Birthdays X 2

The week after Christmas I also have 2 birthdays in my house, yes i realize that was fantastic planning ~ or lack of planning but it is all good. My Joquelle turned 9!! I cannot believe it. They just keep getting older, it does not stop. It seems like time just keeps going faster and faster. When they were young I just kept wishing for them to get older so they could get their own drinks or get themselves dressed~ now it seems I am trying to hold on to time as I realize in the blink of an eye they will all be gone. If we could only be happy with the present!

Then my baby turned 5! Same story! I just love these girls to death. They are best buds and Joquelle is such a good little mom to Shelby. They get along so well. I love my girls!!

Merry Christmas and sickness all around

Christmas this year was fantastic. The kids are really getting fun!! They all took turn opening their presents and were excited about everything they got. Jared took great care of me. He always does the cutest things! I am a lucky girl!!

The day after Christmas Jared and I woke up at 3 am sicker then dogs!! It was horrible!! Each of the kids, except Brett, have taken their turns with this awful sickness, thankfully it didn't last to long.

New Family pictures

We just had new pictures taken. These are just a few of my favorites. There are more to come.

Thanksgiving 2009

Sometimes I take things for granted, ok all of the time I take things for granted. I have so much to be grateful for.. As I have started working in the home health field along with my job at the hospital, I have learned so many things that I knew I should be thankful, but just did not really realize how truly great a blessing they really were.

1. I am SO thankful that I have family whom I love so much and that THEY LOVE ME BACK!! I have seen some very sad cases of some very lonely people who want nothing more than a call or visit from their family. I appreciate and love my family SO much.

2. I am thankful for my husband who treats me way better then I deserve! If anyone really had any idea what a wonderful husband he is to me, I fear there would be some extremely envious wives :) It makes me sad to see spouses treated poorly.

3. I am thankful for my Health!! Sometimes I complain because I have to work, but how thankful I should be that I CAN work.

4. I am thankful for a warm home. I love that it is a place my children can feel safe and know that they have food to eat, clothes to wear and especially parents who love and adore them.

5. I am thankful for my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the peace it brings to me in a world, where often times, there is very little peace.

Happy Thanksgiving to all..

It's "ring" day today at preschool

So I have to apologize as it seems I blog an awful lot about my youngest, Shelby, but one must realize she is home with me most of the time~ If only they had such thing as a blog when my others were younger.

Shelby loves girly things~ she is all girl. The more girly and pink and lacy, the better in her eyes. Shelby loves my wedding ring. She is always asking if she can wear it. Having already lost a wedding ring, thanks to Brett, well and me for leaving it on the dresser, I am very cautious about my ring. This morning Shelby once again asked me if she could wear it. I of course told her no. Being the persistent little thing that she is, she asked again, I told her no. "Please please please please mommy, can I wear your ring?" NO! Then I see the wheels start turning.... "But mom, it is ring day at preschool" Wow!! She almost had me on that one. I almost believed her. :) One of these days in the not to distant future, I have a feeling she might get me.

Brett and Sharpay...how romantic

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A zombie, a D-will, a cowgirl and a vampire....Oh my

Halloween this year was fun. I have to admit that I am not really a fan of Halloween. It is definitely not my favorite holiday, but I remember loving it as a kid, as do my kids, so I enjoy it for them. Because it was on a Saturday this year, we dressed them up a few times. They did not have school on Friday, so they dressed up Thursday for school and then Saturday for a party at my moms and trick or treating.

My mom has a had a little party since the kids were small, I say little, but really it is not. It is huge!! The reason it is so big is the number of people in my family. I come from a family of 8 kids and you can imagine how quickly the nieces and nephews come. Let me figure it out, currently there are 26 grandkids with one on the way. It is constantly changing and therefor not easy to recall at any given moment. It is chaos, I will admit, but SO much fun!! I would not have it any other way and the kids have SO much fun with all of their cousins, as do I with my brothers and sisters and in-laws.

We went trunk or treating with Amy and Jamon at their church. I am sorry, but once again, I love it because you get a lot of candy FAST, and I am all about fast!! The kids are happy and we were able to still go and see Jared's parents and visit. It was a good day!


I had to throw in the picture of the pumpkin that I carved. If you can't tell it is a picture of a boxer. I have never really attempted to carve anything but your typical eye, nose, mouth pumpkin, but I found a template for this and gave it a whirl. I think it turned out well and the kids were thrilled. I was their hero for a day with this one. It made it all worth it. They love their dog!!

Yearly trip to the punkin' patch

This weekend we took the kids to the pumpkin patch. It is one of our traditions. We rode the wagon out to the pumpkin patch and picked out our pumpkins. We then bought ourselves some pumpkin donuts and cookies. They were SO tasty!! It was such a nice weekend!!

The Jazz open practice and Where's Shelby

So today we went up to the ESA to watch the Jazz play in their open practice. It was a lot of fun and free, so who can beat that. The kids, especially the boys, are always just thrilled to walk into the ESA and see their team, it is fun to see their faces light up when they see the players and of course the Jazz bear.









They were interviwing the players before the scrimmage and we got to see that, they also had a rookie dance off which was funny as well.

My favorite part, I have written before how Shelby has this thing with Jared and I. She does not like the fact that we kind of like each other. I simply wanted to get a picture of Jared and I at the game and all we got was these pictures of us with Jared trying to keep her out of the picture. Oh this girl is so funny, but so crazy!! I love her though!

GO ATLANTA FALCONS!!

I would like to announce that we are the newest fans of the Atlanta Falcons. This may seem quite random and I have to admit that it is, but I must explain. We are HUGE sports fans and I absolutely LOVE football. We follow BYU and college football, but I always feel left out on Sunday and Monday night when all the NFL teams play because to be honest with you there is not really an NFL team that we have preferred to watch. I told Jared that we HAVE to have a team. I didn't really care who. I came up with the idea that we would choose an NFL team by picking one out of a hat. Obviously it is apparent that the Atlanta Falcons won and now we are their biggest fans, GO MATT RYAN!! (I just learned he was their quarterback)

Don't be surprized if next year we are the biggest fans of a different team. It may become a new tradition to pick our team yearly. It will be our tradition. But for now it is the Falcons!!! GO FALCONS!!!

Watching lots o' kids

This weekend we have had the pleasure to watch my sisters kids. She has 6 kids, so as you can see 6+4=10. 10 kiddies! That is a whole lot of kids. These kids are so cute. There are 5 girls and then finally a boy! The kids have so much fun together. The first 4 kids are almost identical in age as our kids. Brett and the cousin his age are three months apart. Joquelle and the cousin her age are 5 days apart, Trevor and the cousin his age are one month apart and Shelby and the cousin her age are 5 months apart. They love playing together, it is so much fun for them!

Shelby and Preschool and more evidence I need a new camera

Here is the Shelber Lynn on her first day of preschool this year. She loves to go to school! I wish you could see her face a little better and that the picture was not so blurry!! I am bound and determined to fix this problem one way or another!!

Kids first day of school

Well, I guess the first day of school is always a great place to start. I have also come to the conclusion that I really need a new camera PRONTO!! This one is old and works only half the time, plus, it has gotten where the pictures are blurry, or maybe the photographer is a major moron! Here are the three oldest and they are getting SO old!! I guess that means I am too! :( Brett is in 5th grade, Joquelle in 3rd, and Trevor in 2nd. Shelby is in preschool and just had her first day. I will post a picture of her as well.

Maybe a blog has some worth...

Ok. So I think maybe that I should blog...Hello I am an idiot. I had decided I was done, that there was really no use for it, but the fact of the matter is that you write down little things on a blog that you would not remember otherwise. I am not a very good scrapbooker, I want to be, but I am not. I figure if I am going to be on the computer anyway, I might as well be doing something somewhat useful, like working on my own blog instead of reading others. Well, here is to a new start. I will attempt to update somewhat since I had not posted anything since February. More to come.

These are one of my favorite things! My running shoes. These shoes have run hundreds of miles with me. I have had these shoes way longer than you should keep a pair of running shoes. I have had good intentions of buying a new pair, in fact I have tried several on, I just can't seem to find any that I love quite as much as this pair. Each time I put these shoes on, they bring back a lot of memories...But it is reallt time to retire them .

Healthcare Worker vs Mother

I am tired. I am always tired!...No I am not pregnant! My work schedule is such that I work every Saturday and Sunday night. It works great for my family and I just get my days over with and am home during the week. However, during those 2 days of work I usually get a combined 6-8 hours of sleep. I then go back to my regular sleeping schedule. I am always so tired that I never have had a hard time switching schedules, whenever my head hits the pillow I fall asleep, no matter what time of day it is, but that is just the problem. If I am sitting at home on the couch, I fall asleep, if I try reading a book, I fall asleep. If I try to enjoy a movie~whether on video or at the movie theatre~ I fall asleep. It is quite a miserable feeling. It is interesting that just a couple days like that will screw me up so bad! The other interesting thing is how dang fast the days off go. It seems like just when I am getting back to normal and feeling a little better it is time to go again.

Oh well, as hard as it can be, I really enjoy my job. ~Even if it is CRAZY busy this time of year with all the RSV and fun going around. I am grateful especially, that I have this job. Especially in this economy. It is nice to have a job that I can work as much or as little as I like. I get such satisfaction in helping, especially the kids I take care of.

I had an interesting thing happen this week.. Brought things into perspective for me. It is an interesting difference~ The life between a healthcare worker and a mother. I deal with sick kids on a weekly basis. Kids who are sick and need IV's, kids who need blood drawn for tests, kids that have to get catheters put in them, spinal taps, C paps, all kinds of medication....and heaven forbid, kids that just aren't doing to well have to be transported to a higher level of care. As a healthcare worker, I have sympathy for the parent sitting, watching their child be tortured. However, I also understand the things that are being done are necessary in order for this child to get better. Honestly, it is not my favorite thing to give a newborn baby a scalp IV, but I know that it is necessary, so I do it..I don't really think about it.

I have been pretty lucky. My kids are relatively healthy. None if my children have ever had to be admitted to the hospital. Shelby had been sick for over a week and I finally decided to take her to the doctor. She had strep (I thought so) The Dr asked me if I wanted to give her a 10 day treatment of an oral antibiotic, or a S.H.O.T-spelled out of course. I told him the second one. Shelby had absolutely NO idea what was coming. It did not help when the nurse came in and I told her she would be getting a shot, Joquelle screamed and freaked her out even more.. Shelby got the shot right in her hip.. She screamed and cried and looked at me like "mom, how could you" my kids have had shots before, but in that moment..My heart really went out to all the mothers of the kids I have had to take care of. It is a HARD thing to watch your child go through pain and believe me....I have had to do much worse to many kids.. To all of the children I have ever had to be mean to, I am sorry~ To the mothers....I feel for you and I am REALLY sorry..

Valentines Day.....Bah Humbug!!!!

This post might seem kind of weird. I have to admit that maybe it is... Today is Valentines Day...Today is also the day that Jared and I decided would be the last Valentines Day that we celebrate...I don't know what it is, but Valentines Day NEVER seems to work out for us. It seems that every time we make plans to go out, something comes up..This year, Shelby has been sicker than a dog..Jared had made plans to take me out..He always does, however, they had to be cancelled. I am fine with that, believe me there are worse things in life to worry about. We can always go out another day. Now for the real reason for this post......Its going to get pretty sappy now, those who don't like sappy may want to log off now....

I don't need Valentines Day. I don't need a day where my husband can bring me some flowers and tell me he loves me. I am the luckiest girl in the world because he tells me he loves me

EVERYDAY. Not just once., not just twice....most days probably 20 times (this really is no exaggeration) Not only does he tell me he loves me he compliments me WAY more than I should be. I would really love to find someone in this world that knows her husband loves her more than I know mine loves me!!! I try to give my husband the same kind of love..In this, I know I fall short. I have the best husband in the world and he truly is my BEST BEST friend!!! I could not be more grateful for him....With that said, good-bye stinkin Valentines Day!!! We don't need you! No more worries about whether we will be able to go out, or get each other the right gifts...I LOVE YOU JARED!!

Ms. Shelby.....a little jealous...

So its safe to say that my little 4 year old is a little jealous. What is she jealous of you ask? That would be the fact that my husband loves me. She doesn't like it when we hug or kiss. When Jared gives me a hug you can bet that Shelby will be hugging us both at our knees. When he kisses me she needs a kiss as well. Last week when Jared told me how beautiful he thought I was, Shelby started to cry and say "dad doesn't think I am beautiful." Jared had to reassure her that he thinks she is and to never think any different! This has been an issue that seems to be progressively getting more and more intense..

Sunday was the icing on the cake. Jared and I were sitting with the kids in Sacrament meeting. Jared was holding my hand during the sacrament. He had been holding it for a while when all of the sudden he whispers my name and nods his head down to our hands. Shelby, who was sitting between us had somehow slid her hand in between our hands so that we, in essence, were holding hers. We had not even noticed and we were laughing so hard.. She is such a funny girl..

Hawaii......Holy fun!!!.

I must say that Hawaii was so so much fun. We took so many pictures and so did my family. We all sent each other our pictures and it is fair to say I have way to many. I also posted way to many. I couldn't pick just a few because I want to document all the fun! I wouldn't anyone for logging off now..but I am saving me some memories, so here we go!

We hiked Diamond head. It has a fantastic view of Honolulu. This is a picture of me and Jared, my brother Daniel and my sister Andrea and her husband Aaron. It was beautiful. These pictures do not do justice!

Me and Jared in front of Hanuma bay. It is a very popular site to go snorkeling. Jared LOVES to snorkel. It is one of his favorite things in the world. Personally, I am not such a fan. I find myself closing my eyes because I do not want the fish to touch me. I am such a wimp, I know!

We had lunch at a Vietnamese place. We did this because my younger brother went on his mission to Cambodia and speaks Vietnamese. He loves to go and talk to the people and wanted to eat some food from the mission. The bowl below is a dish called Pho pronounced "Fu" is that awesome of what. I personally did not try Fu, but I did have another dish. I was so proud of myself. Generally I will not try anything new. It was pretty good.

We went whale watching. It was awesome. You can't get to close to the whales, there are laws against it, but we saw them fairly close.



Jared was spoiled. He got to golf at Turtle Bay not once, but twice. He also loves to golf so this was quite the treat for him. They have 2 courses there and he was able to golf both of them.

On the last day that we were there we went deep sea fishing. It was also fun~boy that word gets a little redundent! Me and Jared, Andrea and Aaron and Daniel all went out for 4 hours. We only got one smaller fish. The thing that stinks is that we had hooked a Marlin. We could see it jumping out of the water, but the dang thing got away. That was the one fish we were all hoping that we could catch. It was still a really cool experience. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Daniel got quite sick~I don't know that he would!

Below is a picture of the boat we rode in with the fishing poles attached.

These pictures are of Jared and I in front of the entrance to get into our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott Ko Olina Beach resort. This is actually part of my parents time share. It was an awesome place to stay. It was a little outside of Honolulu so it was not right down in all of the congestion. It has it's own private beach so it is far less crowded. Also, they are like little condos so you have a kitchen and everything. It was great.. I really liked staying there. One of my favorites!!


This picture below cracks me up. Jared says this is how I am every time he tries to kiss me. That is SO not true!

My sister took this pic of me and Jared at the Polynesian Cultural center.

Here are all of us also in front of the hotel.

More pictures of us fishing.

The one and only fish that we caught. Jared had the pleasure of reeling that baby in (above) lucky him!

Here we are in front of Pearl Harbor. We had been there before, but I had forgotten how tragic this was. My grandpa passed away this past year. He was a survivor of Pearl Harbor. I think maybe that is why it had a little more meaning to me. I really enjoyed it.

The whole crew... Left to right. Ryan, Colette (brother and sister-in-law) Nathan and Christina (brother and sister-in-law) Mom and dad. Andrea and Aaron, Jared and I and Daniel.

Me and Dan just chillin in the car.

Me Andrea and Dan at the Swap meet.

Me Dan and my mom at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Jared and I the Polynesian Cultural Center.

At the swap meet Jared got his teeth whitened. Now if that does not look high tech I don't know what does. A lawn chair under a tarp, what more could you ask for? I am really praying they don't fall out.

Me and Dan once again, fishing before he got sick!

Pearl Harbor. I am sorry these pictures are all in a pretty random order. One of the most eventful parts of our trip was the flight home. Our flight went out at 11:40 Friday night. About an hour into our flight they came over the intercom and announced that there was a problem with the fuel gage and that they did not feel comfortable flying over the Pacific Ocean and they would have to turn around. We went back to Honolulu and they cancelled our flight. They gave us each one hundred dollar vouchers and put us up in a hotel. We got to spend an additional day. To be honest with you I was pretty ready to go back at that point. I missed my kids!!! We were so happy to see them when we finally got back.