Monday, July 28, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
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.
Thursday, July 17, 2008

Monday, July 14, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
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!
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
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....
Monday, July 07, 2008
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.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Thursday started out as any other day, checking my email over a bowl of Trix cereal. I came across my sister's comment on my blog that said "happy anniversary!" I sat there totally confused thinking, anniversary of what?....anniversary that summer's almost over...anniversary that my pregnancy is half over....I was stumped until it hit me. Oh my gosh, today is our 9 year wedding anniversary! Talk about sad and pathetic. What's even worse is that it was actually her husband that remembered. What's even worse is that when I checked our mail there was an anniversary card from our pool builder in there. Great, so our brother-in-law AND pool builder remember, but we don't (which in a way creeped me out because no where on the contract between the questions of what kind of pump we wanted and the color choice for the finish, do I recall seeing a question about when our anniversary is). Jason was in Vegas so I called him and was both relieved and disappointed to see that he had forgotten too. He was coming home that night, but unfortunately the house was going to be full of 6 year old girls for Kylie's little party (thanks again, Julie for the cute anniversary gift, you are so thoughtful!), which doesn't rank too high on the list of romantic evenings. I scrambled around and found a baby-sitter for Saturday night, so it will be fun to celebrate then. Jason was so cute and picked out a customized candy arrangement with all my favorite candies--Yorks, white chocolate pretzels, swedish fish and even the nut rolls. Everything I love and everything I really didn't need all rolled into one, pretty much the perfect gift. What's even sweeter is that by the time he picked something out he was about to miss his plane so he sacrificed eating dinner for the sake of the present. Now that's romantic. Besides, it's not just about the day, it's about the incredible past nine years that we've had together. As a little tribute, I'm finally getting around to recording our "love story". I totally regret not keeping a journal during our dating years and I'm already worried that I'm beginning to forget the details. So for my own journaling sake, here it goes....(it's going to be long, so you may just want to skip this :)
I was fresh out of highschool, only 17 years old. My parents were moving out to Utah from Georgia the summer that I graduated, so I decided to just move up to Provo and try to find a job before school started. I found some great roommates and was having a blast "spreading my wings", finding my independance, dating lots and definately not looking to settle down. One day a boy called for my roommate Katie, she wasn't home and so I ended up chatting with him for a little bit. He sounded pretty cool and said that he and his friends were going to be stopping by to see Katie. I asked her about him when she came home and she told me that his name was Jason and that he served in the same mission as her. When they all came over I immediately thought that they were the coolest guys ever. They were all so funny and so fun to be around. I thought it was awesome how they had all been so tight since middle school and they were just such a unique group of guys--mischievious and naughty but good boys nonetheless. They were all living in Ogden selling security systems for the summer and I always looked forward to when they came down to Provo to hang out. I even tried bribing them to come down one time with promises of a nice Sunday dinner. I think they may have been disappointed to drive 1 1/2 hours for the infamous refried bean taco dinner. It was a fun summer hanging out, but he was dating a girl from Ogden and I ended up having a short little fling with one of his friends. Towards the end of summer they invited me to go with them for a day of wakeboarding on the lake. I remember thinking how cute he looked out on the boat, and he would flirt with me each time he came off the board by telling me that he was cold and we would end up snuggling a little bit under the towels. When it was time to head home, they stayed and hung out at my sister's apartment where I was staying for a couple of weeks before I moved into the dorms. We had been flirting the whole day and the inevitable happened when Jason busted out his famous pick up line "have you ever kissed a Chinaman before?" It was too cute and I couldn't resist. I thought we had kind of hit it off (he wanted to kiss me for heaven's sake!), but a week or so later he had told me that he would pick me up from work so that we could hang out. I was more than disappointed and a little ticked to see that instead he asked his friend to come and pick me up. I told him I wanted to talk to Jason, but he said that Jason had told him not to bring me over. I had gone from ticked to pissed and demanded that he took me to see him. He was at his sister's house and was just about to leave with his friends for a last quick Vegas trip before school started. I was mad..we talked...he told me he was getting more serious with the Ogden girl and then he headed off to Vegas. I pretty much wrote him off as a jerk at that point. I was surprised a couple of weeks later to get a phone call from him late one night. His car had broken down in Vegas and so he drove his brother's car back and asked me if I wanted to go with him for a drive. I really don't remember what we talked about but somehow we must have started to rekindle something because the next thing I remember we found ourselves making-out under a tree in Kiwanis park. He must have done some pretty smooth talking. Then to top off the whole evening he told me that he shouldn't have kissed me because he was getting more serious with the Ogden girl and that we probably shouldn't hang out anymore. He went straight back to jerk status, but I was surprised to find myself actually feeling more sad than mad. We had had such a fun summer hanging out getting to know each other and for some reason the "forbidden love" was tempting. School started and for the next month I was having a blast, but Jason was still somewhere in the back of my mind. On Labor Day his friend had called to see if I wanted to go to the lake with them again. Of course I wanted to, but I wasn't quite sure what to think when I found out that Jason was going to be there too. I was a little nervous, but once I saw him we both couldn't stay away from each other. We had the best time on the lake, then afterwards we went back to Provo and we took a walk through these paths behind the RB on campus. We had a long talk and he told me that he had broken up with his girlfriend. I can't remember everything that we talked about, but I'm sure he said something to me along the lines of, "you are the one for me, I missed you every second of every day since the last time I saw you a month ago. I should have never wasted my time with that lame chick from Ogden when you were the one for me....." Or something like that. We went with his friends to see the "Truman Show" that night, which we considered to be our first date. We were pretty much inseperable after that. We hung out every chance we had, I loved dating an "older man" with a car (it's a huge deal when you're a freshman and nobody has a car). He was a good sport to hang out at the dorms with me and even go with me to a few of the lame freshman dances like "buddy ball". We made several trips to Vegas which were always a blast. He taught me how to snowboard, which I learned to love. We went to Ogden to see his friend's band play at a club (we met up with some of the people they hung out with, including his old girlfriend. She totally got all dressed up and was flirting with Jason the whole night. It was kind of funny.) He wrote me songs and seranaded me on his guitar. We went to "Fall Flings" and "Spring Flings". We would stay up talking until 4:00 am. We went grocery shopping together. We went to eat at poor college favorites like Sounds EZ Pizza and the Grilled Pepper. He would wake up early every day to drive me to my job since I didn't have a car, which usually resulted in him missing his 8:00 class that he ended up failing. We spent many Friday nights at the Nicklecade and bowling at the Wilkenson center. I don't think that I had ever lived off such little sleep or laughed that much in all of my previous 18 years of life. The big "I love you" came unexpectedly. We were at Freshman friday (once again he was a good sport to go with me) and I just remember he was doing something really funny, I was standing on a little hill and I looked down at him and without thinking, I blurted it out. I was really emberassed because I don't think we had been dating for that long. He didn't say it back, which made me even more emberassed, but that night when we were back at his apartment he told me that he loved me too. I wasn't emberassed anymore. Later in the year (I don't remember exactly when) we were sitting out on a grassy hill on campus by the bell tower just talking. We had always joked about getting married, but this was the first time we talked about it really seriously. We ended up talking until around 3:00 in the morning and I couldn't go to sleep at all that night because I was so love struck. He ended up proposing to me on the last day of finals. He tried to surprise me with the ring, but was too excited to keep it a surprise and ended up showing it to me before he proposed. He took me to that same hill where we first started talking about marriage. He had surprised me with a set of scriptures that had my "new" name, Jamie Ann Young, engraved on them. Two months later we were married in the Mt. Timpanogas temple. Here we are 9 years later, still just as happy and even more in love. Happy anniversary, love you!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Worst mother of the year award goes to Moi.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
1) Damon
2) Micah
3) Brycen
We'll add in #4 as "Landon" for good measure...
Monday, June 16, 2008
101 reasons why when it comes to dads, we think you're as good as they get...
1.plays hide and go seek 2.takes us to Home Depot 3.reads us 3 stories at night 4."Bouganie" 5.lets us play games on his phone at church 6.makes us Mickey Mouse and smiley face pancakes 7.shoulder rides 8.hiking trips 9.lets us get his newspaper in the morning 10.plays Barbies 11.lets Jayden build stuff with his tools 12.goes down the grass hills on the bike when mom is too scared 13.throws us really high in the pool 14.does the best cannon balls 15.plays baseball with us 16.lets us ride in his car and race mom 17.knows how to "burn rubber" 18.always brings us back a surprise when he goes on trips 19.he loves mommy 19.makes the lawn look nice 20.calls us when he's at work 21.brings us a treat home from work 22.does funny dances 23.tim tam parties 24.daddy dates 25.good swim teacher 26.sings Hannah Montana songs 27.makes the best steak 28.likes to eat steak and wings with Kylie and shares his A-1 sauce 28.dolphin rides 29.plays trains 30.takes us for the fastest rides on his bike 31.good hoola-hooper 32.makes us laugh 33.builds forts and has sleepovers with us in them 34.lets us sneak ice-cream 35.lets us stay up late when mom's not home 36.takes us to the park 37.teaches us how to do the Chinese yo-yo 38.takes us on vacations 39.lets us help him mow the lawn 40.hugs us when we're crying 41.takes us to Chick-fil-a 42.lets Kylie go to work with him when they say it's okay 43.knows how to do the special button on Kylie's pj's so that it doesn't come undone 44.does "star wars" with Jayden 45.says "I love you" lots 46.gives zurberts 47.plays fun games at Family Home Evening 48.lets us snuggle with him in his bed in the morning 49.he is really tan 50.does "crazy eyes" 51.buys us good birthday presents 52.lets us sit on his lap and drive the car in the neighborhood 53.does crazy driving 54.lets us play his guitar 55.knows how to build lots of things and fix lots of things 56.he's really strong 57.gives us blessings when we're sick 58.dresses nice 59.good at snowboarding and wakeboarding 60.said that he's going to teach us how to snowboard and wakeboard 61.pushes us high on the swings 62.movie parties 63.lets us pick out treats at the store when we're good 64.taught us how to make tooting noises with our legs and armpits 65.kills scorpions and spiders 66.works hard so we can have money 67.lays in bed and reads Junie B. Jones to Kylie 68.wears matching hats with Jayden 69.taught Jayden to stand up when he goes potty 70.really good at skipping rocks and tried teaching us 71.takes us fishing 72.lets us ride in the back of the trailer in the neighborhood 73.gives us rides in the wheelbarrow 74.comes to stuff at school like donuts with dad and graduations 75.used to throw us high in the air when we were little 76.tell us that we look cute and that you like Kylie's hair when it's curled 77.you protect us and keep us safe 78.taught Kylie how to ride a bike without training wheels 79.doesn't really know the phonograms, but still tries to help Kylie learn them 80.bought Jayden a cool hat 81.lets us jump on the bed at the knight's castle (sometimes) 82.lets us watch BYU football with him 83.takes the pepperoni off our pizza for us 84.shares his food and treats with us 85.always shares his gum and lets us help pick out the gum 86.knows how to get the airbubbles out of our special drinks when they don't work 87.takes us out to eat Chinese food 88.gives us all his fortune cookies 89.does monkey faces 90.pushes us the fastest in the strollers and shopping carts and always beats mom 91.backyard campouts 92.always brings the futon mattress into the family room to watch movies on 93.carries us up the stairs on his back 94.laughs when we tell jokes or do funny things 95.plays games like "Guess Who" with us and always lets us go first 96.shares his chapstick 97.cleans out all the cat poop from the sand box 98.taught us how to use chopsticks 99.always plays with us when we ask, even if he's busy 100.taught us how to burn ants with a magnifying glass 101.loves us more than anything in the world!
Happy Father's day, we love you!
love,
Kylie and Jayden
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Ooooohhh, I love summer vacations, especially the spontaneous ones. Jason has been traveling alot and this past week he had training in LA. When they go for training they have to room with another co-worker but on Tuesday he called me around noon and told me that his roommate was going home because his daughter was sick. That empty hotel bed was calling our name and so I dropped everything and we headed off into the sunset. Normally when we go on vacation it takes me a day or two to pack and clean, but I managed to shower, get all of us dressed ready, packed and on the road in 1 1/2 hours. I was in the middle of my cleaning day and left the house a wreck, it was so not like me. I won't lie, dreadful thoughts filled my head on the trip home of the house that needed to be cleaned, the laundry that needed to be washed, the YW lesson that needed to be planned and the Wal-mart that needed to be shopped. But it was so worth it. The kids traveled great, Jayden slept and Kylie rocked out to her Ipod (I love listening to her singing along). We even had an occasional rousing game of "who can say 'Edwig' first", compliments of Jayden. Jason rode a train to San Bernardino where we met up for dinner then went back to the hotel. It was one of those fancy-shmancy-valet-parking-mini-bar type hotels right smack dab in downtown LA, it was totally fun living the high life for a week. The next day the kids and I found plenty of things to keep us busy within walking distance. Museums, fountains and even a nice grassy spot at the park to eat a picnic lunch amongst the sleeping homeless people. After Jason's meetings we went to the City Walk at Universal Studios for dinner and a nice little stroll to see the shops and street performers. I think the cotton candy was the highlight of the evening. I forget that everywhere else it gets cold once the sun goes down and I was so not prepared. I thought I was being cautious to atleast pack one long sleeve shirt and jeans for everyone. We ended up wearing the same clothes every evening because it was so cold at night. By the end of the week you could tell what food we had eaten each night for dinner just by looking at the stains on the kids' clothes. The next day was our big adventure. Instead of dealing with traffic and parking we decided to try our hand with public transportation. Heck, at 25 cents a ride it made me wish that Gilbert had it's own bus line! The kids and I trecked through town to the bus stop and rode it down to the California Science Center. It was definately an adventure and the pregnant tourist lady with the 2 kids definately stood out like a sore thumb. In Gilbert we totally blend in, but I forget that outside of AZ and Utah most 27 year olds are climbing the corporate ladder and not the ladder at the playground to chase their 2 kids. I always get so many comments and I feel like I should wear a sign that says, "Yes, they are mine. Yes, I am young. Yes I am pregnant with the 3rd. Yes they are half Asian. Yes, I think they're pretty cute too." Eventually we made it, the kids loved the bus ride and had just as much fun at the science center. I decided to take them to the IMAX theater to see this movie about pre-historic sea creatures. I was a little nervous that they would get scared, but they loved it (although Kylie spent half the movie with the 3-D glasses off and Jayden spent half the movie trying to catch the fish as they jumped off the screen). That night we went to dinner by the Santa Monica pier and enjoyed walking around and doing some shopping. I bought Little Junior's first outfit and I love picturing him wearing it, it makes it seem more real. The next day Jason finished around noon so we headed to the beach. Once again, I was not prepared in the weather department. Who would have thought that it would be freezing at the beach in June? The cold weather didn't stop the kids from getting in the water and they had a blast. It was also cool walking on the rocks and finding all the crabs hiding in the cracks. After braving it for an hour or so we headed to Loma Linda where we spent the night with some friends. It was relaxing to get away from the crowds and noise of the city and enjoy a nice evening of eating pizza in the backyard while the kids played and then frozen yogurt at a cute little shop. We went out for breakfast the next morning before saying our good-byes to a fun family vacation. It was the perfect little getaway and I can't wait to head out for another trip to Vegas and Utah in another week!
