{What we've been up to...}

Here is what we were up to General Conference/Easter weekend....

The boys and there cute little easter eggs they made.

Playing nintendo DS...

Grilling. I made shishkabobs. They could've been better.

The boys ate lots and lots of candy.
We had an egg hunt here at our house the morning of easter. Bright and early at 7 a.m. We also had an easter egg hunt at our church the day before easter. We also ate a pancake breakfast while we were there. It was fun...
The easter bunny brought them some $1 goodies...they got some bubbles, glow sticks, bouncy putty, and there own set of crayons. And of course lots of candy in there basket.
Jaydon got Croup. He wasn't happy and was VERY needy...understandably. He sounded horrible. It really does sound like a barking seal. And he was wheezing horribly bad. All the time i had to give tanner breathing treatments i never heard tanner sound as bad as i heard Jaydon. The doctor gave me steroids in case it got really bad. And it did. So, i gave it to him and it kicked in about 2 hours later. It helped me to relax b/c he wasn't wheezing so bad anymore. And he is finally getting the hang of drinking out of his own cup. I will throw his bottles out at 12 months so he better get it down soon! :)
On easter Sunday we had ham, cheesy potatoes, broccoli, and deviled eggs. It was a yummy dinner! And the weather has been soooooooo beautiful. I am in shock that it's so wonderful here! I love it!

I've just been doing a lot of reading and exercising, cleaning, cooking, and running errands. Yesterday the boys and i took the car to the car shop to get a small dent fixed. The boys and i walked home, which was about a mile. On our way home we stopped at the little ice cream shop on the side of the road and i got the boys there own little ice cream cone. Then today i walked to pick up gavin from preschool(shane dropped him off). They whined the whole walk home. It was hilarious. Especially watching tanner whine as much as he did. Gavin would run as fast as he could, then stop and wait for us to catch up to him, then run again. He didn't wear a belt with his pants b/c we couldn't find it, so he would run while holding his pants up...BUT he was holding them up so high that he was giving himself a big time wedgy. It was hilarious! :)

As a family we've had a goal that we started at the beginning of this year. To have FHE every monday night, ready scriptures everyday, and have family prayer everyday. We have been so successful at it. It has been awesome and has made a big difference in our day to day lives. We are on schedule to finish the BOM in May, i believe. I have really loved that we have been soooo consistent about it. It brings us closer and i find that my desire to learn more about the scriptures has increased greatly....i often want to pick up the BOM during the day on my own and read, study, and learn. I know, to some that is common, but i have never been like that before. So, it has been a neat experience. We have really grown as a family. And the most rewarding part is watching my kids. I really want to instill a strong foundation for them. And i feel like it is working. It is so hard sometimes to read everyday, but i find that if we read in the morning it is so much easier. It also helps that we have a chart that we fill in with each chapter we read. The boys like that. And it helps to have a reward planned for your family when you finish the BOM. Shane's family and ours are all doing it together. So, when we go out to Idaho this summer IF we all read and did all those things consistently then there is a surprise planned for us. So, having that in place helps to keep us a bit motivated to stay on top of it. And it really helps.

We went on a bike ride on the tow path, which is about 30 minutes from here. It is really pretty over there. It would be even prettier if all the leaves were on the trees. It was fun. I have the baby on the back of my bike in his own little seat. Shane pulls the boys around behind his bike in the bike trailer. It is fun to be able to do all this. Last year we couldn't b/c Jaydon was brand new, so it was nice to get out and have a bike ride with all three boys. They loved it. Jaydon fell asleep though. It isn't a very comfortable spot to fall asleep. He would lean forward and rest his head on my back.

{Easter Sunday...warning:this is a spiritual post. Don't read if it will bore you. :)}

I don't usually post my testimony on here, or something like it for a few reasons, but i think its about time i put something like this on my post, since this is my journal and this is what i am feeling...
With Easter coming up, i have been thinking about my Savior, Jesus Christ a lot lately. I loved this message i found on you tube and had to post it. I am glad we have the opportunity to celebrate Easter Sunday in a couple of days. I have been bearing my testimony, maybe too often, in church lately. BUT i can't help it. I never plan to get up and then it just hits me, and my heart feels so full of gratitude constantly of the love my Savior has for us. I know he is real. I have had too many things occur in my life to ever deny his presence in it. He has made his presence known to me throughout my life in many different, sometimes unique and sometimes in special ways, which i am so grateful for. I know he is real just like i know my three boys are real. I love him so much and i know he loves us so much. I have so much gratitude in my heart for him. I am so grateful for the atonement and resurrection. I was thinking about the last moments in his life...the last week. AND how lonely and disappointing it must have been for him. I go back to Elder Holland's talk everytime i think about that moment. His talk was incredible. Anyway, how hard and lonely it must have been for him. Only he could have done it. My heart breaks inside whenever i think of that moment in his life. I am eternally indebted to him and eternally grateful.

{Disappointed}

Honestly, i am disappointed in myself. I have not been taking pictures very much at all! I am so disappointed. I am going to make it a personal goal to do better at taking pictures and posting them. But honestly, life has been so crazy that i feel like i don't have time for anything. These three boys keep me pretty busy, along with exercise, keeping the house clean, cooking, being a supportive wife, getting all the errands taken care of, and figuring out moving plans and stuff coming up along with that time period. It is crazy. Some days i find myself saying to everyone "I am DONE! Mommy has now left the building. She is no longer available. If you need her she will get back to you tomorrow." For real. I can't imagine how much more crazy it would be if we were still having all the showings we were getting for a few weeks there. That was insane. Makes me never want to sell a house again. AND we only had it up for like 3 weeks! Craziness. Anyway, i am really going to try to take more pictures so our family and friends can see these boys and how big they are getting! We have lots of things coming up so i will have to make sure i get it on here! :)

Need a good form of birth control? Something that will ensure you never get pregnant? Come live at my house as the mom for about a week. :)

{Boys and the things they do and say}

Tanner likes to eat asiago cheese plain, without anything else. Grosses me out. I like to add it to foods to add some taste, but he likes to pound it all by itself. When you open the lid to the cheese it smells up the kitchen. uck. He also likes to eat RAW onions.

I put gavin in timeout. I was mad and told him why he was in timeout. I ended by saying "therefore, you are in timeout!" He got mad and said " 'THEREFORE' IS IN THE SCRIPTURES!!!!" i just laughed.

Jaydon likes to eat anything that is on the ground. He also had his first piece of pizza about a week and a half ago AND he had his first lasagna meal last night. He loved both of them.

{The true meaning of Easter}

Last night we had a primary activity at church. We had about 40 kids show up. The primary presidency and I spent hours at the church yesterday morning getting everything ready....oh, and my visiting teachers came over and helped us! What a huge help they were! After we finished setting up, we left and had to be back to the church 2 hours later. Let's just say that from 8:30 a.m. up until 8:30 p.m. i only spent 2 hours at home.

The kids showed up at 6:30 and we did one of those advent calendar type of things where you have 12 easter eggs and you fill them with objects that represent the important happenings in the Savior's last week of his life. So, we had 6 rooms that the kids rotated through and in each one we told a certain part of the Savior's life during that last week. As i was teaching i quickly thought to myself "oh my goodness, these kids are sooooo hyper....they aren't getting anything out of this!" They just weren't interested in listening.

Well, in the last room, we ALL went in there together to watch a slideshow of different pictures of Jesus. The song "I Know my Savior Loves Me"(a new song they have been learning) was playing as they watched the slideshow. Before we turned it on they were all still being a bit Rowdy! haha! So, when the music and slideshow came on...the next thing i know, all the kids start singing along with the music MORE reverently and MORE sweetly than i have EVER heard them sing it in primary! The spirit entered that room and filled it and it was soooo special! I was reminded of how precious and sweet children are, not only to me, but to our Savior and how much he loves them! Afterwards i talked to my friend and she said she saw all the girls with their arms around each other, swaying back and forth, while singing the song. It was such a special moment that i will always remember. :) That made it all worth it! I quickly forgot about how rowdy they were and quickly realized that they are getting something out of it. It was neat.

Easter is next weekend and i am excited...not only am i excited to watch my boys get their easter baskets and decorate their eggs, but i am also excited b/c it is General Conference, again. I love general conference. It is going to be a fun relaxing weekend.

{St. Patty's and randoms}

For St. Patrick's day i decided to do something to make the day a little fun. Soooo, i made some green jello for the boys. I made them a green, nutritious spinach smoothie(thanks to my friend jamie...the boys love it and i love drinking it after a workout). And for dinner i made green mashed potatoes, dijon basil chicken, and broccoli. And the boys wore a green t-shirt. And daddy brought them to the zoo. It was a fun green themed day.

The weather has been exceptionally wonderful. I am shocked it has stuck around as long is it has. The boys have been playin outside in the backyard all day long. That leaves time for me to read, and clean, and of course workout. It is nice.

Jaydon has become quite the screamer lately. I am not kidding you. He has the most powerful set of lungs i have ever heard. When he gets upset, you know. He stares at you, starts yelling/screaming and goes RED. It is nuts. I keep thinking, "where are you getting this from?!!?" He already has major attitude...boy i can't wait until he is 2 years old. That might be a nightmare. He has this thing he does when he is in a good mood or zoned out playing with a toy....its a very loud, rustic yell. It is sooooooo loud. He does it when he wants to make someone laugh, when he wants to get someone's attention , or when he is playing with a toy. It is really quite hilarious. It is our call we make to each other as well. I do it and then he does it back. Never fails. So, if i am in one room and i know he is in the other, but am not sure what he is doing b/c i can't hear him...well, i do that little call of his and he does it right back to me. Then i know he is okay. hahaha! He makes me laugh so hard, and makes the boys crack up all the time. He is just sooooooooo loud. I really think he is louder than his other brothers were at this age.

Yesterday the boys were in the backyard playing. I hear gavin saying "Tanner, don't eat the leaf!!!!!" I looked out and said "What's going on?!" Gavin said, "Mom, tanner is eating leaves....i think he is hungry." It was hilarious. YOu had to be there.

Well, since i know i can't be a nurse right now at this point in my life....i realized that i don't have to be a nurse, BUT i want to know everything a nurse knows....or a nutritionist. So, i am getting into reading research books on nutrition. I find it VERY interesting. I am learning a lot, but i don't hold that information for very long. I lose it fast, so i am gonna have to keep reading and reading until it is stuck in my head and won't leave. I want to have my own book of knowledge in my head about nutrition. I will....soon. :)

{Recently...}

Tanner's interpretation of what he learned in his primary class.... "Mom! Joseph Smith was on a boat and then there was a BIG wave and then the whale EATED him!!" I said, "The whale ate who?!" He said "Joseph Smith". hahaha....i will have to tell his teachers this one.

Friday we found out from the inspector that we had 4 gas leaks downstairs. We had the gas company come out that night, and they said they can't do anything and that we have to call a plumber. So we slept without heat that night and the next day i was freezing my toosh off. The plumber came on Saturday and fixed the leaks. The gas company came back out to test it to make sure all the leaks were fixed and they were so they turned out gas back on. Thank goodness. THEN sunday shane was downstairs and heard a loud airy sound coming from our water heater and saw a stream of water going from the water heater all the way over to our drain. So, we had people come early this morning to install a new water heater. Now i am just sitting and waiting for the third thing to happen....Doesn't it always happen in three's?

{Two great quotes}

I have been pondering a few things over the past 24 hours and felt like putting these quotes up b/c i think they are good. A friend of mine from cleveland, now living elsewhere, put this quote on her blog and when i read it i thought it was totally awesome and now i love the quote! She said she thinks this quote should be put on billboards across the nation. I agree. I have been meaning to put this quote up for awhile, and then forgot about it, and then just remembered! haha! Anyway, enjoy...

THE BOTTOM LINE

Keith Kennedy @ 1985

FACE it...Nobody owes you a living.
What you achieve or fail to achieve in your lifetime is
directly related to what you do or fail to do.
No one chooses his parents or childhood
But you can choose your own direction!
Everyone has problems and obstacles to overcome
But that too is relative to each individual.
NOTHING IS CARVED IN STONE...you can change
anything in your life if you want to badly enough.
EXCUSES ARE FOR LOSERS. Those who take responsibility for
their actions are the real winners in life.
Winners meet life's challenges head on, knowing there are
no guarantees and give it all they've got.
It's never too late or too early to begin.
Time plays no favorites and will pass whether you
act or not.
Take control of YOUR life.
Dare to dream and take risks...
If you aren't willing to work for your goals, don't expect others to.
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!!!

I have another friend from cleveland, now living elsewhere, who keeps this quote on her blog. I really like this quote too and want to share it...

Our Deepest Fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we uncounsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." (Marianne Wiliamson, A Return to Love: Relections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles", Harper Collins, 1992.)

{Awwww, a breath of fresh air}

It has been about 60 degrees the past two days. Cleveland is mean. We all know that we are going to get another snow storm. There is no way it is going to stay this nice. I mean, how happy and grateful would we clevelanders be IF cleveland decided to bestow this beautiful weather upon us for the rest of winter and spring. But alas, it won't happen. I am just glad cleveland is giving us a break. So, i guess cleveland is being nice, temporarily. I NEEDED this weather in order to stay SANE!!! :) Truly. It is rough being stuck inside a small compact congested house with three kids during the cloudy winter's. It gives me a claustrophobic feeling. Not kidding. So, here are some pics of the boys enjoying the nice weather. Ohhhhh, and i bbq'd yesterday! That is my favorite and i took advantage of it! :)

Here is Jaydon looking outside the front screen door and enjoying the cool breeze coming in. I opened all the windows!...

P.S. Shane graduates in 9 weeks and 2 days. His last day of school is in 7 weeks!

P.S.S. We sold our house! What a HUMONGOUS ENORMOUS GIGANTIC TREMENDOUS relief.

{Life, lately}

Tanner is our little patroler around here. If he doesn't like something that we do he lets us know. If one of the boys toots or burps he immediately says, "you HAVE to say excuse me when you do that!!" He tells me right away when the baby is poopy. He can smell it even if we can't. If the baby is doing something that he knows he could get hurt doing then he tells me right away, no hesitation. He patrols.

Gavin likes a plan laid out for him. He needs me to tell him what to do all the time. I often times tell him to be a kid and go use his imagination. He complains for awhile about it b/c he wants me to tell him what he should do, but he eventually gives up and figures out what to play for himself. :) BUT it definitely makes him a lot happier when i tell him what to do. hahaha. That is kind of funny.

Jaydon is just a mover. Everything catches his eye, and even when i think my floor couldn't be cleaner he still finds something to put in his mouth. He sat in the cart at the grocery store for the first time. I can't carry him in his carseat any longer. It is way tooooooo heavy. He really liked riding in the cart. He just looked around....it was like a whole new world. He isn't a fan of food with any texture. I tried feeding him the baby foods that have those tiny chunks in it, BUT he kept coughing. He does that when he doesn't like what is in his mouth. He gagged a few times too. They are just tiny pieces, but he didn't like it. He still gags on his little fruit puffs too. He just wants to stick with all the creamy baby foods, stage 2.

Shane is done with Boards. What a huge relief on both of us, especially on him. He has to remind himself often that he is done. He can't believe it. He can't believe he is graduating soon. Crazy! Often times he will come home and make it sound like he is behind everyone at school. Well, when i watched him at Boards i saw a totally different person than he describes to me. I saw a confident, knowledgeable DENTIST. He did his job VERY good. I don't know what he was trying to tell me at home, but it was totally opposite what i saw in the clinic that day. He is going to make a great dentist.

I am almost done with p90x. I am running again too. It feels good. :) I was shane's assistant for his Boards. What a cool experience. I told shane "you are just feeding my fire of my wanting to be in the medical profession....getting me all dressed up like i am a nurse!" And of course it did, BUT i am getting books from the library to learn about stuff. I want to learn most about physiology and food and nutrition. So, let's see if i can learn it myself. :)

{9 month check-up}

Jaydon is 9 months old. Here are his stats...

Height:29 1/4 inches (80th percentile)

Weight: 23lbs. (90th percentile)

Head: 90th percentile.

Jaydon you are a big boy! You have the chunkiest thighs and legs i have EVER seen on a baby. Not kidding. I love them though. I love love love to squeeze your legs and spank your bum all day long. It's so irresistible. I love kissing those chunky cheeks too. I can't get enough.

You make us all laugh with your funny positions(downward dog) and your hilarious weird noises you make all the time. You bring a lot of laughter into our home. We can't get enough of you. You are such a happy good little(BIG) boy. We are so lucky to have you. You have been better than i could have ever expected.

You hurt your head everyday. You always try standing up by holding onto something and you fall often and hit your head. Good thing you have a big tough head to withstand all those hits!

We love you sweet baby.

{Hocking Hills}

We decided to make a last minute trip down to Hocking Hills one last time before we move. We love going down there. It is fun and relaxing. And the cabin was awesome. The kids love playing with their buddies, Remi and Broden. They played a lot of Duck duck, goose. They played like they were puppies. They wrestled a lot and the adults joined in. They went sledding down the hill right next to the house and they made snowmen. It was tons of fun. We had a shrimp and steak dinner(terrific) and had omelettes for breakfast(yum-o). The adults stayed up LATE playing games, eating too many sweets, and sitting in the hot tub. I don't know the last time i had a sugar high. I did that night and to make it worse it was when we went to bed. I was so tired but felt wired. Let's just say i got about 3 hours of sleep. After going to bed LATE and then the baby waking up upset for awhile and the other kids waking up way too EARLY....left me with 3 hours of sleep. It's okay though b/c we had fun. The kids all slept upstairs while the adults had their own bedrooms on the main and lower level. And our twisty turny drive to get their and back didn't result in any car sick kids....all thanks to dramamine! We are going to miss these trips down to Hocking Hills and we are really going to miss our dear friends.



They made 3 snowmen!

What a cutie pie!

Jaydon and Alissa watching the kids outside on their sleds.

Making silly faces and running around like crazy animals at 6 a.m.

It is actually hitting me that we are leaving soon AND I am actually getting tears in my eyes thinking about leaving behind all the fun memories we have created here. I feel sad a little. It has been such a fun adventure. Seriously, we are moving in 11 weeks. We have been through SO MUCH together in the past 4 years. SO MUCH! We got through it together, and we became better for it all. It is crazy how many memories we have created and how much we have grown these past 4 years while here. It is a very bittersweet moment.