~The Mays~

Therapy Bearz

2010-10-17T12:18:00.003-06:00

My little sister is making these super cute bears. You can put them in the microwave and add essential oils to make them smell good. My kids absolutely LOVE theirs and sleep with them all the time. Take a look at the link and if you like them, spread the word!

www.therapybearz.com

She is also on Etsy here

Quick catch up

2010-10-04T12:23:00.014-06:00

I have a million cute pictures from over the summer but have no patience for blogger. So, to catch up for my lack of blogging I'll just cover the major events...

For starters, Emma started FIRST grade! I can't believe she is so big. I had a really hard time with the idea she would be gone all day but, she loves it!

Another first for Emma...she lost her first tooth!!! She was beyond excited.

--Owen's Blessing--

Grandma and

Grandpa May

Grandma and

Grandpa Hulse

The best picture we managed to get of us and Owen. He was not very happy.

Cute Owen

TJ's first day of Preschool! He is so ready to be in kindergarten but was okay with going back to preschool for one more year. But only because he LOVES his teachers.

Love this cute little guy.

I thought this was a great picture. Our recent attempt at potty training has been a success!! (I've been a slacker in this area) Rees will be 3 this week and seems so much older than that. She is adorable and so, so fun!

Owen's first haircut!!

--Yellowstone--

This was a big event for me because it was a much needed vacation for just Jared, me, and Owen with my parents.

Owen's first time at Old Faithful

Jared and Me, enjoying our alone time

My mom and Owen

Last of all, Rees's new haircut!!

That pretty much covers the important stuff....

Our new little man

2010-06-06T11:51:00.009-06:00

Meet Owen...I have been enduced with all of my kids and was going to just let this one come when he was ready, but I jumped the gun and had my doctor enduce me. I am really not a patient person. So, we had him on the 19th of May. I'm a little slow posting pictures because for some reason I don't seem to have a lot of free time anymore! But all went well and we are so glad to have him here! He was 7 lbs 11 oz and 21 inches long. My biggest baby by one ounce.

This is Jared's sister, Colleen. I decided to try and deliver without the epidural and was a little nervous so I asked her to come. She used to be a labor and delivery nurse and I was so glad she was there! She helped me through the whole labor and practically delivered the baby herself. Even the doctor was very impressed with her.

Holding my boy for the first time, just after delivery.

All the kids with Grandma and Grandpa May

Emma holding Owen for the first time. She was so excited!

Rees and my mom

TJ has been so excited to meet his little brother!!

Jared and his boy, relaxing and watching basketball

Ready to leave the hospital

All my kids....wow.

My boys

Proud big sister

First bath at home.

One week old. I sure love this little guy!!

Birthday Boy!!!

2010-01-31T20:16:00.005-07:00

My boy turned 4 a couple of weeks ago! I can't believe he is getting so big.

Just a few of my favorite things about TJ right now:

He is very affectionate. He gives me an amazing amount of hugs every day and I absolutely love it. He also always tells me how much he loves me. He is funny because he is always very careful to make sure to tell me he loves Daddy the same as he loves me.

Jared's sister lives next door to us and has cows and chickens. For some reason he has made it a point to bless the cows and the chickens every time we pray.

Whenever I get mad at him he always says, "But I still love you, Mom." Seriously, how can you stay mad after he says something like that?

He loves to work, especially outside with his dad. He would choose to do that over anything in the world.

He loves anything that has to do with dinosaurs or sports. He has decided we are going to name our baby "sports".

There are a million other things I love about my little guy, most of all he is just the sweetest little boy ever!

For his birthday we went with my Dad and his young men from Idaho to a Jazz game. TJ was SO excited!!! Here are some pictures from the game. We got to go early and sit on the floor and watch a few of the players warm up.

TJ and Emma before the game

Cute kids on the court

The fam (minus Rees) with Kyle Korver. He was nice enough to pose for a picture with us before going back to the locker room.

Watchin' the game

TJ and Jared

T and Grandpa. He loved the noisy balloons they gave us.

My Dad had 2 seats on the 4th row and took TJ down with him for the 4th quarter. He LOVED it! He kept getting really excited and hitting the guy in front of them with his balloons. The guy was a good sport about it though, after he saw who was hitting him.

We LOVE Idaho!!!

2010-01-25T13:27:00.007-07:00

For New Years this year we packed up and headed to Idaho to stay with my mom and dad for a few days. We had way too much food, stayed up way too late playing settlers, and built a GIANT snowman! Jared during one of our many late night settlers games

Cute Rees getting ready to play in the snow

Emma and Daddy

Jared and my Dad working hard on our snowman

T and Daddy

Rees loving the snow. She had so much fun!!!

The finished snowman. The kids LOVED how big it was, and I think Jared and my Dad were pretty proud of it too :)

.......................................................

This last one really has nothing to do with Idaho, but this is me at 20 weeks. It's amazing how much faster you get huge with each pregnancy!

Gonna even things up

2010-01-13T12:35:00.002-07:00

Jared and I just found out today we are going to add another BOY to our family!!! With our new addition we will have an even 2 girls and 2 boys and we couldn't be more excited! I have been convinced this whole pregnancy that I was having another girl, which I would have loved too, so when the tech told us it was a boy I was totally shocked. TJ has had his heart set on having a brother and has already asked me a number of times when I am going to get his brother out. He can't wait!

It's A....

2009-12-10T13:59:00.002-07:00

.....baby.
I had an ultrasound today and was so hoping to see if we were having a little boy or girl. BUT, my little stinker was not cooperating and my doctor couldn't see a thing. I knew going in there was a good chance they would not be able to tell with me being only 16 weeks but was still hoping. Oh well, the baby is healthy and we will have another ultrasound in 4 long weeks. Until then, this baby is still an "it".

FOUR?!?

2009-11-30T16:54:00.004-07:00

Four kids??? Yep, come May we will be a family of six! I am 15 weeks prego right now and just getting over the fun sick stage. I will admit the thought of four kids kind of freaks me out but I am SO excited! So are Jared and the kids. Emma wants another sister, of course, and TJ would love a little brother. And Rees gives us a different answer each time we ask. I think she is still just trying to figure out what the heck we are talking about and why she can't find the baby we keep saying is in mommy's tummy when she lifts up my shirt. As for me, I would love a brother for TJ, which means I will probably get a girl.

And can I just say I have the best husband ever!! He has been the greatest at handling me and my crazy mood swings and has been amazing to help with the kids. Thanks Jared! Love you!!

Fun times

2009-09-29T20:49:00.011-06:00

Keith Urban Nancy and I went to Keith Urban's concert together and had SO much fun!!! Nancy's husband got us some great seats and then we ended up going down on the floor and standing right next to the stage for most of the concert. It was a blast! Thanks Chris!!!

Ya, I could have touched him. He did grab my hand, and spit water on me. :)

Fishing
Emma and TJ were so excited to go fishing with their Dad and Grandpa. These pictures are at the very first. Everyone was happy and enjoying the river until Jared's line fell on Emma's arm...
She thought his line was a bug and freaked out and tried to get it off, pulling the fly right into her forearm. Then she said she thought it was a bee that had stung her so she looked down, saw that the fly was still there, and tried harder to get it off, pulling it ALL the way into her arm. It wasn't a little fly, either. My dad has had a lot of practice getting flies out and this picture is of him popping it out of her arm. It took a couple of tries but he got it. If you look close enough you can see the fly. I wanted to get a close up of the hook in her arm but felt like an insesitive mom taking pictures while she was freaking out.

The fly after we got it out

And Emma's big blue bandaid. It was a pretty traumatic experience for her but she got over it after a while and had a great time.

Reeling in a fish

TJ and Grandpa

TJ reeling in Daddy's fish

Me and my baby

Rees and my mom got some one on one time together while we were fishing and met us at the boat ramp.

Swan ValleyLucy and Rees playing hide and seek. Super cute!

What a cutie!

Grandma and Lucy on our walk to the river

Shoulder rides for Rees

This girl is NEVER clean!

First days of school...My little Emma on her first day of Kindergarten! No, I didn't cry, but it was a day of mixed emotions. I love to see her grow up but at the same time I just wish she would stay little forever.

Emma with her little neighbor friends in her class.

And my TJ going to preschool. He has been so ready for this day, after two years of seeing Emma go and not being able to go with her. He was so excited to go by himself. He kept asking when I was going to leave. I almost felt bad that he wanted me to leave so bad. :)

Playin' with playdough. Both Emma and TJ did awesome on their first days and have loved every day since then. I sure love these kids!!!

Ma & Pa

2009-08-18T21:04:00.005-06:00

Jared and I got to be a Ma and Pa for our ward's pioneer trek this year. It was a little weird because I felt like I should still be one of the youth and not a Ma, but it was SO much fun! We had the best little family and had a great experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. We got to go to Independence Rock, Martin's Cove, and Rocky Ridge. I had never been to any of these places so it was fun to go see all three.Jared and Me

The girls following up the rear. Our boys had a little too much energy so the girl's job was to pull back on the handcart when they got going too fast.

Tug-O-War

Jump roping while taking a little break on the trail

Cam and Marissa (two of my kids) and me doing the limbo. We had some down time and had to find a way to entertain ourselves.

My favorite picture. This is our family pulling our handcart through a big mud bog. There were a bunch of these on our long day of walking and we couldn't take the handcart off the trail so the kids had to go right through them. It was great!

Festival Days

2009-07-15T22:32:00.007-06:00

We had so much fun at Farmington Festival Days this year! Friday night they had a little kids bike parade so we went to my sister in law, Anna's house and decorated the kid's bikes. It was a little traumatic for TJ when ha stopped to chase his ballon that fell of his bike and got left behind. But other than that and a couple of scraped knees the kids had a ball with their cousins.

Sam, Natalie, TJ, and Emma stopping long enough for a picture and then they were off again

Me and Rees-A-Roni

Eating their Pace popsicles after the parade.

Saturday morning was the parade. Jared was out of town so his parents took Emma and TJ to the breakfast that morning and went straight to the parade afterward and I couldn't find them, so Rees and I sat with my sisters and gathered enough salt water taffy to last us a lifetime.

She was excited to show me her candy she got

Annie and Paige. What a cutie!

Rees talking to Paige...

and now to her popsicle :)

She kept taking off into the street to pick up the stray candy so I had to hang on to her shorts to keep her back. We just missed getting a picture of her trying to crawl away from me. She was having so much fun!

This is a little video of her showing off her dancing skills

That afternoon we went to the park to see what they had going on there...

Emma was so unbelievably excited to ride a real pony!

TJ's pony kept stopping, that's why he looks like he is about to fall off

Before we even made it to the park Emma made sure I knew she wanted to get her face painted. Here are my cute kids with their painted faces.

Farmington City also put on a play of High School Musical 2 at the park. After days of Emma begging to go we decided we'd better take her. It was hot, and not that great, but Emma loved it so it was totally worth going. This is her and Jared at the play. He was SO happy to be there :)

This wasn't at the Festival Days but I thought it was cute. We went to the batting cages at Cherry Hill and the kids had fun with the helmets.

Idaho getaway

2009-07-06T20:39:00.007-06:00

Jared has been doing a lot of traveling and scout camp stuff so the kids and I were lucky enough to spend the two weeks up in Idaho with my mom and dad while he was doing all of his running around. It was so much fun! I wish we could just go stay up there every time Jared is out of town.
The first three days were full of laughs as my mom and me built a new swing set for the kids. Yes, it took us three FULL days!!! We had a lot of "help" from the kids, which is part of reason it took so long. But it was fun and the kids loved it! I wish I had a picture of the finished swingset, I think we did a pretty good job. :) It was a lot of fun to have some one-on-one time with my mom. I miss her!
The rest of the trip was full of relaxing, boating, whitewater rafting, games, and lots of rain. My aunt and uncle and their kids came up for the weekend of the 4th but it rained so much we didn't get to do much, but it was still fun to see them.

TJ on the boat

The kids and me on the tube. Rees really wanted to get on until we started moving, then she wasn't so sure she liked it.

Dad on the wakeboard!

Emma and TJ got really cold and tired but Rees was still loving every minute of it. She was so cute whenever anyone fell on the wakeboard she would ask "you ok?" over and over and over. She is getting so big!

Giving kisses :)

My tired boy

TJ playing games

Me, Nancy, and Heather watching games

Enjoying the weather....

before the storm Emma, Sam, and Lexi (my cousin's girls). These three girls had so much fun together! I didn't hardly see Emma the whole time they were around. She was so happy to have some friends to play with, it was so cute.

Emma with her sparklers. Poor TJ was so tired he went to bed early and missed out on all the fireworks.

I did it!

2009-06-15T15:04:00.008-06:00

For a while now I've wanted to run a marathon but never thought I'd actually do it. I've never been much of a runner but I pulled it off and ran my first marathon on Saturday! It started out that Jared, his sister, Elise, and I would run it together but Jared and Elise ended up with injuries and couldn't run. I think they were both pretty bummed they couldn't run it with me...instead Jared got to drive me to provo at 3:30 in the morning and hang out all day waiting for me to cross the finish line. Fun!!!Running at around mile 17. I wasn't expecting to see Jared until about mile 21 so I was suprised and happy :).

Running into the finish line. Jared and my mom and dad were there waiting with the kids. Chris and Nancy and Jared's brother Nate and his wife Anna were on their way but I was faster than I thought I would be and finished before they got there. Emma is always wanting to go running with me and never gets to, so she along with TJ ran the last little bit of the race and crossed the finish line with me. I loved it!!!

The family at the finish line. My finishing time for the 26.2 miles was 3 hours 56 minutes. Jared took more pictures throughout the race but unfortunately he is not much of a photographer and they all turned out blurry :) just kidding, we really just need a new camera. I think I am hooked and hope to run more, but right now I am looking forward to just being able to walk normal again...I am sooo sore!

Fathers & Sons

2009-06-02T21:45:00.006-06:00

TJ got to go on his first Fathers and Sons campout this last weekend. It is so fun to see him growing up and having fun with his Dad! Jared said he had a blast, he kept saying, "This is so freakin' fun!" :) Cute TJ. I am used to having Jared gone but it was really weird to have my little guy gone for the night. I missed him and kept thinking I was forgetting him somewhere. I'm glad he got to have a good time camping and look forward to see him get older and be able to do more fun things like this.Getting ready to leave, all prepared with his sleeping bag backpack

T and Daddy

Throwing rocks in the stream. This is one of his very favorite things to do.

Holding a snake. This is progress, we found a snake in our yard a while ago and he would have nothing to do with it.

TJ and Jared by their tent

Cute little booger

He went on and on about the campfire. He loved it!

I love this boy!

While the boys were gone I told Emma the girls could go out and do something fun. We called Jared's sister, Elise, to come along and left Rees with uncle Mike while we went to the salon to get our nails done. On the way home we stopped at Dairy Queen for some dinner and ice cream. Emma keeps telling people she got a "dolly pop". For some reason she can't remember what her dilly bar was called. :)

Emma loved the little "jewel" they put in the middle of her little flowers on her fingernails. Rees kept looking at my toes saying "cuuute". Then she decided they looked tasty and kept trying to lick them. Gross, but funny.

Emma was pretty bummed she didn't get to camp out with the guys so we put Rees to bed and put up the kid's little play tent and had our own little campout in the living room. It was so much fun to spend some time with my Emma, she is such a cute funny little girl. I look forward to many more girls nights with her and can't wait until Rees is old enough to come along.

Baby Conner

2009-05-21T21:15:00.004-06:00

My sister Annie and her husband, Jeff added a cute little boy to their family of girls today!!! They named him Conner Ladel Byington. He is a long skinny boy at 5lb. 15 oz. and 20 inches long. How fun for them to have their first little boy!

No pictures of the little guy yet but here is my mom and Annie, getting organized and ready for the baby.

Me and Annie's youngest girl, Paige. She is adorable. I wish I had a picture of Jade, these two girls have the biggest blue eyes you will ever see...so cute!

Random catching up

2009-05-13T21:56:00.007-06:00

Jared and I got to spend Easter in Idaho with my parents this year. The kids were super excited and a little worried the Easter Bunny wouldn't find them but we had a lot of fun. Here are just a few of the tons of pictures I took.

Cute TJ dying easter eggs. I think he did all of his yellow

Emma and TJ. Emma is showing off her egg.

Just relaxing in the hammock

On our way home from Big Judd's. I love that place, they have the best burgers and fries ever!

Me and Mom

Grandpa Hulse tickling TJ. He was going around to everyone asking them to tickle him. Silly boy.

Emma and Grandma Hulse. My grandma has a collection of Care Bears that is pretty impressive and Emma absolutely loves it!!!

TJ playin' ball. He was doing awesome!

Rees and Grandpa. She was helping to pitch the ball and would run like crazy to get it when TJ hit it.

Emma and Rees playing outside. Notice Emma's little patch of hair she decided to cut herself...nice.

I love this picture

A few weeks ago Annie and I loaded up and drove to Riverton to help Nancy plant some flowers in her yard. We didn't think to bring shovels and Nancy couldn't find hers so we ended up using kitchen spoons, which we got a good laugh out of. It was a lot of fun to spend some time with the girls and the kids had a blast!

Nancy and Annie are both getting pretty far along in their pregnancies and it was funny to see them trying to bend over and dig with their spoons :)

Nancy got out the hose to spray the flowers and the kids decided to have some fun in the water. Rees was hilarious, she loved it! Here is Emma trying to take her spoon.

And getting a drink. This went on for a couple of minutes, every time she went in to get a drink she ended up getting her whole head drenched.

Some of the kids running through the water

Rees and Paige. Their clothes were soaked so they rode home naked. Cute cousins!

Moab

2009-05-08T21:09:00.006-06:00

This is long over due but a few weeks ago Jared and I spent the weekend in Moab with my parents and Chris and Nancy. The plan was for Jared, Chris and me to run in the Canyonlands half marathon but Nancy had to go and ruin it :). We got a call from Chris the morning of the race telling us pregnant Nancy was in the hospital with kidney stones. Ouch!!! So Chris missed out but Jared and I ran and had a lot of fun. We spent the rest of the trip hiking and sight seeing. It was my first time to Moab and I loved it! I am hoping it becomes a tradition. Jared and me after the race

Dead Horse Point

Nancy and me, it was freezing!

On a little hike

This is me and my niece, Livvy at lunch. She is hilarious. She was playing with my camera and kept taking random pictures of people walking by. We got a couple good ones of our waitress too. She definitely kept us entertained.

Jare Bear :) He didn't know I was taking this picture. Doesn't he look happy?

Chris, Nancy and my mom at the arch. It was super windy, I was afraid I was going to get blown off a cliff.

Jared and me under the arch

Soccer kids

2009-03-26T13:33:00.008-06:00

Emma and TJ had their first soccer games this week. They have been been SO excited to play and have been practicing and practicing. TJ's game was first and he was super excited until he saw his coach. He was a nice looking guy with a kid on the team but for some reason TJ was really afraid of him. He was wearing a yellow sweatshirt and TJ keeps saying he was afraid of the yellow team. Silly boy! He cried and cried and wouldn't play. Toward the end of the game he let Jared hold his hand out on the field and walk around but still freaked out when anyone, especially his coach, tried to talk to him.

Emma on the other hand did awesome!!! She was having the time of her life. It was really fun to watch...at least it would have been fun if it wasn't freezing cold and I didn't have two other screaming kids with no husband to help.

We have been working on TJ, helping him to understand that his coach is not scary and are hoping he does better next week!

Emma going after the ball. She is the one in the white shirt out in front.

TJ and Jared, walking around the field holding hands.

TJ and Jared and the "scary yellow team" :)

No more Nacho

2009-02-10T17:21:00.005-07:00

Emma's favorite movie when she was smaller was Nacho Libre. It was the funniest thing to watch her laugh hysterically and to hear her quote it at random times. It was not so funny when she would cry to watch it over and over and over. So, we took a break from Nacho for a while. Well, TJ found it today and watched it and was out of control wanting to wrestle with everyone. I think little Rees got the worst of it...so I decided maybe Nacho should be put away again. At least until he understands he can't throw Rees on the floor and tackle her...TJ showing off his muscles after wrestling with Emma. He just had to take his shirt off.

TJ with his Nacho costume on. Jared brought this home from Mexico when Emma was really into the movie. I think it is hilarious!

Rees felt left out that Emma and TJ both had their shirts off. She tried for a while to get hers off too and then decided it was easier to just pull her pants down. I must have pulled them up 10 times only to find she pulled them right back down each time. She had a hard time walking around with them around her ankles so she spend a lot of time on the floor, but was enjoying every minute of it!

Chuck E. Cheese's

2009-02-07T12:23:00.007-07:00

Jared and I took the kids to Cuck E. Cheese's for the first time this week. It was my nephew's birthday and the kids had a blast! I had a lot more fun than I thought I would too. It was fun to see Nancy and Chris, they live in Riverton and it seems like we don't get to see them very often. Davis ( the birthday boy) and TJ are only 3 weeks apart in age and are hilarious together. They are best buds and I love it! Rees on the merry-go-round. She loved it!

Me, Nancy, and Rees. Doesn't Rees look happy?

I tried to play basketball, I shot one ball and as I was getting ready to shoot the next, the first ball bounced off the rim and came back and hit me in the head. It was really funny. Then I couldn't finish because I was laughing too hard.

The boys shootin' hoops

She wasn't too sure about the chair that moved around in a circle

Emma and Jenna getting their picture taken

Rees and me

Davis, the birthday boy!!!

TJ and Davis

Happy Birthday!

2009-01-26T21:41:00.007-07:00

TJ celebrated his 3rd birthday on the 17th of this month. My friend Amanda's little girl and Amanda's husband have the same birthday and were having a party at Crystal Hot Springs so we spent a good part of the day swimming in the hot pools. The kids all had a blast, except when they got the water in their mouths. It was a lot of fun!

Just a few things I love about my boy...

He is so incredibly sweet!!! He is always giving me big hugs and kisses and telling me how much he loves me. I LOVE it!! He has recently been very cute with little Rees too. He gives her loves and kisses and she is so cute to return the love.
TJ is hilarious. He is always making me laugh at the funny things he comes up with.
He is such a good boy. He definitely has his moments but for the most part he is a good listener and does what I ask him to do.
He is so funny about his sleep, he got his love for sleeping from his mom! He still takes naps almost every day and puts HIMSELF to bed sometimes! The other night we started a movie a little late and cuddled up on the couch with the kids to watch. After a little while TJ decided he was tired and told us he wanted to go to bed. He got up and walked in his room and crawled into bed all on his own. How many kids do that?!?
I know I am totally biased, but he is the cutest little boy I have ever seen! It's hard to get mad at a face so incredibly cute and innocent.

All in all, I absloutely LOVE this boy!!! Happy birthday TJTJ and his birthday pancakes

Blowing out candles

All TJ would say he wanted for his birthday was a spiderman cake. I didn't want to go buy a spiderman cake so Jared made a web with frosting and we stuck one of TJ's spiderman toys on top of the cake. He couldn't have been more excited! It was adorable.

More candles...

The birthday boy!

I told him to smile big and this is what I got.

Emma and TJ enjoying their spiderman cake

Sledding

2009-01-01T16:58:00.009-07:00

Jared, me, and my dad took TJ and Emma sledding today while my mom stayed home with Rees. (Thanks mom!) It was a little cold and it took some time to find a good hill on one of the dry farms here in Idaho but it was a lot of fun! Getting ready to go. Don't they look excited?

The Fam (except Rees)

The kids got tired and cold and were really ready to go home and get warm!

Cute TJ and his milk mustache from breakfast. What a slacker mom!

Emma Lou. You can see Jared in the background, one of our tubes blew away (it was pretty windy) and he had to run and get it. Emma thought it was funny and decided to let hers go so I ran after it and tripped in the snow, dropping my tube. So Jared ended up carrying three runaway tubes back. It was pretty funny.

Jared and the kids

Grandpa and Emma. Cute!

TJ loves his grandpa!

This video is of my dad going down the hill. There was a road at the bottom of the hill that we had to stop before and it was really hard when we were on the big tube. So, Jared figured out a good way to help the person on the tube stop. I was going down and was getting close to the road and couldn't jump off or reach the ground to stop so Jared ran over to me and dove in front of the tube sending me flying. It was pretty funny. We didn't get a video of me but of my dad who went right after me.

Halloween!!

2008-11-06T20:39:00.003-07:00

I love Halloween! I think it is so much fun to dress up the kids. We have been so busy fixing up our house we didn't have a lot of time to plan for costumes but it seemed to work out ok. This year Emma was Dorothy, she has never even seen The Wizard Of Oz, she just saw a picture of Dorothy and LOVED the red sparkly shoes and wanted to be her. She was so excited to get to wear lipstick and carry around her stuffed dog in her basket. TJ started out as a caterpillar but changed into a dragon at Grandma's house and little Rees was a lion. It was a busy day and by the time we got all dressed up and ready to go trick-or-treating Rees was so tired she just couldn't handle it. So we put her to bed at Grandma May's and took the older kids out. It was a fun filled night. After trick-or-treating around the block we took the kids to a party at our friend's house. They played lots of fun games and got lots of treats and cupcakes. After the party we went to one of Jared's long time friend's parents house for soup. It is something they do every Halloween and it is always SO good! The kids had fun playing and we ended up staying way too late. All in all it was a great day!

Poor Rees is not very happy. She wouldn't let me paint her face and TJ was mad because his costume was too small and hurt his head when we put his hat on.

TJ was a little bit happier when we switched his caterpillar for a dragon.

Emma and her friend Meili at the party

Favorite 8's

2008-11-02T20:38:00.003-07:00

I've been tagged...

8 Favorite TV shows:
1. The Office
2. 24
3. Seinfeld
4. Everybody Loves Raymond
5. House
6. Antiques Roadshow
7. Biggest Loser
8. Extreme Makeover Home Edition

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Outback
2. Cheesecake Factory
3. Olive Garden
4. Robintinos
5. Mandarin
6. Cafe Rio
7. Macraroni Grill
8. El Matador

8 Favorite Bands:
1. Dashboard Confessional
2. Counting Crows
3. Maroon 5
4. Secondhand Serenade
5. Dave Matthews
6. Taylor Swift
7. Muse
8. Dispatch

8 Things I did Today:
1. Went to church
2. Made dinner
3. Ate Halloween candy
4. Changed diapers
5. Took a nap
6. Dishes
7. Watched Football
8. Read my book

8 Things I Look Forward To:
1. My house being done!!!
2. Bedtime
3. Twilight movie
4. Alone time with Jared
5. Running
6. Christmas
7. Summer/Boating
8. Playing with my kids

So now I tag Amanda, Heidi, Jeannette, Elise, Madison, and Anna. Have fun! I actually had a pretty hard time with this, especially the music. I just don't listen to music that much anymore!

Idaho fun

2008-10-23T22:27:00.006-06:00

A little while ago Nancy's husband, Chris took Jared and I shooting up in good old Swan Valley. It has taken me a while to post because of my computer problems but I thought there were some cute pictures so I am doing it now. It was the first time I had ever shot a shot gun and I was so afraid it was going to hurt. I had so much fun and I actually hit some of the skeets! We also brought the BB gun and taught Emma and TJ how to use it.

I thought this picture of TJ and Jared was really cute.

Emma and me

Nancy getting ready to shoot

Jared showing off his skills

Me and Chris

Thanks Chris, it was a lot of fun!!

Birthday Girl

2008-10-10T22:09:00.005-06:00

My baby turned 1!!! Rees had her first birthday on Wednesday, the 8th. I can't believe she is so big already. I love this little girl SO much! She is the best little critter ever, she is always so happy. I feel so blessed to have her in our family and have loved watching her grow and learn over the last year. Here are just a few of my favorite pictures of my little Rees-A-Roni.

2 year anniversary

2008-09-29T15:44:00.010-06:00

I can't believe it has been two years since my surgery! I haven't written everything about this time of my life down officially anywhere and I want to keep a good record of it. But because it would be so long I decided to do a short version here and the long version somewhere else. Even the short version is long, sorry.

It was two years ago in June that I had a consultation to get my wisdom teeth out, the right side of my lips had been feeling numb for a while and I could feel my wisdom teeth coming in so I put the two together and decided I needed to get them pulled. When I told the oral surgeon about my numbness he immediately called in an appointment for an MRI and told me I could either have a brain tumor or have had a mini stroke. Of course this freaked me out and I started to cry (a result of being up ALL night the night before with kids). So that same day I went in for an MRI. I had also been having little dizzy spells if I turned my head too fast or if I put my head upside down to blow dry my hair which, of course, I shrugged off as an inner ear infection or something.

After being in the MRI machine for quite some time we were sent to wait for my results. Luckily, we knew the technician and she worked it out to have my OB/GYN give me the results that day instead of having to wait. So we went upstairs and waited...finally my doctor came in with the results. She looked at me and said, "I don't know how to tell anyone what I am about to tell you." Wow! Bad sign. She went on to say I had a brain tumor. She didn't know what kind or whether it was benign or cancerous. All she knew was that it was there. I was sick!!! Of course I started to cry...again. She told me I had to see a neural surgeon to find out more. The only problem was I couldn't get in to see a neural surgeon for another month! So, we waited again, not knowing anything.

After what seemed like forever we met with the neural surgeon and found out I had what is called an acoustic neuroma. A benign tumor, but a very large benign tumor that had to be removed surgically. The doctor actually used the word "giant". He went through all the complications and side effects and told me all about the surgery. In a nutshell, they had to drill a 2 inch hole in my skull behind my ear and take out my inner ear to get to the tumor, resulting in hearing loss on that side and a very good possibility of permanant facial paralysis on my right side, along with other possible complications and side effects. So we set a date for surgery. They also had to take some fat from my abdomen to plug up the hole in my head. Too bad they couldn't take it all out while they were at it.

I went in for surgery the morning of Sep. 26. I got all ready and waited with Jared and my mom and dad for them to take me to the operating room. I was scared out of my mind! As they wheeled my bed back I remember how freezing cold it was in the operating room and thinking as the room was going dark how glad I was I didn't have to worry and wait anymore. I got to go to sleep and Jared and my family had to wait in the waiting room. Lucky me!! 8 1/2 hours later I woke up and I was SICK!!! I was nauseated from the anesthetics and I was dizzy from losing my inner ear and my equilibrium. Not a good combination.

Before surgery the surgeon told me if I didn't have moblity in my face right after surgery it wouldn't come back. Sure enough, I couldn't move my face. The nurse taking care of me looked at me and said, "Oh my goodness, was your face like that before?" Nice. The surgeon checked up on me too and saw my face wasn't in as good of shape as they hoped. I was still a little out of it when Jared came in but I remember the look on his face. He knew my face wasn't working and knew I was probably upset but I remember him telling me how much he loved me and would always love me no matter what.

Time went on and miracles happened. I had a lot of blessings and a lot of people fasting and praying for me and I KNOW my recovery was a direct result of these things. My mobility in my face came back very slowly, suprising everyone. I was not as sick as they told me I would be, and I was up walking around with Jared at my side (I was still REALLY dizzy) faster than they told me I'd be. I had all of my doctors telling me they wished they could bottle whatever was making me recover the way I was. I was also able to come home sooner than expected. (YAY!!!)

I came home and continued to recover quickly but when I went in to get my stitches out, CSF fluid had leaked and made a big bubble on the side of my head. I looked like an alien. They told me it could take up to 6 months for the CSF to re-absorb and they might have to go back in and fix the leak if it was too bad. I got another blessing and prayed a lot! After a couple of days I could tell the bubble had gone down a bit. After a few more days the bubble was gone!!! I went back to the doctor a week later and shocked them all when I told them it had gone completely down. Another miracle! All the while my sweet mom and mother in law took turns every week taking care of my 2 year old Emma and my 9 month old TJ.

It took me a long time to get back to normal but now, 2 years later the only side effects I have are my hearing loss, the right side of my mouth is numb and tasteless, I get a really sour taste in my mouth sometimes for no reason at all that lasts quite a while sometimes, my right eye gets dried out a lot, and when I cry, I only cry out of my left eye. I also have a crater behind my right ear that makes it hard to make my glasses sit straight on my face. I consider myself VERY blessed!!!

This first picture is a couple of days after surgery. I know I look horrible but wanted to post it for two reasons. First, to show how my face was paralyzed. I am actually smiling, you just can't tell. It had actually improved a TON by this time. At first it was all droopy and wouldn't move at all. I could move it a tiny bit when this picture was taken. Second reason is because I think it is hilarious how Emma looks totally freaked out. I don't blame her a bit though.

The next picture is of the welcome home sign my family made for me. If you look close you can see that my mom and sisters decorated my front porch for me too :)

I had a hard time deciding if I should post this last picture. I don't want to gross anybody out but at the same time I want to show what they did to me. This was right after I got home and finally got to wash my hair. I still couldn't make the room hold still and holding my head down in the water made it a lot worse. That is why I am laying on the side of the tub, I am trying not to be sick. My hair grew back pretty fast and I could hide my incision easy but I am a little disappointed I can't see my huge scar now.

My little vampire

2008-09-24T17:42:00.003-06:00

I have just recently really gotten into the twilight series so I thought it was really funny when Rees started getting her side tooth before her two front teeth. The front teeth came in before the other side tooth so I guess it was more of a half vampire look...my own little Renesmee. Now only if she could tell me what she is thinking it would make life a WHOLE lot easier sometimes!

Finally!!!

2008-09-22T17:23:00.006-06:00

Okay, so I figured out my camera and ya, I was just an idiot. But now I have some major catching up to do.

I love this picture of Rees. I was packing up all of our food and she got into one of the boxes and found her first chocolate chip cookie. She was pretty happy about it too, like mother like daughter :)

I know Jared's parents have been home for a couple of months now but I never got to post pictures of their homecoming, so here they are. Janie was crying before she even made it down the escalator.

I love this one of Frank kissing Emma on the cheek. She missed her Grandma and Grandpa so much!Anna made a welcome home banner that we all signed, this is a picture of some of the kids holding it up waiting for them to come.

Dang!

2008-09-11T19:48:00.003-06:00

So, I haven't posted since we got the internet hooked up because I couldn't find the cord to connect my camera to the computer. Well, Jared found the cord today and I was so excited to finally post but for some reason (probably just me being an idiot) I cannot get it to work!!! I am so frustrated! Good news though...I talked to the people we are buying our house from today and they are almost done moving out!!! Since Jared's parents got home we have been living in our old rental but, knowing we are going to have to move again soon, we left most of our stuff boxed up. If I could figure out my camera I could post a picture of our lovely pile of boxes I have to look at every day. So it is good to hear that we can start fixing up the house soon so we can move in and finally get settled. In the meantime, I will try to figure out how to post pictures. I guess for tonight I will just have to get me a big bowl of ice cream and settle down to read my book :)

Yay!!!

2008-09-03T17:10:00.002-06:00

So, we have the internet at our house again! I am super excited but haven't found the cord to my camera to post new pictures yet. We have been pretty busy moving and going out of town, but I finally feel like I have some down time before we move again so I will have time to do some catching up. I am so glad!!!

No internet!!!!

2008-08-07T14:15:00.003-06:00

So, we have no internet right now and I almost don't know what to do. Since Jared's parents got home and we had to move, we don't have the internet at out house and probably won't for a while because we will be moving again soon (JOY!!!). I will try to post when I can but I already have a lot of catching up to do. I can't believe how much I miss looking at everyone's blogs!!

Sally

2008-07-24T23:18:00.006-06:00

We found a new pet on our kitchen floor the other day. It is a little hard to tell from the pictures but it was a little praying mantis. Emma got attatched right off and started calling it Sally while TJ stayed back a bit. After a while he got used to it but not enough that he would hold it. After playing for a few minutes Emma let Sally go in our garden so she could go see her family.The kids watching Sally climb up the chair, they were really nervous about it at first.

Emma wanted to keep her forever but finally decided she needed to go home.

Farmington Festival Days

2008-07-24T23:00:00.004-06:00

I ran in my first 5K for the Festival Days this year. Jared and I ran together, he was nice enough to wait for me and not run ahead. We ran it in 27 minutes, which is pretty good for me. It was a lot of fun and I would definitely like to do it again.

Later that day we went to the park with the kids and had lots of hot dogs and snow cones while we watched a baseball game and let the kids run around. It was such a fun day!!!

At the park relaxing and eating snow cones

4th of July

2008-07-13T22:35:00.005-06:00

My family always spends the 4th of July in Idaho, we had a lot of fun playing at the lake, floating down the river, and playing guitar hero. :)

TJ, Emma and Davis playing at the lake

It took a while before TJ would get close to the sparklers but when he did both he and Emma had a lot of fun. TJ also got freaked out by the little town's fireworks. Poor kid started crying to go to bed because he didn't like the noise. He was so sweet though, as I was putting him in bed in the trailer I asked him if he wanted me to lay by him because I was afraid he would be scared. He just smiled at me and told me I could go watch the fireworks. So cute!

TJ and Davis (Nancy's youngest) are only 3 weeks apart in age and when they get together you can pretty much count on them getting into trouble. They did some pretty funny things while we were in Idaho, here is a picture of them swimming in their clothes. They found the pool that we had put away, moved in under the pump, fugured out how to turn the pump on (which is pretty hard), and started filling up the pool.

While we were boating one day my brave little Emma went wakeboarding with Jared, she stood in between his feet on the wakeboard. It was awesome!!! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera. I will get pictures from my sister-in-law soon and post them later.

Time to babyproof!

2008-06-19T22:27:00.004-06:00

That's right, Rees is officially crawling! Oh how time flies, it seems like she grew up over night. She is not moving around very fast (thank goodness!) but she can get where she wants to go. Here is a little video of her first crawling experience. She had to take a break for a big cheeser smile.

Chalk drawings

2008-06-10T10:55:00.005-06:00

Emma and TJ were drawing on the patio with chalk this morning and when I asked them what they were drawing Emma told me "The Holy Ghost". This was followed by TJ telling me he was drawing "Jesus Christ with a headband". How funny is that? Also, when I asked TJ what he wanted to do today he replied, "Go on a mission". Kids are so cute!

Emma's Holy Ghost

TJ's Jesus with a headband :)

Vacation

2008-06-08T22:54:00.011-06:00

Jared was nice enough to let the kids and I come with him to the northwest on his business trip a couple of weeks ago. It was a TON of driving but the kids did amazing!!! We got to spend some time in Washington with Jared's brother and his family for a couple of days and we were so glad. It was fun to see Clif and Jenn and the kids couldn't have been happier to be there. Here are a few pictures from the trip.We went to a Mariners game one night, only we got stuck in traffic and didn't get there until the 6th inning. It was ok though because I think that is all the kids could handle. It was still fun.

Emma, TJ and Ben on the train. As I was looking through my pictures I noticed Ben has the same kindof cool-kid look on his face in all of them. He seems so much older than he really is, he is a funny kid.

The boys playing ball

Awww, Emma loves her aunt Jenn!!! Thanks guys for letting us come, it was so much fun!

Stage Fright

2008-05-18T21:46:00.011-06:00

Emma had her end of the year program for preschool last week, all the parents get to come and watch the kids perform some of the songs they have learned throughout the year. Emma was so excited for at least a week before the program telling me they had been practicing all the songs they were going to sing and she sang them at home all the time too, it was so cute to see her practice her songs. Well, on the morning of the program I told her today was the day I got to go see her sing and she couldn't have been happier. We got her all ready and made it to preschool and got ready for the program to start. Here is a picture of Emma and TJ before it started. Notice how happy Emma looks. These next pictures are from during the program. She started out great, singing and doing the actions.

After singing the first couple of songs this is all we got from Emma (above) and below is what happened near the end. It may look like she is doing actions but is actually going to wipe a tear. Poor Emma got so embarrassed it was all she could do to not burst into tears. It was sweet and sad at the same time. I wanted so bad to grab her and give her a hug! She stayed up there the whole time though, even though she was near tears. I felt horrible that she didn't get to sing her songs she worked so hard on. After we got home and she recovered from her traumatic experience, she felt bad and wanted to do the program again. I told her we couldn't so she settled with singing the songs by herself for us. I can't believe how much I love this sweet little girl!!!

I love it!!!

2008-05-18T21:34:00.002-06:00

I had to put this picture of Rees on because I think it is so cute! She is growing up so fast and is more and more fun every day. Babies are so much fun, especially when they are so happy :) .

Tagged

2008-05-13T15:25:00.003-06:00

Six things about me

1. I am a HUGE sucker for sweets, especially chocolate. Honestly, if I see it...I eat it. Jared thinks it is funny to tease me about my ability to make half (or less) a pan of brownies, cookies, cake or most anything else because it is usually at least half gone by the time he sees it.

2. I love the outdoors, anything from hiking, boating, camping, or fishing. I am really looking forward to the warm weather and getting outside for whatever reason. I was just thinking this morning how much fun it would be to take the kids camping, even if it was just up Farmington Canyon.

3. I have just recently decided I really like to run. We just bought a treadmill and I love it! I have never been a runner and am still not very good but I really enjoy it and am looking forward to running my first 5K!

4. I am deaf in my right ear, can't taste on the right side of my mouth, and don't cry out of my right eye. Most of you already know these are the results of my brain surgery to remove a benign tumor. So if you talk to me and I don't respond, it's not because I am being rude, you are just talking into my bad ear. :) I also occasionally get a really sour taste in my mouth, usually because of something I ate, or smelled, or thought about eating, and it usually lasts for quite a while. Very annoying!

5. This one may come as a suprise to Jared but I actually like to cook. The part I don't like is deciding what to cook and going shopping for the groceries I need. Maybe I will get over that someday, like when I don't have 3 small kids to take to the store with me.

6. I have three kids who I absolutely adore! I love being a stay at home mom and wouldn't want to do anything else. Of course there are parts of being a homemaker I could do without, one of the biggest being laundry :) . Oh well, I will put up with the things I don't like so I can enjoy the things I do like. After all, I did grow up in a home where my mom's motto and theme song were, "GET OVER IT". Love you mom!

There you go, I actually had a pretty hard time thinking of six things to tell about myself. I now tag Elise, Amanda, Julie, Kinley, and anyone else who wants to.

5 YEARS!!!

2008-05-09T08:56:00.007-06:00

Jared and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on the 3rd of May! In honor of the special occasion, we went to Game 6 of the Jazz vs. Rockets series and had so much fun! I hope this anniversay was better than last for Jared because last year I, yes I, forgot!! Luckily, Jared remembered. He called from work on our anniversay saying he got a babysitter and we were going to his cousin's house to watch the Jazz game, and me being my grouchy pregnant self didn't want to go anywhere. He put up with me and made me go anyway, as we were in the car ready to go he told me we weren't going to watch the game but we were going to dinner for our anniversary. I felt so horrible I started to cry (I blame both the forgetting and the crying on the pregnancy). These last 5 years have been a little crazy, between having babies and health issues, and I am so glad I had Jared to help me through it all. He has taught me so much these last five years and I am so very grateful for him. Thanks Jared for not only putting up with me but for making my life so much better and being the best dad our kids could ask for. LOVE YOU MOST!!!

Happy Birthday Emma!!!

2008-05-07T14:35:00.008-06:00

Again, I am slow in posting but Emma turned 4 on the 29th of April. I can't believe she is so big! She got to open one present in the morning, it was everything she needed to be a princess for the day. Here she is all dressed up.
We also had pink pancakes with purple syrup for the special occasion. Here she is ready to blow out her candles. Just a tip, when you put candles in pancakes wait until the pancakes cool off a bit. Otherwise they melt! Genius.
We started off the morning at the park and ended it with strawberry shortcake (yummm) at my mom's. We also went and saw Horton Hears A Who (with Emma all dressed up of course). It was great because we, along with my sisters and their kids, were the only ones in the theater so the little boys who got restless towards the end of the movie could run around and not bother anyone. During the movie I handed Emma a starburst, she ate it and a little while later poked me and said, "mom, was there paper on that treat you gave me?" She had eaten the wrapper along with the candy and didn't realize it until the candy was gone and the paper was stuck in her teeth. It was pretty funny.

Just a few things I love about Emma

She is so excited about learning right now, she is always asking me how things are spelled and telling me what letters begin different words. She also loves to have me tell her which numbers to push on the phone so she can dial and call people. We have done Jared's cell phone so many times she has it memorized. Jared is SO glad I taught her so now she can call him whenever she wants, and as many times as she wants :) .

I love the way she pretends to be a princess. Everything about her changes from the way she walks to the way she sits on her chair. She has started a new thing lately, she will "accidently" bump into something just so she can say "oh" in her soft, high pitched princess voice. She even has her own little accent she has developed.

Emma loves to sing and dance. She makes up her own songs to sing, usually about whatever she is doing at the moment. When she finishes she will look at me and wait for me to clap and if I don't she is very quick to point out that she just finished her lovely song and it is time for me to clap.

Emma has a shirt she calls her "preganant" shirt. Without fail, every time I get it out for her to wear she says, "I'm going to wear my preganant shirt today?" I love the way she says it. She is also very sweet to comment on my clothes and hair. She will often tell me how cute I look or tell me my clothes are pretty...and she is not afraid to tell me if she doesn't like my clothes either.

I absolutely love Emma's imagination. She comes up with the funniest things. She is also very thoughtful.
Emma is super friendly and loves to meet and talk to new people. She just knows everyone she meets wants to know all about her. It is fun but it also makes me a little nervous.

Emma is my little sweetheart. She definitely has a stinky side but for the most part is very sweet. I have loved watching her with Rees these last few months. She takes such good care of her and keeps telling me she can't wait to be a mom. She is so fun and I have loved watching her grow these last 4 years.

As I was cleaning up Emma's birthday decorations I kept hearing her say, "I'm being a mommy, I'm being a mommy" over and over again, I wasn't really paying attention thinking she must just be playing with her dolls. When I finally looked at her this is what I saw. This is Emma being a "mommy". I sure love her!

Ice Cream :)

2008-04-22T21:26:00.004-06:00

The weather here has been so off and on lately, one day it will be 80 degrees and the next day it is snowing (literally). I am so ready for it to stop going back and forth and just stay warm!!! For Christmas this last year my mom and dad bought all of us kids some ice cream making balls, you put all the ingredients for the ice cream in one end and the ice and salt in the other end and you roll the ball around for about 15 minutes or so and you get ice cream. It has been a big hit with the kids. A few days ago we had our first 80 degree day this year and took advantage of the weather to get together and have an ice cream making party. Here is a picture of me and my sister Annie rolling our ice cream makers around with some of the kids.

This picture is of the little tree in our front yard the next day. We had a snow storm after our beautiful weather and this tree had little icicles all over it. It is a little hard to see it in the picture but it looked really pretty.

Congrats!

2008-04-21T14:57:00.003-06:00

This is a little slow getting posted as well but my sister Nancy got engaged over Easter. Here is a picture of her and her fiance Chris. He is a great guy and we are excited for both of them. They are planning for May 31. Congratulations guys!!!

Catching up

2008-04-21T14:31:00.001-06:00

I have really been slacking off on our blog lately, mostly because I don't have anything very interesting to blog about. Here are a few funny pictures I saw as I was scrolling through my camera. This one is a little blurry but I thought it was funny. TJ's jammies were a little stretched out in the neck and he thought it was fun to put it up over his head. It reminded me of a certain cartoon episode of Bevis and Butthead.

Emma put her sunglasses on Rees and she loved it. She left them on for quite a while. Very cute.

Clif and Jenn came to visit from Washington and we got to spend a little time together. Emma snuggled right in to read a story. What a good uncle and dad.

Fun Vacation

2008-04-12T21:38:00.014-06:00

A couple of weeks ago the kids and I got to go with Jared on one of his business trips to St. George along with my sister Sarah and her family. We had so much fun! The kid's favorite (besides the pool) was hiking and playing in the sand dunes at Snow Canyon. We also spent some time at Zions. Fun times!!!

So cute!!

Sand dune fun

Rees loved the sand too

TJ and Trav at Zions

Brian and TJ - what a good cousin!

We stopped at the Mountain Meadows Massacre memorial on our way home. TJ really liked watching the flag blow in the wind.

Easter Morning

2008-04-01T18:21:00.006-06:00

It was fun to see the kids running around the house to find their easter baskets. Emma sometimes picks out her own clothes for the day before she even comes out of her room in the morning, she picked a really cute one for the special day.

Ready for church in their new Easter clothes

Easter Fun

2008-04-01T15:38:00.003-06:00

Emma and TJ had so much fun on Easter that Emma keeps making wishes that the Easter bunny will come again so we can have another easter egg hunt. Just a few pictures of the day.

The poor horse will never be the same

Wheelbarrow races at my mom and dad's. GO EMMA!!!

What would a May family get-together be without a good game of buddy tag?

more tags

2008-03-20T23:10:00.001-06:00

I want to add more tags to my previous post. Julie, Kinley, Ali, and Emily :)

snapshot of right now...

2008-03-20T16:54:00.002-06:00

Jeannette tagged me

Answer in one word

1. Where is your cell phone? kitchen
2. Your significant other? California
3. Your hair? ponytail
4. Your mother? busy
5. Your father? relaxed
6. Your favorite thing? chocolate
7. Your dream last night? scary
8. Your favorite drink? water
9. Your dream/goal? happy
10. The room you're in? office
11. Your ex? jerk
12. Your fear? spiders
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? house
14. Where were you last night? mom's
15. What you're not? patient
16. Muffins? blueberry
17. One of your wish list items? treadmill
18. Where you grew up? farmington
19. The last thing you did? eat
20. What are you wearing? comfortable
21. Your TV? off
22. Your pet? stinks
23. Your computer? Dell
24. Your life? kids
25. Your mood? tired
26. Missing someone? Jared
27. Your car? messy
28. Something you're not wearing? socks
29. Favorite store? target
30. Your summer? busy
31. Like someone? yes
32. Your favorite color? purple
33. When is the last time you laughed? today
34. Last time you cried? ??
35. Who will/would re-post this?

I tag Amanda, Krista, and Brittany

For Grandma & Grandpa

2008-03-17T13:15:00.003-06:00

This post is for Grandma and Grandpa May who are serving a mission in South Africa. We all miss and love you and are looking forward to when you come home!

Disney on Ice

2008-03-14T09:48:00.014-06:00

When I saw Disney on Ice was doing a princess show I knew Emma would love it. So Jared and I took the girls last night with Nancy and her daughter, Olivia. Although I felt a little bad about not taking TJ (knowing how much he likes Lella), he was very excited to spend some time with his favorite cousin, Justin. Emma had so much fun! She dressed up in her Cinderella dress and as we were walking to the show a lady at a Disneyland booth gave her a little wand. It was cute to see her get so excited to see all the princesses. Jared won't admit it but I know he was excited too. I took tons of pictures for Emma but couldn't get very many good ones, apparently I am not very good with the camera. I especially wanted one of Cinderella (Emma's favorite) but could't get one. Oh well. I did get some cute ones of my little Cinderella.

Before the show

Emma and Livvy

Jared and the girls. Doesn't he look excited?!?

Emma and Daddy

Mommy and Rees

Poor Rees was so good the entire time, but was just too tired to stay awake

Of all the pictures I took, this is the only really good one I got...and I'm not even sure which dwarf it is...grumpy?

Rees-A-Roni

2008-03-12T22:53:00.003-06:00

After talking to Jared's mom and dad a while ago, I realized I needed to post more pictures of our little Rees. She is 5 months old already and getting to be so much fun! She is the best baby EVER! She is always so happy and quick to smile and loves to jabber. The kids are excited she is getting old enough to laugh at them when they play with her and Emma tells me all the time she is sooooo glad we had a little baby girl. Here are a few pictures of her. I wish I had more, I will be sure to take more soon.

Sad day

2008-03-03T15:40:00.010-07:00

The last few days have been a little emotional for me. More so for my sister Sarah, I'm sure, who this morning at 5:30 delivered her little baby boy at 4 1/2 months. They named the little 8 oz. 8 inch baby, Harmon Dale Barton. Needless to say, they are not going to have the joy of raising their little boy in this life.

On Saturday afternoon Sarah and Bret anxiously went to their ultrasound appointment to find out if they were having a boy or girl. After the tech had gone through taking cute little pictures of the face, hands, feet, etc. she checked the heart and realized she could not find a heartbeat. Because the baby was 20 weeks old and too big to get out any other way, poor Sarah had to go through delivery for a baby she knew was already gone.

I am so heartbroken for Sarah and for the little Barton boys who were so excited to have another baby in the house. And poor Bret who had to break the news to those cute little anxious faces waiting to hear if the baby was a brother or a sister.

As I see the trial they are going through right now, I realize how very grateful I am for the three little blessings I have in my life. When you receive such amazing blessings so freely it is easy to take them for granted sometmes, especially when those amazing blessings are tired and all screaming at the same time.

It is times like these that make me so very grateful for the plan of salvation and for the knowledge we have. Life and death would be so incredibly hard without the gospel.

Footballs and princess dresses

2008-02-19T13:05:00.011-07:00

Ever since TJ was just little he could entertain himself with any kind of ball for hours, he will still choose playing catch or shooting hoops over anything else about 90% of the time. He used to have a little blue teddy bear he liked to sleep with but has recently decided he would rather sleep with his football.
Jared might be a little upset that I am posting these next pictures of his son, but I think they are hilarious. Sometimes I wonder if TJ gets too much "girl time" being home with me, Emma, and Rees all day. What do you think?

These are pictures of him dancing around like "Lella" (Cinderella). He also looked very cute the other day in a little tinkerbell costume, unfortunately, I didn't get a picture. In his defense, it doesn't happen very often.

So Patriotic

2008-02-04T17:11:00.000-07:00

Emma suprised me the other day when she was playing with TJ, she stopped what she was doing, stood up, and started rehearsing the Pledge of Allegiance. In her preschool class they all stand and repeat the Pledge of Allegiance every Monday, I knew they did it but never thought she had it memorized. I thought it was very cute and she was very proud and excited to say it into the camera. Here is a video of her saying it to me. TJ has no idea what she is doing but had to stand by her while we did the video. I can't believe how much and how fast she is learning, it is so fun to see her get so excited about learning new things.

I had to put this other video on too because it made me laugh when half way through she starts waving her hands around. I call those her "princess hands" because that is exactly what she does when she is pretending to be a princess. It doesn't matter what she is doing, as long as she is a princess she moves her hands around as graceful and delicate as possible. It is adorable.

"Scary Monsters"

2008-01-31T20:05:00.000-07:00

Emma and TJ both are in very fun stages of life and I love to see Emma learning and growing up but TJ is in a stage right now that cracks me up. He makes me laugh constantly with the little things he does all the time. Here is a cute picture I took of him the other day. He LOVES the movie Monsters Inc. and cries for me to turn it on all the time. The funny thing is, when I do turn it on, he covers his eyes for the first ten minutes of the movie saying, "scary monsters" over and over again....go figure.

Terrible two's!!!

2008-01-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

TJ just turned two on the 17th!!! I am so excited to see him growing and learning new things but I have to say I am not looking forward to his little attitude I can see developing. He has been throwing little temper tantrums for a while and for now it just makes me laugh when he makes little fists with his hands and kicks stuff and grunts until his face turns red, but I know it won't be funny forever. He is such a sweetheart most of the time though and has just recently gotten in the habit of randomly giving everyone big hugs and kisses and telling them he loves them so much. He is also usually very concerned if anyone is upset. He asks "what happened" in a very sweet tone over and over until someone answers him. He is also getting to be quite the little copy cat mimmicking everything his big sister does. He is usually very happy, especially in the morning, almost every morning he comes out of his room with a big smile and says, "sleep good". He has also picked up a very cute habit from his daddy. Anyone who knows Jared knows he loves to play with hair, well so does TJ. He will often play with my hair and tell me how soft and pretty it is. Here are a few pictures from his birthday of him and Jared "playing ball" with his new basketball hoop. He has always loved balls and often practices making baskets in the basket his toys go in. He was very excited about his new present and did suprisingly well with his new hoop. It was fun to see him play and hear him say, "nice shot daddy" whenever Jared would make a basket. Emma was sweet to TJ on his birthday letting him be first with everything when she usually throws a pretty big fit if she is not first, and even though TJ scared me half to death when he did a somersault out of the cart at Target, it turned out to be a pretty good day. Here is a picture of T's eye after his little fall. It doesn't look as bad in the picture as it did in real life but it definitely could have been worse.
He later fugured out if he put the chair under the basket he could make it every time...smart kid.

Blessing Day

2008-01-14T17:02:00.000-07:00

We were able to bless Rees last week, Jared gave her a beautiful blessing and we got together with friends and family after the meeting. I am so grateful for a worthy priesthood holder for a husband!!! Here is a couple pictures of the blessing girl. My mom has created a fun tradition of making blessing dresses for all of her grandaughters. She was nice enough to let me help with some of the embroidery which was fun. I love that they will have their beautiful dresses to help them remember their grandma and see the talents she had.

Merry Christmas!

2008-01-02T16:42:00.000-07:00

Christmas was so much fun this year! Emma and TJ were so excited about the whole idea of Santa and his reindeer coming. Emma brought home some reindeer dust (glitter) from pre-school this year. The idea is right before you go to bed on Christmas Eve you throw the reindeer dust outside on the snow so the reindeer will see it shining, get curious, and when they stop to check it out Santa leaves you presents. You have to hurry and go to sleep or the reindeer won't come though. It was so funny to see her throw the glitter and run upstairs as fast as she could to get into bed. The only problem was we forgot to put out milk and cookies for Santa before we threw the reindeer dust. So she ran downstairs again, made sure we got the cookies and a big glass of milk, and ran back upstairs. I wish it was so easy to get her to go to sleep every night.

TJ got this football and spider man ball in his stocking, which he opened first, and didn't want to open any more presents. I wish I would have known that is all he would want.

Giving hugs for the gifts they picked out for eachother.

This is a picture of TJ asking if he could pleeeease open his race car track. Who could say no to those big blue eyes?

We always go to my parents house Christmas morning to open the gifts they got for us. Here is TJ cuddling Grandpa with his new blanket.

The kids got new storybooks for Christmas so we settled down with their new blankies and read a story before bedtime. As you can see, Rees wasn't too happy about the whole idea.

Santa Dean

2008-01-02T15:53:00.000-07:00

Our neighbor has dressed up as Santa for the last couple of years and come to our house with little gifts for us and our kids. Although Emma was a little confused at why Santa came to our house before Christmas, she was very excited and glad Santa told her she was on the "nice list". After his little visit, if Emma was being naughty I would tell her Santa was watching to make sure she was being nice and she would tell me he already told her she was on the nice list so it was ok. TJ was a little nervous until Santa gave him a little nerf football, he warmed up to him quickly after that.

Jared and I were lucky enough to sit on Santa's lap too!

sledding with the Mays

2007-12-31T15:03:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of us sledding with Jared's family. We all went up to Eaglewood golf course as part of our Christmas get-together. You can't tell from the pictures but the hill was huge!!! We all had so much fun Jared and I went back another day without Rees and TJ so we could enjoy it a little more and Emma went down the giant hill all by herself. I kept asking her if it was scary (I was a little scared) and she just kept telling me she went soooo fast but it was soooo fun.

Poor Anna had to carry Natty and pull Emma in the sled. Luckily it was just the small hill.

Jared with TJ and Rees

TJ was cold and wouldn't let Jared put him down

after sledding

2007-12-31T14:43:00.000-07:00

After sledding we all gathered at Margaret's house for dinner and the traditional Christmas program. Emma and TJ were exhausted after having so much fun. After the progam Audrey tried to teach everyone a line dance, here is a short video clip of the dancers. Keep an eye on Margaret (back left with the blue shirt).

2 months old!!!

2007-12-13T15:53:00.000-07:00

Rees just turned 2 months old the other day. I took her to her 2 month doctors visit and found out she is in the 81% for her weight. She is getting little rolls everywhere and a very cute double chin. Her head size on the other hand was only 53%, compared to Emma and TJ's who were always in the 90-100%.

done...finally!!!

2007-12-12T14:45:00.000-07:00

We finally finished decorating the tree and I thought I had better take a picture because I knew it wouldn't look like that for long. All of those pretty ornaments are very tempting to a 2 year old boy. Emma was very proud of her work and couldn't wait to suprise Jared when he got home.

lots of "help"

2007-12-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

Jared was out of town when we decorated our tree this year so it was up to me and the kids. Of course they had to help with everything. As you can imagine, it was very fun and very frustrating at times. Emma liked to put the hooks on the ornaments so she would get them ready and give them to me to put on the tree...TJ was giving me ornaments to put on too but instead of getting them out of the box, he got them off the tree. Between trying to keep up with TJ, keeping him from hitting the colorful balls with his toy bat, and trying to keep Rees happy it only took us three days to finish.

growing up too fast

2007-12-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

I took Emma and TJ to get their pictures taken at the elementary school and i thought they turned out so cute. Emma was practicing her smile the whole way there, it was hilarious. They are growing up so fast!!!

like father like daughter

2007-11-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

Every time there is a Broncos game on Jared and Emma put on their matching jerseys and watch football together. It's funny because Emma will usually cuddle with me to watch TV but not on football days. When they have their jerseys on she has to sit with her daddy, it is their little thing they have together. This is them doing their grrrr face getting pumped up for the game.

Fun with Dad

2007-11-08T13:47:00.000-07:00

TJ and Emma had so much fun helping Jared clean up the leaves off our lawn the other day. I think they made it take twice as long as it would have taken had they not helped because they kept messing up the piles before Jared could move them back to the garden, but it was worth it. When I came outside Jared was right in there with them. The kids would bury him and right when they would get all done Jared would jump out and scare them. It didn't matter how many times he did it each time their faces would light up and they would laugh uncontrollably. It was so cute! I love watching them have so much fun with their dad.

Halloween!!!

2007-11-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

Halloween was so much fun this year!!! We had the cutest angel, football player, and little banana I have ever seen. Emma was so excited to wear her costume but TJ wasn't so sure about the whole idea. He cried as we put his jersey on and wouldn't wear his helmet until we told him people would give him treats if he put it on. By the end of the night he wouldn't stop grunting and showing his muscles and wouldn't let us take his helmet off. Poor little Rees didn't like her costume much. It was a little big but I thought she was very cute!

two cheesy children and their new doll

2007-11-02T22:53:00.000-06:00

One week after we got Rees home

our newest addition

2007-11-01T16:08:00.000-06:00

Rees Morgan May is now almost 4 weeks old. She was born on October 8 at 11:02 after only 3 hours of labor. She is the first baby we have had that hasn't had any accidents or complications and we are very glad to have her here and well.