A Dingo Ate My Baby (or some other excuse for not blogging)

I have no good excuse for not blogging for the last two months. Time just seemed to get away from me. Well, to give everyone the answer to my last post, the lie was #4.
There were no roaches.

I will quickly summarize the remainder of our time while Jason was gone. The day after we moved in I noticed a bubble in the ceiling in the downstairs bathroom. Not only was there a bubble, but it was dripping water. The movers had hooked up our washer wrong and it leaked from the connection down the wall, into the floor and into the bathroom below. That was a "fun" experience. We were without a washer and dryer for two weeks.

A few weeks after the washer incident I noticed water marks in the ceiling across the entryway. When they were putting in the AC condensation drainage pipes someone stepped on one and never said anything so when our AC kicked on the water leaked into the ceiling instead of running out the pipe to the yard. Thankfully it was fixed immediately and there was no damage done.

Jason came home in late May. It was so nice to bring him home to our new house. We really missed him while he was gone. Jason got to take a couple of weeks off. It was really nice, but not nearly long enough.

We were so glad that Jason made it back in time for the girls ballet recital. It was a lot of fun watching the girls. Faith received her trophy for dancing for three years. Emma will get hers next year. We always joke that Emma is the clumsiest of our children and unfortunately that caused her an injury at her recital. While on her way downstairs to the basement of the stage area she slipped and fell and cut her mouth open. She seemed to be OK by the time she got on stage, but now we realize that she had also hit one of her teeth on the concrete. The tooth is now black. If feel so bad for her. According to the dentist it shouldn't need to be pulled. She goes back in a few weeks for a follow up.

For Father's Day we decided to take Jason camping at the lake. It sounded fun in theory, but unfortunately for us Father's Day weekend was going to be very, very hot. It was 102 to be exact. There was no breeze and it was super humid. We spent most of the day in the lake. We got there on Friday morning and left Saturday morning. It was the worst camping trip ever. It was so hot that Hyrum couldn't sleep and the girls ended up getting sick. We woke up at 5 am to Faith getting sick all over her sleeping bag. At that point we broke down camp and called it quits. We have learned, you don't camp in Georgia except for in the Spring and Fall.





Shortly after we got back from that disastrous trip I received a call to meet with the Bishop. I was called as the Second Counselor of Young Women's. I love my calling. I work with the Beehives (girls ages 12-13). We just recently had an activity at our home with them. It was so much fun. We sang karaoke, ate pizza and did make-overs. It was such a great time. The girls (Faith and Emma)had such a good time hanging out with the "big" girls. I hope to have this calling for a while.

Dad came out at the beginning of July for a week long visit. We had so much fun showing him our new house. We also got to go to the zoo together and watched an awesome fireworks display on the Fourth. The kids really loved spending time with Grandpa. He also helped us get some yard work done and got Jason exercising again. It was a great visit. These are some pictures from our trip to the Columbia Zoo.












We also have an announcement to make. Our family will be expanding by two. Yes you heard me right TWO!!!! Can you believe it? Neither can we. That's right we have two new puppies!!! What'd you think, that we were pregnant? :) On Monday we picked up our two new puppies. One is a black lab male, Moose and one is a yellow lab female, Chloe. They have been great dogs. They are doing well with house training and hopefully will be completely trained by the end of August. We will be starting their other training soon. I think they will do well. They seem to be really smart dogs. We are so blessed to have them as part of our family. The kids love playing with them in the yard. We love it too. Both the kids and the dogs wear each other out. It's great.

Chloe

Moose

Today was little Emma's 4th birthday. We had a My Little Pony themed pool party. The kids had way too much cake and candy, but had a great time doing it. It was a great day to be at the pool. I can't believe my baby girl is four. Time has seemed to just fly by. She is getting to be so grown up. Not only is she four now, but in nine days she will go to school for the first time. We love you Emma and we hope you had a great birthday.

Charlie loved putting his finger into the frosting

Now everyone is up to date on us. I will try to do better about blogging. We love you all. Enjoy some more photos.

Beautiful Smile

Boys in the Tub

Moose and Chloe hanging out

Three Truths and a Lie Part 2

I know you all have been waiting for the answer to last week's game. Without further ado, the lie is.....#2. Just for the record we do have IHOP here in Augusta. Actually we have two.

Now for the next part of the game.

1. While I was getting everything ready for the move and all of that fun stuff. The kids (all of them except Hyrum) came down with a stomach bug. I had so much fun cleaning vomit out of the carpet and off the couch for the next four days. Then, Charlie and I became sick with strep throat. Thankfully I had some great friends who came to my rescue and helped me fold laundry, pack all my canned goods and watched after my kids so I could rest. Thank you sooooo much ladies.

2. The day of the move finally came all of our stuff was packed up on March 29 & 30. We closed on both of the houses on Friday the 3 of April. Our first night in the house though wasn't till Saturday.

3. The movers came on Saturday morning and that is when the real problems began. When they showed up early that morning, I was filled with excitement. That all changed when they opened the back of the moving truck. It literally looked like they had just thrown all of our stuff in the back. Most of our furniture had been damaged. I was not a happy camper. Too top it all off, we thought the loaders (not the same guys who unloaded the truck) stole our tv. We couldn't find it anywhere. It ended up being in the cab on the truck behind the seats. Don't ask me why it was there.

4. After the movers unloaded all our stuff and left, I discovered a huge colony of Cockroaches in our garage. I hate bugs, but I especially hate spiders and Cockroaches. I totally freaked out and called the builder, as I didn't know who else to call. He took care of it thankfully. Gross, gross, gross. Ewwwww!!! Did I mention I really don't like bugs.

Have fun guessing. I am also inculding some recent pictures. Enjoy

The girls in their Easter Dresses.

The boys in their Easter outfits.

While Jason was gone the girls often (which means every night) slept with me. For two tiny little things they sure took up a lot of space. That small section on the right is what I slept on. No love for Mommy :)

Three Truths and a Lie Part 1

Let the games begin......


1. Jason left for Iraq on March 3. We had a wonderful family breakfast at IHOP that morning, which meant we only had to tell the kids to eat half a million times. Once the kids were loaded up with carbs and too much sugar it was time to take Jason to the airport. We had a tearful goodbye at the curb (Charlie was in a coma from all the sugar he had at breakfast, darn maple syrup).

2. On the way home of course it had to be extra eventful because Daddy was now gone. Faith proceeded to tell me at the worst possible time that she wasn't feeling well. We are doing 75 mph down I-520. Of course at this news I proceed to speed up even more. Well I just wasn't fast enough, Faith threw up all over the car. That was a lot of fun to clean up. At least we were smart to buy the rubber all weather mats for the van and we have leather, but it takes a long time for the smell to go away.

3. I noticed, that same day, that I was coming down with a fever. Here I thought Jason wasn't going to leave me with a little memento, I was wrong. Jason had been sick with the flu before he left. He loves me so much he felt he should share with me. I don't think I have been that sick in a really long time. It was all I could do to get out of bed in the morning. The kids of course were such angels and never fought or disobeyed while I was sick. Oh wait, that was just wishful thinking. Jason would call from DC (he had some training to finish before he left for Iraq) and sometimes he would feel bad for me and sometimes he would get a good laugh (somethings I can laugh about now). What a way to start the TDY period.

4. So with all of that we finally found a buyer for our house. Yeah, we were so happy and surprised. The only blip in the plan was that the buyer wanted to be in the house by April 3. That gave me three weeks to pack up our house, get all of our paperwork in order, get a loan, put a house under contract (thankfully just before Jason left we found a house we just loved), and repair anything that was wrong with our house, etc. Jason was both happy and sad. He was happy that we were going to be moving into a bigger house, but sad that he wasn't going to be here to help me. Although I don't think he minded not having to be around to unpack. I do have the tendency to treat him like a work horse sometimes. I love that man.


Good luck ladies and gentlemen. I will post some pictures as well as the answer next Sunday. Enjoy.

Finally updating

Well, I am finally getting around to updating our blog. It's not like I have been busy or anything. I got a great idea from a friend about how to update our blog, we are going to play a game called "Three truths and a lie". Every Sunday I will publish a new post you will have till the following Sunday to post your comments on which you think is the lie. On that Sunday I will give the answer to the previous post as well as add three more truths and a lie. I hope you will all enjoy the next few posts. See y'all on Sunday

From the Motherhood

Life is always interesting when Jason is gone. I have to admit that I have not had a chance to be bored. Today was one of those days where you wish you could not me a mom for awhile. It all started yesterday when I got a phone call from Faith's school saying she had gotten sick. I couldn't believe it, of all the days and time. She had only left for school about an hour before. It would have been nice if she had told me she didn't feel well before we went through the rush of getting ready. To top it off, I have been putting off laundry for awhile and everyone was down to their last pair of clean clothes (don't judge). I was wearing my pj's because that's all I had. I obviously couldn't pick up Faith in my candy cane pj's, so I pulled my jeans out of the "to be washed" pile and loaded the kids into the car and picked her up. Fortunately she didn't get sick the rest of the day. I thought that was the end of it. I was WRONG!!!

This morning started off great, we had to get ready for a doctors appointment (for Charlie) and all of the kids were being really well behaved. We actually got out of the house 10 minutes earlier than I had planned. For those of us with children we know what a miracle that is. So we are sitting in the lobby of the doctor's office when out of nowhere Emma throws up. That's right she throws up all over the lobby, herself and my foot (that was fun). I of course didn't have a change of clothes so she had to stay in her stinky throw up clothes till we got home from the appointment. I was hoping that would be the worst of my day, but hey it was only lunch time there was plenty of time for things to go wrong.

At Charlie's appointment (for his club foot) we found out he is going to need surgery again as well as having his foot in a cast for about two to three months. His surgery is April 10. He won't be able to walk with his first few casts (we will have to go in every three weeks to have it changed). I know he will just love that. But I know in the long run this is the best thing for his foot. We want him to be able to do all the things other kids can do. I'm just hoping he'll have it off before summer is over so he can enjoy the pool.

After a nap we all got up to get ready for Enrichment (my last one as Second Counselor in the Harlem ward; we'll be in the Grovetown ward for the next one) and I gave Emma some juice (since she hadn't had anything since the incident at the doctor's). About 5 minutes after she drank it out it came. She has been getting sick since about 4 pm. Poor thing there is nothing left in her poor little tummy, but that doesn't seem to matter. She felt so awful she sent herself to bed at 6:30 tonight. I hope this ends with Emma. The boys and don't need to get it.

I feel so much better having vented all that. Thanks for listening.

The Rocker

I bought the girls some sunglasses yesterday and now Emma thinks she is a rock star. This is a video of what she told me this morning.

Two March birthdays, a cute video, a thumb sucker and the last first tooth

Happy Birthday to my March Men, Jason (Mar 15) and Charlie (Mar 21). I want to say a few things about each of them. Jason is the most wonderful man I have ever known. He is kind, loving, funny, smart, sensitive, a great father, a great husband and a great friend. I am blessed to be able to wake up next to him every morning and kiss him goodnight every night. I love you more than words could ever express. I'll love you forever with all of my heart. Happy Birthday, Sweetheart.

Charlie is my little man. He is so much like his daddy it's scary. I love the way he smiles, it just lights up his whole face. I love the way he runs after his sisters pretending he's a monster. I love the way he carries around his blanket everywhere he goes (we should have named him Linus). I love the way he sings and dances to the Backyardigans theme song and waves goodbye to them when the show is over. I love you buger. Happy Birthday.

This is a video Jason took of the kids playing on our bed one morning. They are so cute.

I have been trying to get a picture of Hyrum sucking his thumb for almost two weeks (he just started sucking his thumb one day two weeks ago, weird). Every time I would come over to him with the camera he would take his thumb out to smile at me. For those of you who are probably wondering what the big deal is about him sucking his thumb, I'll fill you in. All of our other kids suck their two middle fingers, the girls on their right hand and Charlie on his left. We don't know where they got this as Jason and I were both thumb suckers when we were little. The only thing the boys have in common is they both suck on their left. I wonder what that means? Anyway, I thought Hyrum looked really cute sucking his thumb so I thought I would take a picture of it, but I wonder how cute I will think it was when we hear he will need braces? In edition to the thumb sucking he also got his first tooth. It was both exciting and sad. I am happy he is getting teeth, but I realized this will be the last time I get to experience one of my kids first tooth's. Hyrum will be the last child I will experience firsts with. Just thinking about it has me crying. It has made me realize how much I took for granted all my other children's firsts. Time goes so quickly and before you know it there are no more firsts. I just want to tell my children how much I love them and how special they are to me. You are my everything. I love you all.

I am also posting some recent pictures. I hope you all enjoy.



The most recent family picture.



We have determined that Hyrum is part elf. Look at those ears, I just want to nibble on them.



My little boys. What kind of brothers will they be?

We're Moving

Our house is finally under contract. After a lot of prayer, fasting, and waiting our home is selling. I can't believe it. This is a picture of our new house (it's still in the Grovetown area). We move out of our current house on the 31 and move into the new one on April 3. So now it is hurry up and pack time. We are so excited. I'll keep you all posted on our moving adventure. This will be the first time we have had to pack and move our stuff ourselves (we got so spoiled in the Army). Any pointers will be greatly appreciated.

Bubble Gum and a Nasal Irrigater

Gotcha interested now, don't I. Things here are going great. We are working hard on the house to make it easier to sell. We took down all of our personal photos. I had a really hard time doing it. I love walking around the house and seeing the pictures of the kids and our family. Hopefully the house will sell soon. Then we can hang them up in our new home. The kids are great. Jason is doing well at work and just got a promotion to Team Leader. I'm so proud of him.

So on to pinker and grosser things. First is a video of Emma. I let her have a piece of Bubble Gum as a reward. She picked it out of the candy bucket (which still has candy from Halloween). She of course goes for the only thing I wish she wouldn't. I just have visions of a big pink wad of cheap nasty gum in her beautiful long hair. It hasn't happened yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. She was so cute telling me about her bubble gum, that I made her tell me again on camera. It's not as cute as the first time and that's mostly because I didn't have to ask her any questions. I love this little girl. She is just so sweet. I hope you enjoy.

The next thing is the Nasal Irrigater. As most of you know Jason has horrible allergies. They are so bad that he has to get shots to control them. Anyway, he has started seeing a new Allergist at the VA and he recommended that Jason try this nasal irrigater to flush out his nose to help with the allergies. It actually freaks me out a little bit. I watched him do this the other morning and I had to take some pictures (don't worry there is no video, trust me you don't want to start your day off seeing that. Actually you don't ever want to see it in live action.) It seems to be helping though, so I am thankful for that.

Here it is in all its glory.

On to some random pictures. I love my kiddos. They bring me so much joy. I get at least one really good laugh (you know the kind where you cry, pee your pants and shoot milk out your nose all at the same time) a day from them.

This picture is actually from a month ago. Hyrum is now eating baby cereal, veggies and some fruits. I can't believe how big he is getting.

The "Uncle Sean" Doll

Here is a cute video of Faith and her "Uncle Sean" doll. She came to me after dinner telling me her doll looked like Uncle Sean. She is so funny. I love this little girl. Enjoy Uncle Sean!!!

Way Past Bedtime

This past Sunday we had the Wright family over for desserts and games. We had a wonderful time. We played a really fun game called Killer Rabbits. It is totally awsome. Anyway as the night progressed we played Mario Kart on the Wii. We then moved on to the funniest part of the evening. We played Americna Idol on the Wii. I can't remember the last time I sang so loud and laughed so much. We finally closed out the night around 2 am with each couple doing a duet. Here is some video of out lovely singing. Let me just say "I AM the next American Idol." :)

How to not wake up your kids

This past Sunday was out first Sunday with the new attendance time at church (we had missed the past two Sundays due to sickness). Things went pretty well; I was able to get ready without being rushed or without having to get up at some awful hour. The girls did great with the new time as did Hyrum (but hey he is four months old, not much is going to bother this kid). Poor Charlie though. I had to put him down early,around 10:30 am, for his nap. We are very blessed to have kids that love to sleep almost as much as Jason and I do; Charlie normally will take about a three hour to four hour nap. Unfortunately I had to wake him up after only an hour and a half. He was not happy. Anyway to make an already lengthy story short by the time we finished dinner (around 6:30 pm) he just couldn't hold on any longer. He passed out in his high chair. He was dead to the world. Jason wanted me to share this video of us having to wake him up so we could get him into bed. Poor guy didn't want to be awake. Jason on the other hand loved every moment of it.

Busy Busy Christmas

Christmas is my favorite time of year, but I have to admit that this year it seemed to lack a little. It seemed that fewer people were filled with the spirit. Fewer homes we're decorated for Christmas this year. We were a little disappointed when we took the kids out to look at lights. Even our own neighborhood had only a handful of houses decorated. We were also very busy. We did a total of three Christmas'. I don't think I want to eat again till next Christmas. We had so many yummy dinners and treats of all kinds. I also got to bake over 200 hundred cookies. I think at one point I actually started to look like the Pillsbury Dough boy. It'll be a long while till I bake again. Christmas Eve was a lot of fun, we enjoyed a lovely dinner with our friends, the Kunz's. The time went by really quickly and before we knew it it was almost 10 pm. The men decided to tell the kids they had seen Santa flying into the neighborhood and that we had to get home and in bed or he wouldn't come to our house. The kids were falling all over themselves trying to get out the door and into the car. We got home with just enough time to decorate Santa's cookies. It was a lot of fun letting the kids decorate the cookies. Faith was good about trying to get all of her sprinkles evenly distributed over the frosting while Emma and Charlie put a nice big pile right in the center of their cookies. We loved every minute of it. Once they were asleep we had to put together a few of their toys. Then Santa showed up and put his toys under the tree. Needless to say between the Grandparents, Mommy and Daddy and Santa the kids made out very well. Thankfully the kids didn't get up till almost 8 am. They loved opening their gifts. Charlie wasn't really into it until he saw that there were toys underneath all that paper. They had a great morning. We had to pry the kids away from their toys to go to our friends, the Halsey's, for dinner. It was a wonderful day.

Stocking Stuffers

The girls' favorite toy, The Diamond Castle

The happiest baby ever!!!

My little man

Now it's New Year's Eve and I feel like the year has just flown by. We have had a lot happen this year. Jason separated from the Army, joined the National Guard, got his dream job and became the Elders Quorum President. Faith had her first day of school and celebrated her fifth birthday, Emma celebrated her third birthday, she also performed in her first ballet recital. Charlie turned one and started walking and has started talking. I worked on my calling as Second Counselor in Relief Society, I also was pregnant (once again). We welcomed our fourth child this year, a boy. We got to go home to see Sean get married. And last but most certainly not least we celebrate our eighth year of marriage. It has been a wonderful and blessed year for us. Next year doesn't show signs of us slowing down one bit. I look forward to another fun filled year.



So here are some photos from when we did our gingerbread men. I couldn't tell which the girls liked more, the decorating or eating the candy pieces. I am also including a random video I took about three weeks ago. It is one of my favorite videos of the kids. I especially love the look of Charlie's face when he sees Jason come through the door (you don't see Jason though).

Faith's 1st gingerbread man

Emma's 1st gingerbread man

Charlie eating a gingerbread man (did you think I would actually let him decorate one. He would probably have ended up with more frosting on him than on the cookie.)

Faith made a gingerbreadman that looks like Grandma. See the cane.

More pictures

I didn't get a chance to include these pictures in my last post, so here they are.

Our Christmas Tree 2008.

The Girls hammin it up.

Holy Smokes Batman, what's wrong?

My favorite picture of Charlie at the pumpkin patch.

Jason kissing the funky looking squash.

Charlie passed out after church.

The Kids enjoying movie night.

Way Over Due

I know that I have been absent from the blogging scence for a while now and I apologize to everyone. Time just seems to slip away from me. So much has been going on its hard to keep up. In October we took the kids to the pumpkin patch. They had a wonderful time. Charlie liked sitting in the wheelbarrow with the pumpkins. The girls had to have their own wheelbarrow to cart around the patch. They all loved putting pumpkins in an out of the wheelbarrows. Amazingly we were actually able to get a picture of all us together.





Just a few days after the pumpkin patch it was off to California for Uncle Sean and Aunt Liz's Wedding. The girls were flower girls and Jason was best man. The girls were so beautiful (thank you Sean and Liz for the dresses). They had a wonderful time getting their hair and make-up done. They even got to ride in a limo to the ceremony. They also loved the reception. They had their own little kids table that they shared with the ring bearers. It had coloring books and crayons, bubbles and toys on it. It also had one more thing, Pixie Sticks. They thought they had gone to heaven. Instead of eating their dinner they filled their bellies mostly with colored sugar. Yeah for Mommy!!!! Daddy was "convientely" seated at the head table and was "unable" to help monitor the girls sugar intake. Needless to say they were on a major sugar rush. All that sugar came in handy for all the dancing they did. The girls partnered off with the ringbearers. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. The kids litterally danced till the party was over. Then they passed out into sugar induced comas. Emma literally fell asleep the minute we picked her up to take her out to the car. It was a wonderful wedding and a great day. Faith also got to celebrate her fifth birthday in California. Nana bought her her very own little Strawberry Shortcake cake. Not only did she get spoiled with gifts, but all the kids did. They had a wonderful time at the party. I'll post pictures as soon as I get them.










Just two days after we got back from California, my family came out to visit. My Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother-in-law and my niece came out. It was so wonderful to have them all here. Faith go to have another birthday party here as well. And of course she got more presents. I think she started to think that every few days it was time to have a party with cake and presents. My family joined us at church for Hyrum's blessing. It was so wonderful to have them there to share that with us. We all were very emotional. It was one of the greatest days we had on their visit. We got to hang out a lot and the kids got to know their cousin. We are trying to convince my sister and brother-in-law to move out here. I'm using every trick in the book to get them out here. I have even offered free babysitting whenever they want. But hey, no pressure. The kids all got to go trick-or-treating together for Halloween. They had so much fun. Faith was Slivermist from the new Tinker Bell movie (in other words she was a fairy). Emma of course had to do the same thing as her sister so she was also a fairy. Charlie was a duck. It was the cutest thing. I can't believe that he actually let us put the hat and the foot covers on him. He didn't even try to take them off. All the guys took the kids while the womenfolk hung back at the house with Hyrum and all the good candy. We loved having all of them here.








So that puts us up to date. Everyone is doing well considering they are all sick. The only healthy people in the house are Hyrum and myself. Faith is enjoying school. Although we are getting a good dose of the "parental curse". You know the one that all of our parents have cast upon us; "I hope you have children just like yourself." Well we got that. Of course it would have been nice to have some of our traits more evenly distributed among the children. The case in point; Faith had received a couple of straight faces and a sad face at school over the last couple of weeks. She received them for getting out of her seat to talk to her friends. I know right about now my parents are cracking up. I used to get in trouble for the same thing. In case that weren't enough Jason was also a talker in class. So we have double the problem. She loves to talk to her friends. I can only imagine what our phone bill will be like when she reaches her teen years. Heaven help us. Emma and Charlie love hanging out together when they aren't fighting. We have a lot of fun together. Emma has really begun to be more of a motherly type since Faith has gone off to school. She very much wants to be just like her sister. Every morning she askes me when she gets to ride the bus with Faith. She can't hardly wait. Neither can I. It will be nice to only have two kids at home next school year. Charlie is such a boy. He is constantly tearing down Emma's "castles" when they are playing with the blocks. Not only does he tear them down he then laughs about it. He also loves to throw anything that remotely looks like a ball. Which means he likes to throw everything. He is such a cutie though. He is also a very loving boy. I love watching him with Hyrum. He is so gentle with him. He loves to rub his head and give him kisses. They will be the best of friends and the worst of enemies I'm sure. Hyrum is doing great. He gets chubbier everyday. I love nibbling on his leg rolls. He is just a great baby. He started smiling about two weeks ago. He has the biggest smile. Right now his favorite thing to smile at is the Christmas tree.

Thanksgiving was great. For the first time we did Thanksgiving with just our "little" family. Now that there are so many of us it feels like we have company over. The kids loved watching us cook all the food. Faith kept saying she couldn't wait to have a feast. She loved telling us (about 100 times) about the Piligrams and the Indians. She even did a little Thanksgiving reenactment with her Little People Thanksgiving set (Thanks again Nana). We all hung out in our pj's all day and stuffed ourselves with lots of yummy food. Next year we'll probably let the girls help out with some of the cooking. I think their favorite part was when I made fresh whipped cream. I put it in a pipping bag to decorate the pie and I had some left over. So naturally I squeased a little into my mouth, you know, quality check. Of course then everyone wanted a little. They pretty much had whipped cream for dessert. I wish we had gotten them on camera enjoying it.

We started decorating the house for Christmas. I tried to convince Jason to start on Thanksgiving. He said he refused to start decorating before the day after Thanksgiving. So Friday we started :). The girls are looking forward to decorating the tree and hanging their stockings. I LOVE Christmas time. Now its time to finish the decorating and start making our gifts for family.

On another note Jason and I will be expanding our family soon. That's right Jason and I are getting a dog (probably). I bet you all thought we were pregnant, didn't you? Her name is Lady and she is a 2 1/2 yr old, pit bull/terrier mix. We have been allowed to keep her for a week to see how we like her. So far she has been wonderful. She is already house trained. She is trained so well that when she has to go outside she rings these bells we have placed on the back door. She then barks at the back door to tell us she is ready to come back inside. She has been great with the kids as well. She loves to follow me around and I think she is closer to me than anyone else. We think she will be a great addition to our family. Once we make a final decision I will post pictures of her.

Well that is it from our house. I am including some recent pictures as well. We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and we hope the Christmas spirit has begun to touch your heart. We love you all.

Emma fell asleep like this one afternoon.

Charlie saying hi.

Daddy and Charlie in their Sunday Best.

My little man in his first suit.

All ready for church.

Hyrum's Big Smile.

Hyrum's first bath.

AAAAHHHH!!!!!

Jason had his first drill for the National Guard this weekend. He left right after work on Friday and is due home tonight. I don't understand why my children choose these times to act out. I think there has been a constant state of crying in my house since the moment he left. The only time it is quite is when they all go to bed in the evening.

I thought that planning fun things for the kids to do while Jason is away would be good motivators to get them to behave, but instead they turned into ungrateful little monsters. On Friday night I let Faith have a sleep over (she got all happy faces this week at school). The minute the sleep over start the fighting began. At some point someone was being left out and was crying. I finally got them all to play together and be quiet. That didn't last long. We went from screaming crying to just plain screaming. I didn't think my kids could get any louder, but I was wrong. I had to shout at the top of my lungs just so that they could hear me tell them to use their inside voices. Faith of course had a smart remark, she said, "Mommy you should use your inside voice too." EXCUSE ME!!! She and I had a little "talk" about telling mommy what to do. The girls finally fell asleep around midnight.

We got to start it all over again on Saturday. This time it was Emma who wanted to be the bigger brat. She was little miss temper tantrum. I think she should win an Oscar for her performances. I tried to get her on video, but ended up deciding it would only encourage her behavior. The girls spent most of the day on time-out. I was so glad when nap time came around. All the kids crashed. That night the girls were being half way decent so I decided to let them watch a movie and have popcorn. Just when I thought I had gotten everyone under control Charlie decides he needs a turn in monster mode. Where the girls were whinny and crying he was destructive and crying. On the bright side he is a little easier to discipline. I just but him to bed super early. I think his teeth are bothering him (he's cutting three more teeth). I pretty sure he is also coming down with a cold.

This morning has been better we only have had one melt down so far. Jason is due home in eight hours. I can't wait till he gets here. It will be nice to have someone help referee. I must admit I have gotten spoiled over the past few months. Jason has been on a day schedule and he hasn't had to go anywhere. I forgot how hard it was without his help. But it was good for me to get a refresher. Jason might be going TDY to Iraq for three months this January. We will find out sometime in the next couple of months for sure.

On a lighter note, Hyrum had his two week check up on Sept 30. He sure is growing fast. He weights 8 lbs 12 oz and was 21 1/2 in long. It's unbelievable how fast they grow. Before I know it he will be as old as Charlie. I'm trying very hard to burn every thing into my memory. I want to enjoy everything about having a newborn in the house. I have to admit that I am a little sad that we won't be having anymore children, but I feel that our family is complete. However, Heavenly Father may have different plans for us down the road.