Pictures of all 4 kids

I don't have much time to type today, but wanted to post a couple pictures I took yesterday of all 4 kids. The girls were playing with Jack and spinning him around in the excersaucer (he doesn't sit in it often - the girls use it sort of as a ride and spin and spin on it) and then they decided to see how many stuffed animals they could pile on it.

Rob is working on the lawn right now, then we are off to the farm to buy milk and to Kroger to do our grocery shopping. I think we may need to stop by Walmart too for a few things and I'd like to get a package mailed to my parents and Molly and Sus if possible. We have to be back by about 5:30 though as we are feeding the elders tonight and the kids need baths for church tomorrow and I'd like to get that done before the babysitter gets here at 8 :)

Summer is definately here!

It has been so hot lately! It's been in the 90's every day this week. Yesterday the girls and I set up the little jungle pool in the backyard so they could play in it after Megan got home from school. We waited until about 5pm so that the sun wouldn't be as strong. Jack didn't like the pool much, so he sat on my lap and played with my sunglasses most of the time.

I can't believe this is Megan's last Friday as a kindergartner! School gets out this coming Thursday and then my oldest baby will officially be done with kindergarten! Man, she's grown up so fast!

The kids (except Meg) and I had fun this morning. We went to a surprise baby shower for my friend Melissa. She is having her fourth girl in a few weeks. We are very excited for her! Kylie and Beth played upstairs with the other kids the whole time and Jack and I has fun visiting downstairs. It was especially nice to see Courtney, a friend of mine who was diagnosed with cancer last fall and is just starting to be able to visit people again.

Tonight we are going to take things easy. Beca and Garett and their 4 girls are coming for dinner. I think we are just grilling hamburgers or something like that. The girls can't wait to meet Jursey! Tomorrow night Rob has a date or something planned for us. He's surprising me - all he's told me is to be ready at 8pm. He's so sweet :) He even lined up a babysitter for the kids. Jack goes to bed around 8pm now, so I prefer to go out later so that I can put him to bed and worry less about him.

That's about it for us :) Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Pictures

Kate emailed me her favorite pictures of each child from her visit here and the pictures we took with Aunt Ro and Uncle Frank Kile ~

Jack's first shiner and back to normal

Hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! We took it easy on Saturday and I caught up on my sleep from the previous week. Rob went out with "the guys" to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the UFC that night. He missed Dan and Garett, who usually are there but weren't able to make it this time, but had fun with the guys who did go.

Sunday we enjoyed church and then brought dinner over to the Foote's. Rob went home teaching, then the elders came over for FHE (family home evening). Jack managed to pull one of the kids chairs over on his face and got his first black eye (I took the picture on Monday - it looked worse Sunday). Monday we rested in the morning, then went to Kohls to get sandals for the girls to wear to church this summer, summer church clothes for Jack, new dress socks and a couple new work shirts for Rob, and new pair of black sandals for me to wear to church. Then we went to Kroger and did our grocery shopping. That night Rob and I worked on organizing the clothes we have stored and putting together bags of clothes we no longer need to give to friends who can use them.

Today things were back to normal. I had time to catch up on things like balancing the check book and cleaning out the drawers in the fridge. We got our co-op order and were excited to get a big container of strawberries, a family favorite. We are looking forward to trying bok choy for the first time as it was in our order this week. I'm using it in our dinner tonight. We are going to have sauteed shrimp and bok choy and baked sweet potatoes - all (except the shrimp) from our co-op.

Rob has boxing tonight, so it will just be me and the kids. The kids need a bath, then we are all loading up into the minivan to meet Rob at the car place so he can drop his car off for an oil change. We're hoping the kids will just fall asleep in the car as it will be fairly late by then. Nothing horribly exciting, but I'm glad things have slowed down to normal pace for now :)

Megan only has a week and a half of school left, so we are getting ready for summer and figuring out what to give her teachers. They have all been so wonderful this year! I hope we are as lucky next year :)

The visit from the binkie fairy was very successful :) Kylie has only asked for one twice in the past week and as soon as we reminded her that the binkie fairy had them all, she was fine. We will definately keep that approach in mind for future issues!

Today is my father's birthday and I need to take a second to wish him a very happy birthday! I love you, Dad!!!

I didn't get the chance to post on my mother's birthday as that was the day Christy had surgery and the day that Kate flew in, so this is belated, but happy birthday Mom!!! I hope it was a wonderful day and I love you, too!!!

Busy week!

This has been a crazily busy week, so I haven't had time to do many posts here. Wednesday morning we had Jorja over while Beca went to the doctor. The kids always have so much fun playing together :) We are so lucky to have such good friends nearby! Wednesday afternoon we picked up Megan from school in the car and then headed directly to Fidelity to pick up Christy and take her to her post surgery check up. We ended up waiting at the doctor's office for over and hour, but they had a little kids corner and the kids loved playing with the toys there. They were all so good, we got comments from the other patients about how well behaved they were! After Christy was done, we drove to Cantina Laredo, a Mexican restaurant where Christy's marathon team was holding a fund raiser. We picked up dinner there and dropped Christy off, then headed home so that I could go pick up several of the YW (young women - the members of the youth group I is a leader for) and take them to a YW camp planning meeting. I didn't make it to pick up the YW though because a few miles away from home, one of the tires on the minivan blew. Although we were on a highway going about 60 mph in the middle of heavy traffic, somehow no one hit us and I kept control of the van. God was definately watching over us! Someone immediately pulled over and helped me get the van to a safer location. I called Rob and he jumped in his car and came to our rescue. The girls ate chips and queso (cheese dip) and Megan fed Jack fruit puffs while Rob put the spare tire on the van. We then drove home and ate dinner, then took what was left of the tire in to get replaced. We were very lucky that there was no damage to the rim.

Thursday was Kylie's 4th birthday!!! We are so blessed to have her in our lives! I love her sense of humor and her imagination. She is such a big help and such a good big sister to Beth and Jack. She always runs to give Megan hugs when we pick her up at school and she brightens up our whole house with her smile and her laugh! Happy birthday Kylie Jeanne!!!

Kylie and Beth had gymnastics that morning, so Jack stayed at Beca's house and played with Jorja. After gymnastics we got lunch from Sonic as Kylie wanted a cheeseburger and fries. That afternoon we picked up Christy from work and drove to Grapevine Mills mall. Christy took Kylie to a toy store and Kylie got to pick out her present. She chose a Dora backpack filled with games. Christy got each of the girls a bracelet, except for Kylie who chose a frog ring instead. We then went to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner, where Rob met us. Megan loved her personal sized pizza, Beth loved her two mini cheeseburgers, and Kylie got her favorite - buttered noodles. For desert we got a volcano made of chocolate cake, ice cream, whipped cream and caramel and fudge sauce. It came with a sparkler in it and the wait staff sung happy birthday to Kylie. We all had a wonderful time!

That night as I was nursing Jack right before he went to bed, the phone rang. It was Beca and she was in labor. Garett was working out of town. She had already called him, but he was still about a 7 hour drive away. Rob stayed with our kids and I went over to Beca's house. We called her father-in-law around 12:30 so he could come stay with her kids and then left for the hospital. The nurses started setting up for the baby's arrival as soon as we got there because it didn't look like it was going to be very long before Jursey made her appearance. Beca said she was going to wait until Garett got there though, and she did. Garett arrived at about 4:40am and Jursey arrived at 5:08am. I felt so lucky to be able to be part of Jursey's birth! Beca and Garett even let me cut the cord! Happy birthday Jursey Mila!!!

I got home Friday morning at about 6:30am. Rob really had to go to work that day, but Christy came over and watched the kids so I could sleep. She even took them to IHOP, which Kylie and Beth loved! Thank you so much Christy!

We're planning on trying to take things easy today. I think we need some down time :) We hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Kate's visit, Kylie's birthday party and Christy's surgery

Life has been extraordinarily hectic for the past few days so I haven't gotten the chance to get online.

Rob's sister got here Friday afternoon and the kids and Rob and I have loved having her here! She is one of Jack's favorite people (the only person other than Papa that Jack has ever chosen to stay with over Mommy) and the girls can't get enough of her :) I can't give you descriptions of most of what they did together as I was only home for about 8 hours total this weekend. Christy had her surgery to correct a deviated septum on Friday morning and so I have been staying at her house to take care of her for the past few nights. Kate and I went shopping on Friday night and got Kylie's birthday presents and we went out last night to get Kate a scrapbooking program that I have and she likes, so we did get to spend some time together :) I know Rob enjoyed spending lots of time with her though, so we think it worked out well.

Christy is now doing better by the way :)

Yesterday Rob took the day off work so that we could celebrate Kylie's birthday (which is actually Thursday) with Kate. We started off the day with a wonderful visit with Laney's Aunt Ro and Uncle Frank Kile who stopped by on their way to Angel Fire, NM. We hadn't seen them since Grandpa's funeral over two years ago and it was wonderful to get to visit with them! We took pictures, but couldn't find our camera, so Kate took them with hers and I will post them on here as soon as Kate gets home and emails them to me :)

Next on our list was shopping for Kylie's party. We went to Kroger and Kylie and Megan got to push their own little carts around the store! They loved it, but after spending the whole time making sure they didn't crash into the shelves or other shoppers, Mom and Dad decided this was definately just a birthday treat :) Following the shopping trip, we went to Prairie House Restaurant for lunch as Kylie decided that is where she wanted to go for her special day. We then returned home and got ready for the party.

I failed to mention that we had the archway above our door fixed by KB Homes during the day as well. It had gotten several cracks in it and needed to be repaired, so we called KB and they came right out and fixed it in one day, even altering the design slightly to help prevent it from happening again! We were very impressed with them :)

For Kylie's party we invited over Beca Foote and her children (Garrett was out of town on business). Kylie wanted a pool party and we originally planned to hold it at Christy's apartment complex as her lease isn't up until today (Tuesday), but the pool there had problems as was not available, so we bought a blow up pool and set it up in the backyard. All the girls had a blast splashing in it and playing in the mud. We bought everyone squirt guns and the girls played with those as well. We opened presents while I was getting dinner ready. Kylie got a bouncy ball with a handle that she can ride on and huge princess stickers for her bedroom walls from the Footes, a learning block set from Nona, Papa and Susan, a little ball thingy from Jack, a bigger ball from Beth, a toy fishing set from Megan, and a princess lamp and a princess couch that pulls out into a bed from Mom and Dad. All three girls got umbrellas and watering cans. We had hamburgers on the grill and popcorn shrimp (Kylie's pick), chips and soda. Afterwards we had cake (with Dora on it) and ice cream. Kylie really enjoyed it (so did the other kids) :)

Things should slow down slightly this week. Christy is feeling better and Kate has to leave to go back home, so we just have our normal stuff on the list :) Rob has boxing this evening, then I have my book club later tonight, I have YW tomorrow night, Thursday night Rob has a stake leadership training meeting, and Rob has his UFC thingy with the guys on Saturday. Kylie and Beth have gymnastics on Thursday (which is also Kylie's birthday and even though we already did her party, we will do something fun and special with her) and we are having Jorja come play with us so Beca can go to her dr's appointment tomorrow.

Happy Birthday to us!!!

Today is my birthday and also Christy's birthday!!! I turned 30, she turned 27 :) Rob took the whole day off work and gave me a day off. Christy took the day off work and the two of us went out shopping at NY&Co, then to Olive Garden for lunch, then dropped by Fidelity to pick up a yummy red velvet cake that a good friend of Christy's made for her, then went and got pedicures. Afterwards we went to her house and I unpacked her kitchen stuff while she helped the Verizon guys install her cable, internet and phone. Once they were done, she left to go run (she's training for a marathon) and I drove home to feed the kids and send Rob to boxing since he gave it up on Tues night this week to help me out and he gave me the whole day off, so I wanted to give him some time off too :) After Rob got home from boxing, we put the kids to bed and then I left to go help Christy move the rest of her stuff (except for a few big things) out of her apartment and into her house. This is why I haven't been home to talk to all of you who called to wish me a happy birthday, but Rob passed on the messages and I really appreciate your good wishes :) Thank you so much for thinking of me today! Thank you also to those who emailed or text messaged me and those who left messages for me on facebook and message boards!!!

I am excited to enter my 30's. I had a conversation with Molly a month or so ago where we were talking about me turning 30. I mentioned that I wasn't upset about it at all. She said something along the lines of "why would you be? You've done everything you wanted to do in your 20's." I've thought about that a lot and it's really true. I have been incredibly blessed with friends and family. I have a wonderful husband and 4 incredible kids. I've had the chance and the drive to finish my undergraduate degree and help/encourage Rob to get his and to work towards his MBA. Thank you to all of you for all the help you've given me along the way! I told Travis that my life lesson from this is that I will try to live my life so that I don't regret any of my birthdays :)

On that note, I'm going to hit the hay as we have a busy day tomorrow. Megan has field day, so we are headed out early to watch her for an hour before we go pick up Christy for her surgery (she's having a deviated septum fixed), then back to watch Meg again, then home to drop off the kids with Beca and Jorja (thank you Beca!!!), back to pick up Christy and take her home, then home to pick up Megs from school, then to the airport to pick up Kate (YAY!!!!). I hope you all have wonderful days tomorrow!

Nothing horribly exciting today

We didn't do much today. I think we are all feeling better (we've had allergies or colds), but the kids are still being pretty clingy. Jack or Beth wanted to be on my lap for most of the day. After picking up Megan from school I spent about an hour with Jack and Beth asleep on my lap and Megan asleep sitting on a chair next to me and leaning up against me. Kylie played by herself while the other three napped. I'm so lucky that my kids like being near me! :) It meant that not much housework got done, but the housework will always be there and my kids won't always be small enough to want to nap near me.

Tonight the elders are coming over for dinner and by their request, we are having grilled teryaki chicken. After dinner I am going over with my minivan to help Christy move the rest of her stuff over to her new house. On my way to Christy's I am stopping to pick up a chest we bought on ebay. It's an old fashioned trunk that we are going to use as the coffee table in the library. We thought that would be neat since our library is decorated with items from around the world - things we have gotten from friends or relatives and things that my father has gotten for us from the various places he has traveled. Our house is slooooooowly starting to get decorated and organized. I know it will take a while to do it right, but sometimes I wish it would go faster! We have the library painted (spring green - or chartruese) and some stuff hung up on the walls. We still need to get a few frames for some pictures we have. We've also painted the dining room sort of a dark plum-brown color that looks really nice and makes it much more formal. I'll have to finish decorating so I can take pictures of it :)

Dr Beth and Jack the climber

Last night was fun :) Christy and I ate Chinese food from her favorite Chinese restaurant in her new house! We checked everything out and moved a few things in and talked about what colors she was going to repaint with. The girls can't wait to go over there! It's only about 10 mins from our house and closer to Fidelity too, so it's in a very good location for her.

Today wasn't as busy as we expected it to be. We were supposed to go visit teach (visit one of the ladies I have been assigned to visit once a month), but she has a 4 week old baby and all of my kids still have really runny noses and bad coughs. While I think it's just allergies, we really didn't want to get the baby sick, so I called her and talked to her instead.

We went to pick up our co-op order just after noon. We have joined an organic co-op which gives us 15-30 lbs of produce every two weeks. We never know what we are going to get and so it's always exciting to see what's in our bin each time. This week we got ~ beets, 2 containers of strawberries, 2 avacados, a big bunch of bananas, celery, broccoli, 3 lbs of oranges, 2 heads of red leaf lettuce, 3 lbs of apples, 3 cucumbers, 2 lbs of carrots (plus a few extra), 2 tomatoes, 9 sweet potatoes, 5 lbs of yellow potatoes, and 2 red onions. The girls are especially excited about the strawberries.

This afternoon it started raining just before we were supposed to leave to pick up Megan, so we drove. Of course, since we didn't walk, it cleared up and ended up not raining much at all. We are still under a tornado watch though. That just means that there is a chance of storms that are capable of producing tornadoes.

Once we got home, I checked Megan's folder from school and discovered that her teacher has been having her do 1st grade math work because the kindergarten work is no longer a challenge for her. Meg's teacher has actually asked us if we were going to have her skip 1st grade as Meg is reading at a 3rd grade level and way ahead of most other kids in pretty much every area. There is one other little boy in Kindergarten who is at her level - his mom is a teacher at their school.

The kids have enjoyed playing together in the playroom today. Megan and Kylie have been playing with the dollhouse, Beth has been playing doctor, and Jack has been busy trying to figure out how to climb the little slide. They are currently sharing a snack of "hamburger pickles" (dill pickle slices) and flavored water - two of their favorite things. Kylie and Beth's most commonly requested lunch is mushrooms, black olives and hamburger pickles.

Apparently everyone but me has already seen this, but for those of you who have joined me in living in a cave, here is a link to a speech that really touched me. It's given by a Carnegie-Mellon professor who is dying of cancer ~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9ya9BXClRw

The Keller house is bought!

Christy just finished closing on the house in Keller! We are so excited :) I am going over to her apartment tonight to help her pack and use the minivan to get as much over as we can.

This weekend was busy. Friday night Christy and I went out to Asian Top, a Chinese/Japanese restaurant that is one of our favorites. It has a buffet that includes freshly made sushi and Chinese food. It was really nice to spend the evening with her :)

Saturday Rob surprised me by getting up and cleaning up the house while I slept! Thank you Rob!!! Then Rob mowed the lawn while I got the kids ready. We had lunch at a picnic for Rob's team at work. It was nice to get to meet everyone. It was held by a pool that had a whole section that was only 6 inches deep, so the girls played in the water and had a blast! After the picnic, we went to Christy's apartment and went swimming in her pool. It was dirty though as the pump had broken earlier that week, so we didn't spend much time in it. Then we went shopping at Costco and came home.

Sunday we stayed home from church as all four kids were horribly stuffed up - either a cold or allergies - and so none of them slept worth beans Saturday night. Rob and the girls made me breakfast in bed and all three girls made me cards :) That afternoon/evening Travis called and it was so great to hear his voice! I can't believe he'll be home in just a few months! Two years has gone by so quickly! We had a wonderful conversation with him and then had our elders over for dessert (Christy was there too so that we only had to do a 3 way call and we could get everyone on the phone with Travis), which we had bought at Costco the day before. It was a Lemoncello Cream Torte and was delicious!

Today has been somewhat busy. Meg went back to school today after missing three days last week. Kylie, Beth, Jack and I went and picked up Christy and got lunch at Taco Bell, then went to the bank to get the cashier's check for the closing (we used my bank since Christy's is online and so we couldn't go in and get a check that day), the dropped Christy off at her car to go to the closing and then drove back and picked Megan up from school.

Megan brought home a wonderful gift for me from school. It is a printed poem with her handprint below it. Here is the poem ~
Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small,
And always leave my fingerprints
On the furniture and walls.
But everyday I'm growing up
And soon I'll be so tall,
That those little hand prints
Will be hard to recall.
So here's a special handprint
Just so that you can say,
This is how my fingers looked
When I placed them here today.

Happy Mother's Day!

Long day today

Megan was home again because she had a low fever last night. We think it's just allergies (yes, in TX you can throw up and get fevers from allergies because the allergies are so bad) and she's already on zyrtec, so hopefully she'll feel better soon. She's been whiny today and Jack and Beth have both been fussy as well (Jack is teething and Beth is getting her two year molars), so it's been a long day for all of us. Beth had a lot of fun playing dr. She found an old computer mouse that Jack likes to play with (so he doesn't use mine when he's on my lap at the computer) and looped it over her shoulders. She used the mouse part as a stethoscope and the other end to look into ears with. Jack was her patient :) He wasn't horribly thrilled about it, but put up with it.

Megan and Kylie have really enjoyed getting to play together all day again for the last few days. Kylie really misses Megan when she's at school. She is going to be so happy when school gets out for the summer and Megan is home all day again!

Beth finally fell asleep on the floor and Megan, Kylie and Jack are playing together in the playroom. They are playing school. Megan is the teacher and Kylie and Jack are the students (see picture). Jack is doing so well at sitting in the chair by himself! He's getting around really well now and has started pulling himself up and "cruising" along the furniture. Look out mom! Here he comes!

Tonight I get a mom's night out with Christy (and maybe a few other friends). We are going out for dinner, but haven't decided where we're going yet. Dad and the kids are staying home and Dad's picking up pizzas from the Bistro (which is almost as good as Papa Ginos!) and the elders are coming over to share the pizzas as they don't have a dinner appt for tonight.

This weekend will be busy. Tomorrow we need to do our grocery shopping, mow the lawn and go to a team picnic for Rob's team at Fidelity. It's supposed to be in the 90's, so we are going swimming as well - I think there is a pool where the team picnic is, but if there isn't we are going to Christy's apartment to use her pool. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!

All 4 kids at home today . . .

Megan had a fever last night and threw up this morning, so she stayed home today. We just took it easy. The girls played and even painted for a bit. Beth and Jack are both fussy as they are both getting new teeth. Due to having 3 fussy kids, I didn't get much done today, but I did get to spend the day cuddling with my kids :) I also got to talk to Justin (a friend from high school) through IM off and on all day, which was really neat because I haven't gotten to talk to him much since we moved away from Rexburg.

Last night I had YW, so Rob watched all four kids. They built a fort out of the monkey bars, several quilts and the couch cushions. They called it their bat cave and even made up a password to get into it. They had so much fun!

Jack is into everything. He is crawling all over. The girls alternate from being excited about seeing him crawl to getting upset when he crawls over and destroys whatever they are playing with :) They love to play with him though. Jack and Beth play together all the time and it's so cute to hear her saying "Gak!" (that's what she calls him).

Beth is getting even more independent - if that is possible :) I remember my parents telling me stories of times when they tried to help me and I responded with "NO! ME do it!" - well, apparently Beth takes after me. She will try to do something and get so frustrated when it doesn't work out that she yells and then she stops and figures out a way to do it :) She is working on potty training, but in classic Beth fashion, she has to do it herself. Today she even kept telling me "go 'way!" when she was using the potty.

Kylie has been enjoying playing a kindergarten level computer game we got her at Half Price. It's a Dr. Seuss game and she loves it! She knows exactly how to turn on the computer and put in her game and what buttons to press to get it started. She is definitely our technological child. She knows how to work the TV and VCR too. She loves to play with the weebles and the dollhouse and our little plastic animals too. She comes up with the funniest story lines!

Megan is growing up so fast! I look at pictures of her from when she started Kindergarten 9 months ago and she has gotten so much bigger! She can be such a big help! This morning as Beth was fussing and I was feeding Jack, Megan went and got Beth a bottle and found the top for it, put some juice and water (we water down Beth's juice as she drinks so much of it) and brought it to her. She did this all on her own too! She is reading at a 3rd grade level now and constantly is amazing her teacher with how far ahead she is.

Well, Jack is starting to fuss again, so I'd better go.