Why do I feel so compelled?

I was going over my thoughts on the last post and I was browsing through other people's blogs and realized something about myself. I feel the need to "be fair" and post pics of 1: all 3 of my kids 2: one of each of them separately 3: throw in a pic of jon or me somewhere in the mix. Does it really matter that EVERY child has a pic of themself on every post? No...do they notice? Yes! On one of my posts, I had only posted pics of the boys. I found out later on, through Jon, that Hannah was upstairs crying because SHE wasn't in any of the pictures. Are you kidding me? Anyways, just a thought and Random at that. Some of the new milestones and tidbits about the kids are: (this is basically for journal purposes and so I don't forget before it's too late, so you guys can all skip this)

Zach's pre-school teacher sent me an e-mail about what they had learned and talked about. This was about a month ago. I am going to just paste this from her blog (hope she doesn't mind)....
Today, when Davis and I were doing preschool, I asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up. Kaylie wanted to be a princess, Sleeping beauty. Leah wanted to be a teacher. Davis said he wanted to be an engineer. I asked him what engineers do and he said they build cars. Zach let out a sigh and said, "I want to be a dog." :) Hmmm... (When Zach comes over for preschool, he always lets me know that he needs to lie down on the floor and love Coco, the dog.)

This is Zach, he has persisently asked for a dog with a green leash for over 5-6 months now. This is not going to happen, until we finally give in, but not until after residency. This summer, the Bean's were over for dinner when Candace and Zach had a little talk. Zach (at the time) was in love with Candace. He used to have this huge crush on her and always asked when he could see her. One time Candace even asked Zach if he wanted to go on a "Hot date with her", and if he did he needed lots of money, Because girls were expensive. A week later, out of nowhere we were getting ready to go out with the Beans for dinner when Jon asked Zach if he wanted to go out with Candace? He gets this huge grin and then starts crying dramatically. We ask him why he is crying and he sobs" But I have no money". I can't believe he remembered the money! It was so funny and he often asked Jon for money to take Candace out. If you can't tell, Zach is at a fun age and one thing I want to remember is his love for Firetrucks! Or if you're Zach you call them Fire*ucks! hahah

Jake is so cute and now mimicking all kinds of words, good and bad. His favorite little stuffed animal is a PINK piglet. He has learned duck, duck goose and loves to play it. He jumps off of anything, some of the time landing on his face and laughs about it. He sticks his tongue out when he is concentrating or just plain playing around. He also inherited his brother's love for nakedness! I can't keep my boys dressed! The minute we hit the door, they start getting neked!

Hannah loves/hates school, depending on her mood. When I say mood, I mean HER MOOD. She is very loving towards Jake, who is her baby. She really is a little mom and some of the stuff that comes out of that girls mouth makes me rethink the things that I say as a mom! She's getting it from somwhere right? Her reading has really picked up and she loves it! She also has been asking for a journal and Santa provided a Hannah Montana journal for her. She writes in it often and tells me that it is private and she will tell me the things she writes that is everyday but her private thoughts she will keep secret. I told her that's a great idea and she can write anything she wants in it. She then asked me how to spell Colby(her latest crushes name). OH gosh, it's starting! She really is a loving little girl who loves to cuddle still and LOVES playing with barbies.
Last week I went to drop off Zach for pre-school when his teacher (who was Hannah's primary teacher) told me Congratulations. I said, Thanks! She then said, "Hannah told me you were having a baby a little over a month ago. She said her baby brother was this small (pinching her two fingers together". I know I looked a little dumbfounded because I told her, actually we just found out last week. She laughed a little and told me Hannah has been talking about for a LONG while now. Hum....maybe she knew something that I didn't at the time! A week goes by and Jon tells Hannah that I am having a baby. She didn't know and was so surprised. WHAT?? Wasn't she just talking about it with other people? hahah Oh well! She came up to me and asked, "Is it true?" I said, "Is what true". "Are you having a baby mom?" I, of course, say yes. She gets so excited and tells me it better be a sister because we have been sent a bunch of boys already. For the last few days since she has known she has been such a little helper. She tells me that when the baby comes I can give her chores so I can take care of the baby. She has also volunteered to help with the new baby and of course the old baby (Jake) but Zach is out on his own. Man, I love that girl! She even has already started talking to my belly and asks if it kicks yet. I told her it wouldn't happen till the baby got a lot bigger and she made me promise to tell her when it does.

Well, I guess this post is long enough for one sitting. So if you guys, skipped this, you missed an announcement and you have to read the whole thing to get it! Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas Bells are Ringing

Happy New Year, I can't believe it is already 2009. Christmas was so much fun. Having children really brings out the child in yourself. (Not that I need more help)I love seeing my kids cute faces, opening their gifts and laughing. It reminds me of when I was a kid and the excitement just builds up and gets me more giddy. Hannah woke up first and came into our room (It was 7 not bad eh?), "The milk and cookies are gone, The milk and cookies are gone"! Jon tells her to go downstairs so she wakes up Zach and of course we hear sleepy footsteps going into our basement and then screams and running back up the stairs, not so sleepy this time and of course I jump out of bed as they tell me Santa came, Santa came! hahah All of us run downstairs and grab the camera. Oh.....now people seriously. I am looking at everybody's pics of them while they open their presents and their kids are dressed, their hair is done. The mom has makeup on??? WHAT THE??? Not us! We come down in whatever we went to bed in, and start snapping the pics! Not so pretty but...atleast it's us.

Later that evening we got together with the Bean's and the Vest's. We had so much food, but no pics! The best thing about that night is we actually talked the guys into playing games. It was a great night! We've been pretty busy this season, Hannah had her Christmas program. She was so cute! She is growing up so much, it makes me sad. This is a pic with her teacher, Mrs. Binge and one of her friends Morgan.

For Christmas Eve, we decided to make, in Zach's words,"The Best Cupcakes in the world". Well, here are a few pics of them. Notice Jake's contribution when our backs were turned.

I know everything is not chronologically in order but, oh well. The kids had a blast playing outside in the snow. This was the week of Christmas, so yes we had a white Christmas. Zach was the only one to actually stay outside and "help" me shovel. Hannah and Jake lasted all of 5 minutes. Right now, if you are squinting or double clicking to see if Zach is wearing pink gloves and hat, yes he is. That's what happens when you have an older sister.

Our Ward Christmas party was tons of fun. I had to shoot a few pics of the kids on Santa's lap, Jake was as usual such a carefree child and hopped right up on Santa's lap! Gotta love that boy! The ward also put on a skit of the nativity and Jon was a shepherd. He wore my bathrobe and so of course I had to take a pic of him! He looked so cute.

One of the last things we did this year was have Aunt Jenny from New Mexico visit us. We have been having such a good time. We were a little too ambitious and decided to visit Lake St. Clair, because Jenny really wanted to see it. Well....after driving 45 minutes, we got out of the car and of course it's -4 outside. The kids are freezing, I am freezing, and thinking, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. We rush to get a few pics and jump in the car again. So much for dressing warm, so we could walk around a little. Notice how happy the kids look? Well, I am finally ending this post. I have to stop doing HUGE posts! I hope everyone had a great New Years and Christmas.

Warning! Long post...sorry!

WARNING: LONG POST!



I can't believe I have let time get away from me and so many events that I have not mentioned. Halloween was over a month ago and the kids had so much fun. For family home evening we carved pumpkins and tried to be creative. It was so much more work than I thought, and I wore out pretty easily, but the kids loved them! They had a ton of fun trick or treating and luckily they are still small enough to last one street and then be done. We had a ton of trick or treaters this year, and I ran out of THREE bags of big candy and had to dip into Jake's candy before I finally turned our light off to cut the treaters off. Jake actually LOVED the candy part more than Zach! Zach rode in the stroller asking me to push him up to the door because he was "SO TIRED" and Jake ran to every door grabbing the candy. Hannah was so sweet to take him up to the doors and watched out for "baby Jakey". She is such a little mom to him!

The next big event is of course.....TWILIGHT! I can't believe it's taken me this long to blog about it. I went to the midnight showing with Candace, Rebecca and one of Candace's friend Kelly. We had A BLAST! OH GOSH! I literally felt like one of the MANY teenagers there. We played games in the theater waiting for the movie to start, until the ushers told us it was against the fire policies to sit in the aisle. The movie began and...I was scared! I didn't have HIGH expectations because to be honest movies are NEVER as good as books. And was it? No, of course not! hahah But I LOVED the movie! There were things that I would have liked to have changed, I LOVED the actors, but on an overall I really enjoyed myself. Saturday morning I got up and went again with more people and had so much fun! After the movie, Candace and I went out to lunch and to the mall. I didn't get home until past 5 and it was a great Girls' Day out. While we were at the mall, we passed a Border's and they had lifesize cardboard cutouts of the characters and of course, us being the dorks we are, took pics with my camera kissing Edward. I accidentally knocked all the other characters over and the people who worked there came over and I just apologized and said, "Sorry, we just want to act like a bunch of teenagers for a little bit". He looks at me and Candace HOLDING her baby and laughs. I think they have been getting this a lot. Anyways, I don't know how to get the pics off my phone but if I do, I will just edit it in later.

Now, that Twilight is over, Thanksgiving crept back up. Jon's brother, Josh, came out from Minneapolis to spend it with us. The Beaners and the Kalcinich's (Sorry Ann, I know I spelt that wrong) came over and we had tons of food and fun. Josh was here for almost a week and the kids LOVED him, especially Jake. If you knew Jake you would know he HATES everyone. He took to Josh immediately and wouldn't leave him alone. Leaves me hope for when he sees the grandparents again.

.

The day after Thanksgiving was so much fun! Shopping, shopping, shopping! I have so much fun and do it more for the experience and the hussle and bussle than the deals that I got. Although I do take that into account. I am finally going to end this post. Most of you have probably stopped reading and just took a quick gander at the pictures. Don't worry I do that myself at times, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Picture Time!

Here are our family pictures! Zach and Jake were NOT happy doing these, luckily we got a few smiles.

'Da Bears

Jon and I were able to go to a Bear's game this last Sunday. If you know my husband you would know he is the the world's biggest Bear's fan. He has loved them since he was a kid, and even when they were horrible. We had so much fun together! The Bears won, of course, and the fans were so wild! Never having gone to a professional game (I have gone to MANY Lobo Football games in college though), I had a ball! Between everyone calling each other names and the screaming I was exhausted! We went and picked up the kids from our friend's house, THANK YOU ANN, and went home. Just wanted to share a few pics from the game.

Do you like Urlacher's butt?

And just because they are cute, this is what I found this last week when I went outside to check on the boys. Yes, I had just given Jake a bath!

I just realized I haven't taken any pics of Hannah because she has been at school. Oops! We took family pictures last weekend, so for my next post I will have my new family pics! YEA!

First Days of School and Birthday fun!

Hannah's first day of school was on Tuesday and she was so excited! Now that the first week has passed, we are happy to report she loves her teacher and is loving school! I did tear up on Wednesday because it was the first day of ALL DAY school for her. I didn't even get sad when she started Kindergarten, but I did for 1st grade. Zach also started a little pre-school on Thursday and he LOVES it! He didn't want to come home on Thursday, and I had to pick him up and carry him out. hahah

School started which means, Zach's birthday! He turned 4 on Wednesday and Darn it! He's just so darn cute! Jon took the boys to Home Depot on Saturday morning (Zach's birthday party day) and they came home in these cute Home Depot aprons! I about died, they looked so cute! For months he has been talking about either a Teletubby cake or a Diego cake. So when we finally sat down to pick one, he ended up wanting a ball cake! hahaha Go figure! He got a new baseball glove and ball for his birthday, so it worked out that I had planned a sports theme when in reality it just so happened what I had! Here are a few pics of the cake and kids!

This last week has been so much fun but already it's getting busy! Soccer has started, school has started, and free time has been cut. I hope everyone is doing well and I'll update soon.