something like "S you need to be more careful, but I know it was an accident." Well somehow he caught on that if its an "accident" he doesnt get in trouble. So lately when ever he's doing something he knows he shouldnt be doing or I tell him no, he says "mom, its an accident." Sometimes it totally doesnt make sense though and it makes me laugh. Like once I told him S dont play on the computer... and he just looked at me and said, "no mom, its a accident."
Unfortunately though right now he's sick. Last night S woke up croupy. I hate the croup. It sounds aweful and they get so scared cause its hard to cough. I am just hoping he feels better by the end of the week cause I won Disney on Ice tickets off of some news show! Whahoo. I am so pumped cause The Lion King and Peter Pan will be there and he LOVES both those shows.
Alright better go S just dumped a cup full of water on my back. Nice.

February update

Holie Canolie, its been over a month since I've posted. February has been CRAZY. So I'll start off by telling y'all what we've been up to. At the beginning of the month my sister K and I threw T (my other sister) a baby shower. It was a lot of fun. And I am so excited for her. C skipped out and went skiing with his brother that day and had a blast. The next weekend our ward got split and combined with another ward creating a whole new ward and C got put in as executive secretary so needless to say, he's been gone and on the phone a lot lately trying to help make every calling a ward needs to function. Then this last weekend we went with the Young Women in our ward back up to Bryce Canyon and went cross country skiing again. It was way fun, but I didnt take any pictures cause my camera was lost. Actually I completely accused C of using it last and then losing it. I was so angry when he wouldnt even help look for it. Then at church on sunday I found it in S's sacrament meeting bag and I remembered I had put it in there a couple of weeks ago. Oops. Sorry C. But needless to say I havent taken very many pictures this month. Oh yea, I almost forgot on the 10th was my BIRTHDAY. Wahoo. C was great and took off half a day and we went down to St. George and went out to eat. He got me a very coveted double kid bike/running stroller. This summer is going to rock! I am so excited. Now I just got to fix my bike and get into shape so I can actually push/pull both my kids around. Our V-day was pretty low key mainly cause we are too chicken to get babysitters. I dont know why its so hard for us. Who do we get that can take care of a baby and a toddler? How much do you even pay a babysitter? Is 8-10 too late for a 14 year old to babysit? Anyways and then we're both just chicken when it comes to calling. Lame huh? We seriously need to get past this so we can go on a DATE sometime! But while C was gone getting our annual heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's I wrote I Love you in the snow with food coloring and water....pretty sure its going to stain our grass red not to mention it ended up looking like I killed an animal and dripped blood all over the snow just to write the endearing message to my husband. Matter of fact the first thing C said was, "please tell me you didnt split your wrists to write that message"...how romanticly morbid eh? Ah well. We took a picture. And that was our V-day.

Anyways other than that we are doing great. J is getting so big, I swear her chubby legs dont even fit in the bumbo chair anymore. But I seriously cant get enough of her. She is so darling! Ah I love having a baby around. I cannot stop kissing and tickling her. Its so fun! I attached some of her latest pics. S is doing great, he is talking more and more now and I CAN FINALLY UNDERSTAND HIM. Well thats us for February! Kind of a lame update, but an update none the less.

Isnt he HOT?...Its okay you dont have to answer that.

This is a snapshot I got of Cordelle, doesnt he look like some GQ model?  Ha, I made fun of him for that but secretly I think he looks HOT in it.

Anyways while Im at it I thought I'd post some pictures of the snow day we had the other day.  Cordelle is such a good dad.  When he saw that it was snowing like over a foot, he decided to come home early so he could take Seth sledding around our house.  Needless to say Seth loved it!  Heres the pictures from the day.  P.S. Yes that is our snowman.  The snow wasnt great for making a snowman so it ended up looking like a snow martian, that and I had to use what I could find in our junk drawer.  But when all is said and done, I am proud of it.

And this is just funny of Seth, he got so mad when I tried to take out the balls too....weird.

New Years Eve Sleep over.

I know once again I am late posting...but I wanted to include what we did for New Years. As is tradition for the last 3 or 4 years we celebrated the new year with one of our best friends, the Huffs! It was so fun. We ate till we were sick (cause most of us had some sort of resolutions that would be beginning the next day). And we stayed up playing games all night. Lily and Seth started out having their first sleepover...but it lasted about 2 minutes, when we decided no one was going to sleep until they were separated. Once the kids were asleep we played Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader all night (it seemed.) The game was kind of lame, but I did win the million dollars so I guess thats something (okay honestly all the answers were some pr-i-t-ty good guessing :) Anyways, once 12:30 came around, they were thinking of packing up and leaving back to Cedar. But after a little persuasive convincing that they'd have to wake up Lily in the cold and drive back to Cedar, they consented to having a slumber party for all! Wahoo. It was so cool to have friends where we would totally feel comfortable just telling them to crash on the floor and stay for a new years breakfast. And they did. We love them. Its going to be a sad day if they ever leave us (probably in May). But no worries, Im sure we'll stay friends for a long time. Seriously they're closer to us than a lot of family is. God has blessed us with AWESOME friends! Thanks Huffs for a fun night!

Life lessons from a 2 year old

So this past week Seth has taught me two important lessons I thought I'd share. The first happened after we got home from Christmas up North and he wanted to watch this Liken the Scriptures movie about the Nativity story. We had him watch it all throughout December to try to teach him about baby Jesus and the shepherds etc. Well he got to where he loved to sing and dance along with it. So it was no surprise that he wanted to watch it when we got home. But being that Christmas was over, I told him, "lets watch something else" its not Christmas anymore. He insisted on watching "the angels" and "shepherds" and the part where they sing "glory to god in the highest" (which of course Seth now sings along to). Anyways it got me thinking, just because we celebrate Christs birth in December, doesn't mean we have to ONLY celebrate it then. Seth was right, why shouldn't we continue to watch that movie throughout the year and to go even further, why shouldn't we remember what an incredible event that was all throughout the year? I came to the conclusion that I want Seth to remember stories like this all year long and you know what? Even if we're still singing Silent Night in July...I guess thats okay.
Lesson number two: Seth got a bike for Christmas and New Years Eve day was actually warm enough and the snow was melted enough for us to go outside and try it out. I was excited for him to ride it probably more than he was. But he was not riding it like I wanted him to. He'd get on for a second and then get off and pick up a rock, then eventually he'd get back on for 2 seconds and then get off and kick the snow. He was just so interested in everything outside. But of couse I kept urging him to get back on his bike. I found myself keep saying, "Lets ride your bike," or "come on lets go further"...but he wanted to take things at his own pace and look at every single interesting thing on the way. Its not that he didnt like his bike, cause once he was done exploring what was on the side of the road, he was excited to get back on his bike or put his treasure in the cubby under the seat. Anyways it got me thinking...why was I in such a hurry to get him to keep riding? Was there a dire destination that we needed to be to? If we hurried and got up the street and back, then what? Was I always in such a rush to do things when there was never really a need to be? So I stopped telling him to hurry up and get back on his bike. I just let him go at his own pace. Enstead of making it all the way around the block like I had wanted to, we made it like 2 houses down the road, but he loved just being outside. You know that saying, "stop and smell the roses?" Well I have a few new ones. Sometimes in life, we need to slow down and "stop to pick up that cool little rock" or "stop and splash in the gutter water" or "stop to touch the snowbank"....sometimes we just need to stop.

Christmas

For the Grandparents! (this was incredibly CRAZY to get all 5 kids looking or not screaming)

Christmas this year was fun. We stayed up at my parents house again. It was great being with family but I think next year, we might want to try having our own Christmas at home. We had lots of friends do that this year and they loved it. Do most of you stay home for Christmas? It is harder with more kids, packin' all their stuff/presents and trekking it up there. But it was still nice. We also got to hear from Neal who will be home in 6 months!! I miss him so much. Anyways heres a few pics from Christmas.

Jaquelle at our house

Seth at our house

Beautiful Sunset and snow Christmas Weekend

Opening Pressents

Christmas Morning with Mason and Anna

Christmas Eve with the Masons