Rivkah and Mike Wilberg

January's Accomplishments

2012-02-12T23:30:00.001-08:00

1) So I started January off by taking pictures of our house! It was pretty fun and it motivated me to clean it! :) I wanted to take pictures of the house from exactly the same angle that I took them when we were doing the walk through of the house before w bought it. This was my idea of a fun before-after. It is cool to see all of our work. We have really put a lot into this house and it has only been 6 months. I am proud of it. Mike has already made even more improvements since I took the pictures.

2) I dabbled in altering the kids clothes. You know like making flairs into skinny jeans and taking in things that just weren't fitting right. My intent was to revamp their whole wardrobe, but I soon ran out of steam on the project. Whew! I still have some things that I would like to do but I am not going to put pressure on myself by having a dues date.

3)I made BOWS! My new obsession is making them. There are so many cute ideas out there and as soon as I master one style I am searching for another. In January I made a lot of bows and made the fun into play dates so that I could do it with my friends! I am such a grand Tom Sawyer!

These are the many that I made specifically to go with my girls church dresses. All red and black. There are 15 in all. I might add that I have spent a bit of money investing in this new hobby of mine. When I got into scrap booking I acquired my stuff slowly and bought only what I desperately needed or what was on sale, but for these lil babies if I have wanted it, I have bought it.

These are just some of my others (much more to come next month). Mostly silk flower ones but I never spent much time on them in the past so it seems new enough to me. I love the rosettes! They are an all time fav of mine. I have to admit that while I am making these I am having flash backs of the 80's. I became fashion conscious just as they were going out and I was really sad about that. :( I love the era's style! So I say long live the 80's, forever may they rein!

4) Had Kevin and Michelle Gilbert over for a visit. It was delightful! Its fun cause were were dating at the same time, engaged at the same time and married within a month of each other so they are a great couple to hang out with. They have 2 cute boys that the girls liked playing with. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures, but I did make a new table cloth for the event!

5) Fell in love with myfitnesspal.com and lost 10lbs! Don't be jealous, Ive gained back 4! arg! anywho...check it out and download the app! You will be glad you did! It is amazing! It is everything anyone could need to reach their fitness goals. (the 4lbs has been from a week that I didn't use it)

6) Made this darling mini event scrapbook!

I realize that Mother's Day is months away, but I had this drive...see my SIL had a great resolution to do one project a month (mostly from pinterest, but to finish unfinished projects first) This was so great to me. I wanted to finish all my half projects by March 30th. I thought that a goal like that would keep me busy enough that I would avoid the winter blues, so far it has kept me stressed enough to not sleep at night. That's just great!

7) Visited Devin and Becky at their new house, saw their new bundle of joy and took her infant shots! It was a fun trip and she was so amazing after having a C-section. She made us cinnamon rolls and was a perfect hostess! Thanks Becky!

I loved doing these pictures and I worked hard on them. It was great because I really had to learn how to use my new photoshop from Christmas. Becky is a great mom! She makes a cute bow to match each outfit every morning! She is so excited to have a girl!

8) Got contacts. It is harder than I thought, but I have it now!

9) Fake snowed some pine cones for next year.

10) Nursed everyone back to health. We all got pretty sick and it seemed to last forever! Tsadakah hasn't been sick for 3 whole years, honest! But she got it this time. She slept a lot of the time. I learned a lot about sickness. Hopefully stuff that can keep it away next time, like staying warm, and eating the right kinds of stuff and avoiding the wrong kind of germs.

11) Studied Responsibility. Tsadakah got all A's but her teacher said she could improve on her responsibility. I have to admit that I have been taking charge of her responsibilities. So I read an article on how to improve your child's Responsibility (babycenter.com) and the #1 thing to do is be a good example. That is when I realized that I am not! I know where she gets it from! mwa! I started to analyze myself and think about where I am lacking, which is a lot! It all comes down to accountability! I have learned so much about this topic now. I went through my Personal Progress book and took notes on all the things that were to strengthen accountability. Boy do I have my work cut out for me! Not only am I working on my NYResolution, trying to finish my projects by March, and unsuccessfully balancing my time around my newest obsession hobby, but I am also trying to become more responsible. Is it any wonder I'm not sleeping?

When February first came I was like wait where did Jan go? I didn't finish all that I had intended to do. I have failed to do so much! But then I looked at all that I have done, (keep in mind I am also potty training) and I feel like I am doing pretty good. When I look back at all that has happened I actually feel that January has been a very long time indeed.

But I think that I have been losing sight of my NYR and I am going to go back to basics. I need to simplify and learn to let things go so that I can be sane! May Feb be filled with LOVE and no more stress!

Eliannah Is So Funny

2012-02-05T16:21:00.000-08:00

Eliannah is so funny! She is always laughing and seeing life on the silly side. she has a great sense of humor, but some of the funniest things she says, she doesn't even understand why they are so funny. She will repeat them just because she knows that they made me laugh so hard.

For Martin Luther King Jr day I got out my paper dolls for the girls to play with. They were having a great time looking through them and the clothes that the dolls came with (its the whole family) Eliannah said, "Who would wear these clothes, they are horrible!" hahaha I personally am a fan of the styles from the 1950's, but apparently she is not.

Loving sister. Eliannah is beginning to develop herself as an older sister. she is now doing things more and more with just MiKaylah. Like when Tsadakah is at school. She is loving and fair most of the time. Whenever MiKaylah takes something from her she cries but she never fights back or hits. I am proud of her for that!

In her hand is a tiny purple elephant. She loves it. It is her favorite toy right now. She gt it for Christmas from her cousin Asher. She tells everyone about it when they are around. "This is my purple elephant. I got it from Asher-boy!"

One of the other cute things she is doing right now is telling us what she wants us to say. "can I have a cookie? say 'Yes, darling!" Everything ends with "darling."

And best of all, when she's excited, she runs. She runs in circles when she is waiting for me to finish MiKaylahs book and read her favorite book next. (Its: Rainbow Fish) Or when she is going to get a treat or get to help with making some cookies.

She's my little firecracker. We love her dearly!

Tsadakah's Awards

2012-02-05T15:58:00.001-08:00

Tsadakah has earned some great awards in the last few months! I am so proud of her! The first is one that is given out every month to children who have been "builders." The theme at the school for this year is building up instead of tearing down. Tsadakah was chosen and recognized in November. I love the nice things that were said about her. She really is kind and good and sweet. She always wants to do what is right. That is why she is my angel baby!

Then in January I was informed that she has won the Inspirations contest in the Literature category. She received second place for K-2nd! Wow! I am so proud! There was a third place awarded so I know that she didn't win as a default that there were only 2 entries.

The day she was to get her award I got a sitter and took my camera so I could take a picture of her getting her award at the assembly in front of the whole school! She was so excited! Well unfortunately the power was out for all of Tooele county that morning and the assembly was rescheduled for the following week.

Well that day came and I was so distracted by other things that I forgot that it was her day to be at school (she goes every other Wednesday) so I didn't get her to school until after the assembly was over!!! I felt Horrible! Really I felt like the worst mom. I kept saying sorry over and over.

Her amazing teacher recognized her in front of the class and gave her the award, ribbon, box of markers, and box of colored pencils that she had won. She came home totally excited and happy. All the kids said nice things to her and made her feel special! I was relieved that I hadn't ruined her life.

She is going to the regional competition on February 17Th. I will be sure to be EARLY and with my camera! :) We are so proud of her efforts and her hard work!

Tsadakah is very interested in fashion and art and cooking. She is so cute! I was making bread sticks to go with our dinner and she decided that we should make them like cinnamon rolls. She made this one all by herself! Isn't it good for a girl of 5! I was so impressed that I had to post it!

Potty Training

2012-01-23T10:09:00.000-08:00

Starting in November, my baby started showing signs of being ready to potty train. In fact I went over the list of skills she needs and she has them all down with flying colors. However, with he holidays and the new house and the fact that I dread potty training I kept putting it off. Well it was becoming a problem because she would just take her diaper off and go anywhere. Something had to be done! Yet, I still kept putting it off, until Martin Luther King Day when she refused to be put in a diaper. So I am potty training!

I had no idea how to potty train a baby so small! I didn't feel like she would understand or be motivated by charts or any of that so I talked to my friend, Angie< who potty trains all her kids as soon as they are walking! It is basically you cut the diapers cold turkey and let natural consequences teach the child. It was working really great until she got sick and then I lost my focus and got distracted with projects so we are still in the process of training, but she is doing so well! I am impressed with how quickly she has gotten in and how much control she has. She is a very smart girl who watches people and learns from them. When she goes she'll say, "AHHH" which is what Ellie does. lol

Other mimics that she is making, she fake burps after she drinks, she scrunches up her nose and squints back at me whenever I do it to her, she will copy your dance moves, and she laughs when you laugh.

Seriously, I am so proud of her potty training skills! She is doing an amazing job without the bribes of toys and charts. She wants to do it for her own reasons. She is such a sweet heart!

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-23T09:09:00.001-08:00

New year's Resolutions are always very important to me. I take them serious and I try to really get through the whole year with them. This year there were way too many improvements that I need to make. I kept thinking of more and more things that could be my resolution, but they were so overwhelming, and I wanted mine to be a really good one this year.

So after a lot of consideration I decided that what I needed was to learn how to live in the moment! Live for today and not for tomorrow. I have written in my journal how I plan to track and achieve my goal.

One thing that I did to live in the moment was to take pictures of my kids in their clothes. Tsadakah LOVED it! She put on every outfit she owns! Then together we drew on them adding flowers, bracelets, and other such stuff. She was so happy about it. She kept saying that this was the best day of her entire life! Considering that Christmas was only 2 weeks away, I thought that was quite a compliment! :)

Eliannah didn't love it as much, she wanted to stop after 3 outfits, but she loved having her picture taken! She smile and then move just as the picture was taken so she looked like this.

MiKaylah also loved the attention she got. She said "Teese" and looked so pretty. Its the little moments that make up life and life isn't always perfect. Sometimes life is a mess, but if you can't smile about the little this that happen to warm your heart, then you will struggle to get through those bigger messier things.

For FHE we made goals as a family. Our family goal is to hold 42 FHE evenings. Tsadakahs goal (which she thought up all by herself) is to write cursive small. Eliannahs is to count to 20. MiKaylah's is to be potty trained. :)

Well wish us all luck!

Christmas/Hannukkah/New Years Party

2012-01-21T05:06:00.000-08:00

Yea! happy New Year! With my family we had an all in one party. A lot of us couldn't be there until then, so we celebrated all of the holidays on New Year's Eve. It was fun, but also exhausting! I am going to describe the night backwards.

Here we are running down the street at midnight screaming and yelling and trying to be as loud as possible. There were a few neighborhood fireworks that we saw go off and one other person out who wished us a happy New Year.

This is me with Yumi, Ramsom (my brother) and Erin. They came all the way from Japan to spend Christmas with us! It was a very special time and my girls loved playing with them. Tsadakah still talks about them. His wife Kieko was still in the house. She is an amazing person.

Before that we had Hannukkah. It was a fun and beautiful thing! It included lighting the candles and singing the prayers, which I love to hear my dad sing. It is beautiful to me and reminds me of childhood.

We also played dradle which is fun. We played the speedy version where any time a person has to leave the game because they are all out of candy you up the anti.

The rule is that you are not allowed to blow the candles out, they have to burn out on their own, s it is common to still and watch them at least for a little while. I remember my father used to put them into the window and I would watch them until the last one burnt out. Its so peaceful and relaxing!

Before that we did a Nativity play. It was Tsadakah's year to be Mary but she declined the role. She said that she wanted to be an angel again because I call her my angel-baby. Really sweet! Here is the curtain call. Four wise men, Mary, Joseph, and our star baby Jesus :), 2 angels, a cow, a horse, and a shepherd.

The wise men. My nieces were so cute in it. Christ in Christmas was an all new concept for them. They played their parts beautifully.

Tsadakah was so so so cute! She was killing me with her dramatic flare, but then she would always break character to wave to mom! She makes me so happy!

Eliannah was also an angel, but in being rambunctious behind the scenes she had ripped her skirt. Here she is coming to tell me. She didn't want to be in it after that. :(

Look at that pose Tsadakah is doing! It mkes me giggle. I missed the shot, but she was looking over her shoulder at me like, "Are you getting this mom? I am looking so fabulous!"

"And Mary took the new born babe and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger..."

Before that, we opened presents. My mom gave everyone a blanket. Tadakah is a blanket-a-holic. If she could sleep under a hundred blankets, she would. Every one that my mom has made her is her "special" blanket! She adores my mom!

Eliannah was being silly with Grandma and the bows. She is such a silly personality. She can be absolutely fabulously photogenic!

My dad built every one of us a solar heating oven. It was pretty cool. He tried it a couple weeks ago and they re-heated some food. He said it wont be able to cook from scratch until summer time. He loves to make home made gifts to show his love!

Mike's blanket was the Packers because that is his team. We loved that they won the super bowl last year!! :)

MikKaylahgrabbing her blanket! haha

Eliannah got a Dora blanket. She loves her right now, so that was perfect. My mom put a lot of thought into these blankets to geive what we would truly love.

For our exchange this year we did books. Moriella and Tsadakah! :) Tsadakah was pretty excited to give her selection to Moriella. It was called St. George and the Dragon. She loves our copy and that was ok with me because they live there so it was extra fun!

Eliannah and Erin exchanging their books. Ellie got her How Many Is A Million.

MiKaylah, reading her new book with Daddy! She got too even!

Before we opened presents we sang carols together. We love to sing. Its kooky to go caroling these days, but singing the carols just with family is always beautiful. Here Moriella is dancing to the music. She can be quite a hoot some days.

Mike and Tsadakah singing. (Tsadakah doesn't sing at church. It makes me sad, but she never has. even if she knows the song word for word, like I Am A Child Of God.)

So this was our holiday celebration shibang! We loved family and fun and we were litterally exhausted by the end. Eliannah put herself to bed somewhere in there and didn't make it to midnight.

Happy New Year!

A very special week!

2012-01-14T06:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning included Church this year. Mike and I really enjoyed it. Other people complained, but what better way to spend a day that you are supposed to remember Jesus Christ? Not to mention, that there is nothing open anyway so you cant go do something so you might as well be at church.

The bishop in our ward talked about the gifts of giving. He challenged us to ask, "What did you give for Christmas?" instead of what did you get?

Tsadakah in her new winter church dress! (and baby elephant)

MiKaylah in her new church dress.

This is the baby Jesus that we received on Christmas Eve! Seriously so special!

December 30 I was waking my girls to start going on the day, and this is what we saw! It was so beautiful, even more than this picture can provide. It was such a special moment for me and the girls! We all stood there looking at the sky and loving the closeness of each other in that moment!

Now my girls ask every morning if they have missed the sun rise. When the sun is setting they get excited too and they say, "Mom, come look at the sky!" I love it!

Christmas Day!

2012-01-12T04:28:00.001-08:00

What time did you wake up on Christmas morning? I am usually the first one to get up and want to open presents! I usually can't last longer than 6AM. As much as I love Christmas Eve, I hate Christmas night, because I can hardly sleep. It is seriously like a series of cat naps.

Well this year, I was not the only one who had this problem. lol Tsadakah came in our room and excitedly exclaimed that it was Christmas morning and that Santa had come! So we groggily got out of bed and then we saw the clock 3:18! She had already seen it all and was bouncing off the walls about it so we decided that there was going to be no way to get her to go back to sleep, so we woke Ellie and let them open presents. (We let MiKaylah sleep in) Eliannah loved her barbie! It is something she has been desperately wanting for months.

MiKaylah loved the attention. Since everyone else had already opened their presents we had nothing better to do than give her 100%. She loved the candy more than any of the present, in fact, she didn't open one! We would give her one and ask if sh wanted to open it and she would say un un with chocoate dripping from her lips.

Mike enjoyed his scrap book and loved reading through it for quite a while. He appreciated all the work that went into it, which was a lot!

Ellie's obsession with frogs was increased with this stuff toy!

Tsadakah and her stocking.
For Tsadakah I wanted to get her this Disney magic Artist because I think that she is good at art and she has good computer skills too. I thought that she would really like it because she saw it on the previews for her favorite movies all the time. She does love it.

Christmas Eve

2012-01-12T04:09:00.000-08:00

I'm going to be honest, December seems more like a blur! What did I spend all my time doing? I was working on a scrap booking Mike's, mission as a gift, so the house always seemed to be a mess, wrapped presents and we watched a lot of TV. Every Christmas special, we watched it, even the dumb ones. But it all lead up to this glorious night. I love Christmas eve! There is something so magical about it.

The lights set a romantic mood after the sun has gone down so early. Then there's eating good food and thinking about the true meaning of Christmas.

Michael made the most amazing roast I have ever had in my life! It was perfectly done! I was savoring every bite!

While we were eating the doorbell rang and someone doorbell ditched a baby Jesus in a manger on our doorstep! It was life size, not a little one from a Nativity set. My girls loved that so much! They each wanted to have a turn caring for baby Jesus. It was so precious and it made our evening so special! Whoever you are, thank you so much! It was a gift that will never be forgotten and re-used forever!

Here is our stockings hung by the chimney with care. I love that our new house has a fireplace! It i so beautiful and fun t have this here!

My tree is so simple. You might think that after having done that magnificent tree that I would want a polished and perfect tree, but this tree that has my kids ornaments, and my traditions and my memories and my Christmas cards on it is perfect to me. Iv been using the same stream of stars since Mike and I got this tree and it seems to me to be symbolic of year after year of putting it up and taking it down.

Merry Christmas.

Family Visit

2012-01-12T03:39:00.000-08:00

On December 9-11th Mike's brother, Devin, and his expecting wife, Becky, came to visit with their two boys. It was so fun to see them! I have really missed Becky, since we used to live so close to each other all through the first 4 1/2 years that Mike and I were married. We had so much to catch up on! We were regular chatterboxes! :)

That is after I got back from doing volunteer work at Tsadakah's school. I love her school! It is really amazing! It is a charter school that includes elementary and Jr high so I went to help during their etiquette dinner and dance. It was fun to see the nervous little 14 year olds. I was expected to serve them with proper waiter etiquette, which was so crazy, cause I had to take from the left and serve from the right, but the tables were too close together so I was awkwardly stumbling over people and dropping silverware and bumping kids in the head with the serving tray. I almost dropped the stack of 5 used salad plates in one kids lap! It was a funny evening.

So then that night after I got back we hung out and had a chill evening talking and having so much fun. Becky kept me up until way too late! Both our husbands went to bed before us. The kids loved seeing each other again and Eliannah and Xander really bonded.

The next day we made this Gingerbread house. It was a wonderful gift from our new friends, the Bergantz family. We think they are amazing!

It was right after breakfast so we were still in our pajamas with messy hair. It was a way fun project. They kids loved being involved.

Jaxton, Tsadakah, Eliannah, Xander, and even MiKaylah were in there making it "pretty".

Xander ate more than he put on the house. lol

Me and my angel baby.

MiKaylah is so hungry for some that she is eating the table. haha

Later that day we went to Kravers for lunch. I am totally a fan! It is good food for a good price! Becky was so excited too. There were so many things on the menu that she liked.

We also watched Christmas Vacation, and went shopping! It was a fun visit! So glad that they could come!

2011-12-24T05:59:00.000-08:00

This year Michael got really excited about decorating our new house! First time in 7 years that we have had Christmas decor outside the house! I am oobers excited about it!

I think that it looks really pretty! I told him that the hanging icicle type lights were my favorite and he totally remembered and got them! YAY! I love our new home!

A great experience!

2011-12-20T05:42:00.001-08:00

A year and a half ago I had a dream about a Christmas tree that was decorated in symbolism of Lehi's Vision. It has always been a dream of mine to do the Festival of trees and create something beautiful for charity. My sister's mother in law donates to someone every year to make a tree and I thought why not to us? So I asked my sister if she would do it with me and ask her MIL if she would sponsor us. She said yes and gave us a budget.

It was so much fun! We loved shopping together and laughing about the things that didn't work out. There were some things that we imagined one way and it just wasn't possible so we had to re think that idea.

All in all this is what we ended up with!

It is a 12 ft tree with an iron rod leading up from the bottom, past the rivers to the tree of life at the very top. On the tree are ornaments of fruit, ceramic statuettes of things that help you hold to the rod, and signs that explain what things are. It really turned out beautifully!

Some of my favorite ornaments!

This top was a wow factor. I guess that the newest thing is to have branches on top of your tree instead of a star or angel. Which I think turned out really perfect for our theme. This is the tree of life!

So it was our first time and we chose a tree that was way too big, so we couldn't put it together until we were there. So this baby took us the full 2 days to set up. (That includes a time when we had to tip it over and change out the stand!) We actually snuck back in after time was up to finish the last 10 minutes of it, but all the craziness was worth it. It was so amazing to be in that room as see all the designers working and making such a magical place!

Our Tree did so very well! It was not put into the live auction because they never put in a tree that has first year designers, but by the end they were wishing that they had. They are begging my sister to do it again next year.

So with the silent auction they have the value of the tree as a starting off point. It was $2,100. Then they have 15 lines for people to bid on. Then there is a Buy It Now price if people want to pay top dollar for it and avoid the stress of bidding. The first day our tree sold for top dollar, $3,000. Then there were two other people who wanted it and asked the administration if they could still bid on it higher than the top dollar price! (That is why they wished that they had put it into the live auction, because they had to turn those people down to follow the rules.)

Our budget from our sponsor was $1,000. So we had the second biggest increase from spending to purchase price percentage wise!

This really was a once in a lifetime experience and I am so glad that I got to share it with my sister. She really is amazing! Thanks Simcah!

2011-12-07T13:35:00.001-08:00

Tsadakah said, "Guess what mom, Uchtdorf has a oo sound in his name!" I'm so proud of her that she knows who he is!

ThanksgivingS

2011-12-04T15:32:00.000-08:00

So, we had 3 Thanksgivings! Talk about over eating! Luckily all those dinners were not on the same day. Mike's family decided to do it on Saturday and mine decided on Frieday so Thurday was wide open. So we celebrated it ourselves. Mike brined the turkey and stuffed it with hebs and spices. It tasted delicious!

I wanted to really keep everything healthy because I knew we had 2 others to gorge on, so we had unsweetened yams, salad, corn, and cooked carrots with our turkey. We also had crissantsand apple-raspberry juice. We talked about what we were thatnkful for and that was that. It was a wonderful simple day.

I got the dishes at Walmart for a buvk! lol It was the best thing for the little ones who have a tendency to have butterfingers. They weren't fancy or expensive, but they were fun!

The Fershtut party was done at a church. It was put on by my sister, Leah. She did a great job! Her husband brought a movie to project on the wall and planned a fun candybar game. My mom went all out on the decoratns! I think that because she didn't have to work so hard at her house that she was able to spend time on the stuff that she really loves to do, DECORATING!She made these placemats, and the stuffed turkey and also bought a whole bunch of gourds. She made a felt covering to fancify the stage. It was all beautiful!

The food was amazing! It was all homemade original Thanksgiving traditional food! It was so good I couldn't say no! hahaha

Eliannah kept smiling with her mouth open and it was showing her food. I took this picture like $0 times! I guess I need to work on her manners more. heehee, but she loves to read the book Polite As A Princess. It is so wonderful for teaching lil girlie-girls! guess we better read it more often. She actually asks for a napkin all the time. :)

Zeke, Simcah, Stratton, Hayley, Carson. My mother made these place mats. She also made the cloth stuffed turkey! She is The most amazing seamstress! I love that about her. I admire it a great deal and wish I had a greater desire for it!

Next we went to Mike's family for Thanksgiving. This is the long table of ethnic foods that we all sampled and shared! It was so fun! I love this. We had food from Mexico, Peru, Heiti, the Islands, Israel, and Brazil.

Eliannah fell asleep snuggling with Grandma Carol! So sweet! Since they came in October to visit, by kids have been so much closer to these grandparents and I love that!

Friends of Mike's family came as well bringing teens and other such. Their daughter was reading to MiKylah and it was so cute! She was listening and eating her lil snack, happy as can be! she is so my little darling!

For an activity we played lots of games. (One thing that I LOVE about Mike's family) First we played Fruit Basket, which is always a blast and even the kids can participate.) Then we played Human Foosball. (Mike's sisters that got everything neeed for this game were amazing!) Then the men played b

Veteran's day

2011-12-02T08:19:00.001-08:00

Don't forget about Veteran's Day! Its a special holiday too. Every now and then I have a great memorable one. This year I spent it reflecting on the service of a very special veteran, my Pop Pop Leonard. He was so handsome in his uniform! He was such a good and honorable man. I am so grateful to him for all that he did and all that he was. His memory will always and forever be with me.

My dad talked about something that he read in the paper about Abraham Lincoln dedicating the holiday of Thanksgiving as a national holiday during the time of war, when people needed hope. They needed something to remind them to think of the things that they are grateful for, they needed something to renew their vigor for what they were fighting for. I love the fact that we have lil patriotic holidays all year round. This reminds me that I am thankful for the sacrifices that the servicemen have given so that we can all be free to worship God as we see fit and that men and women of all races can vote, choose and live in peace and plenty.

God Bless America, the Land That I Love!

Halloween

2011-11-23T11:07:00.000-08:00

just for a fun change of pace i am going to do this blog backwards. (chronologically) So I loved the Halloween was so warm! I hate having to cover the costumes I spent hours making with coats.

I set off to take all three kids myself while Mike manned the door. It was SO MUCH FUN! I love my new house and my new neighborhood! I love the bazillion cultasacs around here and I loved that Tsadakah wanted to stay out longer than I would let her.

This was important to post because I think that there were so many Rapunzel's this year that I really needed to have something that set her apart, like that fact that I put the flowers in her braid. I didn't see anyone else do that so I was feeling pretty unique. And people loved it.

At the grocery store we saw a family with a Rapunzel and a Tinkerbell about the same ages as our girls. Their dresses were store bought dresses and Tsadakah said, why didn't you buy my dress mom? *sigh! (I am a detail oriented person and I have to have it down to the detail of the movie. I think that the store bought ones are just not close enough for the money that they want for them.) So then the father of the girl came back in and said how did you make that dress? Its so great and accurate! :) yay! At least someone appreciated it!

Also while the kids were playing on the bounce house slide at the grocery store I heard a mom call her daughter over and say, "look who that is! Doesn't that look just like Rapunzel?" Yay again!

The whole crew: MiKaylah, the pony, Mommy, the witch, Eliannah, Tinkerbell, and Tsadakah, Rapunzel.

I love putting make up on Tsadakahs very long lashes. Michael does not like it. lol

We also carved pumpkins with my parents the night before. It was so fun to see the girls excitement. Tsadakah wanted hers to be a silly clown. Michael obliged. Eliannah wanted hers scary! Mike was excited to do hers. lol These pumpkins came from my parents garden. It was wonderful!

Tsadakah's scary face.

The whole group.

The night before that was our ward party. It was fun, but we were very late. most people were out of candy and didn't come by our trunk. oh well.

Big scrumptious doughnuts.

MiKaylah with my dad.

Tsadakah

Eliannah

Mike's parents were also in town. I don't know how we missed taking their picture but they were really fun with the kids too. They came with us to almost everything and they stayed for our first talk in our new ward. All in all it was a full to the max fun Halloween.

Just a lil bday paty!

2011-11-21T13:16:00.000-08:00

So my nephew, Zeke, turned 1! My sister, Simcah, always throws amazing parties! Not just that, she does some of them twice (in St. George + Layton) She is supermom! Look at that decadent cake! It is made from scratch! Don't you just want to lick the screen?

Her is Zeke. he is a happy baby...ALWAYS! his nickname is Jolly, because he is sooooo happy.

Here is the beautiful owl cake that went with the owl party theme. Is

n't she great! Well we took the head off to be the part that he got to DIG into. It was really really funny because he was totally freaked out that we decapitated his cake. So I suggested that we turn it around so that the eyes weren't looking at him. That seemed to calm him down a little bit. Then when he was just about happy again, my dad (what a prankster he is) turned it back around and moved it like a puppet saying, "hello, I am the owl." Well that was IT! He really freaked out, trying desperately to escape his high chair and clawing away as much as he could. All I could do was laugh! It was all too funny!

Ha Ha!

This Pinata was also AMAZING! She completely made it from scratch as well! instead of a bat it had streamers that the kids pulled on.

Another funny story, you can see that all the kids were getting involved with the opening presents. Especially MiKaylah, who went as far as to climb up onto the chair. She was sitting on the edge of the armrest trying to get the toy he just opened. He eventually had enough and he pushed her off the chair.

Halloween Party

2011-11-03T15:39:00.000-07:00

mY FAVORITE HALLOWEEN ACTIVITY THIS YEAR WAS A PARTY AND THEN HAUNTED HOUSE THAT WE DID. iT WAS REALLY REALLY GREAT! wE SHARED IN THE JOY WITH dEBBIE'S FAMILY, sTEFANIE'S FAMILY, AND bRENT'S FAMILY. HERE ARE ALL THE KIDS EATING THEIR MONSTER PUDDING CUPS.

cLOSE UP OF THE MONSTER PUDDING CUP AND bROOKLYNN! tHANKS TO bROOKLYNN, sARAH, AND bOBBIE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL MONSTER ART.

tHE DINNER! wE SERVED WHITE CHICKEN CHILI, GARLIC BREAD, ROLLS, AND CHIPS. iT IS SO VERY FUN TO SEE EVERYONE IN THEIR COSTUMES AND FAMILY. i LOVE MY IN-LAWS!

mIkAYLAH AS A PONY! ISN'T SHE DARLING!

mY NEPHEW AS BATMAN. (HES MY FAVORITE SUPER HERO SO i HAD TO POST HIM!)

mY WONDERFUL IN-LAWS, bRENT AND cRIS WATCHED THE KIDS WHILE WE WENT TO THE HAUNTED HOUSE. iT IS CALLED aSYLUM 49! ITS IN tOOELE. iT WAS THE BEST HAUNTED HOUSE i HAVE EVER BEEN TO IN MY WHOLE LIFE!

tHERE WERE PARTS THAT SEEMED SO REAL LIFE! i WAS SO SCARED i WAS THINKING WHEN WILL THIS EVER BE OVER! FOR THE LONGEST TIME AFTER i WAS GIDDY WITH HYSTERIA AND JITTERS. WE TALKED ABOUT IT ALL NIGHT LONG AFTER THAT! LOL. i RECOMMEND IT! GO NEXT YEAR!

Happy Birthday To Mwaa!

2011-11-03T15:14:00.000-07:00

So, another year has gone by. My birthday landed on a Sunday, and usually we would go out to eat on the Sat before, but I was just so busy with projects for fixing up the house that I didn't even have time. So we ate in and I cooked my FAVORITE foods. Mike did A LOT of the cooking and he even let me take a nap while he cleaned for our guests, my parents. My in-laws remembered to call me too. :)

So the menu was: Fettuchini Alfredo, Sirloin Steak, Green Beans, and Garlic Bread. Look at my dad and my stomachs! We really stuffed ourselves good!

Mike and Tsadakah, once the camera came out it was "take pictures of me! I want to be in a picture!" that Mike. ;) j/k it was Tsadakah.

Marsha, Rivkah, Eliannah, Tsadakah, Steve.

My cake was peanut butter cake (the batter was awesome!) with fudge filling, Cream Cheese Frosting, and sprinkled with my favorite candy bar, ReesesNutragous! OOH YAA! People were like, "You made your own birthday cake?" When the only day of the year you eat sugar is on your bday, heck ya you make your own so that it can be over the top awesome!

I really worked hard on that cake! It was worth it!

The girls were SO eager to eat it too, that we ate it right after our dinner! We were so stuffed! Well here's to another year as good as this last one, and may 27 feel as young as 21! ;)

*BTW who's gonna write "the things I love about this birthday girl" for us mommies? I mean we post it for our kids when it is their big days, or they are a month older. I'm just saying, it might make getting older easier. lol

2011-10-24T19:16:00.001-07:00

The greatest antidepressant is selfless love. <3

Playday at the park

2011-10-11T05:45:00.000-07:00

I am kind of a loyalist. Everywhere I go, I vow that I am going to stay in touch with the people I have made friends along the way. It is getting harder and harder these days though! So I drove back to my Friends and my favorite park for a play date. It was so great to see everyone again! Here are some of my girls (Tsadakah was at school) playing while I was waiting for everyone to show up.

Finally, A Tour

2011-10-11T05:23:00.000-07:00

So, this is only 2 weeks past the time that I promised my SIL that I would post pictures, and 2 months after we moved in, but I really wanted our furniture to be here and our pictures on the wall before I posed pictures. :)This is from the front door. You can see the banister which leads upstairs. This is our living room. My favorite part of the whole house is the fireplace and crown molding around the windows. In the background you can catch a glimpse of the dining room.Here is the dining room from the opposite view (the kitchen) The girls wanted to be in the picture. lol Mike installed the light fixture new, and I love it! Out the window you can see the grape trellis. LOVE it! Cant wait to learn how to properly care for it so that we have thousands of wonderful grapes!Here is the kitchen from the dining room. Brand new bar stools! I love them a lot too! All new appliances! The Range is AWESOME! Thanks so much honey!

This is the master bedroom which is to the right from the front entryway. (that first picture) This is our new dresser! :)

This is our new bed and I paid extra to have 2 nightstands! Totally worth it!This picture really makes it look small in here, but its pretty big!

Jumping around a bit, here is the downstairs bathroom. Mike asked what I wanted for my bday and I said a sink. So he got me this and the toilet to go along with it! Now all it needs is tile and it will be a finished bathroom!

And that is all that I have taken pictures of so far. Hope that you have enjoyed your little tour of my wonderful home! :)

More from Heber Valley

2011-09-30T04:41:00.000-07:00

There were some more pictures that I found from Heber Valley! Eliannah is eating a cookie smore! Delicious! I was tempted!

Tsadakah prefers not to have smore or toasted mallows, she likes them cold! Yuck!

I also really wanted to post about the awesome swing course. It was a cable swing that was attached to a pulley. Family members ran as fast as they could to pull you to the top quickly and then you had to have the courage to let go and swing back down.

When we signed up for it, because kids were allowed I figured that it was small and not for adults. So we only signed up 2. Eliannah was afraid and didn't want to do it so that left only one for Mike or I. We both wanted to go so we did rock-paper-scissors. I lost! *sigh! So here he is having the time of his life!

I think that this picture sums up the trill of it all! :) He said that it was funner than that one we did the next day. Look at him! He is so happy! I couldn't even be upset that he won. It makes me so happy to see him enjoying himself so much!

Brave lil' Tsadakah did it and she had the time of her life! I love to see her happy too!

And she makes that helmet look good!

This is what the kids did while we were occupied!

MiKaylah fell asleep on Mike's shoulder. Sweet darling! She is so CUTE!This lil girl makes me super happy too! WOW! So I think that she gets over stimulated when we are in public and that is why she sometimes acts up, because at home, most of the time she is so calm and peaceful! She loves to play in her room all by herself. When Tsadakah is at school I think that she is going to want to play with me, but no, she wants to play with all of Tsadakah's toys! She is up in her room the whole time. It is almost as if she is taking a nap! She really is a princess!

2011-09-28T11:10:00.001-07:00

What I got out of the Relief Society meeting: "I don't need a To Do list, I need a To Charity list! Because Charity is my WHY!"

Back to School

2011-09-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

This is Tsadakah one year ago when she came home from her first day of Pre-School. It was a fun experience for her and the first lil break I had experienced. I liked it, not because I wanted to be away from her, but because Eliannah was such a better child when she didn't have to compete for my attention! lol

And here she is one year later on her first day of KINDERGARTEN! She has been so excited about her new school, new clothes, new back pack. Counting down seasons and events to this spectacular day, her first day of school. As for me, it was not the best experience. I wanted it to be sentimental and special, but MiKaylah and Eliannah were all over the place and there was so much going on in that hallway that I was too over-stressed to feel any other emotion. I snapped these two shots on my phone, kissed her quick and I was out of there!

I felt sad that I didn't even get a chance to feel sad. lol But she was fine! She was happy to be there and I remember her searching and finding her name on a leaf on the paper tree, and wanting to know where to hang her backpack. She is such a good lil girl! She is more than ready for this!

Sisterly sweetness!

I wanted to say a little bit about fall too. I love this season so much! Not only is it when my 2 favorite holidays are (MY birthday + Halloween) but I love the smells and the feel. I love that when I walk down the street on a crisp morning I can smell pumpkins and squash growing in nearby gardens. I love that I can smell grapevines ripening to sweet savor. I also love the smells inside, like when I walk through the front doors of an elementary school and I can smell office supplies, like tape, glue, and crayons. I love the idea of a bouquet full of freshly sharpened pencils from the movie, You've Got Mail, because I too love the smell of pencils.

Welcome Fall! Welcome School! Welcome Good Times and Holidays!

My First Few days In Our Home

2011-09-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

I kept telling myself that when we moved into the new house, the first night I was going to celebrate by going down the stairs in a sleeping bag. One of my favorite things about the new house was that it has stairs (3 sets) which I have so been missing! Of course with all that was going on it didn't happen the first night. In fact it didn't happen for many weeks. But the important thing was that eventually it did happen. :)

The girls holding hands in the car was not instructed or prompted. It was a proud mommy moment, where I felt that I had done a good job teaching my girls to be loving.

CUTEST thing! Really, I love this! MiKaylah has been doing A LOT of darling things this last 2 months. So many in fact that I am worried I will never remember them all.

-When she tries to make the pig noise she blows raspberries instead of Oinking. lol

-When she sees a mouse in any book she has to kiss it.

-She loves to buckle her car seat, high chair, and any other buckle available.

-I love her curls in back, but I also LOVE her in pig-tales!

-She squishes my nose when she wants me to say "HONK" and taps it when she wants me to say "BEEP."

-She loves to be nakey! She knows how to take off her dresses and shirts and wants to put on her own pants.

-She pushes out her lips in a perfect circle when she says, "no, no!" I can't help but laugh!

Discovery Gateway

2011-09-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

We went to the discovery gateway, thanks Kennecott/Rio Tinto, for family home evening. It was really fun! Tsadakah was very enthusiastic about the house and loved all the little domestic things. I loved it and thought that was great, but didn't take any pictures of that. Instead I took pictures of her in the construction zone. lol I think that the fact that she has her head in the arm whole cracked me up. I just had to take a pic.

Eliannah loved the water part the most, but she also did the little house with the play food.

MiKaylah was a daddy's girl most of the evening. She was content to just be with him. She also enjoyed the water!

Heber Valley Camp Ground

2011-09-12T05:12:00.000-07:00

For Mike's family reunion we went to the Heber Valley Camp Ground. We had a wonderful time! We did many challenges and courses that really did bring us together as family. I got rather choked up and thought, this is my eternal family and I love them all SOOOO VERY MUCH! I only wish that more of them could have been there. Especially Mike's dad, who was having medical complications at the time.

This one was a challenge where we had to get the whole family across the "raging river with crocodiles" on these "logs." We never made it in the time set, but we always succeeded just the same.

Tsadakah and Jaxton playing "Hy-Ya's" I love these lil cousins! They play so well and rarely fight. Jaxton is such a sweetheart!

WATERMELON! Its Eliannah's favorite! She can eat a whole one if we let her! lol

Eliannah, Xander, Emma. Cousins!

Oh! My! Cute Pout-pout! This little girl has it all figured out! She has the most adorable pout I have ever seen, and I have had 2 other girls.

Joys of camping: allowing your kids to be dirty with food on their face. lol

MiKaylah and Emma. Emma is also a super photogenic girlie! I loved taking her picture and took quite a few!

Tsadakah and Jaxton.

Daddy and baby! Tender. Oh ya, we also got sick! All three of my girls up chucked multiple times all night long. It was the worst night's sleep I have ever had! I can't even call it sleep. I didn't get a wink. And yet it was all still worth the trip.

Gorgeous girl!

Happy girl.

Group shot! My sister in law made these shirts that were super awesome! We all chose different colors. It was fun! She went way out of her way to do it and did a great job. Thanks Lisa!Lovely little lady!Not a big fan of family pictures while camping...can you blame me? I mean really, "Lets take a picture when we are at our dirtiest." The only thing worse than that is getting pictures right after you have a baby. Who wants their picture taken after all that!!

Settling In

2011-09-12T04:52:00.000-07:00

August was an extremely busy month for us! I was working constantly to try to get the house in order. I was answering the door all the time for the carpet guys, the RC Willey guys, etc... and I was also on the phone a lot too! Not only that I was cleaning and trying to get renters. Not to mention we had previously commited to vacations every weekend in August so every Thursday I was packing to leave and every Monday unpacking and washing clothes. It was a bit stressful, but we found ways to find joy in the little moments.

Tsadakah and Eliannah discovered the fun of making shadows on the wall! Tsadakah has two turtles kissing.

Eliannah was making a bird, but I caught it to late and she had pulled away. But it was pretty good!

MiKaylah loves our new carpet! She rolls around on it literally laughing from sheer joy!

Tsadakah fell asleep in front of the TV like this! lol

Brought on by the idea from my dad, and the fact that we had so many perfect boxes for the enjoyment, we built a cardboard box castle. Behind Ellie you can see the chimney box! And there were also some that looked like the fortress spires. It was awesome fun, but in the heat of August, they didn't play very long in it. :(

My sister in law, Cristina, came to visit and see the new house! It was great to see her and her kids. We had some good laughs. Tsadakah loves to play with her cousin and they had a tea party in the castle with our picnic dishes.

You can see Eliannah lounging in the back room. lol It really was a cool castle! Hee hee, see the window on top? And we have actually gotten bigger boxes than these since then!

Moving Day!

2011-09-09T05:51:00.000-07:00

Boy Was That Stressful! I never want to move again!

First of all, the house that we bought was a short sale. We were told going into it that it was going to be a long and frustrating processes and we were OK with that. It was different then I thought though. I was like, ya we can be fine with it taking a long time in the beginning stages but I didn't think that the end would be the worst of it! Actually the beginning stages seemed to go quite smoothly. I guess that we got spoiled there and started to think that nothing would go wrong after all! sigh! boy was I wrong!

They told us originally that we would sign on the 17th. We decided that we would need 2 weeks to clean the house fully (with re carpeting and other maintenance issues) so we scheduled the move for the 30th. The renters we had found said that they weren't going to be ready to move into the house until August 15, so that gave us 2 weeks after we moved to clean up the Tooele house for the renters. Everything seemed like it was going to go perfect!

Then, to our surprise, the renters called and said that they had a change of plans and that they wanted to move in by the 1st! OK, I can clean the house in a day or two. Then the agent called and they pushed back the signing a week. OK, we can clean the new house in a week. Then he called again and said that it was pushed back again, and again, and again!!! I was really starting to stress! Our window of moving opportunity was getting smaller and smaller until I was about to freak! At one point the dates were overlapping which was totally impossible, so I called ever person I could to push my way into closing on our house! We had to call the renters and ask them to wait a week. (Which is probably why they ended up bailing!)

So anyways, the crunch time came down to one weekend! We signed the papers on Friday at like 5PM! Then we got into the house and I was cleaning like mad! Vacuuming, scrubbing, bleaching, sanitizing everything I could. There was so much to do! Mike and my dad were there trying to put in a new gas line for my new gas range, ripping out carpet, and changing light fixtures. We worked until 10:30. (Which is late for me, alright? lol)

The next day I woke up at 5 and drove straight over to the new house to continue cleaning! Families showed up at the house and loaded the truck. It took 2 truck loads! It was total madness and chaos! I wasn't there at all to help guide or direct people. Things were just done! It was amazing! When people came to the new house there was still so much cleaning to do that boxed had to be stored in the garage and not brought into the house. kids were stepping on staples from where the carpet used to be, and we didn't' have some of the sinks working so water kept spaying all over.

We ordered pizza and thanked everyone so VERY MUCH for their help! Then for the next 2 weeks I was working non-stop! I woke up and worked all day until I went to bed. The poor kids were so in shock and I was too busy to baby them through the transition. It was just a shocker!

But now we are here! We are all Happy! We all sit in awe and amazement that it is ours! We are so so very blessed! We totally and completely love the house we are in. This house was built to be our home!! I truly believe that!

My goodness we have had so many boxes! This is a forte that my dad built for the kids while they were trying to move. It was to keep the kids out. They loved it! Mike hated it! lol Tsadakah told me where the kitchen was and everything e

else. It was a cute and fun thing! Thanks, dad!

This is a picture of MiKaylah in a doll stroller. It was taken the morning after the move. This is what the kids were doing while I was cleaning. lol

We want to thank everyone for their help in this move! It was so nice to have and so needed! I could not have done it without all of you! Thank you, THANK YOU!

Other Things I Did In July

2011-09-09T05:12:00.000-07:00

In July we also went to Lagoon with some of Mike's families: Debbie & Cesar's, Jon & Stef's. It was so much fun! We enjoyed it so much! Come to think of it, we also went with these same families to 7 peaks in June. Did I blog about that?

Anyway, it was so entertaining and great to have the help of family! We all took turns with the little kids in Kiddie land so that we could also ride the major ones. We actually rode the Wicked like 5 times! And we rode the Rocket quite a lot too!

Debbie's girls were so much help with the littler kids too! Tsadakah went with the and I felt a bit sad as I watched her walk away with the big kids. WOW, she is getting big! She hesitated for a moment so I had to be brave and put on a happy face to reassure her, but I really wanted to say never mind, stay here and be little and never grow up! lol

I also threw a surprise shower for my good friend, Denelle. She was a stinker cause she told everyone that someone else was doing a shower so nobody would be inconvenienced. That is why it had to be a surprise. It turned out well and she was grateful for it in the end. :) She had already ha the baby so it was a post shower.This was one of the games we played. You have to "birth" the baby by melting the ice around it with only your hands. lol This was the winner.

Here he is! Lil' Tyrell.

Also, to pass the time while I waited anxiously for my house to close I had to find ways to entertain myself and my children so we didn't drive each other bonkers. So I took them to the library's craft hour. Although they don't always have the books I am looking for, they do have great community activities throughout the week.

Tsadakah is my little artist and she asks almost every day if it is craft day! She loves to do anything that you tell her has to do with art.

July Stuff

2011-09-03T06:11:00.000-07:00

Tsadakah wanted to help me cook, so I put on her apron. Then she was like, "Wait, Mom, I need my chef hat!" Then she went and got my shower cap. lol

This is what we baked. It is a recipe that we have always loved, but I haven't made for a long time because I went off refined sugars, but I decided to try to addapt the recipe and it worked, thanks to Bountiful Baskets! We used fresh black berries instead of jam, and honey instead of sugar, and wheat flour instead of white. It was so delicious and I was so glad to find a way to make my favorite breakfast cake again.

Mike's company party at the Zoo was so totally awesome! They had free consesions! We got Ice cream cones, popcorn, hambergers, cotton candy, dino sippie cups, nachos, Mrs. B cookies, and soda for free. Everything was free actually and we really wanted to go on the Carosaul and the Train too, but it was thundering so we thought it wasn't safe. :(

But they also had face painting which we loved! The girls got beautiful face paintings, again for free! I think that this is one of the only things at fairs or carnivals that I am willing to pay for. lol

Mike works for Rio Tinto and it is a GREAT company. We are so happy there! They have amazing benefits, fabulous parties, and always the option to work overtime when needed. Can't wait to see what they do for their Christmas party!

MiKaylah learns to swing!!!

July 4th

2011-09-02T05:01:00.000-07:00

Apple pie! An American tradition!

Happy Independence Day! One of the best days of the year! My favorite thing to do on the 4th is to dress in red white and blue!

This year Mike had to work over time. We looked at it as a blessing in disguise! With buying a new house we really needed the money he got from double overtime. It changed all our plans though. My car wasn't working so I couldn't go and do what we had planned, which was a lot! Instead I found things around the area to do with the girls.

Like going to the parade. It is so easy to go to because it is just down the street from our house. So easy to get to. It was a fun thing to do. I was actually early (even without my husband there!) So we got to see all of the 5K runners. Tsadakah asked if we could do it together next year! (So cute! Now I really want to!)

Best thing that we got at the parade were these lil flags! Darling! They were also giving out firemen hats, but since our kids had just gotten some at the museum we gave them to the boys next to us.

My friend, Joanna, met up with us and we enjoyed sharing in the memory of our country's freedom and the joy therein! Her daughter, Abby-kins, and her son, Magnus are such good friends to my kids.

I love this country. There might be problems, but this is one day when political views should be set aside and all Americans should stand together and admire and appreciate all the good that has gone into what we have been given up to this very day. Every event, every founding father, every soldier down, every president martyred, and every inocent lost has been sacrificed for this right here! Freedom, Freedom, FREEDOM! Let it ring!

I took pictures of lots of the floats like the firemen in red longjohns! lol. But you just cant post every picture you take so I narrowed them down to this one. It was my favorite because of the Eagle on top. Pretty cool!

Tsadakah on her way back from the victory of grabbing a candy.

LOVE this picture of Tsadakah. I probably look like I have a favorite, but my other two just don't look at the camera! She is also always asking me to take her picture, sooo you will probably get a lot of Eliannah in 2 years when she is more interested in being photographed.

Love this pic as well! So silly that my kids wanted to use their Easter baskets to gather their candy in! lol. Maybe next year I will make a cool bag that is red white and blue for them!

MiKaylah nabbing herself a lil candy. Yummmy, yummy, yummmy I've got love in my tummy!

Eliannah running back with her find! Look how excited and proud of herself she is!

Eliannah and MiKaylah fell asleep before dark, exhausted from the days activities and treats! Mike was still at work. So Tsadakah and I enjoyed the fireworks just the two of us. We watched the cities fireworks from our backyard, then I gave her glowstick bracelettes, ankletes, and a necklace. All I had was sparklers from 3 years ago. lol so that is what we had fun doing. I showed her how to draw pictures with hers. It was a special mommy and me moment I will never forget!

Happy Independence Day!

Tid bits From June

2011-09-01T04:38:00.000-07:00

This summer we signed up for 5 reading programs! It was so awesome! I love to read with my kids anyways so I would have done it for nothing, but it is always nice to win prizes and have fun incentives too! This is one of the prizes that they won from the Purple Cow book store, which is amazing! They gave such huge candy bars! Score!

Eliannah won one of the drawings! It was only a free pass to the bowling alley (which she hates to bowl) but still exciting to be a winner. The reading programs were: Library, Purple Cow, Family Center, Friend magazine, and The governor's challenge. Our favorite was the Purple Cow's! They gave the best prizes, but also they challenged us the most. We were given 25 topics and had to find a book from each without using the same author! I started reading books to Tsadakah that I didn't realize she was ready for and she loved, like THE SECRET GARDEN! I was so impressed!

Our favorite new finds were as follows:

The Sea Serpent and Me........Dashka Slater

There's A Dragon In My Sleeping Bag.....James Howe
Cool Daddy Rat.........................Kristyn Crow
Just Me and 6,000 Rats..........Rick Welton
Spooky Hour..............................Tony Mitton

The Pout-Pout-Fish and the Big-Big Dark...Deborah Diesen
There's No Such Thing As A Dragon...Jack Kent

**Duncan the Dancing Duck........Syd Hoff

The Skeleton In the Closet.......Alice Schertle

**This book was so great that I tried to buy it, but it was out of print. :( definitely my all time summer favorite and I recommend that you go to the library and check it out!

Tsadakah is into gardening this summer! She even found this cute little scare crow to put into her garden. She is really good at remembering to water every day. She added the roses for effect. lol I think that it is darling! and this is definitely a talent that I hope she Perseus.

This is my attempt at floral design. These all came from my very own garden! I read the basics from BHG! I am really getting into interior design. It is my new obsession. but as is with all new hobbies, there is so much you need to spend money on to keep it up. What do you do to have a totally stylish decor on a budget?

Also, what was your favorite book you read this summer? And what is your all time favorite children's book?

This is Tsadakah's Stick art. She came up with the idea all on her own. lol It is so cute. She said that it was an ant. I can see that!

Utah's Hogle Zoo

2011-08-31T05:31:00.000-07:00

We decided to get a Zoo pass this year and we have used it a few times to go with other people we love! We have been with my best friend from High School, my sister, my mom, Mike's company's party, and we plan to go still with my college roommate. When I went with my sis I let her take all the pictures so I will have to get them from her and post them later.
The theme at the zoo this year is dinosaurs. It was actually really great and realistic! They move and even spray water. Eliannah was afraid of all of them, even if we said that they were herbivores. lol Silly girl!
The picture above is with my good friend's daughter. Tsadakah really likes her a lot! I am so glad that they have been able to get together and become friends because it is a friendship that I intend on keeping forever!

There is a sand box where the kids can dig and pretend to work like the construction workers who are building the new area for the Polar Bears. It is a great idea! My kids love it there! This time that we went we were there the minute it opened so we got it all to ourselves! Doesn't MiKaylah look so cute up there?!

Another perk to being there as soon as it opens is that you get to see them feed the animals. I usually think that the Rhinos (which Mike loves) are pretty boring, but this was really cool! The zookeeper was there too so we asked them some questions. Tsadakah noticed that one was bleeding and she was really concerned. The zookeeper said that they like to play by fighting just like puppies or kitties, and sometimes they can get too rough with each other. (I wish I could have been there to see that! When does this happen? Cause all I have ever seen them do is stand there like "duuuuuh!")

There were also my favorite animal! I don't usually see Squirrels at the zoo cause it is too crowded, but because they were used to people they let us get right up next to them. It was so awesome. I soooo want one as a pet! Mike reminds me that they are considered vermin. Uggg! that brings down my dream pretty fast. lol

But they are beautiful animals and I love how fast their movements are!

My adorable girls have had so much fun at the zoo with cousins, friends, celebrations, and us! It is the number one way that we spent June!

Swim Lessons

2011-08-30T05:07:00.000-07:00

We did swimming lessons on June 6-16. It went really good! Tsadakah liked all of it except "bobs" which is when they have to dunk themselves under the water. She was the only girl in her age group. lol I thought that she would love that, but she didn't make friends with any of them this year. She actually was all by herself in between learning, but she didn't seem to mind so I didn't. Here she is practicing her front paddle.

Here she is getting ready to jump in from the side. At her Kindergarten check up Dr. Gould said that she has FINALLY caught up to an average weight. Didn't look like it helped in keeping her warmer, she is still cold!

Tsadakah in her back float. I think that this was her favorite/best drill.

Here she is doing bobs. She was such a trooper, doing things that she didn't love. It was a great experience this year!
She caught me taking her picture. I just love the fact that she is still young enough to get excited about seeing me in public. She was so excited to wave to me when she realized I was watching her and she even told someone in the class "That's my mom!"

Eliannah was a little more of a pickle! :) Still participated some of the time, so I can't complain.

In this exercise she was supposed to be running to get the ring when the teacher threw it, but she grabbed it out of the teachers hand before she could throw it and started to play keep away fro

the teacher. lol

She is such a beautiful child! I love her serene moments.

She is so funny because she would get out of the pool and jump like a frog for a minute and then get back into the pool. She is obsessed with frogs right now. We have already checked out every book at the library about frogs, and its not the cute little stories that she is interested in. Oh, no! She wants to read about and see pictures of real frogs. She was so thrilled when she learned that frogs have sticky suction cups on their hands to stick to things. lol

The other funny thing! She doesn't like to have water on her hands. At home I have to use hand sanitizer instead of washing (whenever possible) because she hates her hands to get wet. At home in the bathtub, if her hands (or bath toy) get wet she goes balistic! So, every time her hands would get wet she would climb out of the pool and shake her hands as fast and as hard as she could. Then she would get back in, but they would get wet again right away, so she was climbing out again and again!

I love this shot. She is playing peek-a-boo with me over the edge of the pool!

Where was MiKaylah this whole time? She was scaring a woman half to death by playing on the cement steps. Seriously, I see this woman downstairs on the pool in the opposite corner come sprinting across the center. I'm thinking oh no, someone must be seriously injured for her to be panicking like that. She ran all the way through the locker rooms and up the stairs to get MiKaylah. (who already knows how to do stairs) When she found out I was her mother she apologized. It was pretty silly. I know that I am a laid back mother but it seems like everywhere I go people make comments. Am I the only one? What about you? Has anyone ever said anything to you about how you are dealining with a situation?

Soooo much has happened!

2011-08-23T05:51:00.000-07:00

Since my last post so many wonderful things have happened! I finally got what I wanted, A NEW HOUSE! We put our offer in on my DREAM house in June. Before a month was over the told us that the bank went with the other offer! Most of July was spent beating our heads against the wall trying to cram every other house into our expectations and longing for that beautiful house! Then right as we had put our offer in on a house that we were just settling for my agent called and said: "Do you still want that house?" I was so super excited! I couldn't stop giggling with glee! Right there on the phone with the agent! lol So we got the process going and boy was that a fun rollercoaster ride!
We found renters right away for our other house and they said that they wanted to move in Aug 1 but then the day of closing on our house started to get pushed back farther and farther! It came down to the wire for sure! We ended up having to make a few threatening calls! It was majorly stressful! When we finally closed on the house we had 3 days to clean it, move into it, and prep the other house for renters. I tried my very best! for three days...well actually for 8 or 9 days, I woke up as early as I could and worked and worked and worked staying up as late as I could. Still, with all of that energy that we put into it the feat was just impossible.
We had so much help too! We are so thankful to all the family members on both sides that gave up their Saturday to come and help us. Thank you all!
In the end we still had to called the renters and tell them that they couldn't move in for another week. Adventually, we lost our renters. So, if anybody knows someone who wants to live in a small but darling cute house in Tooele, let me know!
but back to the wonderful part of this blog, I LOVE MY HOUSE!!!! Every day I wake up so happy! My husband has literally made all my dreams come true and I could not be more grateful to him for all of his hard work. That is how he shows his love so how could I not feel like I am the most blessed loved woman in the world. I am thankful to God for ALL that He has given me!
We haven't gotten the pix on the walls yet or I would post some pictures of our gorgeous new domain!
I also need to catch up on all of June (mostly includes the drama from the house) July, AND august! lol I would now but my June pix are all on the other computer. *sigh

Happy 30 Years!

2011-07-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

Mike turned 30 on May 29th! I wanted to do a surprise for him because I think that he deserves something big, but I don't think that he would have let me spend that much on him otherwise. He is so selfless! I really wanted to think of someplace that he would totally LOVE! so I picked out a little place called Jumpin' Jacks. It is an indoor bounce house facility.
He absolutely hated being surprised, but he ABSOLUTELY had a blast. I love looking at all of these pictures because he looks extremely happy! He raced through all the places and the races kept including more balloons! He raced most of the time with my niece Anna and his brother, Devin.
We had so many people from both of our families! They loved coming to support him and show him love! He has recently been into red velvet cake so that is what I wanted to get for him.
This was truly a blast of a birthday! I am totally in love with this man for all that he is! He is so good and so hard working! I also love how much he can change to being playful and fun! These pictures show his funloving side. That brings out my Mikeloving side!

Happy Birthday, babe!

2011-07-08T05:25:00.001-07:00

Mercy and sympathy for the pained is more important than justice for the wrongful.

2011-07-06T14:38:00.001-07:00

When we live by covenant rather than convenience, we direct our lives toward our heavenly home. Donald L. Hallstrom

2011-06-29T11:44:00.001-07:00

Decisions determine DESTINY. Thomas S. Monson

2011-06-27T05:55:00.001-07:00

Life may not be a party, but while we are here we might as well dance.

2011-06-16T20:16:00.001-07:00

In all of human experience, there are no joys more tender, no love more sweet, no fulfillment higher than that found in the family.

2011-06-16T10:18:00.001-07:00

We gain salvation by submitting our will, indeed our very selves, to the will of God. We must lose ourselves to find ourselves.

Happy Birthday, Tsadakah!

2011-06-13T20:25:00.000-07:00

My first lil baby is now 5! That feels like a really big mile marker. You know, the big K and...the number of fingers on your hand? ok I'm not sure what exactly makes it seem so important, but it does. Her birthday was a family only year. We decided to do big parties only every four years because it takes so much time and money to go all out every year for every birthday.

Tsadakah is reall into Hello Kitty right now, which is fun! I thought that it would be so out of date, but I was wrong! They have Hello Kitty stuff everywhere!

She loved having her birthday, she's only been talking about it for months! Eliannah was a great sport about it. We told her in the morning that it was Tsadakah's day so she got the crown and Ellie was like ok! She never once even asked to touch it. I was impressed. And Tsadakah was quite a royal princess about it because she shared her new toys with both her sisters without complaint.

For each person's birthday they get to choose what we have for dinner. Tsadakah wanted everything yellow; Mac n cheese, chicken nuggets, and corn. We even ate on Hello Kitty plates!

She got a Hello Kitty scrapbooking kit. I admit, it was really hard to let her do her own thing with this one. Me being a big scrapbooker, I wanted to tell her where to put each sticker, etc. I had to really hold myself back!

She also got her first bike and yep its Hello Kitty! LOVE IT! She is also into dogs, so we got her the mechanical kind that walk and bark! I loved it, and so did MiKaylah! Like I said, she shared with her lil sister, who put the dog into the toilet! oh shoot! lol (They also had a chipmunk toy that really moved and i wanted to buy it for myself! I loved it! I have always wanted one as a pet!)

I designed a cake and some cute cupcakes to go with the oh so fun theme! I am not great, but I LOVE decorating cakes! Happy Birthday, Angel Baby!

Some of my favorite things about her: I love that he always tries to do what is right! she is helpful and deeply desires to make me happy!
I love that she is passionate aout life. This sometimes gets her into trouble because she gets too worked up. I love it when she gets excited about things. I love how her eyes will light up. I love how smart she is. She ntices things that I never did at that age! She is into math and madical things. She hated getting her own shots, of course, but she wanted to be able to give some shots to someone else.

I love you Sadye!

Pre-Mother's Day & Mother's Day

2011-06-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

The week before Mother's Day
we went to Layton to visit my mom to let her know how special she is. We did a treasure hunt for her to find her presents. It was a fun way to make it all fun! The kids really loved it too. They were involved in every way. They even wrote what they love best about her on the back of each clue.

It was a weekend full of fun surprises! We didn't let my mom know that we were coming so we showed up at her doorstep and said a great big surprise. Tsadakah is really into surprises lately! She thinks that they are the best
For my Mother's Day, I got new pants, an beautiful planted flowers. Tsadakah made a homemade card. They made it special!

Utah Air Muesum

2011-06-06T13:56:00.000-07:00

May 7th, We went to the Air Museum with my parents and my sister, Simcah's family. It was so awesome! The kids were actually really well behaved even with their cousins. It was a great afternoon and a fun thing to do for something different.
Mike's favorite plan was this one. Don't ask me why, because i could not tell the diff, but I grabbed a shot of him with it.

Here is Tsadakah and her cousin Moriella in front of my fav. lol I love antiques! I tried to explain to Tsadakah that this was he first plane made (or a replica) and she either didn't get it, or didn't think that it was cool. kids!

I wanted to get a picture of Sadye in front of this women pilot. I am greatful that we have equal rights to vote and to be respected. I am glad that men can't take advantage o a woman in like a divorce situation like in the old times. I still believe that women should stay in their respective roles according to God's design, but I am glad that we have honor too.

Funny side story, I go to the gym and watch movies while on the tredmill. last week when I was there they were playing Nigt At the Museum 2, you know the one with Amilia Earheart, and I must have been really emotional that day because I started crying. I was like, "You go girl!" It made me proud to be a woman and greatful for the strength and sacrefices that other women have had to go through to make it all possible.

This pic of Ellie jumping for joy makes me laugh! It puts a smile in my heart! She is so like this! She is into frogs right now! That is who she pretends to be. She was either really excited or really bored. lol
My dad is so great with children! He makes things fun for them, but he also expects more out of them, that they behave and that they understand the world around them. He is actually explaining to her what the bombs are. CUTE! hehe

Mike and Eliannah in front of the mini display. It was a memorable experience and I would deffinately go again!

11 months ol

2011-06-06T13:09:00.000-07:00

Beautiful shots of MiKaylah at 11 months old. She is such a joy! I cannot look at her without a smile spreading across my face! She is funny too! She loves to do things that make us laugh and when she knows what that is she does it over and over again. She will wrinkle her nose at something when she is laughing, or she will make a fish face when she doesn't want to eat something. or she responds to something by laughing at herself. it is so cute and funny!

MiKaylah is beautiful in every way! She has the longest eye lashers! They are blond tho so you can't really see them front on, you have to be up close with her looking the other way and then you are like wow, those are some killer lashers!

Ok when I am dressing my girls I always wonder if this was in my size, would I wear it? This is such a cute dress and with the lil' boots I am just in 7th heaven! She is such a doll! This outfit is darling and it is my fav! I love this little girlie so much!! xoxoxoxo

Easter Sunday

2011-06-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

I like to break up our Easter traditions into 2 days, the sugar-filled-bunny day, and the spiritual-true-meaning-of day. So on Easter sunday we kept the spirit by listening to church music and getting excited about our new dresses.

I took pix before church despite the fact that we had 9 o'clock church because I knew they would look discheveled after. Still i didn't have time to get a great shot with them all looking/smiling.

so after church I got out some plastic eggs that I have been saving for 8 years which have scriptures and small visual items to help the kids connect with the true meaning of Easter, the Resurection. I was worried that they were still too young to do it, but they really impressed me! They took turns and put them back into the egg carton when asked! There were no fights, messes, or broken pieces.

It was a beautiful and peaceful afternoon spent loving life and the happiness that we have been given. Family is so beautiful! I am so greatful for mine.

Easter 2011

2011-06-05T13:54:00.000-07:00

I think that this was my favorite Easter so far! We stayed home and enjoyed doing our own traditions! Mike helped out with the dying of eggs, so that I could make the Cinn-a-bunnies!, which means that I didn't make a single one of these. darn! There is never enough time to do everything! sigh!

So the pictures, Tsadakah is playing with her toy that she got, it was a blow-up bunnie, which looked cute not blown up but once it was it looked like a disgusting rodent! lol BTW do you think that my flash was too high? All my pictures turned out this way, with the girls squinting and dodging the camera!

The Cinn-a-bunnies turned out great this year. Last year I was so dumb to think that I could make them that way. lol.
They were tasty!

Happy Birthday Eliannah!

2011-04-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

Eliannah is now 3! She is so darling! I am glad that she is over the terrible 2's! We had a small party at my parents house after Passover. She was such a good girl about having to wait. She is my best sharer! My friend Yvonne came with her family to the Passover and she brought Ellie this adorable Fancy Nancy crown! She loved wearing it and went around saying she was the Queen! (Forget the princess, she was the Queen!)
She really was pretty spoiled! My mom and dad got her outdoor toys for the sprinklers and sandbox, my sister got her a coloring book and pocket puppoes. (Ellie loves anything that is "SO little") And we got her Sleeping beauty doll.
She really loved this doll! She just kept staring at it and saying, "she's so beautiful!" She LOVES the fact that the shoes come off and she went around telling everyone that they were not allowed to take off her doll's shoes.
The biggest thing that my kids have looked forward to is therir cakes. Every morning for a month they have been looking at the cakes in all my cookbooks first thing when they woke up! lol
Eliannah said that she wanted this exact cake (the purple didn't turn out right) and that she wanted it to say, "Dreams Come True" instead of Happy Birthday. :)

She tried to blow out her candles 4 times and she couldn't get the right angle so Mike helped her!

LOOK at that Happy face! I hope that she felt so loved and happy on her special day!

We also got her a bike. Tsadakah doesn't even have one yet! It is all princessy and it has a seat in the back for her to put her doll in and give it rides! It was the perfect thing to go with her doll.

Her favorite part of the bike was the bell. *it also has a basket on front and streamers on the handles!

Ok so all this picture documents is that I need practice in my cake decorating AND my photography. lol, but I made it just the way that she wanted it and THAT is what makes it special to me.

I also wanted to talk about my favorite things about her:

1. She hops on one leg when she is really excited about something.

2. She is my snuggler and my mommy's girl.

3. She can make you forget that you are mad at her because she laughs in such a saucy way.

4. She can turn my day from grey to colorful.

5. The way that she plays with her older sister and follows her around, its cute.

6. The way she pouts when I have been to stern with her.

7. The way that her little body feels all curled in a ball when she slips into my bed in the middle of the night.

8. Her laughter.

9. Her slight lisp, or the way that she says things wrong sometimes.

10. The fact that she is my PINK PRINCeSS!!

Gone Shoot'n

2011-04-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

So a few months ago we had a "creapy" incident in which Mike felt we better get a gun. My stipulation was that I wanted to learn how to use it properly. I don't want to be afraid of it, which come to find out, I am! When he first brought it home I practically hyperventallated. This kind of life style is so forign to me!
We tried really hard to get a picture of the shot. This one is of before...

...And after, see the smoke! Pretty good.
I don't think that any of these pictures are very flattering of me, and these were the best ones! But I just had to post this one because I think that the backfire from the gun and my reaction are just hillarious! I mean come on you can see that I am clearly not comfortable with it. lol.

THis is me trying to look tough.

Mike's brother, Devin and his family went with us. It was fun! It was all new for me and I love doing new things.

Dr. Suess Day

2011-04-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

So I love reading to my kids and I read all types of books to them. I swear that my biggest temptation to buy is a good read! I can pass the toys isle, clothing department, and/or candy with my kids crying and begging and I am firm with my no, but I can't help but spend half my Christmas budget on books.

Anyways, I have a lot of the younger Dr. Suess books memorized from reading them to my kids. (It has come to the point where I have to read them in different styles like rapper, or elvis just to keep myself from speeding through it.) So I talked my family into doing a party which included dressing up (my all-time fav!) and doing readings of the books. It was SOSO fun!

We even had themed food.

Simcah and her family all dressed up.

My family all dressed up! Mike was surprisingly into this! He read Oh The Thinks You Can Think, Tsadakah read The Grinch Stole Christmas, Eliannah read One Fish..., and I read The Cat In The Hat. It was so fun and almost everyone participated.

Group Shot!

My Fun and Wacky brother-in-law, Chris.

My dad, as the man in Mulberry Street. Pretty close eh?

And my mom was the star. She stole the show with her perfect costume! She put so much work into the costume! She wanted to act just like her character, the dog in Green Eggs And Ham.

2011-03-08T08:08:00.001-08:00

I love my new curtains! My new hobby is int. Decorating, so I don't know if what I'm doing is right, but at least I now have the interest! Go feng shui

Valentine's Day, and more

2011-02-27T16:34:00.000-08:00

For Valentines Day this year, we kept things quite simple. I want to save all the money we can for our future house! We didn't get presents and we didn't go out to eat, but the one thing that we will always do is homemade Valentine cards. It was wonderful! Tsadakah, being older and artistic, made very cute cards. Ellie's were all scribbles, and MIKE's were special! For Mike I did a few things that didn't cost a thing, like cleaning his garage for him, and other such stuff. For me he got me this flower! My favorite thing ever is a single long stemmed rose. I don't know why, but it seems more romantic to me than a whole dozen.

Can I just tell you how depressed I was when I found this!

I swept off all the chairs as best I could before I tried to clean them, but it was deep in the fibers and it just made a paste, uggg! I have to admit that this wasn't the first time that this has happened, but the other times it was when I was in the morning sickness stages and was laying around, but this time, it was all just me being non observant.

Tsadakah is still so in love with her littlest sister! She is proud of the fact that she can now carry her from room to room. Tsadakah said the funniest thing today, she said: "I changed my mind, I don't want to be an artist when I grow up anymore, I want to be a mommy..." Wow! I was feeling so proud and touched, and then she finishes by saying, "and have boobies just like you!" That is when I started cracking up!!

I took this picture because I wanted to try to get MiKaylah's teeth. She has 2 on bottom and 2 on top, but the ones on top are not the middle ones, they are on the side and it is so cute. It makes me smile!

MiKaylah is 9months now! She is confidently crawling and also standing all by herself. She can stand alone for 8 seconds! It is amazing because my other girls were barely crawling by 9 months. Maybe she will walk before her bday! yaya! She is so darling! She is still sleeping through the night. (knock on wood) and she is eating up a storm, all very different from her older sisters. It is so exciting! It is like having a first child all over again!

2011-02-17T08:12:00.000-08:00

My little MiKaylah is such a cute little lover. She looks at everyone like she loves them so much and they are her best friend! She lights up as if she has been waiting all day for you to say hi to her! These are all pictures from my phone, which is why they are grainy but they make me happy! I learned how to add my videos too! yay! I love technology! ;0) so this lil film is of her eating her very first sucker. She makes me so happy! The way that she eats is adorble! My other kids were not such good eaters so this excites me. silly, I know.

pictures of house

2011-02-08T05:51:00.000-08:00

Train Museum

2011-01-23T15:00:00.000-08:00

We went to the Odgen train museum. It was real neat! The girls enjoyed the train. My dad came with us, which was a real treat! He is busy a lot so it was nice to have his time. Tsadakah liked seeing the trains going around, and Eliannah loved the little men, horses, and houses along the way. She wanted us to open the glass and get her a horse to play with. She kept saying, "I just want one!"
Tsadakah really wanted to play with the big train, but it was too cold. They only lasted five minutes on it. I was hoping it would last longer so that I could get more pictures, so here is all I got.

One of the things that I didn't know before was that the railway was built largely by Chinese people. It was cool to learn so many new things! We also visited the John M. Browning gun museum. I learned a little there. Then we went to Javier's (the original) one of my FAVORITE mexican resturants! yum! Then we went back to see the cars. I love old cars! They are so fascinating! I remember when Mike and I were engaged I used to get so excited whenever we saw one. He got into a habit of pointing them out just to watch me flip a lid. :)
Eliannah and I are making the train whistle! whoo whoo!
Okay, so this wasn't as much of a hit as it would have been if we had had three boys, but we are glad we did it.

Laurel & Hardy Party

2011-01-23T12:55:00.000-08:00

Growing up, my favorite thing to do with my parents was to watch Laurel and Hardy. My mother laughs so hard at the silliness that there is now way to avoid laughing too! So since I haven't seen the films for a long time, I suggested this party. We all wore black and white and had pizza, while watching these wonderful movies! I was a night full of laugher and fun!
My sister, Leah, came with her husband, Troy, and their kids, plus some friends which was so much fun!

MiKaylah wont keep her bows on anymore. :( they only last 10 seconds before she pulls them off. *sigh, I guess she isn't a DIVA.

My Dad pretended to be Laurel and my mom pretended to be Hardy. They are a wonderful couple. Tsadakah and her cousin making silly faces.
Some of our favorite episodes which we watched were: Men O' War, Bohemian Girl (esp. loved the wine bottling scene), Comunity Hospital, and Sons of the Desert. There are so many more that we also love, but there just wasn't enough time. *sigh! How I love LAUGHTER, and how I love my family! I'm thankful to have support from them in doing such silly parties.

Sabath Humor

2011-01-17T04:42:00.000-08:00

So Mike got mandetoried at work both Saturday and Sunday. It has been a long weekend! I feel tired and so does he. Looking at the silver lining, with all the overtime pay we will be able to pay a big chunk off of his medical bill that came in for his leg, that almost happened a year ago.
So rather than re schedule my Visiting Teching appointements, again, I decided to take them with me. Two of the women we teach are the kind of grandmothers who have lil glass trinkets all at a child's level! I mean come on! So on the way there I was drilling my kids about not touching things. I armed myself with a bag of candy and said that for every house we came out of that they didn't touch anything I would give them one.
My partner took it a step further and said, she is really mean and if you touch her things and break it then she will get mad at you. (This was a total lie because this woman is super nice) Then, just as we are pulling into the woman's driveway, Tsadakah says, "I promise to sit on the couch and not touch a thing. But I hope that Eliannah does and that she breaks it."
We were laughing so hard! The things kids say!

Another cute and funny thing that I wanted to share from a few weeks ago, Tsadakah's new CTR 5 teacher is Denelle Miner, my best friend here who we see at least three times a week for one thing or another. Needless to say, Tsadakah is familiar with her and calls her by name. Well the first day of church, Denelle took her aside and told her that she needed to call her Sister Miner while they are at church although she knows her as Denelle any other day. Then during class, Denelle called on Tsadakah, calling her Sadye, and Tsadakah said, "I know that you call me Sadye during the week, but on sunday you need to call me Tsadakah." :) Im so proud ofmy sweetie!

New year's Resolution

2011-01-14T05:23:00.000-08:00

For a long time I wasn't sure if I was going to have one this year. I just kept thinking of tons of things that I needed to be better at and soon, I was overwhelmed! But then, on Epiphany day, (did you know that there is an epiphany day? I read it on my calender. I have no idea what it is, like is everyone supposed to get an epiphany on that day? If anyone could tell me, I'd appreciate that. lol) I got this...well...epiphany! It was a mental image of a tree whose roots, trunk, limbs and leaves all represented me inside.
So this year my resolution is going to be different than in the past. Instead of my goals being action oriented, like finish projects or keep house clean etc, my goal will be to have a make over on the inside. This is my tree soul:

Roots=Childlike
Trunk=Positive Perspective
Limbs=Adorable, Happy, Loving, Faithful, Forgiving
Leaves=all things that nourish or help accomplish the limbs.

The roots could not survive without the leaves and visa verse. I want to feel healthy inside my soul. The best me possible!

Of course the only way to be able to reach a goal is to have a measurable increments/actions. So I guess I didn't totally escape having an action goal. I have made these for each part of my tree, but I'm not going to go into them all because that would take too much time, but there is one that I wanted to discuss.

Love: I believe that we all only experience a sliver of the love that is available to us. If we were to draw nearer to God and experience His love more then we would be able to love our families with a greater magnitude as well. Sometimes we are afraid of how overpowering and strong true love really feels, like people in the bible were afraid of the angels who visited them. At first they were intimidated by the angels presence and don't understand it, but we as the audience knows that the angel is an extremely spiritual and good being.

Love is like that. We, or at least I know I do, shy away from opening myself up to the intense or overwhelming amounts of love. Like when I'm playing with my kids and I feel so in love with them that my heart feels like it is going to burst, it takes my breathe away so much that the intensity scares me, so I find myself using an excuse that I need to clean something or cook something. Its silly, I know! That is why it is my goal to be more loving. I want to embrace that love which I feel from God and then be a vessel of that love pouring it down upon my children and husband.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

Merry Merry Christmas, finally! We had tonz of fun, but these pctures are majorly out of order. Sorry for ya! :) At my parents house we did the nativity play. Eliannah was an angel. She was so excited about that fact that she wouldn't stop ancing about. ha ha. Here she is playing with her gift from her cousin Carson, Sleeping Beauty and its cute lil horse. (she also got the Snow White)

Here I am with the beautiful wind chime that my parents got me. Funny think was that we got them a wind chime for Christmas. The one we got them had poetry on the chimes about grandparents.

Mike got a number of nice things from my family's get together. He got a weighted jumprope, workout gloves, and some kind of tools and meters, which I dont understand. lol

Tsadakah and her cousins.

This picture is Christmas Eve at our house.

More of the nativity which I "directed" it was important to me to try to make it as spiritual as possible. I had singing parts and everything. It was nice.

BUSTED! She has been such a stinker, taking off the ornaments and playing with them!

Walking in a winter Wonderland!

The first snowfall is always breathetaking and beautiful! I love the way that it looks. It definately has a romantic feel to it!

Sept-Dec

2011-01-11T13:53:00.000-08:00

In Sept I got a Blackberry which i thought I would be able to do everything on so we cancelled the internet. That is why it has been so long since I have really blogged. Here are some catch up pictures so that i can get on with 2011.

MiKaylah's 6 month pictures. She is so smiley. She is just the happiest baby!

Eliannah is Gorgeous! I took this of her watching TV cause come on, who could resist. She gets away with a lot because of that cute face I'm afraid.

I wasn't going to potty train Ellie until after new years but she started insisting on wearing panties the monday before Thanksgiving.
so here she is with her first success on the subject. i used the same princess dolls when potty training Sadye and she is a helpful proud big sister (who actually was really jealous.)
Ellie's favorite princess right now is Cinderella so that is who she chose first.

This picture is from Thanksgiving day. MiKaylah's first Thanksgiving, and she wasn't even ready to eat the mashed potatoes yet, but she did get some...adventually.

Eliannah eating Thanksgiving dinner.

Mike helping out. He is not only handy and great at doing all the manly stuff, but he is also a great chef! We appreciate his help in the kitchen so much on days like this when we are trying to make a huge meal!

My sister, Simach, and her new baby, Zeek!

MiKaylah sleeping. I always nab a pic of my babies sleeping around this age. There is just something about it that inspires me to grab my camera!

I said it before and Ill say it again, I love this little girl!

MiKaylah at Zeek's blessing in St. George.

Eliannah in the fall leaves.

Mike ran a half Marrathon! I was so proud of him! His time was amazing in my oppinion. He ran it in 1:55. At the time he said that he would never do a full marrathon, but he has already started saying that maybe... The girls and I made shirts to show our support and we saw them off and were waiting for him at the finish line.

My dad also ran it, seeing as it was the Layton Marrathon. He did fabulous! He came in only like 15 min. after Mike and he won first place in his age rank! So glad that we could be a part of this with him and do this all together.

It was a really cold day and wet too. Eliannah passed the time by playing in the mud. It was cute at first, but then it got out of hand, as all kids fun does. Infact I almost missed getting a picture of Mike coming in because I was trying to clean mud off her.

This is Mike with his medal, recovering. I think that he was 26th in his age rank! he did so well!

Here he is coming across the finishline. I think that it is just a great shot of him!

Fall leaves. Me and my girls...my baby was home.

My favorite holiday, not at all about the stinking food, but all about the fun! Playing dress up has always been my favorite pastime, ask any of my highschool friends or college roomates.

Tsadakah was Tiona, from The Frog Princess, but nobody seemed to be able to figure that out from the costume alone. Everyone kept thinking that she was a flower, so I got her that frog to carry around with her...it didn't help, but she has loved having it as a toy.

It was so much fun to spray her hair black! She loved it too and it threw everyone in our ward off.

Can I just say that my husband it better than yours? Would your man wear "tights" for you? Mike totally impressed me by wearing this costume! My favorite princess has always been Sleeping Beauty and so I have wanted to do this costume forever! The last three years we haven't done a theme, which I live for, so this year I got spoiled in a way. I got everything I wanted. Fantacy fullfilled. Too bad all night I had to correct everyone that he as Prince Philip and not Robinhood.

Eliannah was the princess from the Swan Princess and MiKaylah was Belle, so it was a princess/prince theme! I loved that I found this tiny wig for La La. She was darling in it and everyone thought that she was a doll...litterally. It really threw them for a loop.

I had a really great Bdy this year! Mike took me shopping all day and we also got this huge cake. 2 weeks before my big day I decided to go off sugar. But just this once a year I decided to cheat. and i cheated big. This is the huge Costco cake that has 5lbs of chocolate pudding alone. Not to mantion that loads of wonderful sweet frosting! Ya I had a headache like a hangover the next day, and since I was going back to no sugar I took it to church with me and gave our 16-17yr olds sunday school class some ABC cake (already been cut.)

MiKaylah found her feet.

MiKaylah's baby blessing!

MiKaylah being super!

Well that is the end of the catch up for now. I think that I will do Christmas tomorrow and then I will be ready to talk about 2011!

Tender part II

2011-01-07T07:10:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness! This gorgeous Little Girl makes me so happy! I love being a mom! How could anyone not think she is the most beautiful thing in the world? Breathe TAKING!

Tender

2011-01-07T07:04:00.000-08:00

2011-01-03T11:38:00.001-08:00

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. --James Barrie

2011-01-03T11:14:00.001-08:00

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people

Blogging from email

2010-12-19T07:39:00.001-08:00

Just testing this out

Eliannah's silly sleeping

2010-12-19T07:29:00.001-08:00

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

2010-12-19T07:14:00.003-08:00

This idea from President Monson!

2010-12-19T07:14:00.001-08:00

I am learning how to post from my phone to save me time and capture the feelings I'm having in the moment. I also am working on creating my lds profile. I love

2010-12-02T11:07:00.000-08:00

Melon Days

2010-09-20T13:05:00.000-07:00

My Girls

2010-09-20T12:38:00.000-07:00

If you couldn't tell, I love Picasa. It is so great! I just downloaded it and I am having so much fun with pictures.

Six Years Happily Married!

2010-09-17T05:27:00.000-07:00

Mike and I had such a great anniversary! We went to St. George, that is where we went on our honeymoon. We always go to the temple on our anniversary and I was so excited to go to the St. George Temple. My sister got a sitter and we went, but oops! the temple was being cleaned. *sigh. We did take some pictures anyway. Then after the temple we went to see a movie since we had the sitter already. We saw Inception. I LOVED it. I think it was the best movie of the year! I think we ended up paying $35 to see it and I still think that it was worth it!

2010-09-16T14:42:00.000-07:00

Camping Again

2010-09-16T13:16:00.000-07:00

We went camping again and it was so much fun! This all happened the weekend of August 14th. We had so much fun we almost wish that we lived down there...or at least closer. On the way home we even talked about getting a camper...ha ha.

We had fun on this Four wheeler, which I really would consider getting. This one belonged to Mikes best friend, Kevin. Him and his wife, Michelle, stopped by for a much enjoyed visit!!

This is Jaxton and Hannah. Cousins!

The bench came loose and when Jonathan and Jessica jumped on it the other end would lift up. The kids loved it! They thought it was so fun!

And this is what MiKaylah did most of the time. You know just kick'n it all layed back and comfy!

So I told Tsadakah and her cousin Thomas to pose and this is what I got. I know that somewhere my brother is laughing at this picture and saying, like mother like daughter. I was a pretty big ham when I was little, always coming up with unusual poses...never one like this though. ha ha. It is super cute on her, I think she pulls it off. Tyrah Banks couldn't get away with it!

Family Reunion Part III

2010-09-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to post this even though it happened a month and a half ago because they are very fond memories.

After the run they had a wonderful mini carnival. It was so much fun and Tsadakah really loved it. She got prizes and balloons. Everyone was really nice too. She got her face painted as a beautiful butterfly! It was memorable!

Then we went to my parents house for dinner. The plan was to go to Firnwood, light a fire and have hobo dinners and smores and tell ghost stories, but...you can see that the weather was not cooperative. All of the sudden in the middle of making dinner this downpour started. I have always loved dancing in the rain; I think that it is romantic. So we called all the kids out and ran around the yard enjoying one of the best things about summer, the thunderstorms! The gutters were overflowing with fun! It was a total blast! We were soaked through when we came in, but it was worth it!

Fershtut Family Reunion II

2010-09-01T07:59:00.000-07:00

The day after the auquarium we had so much fun going to Cooper's run. This was a 5K that was created by my amazing and wonderful cousin(s) Janna and Wendy. A year ago Janna's son passed away. I am never going to stop being amazed by the strength and love that these two sisters have. They have totally inspired me. The whole family is fenominal actually. So that they wouldn't have to be sitting around thinking about it they decided to be proactive and that is why they did the 5K. They wanted to honor all of the EMS's that responded for Cooper and because of that they were able to have a helicopter land in the parkinglot. It was pretty nifty!

Here are all of the Fershtut's that participated in the run. Leah, Carson (who didn't), Ari, Chris, Mike, Me, Anna, Seth, and Steve (my dad). I was so impressed with my niece and nephew who finished with me. We don't know exact times, but Mike was amazing and was about 26 min. I did it in like 35 mins.

Mike and I after the race.

Okay this is a really cheesey picture! ha ha. My sister Leah made me laugh so hard cause when she came in she threw her arms and head back like in the movies. She is hylarious! Mike came in before me so we didn't get any of him on my camera.

Fershtut Family Reunion Day 1

2010-08-22T18:57:00.000-07:00

My brother came to visit from New Mexico so we had a Fershtut family reunion. The first day we went to the Aquarium. It was so AMAZING! I think it is better than the Zoo and would recommend it!

This is the sharkcat fish. It was so beautiful and sleek. I could have watched it for hours.
This was a Stingray that the children could actually reach in and touch. There were three of them swimming around. I touched one, but the girls arms were too short and that were to slow too.

Tsadakah's favorite was the Seahorse. She was asking to see one from the moment we entered the door. I have to admit that they were fascinating!

This is the tropical enenity.

This is an Octopus all wrapped up. Totally different from what I imagine one looking like. His head is all spikey...he looks creepy! Later we got to see him climb to the top of the tank!! Another favorite of mine was the Jelly fish. They had a number of different kinds there and they were beautiful!

Me and all my girls taking in the wonder!

My dad and Eliannah. She LOVED the frogs! She stayed at this tank forever and would not leave it. When we would take her away she would run right back to it. She was so excited to point out where each one was. Speaking of frogs, she does the cutest thing by quoting The Princess and the Frog. She sits down like the little girls at the begining of the film and she crosses her arms across her chest shakes her head back and forth and says: "I would never, ever, no never kiss a frog! yuck!!" It is darling!

Tsadakah on a frog statue.

After this we went out to Cafe Rio. Yum! Then we went to a place where the kids ran through the sprinklers.

Memoires

2010-08-22T18:43:00.000-07:00

I put this picture on because something about it speaks to me! I was going over to the spot where I was going to take my neighbor's Family Reunion pictures to see that the lighting would be like on that day. Although her hair is messy and in her face I think that it is a beautiful picture. This is MiKaylah's 2 month old picture. It is no fair that she is getting so big so fast. In one week I will need to be taking her three month pictures.

We went to a play date where we let the kids play with the hose. My lil' Sadye is so fun! She just jumps into the fun of the activity.

MiKaylah is now smiling. She has been for weeks but you know how it is when you get behind on your blogging! ha ha

Camping Trip

2010-08-12T05:42:00.001-07:00

For Pioneer Day we went to Mike's family property in Joes Valley. It is beautiful there and we had so much fun we are going again! I love camping! There were people from my side of the family as well as his.

This is pretty much all that MiKaylah did! That is what she always does these days! :) She actually slept through the night every night! I think that it was because I bundled her up so much for fear of her getting cold so she was perfectly snug.
Eliannah loved the stream. We couldn't keep her away. She was throwing rocks and splashing in the water.

This is our 24th of July picture! One of my favorite things to do for the 4th and 24th is to dress in red white and blue. I don't like it to be 100% uniform though. I'm just lucky to get Mike in the picture so I don't make him change.

Have you discovered these yet? The monster marshmallows that are actually 4X the side of a normal mallow? My brother-in-law, Troy, has 4 on his skewer. My dad has 1 mini. It was a really funny comparison.And here I am with my monster 'smore. Look at that sucker!And here I am eating it...or attempting to eat it! ha ha. I do have to say that it was one of the most delicious 'smores I've had in a long time.Sitting around shooting the breeze and talking. They wanted scary stories so I told one that my sister, Leah, had made up when we were kids. I scared at least 3 kids so that they wouldn't go to sleep alone, and hopefully a few more who were too proud to admit it. :) I have to admit that it took me many years to get over that story myself. I had plenty more, but I didn't share them because my Tsadakah was one of the ones that got super scared and would not leave my side. She kept saying, "I didn't like that story, mommy! That was a not nice story."

I love this picture of Eliannah in the tent after a day of swimming. She was cold and her jammies were warm from roasting in the tent, so she was snuggling with them. She just looks so pretty with those gorgeous Wilberg lashes! Sorry it's side-ways, I don't know why.

Tsadakah loved swimming too! She wanted me to get into the water with her, but it was too freezing...I got in once.

Ellie loved this doll and played with it more like a little girl than a baby. She is growing up too fast! She just loved it!

In the last wind storm six or seven trees fell over right in the middle of the designated campground so the men spent a lot of their time chopping it into firewood. I have to admit that I got carried away taking pictures of Mike doing this manly work! I just love it! I am so glad that he is a manly man who knows how to work and provide. He totally took care of us all and made sure that there was a fire and coals whenever it was time to eat!

I have an obsession for sunsets! I am so glad that I have a nice camera that can capture the beauty of the scene!

On the way home we took a very MUCH more scenic route home. It took us 3 hours longer than usual and we had to use our 4 wheel drive because it went straight up to the top of the mountain and back down. It was actually really beautiful and I wish that I had my camera handy to capture it to share. It will always be locked in my memory though. My favorite part was seeing the mountain sheep cascading down the mountain side with lush greenery and thousands of flowers that I have never seen before!

Overall it was a fantabulous trip!

Pure and Fragile Life

2010-08-10T04:50:00.000-07:00

Lately, Michael and I have been talking about just how frail and susceptible we humans are. I think that sometimes we think that we are strong or that we have control over life and death. However, death is just a heartbeat away.

In the early part of July a friend of ours lost their 4 month old baby. Although it was sudden and devastating, the circumstances can only point to God and His presence in the situation. I was struck hard with the emotions that come with death and my way of dealing with the sorrow is to write poetry; it's my therapy.

Pure and fragile life

We're all hanging in the balance.

The veil is thin.

We forget in the day to day

How delicate life is.

Don't think of it as an accident

For there are no mistakes under heaven.

Impropriety was not yours.

We have no power to reach out and pull someone back

When the time has come for it to happen.

When all we are left with is a hole in our hearts,

Reasons seem to be hallow excuses.

"It was just his time."

And yet our faith is all that we have to hold onto;

A comfort to us when we cannot make sense of it.

Peacefully and painlessly guided into heaven,

By the hand of an angel.

His election is made sure.

His life was surely a miracle

And no doubt his call home was too.

Christ's LOVE can fill your home with comfort,

Surely you are longing for relief.

Joy can be yours again.

For it was a holy place in which God called home

One of His choicest spirits to perform his mission there.

And now he is a part of heaven's love which

Pours down upon you, filling you will warm feelings.

Love can never die.

The bond you've shared, though short,

Is an unbreakable love expanding through all eternity.

I have to kind of appologize because while writing this I was thinking of two different families deeply effected by this story. Because of that the poem is actually innacurate to details. However, I hope that the heart I put into it was felt and that they will understand why I left it that way, because I think it can touch the heart better when it is writen out of the freshest of feelings.

Love, best wishes, and lots of prayers to these families!

Life In Slow Motion

2010-07-11T06:40:00.000-07:00

If there is anything I have learned by having three kids it is that EVERYTHING takes time! I feel like I am moving in slow motion. It is as if I am stuck in cold molasses while trying to run the marathon of life. It takes me three times as long to get ready in the morning and it takes me all day to clean the house (which is messed up again in ten minutes anyways).

So the lessons that I have learned is that it is time for me to gain the art of patience. We went to Lagoon for our family trip and it was an adventure to try ones patience. I am so used to doing Lagoon the teenage way where you run from ride to ride trying to get your money's worth out of the experience, but the girls were in no hurry at all. They walked slowly while looking at things and day dreaming. Eliannah wanted to watch the little birdies that come to eat the crumbs that people leave behind! I'm thinking we could be doing that for free!

We really did have an awesome time though! It was so fun to see the girls go on the rides! At first only Tsadakah would ride them, then Ellie would ride with her and adventually she was also riding by herself. The best ride that they went on over and over again was the one with all of the animals and the kids control if it goes up or down. Tsadakah held the stick in the all-the-way up possition! You should have seen Eliannah's face as they went around! It was classic! Fear and dlight all in one! That was when I realized that I had forgotten my camera. I wish I had had it, but it would have been one more thing to be stressed about so I kinda don't mind.

My favorite part of the day was riding with Tsadakah on the Ladybug Drop! I think that miniride is better than The Rocket! It is so thrilling to me to not know when you will drop over and over and over again!

My goal for July is the same as what most people have in January, weight loss. I'm hoping for a wapping 5 lbs per week. Haha! I know that is ambitious and it might not be obtainable, but if you reach for the sun you will at least reach the moon! I'm not settling for the stars! So I have re-activated my gym membership and I am back to routine (which just adds one more thing that takes a lot of time and seems long to get through). I will be running a 5k on July 31 so I am trying to get ready for that as well.

The 4th of July was a total and complete blast! We had five days total to celebrate, which includes Saturday the 3rd. We started by going down to Mike's sister's house for her daughter's baptism. We had fabulous food and stayed for long hours talking and hanging out. Then we went to their house and in the evening we went to see fireworks in the street.

On the fourth we observed and quiet and reverent day in which we celebrated in our hearts the wonderful, miraculous events that have taken place to bring us to a free country. I am so greatful to have been blessed to live in a time and a place where I can worship how I choose.

That evening we went to my parent's house and had a bountiful meal. It was so great! There were so many fresh vegetables and fruit! This is a picture of Eliannah helping with the peas from their garden. She was mostly just playing in them.

Then on the 5th we went to a traditional Bishop's Breakfast. My dad is now in the bishopric so he was in charge of a lot of it. He did a great job bringing the spirit about in it! It was also great to see old friends I grew up with.

Later Mike went on a hike with my dad, brother in law, Troy, and his kids, Olivia, Anna, and Seth. This is also a tradition that I usually participate in but didn't this time because of the new little one. Theyhad a good time despite the difficulty. We were all impressed with them because they were so young (this is a 6-7 hr hike and fairly steep too).

When they got back we went up to Firnwood to watch all the cities fireworks. This is a picture of the sun setting before. I loved the one "star" that is out! This is my hometown. *sigh, oh how I love it!

Then we came back to the house and lit fireworks in the street. It was all so much fun!

A Long Time Coming

2010-06-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

I have been needing to post this for over a month now. Mike finished the fence!...and a whole lot more. Mike is an amazingly fast worker. He Finished in two weeks! He does great handiwork and it is like my own oasis! These kind of projects are his hobbies. He is a service love language person, so he is telling us that he loves us. This is the sandbox which I said that I never wanted! ha ha. I've known so many people who have hated theirs because it makes your house a mess. Our girls used to go to the neighbot's sandbox and play in it like every day. So he was so nice and came over and offered to make use one if we would pay for the materials. It sounded like a good deal so I went against my better judgement and...I hate it. We have sand in our bed, on our couch and in the girls hair all the time!!!

Mike assembled this playhouse in record time as well! It took him 2 days! The kids love it and I can send them out to play so that I can have me time or take care of MiKaylah. We just need to get the wood chips or something put in.

Eliannah, Tsadakah, Madison.

Michael, the greatest man, the greatest husband, the greatest father!

Michael is so patient with the girls. I try to use him as an example when I am disciplining them. He is strong in every way. He is completely in love with his girls. I love to see him make kissy faces at MiKaylah and talk to her in a soft voice as he, a big strong guy, holds this tiny infant!

Life With Three

2010-06-25T07:56:00.001-07:00

Three children has been an adventure! I love my kids more than anything, but I almost feel like a first-time-mom again. I am at a learning curve and I have to work hard to maintain ballance. I have had to limit the activities I go and do.
The thing that I have noticed the most is that it is not just a learning curve for me, but also for the older two. Tsadakah is having to learn to do more for herself than I would have ever pushed her to do if I hadn't had a new baby. Sometimes my hands are just full and I have to tell her that she has to do it herself. She is doing well with that. I think that it is good for her self-esteem. Eliannah's learning curve is learning that tempertantrums don't work. This little one is the queen of tantrum throwing, and in the past I have given in because it was easier than dealing with a tenth tantrum for hour. (ha ha she really wasn't that bad) I usually made Tsadakah give her the toy she wanted or whatever, but now when she takes MiKaylah's toys or her burp rags I take them away and put my foot down. She is learning, but it hurts me too because I feel bad for her having to feel like her place has been taken.
She's been doing some cute and funny things too. She takes MiKaylah's pajamas out of the drawer and tries to put them on. She gets one arm on and runs around the house saying "Mine!"

MiKaylah is doing really well on all her development stages. She is staring at me for a long time to memorize my face, she is moving as if she is cycling a bike, and she is more awake and allert during the day. She is getting chunkier every day which is making her look change a lot. Everywhere I go people are noticing the change. She's a beauty and I have been struck by qupid because I am definitely in love!

Tsadakah is so much like me in her personality! She loves to dress up! She found this horse costume and wanted to wear it. It is like a 18 month old costume so it was a squeeze! Then she found the one that I bought for my sister and she insisted Ellie wear it, as you can see she is not as thrilled! ha ha. They are so much fun!

A Day At the Zoo!

2010-06-25T07:23:00.000-07:00

It was mandatory for Mike to work on Father's Day, so we didn't get to see him that day. We really missed him. He got the next day off for it though. I asked him what he wanted to do to celebrate and he said that he wanted to take the kids to the zoo. He is such a great dad because he is always choosing to do things that are great for the kids. Last year we came to the zoo for his birthday. I think that makes him feel the happiest as a dad, to see his kids excited; and they were definitely excited! This is Eliannah who is very excited about an animal that she could see. It was the Giraffe, which is my favorite animal at the zoo, that she is pointing at. Believe it or not, this was not her favorite. We went to the Giraffe building and Mike took them up to the second level. He said that Eliannah climbed under the gate to where the zoo workers only and he had to grab her just by her feet and pull her back. Yeah when we go to Lagoon we will for sure be getting her a monkey leash!!

Tsadakah was more excited about the Rhino than the Elephant and her new baby, Zuri. We went to the Elephant show and I really enjoyed seeing what the elephant could do! She got down on one knee like she was proposing and then down on her tummy like a dog.

Tsadakah loved to see the animals and she was so excited to see them. Just like last year all she talked about and searched for was the Lion. I don't think that they have one, so I am glad we are going to Lagoon because I think that they have some. The Tiger sufficed for the time though.

Ellie playing at the playground.

Sadye being a turtle.

The Zebras weren't there and we missed them a lot. I didn't get a picture of Eliannah in front of the animals that were her favorite because she was so excited about them she wouldn't hold still at all!! She kept moving, jumping, and swinging. It was so cute how excited she got about the monkeys. It made me so happy to see her so excited. That reminds me that we saw an Orangutan sitting right up against the glass. He was eating a fruit and being silly. It was awesome to see face to face like that!

Ward Party & Family Reunion

2010-06-13T11:03:00.000-07:00

Tsadakah: She has a LOT of favorites in her little world, but her all time favorite and treasured possession is her yellow blanket! She can't sleep without it and she will not let anyone else play with it. She has even caused Michael to have to break into someone's house once to get it back after she left it there. Well she WILL share it with MiKaylah! She tucks her in with it all the time. CUTE!

Eliannah: So she is doing really well still and she is such a joy! She makes me laugh all the time with her adorable sense of humor and personality. The other day I went into me room and found her stuffing as many nursing pads as possible down her shirt. I totally cracked up! the all fell out the bottom of her shirt. she looked down at the pile and said "oh no"

MiKaylah: She has gained a whole pound already! She never lost weight! The sad thing is that she is already out growing some of her outfits! *sigh! She is changing a lot in the face and looking chubby!! She is now 22" and 8lb 6oz. that puts her at 95% for height!

It was a really great weekend! Friday we went to our ward party. We had good food (dutch oevn chicken), good company and good entertainment. We sat with two of my good friends. One of whom just had her baby girl 2 weeks before I had MiKaylah.
The entertainment was a talent show. Tsadakah definately wanted to get up and do something! She stood up on the stage and confidently sang her favorite primary song, "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" Then they played a little music in the end and Eliannah and I danced the Mocaraina together. It was fun! Mike went around and scared the little girls who were running around the church. They were loving it! it was funny!

Saturday was Mike's family reunion. It is always at the same park. Well we definately got rained out! So we went to the nearest relative's house and BBQ'ed there. It was a good time. The kids still wanted to play outside despite the wind and scattered showers. Well Tsadakah was trying to pick their flowers near the pretty little pond that they had and oops! she fell in! Went under completely! She climbed out and stood there holding her dress out and looking at it. It was quite funny to all the adults who laughed and she ate up all the attention that she was getting for it. I had to wash her at their house. Good thing that I had something to put on her, although it was Eliannah's clothes. ha ha good thing she is such a skinny thing!