Run run run...

I feel like all I do is run, all day long. I know there are so many people with much crazier schedules than me, but right now I'm just going like crazy. I'm trying my best to keep up with three crazy kids, working, being a mom, a wife, and everything else. There is just not enough time in the day!!!! Sometimes I have to stop and think about how blessed I am and to cherish these moments while I can.

We were reading stories last night and we read a story about Cookie Monster. Zach said, if he had two cookies and Cookie Monster came up to him, he would give a cookie to Cookie Monster to share. Very sweet. And then, today, he told Jeff he loves him more than me. Not so sweet. It made Jeff's dad. Addison also gave Jeff lots and lots of kisses today. Ok, now I've got to run again...

Temple Square

We went to do the lights at temple square last week. Jeff forgot his camera, so I only had my phone to take pictures of. It was a nice night where it wasn't that crowded, and it was relatively warm. It was fun to listen to the wonder in the kids voices as we walked around. They had a wonderful time and got to enjoy some time with my brother, Jason and his family. Eden and Zach held hands for a couple of minutes, which was adorable! Maybe during Christmas break and I update my blog and post photos like I'm supposed to....

Lemoncrines

We bought a bag of clementines (tangerines) recently and the boys have been eating them up. Zach asked for some Lemoncrines recently, and Nathan thought that was hilarious. He's been drawing pictures of Lemoncrines (guys that have a clementine head) for the last little bit.

We used to do a movie night with Jeff's family while the kids were asleep. we've switched and started doing movie nights with the kids instead. It's been a ball listening to them laugh hysterically during movies. Love it!

Things my kids say

While Zach was eating some baby carrots the other day, he told me, "Mom, when I'm eating carrots, if a rabbit or a bunny came up to me and wanted a carrot, I would share the carrots with them".

We put up the Christmas tree recently and, I put some wrapped presnts under the tree. Nathan was at Grandma's during this process. When he came home, he immediatley checked to see whose presents they were. With tears in his eyes, he asked why I didn't have any presnts for him under the tree. I told him I would put some under the tree soon. He's asked me almost every day since if I would wrap some more presents.

During Sharing time recently, they were talking about service. Some of the kids got to go up front to talk about service they have done. Zach got to go up and said, in his cute little voice, he helped his mom by helping to decorate the Christmas tree. Very cute.

Nathan wrote a letter to me, asking if he could go shopping with his dad for a Christmas present for me.

Addison got to go to nursery for the first time. She did great, and didn't care when she saw me leave the room on two different occasions. When I went to get her, she clung to Bro. Van Dijk instead of coming to me. Sis. van Dijk commented earlier when I was in there that she is a very independent child

Thanks

This has been a hard year for us. We've been blessed but I am once again anxiously awaiting the beginning of a new year with hope that this next year will be even better. I am so thankful to the family and friends that have been so supportive of us. Some family has been wonderful and very supportive. Some not so much so. I am very thankful to those sweet souls who have blessed our lives in the past year. I can't tell you how much your support has meant to us.

Black Friday

Since Jeff and I got married, we've become Black Friday shoppers. I've enjoyed it and we go out almost every year, as long as there are things we want. This year, I was able to get most of my bigger gifts online for really cheap before Black Friday. However, I still wanted to go out to get a few things, such as pjs, jeans, and a handful of other stuff. My best deals this year were scored online instead of in the store on Black Friday morning. I did go to Walmart, which was a zoo as always. However, as always, I was able to meet some very nice people who helped me out and were very friendly. I stood by the pjs to wait things out and met some new friends who let me pick out what I wanted long before the sale started. It was a total zoo, as always, and things were gone very quickly, as always. The line was also tremendously long, but people were very friendly and great. I scored some awesome deals, they let me price match so I didn't have to stand outside at the next store, and it was great. I came home by about 2:00 a.m. and went to bed. I was hoping to get up early enough to go out for a couple of other things, but by the time I woke up I didn't have enough time to get back before Jeff had to go to work (poor guy). Unfortunately, with sick kids I don't know if I'll be able to hit the last few stores I want to today. It's all good. There's still Cyber Monday :)

Thanksgiving- Part 2

After finishing my last post while Jeff and the kids were at Thanksgiving dinner with his parents, I got a call from Jeff asking me to start a bath. Apparently Zach had an upset tummy and threw up in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner. He came home, took a bath and watched TV for the rest of the evening. My poor buddy. Nathan and Zach were supposed to sleep over at Grandma's house, for the first time in years and really the first time just because. Nathan still got to go, but Zach didn't because he was sick He was so incredibly disappointed. He's missed out on so many holidays because he's been sick, and it breaks my heart that he missed another fun thing. I told him we'd make it up to him somehow. Anyhow, Zach and Addison both went to bed early and will hopefully get over this very very soon. It's been an odd Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a little different this year. We always do dinner at Jeff's Grandma's house. She had been deemed "Super Grandma" because she is amazing. She is 97 years old and the sweetest woman I have every met. We moved Super Grandma out of her home into an assisted living center because she couldn't keep up with the yard work and housework as well as she would have liked. She has transitioned pretty well and we hope they are taking good care of her. We were planning on doing Thanksgiving dinner at Aunt Karen's house, but unfortunately both Grandma and Karen got hit with the flu. Grandma ended up in the emergency room on Sunday night, and was diagnosed with pneumonia. While there, she ended up with a nasty bout of the stomach flu as well. Karen was sick enough, that we weren't planning on doing dinner at her house as well and it was moved to Jeff's parents house (aka Disneyland Grandma and Grandpa). I've been able to talk to her a few times this week, including this morning, and it sounds like she is doing much much better and that Karen is on the mend as well. We hope that they recover as quickly as possible.
Every year we've done double Thanksgivings and this year was the same. We do dinner at my parents house at 1:00 p.m., and then we were planning on doing dinner with Jeff's parents at 3:00 p.m.. By the end of the day we are all very stuffed, but it's wonderful to spend time with family. Unfortunately, Addison woke up this morning not feeling well. We think she ended up with the stomach flu as well and spent the morning throwing up. The poor thing! This is the sickest I've ever seen her. In order to take care of her, Jeff stayed home for the first part while I did Thanksgiving dinner with the boys at my parents. We had a wonderful time and Nathan said his Thanksgiving was pretty good. He really loved the chocolate pie at the end and I had a hard time getting him to leave. I enjoyed spending time with my parents, as well as my brother's and their families. I just felt bad because we had to rush out the door. I'm home with Addison while she's taking a nap, and Jeff and the boys are at his parent's house doing Thanksgiving dinner right now. I hope they have a wonderful time and I'm sorry I missed seeing them. I just hope my baby girl gets better soon.
Thank you to each person who has blessed are lives!

Counting blessings

I have always enjoyed Thanksgiving. I've loved being able to sit with my wonderful family and eat some wonderful food. It's always made me reflect on all of my blessings as well. I have been blessed in so many ways. Life has definitely not turned out exactly how I planned it, but I have a wonderful husband who loves me, and three absolutely amazing kids. My husband cares for me, loves me, and puts up with me with my crazy antics. Each of my children have blessed my life in so many ways. Nathan constantly amazes me with the things he says, does, and draws. He is such a joy. Zach was a "momma's boy" as a baby and I continue to have a special bond with him. He amazes me every day. Addison is a wonderful, amazing, and active little girl. I am so glad I have a daughter to share my life with. I love each one of them immensely and can't imagine life without them. Even if life isn't perfect and not the way I planned it, it's better than I imagined in so many different ways.
I am thankful for my extended family as well. I have wonderful parents who love me, and made good choices that allowed me to have a wonderful childhood and continue to bless my life daily. My dad has always had a special place in my heart and I have always been a "daddy's girl". My mom is my best friend and I love being able to talk to her about anything. I have four amazing brothers who helped shape me into who I am today. They have blessed my lives in so many ways. Even if they did "pick" on me as a kid, they also stood up for me. I had a jerky boyfriend who broke my heart and it was all my mom could do to stop them from going and having a "talk" with this boy. They are wonderful men and I am blessed to be able to continue to have them in my life.
We have a home that is adequate for our needs and in a wonderful neighborhood. I count my blessings every day to have such wonderful neighbors and friends to share my life with.
I am so incredibly grateful for my job and being able to work from home. I don't know how we would have survived without it. I am so incredibly blessed to work with such amazing people and count my blessings every day that they let me do what I do.
I am so incredibly grateful for the church. I am sure my life would have been completely different if not for the church and its standards. I am so glad my kids are able to grow up with good standards to help them in the last days, and that they know that they have a Heavenly Father and a Savior who love them more than they will ever be able to comprehend and want them to come back with them. It brings me such joy to know that I have been sealed in the temple and can be with my family forever. I will be eternally grateful to my parents that my mom chose to share the gospel with my father and that he chose to be baptized. I will be forever grateful to them that they raised me the way they did.
I am incredibly grateful for the good health we have had so far. We've had some issues, but are relatively healthy and happy and I am so grateful for that.
My list of blessings goes on and on and on. Even if life isn't perfect, I have been blessed in so many ways. Thank you to each and every person who has touched my life. I hope I can make a difference in yours.

94% Savings!!!!

So, about a year ago I started getting into couponing. I get five Sunday papers and cut coupons, check the websites, shop the deals and buy in bulk. I'm not the best at it, but it's the closest thing I have to a hobby and sometimes it's a lot of fun. I sent shopping at Smith's on Friday with the kids and bought $98 dollars worth of food (before sales, etc.) for $17. It was awesome. The next day I got my "gold envelope" rewards in the mail from Smith's and had certificates for $12 to spend on anything at Smith's. I cut my coupons on Sunday and went back this morning to do some more shopping before this sale ends. It was a lot of fun. I had Jeff take a picture of my loot when I got home, but I won't post it. There is the list of stuff I got:

1 loaf of bread
1 package of flour tortillas
8 cans of chili
6 bars of Right Guard deodorant
6 boxes of Nestle cocoa with marshmallows (10 packages in each box)
5 boxes of America Beauty Quick Cook Pasta
5 cans of Swanson's Chicken Broth
8 cans of Campbell's cream of chicken soup
4 cans of Campbell's Healthy Request Chunky Soup
8 cans of Campbell's Chunky Soup (yummy!)

I purchased 52 items. The original total was $91.44. Between coupons and savings from sale items, I saved $85.06. Total out of my pocket was $6.38, which totaled 94% savings!!! This may be the best total I've had so far. I was pretty giddy with excitement. I know I won't have this good of savings again for a while, but I still thought that was pretty awesome.

Poor Jeff

Jeff came home from work on Friday about a half hour early and said he wasn't feeling very well and had an upset stomach. We had decided to do a movie night with the kids and I started to get things ready. Jeff joined us for a couple of minutes were Addison as crawling all over him. She loves her Daddy so much and constantly uses him as a jungle gym. After a little bit, Jeff went upstairs and remained upstairs for the rest of the night. We think he had food poisioning from something he ate that morning. He said he's never been that sick in his entire life. I felt so bad for him, and so incredibly helpless. He was so incredibly miserable he couldnt' keep anything down. Finally, at about 11:30 p.m. his stomach finally settled down a little and he was able to get a little sleep. the next morning, he said his teeth hurt, and his entire gastric system just ached. It's now Sunday morning and he said he can't laugh, sneeze, cough, or anything like that without his throat and esphagous hurting. I felt so bad for him, but I'm so glad he's on the mend.

Croup

I hate croup. I was so scared the first time one of my kids had croup. I still hate it every time they have an attack, which is usually in the middle of the night. Nate woke up this morning at about 5:00 a.m. because he couldn't breathe. The nebulizer we usually use went back to my brother-in-law so we were without a nebulizer this morning. I went back to the old fashioned methods. We sat in the bathroom and had the shower going to build up the steam. When that didn't work, Nate and I rapped up in blankets and sat on the porch. It was actually a neat experience to sit on the porch and watch the stars. We got to talk for a while and his breathing seemed to improve. I enjoy those quite moments we get to be together. Even so, I hope we don't have to go through croup again.

Zach

I went to work early early yesterday morning so I wasn't home when the kids woke up. Zach is always an early riser. I asked Jeff how the kids were and Jeff said that Zach woke up at 7:00 a.m., asked Jeff when it would be morning. Jeff told him that it was morning right then. Zach then turned around without a word, and went back to bed. He slept for another hour or so. Bucket loads and Bucket loads of personality.

Picking Nate up from School

Ok, so you may think I'm crazy, but I actually love to pick Nathan up from school. This is partly because I'm still having a hard time having him at school full time. Last year, kindergarten wasn't too bad because it was only half of the day. Most days, Nate gets out of school at 3:30 p.m. now. It's just such a long day and I really miss him. Anyhow, half the week I pick him up and the other half a friend picks him up from school. When I get him, I park my car and walk across the crosswalk and wait for him by the fence, just like I did with kindergarten last year. I could just wait in the car since he's fine to cross the crosswalk on his own, but I prefer to get out. The reason being is Nate has turned this into a game. Whenever he sees me, he gets a big grin on his face and runs as fast as he can towards me and usually jumps into my arms or gives me a hug. It melts my heart every time. I know that soon he's going to get older and not want anything to do with his mom. I'll take whatever I can get for right now.

Brushing teeth

Ok, so its been forever since I've done anything with my blog, or even read other people's blogs. Life has been insanely busy. I've basically been a full time mom and, for the most part, work a full time job at the same time which means little spare time and little sleep. Working from home is a wonderfully amazing blessing, but a curse in some sense as well. However, I am extremely grateful I am able to do it and LOVE my boss. Anyhow, I'm going to hopefully find spare moments to work on my blog/journal again soon. Any how, I just had one of those moments that just made me laugh. I was playing around with Zach (4) and Addie (1) and put Addison on Zach's shoulders, which turned into a horsey ride. That eventually lead to me giving Zach a horsey ride. While I was down on all fours with Zach on my back, Addison came up to me with her tooth brush and was trying very hard, to brush my teeth with her tooth brush. She even showed me how to open my mouth so she could brush my teeth. As I had no desire for my daughter's toothbrush in my mouth, I was able to fend her off, much to her dissappointment. I was one of those crazy mom moments that just make me laugh and want to remember.

On a very different note, I was thinking about one of those moments where I was overwhelmed with the thought of being a parent. We had Nathan and were in the hosptial, knowing full well that we got to take care of this sweet baby boy. However, it was when I was filling out the paperwork for him in the hospital, signing all sorts of releases and papers on his behalf, that it really hit me that I was a parent, and from that moment on took full responsibiilty for this child. I think that was one of the moments were it really hit me I was a parent.

I LOVE my family and am constantly grateful that I get to be a part of their lives. I'll hopefully try to be better about blogging. I want to remember every moment of these sweet kids lives.

2nd week and I'm tired!

it's out second week into summer and I'm already exhausted! Sunday involved church, and then a trip up to Super Grandma's (Jeff's Grandma's), with the kids going to bed way too late. I then stayed up until 11:30 p.m. doing things like laundry, dishes, and packing for the next day. Monday was my work day and the boys got to play at a friend's house. I rushed home, got the kids dinner and a bath, and now trying to put them to bed. Tomorrow we have soccer camp at 8:30 a.m., a "movie night" for lunch time because that's the only time I can fit it in, library class at 1:00 p.m., need to go to the DMV with three kids in the afternoon, and then t-ball at 7:00 p.m.. I also need to fit in full time hours and grocery shopping tomorrow too. Wednesday is going to be crammed full as well. I think I might find time to breathe on Thursday, I hope. Oh well, I'll take it!

Busy week

My, it feels like it's been a busy week. Monday was Memorial Day and, sadly, we spent most of the day home. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned while Jeff was at work. The kids and I also went to Home Depot and ordered new carpet!!!!! I'm so excited. We really need it and we finally decided to do it. It'll be horrible getting things ready for new carpet, but I'm still excited. After that, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for a BBQ, which was great.
Tuesday was a forever long day at work, but the boys got to go over to Grandma's house and play and had a great time.
Wednesday was Jeff's day off, but I ended up going into work for a few hours in the morning to try to wrap some things up. After I got home, we went out to lunch and then went bowling as a family. We had a great time, though I think one game is all we can handle. The boys seemed to be done after one game, but we stayed for a little longer. After that, we picked up the boat to de-winterize it so we can go play next week.
Thursday we went shopping, went to the library, and then stayed home and hung out until Zach's first t-ball game. He did a great job and it was a lot of fun. It was different for Nate because now he's the one who had to sit and watch while Zach played. It was good for him. I tried to fit in work when I could in the morning, evening, etc.
Friday I tried to fit in whatever work I could in the morning, and then we headed to to the zoo for a day with Grandma and Grandpa (other side), aunts, uncles, and cousins including some that were visiting from out of town. The boys had a great time and Addi was just fascinated by the elephants. Overall, they were really good kids. We went over to Aunt Britney's house after for a BBQ and to play with cousins and stayed up way to late. I think they had a great time.
Today, we went to Utah Lake State Park for their festival and the boys had a great time. They got to do crafts, get free food, play games, and had a fun time. Nate asked if we could go again next year. We got there when it was over half way through because we had wait for Addi to take a nap this morning. Next year, we'll have to go a little earlier (and hopefully with some help since it was just me and the kids). After going to the grocery store, we've just crashed. It's been a busy week, but a fun week as well. I have lots of pictures, but we'll see when/if I ever get them posted. Hopefully soon.
We don't have nearly as much planned for next week, I hope. However, we have my work day(which means kids play at a friend's house), library class, soccer camp, two t-ball games, a day of boating (hopefully), and I don't know what else. I think summer is officially here! Let's just hope I survive through it!

My little girl

So tonight, the boys were taking a bath in their bathroom. Addi just had a diaper on and was in the bathroom playing and spending time with the boys. I had the bathroom door open so I could listen to all three of them. Next thing I know, Addi is crawling out of the bathroom completely naked. I Went to find her diaper and apparently she had taken it off and put it in one of the drawers. I adore my little girl, but she can drive me crazy!!!

Planting treats

Zach and I were at the store yesterday while Nathan was at a birthday party. Zach was really bummed because he couldn't go the party too. However, I promised to get some gum for him at the store, and so that made everything ok. That boy is obessed with gum lately! Anyhow, while we were there we looked at some additional plants for our garden. I asked him what he wanted to plant in our garden, and his reply was "treats". I asked him what would be a treat we could plant in our garden. He decided that watermelons are considered treats, so that's what we picked up

Nathan's talk

Nathan was assigned to give a primary talk on Sunday and, even though he's been sick the last couple of days, he really wanted to go give his talk. So, we went to church just for that. Earlier that week, Nate and I sat down and wrote his talk together. It was really just Nathan who wrote the talk as I typed, while I did gave him just a couple of promptings. The following is his talk:

The principles and ordinances of the gospel are first 1) faith in the lord Jesus Christ 2) Repentance 3) Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins and 4) laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. These are important so we can live with Jesus Christ. If we be good we can get closer to Jesus Christ and we can live with him again with Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost. Jesus died so when we die we can come to life again by being resurrected. If we do something wrong, we can repent and never do it again. I'm glad to be able to repent. When we get baptized, it will wash off all of the bad stuff that we have done wrong, and makes us clean inside. When we are sick, your dad or someone else can bless you to get better. I am excited to be baptized and to get the gift of the Holy Ghost. Heavenly Father and Jesus love everyone in the whole entire world and we love Jesus. We love him very much. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.


He did a great job and I was really proud of him. He's a great little guy.

I rock!

I have to say, I rock. Sometimes. Yesterday, I, with only the help of my three kids ages 6 and younger, got a truck load of dirt, and then proceeded to transfer that dirt from my truck to the flower beds/grow boxes yesterday. THEN, after having three filthy kids bathed and in bed, went over to my brother's house and borrowed his tiller. He was very kind and came back to help me unload the tiller from the truck as my husband still has a broken hand and, since it hurt to even zip up his jacket this week, probably shouldn't be lifting tillers. I then proceeded to use the tiller on SIX, count them, SIX separate flower beds and/or grow boxes. My very kind brother helped me lift the tiller to the highest flower bed, but the rest was all on my own, including lifting the tiller over both raised grow boxes. Some of these areas are, relatively speaking, pretty massive. I also mowed the front and side lawn, but ran out of time with the back. I was exhausted by the end of the day.

I ROCK! The flowers are mostly planted. Now i have to go back to the nursery to buy more flowers and finish planting my garden. I just hope the time and effort will be worth it by the end of the summer. In the meantime, I have bragging rights. I ROCK. Take that any pampered princess.

Magic Tree House series

The boys and I discovered the Magic Tree house series a couple of months ago through a book order at school. They are chapter books so I end up reading to the boys. It's about a brother and sister, Jack and Annie, who discover a magic tree house in the woods owned by a magician from Camelot. When you wish on a book, you can travel in time to that place in that book. They been in dinosaur times, to the olympics, jungles in India, the artic, and many other places. It's been fun.

We're on the 23rd book in the series so far. Thankfully, they have quite a few of these books at our library. Nathan really enjoys the books, but they are a little old for Zach's attention span. He'll usually listen, but he's not as into them.

This last book went back to the revolutionary war where the kids met George Washington on December 25, 1776 and were able to cross the Delware river on a boat before attacking the redcoats. The kids didn't witness any part of the war, but focused on the message presented by George Washington before they crossed the river. George Washington quoted the following words of Thomas Paine: "... The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only that gives everything its value".

This is a crazy, very stressful time in my own life. I was really touched by those words and wanted to write them down.

Jeff's Birthday Adventure

So, Jeff's birthday was the end of April. Because he was working in his birthday, his brother and friend went riding with him at the sand dunes four days before his birthday. The day started out great:



But then they ran into a little bit of bad luck:





Yup, a broken hand. It's not a horrible break, but it does go into the joint which worries me. It's his left hand, and it's been in a brace- which is basically the cast material molded to the shape of his hand that he wraps in place with ace bandages. He's been able to take it off to shower, but it's not been a fun experience. I've had the joy of helping him do a bunch of things such as help him put on his shoes and socks, etc. etc. He tries to be very independent and the longer it's gone on, the more he's able to do with out pain. He'll be able to take the brace off at the end of this week (YAHOOO!!!!!!) even though it won't be totally healed. After that, he's to use his hand in order to avoid stiffining of the joints. His hand is already quite stiff because it's been in the same position basically since the break. Hopefully it'll heal very quickly. We are very very excited for the use of his hand again.

Boring

Apparently I'm boring. I've told Zach to do things like clean his room or put his clothes away and he always tells me, "but that will be boring". Tonight, I put Nathan to bed and he came out a couple of minutes later and said, "I have a boring life". When I asked him why, he said it's because I haven't let him play a wii game that we recently bought that he's supposed to earn. Apparently I'm a boring person. If you ask Jeff he'd probably agree. Maybe I'll try to be less boring tomorrow

Recyling!

Our city FINALLY has decided to go forward with curb side recycling every other week. There was a big delay because people wanted a chance to opt out of the program, which I don't understand because the cost is less than $7.00 a month. Anyhow, after months of delay, they finally dropped off the container for recycling on Wednesday. So, maybe it's pathetic, but I am SO excited about it! I've wanted a better option for recycling for quite some time and it makes me feel better that I'm able to. I know, it may be silly but I am about giddy about it. I've been recycling my cans, bags, and paper for quite a while, but it's easier to do it now and I have more options. I just got my container on Wednesday and it's about 3/4 of the way full from the cans and other stuff I've been saving for a while. My husband calls me a hippie, at least in regards to this. Wahoo for recycling!

My sweet little boy

Nathan is such a sweet little boy. He came up to both me and Addison yesterday and whispered in our ears "I love you". I help out in his kindergarten class at least once a month and he always gives me a big hug when he sees me. Whenever I drop him off at school he tells me he loves me and blows me a kiss. Whenever I pick him up to school he'll come running into my arms to give me a hug. I always get at least one hug and kiss from him at bedtime. He has his moments where he drives me totally crazy, but for the most part he's just my sweet little boy. I am a lucky mom.

What happened to the English language?

I'm going to gripe for just a moment, and then I'll be done. What in the world happened to the English language? I understand short-hand when taking notes or even when texting, but why in the world are people failing to use the correct/entire word when writing anything else? Using "r" instead of "are", "u" instead of "you", even "txt" instead of "text". It's driving me crazy!!!!! People, I know you're in a hurry, but it's only a couple of extra letters to write the correct word. I guess I'm now belong to the "older generation", but since the majority of what I do for a living is write, it's driving me insane. Ok, now my griping is done. I'm finished and hopefully won't rant again for a while. I'm sorry for anyone whom I may have offended. *sigh*.

Stuff

I really enjoy both psyschology and genetics and have taken a handful of classes on both subjects. There is always a question of nature vs. nurture with child development. It is due to genetics that we have a predisposition for things, or is it due to how we are raised, with the expierences that we have. I've come to realize that it's both. There are certain things that I think my kids have a predisposition to. For example, every single one of my kids has had their nap shortened due to a stinky diaper. My boys would do that quite often with their afternoon nap. It would drive me crazy!!! They needed a nap, but it was almost always cut short due to a stinky diaper. Addison has been doing it with her morning nap lately. Not always, but about 3/4th's of the time, she has a shorter morning nap due to a stinky diaper. I also have very high strung kids, that are crazy active quite often. I know that's part of being a kid, but I thik it's partly due to genetics as well.
I just want what's best for my kids. I've learned that being a parent is hard. I just hope that, with a combination of "nature" and "nurture" that they will end up being well-rounded, well-adjusted, happy adults. I question myself as a parent at times. However, every once in a while a come across a situation where there's abuse, drugs, or other things of that nature and I think, you know, I'm doing ok as a parent. I just wish the best for my kids.

Nathan's song

Nathan just made up a song and told me to write it down, so here we go:

Angels are coming to Jesus and they are bringing gold and silver
And Jesus was a baby
Mary and Joseph were his mom and dad

Oh Jesus Oh Jesus is born
Oh Jesus Oh Jesus is born

And Jesus will be special

Addison at almost 10 months

Addison will be turning 10 months old in 9 days. I can't believe how fast life has flown by. She is officially crawling, and has been for a while. She is EVERYWHERE. She likes to crawl into the boys room and, if there out, try to cram as many legos in her mouth as possible. Due to a case, of course, I am totally panicked about her putting anything in her mouth, especially legos or anything else she can swallow. She knows she'll get in trouble, but she still does it. Her other favorite thing is to try to get into the dog's dish. I have it upstairs in the kitchen/living room area and I should probably move it downstairs, but my poor dog is deaf, partly blind, and arthritic. I'm afraid if I move it down stairs she'll never find it! Anyhow, Addison loves to crawl over to it and play with the water or try to eat the dog food as much as possible. This, of course, is not acceptable behavior at our house. She gets into trouble every time. However, we tell her know and she gets a great big grin on her face and tries to do it again. Sometimes she'll grab a big handful of dog food and hurry and drop it on the ground before we can get to her. She'll get in trouble and, at times, be put in a time out. However, the next time she has a chance she'll do the same thing again. What a stinker. A cute stinker though.
She is crawling and loves to play with toys. she loves to get into things and will babble on about things. She pulls up to furniture all the time. I think she's taken some steps while along the furniture but not many. I was in her room with her today and she stood up for just a second on her own before she fell back down. She did this at least twice today. Soon, she'll be all over the place and walking before I know it! My baby is growing up.

Crazy!

My goodness, life has been crazy lately. There has just been so much! Today I spent the day craming for my final for my college class, taught preschool to five 3-4 year olds, took care of my three kids, continued cramming for my final all day, and had the boys friends over. At one point, we had 5 extra kids, but it was all good. My final is done, I hopefully passed the class, and my kids are all in bed. Now I'm going to see if I can fit in a couple of hours of work before Jeff gets home. Crazy!!! However, I am very very thankful for my life, craziness and all.

Life sucks sometimes

Things I love

I love lots of things. Most of, I love my family. I love spending time with them and enjoying the little wonders that make me laugh. I love my husband and the time I get to spend with him. Unfourtnatley, that's not a lot of time right now. However, I'll take what I can get. I love spending time with my kids. They can drive me CRAZY sometimes, but I love them a ton.
Quick update. Jeff is working a TON lately. some days are productive and profitable, others are not. However, I think we're greatful for the opportunity, at least most of the time. March was a crazy crazy month for me. I had a lot of deadlines which meant a lot of work. However, we managed through. I was pretty burned out for a few days so April hasn't been as productive. However, I'm plugging along and thankful for the opprotunities.
Nathan is the lego star wars master on the wii. He loves it, but I try to limit him. I told him we can do one level a day and I usually end up playing with him. It's our bonding moment. There's like 160 levels and we haven't even made it to 50 yet, so we've got some time. He's doing great with school and I'm really proud about how hard he's working. He's become a great reader. He did basketball camp or "little hoopsters" and had fun with it. We ended up getting them a basketball hoop for Easter and he's now able to shoot hoops at our house. It's been fun. Soccer starts up again and we gets to do that as well. Crazy busy. I'm happy he's only in kindergarten 1/2 day so I can stil spend time with him. I'm going to miss him like crazy next year. He's a great big brother to Addison. She loves him so much and he's so cute with her. He and Zach can play really well together, but Nate is starting to get old enough that he doesn't always want his little brother to tag along to friend's houses. it's becoming a bit of a challenge. However when they are home they can usually be best of friends.
Zach is growing up so fast. I signed him up for t-ball this year and so he gets to start doing the big boy stuff. His personality is really opening up. It's still a junk-foodaholic. He asks for Easter candy every day. Thankfully we're at the last of it now. he plays really well by himself, but he loves to play with friends as well. we're making lots of new friends. He stil loves preschool and has a lot of fun. Sometimes he's still a total momma's boy. He fought me at timse with going to nursery. I teach a primary class in junior primary. Zach is a sunbeam and Nate is in his class in junior primary as well. If he's tired, Zach has a hard time sitting with class and sits on my lap with my class. We've tried forcing the issue, but it usually results in a fight and lots of tears. If I can perusade him, he'll sit with his class and do great. However, sometimes his class gets dismissed before mine and the minute he sees me when he's walking out the door he no longer wants anything to do with his class. We're still working on it. He still needs naps but wont' take them unless we fight about it. He had a fight with me today about finishing his homework (tracing ABC's) and ended up falling asleep on my lap. He's growing up so much, but he's still my sweet momma's boy. I can't believe how fast they grow up. He told Jeff and I this morning, separately, that "can we have a race and you be slow and I be fast so I can win?". He totally cracks me up.
Addison is growing like crazy. I can't believe she's nine months old already. At her recent doctors appt she was 16 lbs 11 oz. She's in the 75% in height and the 15% in weight. she's standing up to furinture all the time and offically crawling like crazy. she was doing the army crawl forever, but finally gave that up and is doing real crawling now. There's been talk about how she'll be an early walker, however whenever we try to get to to practice walking when we hold her she wants nothing to do with it and put her legs straight out in the air. She now has four teeth with one one coming in. She had her bottom two teeth come in first and then one of her top front teeth. However, her fourth tooth that came in was not the other top front tooth, but the one next to it. I was really worried that she'd be missing a tooth, but the next one that's breaking through is the other top front tooth. SO glad it came in. She loves her baby doll and her favorite word is baba, which I think means baby for her baby doll. she gets huge grins whenever she sees someone she loves or her baby doll. She's eating a lot of table foods now and we're pretty much done with the baby food stage, at least I hope. She still has red hair, though I think it has a golden color to it. We still get tons of comments on it.

Ok, that's all the time I have right now. One day I'll post pictures again. I love my family. I'm so glad I get to be with them!

St. Paddy's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I've got some Irish blood that shows through with the red highlights in my hair, as well as my temper. It's the McGullicudy blood in me. Sadly, today I have reminiscing about last St. Patrick's Day. I was the sickest I had ever been and ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. One a positive note, there was no hospital visit today!!! However, I am sick again and absolutely exhausted after spending all day at work with mountains of stuff left to do. Hopefully this is just a cold. I did leave work a little early and was able to come home and make the boys a green dinner with green plates, green pasta, green milk, and pears (not green). Not a very exciting dinner, but they thought it was awesome because it was green. Next year I'll have to do Green pancakes with eggs. Hopefully next St. Paddy's day will be super awesome.

When discussing my luck with being sick on St. Patrick's day for the last couple of years, my mom asked me if I made a leprachaun mad. That just may be the case.

Addison again

Addision finally had her second tooth break through! She is growing up so fast. She's been pulling herself up to standing for the last little bit as well. There are times where she will pull stand up in her crib, holding onto the side, and then get really upset because she can't get back down. I wasn't feeling well yesterday and laid down with a blanket and pillow in her room. She crawled all over me, and then Zach came into play and crawled all over me, and then Nate had to join as well. We ended up reading books in Addison's room with her crawling all over us. It was rather nice. Nathan is adorable with her and will play with her all the time. He's really sweet. Addison has been giving kisses to everyone and has been crawling everywhere with her doll in hand. Life can be challenging, frustrating, and difficult, but I still have a wonderful, loving husband and three adorable kids

Addison update

It's fun to watch Addison grow and develop. She's got one tooth and the 2nd tooth should be poking through at any time. She loves to play with toys and likes to get into things she's not supposed to. She chose to play in the pantry today with canned goods rather than toys. She's army crawling and, every once in a while will get up on her knees and start crawling a little bit, but she's faster army crawling and goes back to that. She LOVES her big brothers and tries to play with them as much as possible. She's started to be more vocal and has recently been saying ba-ba-ba quite a bit. I'm trying to get her to say mama, but it hasn't worked so far. She loves to laugh. she's been blowing bubbles, sticking her tongue out, and blowing rasberry's a lot. She has a little doll she absoultely loves and gets a big smile on her face every time she sees it. She's been sitting up for a while and is much happier all around. She also claps now and likes to do it when she's especially proud of herself. She's also started giving big sloppy kisses with her tongue sticking out when asked. Unfourtunately, she also has a temper and likes to tell people when she's upset. I've tried to put headbands and bows on her and she tries to rip them off as fast as she can. she's really good at it. However, she's usually a joy and a great addition to our family. We love her very much and are glad she's part of our family.

Enduring to the end

The thought that keeps running through my mind lately is enduring to the end. The constant laundry, dishes, cleaning, cooking, kids needs, church callings, and trying to work a lot at the same is so very very exhausting. I'm just trying to hang on and endure to the end. I feel like I have my own version of a handcart. If I can just hang on, it'll all be worth it in the end.

Nathan told me the other day that he wants to travel the world. I told him maybe we can start doing more trips. He said he didn't want to just travel in Utah, or even the United States, but all over the entire world. That gives me something to think about. When I was a kid, we traveled throughout Utah and parts of the Western U.S., but I had never been on a plane until my honeymoon. I'd like to give my kids to travel all over the world if we can make it work. Something to think about.

Thankful

I'm going through medical records again for my job today. I am reminded once again how very very thankful I am for my good health and the health of my family. We have had some minor issues, but I am so very very thankful that my kids are healthy, happy, and developing normally. There are so very very many things that can go wrong and we have been blessed that we haven't had to deal much. I was just reminded today as to just how lucky and blessed we are!

Updates

I know I've been a slacker on my blog lately. I'll have to make this quick though. Jeff found a job and has liked it so far. It's a big change from what he's doing, but so far it's been a pretty good experience. We'll have to see how things go. However, with how horrible the job market is we're very happy for the opportunity.

I'm just trying to keep up with life. Between work, kids, home, family, helping out on occasion at Nate's school, teaching preschool on occasion, and everything else I've been a busy girl. We were able to purchase some storage shelves for an absolutely amazing deal and I was able to organize my storage room. It's a very cool concept to actually be able to get my food storage easily. I did tell Jeff that I've banned myself from food storage for a while. The other thing I've been getting into is coupons. I've been able to save a TON of money and it's been nice to help build up my food storage.

Nathan is such a good kid. He's done great with kindergarten and it's so fun to see him learn and grow. The things he tells me just amaze me. He loves to build with legos and I'm amazed at the creations he's able to come up with. Spring soccer starts up soon and we're excited to get back into that. It's been so fun to watch him grow.

Zach is having a lot of fun with preschool and with playing with his friends. I'm amazed at the things he tells me and the concepts he comes up with. He's definitely growing up. He's still a junk food aholic and my parents think its hilarious that whenever I go to their house the first thing Nate does is pull out the legos and the first thing Zach does is ask "can I have something to eat?" because Grandma has much better treats than we go. He still loves gymnastics and its fun to watch him.

Addison has grown up so much in the last little bit! She officially, as of the last couple of days, has her first tooth! She's almost eight months old and I'm in shock its taken this long because Zach had one at three months and Nate had one at four months. Addison has been sitting up for a while on her own and now loves to do tummy time. She's also on the move! She's been doing the army crawl for the last little bit and has been getting pretty fast at it. She also loves to sit on her tummy and play with toys. I'll lay her on a blanket in her room with toys and she's all over the place. She'll also army crawl out of her room to come and find me. She's not quite crawling yet but I'm sure it's coming very very quickly. She loves her big brothers and loves to play with them, and with their toys if she can ever get her hands on them. She's usually a total sweetheart, but definitely has a temper. My friend calls her "little red", mainly because she's stubborn (like her dad). I'm amazed at how much she's grown up already!

Ok, my time is up. We're just trying to keep up with life. Hopefully I'll post more soon!

Life is crazy right now. I'm home with my three kids with the exception of one or two days were I go into work. When I'm home, I'm still trying to put in full time hours. I've been managing around 35-40 hours a week of work. My kids are 6, 3, and 7 months so they aren't totally independent. On top of that, I'm taking a college class. Yup, life is crazy. However, I have little miracles all the time. I'm amazed when I can meet my deadlines. I'm amazed that I can still be a mom to my kids. I'm amazed that We've been able to manage life without too many problems. I feel so blessed. Life is crazy, but I can see little miracles every day.

"Sunrise, Sunset", Life seems to be flying by

Working from home

I am very very very blessed to have the job that I have that allows me to work from home. I am so very happy that I am able to do that. However, it is HARD. Like right now, I'm posting on my blog rather than working. Sometimes it's lonely. Sometimes its frustrating. A lot of times its a huge balancing act. I wouldn't trade it for the world because it allows me to be a mom and be at home with my kids. However, it is HARD. Now, I'm going to quit being a slacker and get back to work!

Boys will be boys

It just amazes me with the whole nature vs. nurture thing. I haven't taught my boys to use guns, I haven't taught them play in the dirt, and so many of the other boy things. My mom told me that little boys will make anything into guns. It is so very very true. Zach went on a treasure hunt today after drawing a map. He just came out and showed me he made a shooting bridge out of legos. Not just a bridge, but a shooting bridge with guns. I'm not a big gun person at all and haven't purchased toy guns in the past. We have water guns and the nerf guns they got for Christmas, but that is it. I've never encouraged them about that at all. The only thing I can come up with is that boys will be boys.

Preparedness plug

I know there are so many other people that are better at food storage than I am, but I still consider myself a bit of a food storage junkie. It's pretty sad, but I get very excited about case lot sales. I think it's mainly because I hate to pay full price for anything. Anyhow, I've tried to build up my food storage over the last couple of years and put money into savings as well. As we've had to rely on our savings and our food storage over the last little bit, it's given me such comfort to know that we've got stuff set aside just in case. Thankfully, our trials have been pretty minimal. Jeff stated the other day that, as we tried to be smart in our "seven years of plenty", that we'll be ok during our "years of famine". I sincerely hope it doesn't last seven years! I know our trials have been very minimal, and as a result we're still trying to be smart and do our part to be prepared for any future struggles we have. I'm just so thankful for the prophet's counsel! I love food storage!

A New Year

If you've read any of my posts over the last couple of months, you've probably caught on that we were very very excited for a new year. 2009 had a lot of challenges and we were ready for a new start. As 2010 started, we were still in the same position. Jeff didn't have a job, I still have an child with asthmatic tendencies, the dishes still need to be done, my boys can still be little tornado's, etc. etc. However, I think we just decided to change our attitude. As long as we have a positive attitude, that's what matters. Jeff and I have talked a lot about how blessed we are and we're trying to pass that onto our kids as well. We're trying to be very positive and are so very very grateful for our blessings. I made a list of potential New Years resolutions I want to work on. However, I think the only real resolution I've made is that I'm going to be happy and try be the best me I possibly can. I'm not going to beat myself if I'm not perfect with some of the goals I'd like to make. I think I'm just going to take one day at a time and be happy. As long as I'm tyring to be the best person I am and do what I'm supposed to, I think that's all that matters. We're just taking one day a a time and we're happy for all the blessings we have! So, though I'm a little late, here's to 2010! May be it be a great year with lots of real possibilities!

Honda Love

While I'm on things I recommend, I also have become a huge fan of Honda's. My little Civic isn't that pretty anymore, but it has 240,000+ miles on and still runs great. It also gets up to 50 mpg as well. It's been a huge blessing over and over and over. we've had very few mechanical issues with it other than some of the normal maintenance wear and tear stuff. Jeff and I have decided that we're Honda converts and will stick with them when our little car does die. Wahoo for Honda!!!!

Mechanic recommendations

I think the world of my mechanic. I trust his opinion and recommendations and I think he has some of the best prices we've found. There have been other times where we've taken a vehicle somewhere else and they charge us signifcantly more. There have been times where he could have charged me for things and he didn't because they couldn't find anything wrong. I had once where I thought a battery needed to be replaced and all he did was clean it and it worked great. He didn't charge me for it. Anywho, I have a wonderful auto mechanic and and highly recommend them. If you live in Utah County, its Greenwood Automotive in American Fork. The only problem is sometimes it takes a couple of days to get in. However, I think they are highly worth it.

I adore my mechanic!!!

Nathan is Six Years Old!!!!

I can't believe it, Nathan is six years old! We celebrated his birthday over a couple of days and I think he had a lot of fun with it. I've been so busy I haven't been able to do my post. Here's a really quick one and I'll have to do more later;

Favorite color is gold
Favorite animal is giraffe (and monkey)
Favorite food: HAMBURGERS!!!!
Favorite TV show: Rescue Heros
Favorite toy: legos
He loves to build things
He likes school and has become a great reader
He loves to ride bikes, scooters, jump, go hiking and camping and be very active. I love my little boy so much and I'm so glad he's a part of our family!

Addison at Six Months!

I can't believe how time has flown by. My little Addison is six months old already. She is adorable and I can't imagine life without her. The boys are really sweet with her and take good care of her. They'll play with he and love her. Jeff calls her princess all the time and the boys have been doing it as well. She's just a very very happy baby who smiles all the time. I've had many many comments from random people when I'm out shopping that she's just a happy baby. She definitely has her daddy wrapped around her finger already. He'll randomly tell her that she's just so adorable. He's more affected her her cries than I am. She's definitely Daddy's little girl.
She is almost sitting up on her own. There are times where she will, but then she'll get excited and lose her balance. She loves to stand up when someone is holding her and she also likes it when Jeff tosses her in the air. She LOVES to grab onto anything she can her her hand on. I recently gave her a piece of paper and she had a ton of fun crumpling it up and playing with it. She also really gets into playing with toys. She is rolling over all over the place from both front to back and back to front. I'll lay her on her tummy and she can turn 360 degrees if she's given enough time. She'll scoot backwards a bit, but she hasn't quite figured out how to scoot forwards. She'll get up on her knees for just a second and Jeff thinks she'll be crawling soon. I'm not ready for it, but he's excited for her to crawl.
She can be very quite most of the time, but if she's in the right mood she'll VERY loud. Jeff claims she said "Da" or "Dad" recently, but I told him no one else witnessed it so it doesn't count. I'm still coaching her to say Mama first.
She also loves to flail her arms. They are constantly moving up and down. She'll waive at times, and Jeff took her into class with the Priests (16-17 year olds) recently and the boys swore she did the beauty queen waive, the "elbow elbow wrist wrist wrist".
I took her to the doctor recently for shots. She's still in the 25% weight and is at 90% in height. No teeth yet, which is a big surprise. Nate had teeth at 4 months and Zach at 3 months, so we think they should come in at any time.
We love Addison dearly and are so thrilled to have her in our family!

Crazy

Life has been crazy lately. I've increased my hours at work and just trying to keep up with everything has been challenging. Thankfully I have a wonderful family that I love to pieces and it's all worth it. We have high hopes for this year and we're trying to feel very positive about everything. I know it will all work out. In the meantime, I'm trying to find time to do all that I need to!

New Years Eve

We had a low key New Years Eve, but I think we all had a lot of fun with it. We bought a Papa Murphy's pizza and I rented G-Force for the boys to watch. The boys were really excited to have a movie night. We watched the movie together and did pizza, chips and dip, drinks and ice cream. They had a ball and it was fun to listen to the boys laugh at the movie. We put them to bed at a pretty decent time, which was yea for me!, and Jeff and I got to watch Night at the Museum. It was a very simple night, but I think it was a great way to start the new year. We're hoping to have a wonderful year this year. I think one of my favorite parts of the year was when Jeff and I ripped up the 2009 calendar with great joy. This is going to be a great year with lots of wonderful things that will happen. I'm so greatful for all of our blessings and am thrilled I have a new year to spend with my family.

Christmas

Christmas was a little more low-key this year than in years past, but it turned out to be great. Jeff and I usually go skiing with his brother and sisters on Christmas Eve, or as close to Christmas Eve as we can. However, we opted out of Skiing this year. It turned out to be a really nice, easy day. I did a little work, we got the house cleaned, the boys played and we got everything ready for Christmas. The boys also helped me make sugar cookies for Santa. They had a lot of fun making the cookies as well as eating them.
We went to Christmas Eve dinner at Jeff's parents house, which is a tradition every year. We usually have a nice sit-down dinner with a turkey or ham and I was totally shocked that we ended up having Papa John's pizza! It was very nice to get together and MUCH easier on Jeff's mom to not have to cook, and to not have to do much clean up either. She made fried ice cream which was incredibly yummy. After dinner, we retired down stairs and had family home evening where we talked about the true meaning of Christmas and read from the scriptures. When we were making Christmas cookies earlier in the day, Nate and I talked about the symbolism of candy canes and about how Christ is how shepherd. During the family home evening lesson that night, I was impressed that Nate remembered what we talked about and could explain it to everyone, with a little prompting.
After the lesson, we went home and got the kids ready for bed. Nate and Zach got to wear some new P.J.'s and we placed the Christmas cookies on a stool next to the tree so Santa could find them. I was very happy that we got the boys into bed at a decent hour with the house mostly cleaned up. It made for a much easier night for me.
On Christmas Morning, Jeff and I were, of course, the ones who woke up first. I got ready and was contemplating waking up the boys. Jeff reminisced about how, as a kid, they got two-liter bottles of pop from their Grandma as a present. He mentioned how cool it was to have his very own bottle of pop. I had a couple of bottles downstairs and thought briefly about checking to see what I had for the boys. I was a really good thing he mentioned something because I had two more presents for the boys downstairs that I completely forgot about! I got them up under the tree just in time before the boys were up and about. The kids were up around 7:30 a.m., which is normal time for them.
We got everyone ready and Jeff got the camera out. We had gotten some used bikes from my brother for the boys and I thought they would be really excited about them. We placed the bikes around the side of the tree so they were kind of hidden. I had the kids check to see if the cookies for Santa were gone so they would see the bikes and, hopefully get a great reaction out of them. They saw the Christmas cookies and then looked up to see the bikes. They didn't seem every excited so, I asked what they saw. They said there were some bikes and I asked how's they were. Zach said, "for you and Dad?". I told them they were for them, but we still didn't get much of a reaction. They boys grabbed their stockings and then sat at the counter to look inside their stockings. I had to prompt them to even start opening presents! We started opening presents and got a little more of a reaction. Some of the first presents were socks and underwear where we finally got a reaction. I got more of a reaction out of opening socks and underwear then the bikes or some of the other presents! The boys got more into it and had a lot of fun. Addison opened a couple of presents and did great with pulling the paper off. There was one present where she ripped some paper of and was having fun with it. I tried to take the paper away from her and she got very upset with me.
Zach had asked Santa for a water gun, but Santa got the boys nerf guns instead. Kind of scary, but that's what he had asked for every time and that was apparently the best Santa could do because the North Pole doesn't make water guns. Nate had asked for a dinosaur race track with a loop-da-loop. Santa got a race track with a loop-da-loop, but Nate mentioned a number of times that it wasn't a dinosaur one. Oh well, I think Santa did his best and we discussed that a couple of times.
They all had a lot of fun and Nate mentioned a number of times that this was the best Christmas ever! We had just enough time to open presents before we had to leave to Jeff's parents house. We had breakfast down there and opened presents there as well. It was great to spend time with family and we had a lot of fun. The kids were great and we love Jeff's family. We were there from about 8:45-11:30 before we had to leave.
We then headed over to my parent's house in Highland and got there about 11:45 a.m. We were able to have lunch and open presents there as well. My family has a tradition of giving each other crazy socks for Christmas that they have to wear while we open presents. Some were more tame than others, but the best were the socks that my "little" brother Shawn gave to Jeff. He gave Jeff two HUGE Christmas stockings that, when he put them on, they went up to his thighs. It was hilarious. We took a picture of all of the socks, but Jeff didn't keep his on while opening presents. We opened presents and had a great time. We then stayed to hang out and talk for a while. We loved to spend time with my family and had a wonderful time visiting with them.
We finally left about 4:00-4:30 and headed home for a couple of minutes. The boys got to play with some of their new toys for a little bit before we finally headed back to Jeff's house for a little bit for some dinner and to hang out with Super Grandma. We were able to spend a little more time with them before we finally retired home and into bed. Overall, it was a very long, but wonderful day. We loved to spend time with family and had a great time. However, I think we were all very ready for bed!