Too Busy

So I'm horrible about keeping my blog updated. And to be honest, I don't see that changing anytime soon! I'm just too busy. Claire is in Kindergarten for half days right now, and Elijah has preschool for about 4 hours a week. You'd think that would free up some time, but now I feel like I spend all my time running kids back and forth. I have a zillion things that I need to do before January (when baby # 3 arrives). It's overwhelming to even think about. Throw Thanksgiving and Christmas into the mix, and I think I would just like to hibernate for the next 2 months. Maybe 2011 will bring a more updated blog....I won't hold my breath!

My Crazy Life!

I was informed by someone that I needed to update my blog (cough, Jessica) so I figured it was time for an update. I'm not even sure if anyone still follows this, but oh well!
So since I last posted, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Ogden with my Dad and Step-mother. We got a new puppy, Jasper. He is a little bit of a handful at times, but we love him most of the time. Depends on what pair of shoes he ate that day. I don’t think there is anything that this dog wouldn’t eat. He coughed up some play food of Claire and Elijah’s that was stuck in his throat just last night. Claire likes to have Jasper sleep in her bed, but he is getting so big that he is taking up more of the bed then she is! He is part Great Dane, part Lab (we think…that part is a little bit more of a question mark)







Jasper is about 10 times the size now as he was in this picture

We took a roadtrip to Indiana in December for Christmas. It was a LONG drive (24 hours of driving split into 2 days each way) The way home was much worse since we encountered some of the crazy storms that hit the Midwest in December. But we survived! Thank goodness for our Honda Pilot. Without the 4-Wheel drive, I don’t know that we could have survived without an accident. Iowa and Chicago were a nightmare to drive through. We bought our Pilot about a week before vacation, so it was pretty good timing.


Christmas was a lot of fun. It was good to get out there and spend some time with Chris’s family.


After Christmas, we acquired one of my dad’s cats, Jezzie (short for Jezebel). Claire had been dying for a kitty, and my dad was eager to get rid of one of his, so it was a perfect match. Jezzie has always loved attention, but I don’t think she was prepared for all the attention she gets from Claire and Elijah. She loves to sit on my lap and be petted, but if she hears one of the kids coming, she darts away to hide. Both of the kids adore her so hopefully she will love them as much as they love her.

Nothing too exciting has been going on this year. Just sitting back and watching Claire and Elijah grow and learn. It’s crazy to see Elijah have conversations with me now, and Claire preparing for Kindergarten in the fall (she was very disappointed when I told her she wouldn’t be staring in April when she turned 5, which is what she expected). Elijah will be starting Preschool at our local community center in the fall. Well, if we can get him interested in potty training. He currently has zero interest in using a potty. But he enjoys, on occasion, putting on his Thomas the Train underpants over his diaper. Elijah is 2 ½, and with that comes the joy of tantrums. But I’ll take it, because he is just the sweetest little boy I’ve ever met. He loves his mama, and is always giving me the best hugs and kisses. Especially when he knows he has been naughty. Claire turns five later this month. Seriously….where did the time go. I remember all those milestone moments over the years, and it seems impossible that she is old enough to be starting school this year. Although sometimes I feel like I’m already raising a 14 year old girl, since I get slammed doors when she gets in trouble, and I have been informed that I’ve ruined her life on one occasion. I’m a little afraid of what the teen years will actually bring. Despite the extra emotions that I get while raising a girl, she is a good girl. She is always helping to take care of her brother, and surprisingly they play really well together. She is my little social butterfly and loves her little friends. There is a little boy at her preschool named Evan that she just adores (and he adores her too). She says he is her best friend, but if you ask her if he is her boyfriend, she gets a horrified look on her face and says that she will never kiss boys! When I asked her if she was going to marry Evan, she said not until she gets older….like 8 or 9. She informed me later that she was going to marry her daddy instead. I hope she keeps the same opinion on kissing that she has now, for a very long time. I doubt I will be that lucky, though.





As for Chris and I, we are just busy, busy, busy! My work at home always keeps me busy, but I love the flexibility of it since it allows me to be a full-time mommy as well, which is what is most important to me. Chris has been busy taking a couple classes this semester and doing contract computer work from home. He has also been battling sleep problems all year which has been frustrating for us. But he is slowly getting back to normal, thank goodness.
We are still loving our house. My mother-in-law was in town last week and helped me to finally get a couple of the rooms properly decorated. So we did some painting and hung some new art work and it’s like a different house! I love it. We are getting ready to paint some more rooms later this spring.

Update Time

It has been over 4 months since my last post. Time has just gotten away from me. So I will update on everything since my last post.

Our most exciting news is that we bought our first home in August. It is in Pleasant Grove, and right up next to the mountain so we have a gorgeous view of the entire valley and nobody behind us except mountains. We love having our own place and the kids love all the space. The house is 2600 sq ft with 5 bedrooms (+ an office) so there is definitely room to grow.

Chris and I also just had birthdays earlier this month. Nothing too exciting for me, but Chris hit the big 3-0, so I threw a little party for him to celebrate his old age. Happy Birthday sweetie!

Chris and I also got new callings in our ward teaching the 10 & 11 year old boys in primary. They actually gave us the calling our very first Sunday. They probably wanted us to agree before we could hear anything about these boys that would make us turn down the calling :). They are a handful but good kids. We are also speaking in church tomorrow, so that should be fun. We are actually recycling talks. We spoke in our old ward in February, so we thought that would be okay (but we did get permission)

Claire is 4 1/2 but she acts more like she's 16. We're in for it when she actually IS 16. But she can be a real sweetheart, and when she wants to be, she is a great big sister. She goes to preschool 3 days a week, and is learning so much. She is getting really close to being able to ready by herself. I'm really excited about that, because that will open up a whole new world for her. She is a social butterfly and is always wanting to have friends over to play. Especially now that she has a big enough house for all of her toys!

Elijah turned 2 in August and is your typical 2 year old boy. Love balls, cars, trucks, and throwing tantrums when we can't read his mind. His blond curls are irresistible and hard to say no to. He is quite the little jabber mouth and is always surprising us with what he can say. Most recently I've noticed how polite he is. He is always saying "thank you" and "your welcome" (well, it sounds more like "ank uuuu" and "oo elcome") and even said "excuse me" to a little girl at the park the other day who was in his way. How cute is he? I love this age and hate it all at the same time. I wish I could bottle up his cuteness so I never forget these moments.

There is nothing too exciting going on with Chris and me. I like it this way. We are just enjoying our good fortune and our many many blessings. This week I am starting a new workout program because I need something new to motivate me. So I'm trying one called C25K (couch to 5K) so I'll keep you all posted on that one (is there anyone still there? I haven't posted in ages!)I'm thinking about holing up at home with the family until Spring to avoid all the yucky sickness that is going around. I have a feeling this is going to be a rough cold and flu season! Here are a couple pictures I snapped from my phone the other day of the kids.....

Cruise pictures and more

It has been a while since I updated, so here goes......

In May, Chris and I went on a 4 day cruise (We went into Catalina Island, and were supposed to go into Ensenada Mexico, but because of the swine flu, it was cancelled) We had a great time just eating and relaxing and spending time together. Chris's mom, Miranda, came out to our house and stayed with the kids, so we knew they were in good hands! Chris had such a good time, he said that he wants to go on a cruise every year!


Chris got to the wait staff very well. They were shocked at the amount of food that he could put away :)






We rented a jet ski for an hour while we were on Catalina Island. It is a very different experience riding one on the ocean. It was so fun!




Catalina Islan



Kids and work are keeping us pretty busy now. Work is still going well for both of us. I am still able to work from home which is a huge blessing for our family. Claire and Elijah are getting so big. Elijah is almost 2, and Claire, at 4, is really keeping us on our toes!

Today in our 6th anniversary, so my mom is planning on taking the kids for the night so Chris and I can have an evening out to ourselves. I've been wanting to see the new sandra bullock movie that comes out this weekend, so Chris is going to humor me and take me. Not sure what else we are going to do yet. Probably just enjoy a kid-free night. Those are always nice :)

Life is Good!

I have not been too good at this blogging lately. Life has been crazy lately, but really good. I am still working from home. I have pretty much taken over the accounting department of an affiliate marketing company called Convert2Media, and I am able to do everything from home. It has been such a huge blessing for our family to have the income from this job while I am still able to be home with Claire and Elijah, which is so important to me. It's not full-time, but not part-time--somewhere in the middle depending on the time of the month. But I enjoy the work and love that I get to be at home with the kids at the same time. We feel so blessed! Chris is working at a company called Direct Pointe where he fixes and troubleshoots computer problems remotely. (so, he's fixing other people's computer problems from his computer). His work has been insanely busy lately, so he has been working long hours. I think he feels like all he does is work and sleep. But we feel so blessed that he has work, because so many people don't and are struggling right now. Despite being so busy, life is really good.

Since I haven't put new pictures up lately, here are a couple recent ones of the kids. Please ignore the fingerprints and messes in the background. My house has been neglected lately :)

Can you believe how grown up Claire looks? She turns 4 in a couple weeks. I can't believe it! She is so sweet and we just adore her. She is modeling one of the outfits that her grandma sent her for spring (one of many! Her Grandma Walton bought her and Elijah a whole new wardrobe for Spring. Now if it would just warm up a little so she can actually wear them outside!)
I love this one of Elijah. We actually just got his hair trimmed this week, so it's not quite this crazy anymore. But we just love all his curls. They fit his fun personality so much! Isn't he the cutest? What happened to my baby? He's such a big boy now!

Thanks for reading! I will be attempting to blog more often, but I make no promises!

Going to church with young kids

For those of you with kids, you know where I'm coming from. Sacrament meeting is so hard with kids! And I only have 2 kids! I have no idea how people with more kids handle it. Now we have good days, but then there are those days when you just want to give up and go home! Last sunday was one of those days. After probably the 4th time going out with Elijah, I decided to just stand in the back of the chapel so I could listen easier. Well, from where i was standinig, I could see Claire trying to inch her way out of the pew to come stand with me. I motioned to her to go sit with her dad. Within seconds she was in tears and crying loudly on dad's shoulder saying "She doesn't love me! Mom doesn't love me!" I don't think there was a person in the entire chapel that couldn't hear her. I about died. Just another day at church for us :)

Also, if you have a minute, you must watch the video at this link. I was dying watching it

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/fda_approves_depressant_drug_for

It has been way too long!

I keep meaning to update my blog, but I have been so so so busy the last couple months. As some of you know, I work from home (which is crazy enough when you have 2 kids) but it has been extra busy lately so I have had very little time to blog. (or clean my house, do my laundry, etc)

Despite all the craziness, life is good! Claire still loves school and every day she amazes me with how smart she is and how much she has grown up lately. Elijah keeps us on our toes. He is 18 months old now and had his first sunday in nursery this week. I was actually completely shocked at how well he did. I was fully expecting the nursery workers to come looking for me within 10 minutes of me dropping him off. He loves cars and balls and getting into mischief. He is always climbing on things and getting into things that he's not supposed to get into, so he always has some kind of bump or bruise (or both!). Trouble is his middle name, but it's hard to get after him with his big smile and blonde curls.

Here are a couple semi-recent pictures of the kids after we got haircuts last month