Happy 1st Birthday Jaclyn!!

There are so many more pictures I want to post and will, but I had to get some of these on here right away!! We celebrated Jaclyn's first birthday a day early with the Palmers and a delicious DQ ice cream cake! Jaclyn enjoyed it and had fun opening her gifts and watching her brother and cousins play with them! She's such a good sharer....but does she really have a choice? :) I can't believe Jaclyn is ONE!!! It hit me when she officially started walking 2 days ago. All in one day, she decided she was going to be done with crawling and walked everywhere!! It is so cute to watch and I can't believe how steady she is! She only has 3 words down...dada, hacey (jacey) and mumumumum (and that's only when she's crying and needs me). She makes the cutest sounds and has the biggest grin! She's a complete flirt with her big eyes and long lashes! We are so in love with her and feel soo blessed to have her in our family! She's such a snuggler and loves to be in our arms. At the same time, she loves exploring and is happiest when she is wherever Jacey is. She plays shy with most people, but has a definite love for a few other people besides her mom, dad and brother. She knows who she trusts! She is the best eater a mother could have, eating anything and everything I give her! She out eats Jacey at every meal! She naps and goes to bed perfectly! She is still waking up every night at least once or twice, but goes back to sleep in seconds when I nurse her. Which I need to stop, but for now I'm too in love with sleep! She still nurses 3 times a day, showing no interest in bottles or sippy cups. I always told myself I'd never have a child over 1 who nursed and here I am with one!! That's gotta end soon! Anyway, those are some of the things about Jaclyn that I wanted to document for her first birthday! We're contemplating having further tests done to see the nature of her possible cyst in her lung. It may or may not still be there, and since she has shown no symptoms of one, we don't know if we should put her through a CT scan and accompanying radiation exposure, just to make sure. The peace of mind would be nice, but is it worth it?? Anyway, Happy Birthday Jaclyn, we love you!!

New Camera

It's my birthday in a couple of weeks but I got to open my present early this year! I've been complaining to Jeffrey about not having any pictures of my kids. For two reasons, one-he is so busy he doesn't get time to take any and two-I have no clue how to use his camera, even on auto I seem to mess it up! So I've been begging for my own little, point and shoot digital camera!! And he got me one!! I'm so excited! It's really really nice too! Here's what it looks like.It's so wonderful! It's 10mp and has complete underwater capabilities up to 10 feet and is shock proof and crush proof! Which is awesome because I've already dropped it and so have my kids! It's a total versatile little thing and can handle a lot of wear and tear. It was quite funny actually, I didn't realize it was waterproof when Jeffrey gave it to me and after he had looked at it and was handing back to me, he "accidentally" dropped it into a glass of water and I FREAKED out!! He of course had a great laugh but then explained it to me! It doesn't look waterproof, you would expect it to be covered in plastic or rubber or something. Anyway, I took it to swimming lessons today and got a few pictures! And since it's so easy to use, I've taken tons of my kids over the past few days! It makes me happy! And although the picture quality is nothing compared to Jeffrey's camera, at least I'm capturing memories. Plus, Jeffrey can always photoshop them anyway, so they still have potential! :) Here are just a few random ones I've taken. My kids are getting so big to me, Jaclyn is starting to walk on her own now without being coaxed and it just hit me that she is actually big enough to be turning one (this saturday)!! They are so much fun and LOVE to play together. They can make each other laugh like nobody else can! It makes my heart happy to watch them!! :)

Annnddd then here's the nice picture!! :) Jeffrey did this one. He looks so angelic, I love it! I wish he was always this angelic. He has been an absolute nightmare lately during the night. Won't go to sleep, wakes up every few hours..ahh!! And I wish I could just let him cry it out, that's how we used to solve this problem, but now he gets out of bed and comes out!! Drives me nuts and I don't know what to do about it! Any helpful sleeping tips would be VERY appreciated! :)

Pics & Swimming

First off, I have been wanting to post these pictures since the weekend, and have only now gotten around to it! Heather was kind enough to take some pictures of our kids, since Jeffrey has been too busy to even open our camera bag! I'm SO glad she is so willing to do that for us, because I love her work! We didn't intend on doing family pics, but we thought we'd jump in for a few anyway. Jacey wasn't really interested in posing well, so we'll definitely have to do some more again later, but they're still cute, so I thought I'd post them anyway. There are more of the kids that will come later, and I'll be sure to post them when they do. Thanks again Heather!!!
I also just wanted to document Jacey's first swimming lesson! My sister, Katie and sister-in-law, Mandi along with their kids Alexa and Brooklyn, and Jacey and I, joined a swimming class together. Since they're so young, we get to be in the water with them! It was so fun! It's at the VRRI, so basically it's like taking a big, warm bath! I was almost too hot! The class is really fun, they learn through songs and games different skills, like floating on back/tummy, blowing bubbles, hopping up and down, splashing, kicking etc. Mostly learning how to be comfortable in the water. I was a little worried about how Jacey would take it, since he hates lying down in the bath, or getting his head wet to rinse all the shampoo out. But he had a blast!! I'm so glad he is really excited about it, I hope it lasts the whole 8 weeks! His favorite part was the 5 minutes they got at the end of the class to go down the slide into the water. He was the first one in line and he went down with zero hesitation!! And he kept going and going! I was so proud of him!! It was a fun mommy moment! :) I'm excited for the following weeks and I hope he keeps progressing and gets more comfortable with his head/face being wet! I'm really excited too, because the week after Jacey's lessons end, Melinda and I are in a class with Claire and Jaclyn!! I wish there were some way I could take pictures!! Oh well! :)

Best Picture of the Year

Well, this week was Jeffrey's birthday, so firstly, happy birthday my love! The two of us went out for a night on the town; dinner at Applebees, which was so so, and a movie. Thank you Mark & Emily for babysitting for us, you're the best!! We decided to go and see Pink Panther 2, we loved the first one and so decided mutually that it'd be an appropriate solution since there didn't seem to be anything good out right now. Boy, was that a bad choice! After about 15 minutes of watching that movie, which really only repeated the same jokes as in the first, we walked out. Jeffrey asked the ticket checker person if we could just go hop into Slumdog Millionaire since it was just about to begin and Pink Panther was lame-o. They didn't seem to mind! So, after 2 more hours had passed, Jeffrey and I found a new favorite movie!It's now no wonder to me why it won EIGHT Academy Awards, including best picture, best song AND best score! The 3 songs I've added to my playlist are all from the soundtrack and remind me sooo much of my mission, they really hit home for me. Anyway, we definitely would recommend this movie to all movie lovers! Just thought I'd share!

Of course...

... my family is sick! Again. We all have had sinus/coughing issues, but starting sunday night some sort of flu began! We spent the weekend in Edmonton at one of Brett's high school basketball tournaments (which he won btw...GO BULLDOGS!!). We went to West Ed for a while, though I'm not sure what we were thinking on a long weekend!! Jacey liked looking around at everything, but it was a struggle to keep him happy in the stroller. We let him out for a bit, but it's a nightmare to keep him going in the direction we want, so we ended up having to buy a bunch of candy to bribe him back into the stroller! :) Anyway...we had the sniffles under control, but sunday night when we got home and into bed, the vomiting began! Jaclyn was up all night getting sick over and over. That continued throughout monday and monday night. Tuesday morning Jacey and Jeffrey joined her. Luckily, I seem to be fine and have been able to tend to all the laundry and cleaning carpets that comes with missing the bucket and not making it to the bathroom in time! Not to mention all the baths that have been given! I haven't been able to keep up with my work out routine, but I've been worked out in a different way I guess. It's sad to see everyone feeling so bad, but I've got to admit, I love the snuggling! Jeffrey had a midterm Tuesday evening and was a trooper and went despite how he was feeling and left me with both kids. I was a little concerned about dealing with them both, especially if they ended up throwing up at the same time, but it was actually the greatest couple of hours!! They both slept in my arms for almost the whole time and I just watched Little House. :) Today started out rough, but I think the worst is over! Both kids have been more active and actually kept down solid foods! I can't wait to get back into our normal routine again. As normal as normal can be. I'm headed to Cardston this weekend with my sisters and my mom for a girls weekend! I'm looking forward to the break from my house and one child (I am taking Jaclyn with me as I am still her lifeline...she won't take the bottle) but I can't even think about being away from Jeffrey without tearing up, so I won't mention that part of it. Oh wait, I just did. :( Anyway, I think the break will be so good for me! Jeffrey and I don't even go on dates, so I am ALWAYS with my kids. And even though Jaclyn will be with me, having just one kid will be break enough. Plus there will be 6 other women I can hand her off to, hopefully, who can share the "burden" with me. As if Jaclyn's a burden. :) I'm actually hoping to get her sleeping through the night while I'm there. I'm taking advantage of being with my sisters, who don't mind a crying baby in the night. I'd say I'd post pictures of our weekend when I get back, but I probably won't take any. :) Actually I know I won't. But maybe I'll have a few stories to share. We'll see!

This is Jacey's piggy bank from Nana. It's actually what he calls his Mission Bank. If you can't tell, it's a missionary, he's got a tag and he's holding a Book of Mormon. Jacey doesn't know what a mission is yet, but he LOVES to collect money from anywhere he can find it, wallets, coats, drawers etc and put it in his mission bank! I hope he continues to be as enthusiastic about it later on in life, as he is right now!
My sick, snuggly baby. She is irresistable!
I don't know if it's big enough to tell, but this picture shows Jacey's eye colors really well. His eyes are two different colors, one is green with a smidgen of brown and the other is completely brown. I hope he's never bothered by it, because I think it's beautiful!!



UPDATE: I spoke too soon, both my kids threw up again tonight at bedtime. :(

It's My Turn!

I have complained for 10 months now, actually 2 years, about being overweight and feeling badly about myself. And for some reason, all of the reasons why I hate my weight and body have never been enough to do anything about it. UNTIL NOW!! I have totally come to a new point in my life where I actually WANT to work out and lose weight! And feel good about ME! Sunday night I was at my parents house for dinner and I made my sisters let me feel their stomachs. And man, do they have abs of steel or what!! And two of them have had FIVE kids each!!! After feeling depressed about that for a while, I decided I was just going to do it! So that night when I knelt in prayer, I PLEADED with Heavenly Father to help me keep the motivation and the will and the desire to work out every day and to watch what I eat. I know that I can't go on an extreme diet and only eat protein, or cut out the majority of good stuff I like to eat. That's not realistic for me at all! So my food goal is to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner (just good, healthy food). And have a snack either in the morning, or in the afternoon, maybe both depending on what it is. Keeping it around 1500 calories/day. Then after dinner I can't have anything but water until breakfast time. For exercise, I'll do a 30 minute cardio workout of some sort and then on top of that, pushups, situps and arm dips things. I don't know how to say it, but you know, you put your arms behind you on a chair and dip yourself down, then back up again. To work the triceps. Anyway, with those goals and myfitnesspal.com to help me keep track, I'm destined to lose a pound a week! This way, I can always keep them off! I have to have it fit my life style, or it won't happen! Now it's only been two days since I've started, but I feel really good about it!! I know this is it! I AM going to lose weight!! Everyone says the first day and the first week are the hardest, but I haven't felt that way yet! In fact, I'm sad that I've already worked out today, I wish I could just skip to that part of every day and do it again!! I know it's because I included Heavenly Father in my plans! He really has the power to do anything and if our desires are righteous...and I believe mine are!!...He can bless us with all sorts of miracles!! I've been so jealous of my sisters and others who have been so dedicated and reaped the wonderful rewards of weight loss and getting in shape...but now it's my turn!! If there's anyone out there who finds themselves in my position, do it with me!!!! It'll be SO worth it!! I'd post a before picture, but since I still hate my body, I won't! But when I've reached my goal, I will post the before and after picture for you all to see! Wish me luck!!

Why Not?

The first 5 people to respond to this post will receive something made by me to you....my choice...made especially for you.

Of course there are some restrictions and limitations:

1 I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2 What I create will be just for you.
3 It will be done sometime this year.
4 You have no clue what it will be... it may be a story; it may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something; I may bake something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure.
5 I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on their blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!!

Oh and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!!