Lexie and Papa

I definitely need to thank my parents this year. They have been watching Lexie for me a few time a week so I can focus on school with J.T. It has made a huge difference. She loves to go to their house and is happy to be "saved by Papa" when he picks her up in the morning.

THANK YOU!!!!

A tribute to the greatest husband ever!

This post is a tribute to my husband. For all you women who think you married well -I am sure that I am the luckiest wife in the world. He was even jokingly asked by his brother recently to "stop making other men look bad." Right now he is giving me the Twelve Days of Christmas. One day I received 18 roses and another day it was an overnight trip to the Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake. He really does spoil me. And it isn't just the big stuff - it is the bathroom cleaning, talking with the kids at night, and grocery shopping with all 4 kids that makes him the ultimate MAN. I love that I married my best friend.

I love you Jay!

Wii have a BIG Problem

It was a traumatic week -- especially for Zachary. The boy LOVES our new Wii. Jay found one at Costco in September and the kids earned 500 "star points" to earn it. They finally were able to open it just before Thanksgiving. Well, even though he isn't allowed to play before school, Zach was bowling on Wii Sports without the strap on tightly when I was in the shower. He accidentally let go of the remote and it cracked our big screen TV. It kinda looks like a car windshield that has been hit by a large rock. It isn't an easy fix - $800.00 or more. Looks like poor Zach will be grounded for the rest of his life.
This video clip is something that JT made later that morning. I think he was a bit upset that it happened. As for Jay being "storming mad" he actually handled it better than I did - but I think it helped that he had all day at work to cool off first.

More pictures from Arches

Just a few more photos from our little trip down to Moab. Lexie took a long nap in the carrier while we were hiking to Landscape Arch. She was especially cute on a trip, minus a few minutes in the car, and she has her Daddy wrapped around her little finger.

Arches National Park

On Saturday after Thanksgiving we decided to drive down south and go to Arches National Park. (I get an itching to camp and hike and I get very few Saturdays off work. I also have this strange desire to take my kids to all the National parks in Utah before they grow up.) Even though it was a little chilly - it was a beautiful drive and the kids were great. We hiked around and really enjoyed just being together. We were especially glad to have Jay with us. He misses a lot of the adventures I have with the kids in the summer and the kids commented about how happy they were that Daddy could come too.

We are sooo Thankful!

When we asked the kids what they were grateful for we got some unusual answers from JT. Last year he told his class he was thankful for "factories in China". When this was met with puzzlement, he explained that "Everything we have is made in China". Well this year he said with a very serious voice, "I am thankful for extended warranties." Only J.T.!!!! We are not even sure if he knows what they are!

We had a really nice Thanksgiving season. As Lexie liked to say, we hope you also had a "Happy Pumpkin Day". We had three meals and still enjoyed every bite. We ate at my parents before they left for Washington, had about 25 people over for dinner on Thanksgiving, and ate with the Palmer's on Friday. We are blessed with such wonderful family! Here are some pictures fron the meal and some fun on Thanksgiving at our house. Our new Wii was a big hit. Notice that we had 13 kids under the age of 10!!!!

We love our new bunk bed!

With Lexie finally old enough to climb out of her crib, we decided to buy the girls a new bunkbed for their room from IKEA. It was quite the family job to put it together and we didn't even finish until about 9:30 that night. The girls were really excited and Lexie said, "Oh it's soooo cute!" She is such a girl. I worried she'd stop taking naps, but she really likes sleeping in her new big girl bed. Anything has to be better than the Pack and Play I left her in for years.

NO this wasn't his costume

JT had a rough week. First he fell running up our cement steps. Then a day later he fell and injured his finger on the trampoline. The lady at Instacare gave me the evil eye like I was a child abuser or something. Thankfully he is mostly healed, but he looked pretty bad for a week or two.

Halloween Shots

Is Halloween a Holiday just for kids? It sure isn't my favorite. I enjoy seeing the kids looking cute in their costumes but I am not a fan of having that much temptation in my house. Anyways, the kids enjoyed themselves and Lexie wished several people "Happy Birthday" for lack of a better idea of what to say on their doorsteps once she had received her requested candy. She LOVES candy and really seemed to catch on quick to how this works.

Halloween Fun

Fall Soccer

Well, we are at the end of another really fun soccer season. Michaela still loves socializing more than playing, but she scored a lot of goals and had a lot of fun. I just wish they didn't cram all her games into one month.

Zachary's competition team was undefeated and really fun for us to watch. They had a really skilled team and it really looked like SOCCER. We just need to teach Zach how to speak Spanish so he can hang with all the Hispanic kids on his team. Zach played center halfback all season and plays the position really well. He is about to start playing for an indoor team agian. We sometimes wonder where he may have found his passion for this sport. Hmmmm?

Write On, JT

I had one of those moments the other day with JT that makes everything worthwhile. Writing has been sooo difficult for him to learn. He is severely dysgraphic and we are still working on lowercase letter formation. Lately, we have been making some good gains and I am feeling encouraged that he will be able to write someday. Well the other day JT wrote the first thing he ever tried writing independently besides his name. He said he wanted to surprise me, so he went into the other room and came back having written, "mom lov". Instant tears. I sure love my boy.

Our little Lexie

Lexie is becoming quite the charmer. She has also confirmed my suspicion that with increased cuteness comes increased naughtiness. I can tell her childhood is going to be impacted a lot by the fact that I am homeschooling JT. She tells me things like, "No more Maff!" (Math) and "there's nothing to do." in the mornings. She spends a good bit of the day everyday practicing writing her "letters" these little tiny scribbles all over paper. I think she will either grow up writing novels or being an artist of some sort due to her love of "dwawing".

We can't get enough of her laugh right now. I really must capture some on video because it is really funny. It is deep and somewhat "evil". On Sunday, she actually said to me with a wicked little smile, "I hate you, just a little bit" holding her little fingers up to show me how much. She is obsessed with "playing" with Grandma Gardner and prefers Grandma to anyone.

My cute kids update

Here are my girls and my boys showing off their cuteness. The tall guy in the middle is especially handsome to me!

We recently tried to have some family portaits done. It is soooo difficult to get everyone smiling at the same time. JT is especially hard to get a good shot because his smile is just a little but overdone. He is the sweetest boy even if he did have a HUGE smile on his face in ALL the other good family shots.

Our Big Kindergarten Girl

Michaela has a new haircut and for some reason it makes her look a lot older to me. She is growing up way too fast. I wish I could just freeze her in time at age five. She adds a lot of joy to our lives!

Zachary's a poser

Zachary is also a poser. Erin took some pictures of the kids while she was here and he took some great shots posing by my parents waterfall. I think he is a handsome boy even if I am his mother.

Little Lexie

Is she cute or what? We are quite smitten with little Lexie right now as her personality is really blossoming. She is reminding us a lot of her sister. It seems we will have two drama queens that know how to flirt. I don't know why but raising these cute girls scares me just a bit.

Zachary's Big Day

First Day of School

After what waiting for what seemed like a lifetime-- Michaela started Kindergarten this week. She was soooo excited and even got to ride her bike with Zach. She is definitely ready to be in school and wishes they gave more homework in Kindergarten.

JT and Jumper

Zach is 8 and great!

The day I came home from Girls Camp was Zachary's birthday. I can't believe he is 8 year's old. He is such a pleasure to be around. He has a killer smile and a kind heart. He is interested in all kinds of learning especially Math and Science. His biggest obsessions continue to be SOCCER and computers. He is starting to play on a competitive team and we really enjoy watching our little star. He is a scoring machine.

For Zach's party he invited a few friends over for cake and then went to a BYU soccer game. He also got a new bike, a soccer goal for the yard, some scouting things and some books as gifts. He had been feeling sick with an earache but thought he was well enough to go. Sadly his eardrum burst that night and was really painful. Happy Birthday?! Poor kid! He is now looking forward to being baptized on Sept 1st. We LOVE you Zachary!!!!

Girl's Camp is over for another year!

The day after Lexie's birthday I left for Girl's Camp. I am on the Stake YW Camp Committee. We work from January to July to organize Girls Camp so this has taken up a lot of my time in recent months. Jay took the week and worked from home to watch the kids. They did take one morning to go "hike the Y" as has become tradition while I am gone.

I really enjoy Camp and have loved this calling. I enjoy the Young Women and tried to learn all 300 names during the week. I didn't succeed but maybe learned 80% or so. I was in charge of Confidence Course games and several other classes we offered and have to say that I went to bed every night very tired. One exciting part was when a bear was spotted close to the cabins and we had to call Wildlife to set some traps and close a few trails to ensure safety of the girls. We also had a pipe break and ran out of water to shower with much to everyone's dissapopintment. It just made bathing when I got home all the sweeter.

I "two" old now

On July 16th my little baby girl turned terrible. Honestly she is isn't too terrible but really getting cute. Actually if you ask her how old she is she replies, "I 2 old" which sounds a lot like "I too old". It has been amazing to watch her change the last few months. She is very talkative and I can understand more and more. It is like she jumped from one word straight to paragraphs and she doesn't appreciate it when we don't understand every word. Last night she said, "The moon in coming out in the sky. Night-night sleep" and pretended to snore. She is also insistent on, "I wear pink today. Have to. Now!" She really thinks she is all grown up. She has actually even used the baby potty on her own a few times. Does this mean I will soon be done with diapers forever? Yeah!

For her birthday we, along with Peter's family and my parents, went to Seven Peaks Water Park. It was fun and the kids really enjoyed it. She loves to swim, but gets mad when I have to hold onto her. She has no fear. Her favorite is to do the back float and it is amazing because she will totally relax that way and "go nigh-night" At swimming lessons she actually even let me help her jump off the diving board to Michelle a few times until she decided it was "too scarwy".

As for presents she got some cute clothes, a big girl potty, a aqua doodle puzzle, some books and some play food. She really loves to "dwaw" and definitely an artist scribbling on everything including her body. Other favorite things right now include singing and dancing with Dancing with the Stars and American Idol, cheering for Zach at his soccer games, Jumpy the guinea pig, the "I love to see the temple" song, PINK, candy, chocolate milk, "baby show" or in other words TV, and asking people, "you mad?, you happy? you sad?" and practicing her own dramatic emotions.

We love Lexie and are so happy she is on our family.

Fourth of July

The Fourth of July was a busy day. We woke up and made Hash Browns for a Cul-de-Sac breakfast. We had a good turn out and really enjoyed our neighbors. We are lucky to really like everyone in our neighborhood. Only Zach had a hard morning since JT ran over his toe with a scooter. That hurts! Since Zach was hurt we skipped the Parade and watched a little tennis on TV. In the afternoon we went to Carol Heath's to visit with Jay's siblings and then went to my parents for a B-B-Q. I forgot to bring Lexie's swimsuit so I hope you are not too offended by her nakedness. Someday she will probably sue me for posting this. After dinner some of the family went to the BYU soccer game and then we all did Fireworks back at my parents. It was nice to be able to spend the day with Derek and Jill's family. Zach especially was glad to get lots of opportunities to play with Coby. It was a fun day!

Balloons

One fun thing we did was wake up EARLY on July 3rd and go see the Hot Air Balloon Festival with Peter and Camille and kids. It was pretty exciting to see the balloons all lift off. I think it will be something we do again in years to come. Jay stayed home with Lexie and I was proud that I was actually there on time. I am not much of a morning person. :)