Our Funny Family

James is officially HALF WAY through his academy!!

Life here has hit a good groove. I feel like James and I are on the same page and even though we are very much living separate lives right now, we are still connected and united.

The kids and I have hit a good groove too. I have finally started getting up early! 5:15 am I feed the baby, pray and study my scriptures, workout, and then shower all before the rest of the clan is up! Having all this time to get centered and take care of myself has revolutionized my day and my mothering. I am so less stressed out or resentful because I'm not trying to take care of all my stuff while four children also need my attention! NOW, I just need to get to bed earlier so I can be consistent with this new routine! I have set up a study area next to my bed and am beginning my study of the Doctrine and Covenants tomorrow. I am very excited as this is the only standard work of the Church I have not read in its entirety! I'm not sure how that is possible, but I am going to remedy that next year. James suggested I use the Institute manual, and I am going to do just that. I am also going to set up my workout area the night before with the DVD that I need and all the equipment ready to go. With a plan and a little preparation there will be no room for error!

The kids and I have been having our Family Home Evening lessons regularly. Every Monday night we set aside some time for a little lesson or activity to help bring us together or to work on things that will make our family stronger. We wrote a family mission statement a few family nights ago. I've been wanting to do that for years, and it actually came out very smoothly and simply. The children wrote part of it, and we have started reciting it at our family devotionals each morning. The first part says, "As we strive to be obedient, respectful, and grateful we will create a loving and happy home..." Savanna came up with this part! We have been taking the opportunity this holiday season to focus on the gratitude aspect of our family mission statement. We made a list of 100 things we were grateful for on this white board. It didn't take long at all and the kids were amazed at how much they were grateful for when we were done! I had this grandiose idea of memorizing The Living Christ as a family. I figured if we focused on Christ we would be the most obedient, respectful, and grateful family around! I think it was a little to much to tackle right now, so we've decided instead to memorize several verses in Doctrine and Covenants Section 88 that discuss how the Lord wants us to organize our homes to be more like the temple and focused more on Christ. So far we have memorized verses 119 and 120- I'm feeling impressed with ourselves!

Darn camera blurs 9 out of 10 of the pictures I take! Any way, our sweet Emma Leigh is doing well. She recovered from her illnesses and is toddling around causing destruction everywhere she goes! Just this past week it has been especially destructive. I turn my head for a minute and ALL the DVDs are on the floor or all my Tupperware is scattered around the kitchen. Toys are everywhere, and she has just figured out how to open her dresser and loves to take out all her clothes and unfold all of her blankets and carry them around with her! All harmless and pretty easy to pick up, but it is a continual battle! On a happier note, due to my new morning routine, she now sleeps from 7:15 pm to 5:15am, nurses, and then goes back to bed until 8:15! It's wonderful, and she is so much happier in the mornings now that she is getting more sleep (and so am I)!

Benjamin is still playing basketball and assures me every week that he is the best player and can make a goal any time he wants (I keep telling him they're not called goals, but he still calls them that). He keeps trying to find ways to go back on the roof. He took off his shirt while jumping on the trampoline and threw it up on the roof. He comes running in and tells me he has to go on the roof to retrieve it. I don't think so, Ben. Nice try. Good job losing your shirt! He is such a funny kid. I had to make a return the other day. All the children were speculating whose gift I was returning and if it was because they had done something wrong. Benjamin informed Savanna that it was her present I was taking back because she isn't grateful and doesn't take care of her crap! Oh my...I wonder WHERE he heard that! I'm working on being more subtle and diplomatic in my comments to my children...it's a definite work in progress. :)

Speaking of Savanna...we went to Vons last night and the bag boy was totally flirting with her! She was giggling and smiling at him (in fact, she didn't STOP smiling all night)! He was at least 17 or 18...not cool! I know she is a beauty, but she is still so young to me when I look at her. It is all happening so fast. I don't think I'm ready!

Bradley is doing so well at his piano! Like everything that boy does, he gives it his all! He is getting so excited about his baptism! He will be getting baptized January 21st at 11am. He is also excited about starting cub scouts. We are going to get his uniform and all of his patches and accessories next week so he is ready to start right after he turns 8! He will be a wolf. I don't know much about cub scouts but I have signed up to be a parent committee member and have a feeling I am going to learn quickly!

Emma still loves Marley!

That's the skinny, folks!

December 12 - 22, 2011

Emma is 11 Months Old!

He she is, our little princess! Almost 1 year old! We can't even believe it!! Here she is smiling her cute face off on the way home from getting pictures taken (where she refused to smile even one time)! Emma is very shy and pensive around people she doesn't know very well. Plus, she had just gotten woken up from her nap, and there was a lot of activity around her. We are going to try again soon but in the meantime, this is what you get!

I am going to try to get her sweet voice on video. She has this high-pitched, squeaky voice. Her new phrase of the week is "Uh-Oh, Doggie." Well, she actually says, "Uh-Uh Dodee" which means "Uh-oh, Doggie." She says that whenever she sees Marley. She LOVES Marley, and asks for him first thing every morning.

On a sadder note, we had to get rid of our second dog, Frodo, last week. It was a heart-wrenching decision, but it became obvious several weeks into having him in our home that he had experienced some sort of trauma. He became more and more skittish and aggressive. He especially was nervous around Emma and tried to bite her several times. He did bite one of the missionaries and broke the skin. I was sad to see him go, but it couldn't be helped. :( Marley is handling being alone again very well. He is actually so much less anxious. I think having Frodo in our home for a couple of months did him some good. Please send Frodo good thoughts and prayers that a wonderful person(s) without small kids will adopt him!

More hip clothes from Grandma and Auntie Marsha for her birthday! I am officially in-love with leggings. They are so stinking cute, and they protect her chubby legs on this hard tile!

Here is another birthday present, a month early! Daddy had to do some fixes to it (bought if off of craigslist), and I have special ordered a couple parts to make it complete, but once we cleaned it up it turned out pretty cute! We have since moved it outside. Emma doesn't seem to like it as much outside. She hates grass, and refuses to sit or crawl on it. If someone puts her on it, she will lift and hold up her legs so they don't touch the blades. She can hold them up for a really long time! She has some serious core muscles!

The boys fight over who gets to take a bath with Emma. I won't let them both do it at the same time. They are too crazy.

Emma had a play date with her friend, Aurora. James and I were really surprised at how possessive and aggressive Emma acted. She kept grabbing toys from Aurora and trying to pull her hair (I guess it was pay back. Aurora crawled over to her at church a week ago and pushed her over and smacked her in the face!). Aurora handled it very well, and eventually even was able to hang onto a few toys despite Emma's efforts! Oh, learning to socialize is fun!!

Here is daddy putting Emma to bed! Her sleep training is going fabulous. She now sleeps (well, she is in her crib with no milk- some times there is still tears) from 7:30pm to 6am! I am planning to stretch that until 7am in the next week! I still wake up when she fusses, but I can't even believe how much better I feel already! And it wasn't even as bad as I had imagined it was going to be!!

Emma loves her little board books. It's so adorable to see her looking at them. I especially love it when she "reads" them upside down. :)

(There's the little tongue!)

(And, again!)

July 14- July 25, 2011

It's Been TWO Weeks?

It seems like I just blogged, but then I looked at the last post date and it was two weeks ago! Well, you can tell we have been busy! I will once again, give you the highlights (plus, a ton of pictures of Emma!):

Emma is growing by leaps and bounds. She recently started talking. She will mimic many sounds and words such Mama, Dada, Dog, Nigh Nigh (night night), Hi, and Up. Her little voice is seriously cute!!

Can you tell that she likes to stick her tongue out a lot? :)

Her sleep training is going SO well! I can't tell you how much I love my Sis Wendy for helping me so much with this overwhelming task. Last night Emma slept from 7pm to 3am with no crying (she has NEVER slept this long in her entire life!), and then went back to bed until after 7am! A couple more nights like this and I will feel like a new woman. :)

This is Emma's favorite thing to play with- our DVD collection! Out goes the DVDs one by one...it's never-ending fun!

Emma loves crawling around in our front yard. She especially likes all of our new rocks. She will pick one up and then another and another. She hates our grass, however. She will crawl over and touch it, but she refuses to sit on it! Very funny.

Trip to Costco!

This is a funny story. A couple days ago we get a picture and a text of Bradley's cousin Hannah hugging a giant teddy bear. It looked like she was in a store, but we couldn't tell where. In the text they wrote, "Hannah loves you THIS much!" When we saw the exact same bear in our Costco, we had to send them a picture with the text, "Well, Bradley loves you THIS much!"

We got a killer deal on strawberries so we spent an entire Saturday (and I do mean an ENTIRE Saturday) making jam, syrup, dehydrating strawberry slices, and bagging up the rest in freezer bags for our smoothies! I wish I could say we'd be set for awhile, but we only ended up with 8 jars of jam and 3 of them turned black...not sure what I'm doing wrong here...I hope they taste good!

Big Goof with Lil' Goof. :)

Well, our big news is James and I are finally sick and tired of being sick and tired (and fat)! We have committed to a fitness program and we are starting tomorrow at 5:30 am sharp! I am very excited to get back into shape both exercise and diet wise. I am reading the classic nutrition book "Fit for Life," and have been applying it's principles for the past 2 weeks. It's right up my alley as far as being a whole foods, high plant-based diet/lifestyle. It also focuses on eating foods in the right combinations and at the right times to facilitate digestion and thus free up energy to burn fat and detoxify the body. It's fascinating.

James and I are doing another Tony Horton program called Power Half Hour. It is a 30 minute workout targeting your arms, abs, thighs, and buns, 6 days per week for 4 weeks, followed by 1 recovery week (mild exercise plus lots of stretching). I am going to continue my running 3 times a week as well. Our hope is to shed some pounds and inches, and be prepared to start p90x or a comparable program in 5 weeks! Thanks to my Sis Heath and her hubby Nelson for all the support and advice! They are both coaches for the company Beachbody that produces all of these great in-home workouts. James and I are going to sign up on Friday to become coaches as well. They have an incredible line of health supplements in addition to their DVDs. We are hoping to utilize their products to maximize our results, and then share our success with others. It's time to start practicing what I've been preaching, folks!

Peek-a-Boo!

Puzzle Time!

Okay, so we now have a huge Spiderman tent in our living room. Why, you ask? We were, for a short period of time, a normal family. We even had a large couch and coffee table in our living room (like normal families have). However, we discovered two things this week that have caused us to be less than normal. The first was that we have mice scurrying around our house, and the second was that there was large tear in the bottom of our couch where mice could easily crawl up and make a perfect nest! So out went the couch, and in came several mouse traps. We have gotten a couple mice, but I fear there are more. I really don't like having mice crawling around...I love animals, but let's face it, it's creepy and gross.

So, Bradley designed our new empty living room. Hence the Spidey tent. He also added a mini Foosball Table, books, and toys. It's basically a playroom. I'm fine with it. Emma adores it, and we put a rug and her soft puzzle mats in there to cushion her falls. And it's not like we aren't going to move everything around in a couple weeks any way like usual! But just a heads up if you come to visit, we have no couch! We do have a love seat in our den/nursery/school room or you can relax in our lovely dining room with your pick of 5 cushioned chairs!

Savanna survived her trek! The whole time she was gone, Benjamin was making up songs about her and the trek. My favorite was "Savanna's gonna be eaten by a crocodile!" He's a funny kid. But, no, fortunately she was not eaten by a crocodile. She actually had an amazing time. She was tested physically and emotionally, and surprised herself as she rose to the challenge and finished the trek strong! She even had hurt her knee a few days before and managed to walk the entire way while many of the other girls opted to get in some of the vehicles that went along with the companies. Savanna gave a really sweet talk about her experience at both Girl's Camp and Youth Trek on Sunday during Sacrament meeting. And, she really has changed since she has been home. She missed her siblings greatly and has been very sweet with them. She also has been extremely helpful and SO grateful.. I like!

We hit the beach on Sunday for some much needed R & R. Savanna has made good friends with a 14 year old Swedish foreign exchange student named Anni. Anni is a very sweet girl, and we enjoyed talking with her and learning more about her country. She informed us that everything here in the U.S. is bigger than in Sweden. The people are bigger, the cars are bigger, the stores and food portions are bigger...ah, to be remembered for that! Another reason we are starting our exercise program!!

Emma loved the beach! She loved all the different textures, and any time anyone would dig a hole she would crawl over and sit right in it!!

Emma loves her new toy- Thanks Auntie!

Emma's Belly Laugh!

I've never heard her laugh this hard- so priceless!

June 30 - July 13, 2011