Time to Catch Up

I have been a horrible blogger lately. I have been doing a lot scrapbooking the last few weeks and I realized that I need my blog to look back on to be so I can remember particular dates and stuff so I am going to TRY and blog once a week. We shall see.

The boys are loving school. I was really mad when we first moved here that kindegarten was only half day. This year I am ok with it because it feels like I get some much needed time with my baby and I think I would be super sad if he was gone all day. Every one is doing great in school and I really like their teachers--I think school could be much harder for them but I think that is just one of the struggles of living here!!

My boys started karate a few weeks ago. All I can say is WOW I feel like it has made a huge difference in how they speak to one another and to me. Don't get me wrong I still get plenty of LOOKS and I have to ask them to do stuff more often then I would like but the 'Yes Ma'am' answer has become a regular thing in my house and they are SOOO much better about having their rooms cleaned up. Their karate teacher is in our ward and his wife serves with me in primary and they are both super awesome.

Oh yea I got called into the primary presidency over the summer. I have never ever been in primary (well not since I was 12 at least) so I almost fell off my chair when I was extended the call. I can honestly say I love love LOVE my calling. I have been in YW a lot and while I always have and always will love YW I am so glad to get to be in primary while I have kids in there. I love getting to know all the primary songs that I are new and listen to the sweet little kids tell random stories.

We are working on our primary program right now. I am over it and am SOOOOO nervous. Everyone says things just always seem to work out and I am praying that they really do. The program ends with the kids reading short testimony statements while the pianist play 'I Know That My Redeemer Lives' (don't be impressed with me it is an idea I found online and knew I had to have) while I was putting the program together and I added in that little bitl it honestly brought tears to my eyes. The first time we practiced it while there was 5 billion kids (I am in Utah after all) going crazy and all you could still totally feel the spirit. So here's to hoping all goes well.

And another thing (this is just coming out on here because I am to chicken to do it on FB but it has been bugging me) I am so sick of people making annoying comments about the church. I have never/nor will I ever pretend to be a perfect person nor do I think many people in the church claim to be. The phrase 'perfect church made up of imperfect people' comes to mind. I really do not care what others think but all I have to say is I love the gospel. There is so much that I personally need to do better in my life for myself and my kids but I know that I can look back over my life and see the positive difference following the gospel has made for me and my family.

K I just had to get that off my chest. I belive I have jumped back into this full force now!! Oh yea my Arizona countdown is 8 days WOO-HOO!!!

Our year at a very quick glance

Look at me 2 times in a month. So I decided I would try to quickly catch up with our year so far and post some pictures.

January--Zachary turned 8!! I still can't belive it. We had a birthday party at a local indoor swimming pool with his cousins and friends. They all had such a good time and Zachary told us tons and tons of time that it was the best birthday ever. 1 week after his birthday he went to his first scout activity. He loves scouts and has a really great leader who does lots of fun activities. He is very proud because he has already passed off his bobcat.

February--Zachary was baptised. My parents and sister came up along with all of Joel's family coming. It was a great day. Zach was baptized the same time as one of his really good friends from the ward. That Sunday they had them both get up to bare their testimonies. Zachary did such a good job you could tell he was nervous but he did it!! I was so proud of him!! My baby turned 5. I am so not ok with that!! He was sure that we would go to Arizona and go to Chuck E. Cheeses'. We had to go to SLC for a weekend so we went up to see Joels' sister and went to Chuck E. Cheese up there. Between my nephew and Joel (and Jodi getting lots herself) we ended up with TONS and TONS of tickets. It was too funny.

March--Zachary took first place in the Pinewood Derby--Joel was very proud. Next we made a quick trip to Arizona just me and the boys. I had to drive in some pretty bad snow for part of the way and I am pretty sure that I have never prayed so much in my life--it was scary. Luckily my boys were great and Zach was my helpful little direction giver. I am so glad my kids are old enough to read and what not. It was a good trip but by the end I was so ready to be home. Oh yea I turned 31!!

April--Nate turned 7. We had a birthday party here with 16 little boys and girls. Luckily Joel was off and was a HUGE help. It was crazy but great!! All 3 of my boys started soccer. They are loving it so far. Zachary's coach rocks and he has made some great improvements so far. Nate has fun even though his team hasn't won any games yet. Cole scored his first goal last week (the opposing team borrowed him because they didn't have enough players). I also signed Cole up for kindegarten which I am still in shock about.

Not Dead After All

It has been forever and I am going to try to be better about posting but no promises. There is a new girl using the digital scrapbooking kits me & my sister make. Anway so I saw some new backgrounds she made and it inspired me to change mine in hopes that I will post more. If you like it there is a link on the side to go to Key Lime Designs.

I feel old

My nephew got married over the weekend. It worked out great for me that they were married in the St. George temple so I was able to help out, go to the wedding and have tons of family stay with me. We played games stayed up and talked way too late but it was worth it we had a wonderful time. The girl my nephew married looked beautiful and it so brought me back to my wedding.

Sunday night was the baptism preview for our stake. Zachary is getting baptised the in 2 1/2 weeks. I still can't believe it!! We had a goal to finish reading the Book of Mormon by the time he was baptized that we are not going to meet so I decided to make a new goal and try to reach it by the time Nate is baptized.

Zachary and I stayed up and had a movie night just the two of us. We had cookies, drinks and snuggeled up to watch Coraline in my bed. After staying up so late with my family I was out in no time. Zachary would wake me up every once in awhile to give me an update. He told me several times that it was the best day ever.

Trying to be better

I am trying to find a happy medium between spending way too much of my day on the computer but still being better about updating everything. My stinking lap top died a little before Thanksgiving so it has made me have little desire to spend anytime on the computer.

We had a great Christmas. I had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit because a little remolding was done on the downstairs and our bed was right where we were planning on putting the Christmas tree. Luckily everything was done in time for us to get the tree up it was just a little later than any of us had planned. But more importantly where once there was a storage room now is a nice large bathroom off our bedroom. We also re-painted our room and my brother-in-law built as some excellent shelves in our closet that makes it possible to fit all of mine and Joel's clothes in 1 closet and that is saying something!! I love that we have 2 bathrooms downstairs it is so much nicer since no one ever seemed to want to go upstairs to go to the bathroom.

I was trying to be extra prepared this year for Christmas and had everything wrapped with tags on them hidden away in the closet. Unfortunately 3 days before Christmas my kids opened up that closet and pulled out a table which had everything hidden behind it. They came running upstairs so excited they had found where Santa had hidden some presents. Luckily they really only saw a couple and bought the whole "Santa has to drop presents off early" story but I was still pretty bummed.

We had a nice quiet Christmas with all of Joel's family (with all but his one sister who doesn't live here). The boys loved everything they got and I got a couple you are the best mom ever once they opened up the Wii!! Joel surprised me with a couple presents and then took me shopping to pick out some boots I have been looking for. The Tuesday after Christmas Joel and I drove down to Vegas to pick up my most favorite after Christmas visitor--my sister Laura. My kids were almost more excited for her than I was. We went bowling, went to a bounce house, shopped, cooked and played more games than I have played in a long time. Not only were my kids loving her but all my Redfearn neices and nephews adopted her as their Aunt Laura. After almost an entire week here we were said to send her home. I will do another post with pictures at some point but at least this is a start.

It has been forever

since I posted. I have had such good intentions but alas nothing. Let's see halloween was umm. . .interesting. Nate got sick with the flu 2 days before and was so sad to miss out on the activites at school. Halloween day he was better enough to go do a little trick-or-treating. Joel's family had planned family pictures for that day and on the drive out to go do them Cole threw up all over himself in his cute little clothes. He was so sad to not go take pictures and kept apologizing for getting his clothes dirty. Needless to Cole and I hung out at home. Luckily his very nice big brother took around a bucket for him and got lots of candy. Joel told me Zach would go up to every door and hold up his bucket and then hold up Cole's and explain that his brother was home sick. Apparently everybody was very impressed.

The next 2 weeks were spent with at least one child home sick from school. One day both Nate and Cole were home sick and Zach came home from school early with a migrane headache. I called a doctor and the eye doctor and took him in to get his eyes tested. I really did not think he had an eye problem but I thought I should get it checked out anyway. Come to find out the child is pretty much blind as a bat when it comes to seeing things close up and extremely so in his left eye which is the eye he always gets his headaches above. He has had his classes for about 3 weeks and has only had one headache. Plus he looks so stinkin cute in his glasses.

We are off to Arizona for Thanksgiving and I am so excited. I hope everyone has a great turkey day!!

What are the chances

after my last post I got sick and have not been able to work out for a week and a half--grrr.

So my kids only had 2 days for fall break so we made the most of it today. We went and watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3D. Cole was a little scared at one point but Zach & Nate loved it. I love love love to watch movies with Zach he laughs so hard I laugh harder at him then I do at the movie. Afterwards we went and picked out some costumes. This year we will have a ninja, Spiderman and the black Spiderman.

Stinking Zach had another headache when we got home so unfortunately he went to bed while Cole and Nate dressed up and chased each other around pretending to climb walls and shoot webs at one another. Cole informed me tonight while I was putting him to bed that he doesn't really like Spiderman anymore. I didn't feel to sorry for him!!

My oldest nephew got engaged over the weekend and will be getting married in January. Lucky for me they just happened to choose the St. George temple so there will be no traveling for me!! I feel like I only got married a couple years ago which means that there is no way that he can be old enough to be getting married himself. Ahh I am not enjoying getting old!!

I have been slacking

I have been so bad about posting lately--life has just gotten a little crazy.

Zachary has been doing great in school. He has made some good friends and has a great teacher. She seems to think the world of him and he of course agrees with her. Unfortunately, he has started getting migraine headaches about once a week. He gets really sick and will sleep for the entire afternoon. He and I are going down to Show Low for a quick weekend trip and he is so excited to get some good Mom and Zach time.

Nate is a nut!! The child does not stop, I need to find a way to bottle up some of his energy. His teacher sent home a note a couple weeks ago saying what a good student he is. Apparently he is a great listener and a good example to the other kids in his class. I was so appreciative to his teacher for taking the time to let me know. He went to the BYU game the other night with Joel and his Grandpa. He loved it!! He got his very own BYU shirt and wears is as often as I can get it clean for him.

Cole has started going to speech. It makes me a little bit sad to hear him lose his little boy crazy language. He still needs a lot of work but he loves to go and practice so he seems to be making great progress. He is also going to school and has made a little friend. He has a playdate with him tomorrow and Cole is so excited.

Whew I think that just about gets everything. I had to make my tv my workout buddy. I have been trying to work out everyday and so far it has worked for me. Hopefully I don't jinx myself.

I need a workout buddy

It is a must!! No matter how fun it is to get up at 6 am all by myself I find myself more often than not turning off my alarm and going back to sleep. I do realize that I could workout other hours of the day but for me it is so much better if I get up early and do it. Last year at this time I was getting up at 4:45 am and loving it, now I have to drag my rear out of bed at 7:30. I need to just get over myself and get up and do it but blah!! That is easier said than done!!

School Time

So I can honestly say I was a little bit sad for this summer to come to an end. On Wednesday night we went and met both of my kids teachers. Zach and Nate's classrooms are very close to one another which made it quite easy (plus having them walk together after school is great). They both seem to have good teachers--I am hoping to get to know them better as the school year goes on.

On the first day both boys were up and dressed by 6:30, even though I pointed out they had a long time before school started. I made waffels and did my best to entertain them but they were both so excited to get out the door (although you can't tell by Zachary's face in his picture). Joel had lectured me about making sure I wasn't to nervous while I was dropping the kids off(Nate really picks up on my moods and Joel was worried that might make his first day harder). While walking the boys to their classrooms I was chatting it up with Nate just trying to make sure he was all excited when I realized how quiet Zach had been. The poor kid was so nervous and quiet.

Luckily they both seemed to have a good day--actually Nate had a great day and Zach told me he wouldn't go back if he didn't have to. The next day when I picked the boys up from school Nate told me that some of the kids were being mean to Zachary on the playground. I tried to talk to Zachary about it but he just shrugged it off and told me he walked away and then asked me not to talk about it. I didn't want to make something into a bigger deal than it is so I let it go but it makes me so sad to think that Zach is having a hard time. He is my quiter more loner type child and is happy by himself but still. I have a really hard time knowing that someone/something is making my child unhappy and not knowing what to do!!! Hopefully next week will be better.

Homeward Bound

I had such good intentions of keeping up on this while I was out of town but alas I did not. I can not believe how fast this month has gone by. My kids have had a blast traveling around seeing all their cousins on my side (there is about 3 times as many cousins on my side then on Joels' and very close in age to my boys). Cole started a four year old club with his two cousins his age. It has been great to spend so much time with my family but a month is a long time to be away from home and more importantly Joel. Nate has been counting down the days until we see him again!!! I am pretty sure we will make this a yearly trip!!
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I can't believe that summer is gone!! This is the first year I can honestly say I am sad for the summer to be over. There will be a couple days a week when everyone is in school and while I am sure I will get used to the alone time right now I am a little sad to think of it.

9 Years

I DO NOT feel like I am old enough to say this but 9 years ago today I was in the temple getting married. The time has definitely flown by and a lot has been crammed into that 9 years (3 kids, 2 houses, an innumerable # of pets and A LOT of fun/sad/scary/good/ times). I am so grateful to my two friends who invited me to take the institute class with them and then encouraged me to ask out the HOT guy in the back of the class room. While this may not be where I planned for my life to be after 9 years of marriage I am grateful for my wonderful husband who puts up with my craziness, takes great care of me and the boys and is a good example to all of us. I love you Joel. (Hahaha this post can also count as a I love you happy birthday post also).

I lost my wedding ring about 6 months ago. I kept hoping it would turn up but still has not. A couple weeks ago Joel and I went and picked out a new ring for me for an anniversary present. I still have high hopes that when we move my other ring will turn up but I LOVE my new ring.

Crazy Days

So I thought once baseball season was done life would slow down. Nate had his last game a couple weeks ago and he loved every second of the season. He had a sweet coach who did a really good job with the whole team. Zachary had his last game Wednesday--he ended the season in great fashion with two homeruns and a triple. It was a great game and he was so PROUD of himself. We definitely need to practice some more but he wants to keep on playing. Nate is excited for soccer season to start.

So girls camp is getting closer and closer. It is supposed to be super cold and I am pretty sure I won't survive. The idea of camping for 5 days without a shower really creeps me out. I am trying to have a good attitude and I am sure that it really will be a lot of fun. Two days before we leave is our anniversary, the day I leave is Joel's birthday and the day after we get home is Father's Day. I am sure we will survive but it is going to be full week.

I am lovin' this summer so far. Our days consist of homework in the morning and hanging out in the pool for the rest of the day. My boys are getting dark and getting better at swimming but I totally wish Miss Erin was around to refine their swimming. I don't suppose Aqua Babes wants to open a Utah branch hehehe.

Almost Done

I can't believe school is almost out--one more day and we are done!! I am actually really looking forward to this summer. I have girls camp in the middle of June and then we will be down in AZ for the month of July (woo-hoo) going to wicked and hanging out.

I figured since everyone has had there Graduations/Performances I should post about them.

Cole enjoyed his class. There was a little boy who Cole insisted on calling Mr. Jamison and he would tell me stories about him all the time. At their graduation Cole got the award for 'Always having a Smile' which is very fitting--even grumpy Cole is still smiling. They sang a mr sun song, signed there name in sign language and each child repeated two nursery rhymes.

Nate was officially know in his class as 'Nate the Great'. He had the sweetest teacher who adored him. They had an early program and it was awesome. They sang cute songs, and each student had a speaking part and dressed up for there part (Nate was an athlete so he just wore his baseball uniform). At the end they sang 'God Bless America' and waved little American flags. It totally made me get all teary eyed.

And last but not least Zachary. We were so lucky to get such good teachers when we moved here. Zachary's teacher was perfect for him. I was really hoping that Nate might have here next year but she is actually moving to a school closer to her home. It was a good year and I feel like my kids learned a lot of good (and some bad) things. They seem to enjoy school although they still like to bring up living in AZ I feel like the have had chances to do things we couldn't have let them do if we were still living there.

For Zach's performance all of the first grade got together and sang some songs. Then each of the classes went and did a performance in their classroom. Zach's class put on some reading theaters. He memorized his whole part and amazingly enough was not even nervous to say all his lines. It was a cute end to a great year.

American Idol

2008- After mutual a couple of the other leaders and a whole bunch of the yw hung out at my house and watched the American Idol Finale. It was very weird to hear all the girls eww and aww over weird looking way to tight jean wearing boys. I never got to see the winner (dvr didn't record that far) and I was a little shocked that David Cook had won (although I was really ok with either one working)

2009- I called in and voted last night (eww I know I am WAY to old to be voting but I felt very strongly about who I wanted to win). I set my dvr to record the news after American Idol so I wouldn't miss anything. After Joels' softball game I sat down by myself and watched the entire show--I was to scared to fastforward it and find out the wrong person won. Just for the record when Kris' name was announced I did a little jig--I so did not care for Adam!!!

Quiet

Joel just took off for Father & Sons!! My boys have been so excited--Nate was packing last night and helped Cole get all packed up first thing this morning. When I checked their backpacks I found a jacket, pj bottoms, socks and a whole bunch of toys in Coles'. Nate had packed clothes for tomorrow but not pjs' and lots of toys. They were literally pushing Joel out the door. When I went to go tell them good-bye Nate told me he would pray for me tonight. Zachary and Cole told me they loved me about 10 times and Cole kept patting my head and told me to have a good day. I love that my kids are sad to leave me for a night--I fear that will not last forever. I am sure they will have tons of fun and I sent Joel with my camera with specific instructions to take A LOT of pictures!!

The joys of school

A couple months ago my kids learned about the 'bad finger'. I have just began to come to terms with it (and that Nate enjoys pointing to stuff with that finger since he now knows it is the 'bad finger'). The other day we were eating dinner and Zachary mentions that there is a bad word on the slide at his school. I said oh yeah what word. His exact words were, "The bad (and spelled) f . . .". I was seriously so shocked I amlost fell off my chair. He was very matter of fact about it and knew that he shouldn't say it but it makes me sad that he even knows what that word is.

New Look

So I got my hair done today. . .I have been getting brown and blonde put in my hair for as long as I can remember. Well today the girl who does my hair encouraged me to do just blonde to look more summery. Well I am DEFINATELY blonde, plus I had my bangs cut a little shorter so I seriously am shocked whenever I see myself in the mirror. Joel doesn't really care for bangs so I don't think he really likes it but my answer is they will grow out in no time!!

Zachary

Ha ha so I decided to break it down by child--I am a bad person and my blog is my way of keeping journal so this way I can make sure to get everything about my kids. Feel free to skip over any of this.

Zachary had a fairly easy going week. We were in charge of bringing the snacks for his game and I let him pick out what we would bring--donuts of course. His game was on Wednesday night (which was just a crazy day. Joel had to work late all last week and on Wednesday Cole had a dentist appt, we picked up the boys from school came home did homework hurried up and fed the kids, took everyone to mutual with me for an hour, came home got the snacks and everything ready. Took all 3 boys to the game. I had to park far away from the fields and I didn't feel like making multiple trips back and forth to my car so I piled my arms with 2 boxes of donuts, a cooler full of drinks and a purse full of Gatorade for Cole and Nate. It was the longest walk of my life and I was sure the whole time I was going to drop them but luckily I didn't). Zach's game was at 8--yes 8 at night!! Luckily once again my kids were great, I think they sensed that I really couldn't handle them being stinkers. I looked over at one point and Nate had a whole group of kids playing soccer with him. During Zach's game a couple of the coaches got very annoyed with one another and it was INTERESTING. Luckily everything turned out fine and everyone was excited for their snack. Who doesn't love a donut at 9 pm. The next day Zachary had a swim day fieldtrip for school. He was up and ready at the crack of dawn. He had such a good time and has been talking about going back any chance he gets. He was so tired and grumpy by dinnertime and was honestly almost asleep before his head hit the pillow. These late games may be the death of me.

Zachary has been begging me to make strawberry jam. I finally took pity on him and got everything while he was at school on Friday. When he got home he was so excited until I told him I thought it would be a good Mom & Zach activity. He hung around for all of 5 minutes until I finally told him he could go play with his friends. I made 6 batches of jam!! Zach has had jam as some part of every single meal since lunch Saturday. We have already gone through 2 containers--I have a feeling I should have made more.

I don't know if you can tell but they tied a rope to the back of Zach's bike and he pulled around the little neighbor girl on the scooter. It almost gave me a heart attack to watch but they loved it and no one got hurt.

Zachary entertaining himself at his game. I am totally the mom that hurries up and takes pictures and then scolds. There are 14 kids on his baseball team so there is a lot of down time when they bat, so why not climb up and hang out. . .

Another month gone

I can not believe how fast this year is flying by already--I feel like we only moved up here a couple months ago and it has been 6 months already. I have totally been procrastinating posting with everything that has been going on so I am going to do a picture post.

A couple weeks ago I came out and found Nate & Cole were sitting on the couch reading the scriptures. Nate would read for Cole and tell him what to say--he was doing a pretty good job. His favorite thing to say is 'It came to pass' he loves it when he reads and his verses began with that. When he was telling Cole what to say about every other thing he told him to say was it came to pass--it was sweet and it actually entertained them for awhile.

Last Saturday we decided to do something fun. We took the kids to McDonald's and then went bowling. It was tons of fun. I was a little concerned at first because the place was packed and we were put next to 3 older ladies who were very SERIOUS bowlers. Luckily my kids were on good behavior and the ladies loved and adored them. They gave them high fives anytime they knocked down any pins. Zachary would hurry up and throw the ball and the run over to watch the screen (they had little graphics that popped up and showed the pins getting knocked down with funny little phrases). Nate was actually doing pretty good but he was very distracted by the vending machines and kept going and checking out all the candy. Cole loved bowling. After Joel helped him throw his ball down the first couple times he insisted he did not need any help so he would walk up and throw the ball down all by himself. It took forever to roll down and would only knock down a couple of pins but Cole couldn't careless and was very proud of himself. Oh, at McDonald's the happy meal prize was some Kids Bop music. Zach and Nate loved it and now insist on listening to it anytime we are in the car--Cole hates it which explains the below picture.

I have so much more to post but this is at least a start for now!!!