First laugh

Alexander has been on the verge of laughing now for a few weeks. On Monday he finally did it...he had his first belly laugh (Megan didn't have hers until she was over a year old.) He laughed as I tickled his chin. I tried to get it on video but as soon as the camera came out he stopped laughing. Yesterday he started laughing at me when I sang to him...guess he thinks I have a funny sounding voice. One of these days I will get his talking and laughing on video so everyone can see it. It is so cute.

Happy Birthday Matt!

Hey big brother, just wanted to give you a big shout out on your birthday. I had so much fun playing games and visiting with you. It made me miss you guys so much more. I love your creative mind and your sense of humor. We watch the videos that you made with your family all the time (we would love more...hint, hint.) They are so fun. The one I wish I had was your family's version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" at the last Christmas party we went to. It was so funny and so creative. Anyway, I hope you have a great birthday and party hard. Miss ya and love ya so much!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Hey Mom, I just want to give you a big shout out and let you know how much I love you. I miss you so much. I think about you almost every minute of everyday.

Every time I...

look at the baby

watch Megan's new song dance

see the excitement on the girl's faces as they tell me how their day went

look at the beautiful mountains

hear a great lesson in church

pass by the site of our Payson temple

I just wish you could be here sharing in these things with me.

I always wonder what new movie you watched or what new project you're in to. I know it won't be long before we visit again but that doesn't make the distance between us any easier to think about.

I hope this is a great birthday for you.

I love you so much!!

TV update

When we first moved here to Payson I told you that we don't get TV reception and the only way to get TV was to order satellite and we couldn't do both satellite and internet so we didn't have TV anymore. I was glad to give up the TV (except for the news) but wasn't sure how everyone else would take it. It's been 7 months and I am happy to report that we are still without TV. It has actually been really nice. It was hard at first because we were all so addicted to it. We watched every movie we had about 3 times just to have something on the TV. After a while we got tired of all our movies and found Redbox. It was so cool because we had lots of free codes and had a new movie almost every night. It didn't take long though before we had watched every movie in Redbox that was worth watching...they don't have that big of a selection and I am very picky on what I let the kids watch. With no new movies to watch they finally started to not care if the TV was on or not. I think they were starting to detox. I am always getting offers for satellite in the mail and one particularly bad day where I wanted to veg out and just watch some TLC or Discovery I actually thought about getting satellite because the deal was really good. I asked Rebecca what she thought and she started pleading with me not to do it. She says she likes it so much better without TV. I couldn't believe it. I threw the mailer away and have not looked at any offers since then. We even had a satellite guy come to the door with a really good deal and CJ himself told them that we don't want TV either. I wish I could say that we don't watch TV at all...we still watch TV series on DVD...but it's a step in the right direction.

Just a side note. One of the best things about no TV is the lack of commercials. The girls used to want everything they saw advertised. Since there are no commercials to influence them they have stopped asking for ridiculous items from the store and have started asking for more books and craft projects.

Homeschooling

Back in February I took Elizabeth out of school and officially began to homeschool her. There were many reasons for my decision but the main one is because she wanted to homeschool so badly. I didn't want to post about it until I knew if it was going to work out or not. I had thought about homeschooling many years ago when the girls were very young but it always gave me anxiety attacks just to think about it. I didn't think I could do it. I don't know why I feel differently now but I was actually excited to try. However I know myself and I know that what seems to go so perfectly in my head doesn't always go so well in reality. Plus Elizabeth and I are so close in personality that we tend to butt heads a lot and I didn't know what being around each other 24/7 would do to our relationship. This is why I thought I would wait to tell people that she was homeschooling.

It hasn't been too bad so far. I am still very new at this so it's a work in progress but we are doing well considering. There are many obstacles in the way but we are trying to work them out. Having a very needy baby and a 2 year old while you are trying to teach is not easy. You feel like you are being pulled in a million different directions. She is still going to school for band and theatre so we have to interrupt her studies to go to class and then try to pick it back up and remember that there is still studying to be done and school is not over when she gets home. I am still getting her curriculum put together so that she gets more than just the basics but I didn't realize how time consuming it is. I have a hard time with starting school on time in the mornings. I have never been a morning person so trying to train myself to get up and get started has not been easy. Many mornings school gets started late and then it messes up the schedule for the rest of the day (I really need to work on this one.) It's also hard for me to have Elizabeth home and not ask her to watch the babies while I get some house work done. It is so tempting to just skip school and clean house but I will not do it. Her education is so much more important than a clean house right now (just remember that if you come for a visit.)lol

All things considered though she has done very well. Her reading and writing have improved dramatically. So many mornings she will be reading her book before I even get out of bed. That would have never happened before. She wouldn't even look at the book before and now she looks forward to reading. She still struggles in math but it is not a fight to get it done every day now, she actually asks to do the math. She also asks to do the other subjects that we have chosen and looks forward to school now. She likes that she has a say in what subjects she is going to learn and is constantly thinking about new projects that she wants to add to her schooling. As for our relationship it has actually grown stronger. Where I was afraid that our tempers would flare at each other and we would end up not wanting to be in the same room together, that has never happened. We had a little power struggle in the beginning but that was it. Now we actually can work things out with calm voices and open minds. Homeschooling has not been easy and the demands on my time have just grown tremendously but I am so glad that we have taken this step.

As for the other kids, Rebecca and Dakota have both asked to start homeschool when they hit Jr. High. I think it is a great time for them to start. It also gives me a chance to start homeschooling all the kids a little at a time so that I don't want to give up so easily. I plan on schooling Megan and Alexander from the beginning since I will have more experience by the time they start. The kids will still take band, theatre, or choir, which ever one they choose to get the performing arts education that I think is so important as well as socializing with their friends too. I am still excited to teach my children. That makes me happy because I have grown too and am learning to discipline myself, but that's another story. Here's to happy teaching.

If ye are prepared...

Our ward has an awesome Preparedness Leader. I'm not sure what her actual title is but she is in charge of helping us in the area of preparedness. She is so faithful in her calling and does such a great job making sure we have access to items for our storage. I think she goes above and beyond in her calling and I am so grateful for all her work. One of the things she does is offers us different items in bulk quantities for us to add to our food stores every month. She has a #10 can sealer at her home that she frequently encourages everyone to take to their home to use. We have purchased items on our own over the years and through her that needed to be canned so we are so glad that we have access to that caner. We didn't want to put off canning our items any longer so we got the caner last weekend and got to work. It was much easier than I thought it would be and we all had fun. It went so quickly too.




Our dining room was taken over for a few days until we got everything done.


Elizabeth and CJ took turns filling the cans.



Dakota prepared them for the caner.

She wasn't quite strong enough to use the caner so I helped her seal a few cans then I did the rest. After the caner sealed the cans Dakota would put them in their boxes.

I forgot to take a picture of all the cans when they were done before we moved them downstairs. They are all kind of scattered right now until CJ and I build the shelves to put them on so I can't take a picture now either. Anyway, we ran out of cans and have to get some more tomorrow, then our canning project will be done. The girls really enjoyed it and so did I. We are by no means as prepared as we would like to be but we are definitely more prepared now than we were last week.

2 months

I can't believe that it has already been two months since Alexander was born. Okay, so yesterday is actually the day he turned two months but he had a check up today so I thought I would wait for the post so that I could put his weight in there too. I felt so bad this morning as I woke him up to go and he gave me a huge smile. Little did he know what lay ahead for him or he wouldn't have smiled so sweetly. He got a clean bill of health from the doctor just as I knew he would. The doctor was amazed at how active he was and how strong his neck is already. Alex is bound and determined to grow up as fast as he can. I think he is just so excited that it is finally his turn on earth. He has been waiting so long to come here. He weighed 11.8lb and has grown 4 inches since birth. He is just growing so fast. He is such a good little boy. He still fusses a lot if you're not holding him or not holding him the way he wants but he is starting to have short bits of time where he will just sit and be happy by himself. He also still spits up a lot. We call him the spit up king because he spits up more than any of the other kids ever did. Hopefully that will start to go away soon. He has started "talking" and he loves to do it (and I love to hear him do it.) He and I will have good conversations. He smiles so much now too. He has such a sweet smile. He is such a joy. We feel so blessed to have him in our family.

Arizona fun

I was reminded the other day that I forgot to post about my trip to Arizona. I was going to go back to Arizona with my mom back in January when she went home so that my dad and the rest of my family could see the baby before he got too old but because Alex was so young I couldn't take him on an airplane yet. I had planned to go when he was about 6 or 7 weeks old so when my parents came to Utah for his blessing I asked if I could just ride back with them and then fly home since he would be old enough for the flight now. It was planned and yet not planned at the same time but everything went so well it was wonderful. I was able to stay for one wonderful week.

On the way to Arizona we stopped in Las Vegas for lunch at a Hawaiian BBQ place in a little strip mall. We were almost done eating when the fire alarm went off. The staff kept apologizing for the alarm. They said the Fire Dept. was in the parking lot and they were turning everyone's alarms on to test them so it would turn off in a minute. No big deal I thought. I looked at Megan to see how she was handling it. She just sat still holding a half eaten french fry trying not to move because she didn't know what was going on. I thought I would be funny and mess with her so I said, "Megan, what did you do?" That was it, she just started bawling. I felt so bad. I didn't mean to make her cry. I forgot that she doesn't understand "just kidding" yet so I picked her up and cuddled her. The alarm turned off and she stopped crying so I tried to get her to finish her lunch. The staff brought her a sucker to make her feel better. I offered her a french fry and she absolutely would not take it. I took a bite out of it to show her it was not hot. She immeadiately looked up to see if the alarm would go off again. Apparently she believes that she set off the alarm when she took a bite of the french fry. That's why she reacted so strongly when I asked her what she had done. It was so funny! Okay, maybe you had to be there, but it really was funny to see her reaction everytime someone at a fry. We kept eating them to show her that it was not the eating of the french fry that set off the alarm. Eventually she trusted fries again and did eat a few more before we left.

I wanted to see all of my family in Arizona before we left so I thought we would all just get together for dinner one night and play games or something like we used to do before we moved. Turns out that someone different had something going on everynight so getting everyone together on the same night (especially with such short notice) was impossible. So instead of us seeing everyone on one night I went to see everyone on the night they were available. It made for a very busy trip but I was able to see everyone and spend good time with each of them.

Tuesday we spent the day with my brother Matt and his family. Jennifer and I sat and caught up and then we ate dinner and played games while we watched a video of one of the theatre performances their children were in. I can't believe how much their children have grown.

While Jennifer and I were catching up Megan was playing with Lauren and Lexi upstairs. While we were talking the subject of Megan's obsession with painting with tooth paste and nail polish came up. Not 3 minutes later Laren came down to tell us that Megan had found some nail polish. I went quickly to assess the damage. She had actually done rather well at not making a mess. There was one spot on their toy couch, some on her clothes, and the rest was on her toe nails. Nothing like a 2 year old giving herself a pedi.

After giving herself the pedi she decided to continue her girl's day out with her cousins.

Wednesday was the only day with my brother Aaron and his family. We talked for a while then Aaron BBQ'd some awsome ribs and made his famous cesar salad. After dinner we played games until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore.

My sis-in-law Tami with Alex.

My niece Heather is living with them right now so I got to see her as well. She was so awesome with Alex. She held him and kept him happy for almost the whole night even while taking care of her own two kids...one of which is 17 months...all without skipping a beat. She is an awsome mother.

Heather's daughter Sydney was so sweet. She has the cutest little smile. She just loved Alex and had fun showing Megan her toys and movies.

Thursday we met my brother Dave his and wife Sharon for lunch. My brother had just got back from a two week business trip to Russia so it was fun to hear about his trip. Although we weren't alowed to know how his mission went. He said that if he told us how it went he'd have to kill us. I didn't press any further. We did make plans for dinner on Saturday though. My mom is in the Relief Society presidency and this was the night of their Visiting Teaching dinner. I went to the dinner with my mom and really enjoyed the messages that were given that night. I thought the night was very well done. They also had really awesome cheesecake for desert that was a perfect topper for the night.

Friday was our free day where we didn't have any plans so I worked on a project that I needed to get done that week and just took on the trip with me. I thought the project would just take a few hours and then I would take Megan to the park. Unfortunately it took many hours and I never got to take Megan to the park.

Saturday my sister came over for lunch. It was a short but very nice visit.

Later that night we went to my brother Dave's house for dinner. We watched the Olympics while the kids played. Max just loved to play mommy to Alex. She was so cute with him. She also played some songs for us that she wrote and composed. This girl has some serious tallent!

They have a play room that is a child's dream so Megan had a blast.

It was really hard to leave knowing that I probably won't be back for a really long time but I am so grateful that I was able to go.

Fun pics

And here are yet more pictures of our little guy. I do blog about him a lot because I can't keep the joy that he brings into our family inside. I just want to share it with everybody. The girls don't mind either. They actually ask me to blog about him because they want to share their brother too. So here are some more fun pics of Alexander.


I have always wanted a child with red hair. I don't know why but I do. Alex has red highlights in his blond hair so when I took his picture on the red blanket it really picked up those highlights. That mixed with his red lips and light skin really makes him look like a true red-head in this pic. I love it! I finally got my read headed child...even if it is only in one picture.lol



When I came home from Arizona I was able to take a plane ride. The kids did great on the plane. The worst part was boarding and unboarding with a toddler, a newborn, three carry-ons, a double stroller and a car seat that had to be broken down, and only two arms. Other than that it wasn't so bad. When we got off the plane Megan decided that she didn't want to ride in the stroller, she was going to help me by pushing it. She was able to push it okay but I had to steer it for her...thankfully this time she let me.

Alexander started smiling while we were in Arizona. It is so sweet to see him smile. Sometimes when he smiles now he even gives a tiny laugh. I couldn't decide what smile pic I liked better so here they both are.

This is one of my favorite pics. This is his first little suit. He truly looks like a little man ready to take on this big world. I can see him as a missionary. I think the shoes make his feet look like boats though. They didn't look that big in real life but the camera played tricks with the shoes.

Four eyes and lovin' it

Rebecca has to have an eye exam every year due to her eye condition. For three years now her doctor has told her that she would need glasses at her next appointment. So it was no shock when at her last appointment she was actually given a prescription for glasses...only to be worn during school though so her eyes aren't that bad yet. She was so excited for her new glasses that she told everyone she met, blogged with, and emailed that she is getting glasses. It took a week for the store to process the glasses and I think it was the longest week in Rebecca's life. She picked these frames because she said they just bring out her style. I loved watching her pick out her frames because she was so grown up about the whole thing and I saw a young woman instead of my baby girl. I do love the glasses on her though. They look great.

Alex's Blessing

On February 7th we took Alexander to church and had him blessed. What a special day that was. My parents drove in from Arizona to be here for the blessing. I was so surprised when I got a call on Thursday asking if it would be alright if my parents came to visit on Friday and stayed until Monday so they could be here for the blessing. Like I would ever say no. My mom was so sweet and even brought an outfit for him to be blessed in. I asked CJ if it would be okay for my dad to bless Alex and he said that would be fine. The blessing was beautiful and one of the sisters in my ward even wrote it down for me. That was a wonderful surprise as well. We had lots of friends travel to Payson to be with us for the blessing. Most of them live in Roy which is 100 miles north of us so it was so great that they were able to be there. We feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends. Alex didn't cry during the blessing but he pretty much cried for the whole time after the blessing.


We were surrounded by many wonderful people. Isn't that a good lookin' group.


We were so glad that Ken and Nancy could be there. They had to travel pretty far too so having them with us was wonderful. They are such wonderful friends and have always been there for us.

After the blessing I packed and got ready to go. My parents took me, Megan, and Alex back to Arizona with them so that my family could meet Alex. It was such a great trip but it was way too short. I wish I had more time with them. I can't wait for our next visit.

1 month old

I can't believe how time flys. I meant to post this two weeks ago but it feels like it was only yesterday. Two weeks ago today our little guy turned one whole month old. He is growing so quickly. It is hard to watch your tiny little baby get so big so fast. If only they could stay tiny for a little longer. But it is a tender mercy that they don't stay so little for too long. I forgot how much newborns cry even when they don't need anything. He is happiest when you stand and walk with him otherwise he cries. I know it will be like this until around 2 or 3 months so I kind of do want him to get bigger a little quickly. The day he turned 1 month I had to put away all of his little newborn clothes. He was too big for newborn but still too small for 0-3 months. Crazy. That's also the first day that he wore size 2 diapers. No big deal to most people but every size up in diapers means my baby is closer to being all grown up and I'm not ready for that.

Sunny Arizona

Hey all. I just thought I'd write a quick note to let you know I am still here. I have a few blogs in my head I am itching to post. I took an impromptu trip to Arizona this week so that's why I haven't been posting. I will put up posts with pics next week when I return from sunny Arizona where the temps are just perfect right now.

First bath

I tried to post this last week but the video upload didn't seem to want to work. I'm hoping this time the video doesn't turn black. The day after Alexander came home I gave him a bath on the kitchen counter. Dakota decided she wanted to film his first bath so she grabbed the camera. All the girls were excited to watch Alex take his first bath because they wanted to see if he loved the water as much as Megan did. They got a little more than they bargained for though. Nancy will think this is funny because she warned us many times about the dangers of taking a little boy's diaper off with out proper precautions.

It was so funny to see the girl's reactions to the bath surprise. They couldn't stop laughing and they had to tell Grandma many times about what happened. I have since learned to leave a wash cloth over the area that caused such a bout of laughter in every one so that his subsequent baths have all been event free.

Visitor ban lifted

Remember my post titled "I hate the swine flu"? I talked about my frustrations for the visitor ban placed on the maternity ward of the hospital I was going to deliver in. I was saddened because the girls wouldn't be able to visit their new brother in the hospital. I called the hospital in December and was told the ban was still in place and wouldn't be lifted until mid January at the earliest. Well I am happy to report that by the time Alexander was born the ban had been lifted and the girls were able to visit. I was so happy. Here are the first family pics.
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