Our Forever Family

Poor Alyssa has had quite the run-in with her head this weekend. She is learning the hard way of the risks to being more mobile and independent! 1. The Mall Incident: I wanted to do some shopping to spend some of my birthday $ Saturday and staying home with the kids didn't sound too exciting to David so we all packed up in the van. We had our plan ready-David would drop Alyssa and I off at the mall while he and the kids went across the street to Chuck E Cheeses and use the left over coins from being there from Melanie's birthday in February (that have been begging to be used!), and then he'd take the kids to McDonald's after that for dinner. Well, apparently things didn't quite go as planned at Chuck E Cheese's. There was a 45 minute wait just to get in. So they went to Carl's Jr and ate an early dinner with plans to head back after. Meanwhile I was in the shopping groove at the mall. I was trying on clothes and thought Alyssa would like to get out ...

David and I had a great time on our date. David SPOILED me, like always! It was so great to be together all by ourselves. That doesn't happen very often, so we really enjoyed it. While we were eating at the Olive Garden, at the table next to us were 4 college students (2 boys, 2 girls) dating. It was so funny to over hear their conversation-"so where you from..." That sort of stuff! David and I both agreed that we did NOT want to be there again! We love our life together and it'd be a nightmare if we weren't! So we watched the best movie we have seen in a long time that we HIGHLY recommend! "August Rush" was SO AWESOME. And the best part- it was PG!!! Not many movies you walk away from that you say "that was a good movie, but there was this one part..." these days. When it ended I wanted to see more. I even stayed awake! David knows I am awful when it comes to late night movies and finishing through the end. He did keep nudging ...

So I'm not talking about the Dairy Queen Blizzard, which I would LOVE for my birthday, but the kind of blizzard that brings down white stuff from the sky (namely SNOW). A sure sign that spring has not quite sprung here yet! I usually enjoy getting spring clothes like capri's, short sleeve shirts, sandals and such for my birthday, but I guess I will have to wait a few more weeks for that. David is taking me to dinner tonight. I hope that the blizzard stops before then since we are driving to Orem to drop off the kids at Chris and Andrea's and then driving to Provo to the Olive Garden (my favorite place)! Thank you so much for the gift card and the free babysitting Chris and Andrea! This morning when Melanie woke up the first thing she said to me was "Happy Birthday Mommy!" I couldn't believe she remembered since I briefly told the kids yesterday that it was my birthday today. At the breakfast table Cameron said he was going to give me 10 pieces of choco...

When we woke up Sunday morning Cameron asked, "we have Easter for 3 days?" So that's what it has felt like around here. Holidays seem to go on longer and longer the older my kids get. Sadly the day of the actual event is anti- climatic ! One of those days was the preschool party. Saturday we went to a park for an Easter egg hunt at 9 am put on by our realtor. They had the different age groups sectioned off. Jason wasn't too excited at first to be gathering up eggs, candy and little toys on the ground. He finally got into it by the end. Melanie and Cameron were really excited, along with all of the other kids in the 3-5 age group. I was standing on a picnic table to watch and all that I could see were backs bent over. When it was all over Melanie was about in tears. She walked away with 1 egg and 3 pieces of candy. Cameron did a little better and was nice to share his candy! I did manage to get a picture of the kids with the Easter bunny there. Okay, so onl...

So I was talking to my mom a few days ago about being a mom and how it's so HARD sometimes. I'm glad that she could totally relate and the memories of her as a young mother came back. It was great to talk to her and she always calls at just the right time when I need it the most. Well she was trying to remember a conference talk given a bit ago about mother's. She found it and emailed it to me and I wanted to pass it on to all of those mom's out there with young children! It's in the May 1997 Ensign on lds .org and it's titled, "Because She Is a Mother" by Elder Holland. I'm sure that I was tuned out of this talk when it was given since I was only a sophomore in high school. I loved it and it helped me put it all back to what motherhood is really about and our divine roles. Hope this helps with anyone that is struggling out there! Thanks mom for all of your love and support! You're calls make my day and help buoy me up! Thanks for l...

You might have noticed that we have now gone private since you had to enter your password to get into our blog. We have actually talked about it since we started blogging, 2 weeks ago, but have finally gotten around to doing it. We just wanted to make sure our family was safer through the internet this way. If you know of anyone that wants to see our blog, email me and I will add them to the list! It's sad we live in a world where we have to worry about these things, but so it is! We love to see everyone's blogs and hope that you all enjoy ours! Happy Blogging!

Today we had preschool at our house and we got to celebrate Easter a little early. We woke up to snow on the grass, so I was thinking that we'd have a hunt in the house for eggs. But luckily the sun broke through and by 11:30 the snow had melted, except next to the fence line where the sun didn't hit. The girls made cute flower pots. They painted their pots, glued their flowers toget her and got to take treats home in them. While they were painting I was looking for the camera and asked Melanie and Cameron if they knew where it was. Melanie new exactly where it was- under Alyssa's crib. (She does this all of the time, hiding under the crib or the boys' bunk beds looking at the pictures on the camera. I'm so afraid she is going to delete my pictures!) Anyway, opening the door woke up Alyssa who WAS asleep. EERRR!!! Short nap! When the pots were done, they colored an Easter picture while I went and hid eggs outside. Everyone brought a dozen and I had a ...

Okay, so one more thing! You know when you hear your kids talk, you get used to what they say, even though the pronunciation isn't right? Well, one day Melanie was at the neighbor's house playing with their girls and they wanted to watch a movie and so they found the one they wanted and went to ask the mother. Melanie starts talking rather excitedly and loudly "I want to watch the titty show, I want to watch the titty show!" The mother looks confused and asks what she wants to watch again and Melanie says she wants to watch the "titty show". Finally she realizes that she wants to watch the "kitty" show, not the "titty" show! It was the Aristocats movie! Last week while I was at Enrichment, David was home with a friend, who isn't married, from work and they were working on their laptops on the kitchen table. So Melanie calls down to David's friend to see if he wants to see her "titty". This guy gets all embarrasse...

Melanie got a Barbie computer for her birthday in February and all of the kids have loved playing on it. Well obviously my kids have some learning to do on taking care of their things. This poor computer should be dead by now with all of the abuse it's taken. The first thing that happened was Melanie had it in the car and was getting out of the van, but had stopped in the doorway with the computer hanging from the latch on to her shirt collar. I warned her that it was going to fall and break and that she'd better take it off immediately. Did she listen? Of course not and it fell down on to the cement floor. Surprisingly though it still worked! Then a few days ago Melanie came in from the trampoline (before breakfast) and the computer was wet and some ice on it. She had left it outside, over night on the tramp! I thought for sure the thing was broken this time and my thought was confirmed when it did not turn on...that is until it all dried out a few days later and mi...

Last week we had my niece, Addysin , over for the weekend while her parents, Chris and Andrea, went to Las Vegas on a business retreat. Andrea dropped off Addysin Thursday night at our house. She's on of a bit of a different schedule than us for bedtime. Andrea hoped she would go to bed by midnight for us! I thought that sounded a little late for us since our kids go to bed at 8 pm and we're in bed by 10:30. So I braced myself for long nights. But Addysin actually did really well with going to bed at 10:15 the first night, 8:30 the next, and 10:30 the last night. The kids LOVED playing with their cousin and would ask where she was all of the time. Addysin loved watching the tricks they did for her and I know she will love having a new sibling at the end of the summer! Friday I was getting ready in my bathroom for the day and Addysin and Alyssa were on the floor in my bedroom playing and Cameron, Melanie and Jason were playing on my bed and it was at that moment I ...

Lately when I have gotten mail from the mailbox, Melanie has been asking where her mail is. She usually opens all of my "junk mail", but got tired of that and has been bugging me about HER mail. So I finally said to her to call grandma McGary and ask her to send a letter to her. Grandma was excited about the task and sent Melanie a letter along with pictures out of a coloring book to color and one that she had already colored for Melanie. She thought that the boys might like a letter too and so she mailed one to Cameron and Jason. A few days later Melanie colored a picture I got off of the internet for her and mailed it to grandma. Tonight Melanie was at the neighbors visiting a friend and it was almost dinner time so her friend's mother told her it was probably time to go home. She didn't want to go yet, so she didn't. I called down a little later and talked to her on the phone. When I told her that she had a letter in the mail that came today for her, s...

Last night we had our Enrichment Relief Society Birthday party! It was so great. The theme was "Daughter of a King". I was one of the ones in charge of putting it on. I have been planning for weeks, but was really busy for the last few days. Of course when I've got something that big, the house gets neglected and the kids a bit also. When I got home last night at 9:30, the house looked like a bomb had gone off in every room. Guess that's what happens when you don't clean for 3 days and 3 rambunctious kids have free rein! Luckily the house is in order again and I'm a happier mommy! For the party we had 2 young men escort the women into the cultural hall and down the "red carpet" stairs. The room was decorated with formals (provided by the young women), flower vases in the center of the tables, petals down the length of the tables, and tiara's around the vases. Some women in the ward brought their "fine china" for us to eat on. ...

Alyssa wearing her new skirt from Auntie Anna! She looked so cute at church today! Thanks Anna! She doesn't need a pacifier when she has a finger that does the job perfectly! Alyssa has been rolling all over and that's how she gets to where she wants to go. It is so funny to watch. She is showing some signs of crawling. When she is sitting she puts one leg behind her and lurches forward and on to her belly. Then she starts rocking. I'm not hoping for her to be crawling soon though. There's to many levels of stairs for her and I don't want to worry about that yet! At church she was grinding her teeth, a sign that all 4 have FINALLY popped through. I did not like waking up 5 times at night. She loves to play with the kids and especially loves the attention Cameron gives her (which is a lot!) After church we went out and took advantage of the sunshine and jumped on the tramp, David, Cameron, Melanie and I while Jason and Alyssa took naps. It was so much fun....

This week in kindergarten Cameron has been learning about the letter "U". The teacher sent home one of her weekly letters Monday informing the parents that for show and tell Thursday the kids should bring umbrella's and then they would walk around the school with them. She hoped that it would rain to make the experience even more fun. Well we didn't have an umbrella and thought it'd be no big deal if he didn't have one for show and tell, but knew he'd feel left out without one when they walked around the school. So I procrastinated getting one. Last night when David got home from mutual I put on the sweetest face I could and asked if he would go to the store for an umbrella. By the time he left is was more of a midnight run to Walmart. He got a cool camouflaged one. THANKS HONEY!! Cameron was over the moon excited. He was all dressed and had his coat on before we ate breakfast! On the 2 minute drive to the school a girl in Cameron's class was w...

Cameron and Melanie had their first swimming lesson yesterday. They had such a blast. They both were i n the class together. When we lived in Las Vegas, 2 1/2 ye ar's ago, we were in the pool every day and Cameron got VERY comfortable in the pool. A little to comfortable where he would jump in without anything to keep him afloat and I would have to jump in after him. So I knew it was only a matter of time before a disaster happened. And with 3 kids who don't know how to swim, and 1 that thinks he knows, is a bit scary to go to the pool with if you ask me. And staying away from the pool this summer is not an option for me. So...the lessons have started! The instructor was very good with the kids. They played red light green light with kicking their feet, blowing bubbles, bobbing their heads 4 times under the water, and floating on their backs. I will say though the next ti me I go I will bring a stroller for Alyssa. I forgot when I left to throw it in the van. So her...

This video was taken a couple years ago when we lived in Sequim, Wa. But it was so funny I wanted to put it on. Cameron didn't want to pet any animals because he was scared, so I decided to help him! Melanie of course was chasing the animals and you can see the goat running from her!

So after looking at several blogs for a while and thinking "that looks like a LOT of work", I never thought I'd start. Well, here we are...blogging! I loved looking at a lot of blogs from David and my friends from school. What a great way to keep people updated with out lots of individual emails! We are looking forward to Spring and the kids were so disappointed yesterday when it SNOWED! It had all just melted to. At least it's not sticking around for long. I'm so excited, the kids are going to swimming lessons tomorrow for the first time. To say they are excited is an understatement. They had to model their new swim suits we bought Saturday just to "try them out"! So funny!