First day of school 2012-2013

 My two "big kids" on the first day of 3rd grade (for Eden) and 1st Grade for Jonah.
Jonah was so excited to go to the same school as Eden this year. Last year he attended Kindergarten at the Kindergarten center while Eden was in 2nds grade at Greenacres Elementary. This year they are both at Greenacres Elementary.

Eden's Teacher Mrs. Cossette taught there when I went to Greenacres and my little Sister Allison had her as a teacher so that was such a fun surprise to get Mrs. Cossette for one of my kids. Jonah's Teacher Mrs. Ball seems so nice and will be a good teacher to help Jonah get used to the demands of 1st grade. I was so ready to have them start school again. It gets to the point at the end of summer that they are just bored and ready for routine again and so was I.

Jonah turns 6!

 Jonah is lucky enough to have a summer birthday. I always wanted a summer birthday when I was younger so that I could do pool parties and have fun outside activities. Well as a kids it seems like it would be so fun to have a summer birthday, as a Mother....well not so much.

It was so hot the day we had his party and we don't have an actual full size pool in our back yard that I could fit in and lets remember I'm hugely pregnant due any time with in the next month, so it was miserable for me. BUT the kids had fun!

We did do a water themed party we had as slip 'n slide out and a couple of kiddie pools and some sprinklers going. The kids kept cool in all the water activities we had for them. I think the water balloons were a hit! Sadly it only lasted 3-5 minutes before they were all tossed and popped. The water slide was the next big hit. They would run across the yard down to the water slide and then all jump on it at the same time, it was pretty entertaining.

A huge thanks to My sister Whitney for coming and helping and also my good Friend Marty for kind of taking charge of entertaining and wrangling all the kids (there were a lot of them) I couldn't have don't it with out her. It was a huge success and Jonah couldn't have been happier with how his big birthday bash turned out.

Here are the little kids (Lahna and Kye) enjoying the water slide. I love this sequence of Lahna on the slide...

  

 

More water slide action 

First they race.....

 Then they push and shove to be the first on the slide....

 then they leap in the air.....check out that kids height!

 Jonah is so into baseball these days so his cake was a baseball, easy!

 He is serious about getting all his candles blown out.

My Jonah boy!

I cannot believe you are six years old. It does not seem like six years ago I was shocked to find out you'd be joining our family five weeks earlier than you were supposed to. That day was a great day but also a little scary when there were moments I wasn't sure if you were okay. You were a strong boy, and only stayed in the NICU for just over two weeks. Then we got to bring you home to meet your big sister. Your personality has grown and changed right along with you. You were such a calm mellow little guy and now you have more spunk and energy and a bit of stubbornness, like little boys should! It gets you into trouble some times but now you just got to learn to use those Characteristics for good. We love you buddy boy! You are the perfect only Boy for our little family and we are so glad you came to our family! I'm proud at how much you have learned and how smart you are you amaze me with your patience with your sisters, even though at times it may be hard to deal with them. You a so fun to be around and we wouldn't trade you for the world! Happy Birthday big boy!

Visiting Harker's

 Back in May we last minute decided to go up to Canada to see G-Ma and G-Pa Harker and my kids' only Harker cousins. The kids had a day or two off school for a holiday (Memorial day?) and Cory had work off so we headed up North. We knew that in a few months I would not feel like traveling later in my pregnancy so it was the perfect opportunity to get away to see family for a weekend.

The kids love their cousins! They enjoyed time with them........

Eating Ice cream

 Having BBQ's at a park

Lahna trying to be a big girl like cousin Danica

 Jonah loved helping Grampa George with Yard work, he felt so "Manly"

 The kids decided that the very unsafe old deck was a great place for a "fort" 

(the next trip up to Canada involved tearing that old deck down, the kids were a bit sad about losing their fort, but it was probably for the best)

 "fishing" at the local pond

The kids only caught a bunch of water bugs and a couple of tad poles but they were sure excited about their great catches.

I love this picture. Cory just chilling with cute Danica while she hopes to catch something.

It was a fun short week end I'm glad we got to go. It's the first time we've been up to his folks in years. While in Indiana it was just hard to make a trip up to Canada so we were more than excited to go back for a nice visit.
Cory took the two older kids back up to Canada the end of July, but I was not feeling like driving 8 hours so I stayed home with Lahna girl and we had a nice five days to ourselves. I don't have pictures from that, as Cory went with out a camera. He did take a few pictures on his phone that I may post on here later.

Staying afloat

I feel like I'm just treading water, just barely staying afloat in the seas of what is my life these days.
I feel terrible for my lack of Blogging. I really do love to do it, it just gets hard some times, like during these times of chaos. I promise to pick up and catch up on this blog but until then, it's one of "those" posts. Sorry.

I want to blog about everything that has happened and so much has. I want to blog about my thoughts because it feels good (therapeutic if you will) but right now is not the time, I wish it were, but it's not.

So what has happened, just for the record?

-The first week in April was spring break and we took a very long and fun trip to Utah/Idaho. We saw lots of family and some old friends, it was fun to just get away and see and visit with people we love.

-Eden turned 8 in March and was baptized April 14th. Many of her Aunties (my sisters) made it up here for the baptism, it was so special and she has such a sweet spirit I'm grateful for her example.

-At the end of April beginning of May we moved. Again. Yep, that's as exciting as it gets. I hate moving. We are still in the same area it's just that the owners of the wonderful/cute/amazing/perfect-for-our-family little country rental home we were in sold it and we were not the buyers so we had to move. It was hard and sad to leave that place. But we are grateful to find a good place in the same area.

-Lahna (my third) turned 2 on May 7th and I FORGOT her birthday. But so did Cory and my Parents and pretty much everyone else. The poor forgotten third child. But to justify my forgetfulness, I'M PREGNANT! And we were in the process of moving from the old rental to the new one AND I remembered later that evening and pulled off a "birthday celebration" at the last minute.She never even knew I forgot, but some day when she reads this blog post, she will know. Sorry Lulu we still love ya!

-I'm still pregnant and at just 24 weeks I feel like this is going to be the longest pregnancy of my life ((sigh)) I think I can, I think I can....... We had two ultra sounds and the first one the Doc said "It sure looks like a boy to me" and I agreed. Then the ultra sound Tech did the routine 20 week check and said "it sure looks like a girl to me." And I agreed with her too. And YES they are sure there is only ONE baby in there, not two. So this baby is sure going to be a Boy....or a Girl. They said they'll try and squeeze in another ultra sound with one of my appointments to check the gender but they can't schedule one as insurance won't cover it, but I think I'll be okay if we don't know for sure, but it would be nice to know, ya know?

-I hate unpacking. It takes forever! I feel so unmotivated to do it, especially when I feel huge and uncomfortable. People keep asking us "So do you feel like you are getting settled in yet?" and I say the same thing (to be polite) "Yeah, kinda" But what I really mean is "No not really and by the time we do feel and/or get settled in we'll have to move again so why bother settling in in the first place." But then I'd just sound like a grumpy crabby fat pregnant Debbie Downer, and I'd rather not sound grumpy or crabby or like Debbie Downer so I don't say it, but I will on here :)

-Besides being pregnant and hating unpacking....I had a good friend of mine from high school offer to take some maternity pictures for me, it was really fun! She did such a wonderful job and it is nice to have pictures of me pregnant even if I hate the way I look, it'll be nice to have them for posterity's sake. I also got food poisoning later that night (Darn Pizza Hut) I hate being sick but I think a bad case of food poisoning is THE WORST! And being pregnant makes it even worse. I seriously thought it was going to put me into labor.

-Kids update: Eden is ready to be done with second grade. She loves it but I can tell they are both eager for the summer break coming up (I hate that school here goes until mid June!) Jonah is finally asking to go to school in the mornings (he has half day k-g in the afternoon) he'll say he's bored and wants to go to school, and I think that is a good thing since next year he'll be going all day in first grade. Everyday Lahna asks "Where's Eden go? Where's Jonah go?" and I tell her the same thing "to school Lahna" she's ready for summer break too!



I'm sure there is more that has happened since I last posted but I can't remember it all, my brain doesn't do that when I'm pregnant. But this will have to do until I find time to update with pictures. I really want to put up pics of our Spring break and of Eden's Baptism and my maternity pictures,,,,,,soon, I promise soon I'll catch up. (or maybe I'll just keeping making that promise until after this baby comes).

Eden's Baptism

 A while back I posted a "Birthday post" for Eden's birthday that was in March. I mentioned in that post that she chose to be baptized a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Well in our congregation (Stake, as we call it) they do group baptisms for all the kids that turned 8 in the last month that chose to be baptized, and have it on the same day at the beginning of the month. They have one spiritual meeting with a musical number or two and a speaker or two and then they all take their turn to go to the Font and be baptized individually.

It was such a good experience for all of our family. She is the oldest Grand Child on both sides and so she gets to be the first to do all these "big" steps in life. She gets to kind of lead by example. It was a big event and my family came to town. I had four of my siblings make it to town for this big event.

The meeting was so nice. I volunteered my sisters and I to do a musical number for the meeting (I'm sure they loved that :) and then Cory was able to baptize her.

This is her Baptism dress, isn't it a Beauty?!

 

 My sweet little sister Whitney offered to make her dress for her and it turned out perfect!  My older sister Angela (the one who spoils my children) got her an American girl doll as her gift to her for this big occasion and my sister Whit made a matching dress for her Doll. 

My oldest Sister Wendy made a BEAUTIFUL quilt for Eden that turned out perfect for her bed. My Mother made her a scripture case and Cory and I bought her, her first set of Scriptures.  Her Auntie Kim and uncle Tyler got her a cute Hello Kitty swim suit that she loved! She was spoiled just a little bit :)

Now for more pictures....

Proud Parents before her baptism,

With Daddy, who was about baptized her in her actual baptism dress that sh would wear in the water(it's also made by my Mother and I think I actually wore that when I was eight).

 She was able to be baptized on the same day as one of her Best friends Mackenzie

 Our little family, this picture actually turned out pretty good!

 Proud Parents after

 Grandma and Grandpa

 Me with my sweet 1st born Child, I love her!

 The whole gang that could come! 

(Pay not attention to Jonah grabbing himself and Lahna sticking her finger up her nose....children!)

Spring break fun

At the beginning of April the kids had spring break and so Cory took off work and we headed to Utah and then planned to stop through Rexburg, ID for the Easter weekend and be with my sister for a couple of days before heading back up to Washington.

We just needed to get out of town, we were ready for a break. The whole week of the kids' spring break here, in Washington was going to be terrible weather! I knew we could not stick around for a crappy cold, wet, snowing spring break. Thankfully Utah and Idaho had better weather, a lot better, with nice warm temperatures and with sunshine (and a little bit of snow one day but still it warmed up quickly after that...)

We went down the weekend of Conference and stayed with Cory's Brother Quinn. We had never seen their "new" house (which they bought a couple of years ago) and even though his wife Kristen was out of town we were excited to have a couple nights stay with him in SLC. The kids really enjoyed his crawl space under his house, it was a kids dream place for a hide-out/fort. We were able to see some good friends of ours from Indy that now live in the area, it was fun to catch up and see how they were doing.

We spent one day on Temple grounds, which the kinds have never been to. They loved seeing the Temple up close and looking around the Visitors Center. We also let them take a tour of the Conference Center with us, which they thought was cool to see where Conference is held and how HUGE it actually is. Cory and I have been to the Conference Center twice when were first Married so it was fun to tell the kids we had been there and to show them around with the help of a very nice and patient tour guide, who most likely was a Grandma who has grand kids and was so understanding of our kids' crazy, inattentive, wild behavior. Jonah and Lahna kept pushing the alarm button in the elevator which would not just ring inside the elevators but you could hear it through the whole building, crazy kids! The kids also thought it was pretty cool to be on top of a big building and that it had plants/trees on top of it too. Cory and I wished we could have taken the whole guided tour to look at all the cool/beautiful Art work but we knew that 25 minutes of that was WAY too long for our kids to suffer through so we just did a short quick tour for the kids sake, it worked out perfect.

Some good friends of ours moved to Colorado but were in the SLC area that same week we were there. We were close with them and Eden still considers Myleigh to be one of best friends from Indy. Jonah also missed his friend William and so we met up with them at a park on a very nice sunny day and they got to play with some old friends, it was so fun to see them. Now they are trying to convince us to move to Colorado, if they can find us a job we'll move there ;)

Then we went down to Provo to stay with my sisters. Auntie Angela has her house there in Provo where Auntie Allie pays rent and lives there with her. The kids were so excited to finally see Angela's house. We had lots of fun, we hiked, we played at a park in their neighborhood where Auntie Allie taught Jonah boy how to swing a bat and hit a soft ball, he was in heaven. It is always a fun time with Aunt Angela and Aunt Allie.


And that about sums up our spring break in Utah.

It may sound like boring work but I love it because I love them

It's almost spring break for the kids, Hallelujah! They are driving me crazy and I think they just need a break! I need a break but with them being home from school it just means I don't get a spring break. I think they are just feeling cooped up and have spring fever. Although by the look of the weather around us lately it doesn't really look and/or feel like it is Spring here (except for all the rain). We are ready for some SUN and a "vacation".

We are going to Utah for part of our Spring break and I have lots of stuff to get done, clean house, the-never-ending-laundry, bathrooms, make phone calls, plan fun activities, pack bags for 5 people.....the list goes on and on....and on....so I thought since I feel overwhelmed I'm going to stall and blog :) That's what I do when I feel overwhelmed, I stall and when I stall I blog :) But I can justify it, it's a good thing to do, it's what I consider my journaling so it's good.

I'm not very eloquent in putting my thoughts into words, sentences, paragraphs like other people but I have thoughts and I'm going to try to express them in my way.....

Often I feel looked down upon by "the world" because all I "do" is stay at home. In my heart I know it's what I was meant to do. I know it is really what I love, I do, I love being a Mother. And it doesn't matter how many times I hear a General Authority or Prophet of the Lord talk about the importance of mothers, I can still feel the worlds judgements, not that I care what the world thinks or that it effects what I do, but I feel it nonetheless. Though in my heart I know it's a good thing to want to be with my children and the right choice for ME and MY family, I still feel.....looked down upon, like I'm less of a "Woman" because I don't work outside the home.

Some times my mind tries to tell me things like "Well, so-and-so is a Mom AND works/goes to school (fill in the blank)" or my mind says "Is driving kids around all day, buying/making/preparing food for them all day, wiping bums all day, really that important that I have to be the one doing it?" and there are other thoughts similar to these that pop into my head on a daily basis, some times on hard days they pop into my head multiple times a day. Please tell me I'm not alone here? If you don't I'm gonna feel a bit guilty :/

When People ask "So, do you just stay at home all day with your kids" I wish I could say "YES!" with less of the "I'm sorry, is that bad? but yes I do" tone. Ya know? That word "JUST" really gets to me when people say it that way, and I know what most people mean by it and it's harmless really but it can some times sound like the "well staying home for your kids isn't all that much work so there's bound to be something else you do, right?" tone and THAT bothers me.

I know I should not let it get me down, but some times it "gets" to me and I feel like saying "WELL, I'd LOVE to go back to school or go to work or have a really time consuming awesome hobby (like traveling the world) but I feel strongly about being here for my kids at this time in their young lives and I can JUST stay at home so I do! It's not easy on our pocket book, but we make it work and we feel good about it so....what's it to ya!?" But I don't say that, I usually say "Yep!" and sigh and invisibly rolls my eyes and try to remind myself it doesn't matter what they think I know in my heart it's what I need to be doing. But why does it have to be hard for my brain and my heart to connect and make me feel so confidant in MY choices for MY family that I could answer those questions confidently with no doubts or fears trying to sneak their way in?

I have my moments though where I think "This is tough work, it would be WAY easier to just go to work all day and come home to happy kids and put them to bed and do the same thing the next day." But then I have those moments where I'm like "This is why I do this, THIS is what it's all about and I wouldn't miss it for the world!" Moments, I love those moments. I have on most days those moments where there are those "gifts" my kids give me, they aren't physical gifts but gifts of love, joy, learning, spiritual gifts that only kids can give to a Mother and only if the Mother pays close attention to what she is receiving from her Children. I don't know how to explain them but I think any Mother knows what I'm talking about. I have days where I'm sure I don't pay enough attention to my kids and opportunities/gifts go unnoticed, but for the most part I look for them, I need them some times to just get through each day.

A couple of days ago I was reading a chain of emails from an old, good, friend of mine from college. She's one of those friends that we don't keep in touch that well over the last 10 years and our lives are quite different from one another, but when we do reconnect we feel the same about each other and it feels like, though things have changed our friendship has not. I love those friends and I have a few of them and I love that I can just pick up where we left off and reconnect. Anyway I was reading through this chain of emails back and forth between us which were spread out over a couple years time and in this latest one we hadn't kept in touch very well and we both really didn't know what the other was up to or what was new in their lives. So I asked her what was new with her and she responded and then asked me what was new with me and my family and I responded to her, but I remember thinking "Wow, I don't have any exciting things I do to tell her about, and is she really interested in hearing about my stay at home job?" I thought "Should I even try to make it sound glamorous?" Because as most moms know it is not glamorous at all, most days. I remember thinking for just a moment "well I don't have much to update her on because I do the same thing I did seven years ago and that is just stay at home." I caught myself repeating what others say to me, "just". So I decided to have a better attitude about what I did and be proud and tell her about it with confidence, so I did.

I reread my response and it just struck me......My heart yelled "Be proud of who you are, what you do and why you do it!" and as I read my response I cried because my heart and brain finally connected and I felt overwhelmed with this sense of confidence and pure joy in my roll as, not just a Mother, but as A stay at Home Mother.

Here is what I wrote:
"About me/us:
I have three kids now (I like to take it slow, none of this 18 months apart stuff for me ;) my oldest Eden, whom you've met, is already seven and in second grade. It blows my mind that next year she'll be eight and be able to choose to be baptized! My boy, Jonah, is now five and in K-G, he is a funny kid, and by funny I mean strange :)But we love him. And my sweet baby girl Lahna (pronounced law-nuh) is 16 months old and we are on the count down until she can enter the amazing world of NURSERY! She's wild and crazy and cute and funny! And by cute, I mean GORGEOUS and by funny, I mean hilarious! She makes me jealous daily of her beautiful blue eyes and long LONG eye lashes and it doesn't take much from her to get the whole house laughing, we sure love having her around. So as you can guess my days are spent caring for these amazing little people. I do the usual cook, clean, entertain, chauffeur, play, love, clean clean clean....for these kiddos. It may sound like boring work but I love it because I love them. I'm not as crafty as some home-makers but I try and I make my home, just that, a home but most importantly We and make the kids feel loved and that is home enough for anyone."

I broke down at the part where I said "It may sound like boring work but I love it because I love them!" It hit me at that moment that THAT is why I do it, I love them so much that I want to sacrifice my wants for their needs. I forgot that I could do that. That I could love someone, or little people and a husband in my case, so much that I would sacrifice anything that I would want, for them. How selfish of me to forget the importance of what I do, how silly of me to "get down" when I feel like less of a Woman because of what others think. WHO CARES, what other things, who cares!? I know a few people who really care (my husband, my parents, most important My Father in Heaven) and they are the ones supporting me and loving me and encouraging me in this roll I play, and for them I am thankful!

So I thought I need to say something in my brain that connects to my heart when I get that "just" question asked to me. I thought I need to say to myself I don't "just" stay at home, I GET to stay at home to be the Mother I want to be. I don't need to feel judged nor judge others for being different in what we chose to do. For some it is a choice to do other things on top of being a Mother, and that is okay! For others it is not a choice and they must work or go to school to help the family and that is okay too! So I need to remember to be grateful that I "get" to stay home, I get to have that as a choice option in my life, and I am thankful that I can.

I'm not gonna lie there are days where I say "Never mind this is too hard, can I change my mind? Can I go to work?" But more times I say "Thank Heavens I can do this for my family".

I'll just end with one last thing I liked about what I said in my email...

"I'm not as crafty as some home-makers but I try and I make my home, just that, a home but most importantly We and make the kids feel loved and that is home enough for anyone."

I'm grateful I get to make my home a home for my husband and kids, it's not easy but I'm grateful for my roll.