Jackson's Baptism

This year our oldest "little" boy got baptized on September 10! How the last 8 years went so fast is beyond me. The day was fabulous. The amount of love and support that was shown to him will never be forgotten (and my grandma Sue from WI got to be there with us). The baptism was held at the Iona Stake Building which is just a few miles from us. Addison, Rylee (cousin), Skylar and Kenlee (cousins), and June and Lily (neighbors) were sang a little baptism melody song and Jack baptized him. I could not have asked for a better day...it was incredible for Jack and I to say the least. Afterwards we had a lunch in the backyard...he wanted a nacho bar so that is what we did.

Just a few notes of what Jackson is up to now...

- Great student and super helpful
- Sometimes I honestly forget he is ONLY 8.

- Loves to play just about anything

- Acts JUST LIKE his dad! (Seriously...they are two peas in a pod)

- He is such a Homebody!
We are so proud of the young man he is becoming. He is a great son and brother. He makes life so easy...and I swear he just came like that!

War Bonnet Roundup!

I am putting my posts in no specific order...I just need to get caught up for my journaling. We took the boys to see the War Bonnet Roundup the first week of August. Wally and Nancy and their girls went, Stef and a few of her friends, and us. It was fun...however we did get rained on several times but in the middle of a HOT streak it acturally felt really good. We just got a few shots....We took Jackson and Carson with us, Jackson had been before but this was Carson's first time.

Sisters!

I NEVER wanted girls. I thought having just boys would be the way to go. After having Addi I didn't want another girl but I really wanted her to have a sister...so I was elated when we had Aubrey...and to watch their bond is incredible. My girls have always liked eachother but in these last few months they have developed a strong friendship and I LOVE it. They have found quite a few things in common to do. Aubrey loves Addi to do her hair, they love to dress up, play dolls, and just act plain old silly together and when one leaves to go, the other almost lost without the other! (does that make sense?)
On to my sisters...I am truely lucky! I really can't even comprehend life without my sisters. I didn't always think it would matter! I was the oldest and some were a lot younger than I was and we are all totally different than eachother...but as they moved to ID and into our house for a bit...it has been the best blessing that I was able to get to know them! I know that I can always let my hair down and be me with them and I can't wait for Alexa to move closer next year!!! They are always there for me whether it is to comfort, help, or just entertain me...I know that they are just a phone call away!

I am truely blessed with these ladies in my life. I hope that as my girls get older they will continue to find the positives in eachother and love eachother for who they are!

Addi turns 6!!!

A few weeks ago was Addi's birthday! She really wanted to have some friends go to the park, so we met at a new park over by the temple...which is really fun. We all brought a picnic and let the kids play. I was going to do some cupcakes but she decided she wanted icecream sandwichs instead. Then we did some shopping which she loved, though Jackson complained the whole time that Addi was spoiled and he didn't ever get anything...yea right! Later that night after Jack came home we did gifts and MORE ice cream sandwiches. We even put her candles in one. Here are a few of the things about Addi!
- Extremely over sensetive!
- LOVES school
- Her hair still doesn't grow....she told Aubrey in the tub the other night how long her hair was getting and just sighed. :(
- Likes shishkabobs. ( I just asked her what she liked and this is what she came up with)
- Extremely social!
- Likes to play with her cousins!

Jack and I just looked at eachother on her birthday and laughed because quite honestly we didn't think she would make it to turn 6! We sure do love our Addi Jane!
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These Kiddos call me Mom

My heart is always full...my kids are my world...oh yea and I am pretty fond of Jack too. But seriously I have been so blessed. I have the best kids in the world. They are so fun and still love me for all of my shortcomings. I do not profess to be the best mom by any means but I hope that my kids know that they come before anything! Sure I loose my temper, yell too much, run around like a crazy lady, and some days feel like I am barely holding it all together but I have never in my life felt as complete as I do at this moment. I feel so honored to have been trusted with these kids. I was talking to Jackson on the way to a dr. appt the other day and asked him if I was doing okay. He look at me and said..."mom you have been doing this for a long time" , to which I replied "yea, but I have never had five kids before and never have I had a kid who is almost going to be 8", he smiled and said "that is true, but you are doing a really good job." I sure hope so. I love my family more than anything! I have to give Jack credit though...he is the most amazing father and husband. I often feels like he is the glue that holds all this chaos together! We are in this together...but this day I get all the credit right? :)

Aubrey's Birthday

My baby girl turned 2! We are in the typical two year old stage...learning how to share, obey, etc. But she is so fun! It fell on a Wednesday this year so we decided just to have a quick cake and ice cream with our family that was in town. Previous to her birthday when we would ask her if she was excited about her birthday she would tell us no. But I think she had a fun day and will be more excited for birthdays to come.
Just a few notes about Aubrey. She is very attached...she loves mom and dad, Nichola (dindi), Cory, Stef (boppy), and Grandma(gammy). She asks about each one several times a day and although she is just fine with other people, these are her favs. She has been pottytrained through the night for months now. She is gungy (hungry) about every 20-30 mins. She loves jumping on the trampoline. She is doing a lot better at nursery. She makes it about half way through now before she has a melt down and then sleeps all during Priest Quorem with Jack. She loves her brothers and sister. She hardly ever takes a nap anymore unless she falls asleep in the car which is for the best because without fail she wakes up and cries for at least a half an hour. She loves shoes, babies, and hates having her hair done!

We sure do love this little girl. She has a very bubbly and funny personality. She is very determined and stubborn but she is beginning to mellow out. (I never thought the day would come). I am loving every minute of this little girl! (okay, except when she wakes up from naps). We are so happy to have her in our family.

Here she is blowing out her candles. Guess who's lap she is sitting on? Cory's!!!

Rain and Sugar

Just a few funny stories of Carson lately...just so I remember...

This was taken just a few minutes ago...we were talking about the chance of having thunderstorms tonight. Carson said he knew where the rain came from. So I asked him to tell me about it. So he said..."well there is a big cup of water up on the clouds, then it gets dumped out, and then when the cloud gets squeezed, the rain comes out." So when I asked him who squeezes the cloud he replies like I was dumb..."the water guy, I like him, he's awesome." Addi and I had a good laugh about it...the things around his neck are binoculars that he made at school today, they went bird watching!

The picture below is from several months ago. Around Christmas time the kids were into the movie "Elf" One morning I was sitting in my bed feeding Brody and Carson said he was hungry...I told him to just find a little treat and that I would come and get him breakfast in just a minute. So he went to the kitchen and made up this conncoction...half a bag of captain crunch and a measuring cup that was full of syrup! When I walked into the kitchen he was sitting on the floor eating it. When I asked him what it was he just told me that he loved sugar and syrup!

Happy Baby

I can't believe it but my baby is three months old. I took him in on Saturday for his 3 month pics and they turned out super cute. He is a happy baby....here is just a snap shot I took of him for my wall with the kids pics on it.

What A Week

So I offered to take Zoey while Zach and Liz went on a cruise and what a week it has been. I think Addi described it best yesterday when she said "Mom I used to want you to have more kids, but I think 5 is plenty!" I totally agree. Two 1 year olds and a 3 month old has proven to be just a bit much for me. Actually we have had the best day today...just in time for her to go home on Saturday. It has been fun to get to know her personality a little bit better and get to be the aunt for the week and not the mom. I have been however when all the kids are tired and whiny been superbly jealous of Zach and Liz on their cruise in peace and quiet, but oh well. We hope they had fun...I just don't want Zach to ever give me crap about my girls being dramatic again...Zoey has that MASTERED!!!
Top: Zoey after eating pasta for dinner.
And this is how we all felt at the end of the day. Aubrey couldn't quite make it Tuesday night to the end of dinner.

Understanding

So yesterday I had made some peanut butter cookies and Carson was whining about wanting anther "pookie" So I told him if he could say cookie then maybe I would consider it. So he sat by me and we worked on the "c" sound and out popped the word cookie. I was so excited and instead of saying "nah" he says yea. It is amazing what only one week after surgery has done. I am positive of what the dr said about him not being able to hear. Several times this week he has heard new sounds to him and to watch his expression is priceless. He heard the fan on in the living room and got frustrated because he couldn't figure out what was making that really soft humming noise. It has been fun to watch the progress in just the last few days and I am super excited about what is to come!

Couponing

So about a month back I decided to give this whole couponing thing a try. I was inspired by one of Jack's cousin's who has a small grocery store in her basement...thanks Kari! So I did it and ordered my five Sunday papers. I am by no means the best but I bought 5 tubes of Colgate toothpaste yesterday for $1. So I was very excited. So I then went to Target where I had a list of a few items. I was walking through the Tylenol isle to pick up my free Tylenol (which they were out of) and ran in to another couponer. So I was asking her a few questions and told her about my toothpaste deal to which she replied "I thought that used to be a good deal when I first started too!" I was super bugged. How the crap are these people getting things for FREE!!! People will tell you they haven't boughten toothpaste in years! So today I had my first lesson in free items. I bought 10 mens deoderant for FREE!!!! It was so super EXCITING! I love the feeling of seeing Jack's hard earned paychecks go farther! I am not gonna lie after today I am excited for my next big deal....whatever it is!

Surgery

Today was the day! Carson went in to have his tonsils and adenoids out. We had to check in to the hospital at 6:30 a.m. He woke up in a great mood. We had talked quite a bit about what would happen today so he was really excited for his bed that would go up and down. Here he is with Jack getting his hopital pajamas and socks on.

The nurses were great with him. He wasn't very chatting with them. Here he is getting his blood pressure taken.

So after this we waited till it was his turn. He really thought his bed was great. He watched cartoons and played rock, paper, scissors, with Jack and got a blessing. So around 8 they came in and gave him some tylenol and his loopy medicine and he got to go for a ride to the surgical holding area.

Here he is after his ride and his meds had kicked in full gear. I have to say Jack and I giggled quite a bit at him. He wanted to keep sitting up but would tip over so we each stood on either side of him so he wouldn't hit his head on the rails. The anethesia man talked to us and gave him a strawberry flavored gas mask and away he went. I fed Brody and about 10 mins later Dr. Hanks came in and talked to us. Told us everything had gone great and that his adenoids were HUGE! He said they took him to 1st recovery for about 45 mins and then he would wake up and we could be with him. So Jack went and got us some breakfast. They came and got us even before he was done and took us to his recovery room. That was the hard part. He was crying and didn't know what was fully going on. He apparantly had a TON of air in his belly and was feeling sick from that. I couldn't get him to settle down in his bed so the nurse let me rock him and I fed him a few bites of a popsicle before he fell asleep. Here is the part where mom cried. I felt so horrible for him. He had a bit of a hard time keeping his oxygen levels up so he did have some oxygen for awhile but when he woke up again he was great. His breath smells burned so he can't get enough popsicles.

Here he is in his wheel chair all ready to go home. We stopped at Walmart and picked up TONS of popsicles, jello, and pudding on the way home. Along with Walgreens for Antibiotics and pain meds. I am keeping him on the pain meds all day in hopes of keeping him comfortable. He has just been sitting on the couch watching movies with his siblings. I can't even get him to take a nap, though I can tell he is exhauted. He has a follow up with Dr. Hanks in a week and a half, until then I am supposed to keep him "down" as much as possible. Yikes!

Brody is 2 Months!

My baby boy is already two months old. He took his shots like a champ...a little fussy in the evening but did really well. He is smiling a lot and cooing. He loves his mommy! He reminds Jack of that dinosaur show that used to be on when we were growing up and that baby would yell "not the mommy, not the mommy!" He loves to lay on the living room floor and have people talk to him. Jackson likes to rock him and Addi is the master burper. At his checkup he weighed in at 11pds 9 ozs. and 24 inches. He really hasn't grown in quite a few weeks. He seems to have leveled out. On the other news front, Aubrey is talking a ton. Everyday comes out more and more words. She is really fun. We love to hear her say Cory. It is so stinkin cute. When Cory comes over and they chant eachothers name back and forth...pretty funny. Carson goes in for surgery on Wednesday. This mommy will be happy when it is all over with. We took Addi and Jackson out to lunch last Saturday for great report cards. They are really doing so great. Addi is loving learning how to read and is doing great. Jackson lost a tooth last Sunday and the tooth fairy finally decided to come last night. Opps!!! Other than that life is going on as usual, with not enough hours in the day to get everything done.

Long Day with Carson

This is what my poor little Carson looks like right now. We sure had a long day for a three year old little boy. It started off with a meeting with the Speech Therapist. We have long been concerned with Carson's speech and decided with his teachers that now would be a good time to have him checked. The speech therapist is also concerned but he tested two points away from what was needed to receive speech therapy through the school. They also determined some potential problems with his adenoids (SP?). So then followed a dr. appt with our normal pediatrician and then some x-rays of his face and throat. They are a bit concerned about maybe some hearing problems because of his adenoids and maybe some sleep apnea. We meet with the ENT Dr. one week from today. He did really great but was very hesitant about talking to the "talking teacher". So he was promised ice cream with mom if he did okay, and he did great. He was fantastic with the teacher, dr.'s, and nurses who did all sorts of things to him today. I am determined to fight about his adenoids. He has grown by leaps and bounds this last six months but I think he does have something going on that we need to find. The speech therapists will continue to track his progress and we will have him evaluated again at the end of the year.
On a great note, my little Brody is growing like a week. Jack said this morning he needs to learn to walk or his legs will be dragging on the ground when we carry him. I am putting 0-3 month things away and breaking out the 3-6 month cloths because he is so long. He really is pretty scrawny except his chubby little cheeks.

A Boy and His Dog

I really am going to be better journaling this year but using my blog since I NEVER write things done otherwise...My Christmas present to myself is going to have it printed at the end of the year. Yesterday we put out a little bowl of little smokies and BBQ sauce for the dog (YoYo). Jackson came home from school and YoYo still hadn't eaten any of them. The following conversation then happened...
Jackson- Mom I think something is wrong with YoYo
Mom- Why is that?
Jackson- He hasn't eaten any of the little smokies and he eats everything! I went outside and felt the top of his head and he doesn't feel like he is running a temperature.
Mom- (I really tried hard to pull it together and not bust out laughing in his face) I just think YoYo doesn't like the BBQ sauce.
Jackson- Oh well thats okay then, I thought maybe he was getting sick.
This is the prime example of how sweet and loving Jackson is. He is always concerned for others and their feelings. He is doing great in school and working hard. After this conversation I had to go to my bedroom and call Jack. It was just so cute. On a side note Carson is having some speech testing tomorrow...we'll see what happens. He is growing leaps and bounds in his speech but still struggles. He also has woken up dry for 4 nights in a row so he got to try out his scooter. He was super excited because Aubrey hasn't worn diapers at night for a month or two already and he is kinda feeling left behind. We are really getting into a great routine with the baby and the kids. We are all getting cabin fever so we are headed to Utah in a few weeks where we booked a hotel for a night so the kids can just swim and play. Oh hurry summer!!!

Victory!!!

Oh yes....we had a very fun Packer Party with streamers and all! We had lots of yummy food, good company, and a great game! It was the outcome we were hoping for. We had Dustin and Lindsey, Nichola and Cory, Stefanie, Mike, and my Dad. The commercials were fun...we especially liked the Doritos ones. We are not quite ready for all the celebrating to be done, so tonight we are having Beer Brats. We love our Packers!!!

Brody Rex

I can't figure out how to move my pictures to the bottom...and I am done trying...post follows the pictures!

So I need to go back just for journaling for my own purposes. On December 26th - thats right we will have a birthday party every year the day after Christmas- Brody Rex joined our family. I was super nervous about having this baby and he proved to be my hardest. He was born sunny side up but nice and healthy. He was also my biggest baby weighing in at 7 pds 6 ozs. He has been a very easy going baby but already a mama's boy. Jack and I found out that we were having a boy but our kids did not want to know, so we kept it a surprise. They wanted to wait until they got to the hospital to find out, so when they walked in and saw no bow in his hair, they knew. Aubrey's expression was priceless. Carson was a little intimidated by the hospital surroundings but eventually warmed up and Addi and Jackson already couldn't get enough of him. His name the entire time I was pregnant was Trevon Rex but then it just didn't fit so we hashed over more and more and more names. I had a really hard time with his name, in fact I told the hospital to hold his birth certificate in case we decided to change it, but it is growing on my more and more. He was blessed on the 30th following Nichola's wedding reception by Jack. I have loved that my dad has been here for all of our baby blessings. I have had some mixed feelings with him being our last, I am super attached as well. I love that day after you bring them home and you all of a sudden REALLY fall in love with them and can not remember what life was like without them, not that you didn't love them at birth but now you REALLY love them, that happened last week and I LOVE it. I also have a bit more patience with the nights and crying bouts and things because I know that this is the last time and I just want to soak it all in. I did get my first awkward smile last week, but nothing since then and what about that baby smell...their breath, freshly bathed...I seriously am in love with this baby..

Super Bowl Bound...So excited...I didn't take any pictures but we spent the NFC Championship game at Zach and Liz's house. It was a lot of fun and we had a LOT of good food. We are already planning our Super Bowl Party (decorations and all)!!! The Packers haven't been in the Super Bowl since I was in high school. It is fun to get into the spirit of it all especially since I don't live at home. I am hoping for a good snow so I can make a nice Green Bay Packers fan in my yard! GO PACKERS!!!