First Day



It seems so early to start school in July, but I am really loving this modified year round. Not that we didn't have a fun summer, but the heat kind of puts a damper on the fun. The kids get so cooped up and bored in the afternoon so I think everyone was ready for school to start. Kylie surprised me and wasn't nervous at all for the new year, I think it really helps that her two best friends are in her class. Her teacher is new to the school this year so I wasn't sure what to expect, but after the meet the teacher night I totally love her. She's a cute young Asian girl, so Kylie immediately liked her too. She was so excited for school to start that it's hard to believe that it was just last year that I had to peel her off me and walk away as she clung to me crying when I dropped her off on the third day of school (it still breaks my heart to think about it!). This year was much easier for both of us and I'm so glad that the year has started out so great.

Jayden was also excited about starting preschool again, although I think he's mostly excited to finally be able to wear his new shoes. I wasn't as impressed with his teacher when we first met her. She seemed kind of gruff and didn't fit the cutesy preschool teacher stereotype, but she's slowly growing on me. Atleast Jayden seems to enjoy school, so far all I can get out of him is that they have cool trucks. He gets to ride the baby bus again this year, but I think the novelty is starting to wear off. They switched the school boundaries so the school he goes to is a little bit farther and so his bus ride is anywhere from 40-50 minutes, poor kid! I'll try and drive him when I can but the timing with carpool doesn't always work out. I'm glad they're enjoying school so far, I do miss them but I'm also enjoying the free time (although I still don't know where all the time goes!)
In other news....I was driving in the car when they said on the radio that there was an earthquake in LA. They said if you knew anyone there then give them a call. I immediately thought of our friends Nate and Tara and then I realized, oh crap, Jason's in LA today! He had to fly in for one day and of course that one day happened to be the earthquake day. It wasn't a very big one, but he said it was still kind of exciting. "Exciting" isn't the word I would use, but this is his 3rd earthquake so apparently it's old news.

A Little Bling-Bling

The rule in our family growing up was that you had to be 13 to get your ears pierced. I remember that it was such a big deal and I couldn't wait for the big day. Now that I have my own little girl I decided that instead of setting an age rule, I would just let her decide when she was ready to do it. She has talked about it for a while now, but was always too scared that it would hurt too much. Then at the beginning of the summer she decided that she was brave enough to do it since she wasn't in kindergarten anymore. I told her that I would give her the summer to think about it and if she still wanted to do it then we would make it a special occasion right before school started. She was all excited about it until about a week before when we were at the mall and happened to watch a little girl get her ears pierced. After that she decided she wanted to wait until she was 10. I didn't push the issue, I wanted it to be her choice and after a couple of days she decided she would go through with it. School starts on Monday so this past Saturday we had a little girls day out and I took her to get it done. She was cute and wanted to bring her own bear to hold (Wes, do you recognize the bear? It's the one you gave her when she was born. She even had to dress it in her favorite outfit). She was a little nervous but mostly excited. She kept asking me to pinch her ear every couple of minutes to show her how bad it would hurt. Finally it was her turn and she was so brave! I know I flinched more when I got mine done at 13 years old! There was another little girl who was watching her get it done and after she saw that she didn't cry she decided that she wanted to get hers done too. Judging by Kylie's reaction she must have thought that it didn't hurt at all, so the look on her face when they did the first one was hilarious (okay, that's mean to laugh). She burst into tears and they had to wrestle her down to get the other one in. Poor girl. (My memory card got filled up as soon as it was done so the video is short, but atleast I got it.) She is constantly admiring her ears and can't wait to show them off to her friends at school tomorrow.

29 (almost) Weeks

Pregnancy and 115 degree summers do not mix well. You would think I would have learned my lesson when I had Jayden in August, but apparently not. I'm hitting that uncomfortable stage where I can't sleep at night because my back is killing me, I can't bend over without grunting and I've managed to perfect the waddle. Other than that, the pregnancy is going good. Things are even better now that Jason is done traveling (for now). He's been gone every week since the end of May and 2 months of single motherhood about did me in. The poor guy has been working so hard to close out this account, so even though he is home we still don't see much of him. He usually works every night when he comes home, sometimes until 2 am and even some weekends. I don't know how he does it, but thankfully it's not always this busy, just with certain accounts. He's glad to be done with the traveling, especially during one of his recent flights from Vegas. It's monsoon season here and there was a big storm so his flight got delayed. They finally got to board and after sitting on the plane for about an hour they said that the Phoenix airport was shut down so they let them get off the plane and wait it out. They finally got the go ahead and were able to board the plane and take off a couple of hours later. That wasn't even the bad part. Once they landed in Phoenix the airport was so backed up that they sat in the plane on the runway for THREE hours waiting for a gate. I seriously get claustrophobic just thinking about it. So his 1 hr flight turned into a 7 hour nightmare. As hard as it is being a stay at home mom at times, there is absolutely no way I would want to trade that in to be a career woman!

Jayden's Mini-me

How cool is this?? You can already tell that he looks just like Jayden...

The doctor was a little concerned with my last ultrasound, the baby was only measuring in the 6% and he had a cyst on his brain (it sounds a lot more serious than it really is. Jayden had one too, they're really common and usually go away), so they wanted to schedule another ultrasound to make sure that he was growing right. I tried not to worry about it too much, but it's always an uneasy feeling knowing that the doctor is concerned about your baby. I was anxious for this ultrasound and was surprised when she started doing the 3-D images, it was so crazy seeing our little man swimming around in there. It's hard to believe that he's only about 2 pounds but already looks like a real person. It was really cool, I wish Jason and the kids could have seen it (of course Jason is out of town again...). Some parts are still measuring about 3 weeks smaller than they should, but not to worry he's got a nice sized noggin that's measuring right where it should be (the cyst was gone too, so that was a relief). The doctor's not as concerned anymore, he thinks he'll just be a smaller baby. He may be disproportioned with a huge head, but atleast he's healthy, right?

Why This Picture Makes Me Feel Really, Really Old

See that tall, beautiful, college graduated, married, pregnant full fledged WOMAN standing next to me? Yeah, I used to BABY-SIT her. Man, I feel like I should be poppin' in my dentures right about now.

Part IV: 4th of July, Country Style


One of my favorite places ever to visit is my aunt's house out in the country in southern Utah. Every time I go there I leave wondering why in the world I don't live out in the country (until I have to drive 40 minutes to the closest store). It is so beautiful, the kids spend all day exploring, there is so much to do without spending a dime and it is definately a breath of fresh air. The fourth of July is also one of my favorite holidays and so being able to spend one of my favorite holidays at one of my favorite places with all my favorite people was definately the recipe for a perfect weekend. Along with some of my immediate family, there was also alot of extended family that came down, so it was fun seeing cousins that I hadn't seen in years. There were around 40 people staying there, but she's got a huge house and they just finished a nice big addition for my grandparents to live in, so there was plenty of room for everyone. We got there Friday evening and left Sunday morning but we packed so much fun into those couple of days....barbecues, fireworks, marshmellow gun fights, horseshoe tournament, tons of yummy food and snacks, late night games, guitar hero competitions, basketball games, four-wheeler rides, horseback riding, skeet shooting, playing with the baby kittens, girl parties, sleeping outside, playing cards with grandma and just hanging out talking. One night they moved their big screen tv outside then pulled out all these old couches that they used at girls camp and we had a huge movie party under the stars, it was so fun. Another fun night was when Jason and I took a midnight motorcycle ride. It was so beautiful riding out in the middle of nowhere under the bright moon....until I started getting creeped out. I started remembering their neighbor that was featured on 20/20 a while ago for practicing trepidation (I don't know how to spell it, but it's when they drill through people's skulls while they're conscious in order to release the evil spirits), or the other guy that lives in the same area that was arrested because he had killed some guy and buried him in his yard, or all the polygamists in the area that use shotguns to keep people away....yeah, that was definately a romance killer and I made Jason turn around and go back. It was still a fun ride and brought back memories of our old motorcycle days. It was the best 4th of July weekend, a huge thankyou to Aunt Angel for hosting such a fun party! We were sad to say good-bye to everyone and head back to Phoenix on Sunday. It was definately a memorable, fun-filled two weeks. I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard, ate that much or stayed up that late. I don't know how I lucked out to get such an amazing family, we enjoyed every minute we had with everyone and we can't wait until the next big get together!

Part III: The Cabin

This was the first time in 5 years that my whole family has been together at the same time and we definately made the most of it. My parents were so nice to rent a cabin up Cedar Mountain for the week and we had the best time hanging out. With 10 kids in the family it was hard to arrange schedules and it ended up that there was only one night that we were actually all together. The kids had the best time playing with their cousins and exploring the mountains, I hardly saw them at all the entire week. We filled the week with hiking trips, tons of cute crafts that my mom brought for the kids (pirate treasure maps and money, homemade bouncy balls, t-shirt painting, glasses, pearler beads....isn't she the best grandma??), late night games, campfire roasts, fishing, playing in the lake and catching frogs, girl parties, boy spy parties and Jayden's "club Zachary", a talent show (Janessa and I displayed our mad dancing skills from the church dance days, it was great), an un-birthday party for everyone, chipmunk traps (they actually caught several ones!), treasure hunts, tons of good food and tons of good laughs. It was seriously such a fun, relaxing and memorable week. Thanks so much again, mom and dad, we miss everyone already and can't wait for the next big reunion!

Part II: Provo and Park City

Our first stop in Utah (besides a brief meeting at the gas station at 10pm in Cedar City where we got to see my brother for the first time since he's been home from his mission) was to Jason's sister Andrea's house. The kids had fun reuniting with their cousins (and my week long adopted children) and it was fun visiting with their family for a night. We had fun taking the kids to BYU to reminisce for the day. We played games at the Wilk, shopped at the bookstore, walked around campus, visited the Bean Museum, showed the kids where daddy proposed to mom, drove by our first apartment and topped it off with ice cream at the creamery. It was fun to take the kids to the place where it all began. That evening we headed up to Park City, our annual tradition for the past 4 years. We always stay at the Marriott where they take good care of us. The concierge guy clicked with Jason so well that he started asking him for marriage advice and even invited us over to his house for dinner. Nice, but a little on the creepy side. After a Pizza Hut picnic on the lawn and swimming we called it a night. The next day we hit my favorite outlets which did not disappoint, then met up with Jason's sister Jessica and neices and nephew to hit the Alpine slides. Yes it is way over priced, but it's only once a year and the kids have a blast riding the lift and racing down the mountain. That evening we enjoyed strolling through the shops at main street and stopping for dinner at our traditional "Main Street Noodle and Pizza Kitchen". Of course we couldn't resist a stop at our favorite ice-cream shop either. It was a fun little vacation from our vacation and we enjoyed spending time relaxing with just our little family in the beautiful mountains. My mom's side of the family was also having a reunion the same weekend so we were able to see a lot of my extended family on Sunday at temple square where they were watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform. It was fun seeing people that I hadn't seen in years and I was especially excited to see my own family, even if it was briefly. We enjoyed seeing our friends the Lundy's and their cute little baby when we went to church with them. There are so many other people we would have loved to have seen, but there's never enough time to do it all. Hopefully next time! We drove around our old neighborhood, which was fun to see how it has grown (Jodee, Kylie still remembers which house is Maddie's :). Then we spent that night at Andrea's before heading down to the cabin for part III of our vacation....

Vacation Marathon
Part I: Viva Las Vegas

We just got back from an amazingly fun two week vacation to Vegas and Utah. Jason once again had to work in Vegas so this time we tagged along for the week then headed up to Utah. Here's the breakdown of our Vegas fun:

Sunday: pulled in around 7:00pm and stopped to visit Jason's friend's mom (the kids have adopted her as "Grandma Ardis") before heading to the hotel

Monday: hanging out at my aunt Brenda's house, going to the park and lunch; Visiting my friend Kandice and her cute little guy and adorable twin girls; meeting up with Tyler, Trent and Rachel for dinner and haning out at Town Center.

Tuesday: hanging out at the hotel/casino going bowling, swimming, playing games; going to dinner and out to ice-cream with Jason's dad; driving the kids around the strip.

Wednesday: meeting up with my sister-in-law DeEtte and her kids at the movie theater, going back to their house to hang out and swim; dropping the kids off at Grandma Young's house while Jason and I went to the Danny Gans show (thanks Allen for the tickets and thanks Grandma for watching the kids!)

Thursday: lunch at McDonald's with cousins, then coming back to the hotel for some pool time before heading over to their house to hangout before picking Jason up from work and heading up to Utah.