Happy Birthday Mom

We got to celebrate a birthday at our house today, and I am soo grateful to my younger brother Stephen for all the help that he was! I found out Yesterday that I needed to cater a lunch for the mission home today, and already had plans to have all of my family over for a birthday celebration for my mom. Stephen kept me sane in accomplishing these things today!

I had 2 little boys who helped decorate, and were soo excited to give Grandma their gifts. Skyler kept telling me that he won't even tell grandma, not even once that he painted her a picture!We had all of my siblings (except Eric who couldn't make it up from Lethbridge) come over for dinner and cake, and gave Grandma her presents. Ethan was Grandma's boy tonight!We got Grandma some vinyl lettering so that she can finish off her family wall, an Ac/DC inverter so that she can plug stuff in using the car charger, and the boys painted her some beautiful canvases.gotta love the action eating shot!

So blessed!

So we have had sick kids for a week now. Ethan kindly shared his cold with Skyler and Ryley, so it has been a week of me being woken up at least every hour. (This is a LOT, since Ryley sleeps though the night for the most part anyways) I also got a phone call this morning and I need to cater a meal at the mission home tomorrow for 28 people, and I am hosting a big birthday dinner for my mom tomorrow evening, so in my sleep deprived state I headed out to the store today to get grocery's for the mission home.

I got home, hadn't even unpacked the groceries, and Jordan walked in the front door. He told his boss that he had 3 sick kids at home and came home for the afternoon. I was able to get my work done faster, take a nap, and lots of tylenol. My headache is mostly gone, and I feel soo blessed that I married Jordan and that he was thinking of me today!

One Crafty Reveal

So remember the applique necklace onsies from this post? well, I got to give the gift away Yesterday, so I can show you what I did with them.

My friend was having a little girl after 2 boys (so I can feel the excitement) I rolled the onsies to make a bouquet in the basket, and made some coordinating hair clip flowers to use as filers, and then put a coordinating tutu around the basket. I was totally thinking little photo shoot with this one, but it was soo dun to make!

Sick...again

If there is a cold going around, a virus that we have been exposed to, or we look at someone who is sick 6 cars over, Ethan gets it. The poor kid is always sick it seems. I blame part of it on poor nutrition, since he doesn't eat (hey you can offer kids food, but you can't make them eat, and he would rather fast for days at a time, then eat) part of it (especially croup) I blame on him being premature and having an underdeveloped respiratory system - he is at high risk of Asthma at the moment. It is just soo sad. He has been feeling unwell for a few days, and then yesterday he cried for 3 hours and asked to go to the doctors. It turns out he has a double ear infection, so I have been spending a lot of time with him while Jordan has fun with Skyler. Ryley stays with me, and it turns out she kind of likes the jolly jumper!

We tried solid foods

So this is something that I kind of struggle with. When is the right time to introduce solids. When Skyler was a baby they used to say between 4 and 6 months, then for Ethan and Ryley they have said 6 months. Skyler was ready for food, and took to it quite well, but Ethan wasn't, even at 6 months, and he is now 2 1/2 and still struggles with food textures, and introducing new things.

Ryley acts really hungry from 4- about 7:30 when I put her to bed. She is just shy of 5 months, so I decided that we would give it a shot and see how it goes. She had no clue what was going on, and drooled everything back out. But hey, I tried, and we will try again in a month or so.

I want opinions!

Finally Jordan's seminar and defense of his Thesus is scheduled (both in February) and he has applied for Graduation. I am soo proud of him, and excited to put yet another phase of life behind us. But here is my question.

Should he go to convocation?

I totally think he should this will be 7 years of school completed, and a piece of paper that says he has completed his Master's degree, but someone who I thought should have been excited about this and super encouraging took more of a mocking to a second graduation. Personally I think it deserves to be acknowledged, but what do you think?

multi purpose

Ethan was walking around whistling tonight, and upon closer observation he was using my nursing shield. I guess it has multiple purposes.

Why would you do that?

I was sitting on the couch feeding Ryley, and Ethan and Skyler started to fight, and Ethan went in for a 'bite' I broke up the spat and skyer wipes at his arm and says 'I am the fastest runner in the world, why would you do that?"

My brother gave him some Puma running shoes last Christmas and a Puma jogging suit this Christmas, and Skyler thinks that when he is wearing them he is unstoppable.

What do you do with your kids?

My mom stopped by today and was telling me a story about last Sunday when the Primary kids were asked what they do with their dad's.

Skyler excitedly answered: My mommy and Daddy let me clean up my room, and put away my books, and then I am tired, so I have to go to bed!

Haha, I think this is so funny, what do you 'let' your kids do?

why post anonymous?

So I just made a post earlier tonight, and there was a comment left asking me to include my beautiful daughter in my profile. It was left politely, and honestly it is just something that has not crossed my mind. I started my blog about 2 years ago just after Ethan was born, so even my web address is all about my 2 boys. I am totally not offended, and in fact grateful that someone is paying close enough attention to catch the things that I miss, but why not a name???

Busy lazy day

Yesterday I had nothing on the schedule, but after everything settled down Wednesday night I got a phone call saying my sister in law was heading to the hospital, and they asked if I could watch Holli - sure, I just had a lazy day planned (by the way baby girl, her name is Alise Morley Fox, and was 7 lbs 7 oz and I think she looks just like Jeff!)

Then a friend Bree came over to do some party planning and figuring. I Love how creative this woman is, and I love that she helps me bring to life all of the parties that are in my head.

My neighbor had invited us to swimming earlier in the day, but then called to cancel because her 2 year old was acting like a fabulous tantruming 2 year old. I then called another friend Marissa to ask her a question, and she was doing nothing, so we invited her over to make taggie blankets for the babies (hers is due early April) and I must say I am please with how the blankets turned out. I would change a few things next time but yay for a first!
Ryley can soak it in no time flat!

I love being a Mom

Sometimes it is the moments in the middle of the chaos that makes your life complete. My moments often include these munchkins who I love! but this person makes the chaos more bearable, and I love him too!

current projects

These are some things that I have been working on, and I will post finished projects, but I need to wait for the events to occur before the final unveiling :)

Craft Room

I really love creating things, but have had a hard time doing it in the past because there is no where that I can leave a project out, so I either had to finish it, or pack it all up and unpack everything when I wanted to work on it again which was a huge pain!

So a few months ago I decided that I wanted to do some crafting. I made such a mess of the main floor, and it took 3 days to get it all cleaned up that Jordan decided he would finish up the storage room, and make me a craft room. I was so excited that I did a lot of the work myself so that it would be finished sooner - including mudding, sanding, installing hardwood, painting, and touch ups, but it was so worth it!

The room is a fair size, but narrow, and I have to share it with some storage unfortunately, we do only live in a duplex.

I decided to move the kids table in there as well, so they have somewhere that is set up for them to craft as well, and all of their supplies are there for them to be creative geniuses as well.
Then there is all of the food storage which is also in that room. I have walked in on Ethan 'looking at it' he even moved the stool around the room so that he could 'look' at what he wanted.

Ready for Church

The last 2 years my MIL has given my kids new church clothes for Christmas, and I really appreciate it. I love seeing them all dressed up Christmas Sunday in their new clothes. This year Skyler is really excited about them because they have a red sweater that goes with them. Secretly my real reason for loving it is because they all match!

Ethan...

I walked downstaird today to see Ethan sitting on the couch like this

He was feeding his hot water bottle froggy that Grandma gave to him last night. I though it was pretty funny, and he got embarrassed and wouldn't do it again for the picture.

News Year, New Growth

so, I made some resolutions last year, and I think that as a whole a did achieve my goals. For this year, I have a few areas that I would like to see some growth. I am not going to make resolutions in the typical sense but rather acknowledge areas of my life that I would like to see growth in.

My personal relationship with my Savior. I am pretty good at going through the motions and doing the things that I know I should be doing, and this year I really want to feel a personal relationship.

Quality time with my children and Husband. When my house is perpetually messy I get really bothered, so I would like to see growth in my patience and acceptance so that I can leave the sink of dishes and play with my children, or finish laundry in the morning and enjoy a movie with Jordan.

I know this is only 2 areas, but hey, I have a long ways to come, so this is where I would like to see growth and improvement in 2010.

A Date in Hawaii

I was talking to Skyler yesterday, and telling him that I was going to take him on a date later this month so that I can spend some one on one time with him, and he was soo excited and started telling me all about where we would go, first of which was Hawaii. (oh, and he was going to be a super hero on our date as well)