Our Fab Five

Fall Pictures

2010-11-17T07:28:00.000-08:00

Things are CRAZY here. Whew. I barely have time to breathe.

Between kids, my house, kids' homework, MY homework, and now work........I am on autopilot. Things should be slowing down a little though. I'm winding down toward Graduation and school projects are wrapping up. I now work from home instead of traveling to American Fork every week. That's NICE. :) I'm learning to balance laundry, cooking, and working.

I know most moms would not enjoy balancing work and home, but I have to say I'm kind of weird that I do enjoy it. All of these years of school have taught me the success and satisfaction of really working hard at something, applying myself, developing skills that I didn't know I had, and being able to turn in something I'm proud of. I guess that's why I've kept chipping away at school all these years (9 to be exact). I love that feeling of accomplishing something and stretching myself academically.

Work has become like that. Thank HEAVENS I do not have some horrible paper-pushing job (yet anyway). I get to Graphic Design training modules. I do work with text and writing, but I work a lot with the look and feel of the training and I have had wonderful reviews of my work. It is such an awesome feeling to walk into a company as the newbie and produce results that the company executives love!!! It was a lot of pressure, but I have really proven myself and my skills there. This is like school----learning, working hard, applying myself---but add to it now that I'm getting paid! Woo hoo! I do love it. :)

I am not sure that I'll take a full-time position right now....I can't justify putting my kids in daycare everyday to travel 120 miles down there and back a day.... I am super happy with the part-time, work out of my home, occasionally come in the office schedule I have. I think my biggest success right now is knowing I am helping contribute to our finances. After so long of Trev trying to find a job, and feeling completely helpless, it is so nice to see my paychecks go into the bank and relieve some pressure. Trev has a new, better paying job---and with my job added to it, we might finally fix the mess the last year has made. :D

I did want to post some cute pictures I took of my girls. I REALLY want a family picture taken, because the last one we had was when Paisley was 3 months old. :( I have to make time to get us all out there, and someone to take it. I may give in and go to a studio after all. I can't seem to find a time and place to get them done. However, I take my girls pictures myself every year and print them. They may not be as polished as professionals, but they're free and my girls have a lot of fun creating them! This time we went to this giant castle park in Fruit Heights our friends showed us. We absolutely love the park, and I thought it would make a great background for some fun pictures.

Here is Paisley at 2 years old:

Sadie is now 5 years old:
And Anna is 6 (and a half she tells me). She'll be 7 next month.

The Internship, Part 2

2010-10-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I decided to do a blog post....sitting here on my couch....on my laptop that does not have any of my pictures on it....but oh well. We'll see if I back this post up with a follow-up with pictures of what we've been up to. ;)

I just wanted to do a quick update about my internship. I LOVE IT! :D I'll just tell a little bit of what has been going on:

My first day of my internship, I walked in and met my supervisor. She gave me the run-down of the company, and then took me around to all of the departments to introduce me to everyone. I barely remembered my OWN name after all of those introductions...let alone everyone else's. :D We went out for a nice lunch, and then my supervisor set me to work figuring out some graphic design ideas with some blogs she'd found.

It took a few weeks, figuring out the information I'd been given, figuring out a layout and design on my own, figuring out graphics...and most of all, figuring out a new software on my own. My supervisor was extremely busy, and I only went in the office two days a week.That didn't allow for much training. I'll admit, it was a LOT of hard work going out on a limb and learning all of this information, and then translating that into my own creative ideas. I am not, by nature, a creative person at all, but I fought through it.

However, once I got my feet on the ground with this project, I gained a LOT of much-needed confidence. I impressed my supervisor with my ability to assert myself and take the training/learning on myself and dedicate to it. When I showed her my project, she absolutely LOVED IT! :D I can't tell you the pride I had in that...that I did something I thought I couldn't do, and it worked and was impressive. I learned more from this experience than any kind of training and hand-holding would have given me.

I ended up having four training modules that I created, and we published them on October 1. What a relief!! All-in-all, we did find one small glitch in the program I set up, but it was extremely effective, a new direction, and was a great way to make my mark as an intern. I have to admit, I was dreading this internship a little bit, and hoping I'd gain something from it, but really, this is more than I could learn in a classroom any day. I needed this "real world" experience.

I have to comment on the work environment a little, just as a side note....I love my co-workers too! :) I am in the middle of a few teams, all of which have nothing to do with anything I'm working on. I was a little worried I wouldn't fit in, and let's be honest....you hear the word "intern" and you think the beat-down grunt that gets all the crappy work. The people around me at work are so very open and friendly. They invite me to lunch all the time, and have made a special effort to make sure I'm included. They are such nice guys (and a few girls). We all laugh and have a great time. I've made a few friendships with the girls upstairs, which aren't many. I value those friendships because I was unsure whether I'd be received well or not. All-in-all, I've had many, many, many comments on how they hope I can all stay and have a full-time position once my internship is over. That means a lot to me. I'm just trying to be kind and friendly, and I'm finding this is a great company to work for. I work hard, but I've been officially "accepted" into this group and they're great people to know.

I know I sound a little cheesy, and surreal, but this has been such a great experience. It has been LONG, HARD, mentally-exhausting work. I have put in about 80 hours so far in 4 weeks when my projected time would have been about 60. When I go into the office my two days a week, I come home so dead tired, and a little heartbroken about how much I've missed my kids. I have to reevaluate the worth of this every time I come home. However.....as much as it takes its toll on me, I know it's the right thing to do. I can't graduate until I hit my 120 hrs. I have worked so many years to have my education---whether I use it, or have it as a back up to help support my husband and my family if I ever need to. I can't give up this internship just because it's taxing. Sigh. Some days though.....

We are now at a place where we're making some momentous decisions. If they offer me a full-time position at this company, depending on the offer, I might take it. Eeek...the idea scares me. But we're on the fence, Trev and I, on what we're doing for our family. Trever has had a LONG streak of working for small companies that struggle and shut down. We seem to keep getting stuck in the same track over and over. This spring, I hit the ceiling of frustration and I exclaimed "I need Progression! We can't keep starting over every 2 years!!"......... Well, this potential job of mine might be the solution to this. Hmm.... If we traded places, Trev could stay home with the kids (we aren't sure we could do daycare with 1 kid in full-time care, 1 kid in 3 day a week half day school, and 1 kid in 4 days full time school and 1 day half day....). However, aside from him staying home, he'd finally have every opportunity to do his schooling. I've been at him for YEARS to get his education, but to be honest, he's been working himself to death with long hours and side jobs and barely has any time left to function at the end of the day. He's had no interests (house construction electrical doesn't interest him so he doesn't want to finish schooling for it). He found what he wants to do finally. I'm 100000000000% supportive and I can barely contain my excitement :D. I'm such a fan of education, and I feel like he can't compete in the field anymore without it. What's a good way to get out of the same cyclic track of starting over every 2 years?? Oh yeah....work on schooling in a new field with lots of possibilities. It will at least open a lot more doors for him, and maybe inspire a new passion in him. Would it be hard for me to work full-time? Yes. Would it be worth every second to sacrifice for my family and support my husband through school finally? Yes. We're not sure just yet what we're doing...because my job offer is still in process....but it may work out to be this way. I'm a little worried what everyone might think, but if this is right for our family, we shouldn't care. We're still on the fence for inspiration though. :)

Thanks for putting up with my all text, no pictures post. I don't even know who will read this. Hopefully someone :). It has been a long time. It has been such a long year of unemployment, Trev working for months out of town, unemployment again, companies that didn't work out for us, panic attacks (mine), losing some "good" friends, making some MUCH better friendships with amazing people, stress, more stress, and MORE STRESS. Through it all, I've learned volumes in appreciation, gratitude, and real friendship. I've learned to Simplify, and find peace in my sweet, amazing husband, our beautiful, wonderful little girls, and our faith that if we're just trying our hardest, things are going to work out. I'm actually pretty dang grateful 2010 is almost over, and I NEVER WANT ANOTHER YEAR LIKE THIS AGAIN ;). Bring on 2011!!

The Internship: Just About to Start

2010-09-01T21:18:00.000-07:00

So, I know I haven't posted in FOREVER. Ugh. It's been a long, busy summer. I took a summer class that is 14 weeks worth of work...all packed into 7! With Trev being out of town most of that time, too, I just did NOT have a second of energy left to blog. :(

However, I have decided to "attempt" blogging again. I was talking with Trev about journals, and how a lot of people use their blog as a type of journal, and I've always said mine is like that. I want to print out my blog posts for my kids (create a book for them). Well, I can't very well be sharing it with them years down the road with GIANT gaps in it, can I? We'll see what I can do....

I'll think about playing "catch up" later. For tonight, I am writing about what I'm so STRESSED and excited about....my internship that starts tomorrow. Aaaaahhhh. I'm nervous. I really honestly did not sit back, 4 years ago when I went back to school, and picture myself about to embark on a 120 hr internship...doing of all things, GRAPHIC DESIGN!

I had been interviewed for this position, the graphic designer position, and I remember thinking: "I am not a graphic designer. Why are they interviewing me for THIS?" I didn't get the job...not surprisingly but to great disappointment....but I got an internship doing the exact SAME thing!

I've been studying the software I'll use, and I feel comfortable with it. Destiny (not a person, the real "fate" out there) provided me with the fact that I'm taking a Document Design class at the moment, complete with books on typography and designing. I'm reading up all I can on good design. Yikes, I'm still so unprepared. I'm hoping when I go in tomorrow, they'll understand that I'm starting from the beginning!

Now, don't get me wrong. I have skills. I've been working hard for years on end to know everything I can know about technical writing, or know how to find it. I get really good grades for a reason....I try to do everything perfectly because I want to know how it's done right!! Naturally, I should not be nervous for this internship since it's the culmination of all my schooling. It's the chance to take my classroom skills and put them to work in a real setting. However......

I won't be technical writing!! The things I am going to be doing, according to the conversations I've had with the manager I'm working with, have nothing to do with technical writing! The extent of my graphic design qualifications begins and ends with the fact that I've read a few chapters in my "Non-Designers Design Book." :) Good luck to me, then, heading off on an internship doing something I've never done before. Why they want me to graphic design?? No clue.

What to Treasure...

2010-03-02T10:14:00.001-08:00

Well....I've avoided this blog for AWHILE...and I don't know if it's just because I've been SUPER-HUMANLY busy. :)

We've had a LONG, and HARD couple months.....and it's not quite over yet. Trev lost his job in December...right before Anna's surgery. I have to say that was probably the darkest few days we've faced as a family. After years of shaky jobs and insecurity, the worst happened. Sigh. However, we decided not to let it get us down. The approach we've taken to this is that it's our Rock Bottom, and we can only change things and go UP from here. We've made a LOT of changes in the last few months.

(I'm grateful for three beautiful, happy, healthy, sweet little girls!!!!)

First of all...I've DEEPLY learned the meaning of appreciation. There are people in our lives, some we know, and some that remain anonymous, that have reached out to us. (This is the biggest reason why I've avoided writing this...it makes me cry!!). There were things done for us and offered to us that I can not even BEGIN to express appreciation for. Basically, I will say that what should have been the scariest and hardest Christmas season ever for us, became our best. The love we felt from those around us is something I will never forget. It wasn't what we were given...it's that we were SO LOVED and cared about. Never, as long as I live, will I forget that. If I could find a way to recreate that feeling every year, I would in a heartbeat. I'm already thinking of how we can reach out to someone like that as well this next Cmas.

(I'm grateful for my toddler Paisley. :) She may be hard some days, but more than anything she's FUNNY and reminds me of the simplest things in life that we treasure here: Laughter, hugs, kisses, and adoring her family members unconditionally)

We had to make a really hard decision as a family.....to have Trev take a temporary job in Pennsylvania for 2 months. Believe me, that was a HARD decision to have him take a job away from home. :( But, I knew it was right. Not only is a job a job, but when it comes down to it, when times are hard it's time to really dig in and sacrifice. Trev hates being gone, and we hate having him gone, but this is making us so much stronger and proving that we're willing to do everything it takes to help ourselves. To me, that shows appreciation for all we've been given. We could have taken some easier paths with things given to us, but that's not who we are.

So, other than 10 days in February, I've been on my own with three kids and everything here since January....and still have weeks to go. Trev has always always been such a hands-on parent that I didn't think I'd last two days on my own. Boy have I proven myself and everyone wrong!! This is still super hard, but I've built up something here that I never thought I could. I can't wait for this to be over with, don't get me wrong, but I can actually say I am appreciative of what I've been learning. I've learned we're stronger than we think we are.

(I'm so grateful for my sweet Sadie. She is sometimes a hard one for me---but I have to remember that she has her own unique qualities that I wouldn't change for the WORLD. She's a sweetheart first and foremost, and I adore her. She amazes me with how dang smart she is, and makes me laugh every single day!!!)

I've also learned to TRULY treasure what's really important. In this time of exhaustion, stress, and frustration, it would be all too easy to crumble and just cry. Way too easy. I have people ask me everyday how I'm doing this. It's because I'm REALLY working on remembering what matters the most. Rather than focusing on my stresses, or the people in my life that have really really let me down when I needed them the most, I REFUSE to go there. I have too many friends. Too many people that have reached out and offered even the tiniest things that have meant the WORLD to me. Too many people that I honestly am trying my hardest to think of what I can do or how I can thank them for standing behind me when without them I'd fall apart. I have too many amazing memories of these last few months to let a few little things get me down!!!!!

What more can I say? We have a temporary job. We have our health. We have gotten amazingly strong. We have been completely surrounded with support and love. We have learned to appreciate what we have because we've had to work HARD hard to keep them. We've made some very important changes that will stay with us the rest of our lives. Other than missing Trev and struggling with too much to do and not enough time to do it in, I can't say I regret this time of our lives. We learn through fire---BRING IT ON because we know we can handle it. :)

(I'm VERY grateful for Anna and the things that make her Anna--she adores her sisters. She helps with Paisley every day because she LOVES to and asks to. She listens when I correct her and tries hard not to do it again. She tries to learn everything she possibly can and LOVES learning and doing new things from school and church. She is always there to say kind things to me or worry if I'm sad. She understands when I have a bad day and need to apologize to her for being frustrated. This is truly a one-of-a-kind kid and she amazes me every day! I'm also very very grateful that her surgery in December went SO WELL. She was up and going by that very night, wanted her glasses, and hasn't had a setback since!! Her eyes pulled perfectly straight with her glasses from day one, and are still holding straight. Sometimes without her glasses they're straight even--which almost never happens with her condition but there's a chance. She just might be that 2% that the surgery fixed EVERYTHING!! Woo Hoo!)

My silly, silly girls

2010-01-25T09:51:00.000-08:00

Better

2009-12-18T11:35:00.000-08:00

Well, just a little update....things are better now!!! Oh man we had a rough night for awhile. Anna came home in a lot of pain...and was pretty nauseous which is very common with eye surgery they told us. Poor girl---I HAD to give her the pain meds because she was in so much pain, but they were hurting her stomach worse than it already hurt. She was already too nauseous to eat anything with the medicine. It was a rough cycle. :(

Also, my mother-in-law who watched Sadie and Paisley told me Sadie had been throwing up but she wasn't sure if she was sick or just ate too much. Nope, we think she was sick after all because she woke up throwing up in the night. Sigh. A kid with the flu the same night I was holding a crying Anna. That was just about the most fun I've ever had........ugh.

However, we had a LOT of family and friends thinking of us and praying for us and doing wonderful nice things for us....and it all worked. Sadie calmed down at about 9:00 pm and slept all night just fine. Anna got sick one more time at 9:30....and then amazingly she felt soooo much better after that and stopped crying and sat up to cuddle with me and watch tv. She talked and relaxed and smiled a little even. I got her to sip some sprite and eat a little bread. After a little while she asked to go back to sleep, and she slept great all night. I had to wake her to give her ibuprofen because she was sleeping so good---but I couldn't handle the thought of her waking up in pain. She woke up just fine!!

I had the same surgery when I was her age, and I reacted really bad to it. I got very sick off the anesthesia, and was in massive pain for days afterward. My mom said I couldn't open my eyes for days and wanted to be in a quiet, dark room and was miserable. Anna woke up this morning and wanted food, and her glasses so she could watch cartoons. Her eyes are a little red, and she says they feel weird, but she's not in any pain and she feels fine she says. Huh.... ok, I'll take it!! :)

Sadie woke up just fine too and everyone is relaxed and doing great today.
I have to say, other than the "Code Blue" scare I had, and Anna's pain last night, this wasn't too bad after all. I wouldn't have had her have the surgery if it weren't for the possiblity of losing all sight in one eye....it was already losing vision power.....but how grateful I am that we're through the worst. Anna wasn't even scared yesterday. The staff at Primary Children's was GREAT with her and she did just fine. I was impressed with the cute painted tiles all over the hospital, and the cartoon statues. Her doctor came before the surgery and talked with her, and made her smile. A very sweet aide came to her in pre-surgery and helped her pick a flavor for her anesthesia, and let her play with a mask. Her anesthesiologist even came to meet her and talk to her and make friends with her. They really were sweet and helped her relax. I even liked her after-care nurse. I didn't want to be demanding, but every time Anna needed any tiny little thing, she was SUPER on the ball and helpful and did every single thing possible for her. She was an amazing nurse and I could tell she really valued her patients' comfort above all else. I wasn't always so lucky with considerate nurses. I was so grateful for this one for Anna.

Anyway, I'm just grateful the worst is over and Anna is recovering amazingly well. She'll be back 100% any minute I'm sure, and I won't have to agonize over my baby struggling!! Whew.....

Ahhhh :(

2009-12-17T18:32:00.000-08:00

There are some times you wish you could skip over...right now is one of them. :( We've had a rough time the last couple days, and today was Anna's eye surgery that was more emotional than I was expecting!

We got up this morning, got ready, dropped Paisley off with her sister at grandma's house, and headed on the road. Everything went just fine. Anna wasn't even nervous. I was though....

They gave her a sedative before surgery, and that made her pretty relaxed and smiley. I was a little jealous because I could have used some for sure! :). Just kidding. I held the tears back until she left to go to her operating room...then I spent my few moments crying and calmed down. I settled in with our Christmas Nintendo DS that I'm supposed to be testing for defects while I can still return it. :). It worked great, and was pretty good as a distraction I thought. Trev had brought our laptop and was watching a movie on it. Before long, our surgeon called us in to report everything went great and we could see her in about 15 minutes. We sat back down and waited....and waited....and waited................. they never came to get us. Then they started paging "Code Blue" emergencies to the same floor we were on!! Ahhh....I couldn't help it. I started to panic, and shake, and cry a little. By the time they called me to the desk to tell me I could go see Anna (and I was sure she was not the code blue patient) I was crying pretty good. The nurses felt so bad for me. They walked me right to her instead of just giving me directions. I felt dumb, but honestly it took over 40 minutes for them to get us instead of the 15 they claimed at first. That has got to be the WORST scare I've ever had in my life. Yikes.

Anna is doing pretty good right now. She's in a little pain, and nauseous, and her pain meds are making her more nauseous, but throughout tonight she should be feeling better. Ask me tomorrow what kind of a night we end up having tonight. Me and Anna are camped out in my bed having a "sleepover" so I can be by her side all night long. Thank HEAVENS we have a new, soft, wonderful couch and Trev is absolutely wonderful to volunteer to sleep down there tonight.

I can't wait to be on the better end of this experience and hope to NEVER go through this with my other kids. Sigh.

Funny Little Interruption

2009-12-11T22:59:00.000-08:00

So, Trever came home today, and we were talking about our day today...and getting the big girls ready for their sleepover at Grandma's. Anna and Sadie were rushing around gathering stuff and packing bags. I was trying to tell Trev what a long, crazy day we had...when I hear this thump...thump....thump..... . At first, I ignored it. Our house is pretty crazy...weird noises are not uncommon. :) I just so happened to look down for some reason though---in all of this madness----and what do you know?? Paisley has decided that she likes her sister's snow boots and since she can't WALK in them, sticking a hand in one and crawling using it as her "other foot" works just as well....

She is such a funny kid and I'm grateful to have her here always doing the weirdest things to make us laugh! I forgot how much I MISSED this age with my other girls!!!

Oh Paisley!!

2009-12-11T10:26:00.000-08:00

The life with a 15-month-old baby is something else....now I remember!! It's funny how you forget! :) I am loving these stages with Paisley!! Even though she has her days when she screams at me most of the day...more often than not she has us all laughing at her craziness. She has got this FUNNY personality and is always trying new, goofy things.

I get a picture here and there of her being crazy and finally have a few together to post them :) ------

This was my solution to keep Paisley from smacking my keyboard one day....I stuck socks on her hands to see if that would distract her for two seconds. Yep---she's a fast learner and figured out FAST how to get them off! :D

That same day, Paisley decided my five minutes of peaceful computer time was up, so she started bringing me crayon presents to bribe me away :D Look how proud she is posing with her gifts! Ha ha ha

Any of you who know our house knows that we gate off our kitchen---we always have. We don't want the kids in the bathroom, the dog food dish, the pantry, etc. We also let the big kids have small toys at the table so they can do things on their own time without the baby..... I decided a few times to let Paisley go ahead and play in the kitchen and this is what she does!!!! (Yes, you see right...she got herself stuck in the basket underneath her high chair!) :)

And finally, yesterday I was rushing around at lunch time and Paisley requested her "crackas"....so I gave her crackers and milk and ran to get something out of the living room. I figured she'd be munching away like usual....NOPE. She apparently has decided that crackers taste good in a giant stack, and I walked in on her crunching away at this handful!! :) That'll teach me to trust a baby with her own food!! Ha ha ha ha. Oh Paisley!

First Snow Day!

2009-12-09T09:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we decided to bundle the girls up and let them play for the first time this year while Trev shoveled the driveway. (Trev was home for the day because they got snowed out and couldn't make it to work!) Most years my kids are either too young, or I have a baby I have to stay inside with, so I really haven't ever let them just go play in the snow. The girls thought it was a PARTY! :)

Anna ran straight to the yard, plopped down, and made a snow angel. Where she learned it, I don't know. :) It was cute though.

Sadie had a hard time believing me when I said it was ok to lay down or crawl in the snow because her snow pants would keep her warm and dry. Once she tried it, she really had fun! I've taken these girls sledding every year with my family...but I guess in all the madness of sledding, they've never really played hard in the snow! :)

I wasn't sure how Paisley would react to the snow----she's never really been in it. She was a tiny baby last year! I bundled her up in a full body suit, and headed out. She squealed and laughed!! I set her in it and she just kept squealing and trying to play. It was really cute. I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but she was smacking and pushing the snow all around her. :). THEN Miss Paisley decided it would be funny to pull her mittens off. I kept running up and putting them back on...but to no avail! I let her grab snow a few times to see what it felt like, and what do you know?? Yep, she started to cry because her hands hurt from the cold. Thankfully I picked a day when Trev was outside and I could let the big girls stay and play while I took Paisley in and warmed her up. Not bad for our first snow day! Now I need to find gloves/mittens that are baby proof so we can play longer next time!! :)

Sweetheart Sadie!

2009-12-01T11:55:00.000-08:00

My Thanksgiving Holiday weekend went by in a blur. We had lots and lots of family to see, and a sick baby on top of it. I was pretty tired...and a lot of things are kind of a blur :). By Saturday, we had gone to two families' for Tksgiving, a baby shower, and the Parker Family Holiday Party...plus I worked Black Friday weekend at Michaels. :) I'm really surprised I remember anything.

We had lots of fun at the Parker party...and I wish I had brought my camera. Thankfully Cheri and Becky and Rachel all had their cameras and I can get copies later. Santa Claus came and all the little kids had a turn telling Santa what they wanted. Of course I listened in out of curiosity when it was my girls' turn. Sadie's requests surprised me a little. She said she wanted a little Cabbage Patch doll for her, but she asked for a second thing too. She asked for a regular Cabbage Patch doll. First, I laughed a little at her asking for a list of things. Anna didn't. She only asked for one. Oh well--kids will be kids. However, I was curious why she wanted a second Cabbage Patch doll. I got them dolls for Cmas last year that look like them and they love them.

In the car on the way home we were asking the girls what they asked Santa for. Of course Sadie piped up that she asked for a Cabbage Patch doll....so I asked her why she wanted another one. Her answer melted me!! She said "I didn't ask for it for me. I asked for it for Paisley since she can't ask herself." Awwwwwwwww. Trev and I actually said Awwwww out loud right then too! That shocked us with her thoughtfulness!! What a sweet little girl who adores her baby sister.....I just hope I can keep this in mind all through the Cmas season and how my little girl has a heart of gold to think of someone besides herself! I don't know what makes her adore Paisley like that, but I must be doing something right! :)

Accepting that I'm Human :)

2009-11-24T10:01:00.000-08:00

Argh----if you read my previous posts, I had a week where NOTHING went right...including a big assignment I needed to turn in. I turned it in a few days late. I was NOT happy with that because I like to be a perfectionist, and that about took me out. I agonized about the fact that I could have done better, worked harder, etc. I don't know HOW I could have, because I had ten million things to do that week, but I couldn't help thinking it. :( I came to terms with the fact that I didn't do my best, and that I submitted the assignment late....or I thought I came to terms with it.....

I am used to professors being understanding and lenient I guess. I took advantage of that security. I got my grade back on my assignment and my professor was not happy with my work, and deducted a late penalty too. Hmmm.......let it go, Stacy, let it go....... I know it wasn't my best work, but technically, she was pretty rough on my assignment. I also submitted the assignment before her "late penalty" cut off......so I'm really disappointed that she took that 10% off.

I just finished the last test for that class, though, and I felt AMAZING about the test....and I'm pretty sure that I will have scraped an A- out of the class. I'm sure I'm getting a few laughs about now. An A- in a college class is nothing to be upset about!!!! Yes, yes, I know this. :D I think I'm just frustrated because I put my blood, sweat, and tears into that assignment (really, you know what I mean) and she really tore it apart. I have too much pride I think. I'm getting perfect A's in 4000 level Technical Writing classes and I can't even get an A in an eeeeeeeasy Powerpoint class. Ugh.

I think I needed this to knock me back a little step here. Here I am, two semesters away from graduation, and bombing a simple assignment in a class that doesn't even count toward my major. I think I needed this to make sure that in my final stretch here, I'm not getting too comfortable with the fact that I "know" how to get A's in all my classes.

I am thankful for....

2009-11-12T23:32:00.000-08:00

Today, I am thankful for something weird....... control. :) Yes, that's right. I said control.

I have come to realize I have some MAJOR control issues. Throughout the last few months I have been through some crazy, stressed times figuring out schedules, lack of sleep, homework, too much to do, etc. I've never actually faced any of this before. It has---well HAD--been wearing me down pretty thin. I was used to getting up in the mornings when my kids got up. No set time really---unless Anna had preschool. That was never a big deal. I made breakfast, got kids ready, got Anna to school and then came home and did whatever was on my list for the day. Picked her up, put all three kids down for a nap, and either slept myself or got a few things done with peace and quiet. Basically---even though I had things to do like housework and homework, I picked when and how I did almost everything. If I ran out of time for something, it was my own dang fault. :)

All of this changed this year---in ways I never expected. Anna started Kindergarten this year, five days a week. Sadie started preschool this year too. Hmm....now I had to learn how to juggle BOTH girls' schedules to and from school without being late picking anyone up. Not so easy. Then Anna had homework herself I got to add into the mix. Anna has half days every Wednesday which made it super hard for me to find a nap time for Paisley. Without ever having time to lay down and sneak some sleep for myself during the days anymore, and staying up late to do homework that couldn't get done during all of this running around---I am not getting much sleep anymore. :) Add to it the fact that because of some dumb oversight I had to take a third class to fill all my credits this semester-------yeah, I've been struggling. THEN--------then I figured it out. I was so used to controlling every aspect of my day and not working around anyone's schedule but my own (give or take a little for kids' specific needs). Once my time was limited to two or three hour breaks between picking up and dropping off, I wasn't getting much done. Prioritizing was out the window because something ALWAYS needed done "the most." I needed to get my control back a little---AND I needed to learn to surrender a little.

Although I don't think I'd repeat the last four months EVER again---I've learned some things I will treasure always. I've learned flexibility and making time for my kids no matter what. I needed to learn that. I had a nightmare week last week where I was late on a giant assignment and I didn't get a few of my shower gifts completed in time for the shower.....and that goes against ALL of my control issues. :) I laid my head down on my floor and was about to cry. But...I let it go. I figured that there are always people turning in assignments late and it wouldn't kill me this one time to let it happen because I really HAD tried my very hardest to finish. And my sister-in-law would forgive me for not quite finishing her blanket in time. Even though I wanted so badly to give it to her, I had to accept that I just could not get it done. These things really almost did me in. :) It sounds dumb, but it was REALLY hard for me to let these things happen.

I'm thankful for it though. I'm thankful I learned that hard lesson---that my control is a great thing and keeps me happy and organized and successful----but that I also need to learn to be flexible at the same time because there's no way I can be perfect all the time and control every single thing in my life. I'm thankful for control--flexible control :)

Hugs

2009-11-11T12:32:00.000-08:00

I'm still cracking away at my goal of being thankful for something simple everyday. :) This makes blog #2 in 2 days! :)

Today I'm thankful for two things---so maybe if I don't post again in a few days I'm still covered. Ha ha. 1. I am thankful for my little girls' hugs! The other day Anna went to look for pajamas. She was kind of mad at me because she knew she didn't have anything in her drawer but I told her to look anyway. She was happily surprised by all her pajamas washed and folded and put away in her dresser. She smiled at me and I turned away to go get their bath ready. She came up to me and wrapped her arms around me and just hugged me out of the blue. She told me thank you for washing all of her pajamas. :) Either that's a hint I need to get them put away more often, or she was just being thoughtful. Either way, I loved the hug. And Sadie hugged me out of nowhere yesterday. I just walked past her and she reached out for a hug. Awwww. Cute. I'm usually the weird mom hugging them all the time. It's nice to have them do it back. And Paisley----well, I'll just say that for months now she has to come over to me every five minutes while playing so she can lay her head on me in a hug. It's very cute and none of my other girls did that. Just her. She loves me and makes sure she hugs me all day everyday. :) Even yesterday, while playing in the leaves out front, Paisley kept coming back to me and crawling up on my lap to cuddle. I think she knows I need that.

My number 2 is for my much improved Wednesdays! I just got released from my Activity Days calling---and while I will REALLY miss the girls there, my Wednesdays are going to be so much less STRESSFUL. Take today for example. I've cleaned, played with kids, gotten two kids to school, done some homework, and now played on my blog and I'm relaxed. Usually I wake up, rush kids to and from school all day (Anna has 1/2 day schedule which complicates things)---try to rush homework in between kids needing picked up, attend to a screaming tired baby---get Activity Days together---rush in more homework---rush to Activity Days---attempt to relax and give the girls the best activity ever---rush out of there late---gather my homework, and head off to a 3 hr. night class. Today is not like that at all. I relaxed and got the girls ready this morning knowing that I could do my homework when Sadie went to school and the baby napped and I picked Anna up. Plenty of time. Other than picking Sadie up at 3:30 I have nothing to interrupt me all day until I leave at 5:00. AHHHHHHHHHHHH. I loved my calling, and I did my absolute best every time for over 3.5 years now, and it breaks my heart to not go again, but I think it was time to be done.... Physically it was draining me to add one more thing to my Wednesdays and I don't think I was doing enough for those little girls---I was too panicked.

What Am I Thankful For?

2009-11-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving Season, I am trying to teach my girls the real values of Thanksgiving. I love parts of the commercialized holidays---the lights, the smells, the sounds---but other parts I could do without. For example, I do think the meanings behind Holidays are ruined by commercialism. My goal this year--with a 4 yr old and a 5 yr old---is to start teaching them the things they can understand and create a few simple, meaningful traditions. Nothing too elaborate. With Christmas music already on the radio, and all of us loving it, it's hard for us to not skip over Thanksgiving. However, along with my goal, I'm thinking of ways to teach them the meaning of Thanksgiving and keep it going all month. I've had the girls start a Thankful book with them drawing a picture everyday of one thing they're thankful for. They love to color, so it's more of an excuse to color than anything...but we'll put it together piece by piece and talk about it and share it at Thanksgiving. I'm going to look on the internet as well for other Thanksgiving ideas for kids. I did find an "autumn cookie" recipe in the Friend magazine, and their idea was to put them in paper sacks tied with a ribbon and deliver them. I really think we'll do this for a few of our close friends and neighbors. Something little kids can do and it teaches them to think of others. I'm going to do this goal along with them...however, probably not everyday. I'm going to try to post a few blogs each week about what I'm thankful for myself. I have so MANY things to be thankful for, but I'm trying to focus on the simple things I'd normally overlook. This time, I am thankful for the magic of the Holidays through my kids' eyes. I have focused for years on how HARD it is to pack kids up, haul them all over the place, battle too much sugar and no naps, and not have enough time to do everything I want to get done on Holidays. I keep saying "I HATE Holidays with kids!!!!!!!". It really is hard because I want to please everyone by coming to see them and doing things, and I don't have enough time and my kids' struggle with exhaustion and wildness. HOWEVER---a stranger at a gas station reminded me that my holidays would be starkly different without seeing them through my kids eyes. It took me back a second. He was right! I might not like the hectic parts of the Holidays, but I can ignore that and concentrate on discovering the magic of them through their eyes. Halloween, with it's scary decorations, the sparkly costumes, the crunchy fall leaves, trick-or-treating in grandma and grandpa's neighborhood with their cousin------my girls, even Paisley, loved every second of it.

They love having their own candy bags and earning treats through good behavior. :). Even just seeing my girls sitting in a little church classroom in their costumes, having a scary book on cd read to them by a member of our bishopric, and them just being FASCINATED with it---was so fun for me to see as a mom. I hope I can relax and enjoy more magical moments like these throughout Thanksgiving and Christmas---and follow through with my great ideas I have instead of just intending to do them like normal.

I think I'm too old for this....

2009-11-05T22:23:00.000-08:00

Yikes. I have had a ROUGH week----and this is the kind of week that I will be grateful it's OVER! Here I sit, on my couch, typing on my laptop--- pandora.com playing me some nice quiet, relaxing music of my choice. I'm also sitting with an ice pack on my back because it's screaming in pain from the two days SOLID of sitting in front of this dang computer logging in MANY hours of homework. I do not know how in the world I managed it, but I wrote two entire papers yesterday between running kids all over at different times to school and a baby who decided not to nap and scream at me. Somehow I got out two papers I was really proud of. Today I have spent every available second working on a giant powerpoint project that I have to submit tonight--although it'll probably be after midnight when I submit it. Oops. Tomorrow--between going into work for a two-hour floral design training--I get to design a detailed newsletter in Word and submit that. And I have to finish two blankets for my sister-in-law's baby shower on Saturday. I have been trying to just forge on here and not get overwhelmed by how much I have to do this week! I haven't been procrastinating all of this work either--I've been busy in my classes and trying to do my mom stuff here. I don't know why---but this semester is kicking my trash! :) I am getting better at it though. I'm in full-swing now, relaxed and confident in the good grades I'm getting, and I'm learning my balancing skills better. I'm also learning how to survive in my VERY difficult Critical Approaches to Literature class (gag--I hate it). I just need to finish my ice-pack break here and think to myself--I have already gotten a ton of studying done, two papers, 5/6ths of the presentation done, just a little left, and it's an easy newsletter, and I make fast blankets! I can do it!! :) Ask me next week if I survived--right now I'm too busy surviving and telling myself my amazing degree will be worth all of this! :)

Silly Girl

2009-10-28T12:25:00.001-07:00

Ahhh my kids make me smile, even on the hardest of days! I had to share this from my sweet Paisley---she has decided to really develop her personality lately and it's a FUNNY one. :) She laughs at everything, smiles for my camera, and does silly things and looks around to see who's watching. I was attempting homework at my computer the other day when she came up and hammed it up for me---waiting for me to pull out my camera. :) So I did....

Oh How I Love FALL!!!

2009-10-15T12:49:00.001-07:00

A second blog in one day????? What??? Yep, I made a goal and did it. :)

What have we been up to? Well, me personally--I've been drowning in too much homework. The girls have been as busy as ever though and I'm trying to take time to enjoy them!

Paisley has discovered the big girls' hideout behind our couch in our bay window. I didn't want to block the bay window but my room is too small!!! The girls aren't complaining. Now I have to keep Paisley out of my blinds though, sneaky!

Silly girl with her binky all the time. She loves it so much she even put it in her mouth THROUGH her toy! (That's a bunny puzzle piece with a hole in the middle hanging from her binky)

She loves to climb in her toy box...... fun

Being a big girl and wearing a purse like her sisters and momma.
She's decided it's funny to stand in her highchair. It freaks me out!!! She laughs at me running across the room to get her! Ugh. :)
We went to the Discovery Gateway center a few weeks ago and my girls LOVED IT!

Here are their 1 yr, 4 yr, and almost 6 yr pictures for 2009.
We went to a local pumpkin field and let the girls pick their own pumpkins this year. Not as fun as the Black Island Farms, but they still loved all the pumpkins. Paisley stayed home sick with Daddy.
We decided to paint the pumpkins for now, and carve them closer to Halloween. We had fun painting!

Sorry this is sideways. It won't let me fix it!! I had to throw this one in---Trev took Sadie to the movies by herself for her birthday, and he bought her a giant popcorn as big as her. Look how EXCITED she is to be on a daddy-daughter date! He's such a wonderful daddy. It was HIS idea for it all too. :)
Anna hugging Sadie as she looked at her bday gifts--we were cracking up because we KNEW that meant she intended to share all of Sadie's new loot. ;)

Paisley's long overdue One Year Old blog

2009-10-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been too long since I've updated my blog. I know it :). I think I've hit a stress wall with my three kids, messy house, and too much homework. I'm working on getting control of my house/kids/homework back and making some time for ME too. :)

I've been wanting to do a blog about Miss Paisley turning one. A look back at the fun year with her.

We were all soooo excited to have Paisley join our family. I had a pretty uneventful pregnancy aside from the fact that she was stuck breech. I don't know how many of you have had breech babies---or maybe I'm just a wimp---but that HURT. The most painful part was her kicking---her feet were at the bottom of my belly, and she'd kick these nerves in my legs. You know when you whack your elbow on something...the pain that shoots all the way up your arm and you laugh because it hurts so badly? Yeah, I got that in my legs. Try walking when that nerve gets hit....ha ha ha ....it's a sight! She almost made me fall in the store several times. I had to have my sister-in-law drive me home once because Paisley was kicking that nerve in my driving leg so hard I was jerking. :) That was sooo fun. :)

I was due September 20th with Paisley. Because she was stuck breech my dr. wanted to try to turn her before I went into labor. Breech automatically means C-section and they were trying to prevent that for me. At all of my dr. appts. they kept telling me they couldn't get me into the hospital for the procedure because they were full. They were booked weeks out. I went in on Monday, the 8th (Sadie's bday) hoping they'd tell me I could get in for my procedure. They couldn't. :( I cried. I was so uncomfortable and they were talking weeks left. That's discouraging to a 9-month pregnant woman! They told me to come back Thursday, Sept. 11th, to meet with the dr. who would try to turn her. So I got my sis in law to babysit and I trouped off to the dr again. He confirmed Paisley was still breech and called the hospital to get me in. Yep, he came back and said they were full for scheduled procedures for weeks. AHH. However, they didn't want me to get too close to my due date and go into labor on my own and have to have C-section. He was going on vacation the next week, and my dr. was headed out of town for a conference the next week as well. He sat down and waited. I have to say---it was a very awkward moment to have some strange dr. go silent and start flipping through a magazine. Ha ha ha. He looked up at me because I was sitting there so confused, and he told me my dr. was on his way to talk to us. :)

My dr. came in the room---they discussed their vacation/conference plans for the next week---then the other dr. dropped the bombshell. He said "They have ONE opening in the next few weeks....and that opening is RIGHT NOW!" They both looked at me and asked me if I wanted to go right then across the hall to the hospital and get started. Of course I said YES!! I walked across the hall frantically texting all my family telling them I was having the baby that day (the procedure almost ALWAYS puts a woman into labor after turning). I couldn't even call anyone---I had to get my IV started so they could get ready to do my spinal block and epidural for the procedure and I had to do it right then!

Trev texted that he was on his way from Magna--an hour and a half drive in traffic! My mom called my Dad and had him come be with me because I was all alone. Trev SPED and got there in 40 minutes!! Go Trev! :) They got me started on IVs and then gave me the spinal/epidural mix. The dr. came in and put his hands deep into the outside of my belly and started pushing in opposite directions! I didn't look....I just held my breath. Apparently it's bad---my dr. came in the room to watch, and it freaked him out (he'd practiced over 30 years too!!) and he had to leave! The other dr. tried twice....gave me nitroglycerin which relaxes muscles (they give it to heart attack patients actually)...and tried one more time. It didn't work, so he told me he was sorry but he tried his best. He almost never was unsuccessful! I was one of the 2% that don't work for him! My dr. came in and told me that since I was already hooked up to IVs and an epidural he might as well do the C-section that day. He had to wait till his appointments for the day were over though. It was 12:30 when he said this---I had to wait till 5:30. That was ok with me. I wasn't in any pain. They turned off my epidural rather than having me sit numb for hours and I settled in for a long day of waiting. At about 3:30 I got really uncomfortable........

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and I called the nurse back in! I told her I thought I was having contractions. Mind you, I was NOT in labor when I checked in and they did the procedure. The procedure put me into labor like they predicted. My contractions were HARD too. They called my dr. and he rushed as fast as he could and got there by 5:00.

They had hooked up my epidural again at 3:30, and my anesthesiologist came back in at 5:00 to stay with me for the C-section. They were ready to take me in and I kept telling him I could still feel a lot of what they were doing. They argued with me. I could feel the blunt needle they were poking me with, the bristles of the scrub brush they were prepping me with, everything! I was so scared. I did really well through the procedure until about halfway through...when I could definintely FEEL what they were doing and it hurt. The anesthesiologist kept upping my medications, but it wasn't doing much. I was trying not to panic but I was hurting. Finally they got Paisley out---and they didn't tell me anything---but they knocked me out for the rest of the procedure!!! Apparently they can only give so much meds while the baby is still in, but they can knock you out once the baby is out. I woke up hours later in a room by myself. That was scary.

Anyway to wrap up the story--Paisley was born and all I knew was that she had dark hair. I still have a hard time remembering her height and weight and birth time since I was out and Trev was the one told. :) I healed GREAT from my C-section unlike some people I know who struggle in pain for awhile. For some reason mine was just fine and I was up and going right away.

Here are some pictures of the last year:

This first one is Anna and Sadie and my niece hanging out in the waiting room anxiously awaiting Paisley's arrival.

Proud Daddy! He helped so much in the hospital because I was so drugged up. :)

Paisley's first Halloween at a few weeks old.

She has this little angelic face and posed great for me here.
Smiling at her grandpa on her blessing day!
This is where she started getting her quirky personality. She stuck her tongue out at my camera!

The big girls have ADORED her from the very first. They wanted to hold and play with her all the time. They still do! :)

Our Ward called us right before the Christmas party and asked if I'd let Paisley play baby Jesus in the nativity scene. I have a picture with the Mary and Joseph that didn't turn out so well, but here is Anna and Sadie coming to see baby Jesus. :)
As soon as she could lay for alittle while, I started letting Paisley play with the big girls because she'd cry for them. She adores them back.
6 months old. Wouldn't give up her binky for anything. :)
Sneaky girl taking her sisters' dolls.
Learning to play at the park. She loved this first swing ride!

Grandpa pulled her in the pool with all the girls. She was a pro and laughed the whole time.
Sneaky.
Silly girl---this is her "puppy mode" as I call it. She crawls around with everything in her mouth. :)
Did I mention she adores her big sisters?? !
Adventurous! She loved the Discovery Gateway center because she could get into everything!
Paisley's first bday. It almost looks like she's holding one finger up for her age. ;)
Hamming it up for Fall pictures.

We've loved every second of having Paisley in our family. None of us possibly imagine our crazy life without her! :) It is so fun to see her and the big girls want to be near each other all the time and always want to play together. Paisley has been such a good baby---sleeping through the night since 3 weeks old--great temperment--always smiling and laughing. She's adventurous and sneaky, but at this point she can't hurt my house at all because it's used to kids. :) I'm looking forward to her learning and growing even more this next year, learning to walk and run to keep up with her sisters, learning a few words to communicate with us, maybe making smaller messes. Ha ha ha. Good luck to me on that last one, huh? Happy 1st bday Paisley Marie Parker---born 9-11-08 at 6:01 pm, 6 lbs, 9 oz!

My New Blog

2009-09-29T22:01:00.001-07:00

Hey guys---just about finished getting my email addresses and going private. If you haven't read the previous post, you probably don't know why I need your email addresses :) ha ha ha. Anyway, I have put together my new blog, and I've subscribed to ldsblogs.com to see if they will publish it. I'm looking for anyone to "co-author" and share any stories so let me know if you're interested. Nothing special--just anything that helped YOU in your life and might help someone else. Check out my new blog if you would like though. I'm working very hard on it and hope it looks good! The address is www.inthistogetherassisters.blogspot.com . Let me know what you think! :)

Going Private!!

2009-09-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! I have a bunch of things I want to blog and can't wait to share it, but first I wanted to say I'm going private. :)

I have decided to start a new blog all about day-to-day experiences we all have in our lives where our faith and/or blessings help us. The idea is to not only help each other through hard times but also to share a positive message with those seeking it--thereby becoming 'blogging missionaries" as October 2009's ensign challenges us to do.

However---in starting this second blog---I will be linked to it AND my personal blog---and I don't really want the public to be able to link to my own pictures and life through the second blog. :) I am setting it private and need to know your email addresses so I can have you guys be "invited readers" on my list. Please don't forget me when my blog is private! I hope you still check and see the fun things I might post. ;)

Please send me your email address if you can. Email it to me at TSParker947@msn.com or if you have me on facebook email it to me there. THANKS!

Happy Birthday Sadie!!

2009-09-08T16:42:00.000-07:00

(Warning: This blog is super LONG! I even cut out all the pictures I could bear to part with, and it's STILL SO LONG! :D I must love this little girl or something. )

Happy Birthday Sadie! 09/08/05. We were surprised by our Sadie's pending arrival the week after Anna's first birthday (that's when we took a test and realized we had a....well....surprise!). We almost lost Sadie so many times during that pregnancy. I'll spare everyone the wonderful details, but basically my body didn't like where she settled in and spent most of the pregnancy trying to get rid of her. Every time I'd have big problems, we'd troop off to the doctor's, and they'd tell me she couldn't survive for sure. They sent me home at least three times telling me I would be miscarrying any minute. Somehow, she made it through everything! She was meant to be. She was never affected by a single thing despite all the odds against her.

Sadie was due on October 1st. My doctor had warned me that because of all of my problems, I was building up extra fluid and she might come early. On September 6th we had a check-up and my doctor said I was no where near ready and she was sure I might make it full term. It was pretty bittersweet. I'd had my hopes up to be done early, but was grateful to keep her in longer! The next day, Wednesday, we took Lance down to Provo to the MTC. Anna spent the day throwing up....we just thought she'd had too much juice or something. I spent the time in the hall so Trev could enjoy his brother's missionary send off. I didn't think anything about it. We left, went out to eat, came home, and put a tired 20 month old to bed. I went to bed extra extra early. I fell asleep by like 8:00. I slept horribly! I woke up when Trev got up at 7:30---and realized my back was twinging. I told him not to go too far because something wasn't right about the timing of my back spasms. I got up and moving for the morning, and yep, I called Trev an hour later and told him for sure they were contractions and had spread to full-blown PAIN!

He rushed home, got me and Anna packed up, took Anna to his mom's house, and we headed to the hospital. I swear the second labor hurt so badly! I spent most of the ride holding my breath and trying not to claw Trev. :) We had to go to my dr.s office next door to the hospital first because it was so early they weren't sure I really was in labor. When they hooked me up to their machines, my contractions were a minute apart and I was a 5 and a half. Needless to say, we walked next door and in a few hours we had our Sadie!

Here's where it gets fun..... Sadie ended up perfectly fine, and the NICU team in the room checked her out and left because she was small but perfect. I had thrown up during labor, and they pumped me full of Zofram---thinking I threw up because of pain. Normal. :) NOPE! A few hours after we had Sadie, Trev got soooooooooooooooooooooooo sick. He never throws up. Ever. Ever. Yeah, the poor guy was a goner. Remember I said Anna had thrown up on the way to Provo?? Yeah, it was the world's worst and most contagious stomach flu she'd had. :) Obviously I'm exaggerating, but we got at least 15 people sick in a matter of a few days. That was anyone who even stepped one inch into our room. We told them not to come! Even the people taking care of Anna got it----it passed through all their family members too. It was bad. Sadie was fine though. :)

Here's a little walk through memory lane of Miss Sadie. She's been such a SPITFIRE---if I had to choose one word to describe her, it would be "passionate." She's either really happy or really mad! Well, she used to be. She's mellowed out a little as she grows. She's still the most adventurous and outgoing out of all three of our kids.

Sadie--born at Davis Hospital---weighed 5lbs 15 oz.

I had to throw this one in! Look how tiny she was!

Sadie definitely has been full of mischeif from day one. Anytime she could sneak into something, she was there!

Sadie can't help but be into everything. We were packing for our first trip to Seattle, and this was her contribution!

She has always been full of smiles, and has been the biggest Daddy's girl you've ever seen!

Sadie is pretty dang lucky. She was born with a built-in best friend. They're never apart. Good thing they really do get along!

Such a sneak! (and this kid could eat SUGAR for every meal of every day and be in heaven!)

She's always such a goof. We had a million pictures with her pulilng faces

Forever best friends!

Sneaky again----and sugar!!

Sadie has a special blankie---I made it. :) Except the thing is---I made it for Anna and Sadie crawled up and hugged it and hasn't let it go since! So Anna got another new one. :)

Such beautiful blue eyes. We're not really sure who she looks like---but it's not me and Trev.

She loves her animals. She went through a teeny phase of picking on them, but has been all cuddles since!

Did I mention sugar? :)

She loved that kitty! Too bad the kitty didn't like her cuddles too much. Trev stepped in and decided her loves were too much for a mean kitty.

If given the choice between Mom and Dad---Sadie ALWAYS picks her Daddy.

She has adored, I mean ADORED Paisley from day one. I was at my computer one day, and turned around to see Sadie trying to read to her newborn sister!

Sadie's new thing is trying to teach Paisley to walk. She sits on the fire truck and Paisley pushes her along. Paisley laughs so hard! What a sweetheart sister!

Sadie loves her preschool too! She had to wait an extra year with her bday being after the cut off, but she doesn't mind. She's learned so much already in a month and is talking so much clearer. I love it.

We had a mini bday today for Sadie with cupcakes and presents from Mom and Dad. She got a new comforter and sheets, and lots of play wooden food and real metal dishes and pans. Hopefully we'll have a giant Sadie/Paisley party this weekend!

Classes are over!!!

2009-08-14T10:48:00.000-07:00

Ahhh.....my summer classes are over. Just for some math about what I've gone through this summer, here ya go:

78---- hours spent IN THE CLASSROOM in 6 and a half weeks

85---- hours my three girlies spent with babysitters this summer. Travel to and from WSU took about a half hour each way.

9----amazing different people that babysat for me this summer. I could not have done this without them, and I had no clue I had so much support. This really meant the world to me.

8---- regular papers I turned in in 6 weeks

2--- six-page midterm papers turned in

2---- seven-page finals I turned in

5--- short novels I read/wrote about/discussed in 6 weeks. (for one class)

35--- short stories/poems I read/wrote about/discussed in 6 weeks. (for the other class)

I think there were other things that I was going to add to this list like breakfasts/lunches/clothes/toys/bottles/diapers, etc that I packed in the weeks....stuff like that, but oh well. I forgot my mental tally. Anyway, I'm done with these horrible summer classes and NEVER AGAIN. I'm back on my Fall/Spring rotation and things are good. I do have one night class and one online class that start soon but they'll be NOTHING compared to this summer. I'm so grateful I took Fall off last year to have Paisley, and now I'm just grateful I'm done with making up for it this summer!

I am now down to five classes left for my Bachelor of Arts degree and can't wait!! I can't wait to get working from my home. Our goal for when I am working is to move to a BIGGER HOUSE. I want it so badly I can taste it. Ha ha ha ha. We've so outgrown this one.

I wanted to share a few pictures of the funny things that keep me going. I love these little girls with all of my heart and I'm so grateful to be back home with them everyday!! Here is Paisley playing with her "toy" binkis. She decided as a teeny baby that she only wanted HER special binki, and nothing else. Trev pulled out the rest the other day for her to play with and they fascinate her!! She has to have one in her mouth, one in each hand, and the rest by her. In this picture, HER binki is just clipped to her. It's not a toy---that's for serious business only! Ha ha ha

This is what Paisley does best---she is EATING my clean laundry. Yes, they are panties. Don't ask. She likes to pull on my freshly stacked piles and watch them topple. This time she decided to eat the clothes! She was cracking me up. Look at the mischievous look on her face!!

I had to cover up my bay window when I rearranged my room to make more room. I miss having the window open, but the girls LOVE to play back there with toys and books now. Paisley is feeling a little left out, and she WILL find a way back there. :)

For those of you who do not know my impatience and impulsiveness, here it is. I decided I wanted to cut Sadie's hair, so I DID! Yes, I cut it myself. I've always cut the girls' hair myself because I'm too much of a penny pincher to pay to have it cut, and too impatient to wait and schedule an appointment. I think next time I want Anna's done though, I will go to dollar cuts. Her hair is soooo beautiful and thick now that I don't think I do it justice anymore. :) Sadie's is still just right for me to cut though!

Anyway, just a few pictures of us enjoying the last of our summer. I'm going to take Anna to her school in a few days and glam her up in her new clothes and take some school pictures. It will be fun. Keep checking back for those! :)

Our Summer So Far....

2009-07-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

Busy Summer!!! I had to take summer classes because I had Paisley last fall---thus I could not take Fall semester last year. I spend 12 hours a week in a classroom up on campus...and half that many hours doing homework for the two classes. This is a FIRST and LAST time I'll ever take day classes with 3 kids. Thank HEAVENS for all of my babysitters! (and on a side note---my girls LOVE all the playdates when I'm in school, and it really makes me feel valued to know people care enough about me to help me out!!!)

I am still doing things despite my classes though and I'm trying to tote along my camera to capture some memories! I've got a few fun activities we did that I'll have to update like on Friday or something when I have more time. (I'm supposed to be writing TWO eight page papers right now....ha ha ha). Anyway, here goes:

Here are the Fourth of July pictures I took. The last one, with the black things, were the kids' attempts to grow the snakes with their sparklers! I thought this was sooooo smart of them to think if it. And it worked. My lighter was not working in the wind and I had given up on the snakes. Not the kids.....

Look at Sadie grow her snakes!! Woo hoo girl!

Paisley was sick that day, and so she slept most of the day. I got a few pictures of her though!

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Here is our everyday usual with Miss Paisley! This is her into my videos....AND reaching for stuff in her toy box at the same time. Very much a mess maker and loving it!

But the little stinker always has a giant smile for me!

I had to take this picture of Anna. It's like 100 degrees outside, but she wants to be "fashionable" so she picked out this outfit for herself. I thought she did a really good job too!

This was Sadie playing on Aunt Stacie's tire swing. We went for Rusty's first bday party.

The girls really do play well together! I love that they're the best of friends all the time. Very few fights really

Rusty climbing up his new castle slide....with Paisley trying to follow right behind him. I don't know if he liked her trying to climb up him..... ? :)

And finally: My three little monsters all playing in their tent! They thought it was funny to have Paisley in with them. I love that they adore their baby sister!!

Well....now I'm officially updated on my miscellaneous pictures....and now I have no excuse not to get cracking on my homework...... :(

To the Father of my kids....

2009-06-22T13:12:00.001-07:00

Like probably every one else, I wanted to write a blog in honor of my hubby because he's such a good Daddy to his kids!!! I love this man with all of my heart and hope to one day be "good enough" for him because he's so wonderful. I don't want to compare, or pretend I'm comparing, because every wife probably could say the same about their husbands---so I will simply say Trev amazes me every single day and in a million years I'd never be able to wish for a better father for my kids! Thanks honey for loving us so much! Happy Father's Day (yesterday). :D

This was taken a few minutes after Trev first became a Daddy---December 30, 2003

Introducing baby Sadie to her big sister for the first time.

The girls LOVE doing things with Daddy. This was one of like 10 pictures I could have chosen.

And of course, they have him wrapped around their little fingers. This is Sadie directing his pumpkin picking.

He's still a kid at heart which makes the best Daddies---here he is playing in an aquarium tank with Anna (in Seattle).

And he helps me out soooooooooooo much. Here he is feeding Paisley her first feeding ever while I am drugged like crazy in the background. I never have to doubt that my kids are in GREAT hands with him.

He also helps to take some turns with day-to-day stuff like feeding and bathing. He's AWESOME. I wonder why these kids just adore him?? :D

He is their hero...and Sadie especially wants to be by his side all the time--no matter what he's doing.

They even con him into something really girl-y here and there. (For the record, this was HIS idea to make cookies with the girls, not mine!) :D

Sure the girlies love their Mommy, but they honestly look forward all day long to see Daddy! I think he adores them back just a little---don't you?? :D

What we've been up to....

2009-06-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, see....now that I didn't PROMISE to update the blog more, here I am doing it. :D I'll never promise again! ha ha ha

Ok, as mentioned, I didn't sell the big girls off to the zoo yet, so I decided to post some pictures that include them too. :D We've actually been having a lot of fun lately. We don't get out too much, but what little we do we make it fun.

Here's Daddy and Sadie in the audience waiting for Anna's preschool program. Sadie can't WAIT to go here in the fall.

The kids at the school get different parts for their program. This year Anna was a pizza chef singing "I am a pizza." I don't have a better picture of this because I took a video of the song right after this.

Anna's graduation picture!

This is cousin Madi's birthdy pool party at my parent's house. NO, I am NOT dropping Paisley.... :D I am fighting her from crawling in the water. She LOVED the water!

Ok, so it was a LITTLE bit cold...ask Sadie.

Yes, Anna is making a fashion statement with a LEI and glasses while swimming! Cute though.

I was trying to get a "firsts" picture of Paisley with her first piggie tails....and what do you know? The picture that turned out the best happened to be the one that Anna jumped in on!

Our sweet neighbors, Tony and Michelle, decided to host a fun waterslide party for the neighborhood. Here's Sadie on the slide...with her foot popping out the side of it too! For some reason the girls are afraid of the water hitting their faces!

Yep, here's Anna cringing at the water jets too! :D

My parents and our family went down to Provo a few weeks ago. We wanted to go to Cabella's for the guys, and to IKEA for us girls. The girls--me, my mom, Paisley, Anna, and Sadie---actually had a LOT of fun. Shh.....don't tell the guys. :D

We went to their aquarium, and the girls were LOVING the fish. You should have heard them talking a million miles an hour!

Even Paisley was amazed!

My favorite part, though, had to be the air rifle game we found. I don't remember seeing it before. My mom instigated this one :D The girls put tokens in the machine, then tried to "shoot" red lights on targets. When they hit one, the item by it did some kind of action. For example, Anna hit a target by the porch of this Western scene and a mouse ran out and spit water at us! It was a lot of fun. I loved seeing Trev's face when he found us later and saw his little princesses holding rifles!!! See Daddy, we can teach them some "guy stuff" too! :D

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(this blog is long....so I'm separating parts now. ha ha ha)

A few weeks ago, half of Trev's family was able to get together to go to the drive-in movies! We were hesitating there for a minute, because Trev was supposed to work and I was NOT up for three kids at the drive-in by myself....but last minute Trev took off work and decided to go after all. We had so much fun and we were glad we went. THANKFULLY Paisley hadn't napped all day (yea for me, huh? :) ) so she crashed right away. Sadie also got tired and asked to go up front to her seat to sleep half way through the first movie! She ended up staying awake for the first movie, but just barely. Anna, our trooper, stayed awake the ENTIRE TIME. We watched UP and Hannah Montana. Poor guys.....but hey, Jenni was the one organizing the night and she called the shots. ha ha ha. I enjoyed it, Stacie enjoyed it, Jenni enjoyed it....and shhhhhhh...Trev even said it wasn't bad! I don't know about Jason and Brandon though. You'll have to ask them.

Sadie's favorite part of the night was "visiting" everyone else. Really she was just sneaking their food.

I learned that Brandon really isn't a fan of drive-in movies. He was a great sport though, and I caught him actually having fun! :D

Cute family PHOTO OP! :D (Oh yeah, all of us crammed against the 2nd row of seats. A week LATER we figured out the glitch in our seats to lay them down now. Sure would have been nice to know!)

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What else we've been up to:

Paisley....of course....has been busy. She did these two things AFTER my last blog about how much she is into everything! I just had to add them in.

Here is my stinkin' cutie escaping my barricades yet again! I finally gave up yesterday and rearranged the ENTIRE ROOM to give her more room to play in. We brought out "THE GATE"....an extra long accordian gate that stretches the length of our very wide doorway into the kitchen/dining room area. She's loving all the room to play in now...but she does miss the excitement of sneaking away with something she shouldn't be doing!

Ah....never fear....Paisley will still find a way to be sneaky. This is her IN my nicely washed/dryed/sorted/folded laundry. You can't tell it's nicely sorted and folded and ready to put away, can you? Nope, not after she got into it. Don't mind the mess in the background...that's "tiny tornado's" work too. :D

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And finally....Anna lost her first tooth!! I was so sad when it became loose...and I kept teasing her that I wanted it to stay in there forever! She was one determined little girl. She finally felt it becoming really loose the other day, and she decided she was gonna get it out one way or another. You can see her in the background here with the apple she was chomping with the tooth to make it loose!

It worked!! Here she is posing with her tooth inside her newly made Tooth Pillow (made by grandma). (ah, you can't see it here--there is a heart pocket sewn on the front where the tooth goes)

Wow...a second blog within 6 months!!! :D

2009-06-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

I have no clue why I've taken such a long break from blogging, except maybe that I don't know what to do with myself when TAKING classes...and now I don't know how to SCHEDULE my time when NOT taking classes!! I am so disorganized right now! At least when I'm taking classes, I have set times I have to get stuff done....nope, I have no set times right now so I keep thinking "I'll do it tomorrow...." It's not working for some reason, ha ha ha :D

Anyway, I was looking through my pictures the other day, and I don't have too many that are exciting. Our spring has been pretty uneventful. Summer is kicking in full force now though, despite this rain that I LOVE and everyone else hates. Now I have some pictures to catch up on. I'm not going to promise a catch-up though cause every time I do, I fail at it. I'm not jinxing myself by promising. :D

I thought I'd do this blog really quickly though to show how CRAZY things have gotten around here. If any of you see me in the next little while, you'll probably see no make-up, hair sticking up all over, and that crazy frazzled look in my eyes. Sweet Paisley just keeps on learning how to do new stuff and I can't call her "laid back" anymore. She's turned into a tiny, mobile MONSTER. A cute one though. Notice in all my pictures she has this big ol' grin cause she knows she's not supposed to be doing this stuff! ha ha ha

I have no clue if I've added this to my blog before or not...so if I have, SORRY. I love this picture. This was the START of Miss Paisley's new independence. I walked in her room to take a picture of her and Anna playing like they always do through her crib, and yeah....she was STANDING for the first time. Talk about a great time to have a camera in hand!!

Right after learning to stand in her crib, she learned how to pull herself up to my "barricade." She decided she wanted to see everything going on outside of her little play area. This is now what I blame for her expertise in standing and "walking" with furniture. She practices her standing every single day at this chair. If anyone has advice on how to clean drool, food, spit up, etc off of a pink banana chair, I could sure use advice. :D

Then, Paisley decided my "barricade" wasn't strong enough. She had to demonstrate this by pushing it out of her way and escaping over to play with shoes at the shoe bench. I've figured out how to block the chair better by now, but since I'm not a mean mom, I'm working on rearranging my room to allow her more play room. We're bringing THE GATE back from the garage. My giant wooden accordian gate that I got for FREE since it broke and they never picked it up after refunding my money. We modified it, and now it works perfectly. I'll have a picture later I'm sure. I had to laugh because while chasing her with the camera, every time I called her name to get her to look at me, she giggled and crawled FASTER. Her looking at me in this picture was like the fifth time I called her name. She knew she was escaping. :D

Paisley then decided she'd try climbing. She actually fell into this couch, but that was really FUN she thought. Can't you tell?

This wasn't Paisley's first time on a baby swing (I have another picture of that), but I thought this was funny the way she discovered the side triangle and held on so well! I wish I'd have taken a video of this swinging. It was Trev's cousin's farewell lunch at the park, and I had to show Trev how she laughs so hard while swinging. We had fun with this...she cracked up the entire time. This is even more special because Paisley HATES to laugh out loud. She fights it so hard. Not this time. :D

I think the best way to describe Paisley, as shown in this picture, is "trying to keep up!" She just wants to be like the big girls so badly!!!! :D This picture was when I was babysitting my niece, and they were all hanging out and playing. They helped her sit next to them, but that's exactly what she wanted. She even has her little arm tucked on Anna's shoulder. :D So priceless!

Paisley falls down...a LOT...since she's learning how to stand to everything. I just had to take a picture of this fall. Instead of crying, this one cracked her up because instead of falling on the hard floor, her head fell in her squishy foam diaper box. :) (for the record, I don't usually let her play on the hard floor part. We have a new, fluffy soft rug that she keeps falling on.) Thanks diaper box for saving Paisley!!! ha ha ha ha

And finally, this picture is Paisley progressing from "accidentally climbing" to actual climbing. She gets onto the Spongebob couch, and from there up onto my bay window. Now I'm thining the girls books aren't safe anymore, and either are my brand new nice "fake wood" blinds. Why did we buy new blinds???? Sigh. :D

I promise the other two girls are still here in my house and thriving. I haven't sold them off just yet. :D I have so many pictures that this is just one tiny part. I'm "thinking" of more updates....not promising though. If I claim I won't do it, then I might actually get to it...so I'll claim I won't update the big girls!! :D

Ah!!

2009-05-27T10:56:00.000-07:00

So....my world is upside down yet again! I had forgotten how WONDERFUL it was to have everything under control, time to get a few projects done, and kids not really destroying things anymore. ......

Yep....that's changed. I will post pictures later (busy day today), but Miss Paisley has decided to teach herself not only how to crawl (army crawl anyway), but to escape my living room barriers, stand, and now CLIMB. She is into anything and everything..... She got into all my cds yesterday, and Trev's playstation. Yep, yep, yep....I remember this well. I'm looking at AT LEAST a year now of constant "damage control" with this sweet, cute little girl. Just yesterday, I almost had a moment where I was sad that I'm done having teeny tiny newborn babies....not anymore!!! I'll enjoy everyone else's new babies!!! Babies grow into toddlers that are SO MUCH STINKIN' CUTE WORK!!! Sooooooo happy our family is complete now. :D

I'm alive.... :D

2009-05-22T14:38:00.000-07:00

Wow...between classes that kicked my TRASH...and having my computer with all of my pictures crashing, I have not even THOUGHT about posting a blog in forever. Obviously. :( But I've missed it, so here I go on a little bit. I can't hope to catch up on everything...because I still have Cmas pictures that I never posted, but oh well. I'll play with the ones I have now. I've been able to play with all of my pictures lately and I'm so excited to post them!!

FIRST: A little bit about my baby Paisley who is growing like a weed. Here's some of my favorites.

This was Paisley sneaking the big girls' dollie that they don't let her have. She KNEW she wasn't supposed to have it...thus the big grin. :D (She just wants to be like her big sissies!!)

Here's Pais and Daddy doing what they do best...being TV buddies.

She sure loves the camera...or the Mommy behind it! Sweet baby girl.

She plays HARD....oh, and she loves our new fluffy rug. Can you tell?? :)

I need to get a better picture, but she LOVES her Johnny Jump Up. She flies on this thing.

This is when I was trying to take her 8 month old pictures. She thinks I'm funny. :D

2009-04-19T22:46:00.000-07:00

It's been forever......

I have no excuse for not writing about my "wonderful life" ;) except that I bit too much off taking two very hard classes and juggling three kids. I've survived, and thrived, but I'm EXTREMELY glad this is my last week of the semester. I cannot believe how hard it's been. It's a bad combination of two classes that wanted big projects done. Oh well. I'm back. :)

Oh, and we're boring. That's my other reason I kind of stopped writing. We don't do much around here. Paisley is thinking about crawling. She scoots like an army man. She has two teeth and loves to grab fingers to bite. She is growing like crazy and so active and so full of personality. Sadie is thriving too. She's picking up so much everyday. She knows half her letters, all from the Letter Factory and Anna (thanks Aunt Hollie!) She gets more and more excited to tell stories every day and it makes me sad to think she'll be in preschool in the Fall. She's so big now. And Anna is starting to sound out words and write them, and it's scaring the crap out of me! She's way too smart and I'm not ready for her to start Kindergarten. I think even if I close my eyes, it's still going to happen, so maybe I should embrace it instead of fighting it.

Anyway, I thought I'd post a quick picture to show my friends I'm still alive! We had a great Easter this year and loved doing our hunt in WARM WEATHER! Woo hoo!

Thank you!

2009-03-18T08:51:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to post this to thank everyone for their feedback on my (gulp) dare to decorate. I'm so glad no one said it was horrible! :)

I'm very glad you guys actually like my idea, and as far as the spacing...I hadn't thought much about that. It looks different here still than I can show in the picture. It will always look different to someone else though, and this is not final, so I have time to move things around and space them a little more before I paint. That's why I asked for help before I painted! :)

I'll do a little tweaking, and when I FINALLY ever get around to painting...I'll post it again to see what you guys think. Unfortunately I haven't touched anything since I posted this.... Spring Break is over and my professors are in hyper drive to finish out the rest of the year! (I only have about 4 more weeks left of work!!)

Help! I need opinions...

2009-03-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

Ok....so anyone (the very few) who has been to my house knows it's teeny tiny, cluttery, and not decorated. Part of that is that we have had no money and no storage so there's not much I can do with it. The other half is because I am the LEAST creative person you'll ever meet in your entire life...and I am too much of a perfectionist that when I do something, I want to do it RIGHT. So, we've officially lived here for 5 1/2 years now, and I've never decorated!!

A few months ago I got an idea from Target of black and white pictures modge- podged onto painted wood squares. My ideas exploded from there, and I've actually had fun gathering stuff for my living room! I still have to paint (a tan color), and I have a few other walls to put stuff up on, but I wanted to post a picture of what I've created so far, and I need opinions!!

(This may look a lot like a few things you've seen around, either in someone's house, or in stores, because I steal parts of ideas :) )

Any feedback you can give me??

She thinks I'm funny...

2009-03-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

6 Months Old???

2009-03-11T23:01:00.000-07:00

Ohh....my baby is 6 Months Old Today!!!! (Well, yesterday the 11th since it's now midnight.)

I wrote a lot for Paisley's 3 month old blog, but I needed to update a little. Paisley now smiles, laughs, rolls over, sits up a little, and plays and plays and plays. She loves to watch Anna and laughs at everything she does. She's not so sure of Sadie, but lately Sadie has been loving on her a ton so she is a huge fan now. (Sadie didn't want much to do with her before even though she was nice).

Paisley lays on her belly during the day and spins around to look at whatever she wants to. It's kind of funny. We now put her in our Johnny Jump Up, and she freakin LOVES it. We laugh and laugh with her as she spins and hops and jumps all over the place. We have also pulled out our walker and the big girls love that Paisley can scoot herself backwards.

She puts anything and everthing into her mouth now. My favorite thing is she pops her own binki in her mouth!

She is very much into being laid down with her binki and blanket and music and left alone to fall asleep. She fights us now when we try to rock her. She wants to do it herself. She's eating baby food now, but still loves to smile and spit it out at me when she's done.

She is a very calm and happy baby. I have only had a moment here or there where it has been hard or stressful! I am soooooo grateful for her. I can't say the same about Anna, as good as she was, and definitely not about Sadie. She was so hard, but I adore that little girl. Paisley has just been relaxed and happy and calm since day one and I count my lucky stars every day! She makes our family complete and we all just adore this little cutie!

Oh Paisley!

2009-03-04T22:55:00.000-08:00

Aww....Paisley keeps growing!! :(

She is now to the stage of being able to turn in circles while on her belly. This makes it hard when you are trying to sneak out of the room without her seeing you. She's like a compass...following your every move...I swear :).

Yesterday, I put her down for a nap in a cute little outfit my brother and sister-in-law gave her, and this is how I found her:

Her head actually goes where her feet are in this picture....AND....she wiggled right out of the pants.

She was a little mad cause she was starving, but I just had to laugh that she had squirmed out of her clothes. She patiently let me take a picture of it. Then she screamed at me. :)

The Joys of a Baby

2009-03-04T22:46:00.000-08:00

I know three years isn’t that long between kids….but I just have to say I’m remembering all of the “joys” of the glamorous life of being a mom again! :)

We buy Enfamil formula from Sam’s Club, but we buy their Member’s Mark brand. I think it’s just me, but I have the Curse of the Incredible Exploding Can on me! It’s not every time I open a new can, just when I am trying to run out the door in a hurry. This is what happens:

Yeah, this was not only all over the can lid, the counter, the floor, but on my face, down my shirt, and in my eyes! There is no avoiding it when it explodes this way! I even had it faced away from me and it did that to me!

I love being a mom. I’ll miss this one day (they tell me :) )

The Kindness of a Stranger...

2009-03-03T11:14:00.000-08:00

I had an experience last Friday that really touched me, and I had to share it.

As we all know, things are bad in our world right now. Between rising costs, job losses, the official title of a "Recession"....etc....things are not the best. I know each and every one of us feels the crunch and you can't help but be a little apprehensive or sad at our state of things right now.

However, I had someone touch my life the other day and it put a bright spot in my life. It made me forget how bad things are right now.

My sister and I were out to lunch with all of our kids at TGI Fridays. We had a great lunch, all the kids were laughing and loving it, and finally we managed to wrangle them towards the door to leave. An older gentleman came up to me and went to talk to me. I thought he was coming to tell me I dropped a blanket or something from Paisley's carseat. Instead he reached out to me and said, "If you ladies want to go do some shopping, I'll gladly babysit your little girls for you."

Thank heavens I immediately knew he wasn't all there, and I was very sweet to him. I just told him thanks anyway and that we were all done for the day and headed home. I can't explain why this was so sweet to me, but you never see kindness in our day, and it reminded me of days maybe in his time when you could trust people you just met. Poor man though, how would it be to be so sweet and trusting and not know what was going on in such an evil world today. I bet people are so rude to him without even trying to be understanding.

I kept walking, but he stopped my sister after I walked away. He pointed to Arianna and told her, "She isn't seeing very well. In about a year you'll need to take her to an optometrist." My sister smiled at him also and told him it was already being worked on, (she already has glasses :) ). He touched her arm and told her, "I used to be a Pediatrician, and I worked my whole life with sweet children. That's why I was concerned for her vision."

I didn't hear this part. It made me sad when she told me in the car. That poor man, dedicated his entire life to his love of children, and now he is physically (and mentally) incapable of doing what he loves! He is heartbroken to not be able to do what he did best. I hadn't ever really thought of what happens when someone CAN'T work anymore. He obviously wishes he still could.

I'll never be able to explain to that man how his concern and kindness touched me that day. He wouldn't understand. But I needed that from him. I needed a reminder that there is love, kindness, and genuine goodness left today. All of a sudden, things like stupid money didn't matter that much anymore. Maybe one day, when we meet again, I'll be able to tell him thank you for that. :)

Pictures are on their way...

2009-02-22T22:56:00.000-08:00

Still working on making time for Seattle pictures. We only had two days out and playing, so I don't have too many though. They will be up soon. In the meantime, I have been playing with my pictures like always, and just wanted to post this to break up the boredom of the last days of Winter!! We are still having fun despite DYING for Spring to come!!

2009-02-16T20:20:00.000-08:00

Ok...as promised...this is the start of my TONS of Seattle pictures. This first blog is going to be just the getting to our place and the wedding stuff. :)

I said in my last blog that once we landed at the SeaTac airport, we still had a two hour drive to the condos we were staying in. That wasn't an exaggeration. Here's a map I half borrowed, half made. :) The letter "A" is marking Discovery Bay, where our condos were, even though that name doesn't show up. The little black arrows show what route we drove from Seattle. For the record, this is the way we drove at least four times during our five days. We gave up eventually and started taking the ferrys even though they were a little expensive.

It was worth it though. Discovery Bay was just about ten minutes or so away from the church where we had the rehearsal dinner and then the wedding reception. We spent a lot of time there the first three days and wouldn't have wanted to drive forever! (For those looking at the map, the church was just right by Port Townsend which is marked on the map. Melissa's church was in a town named Port Ludlow...also where she lived. Not on the map. :) )

(This map shows closer by that top corner from the last map. This is the area that has the words "Port Townsend" written on it in the last map.)

Jason and Jenni bought into a timeshare about a year ago, and we are SO GLAD they did. They were able to use points on it to get us into these beautiful condos! I didn't take pictures inside the condos, but they came fully stocked with dishes, a dishwasher, a fully functioning kitchen, a living room with a sofa bed, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, the master suite had a giant whirlpool tub, washer and dryer....balconies.....so much more. I swear it was nicer than my house. Why didn't I take pictures? Ugh. (Jason, Jenni, and Cailin and Brandon, Stacie, and Rusty shared one condo. Me, Trev, and the girls and Denise shared the other. Jason and Jenni, and Trev and I were the lucky ones to get the master suites!) Here's the beautiful view from just in front of our condos though. This is the same view we had from our window balconies.

We got there Thursday, and didn't do much that day. Jason/Jenni/Cailin/Denise/Stacie and Rusty all went in the morning, and they did some shopping after getting their van and getting to the condos. Other than that, they just stayed in because by then it was night time. Our group didn't get into Seattle until about nine-thirty, so that put us at the condos at 11:30 pm. We went right to bed.

Friday Denise went to the church in Port Ludlow to make flower arrangements and help decorate. The rest of us went shopping for rehearsal dinner food. We went to Costco out there, and then to SafeWay. Apparently, for whatever reason, they do NOT have Super Walmarts. They had teeny tiny Walmarts with no groceries, and then local chains like some Q & W, and SafeWay for groceries. Weird. We had fun though. I wasn't feeling so good, so I crashed for an hour or so before we had to be at the church for the dinner. Stacie, Trever, Jason, Jenni, and Brandon spent their time preparing the food, while I chased kids all over. Brandon took turns joining me with little Rusty. When I got the chance, I helped Denise decorate a little. We ate kind of late, and then they all got ready to leave for the night. Jason, Brandon, and Trever decided to take Lance back to the condos to play pool and watch movies for his attempt at a bachelor party. They had fun. The other girls cleaned up...and I ended up being the "nursery leader" for all the little ones so they could clean up faster. It was cute seeing all of them play together though. :)

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and headed off around that LONG two hour drive back into Seattle to the temple. Even though you couldn't see much of the water all around us on the drive because there were so many trees, I think that Trever and I liked the giant walls of trees on the drives the best. If you look in this next picture closely, you can see a car on the road ahead of us. Look how tiny it is compared to the HUGE trees. It was this way all over and we loved it.

It's kind of hard to plan an exact arrival time when you're from out of town, and you're shuttling twelve people on a two hour drive, so needless to say, we were running about twenty minutes late to get to the temple. Poor Lance, Trever was his escort and he couldn't go in until Trev got there. He was wearing out the sidewalk in front from his pacing. He was very grateful to see Trev come running up. Melissa had some sweet, and very brave, bridesmaids waiting in the waiting room to watch all of the little kids. We left them with the five from our group, and I think they had several from Melissa's family too. I felt bad leaving them with so many, but they really did a great job. The wedding itself was sweet and beautiful and it was exciting to be in another temple! Their temple had escalators (not elevators or stairs) to take you to the different floors! No kidding!!

We went outside for pictures, and it was a beautiful day...just very moist cold. (The pic of trees above was from another day. No rain on their special day!) I took lots of scenery pictures, and we all posed for our own individual family pictures for our own cameras while we waited for Lance. (Again, since Trev was his escort, we couldn't leave till he was done either).

(This is looking out away from the Temple)

I set my camera on a big rock and auto-timed it to take our group picture. :)

Jenni, Stacie, and I were not in the line, but the guys were. They were Lance's groomsmen. Sorry Brandon, you moved behind Melissa's brother-in-law right as I took the picture. He's there, I promise. :)

I ended up spending all my time in the nursery yet again. :) This picture is where Sadie just discovered that she and Cailin matched.
I had a hard time catching pictures of Anna and Sadie because they were all over the place, but I did manage to get a picture of Sadie with her "boyfriend". These two held hands and played all night. I think he's Melissa's nephew. In the picture, he's the little boy behind Sadie in black. They were so cute.

They opened the dance floor for everyone to dance...and our men wouldn't take us. Finally Jason decided to be sweet and take Jenni up to dance. Trev and Brandon got guilted into it :) We handed the babies over to Denise and danced a little. I thought it was so cute that Denise had a baby in each arm, so Stacie grabbed Rusty and put him in the picture too! I loved this picture. All three babies are doing what they do best. Paisley is chewing on her hand and drooling. Cailin is playing with her food. And Rusty is reaching out to pull hair.

Finally the night ended and Lance and Melissa went outside to discover their decorated car.

They unwrapped their car, and were ready to head on their way. Then they realized that they had a car parked in front and behind their car! Someone had pulled their car in sideways and blocked them in. It took them the entire time unwrapping before they realized this. They convinced Melissa's brother in law to move his car, and they got in and started the car to drive away.....

Look closely at the arrow in this next picture.....

They put the front of their car up on jacks!! So when they tried to drive away, they just spun wheels. I have to say...it was one of the FUNNIEST car decorating moves I have seen yet. :) Poor Lance was bright red to his eyelashes. They were very happy to drive away at last. They were very good sports about it though.

This was a fun few days, and we have some awesome memories. Hope you enjoy our pictures. There are more from our couple days of sight-seeing to come! :)

We SURVIVED!!

2009-02-11T10:34:00.000-08:00

Wow.....we made it back in one piece, and got a good night's sleep....and are feeling GREAT about our trip to Washington! I have some fun pictures to post, but not as many as I would have liked because we actually spent most of our trip centered around Lance's wedding, which is how it was supposed to be.

A quick summary:

Lance and Melissa had a BEAUTIFUL wedding, and it was all the more special because of how unique it was that he got married out of state but was able to have most of his immediate family there with him. :) We wouldn't have missed it for the world, and it was a very sweet moment to be in the temple with them by their side watching them be sealed for eternity knowing how hard we worked to be there with them. We love ALL weddings, but to have so few of us be able to go, he knew we were there for him 1000%.

The Seattle Temple was gorgeous, the wedding went off without a hitch, and they are happily on their honeymoon in Seattle. Yes, we did run into them by the way! They even agreed to meet up with all of us and hang out with us for the day and eat dinner with us! How fun is that, that they wanted to hang out with FAMILY while they were on their honeymoon :). We all loved it though, and they are so happily in love, it's cute!

Last time we went to Seattle, it was August and perfect weather the whole time. This time it was very different. Man was it cold. Not frozen cold like here in Utah....this was moist cold. Double edged sword!! It got you damp, THEN froze you!! Ha ha ha, we loved every second of it though.

I'm keeping this post quick, because now I have a million things to do and I have to touch up all my pictures to post for my next blog, but just wanted to let everyone know we survived. I survived packing up a family of five, including wedding reception clothes and a million other special things for the wedding, doing last minute homework, arranging schedules around my callings and school, etc. We managed to get to our flight in plenty of time, flew with three children who did pretty well. Got to our beautiful condos after a two hour drive. Helped pull of a successful and fun wedding over three days. Wrestled a group of twelve, including five children, all over Washington state. Then got packed up with twelve people and headed out and managed three thousand pounds of luggage, crying children, late flights, lost car seats, lost cars, and getting home at almost one in the morning! Whew! Memories, memories, memories.

Now that the stress is over, and we are home and relaxed with some sleep in us, I can honestly say I loved every part of our trip!! I will post my pictures and more stories in the next few days. As for now, I'm off to rush in last minute homework and get back to my hectic schedule! :)

Check out my favorites from 2008

2009-02-01T01:04:00.000-08:00

So, I have waaaay too many pictures to post, so I cheated and made a slideshow of my favorites from 2008! It's a little long, but I do so love my pictures! :)

One Week!!!

2009-01-29T14:26:00.000-08:00

Ok....I am not meeting my goal of blogging like I wanted to! I know...I will get better. I need to post more....for my own sanity. Things have been so crazy and stressful here, that putting together a blog is a release for me. The last few days I've taken a few "time-outs" to put together some pictures and digitally scrapbook them. It's the highlight of my days most days. I've almost got enough of them to make a small post.

Anyway, the real reason for my quick post is we are now down to officially ONE WEEK today to when we fly to Seattle!!! I am so excited I can't stand it! How crazy are we though....we are going with all five of us instead of finding sitters for the kids. I get to pack up a baby, two little kids, me and of course Trev (cause somewhere along the way that became one of my "jobs" :) ) and get ourselves down to the airport and lug all of us on a plane for a week stay in Washington!!! Maybe this isn't insane to most people, but it scares me. I'm a very laid-back kind of girl. I avoid stress and chaos like the plague :). At the same time, I can't help but be sooooo excited to go.

We went to Seattle with Denise, Stacie, Kim and Brylee, and us about two and a half years ago....just to go....and fell in love. Needless to say, when Lance came home and said he was engaged and getting married in Seattle....we all about died! This time it's a little different group. I don't think Kim and her family can get off work, so they're not going, but we have new additions to the group too. Brandon has never been, and Jason and Jenni didn't go last time either. Lance was on his mission so he couldn't go...but now he's seen more of Washington than we probably ever will because he's currently living up there while on school break. And, of course, Paisley, Cailin, and Rusty weren't with us last time either. :) All in all....that puts us at 12 all heading up there! As much as I hate chaos...I seem to always be able to find the adventure and fun in it too, and it makes for some of my best memories.

For those of you who might not know, I think Lance's Utah Open House is Thursay, February 12th....but correct me if I'm wrong. I can't find my own invitation. If any of you need to know, let me know and I'll double check. We're so excited for Lance and Melissa. They are a very cute couple.

Anyway, that's my quick post because I'm super excited to be down to a week now! Maybe tomorrow I'll post some of my pages I've been doing! Today...it's off to my oh so fun British Literature class.....yeah....... :)

Trying to catch up....again....

2009-01-19T23:33:00.000-08:00

Ok....so I know I said before that I have WAY too much to catch up on, and to watch for my posts....but I mean it this time. I am going to try to catch up on our very busy holiday season and the fun stuff we've been up to. I've already posted two blogs today, and I'll have more up in the next few days!!!

Parker grandkids!

2009-01-19T23:01:00.000-08:00

So, going through the folder of "my pictures to blog", I found a few of my favorites that I meant to post FOREVER ago! I think these pictures were from back in November.

Lance proposed to his girlfriend, and he came in town and brought her to meet the family. Kim and Roylin came up from Provo, and we had this awesome idea to get all of the grandkids on that side together for a group picture. The last time we had grandkid pictures together was when Anna and Brylee were babies.....

Anyway, we booked a time slot hoping we'd have enough time to coordinate SEVEN kids: two five-year-olds, a three year old, two eighteen-month-olds, and two babies!! Yes, I know, we are insane. :) They didn't give us as long as we'd hoped, but they turned out pretty well.

This group one just KILLS me!! The back row is my favorite. Cailin started crying....then BW cried because it made him nervous....and poor Sadie is looking at them like "what the HECK is your problem??" Ha ha ha ha....This one will be a treasure forever.

This was our best shot, and it's actually really good of all of them!

I was also able to get these two adorable pictures of all three of my little girls. I'm sure I'll have years and years of these to come, but these are extra special to me because they are the very first pictures done with all three. You can't tell Anna and Sadie adore their sister can you?? :)

Still Alive and Kicking!!! :)

2009-01-19T19:57:00.000-08:00

Ok....I am still alive. :)

Somehow I survived my brother coming in town after graduating boot camp and all of the family activities involved with his two week stay, Christmas, Anna's fifth birthday, and New Years. Then, right after all of that EXHAUSTING stuff, I started classes again...this time with having to find babysitters for three children. Ugh!! I am almost into my third week of classes and I think I am getting the hang of it again and things are calming down.

Now it's time to play catch up on my blog! I have a HUGE folder on my desktop of pictures I need to blog, so I'll probably try to get several posts up at once because I have so much to catch up on!

Whew, now that that's out of the way, here I go with my oh so fun winter pictures adventure:

My sister and I like to do our own pictures because we are constantly wanting new pictures of our kids and would go broke if we paid portrait studios for everything we want! We always try to get together for the spring or summer for outdoor pictures, but this time my sister had the idea of outdoor winter pictures. Part of me was thinking "this is insane!!" because I have a family of five to haul out in the freezing cold snow! The other part of me, unfortunately the part that always seems to win out, was saying what an adventurous idea for a picture!!! A girl was going to take our pictures for us and speed our day up. The first time we had to cancel because there was no snow at all and the next weekend was predicting snow. The second time we had to cancel because it was snowing big, fat, wet flakes all morning. So the third time we tried to coordinate this picture, it was snowing, but it was pretty flakes and not bad all around. However, the roads were horrible and the poor girl slid off the road and had to have her parents come get her. They wouldn't let her come take our pictures understandably. Thankfully my sister decided to bring her camera last minute and we decided to just do the best we could with it. I have to say it's an awesome camera.

We left my kids and hubby in the car and I took a ton of pictures of my sister, brother-in-law, and my niece. I was panicking a little because it was snowing all over me and either I could have wet hair or put her coat hood on and smash my hair. Thankfully, because I am vain that way, my hair turned out surprisingly well for my pictures.

When it was our turn, we hauled the girls out by a cute little tree, tore their coats off, and hurried and posed. The first few went pretty well, and that's the picture you see on the top of my page. We posed for a "girls" picture, and then a daddy with girls picture. You can tell the girls were FREEZING!

Just a few fun pictures. This is one of Paisley right after a snowflake hit her. I don't think she's a fan.... :)

We had a LOT of pictures like this....poor Sadie and Paisley were miserable.

So, maybe it wasn't a good thing that I taught Sadie how to catch snowflakes on her tongue the day before this picture.... ha ha ha

Needless to say....Sadie was NOT liking this idea of outdoor pictures.

This was when we gave up on this location. She gave up on us! :)

Poor Anna just kept trying and trying to smile. What a good sport. She had no clue her smile looked so miserable! :)

And she gave in a few times to the teeth chatters. My poor kids. I have great memories of this day, but I don't think I'll make them do this again. Now it just seems mean all in the name of an awesome picture!

My little Anna was SO into this picture day actually. She wanted to do everything just like me. She even asked me to go first so she could walk right in my footprints so her feet didn't get so wet.

I just can't help but love these pictures, despite us being horrible parents for trying this! :) We did have fun over all, and made some sweet memories. (I think Anna looks like a little me in this picture too. She is growing up way too fast!!!!)

Our Party of Five!!

2008-12-16T21:52:00.000-08:00

Ok, so this doesn't really count as a post...but I will be busy the next few days and can't get to another post and I wanted everyone to come to my page to see our new family picture at the top of my page!!! I will post more from that day in a few days and tell all about our adventure getting these done! I was just waaaaay too excited to post our family picture and wanted to show it off!

Catching up...part 1

2008-12-16T00:10:00.000-08:00

Ok, it's pretty late at night by now, but it's actually QUIET in my house...which is weird. I can't think of a better time to hurry and do one of my at least TEN blogs I need to catch up on. :)

I figured I'd start with my littlest angel's blessing day, that we just had on November 30th. It was such a sweet day, and I was so excited that it was my last blessing day to coordinate and then survive, but so sad at the same time. I don't want to keep thinking "the last time..." for everything so I'm going to make it a goal of mine to stop that right now. :)

We were kind of bad when it came to her blessing day and inviting everyone, so for anyone reading this that didn't get invited, I'm SO SORRY!!! We picked the 30th, which is not a fast Sunday, and got it approved because Jason was supposed to be in town for once, and Lance was going to be here for Thanksgiving. We were excited to have both of them be here since they're out of town so much. Wouldn't you know, Jason's flight ended up leaving at 1:00 pm, and the blessing was at 11:00 am that same day. He couldn't make it, and we were sad!! And Lance, (go Lance!!!), got engaged a month or so ago right after we planned the blessing date, and he wanted to go to Washington that weekend to meet Melissa's family. They spent the weekend before here with us, but it just ended up working out that that was the weekend they would go to her family. Can't blame the guy...I'd want to meet my fiance's family too before the wedding :) !!! So, needless to say, it was a crazy holiday weekend, and we kind of got sidetracked with last minute cancellations. I had asked a few people to make calls for me, but to be completely honest, I wasn't specific about who they should call or when they should call..... I really should have made my own phone calls!!! How rude am I to push it off on others. I remembered so many people on the day before, but by then, it was so little notice that really not many could make it. I don't know what my problem was...I really just hate talking on the phone anymore. I avoid it like the plague. But I take full responsibility for forgetting to invite so many people!! Ok...that's off my chest now... :)

Anyway, the day was wonderful anyway. My mom had helped me find some beautiful brown dresses for Anna and Sadie so they could feel special for Paisley's special day too. I did that for Anna when Sadie was blessed, and I remember how proud she was to be in a new pretty dress. I wanted the girls to know that they were just as special to me even if the blessing was all about Paisley. It worked great!

Paisley looked, of course, like an angel in her dress. She didn't cry during the blessing, and she was actually very happy ALL day! She even missed her nap, but still let everyone hold her and smiled for everyone. We got lots of fun pictures. The dress completed the legacy we'll pass down from our family. My mom bought Anna's blessing dress, my grandma bought Sadie's (since she wanted to make one and didn't have time), and both my mom and my grandma went in on Paisley's. I would have been just fine buying all three, but this was something they wanted to do for the girls, and I cannot WAIT for the day I get to help them pass them down to their little girl(s) and tell them the love behind them. This is also why we got them each their own. My own dress was way too big to pass down because I was almost a year before I was blessed.

The lunch afterwards was really nice too. I bought enough food for a small army, so we had tons of leftovers, but Trev didn't mind eating yummy ham sandwiches for awhile. Brady and Chrissy's little girl, two of Jake and Hollie's kids, my niece, and my sister's friend's two little boys, plus Anna and Sadie all played in the nursery and had so much fun. My mom was soooo excited her nursery was being loved by that many kids all at once. It's never seen that many kids ever!

After everyone left, my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, and our little family all sat around and visited and laughed and talked for a little bit, then we all took off our own directions to enjoy Sunday naps. I have to say, I really dread hosting social events, but this one was very peaceful and nice, and we had a lot of fun. We wished more of Trev's family had been able to make it, but Stacie made some yummy potatoes and Denise made some very yummy desserts and we were so appreciative of them bringing those and being there with us! Poor little Rusty was having kind of a hard day because he too missed his nap, but we got a great picture of him and Stacie before he really got mad!

And here are some pictures from sweet little Paisley's special day....

Sadie loved playing and jumping in her beautiful new dress!

I think Matteya was having fun.... :)

Cute Caleb, hiding from my mom's camera, and tattling on where his sister was hiding too.... :)

Miss Kaylee

Grandpa and Paisley moment...

She thought my dad was really, really funny.

Such BIG eyes!

This is a digital scrapbooking page I made of all three girls' blessing days! Still can't believe we've had three little angels now in beautiful white dresses!

3 Months Old!!

2008-12-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

Yeah, so you know it's been way too long when you have to make a folder on your desktop of all the pictures you need to add to your blog! It's kind of a catch-22....when you aren't busy, you have nothing to blog about so you don't. And then when you finally have fun stuff going on and have pictures to blog...you're so busy you can't find time to do them all! :) At least that is how it seems to be for me anyway.

Today (well as of now it was yesterday!), my sweet little Paisley is officially three months old. She was born on 9/11....I cannot believe it's been three months!!! Ahh!!! Why is it when you want time to go slow it feels like you are on a run away train! I don't want my last tiny baby to be growing and changing this fast!! I have already had to put up all her newborn clothes...never to be worn in this house again...and it was sooooo painful. Actually, all I have had the heart to do so far is set them on top of her dresser... :) I need time before I can bag them up.... I am such a dork, I know.

I wanted to kind of do a little sample of some of Paisley's fun stuff this last three months that she has been a part of our crazy life!

In the hospital, minutes after she was born, here she is

arching and turning to look at everyone through the

window. I wasn't there, but I had comments from my entire

family about her turning all over the place...not at all like a

newborn should be able to do!! All I could do was laugh and

tell them, "SEE, I told you she was hurting me!!! Strong little

bugger!"

Our first family picture with all five of us!

Just one of MANY pictures of the girls being fascinated with their new

baby sister! I am so blessed to have them absolutely adore her with

no jealousy!

Halloween at a month and a half

This picture was unplanned, but Sadie brought Paisley her baby

doll and she was just so dang cute hugging it that I couldn't help

myself! It just happened to be right at two months old too!

Anna wanted to hold Paisley, and I really don't think Paisley minded.
She ADORES her big sisters, just watch her staring at them once and
you'll believe me :)

This cracks me up. I was trying to get Paisley to smile for the

camera....she "one-upped" me. :)

Just a few days ago, smiling and talking to her daddy

Three months old today, and lets me pose her!!!

Paisley, we're soooooo glad we realized you were up there waiting to be a part of our family!! The feeling that our family was not complete and there was one more waiting is by far the strongest feeling I have ever felt pulling at me. It took me long enough huh baby? Life is crazy with three kids, especially three girls, and I know it's just going to keep getting crazier by the minute, but I wouldn't trade one single second of my life for the world.

We were blessed with an angelic baby in Anna. We were blessed with the most passionate and lively baby in Sadie. We were blessed that Anna loved Sadie from the very first minute and that she has been the most loving, helpful, and supportive sister I think ever created. And now we've been blessed with the funniest, most easy baby ever created in Paisley. It makes us laugh each and every day how particular she is about everything. She is peaceful and content...as long as she has just the right binki, you hold her and cuddle her in the EXACT position she loves, and don't you DARE take her bottle away from her even if you're positive she has a huge burp in her belly....she will wail like no other. She is so happy when she wakes up...all smiles. She has slept the entire night since about three weeks old. She lets me pack her in and out of the car to run Anna to school and run errands. I couldn't have asked for a better "icing" to our family. We have been blessed to have both Anna and Sadie adore Paisley and want to hold her, feed her little bits of her bottle, be "the binki giver" as they call it, and play with toys with her. They love to stand next to the couch and coax smiles out of her.

My life might be a crazy life....but I love every second of it!

(more blogs coming VERY SOON. I have about a million pictures.... :) )

2008-12-03T13:13:00.000-08:00

Wow it has been a LONG time since I actually posted pictures of us!! Things have been pretty crazy though...and we've all kind of been MIA from blogging...so there was no one to read mine anyway :).

Anyway, I know I've got to post some pictures of Paisley's blessing day, and I have some other fun pictures to post as well, and I promise to get to it soon!

For now, I just wanted to post a quick, fun picture me and Hollie took last night. We've both been wanting our hair done, and I had texted Becky to see if she could get me in, when Hollie mentioned she needed to get in to her too. We decided to see if we could make our appointments together and make a night of it. It was a GREAT idea!!!

I really enjoyed getting out, having some girl talk, and having Becky work her magic on us all at the same time! :) She did a wonderful job, and then we all headed over to her place to see what it's like now. I haven't seen it since the early stages of being remodled from when Wayne and Denise lived there. It has changed a TON!! I loved it. :)

We really had a great time, and I am hoping to make another girls' night of it next time I get the urge to chop all my hair off! Here's the fun picture me and Hollie took of our new hair when she dropped me back off home!

All About My Hubby

2008-11-01T00:56:00.000-07:00

All about…Trever! ( I actually put together this survey from the most recent one from Michelle…and an old one from Hollie)

*** What is his name?

*Trever Todd Parker

1. Where did you meet your husband?

*It’s a long story…but technically we met on Roy High’s swim team when I was a freshman and he was a senior. He didn’t like me then. On our first date he said he used to think of me back then as his “annoying little sister’s friend.” Fate was out to get us though. He gave me rides home quite a bit that year. Still didn’t like me. :) Then after my junior year, I met him again at a BYU youth conference. I asked him to dance cause I knew him vaguely. I had NO idea he was there as an adult counselor. Creepy guy danced with me…a YOUTH! :). Still didn’t like me like that. Then my senior year, we all met up as a team at Kim’s house to make a Homecoming Float. He would come home from work…and casually work his way over to “see” what we were doing. He taught me how to use a power drill. He claims he was checking me out, but I think he was checking all of the girls out. Then we had a swim team party at Kim’s house…and Trever stayed upstairs and we ended up having a conversation and laughing and joking. I really liked him at that point. When Trev wanted to go on a few dates before his mission he asked Kim if she had any friends to set him up with. She thought of me because I’d told her I liked him. We went on our date on Feb. 17th, 2001…and fate finally caught us. We both were goners! Sorry….long story.

2. How long did you date before you married?

*Our wedding day was almost exactly a year after our first date. But Trev was on a mission from March until he was Honorably Released as a missionary in the end of July.

3. How long have you been married?

*It will be seven years in three months. (We married on 02/02/02)

4. What does he do that surprises you?

*He laughed when I read him this question. He’s not so big on the “romance department” like a certain Jake we know (I feel ya Hollie!). He does bring me an occasional flower or my favorite snack to be sweet. I give him credit for that. :) I have to say though….when it comes to surprising me, it’s nothing physical he does. This is going to sound dumb, but he really amazes me with his knowledge! He is just a wealth of information. He is so knowledgeable about the church and scriptures first and foremost. It blows me away. But seriously, ask him about current events, politics, etc, and he just knows so much. What can I say? I admire the guy…

5. Favorite Feature?

*I am just in LOVE with his eyes! I really love so much about him, but his eyes are for sure on the top of my list. They are this gorgeous green color with brown in the middle.

6. Favorite Quality?

* He is really sensitive. He doesn’t really do one specific thing….he just takes the time to do things most guys wouldn’t. For example, he lets me sleep in on weekends and he fights the kids all by himself. He helps so much with our kids. He bathes the girls sometimes, changes diapers, has painted fingernails, etc. (He’s gonna kill me when he reads this!) He’s a softie to me and his girls. :)

7. Does he have a nickname for you?

*He calls me Honey. We heard a really funny ringtone that said “Warning! Warning! The wife is calling! Warning!” So, his name for me on his phone is “the wife”. He also calls me “Woman!” a lot. He has spent so long calling me Honey or just talking to me that it seriously just sounds WRONG when he calls me by Stacy.

8. Favorite Food?

*I don’t know really. He is your typical guy that loves any kind of meat: chili, steaks, burgers… He likes seafood sometimes for me. He really loves Olive Garden. Oh, ok…I think I know. His favorite has got to be Teriyaki chicken. It’s what he orders every time we go to Red Robin and it’s his favorite meal at home too. And cookies. That man loves his cookies.

9. Favorite Sport?

*I don’t think he really has a favorite. He is not big on sports at all. He likes watching the Olympics with me, but that’s really about it.

10. When and where was your first kiss?

*Our first kiss was the night before his missionary farewell. Kim had told me he wasn’t going to kiss anyone besides his “future wife” and I didn’t want to even go there, so I had no idea he would want to kiss me. I helped him write his talk, and he took me out to my car. He held me and gazed at me and when I asked him what he was thinking he told me he was thinking he wanted to kiss me. Cute huh? Yeah…I was his first kiss….he was 21!

11. What is your favorite thing to do together?

*This sounds really boring but I think our all-time favorite thing to do is sit down together and laugh at a really funny show. We had a good laugh even tonight at an episode of Frasier. We do love to get out and do summer stuff like the Fairs and barbeques and rodeos though. It’s very nice when we get out and go to dinner and a movie which unfortunately is usually only on our birthdays.

12. Do you have children?

*Yes we do! We have three daughters: Arianna (4 almost 5), Sadie (3), and Paisley (almost two months). We are so done. We felt our family was complete the second we found out we were expecting Paisley. I’ll never regret being done because I know they’re all here now!

13. Does he have any hidden talents?

*You know, I don’t know if this is really what most people would consider a talent…but he is so good at doing things around the house and yard. :) The boys I dated in high school were all wimpy and skinny, and I could only ever picture them in suits and office jobs. I love that Trever knows how to fix our furnace, winterize our house, tile floors, etc. I don’t think there’s much of anything he can’t do! I love that I feel safe, protected, and taken care of by him.

14. How old is he?

*He is 28 for a few more months.

15. Who said I love you first?

*He did. We played the “what are you thinking” game a lot. It’s really funny but we were sitting across from each other in McDonald’s of all places, and he was looking at me so strange. I asked him our famous question…and he blurted out that he loved me. McDonalds. So weird…but cute.

16. What is his favorite music?

*I don’t think he really has a favorite kind of music. He’s like me…very versatile. He listens to country, old country, and the newer pop music. He bounces from KBull to 99.5, and a few others in between. Ugh, his favorite is stupid talk radio. Big issue for us. :)

17. What do you admire most about him?

*I admire his heart! He is so sweet and tender and loving with our girls. He loves to cuddle them as babies on his chest and fall asleep with them. He loves to spend time with them. He is soooooo thoughtful of my feelings. He lets me be onery and lets me come back when I am humbled and apologize when I’m ready. He is just so sweet and sensitive, I can’t even really describe it. I could not even create a better guy than him myself!

18. What is his favorite color?

*I think it’s blue. He wears a lot of blue. Well, and gray. I don’t think he really thinks about favorites.

19. Will he read this?

*I think I will make him read it. I try to tell him how much I love and admire and appreciate him, but I don’t think I do it very well. It always comes out better in writing. He needs to know how much he’s loved!

20. Who eats more?

*He does, by far. I gave him some good competition when I was pregnant, but that is gone now.

21. Who is smarter?

*You know, he would say I am because I got good grades in school and am getting close to being done with my Bachelor’s degree at Weber State…but I would have to disagree. I may be “book smart” but he seriously is so smart about pretty much everything else. I am always asking him questions so he can teach me.

22. Who is more sensitive?

*I think I am. He is way sensitive, but I am pretty dang obsessive about it. I am doing MUCH better about being sensitive about what other people say or do to me (which I am SO proud of), but I still work very hard to be sensitive of others’ feelings. I apologize to my girls and admit when I am wrong if I’ve been onery to them. I try to always admit to Trever when I am wrong or mean or onery and apologize.

23. Who does the laundry?

*Sigh…I do it ALL. I think he’s folded laundry or washed a load maybe a few times in the last almost seven years. That’s ok, I promised to never make him do laundry if he did the dishes and he does them most of the time. I can’t complain.

24. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?

*I do, but have only slept there for the last few months. We changed our bedroom and I needed to be on the side not at the wall so I can get up with Paisley. It took some serious getting used to to switch!

25. Who pays the bills?

*We take turns. There are certain ones that are always my job, but the rest of them we take turns on. For a few months I will, and then money will stress me out so badly that he takes over for a few months.

26. Who cooks more?

*Trever? Cook? In the same sentence?? Just kidding. He’s cooked a few times for me. He’s a dang good cook too. Wish he would do it more because he always makes it taste better than I do!

27. What meals do you cook together?

*We make holiday or special occasion (party) dishes together. We make deviled eggs, or hams, or my greek salad together because I’m usually stressed and need help. Love that guy.

28. Who is more stubborn?

*I have no idea. I think we’re about tied in our own ways.

29. Who is the first to admit they are wrong?

*I am, but that’s probably just because I am usually the first to get onery or frustrated with him and tell him about it. I am the one with the temper out of the two of us, so I am very vocal about things. I could do better.

30. Who has more siblings?

*If you count blood-related, he does. He has two brothers and two sisters. I have one biological sister. But I have a step-sister and two step-brothers that I don’t ever think of as step. Actually…I have a half brother and half sister in Georgia too, so I think I win.

31. Who wears the pants in the relationship?

*Uh Um…..He knows I do. :) I could do better on that one too. :)

32. Who eats more sweets?

*He does for sure. I actually don’t like a whole lot of sweets. I don’t like candy except an occasional chocolate something. I don’t like ice cream much. Never do desserts. My weakness is cookies, and anything really fudgy or chocolate and peanut butter together. Trev likes just about ANYTHING sweet.

Trunk or Treat

2008-10-28T21:47:00.000-07:00

Thank you Hollie and Michelle for your comments on my "splats". They actually were a HUGE hit! It almost made it even more fun that they looked like smashed spiders. :) If you ever want to try them, just melt down chocolate chips, whatever mystery ingredients you want, and put it in a pastry bag with a tiny round tip on it. (I used a plastic pastry decorator cause I didn't have the bag kind.)

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, tonight was our ward's Trunk or Treat. We had so much fun!! Cailin didn't last long once we got inside to the games...but to tell the truth...either did her Aunt Stacy. I am claustrophobic and HATE big crowds. I sat in the corner with Paisley. Trev took the girls to the games. :) Love that guy. :)

Thought I would post some pictures from our night:

Oh yeah....

2008-10-07T22:37:00.000-07:00

Yeah....so I'm definitely remembering how hard it was to be up several times a night with feedings! Ohhhhhh I am so tired! :)

Things are going great here really. Paisley loves her binki (Anna and Sadie never took one)...and we figured out if we give it to her when she wakes up, she goes back to bed for an hour or so most of the time. That is so NICE!! She's a much faster eater than Anna and Sadie ever were...and has been pretty good about burping so she'll go back to sleep. It's not too bad really. The hardest part for me is prying myself out of bed when she wakes up! I hate waking up! She is still the calmest, easiest baby I have ever known and I'm loving every last second of this!

She definitely knows she's the last though....she's given me a few firsts already. You'd think with two other kids there wouldn't be anything really that I hadn't experienced. Oh no....she thought of some! She peed all down me the other day when I took her out of the bath and had her all wrapped up in her towel. Never experienced that before. Not so fun :) . And, on her second bath ever...I looked over and there was a little log floating in there with her. Yeah, she pooed. I did NOT think they did that till at least about six months old like Sadie did. Nope...Paisley decided she wanted to at two weeks old. Funny girl.

Anyway, just thought I'd post a couple more pictures on here before I go to bed.

Yes....I caught a gassy smile in her sleep. Great timing!

I know she looks like a little old man....

2008-09-26T23:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I know my little Paisley looks like a little old man right now....but that's ok! :) We still think she's cute. :)

Actually, she looks almost exactly like Anna did when she was a baby. I will have to make a scrapbook page with their pictures and post it later. I am too tired tonight.

The other thing we're very proud of our little Paisley for is that she does in fact look just like her Grandpa Parker. Normally...you would not want to look like your grandpa if you were a girl, but we all miss Grandpa Parker so we really do love the fact that she came out looking like him. I think he had a hand in that up there. :)

I just wanted to post a couple pictures tonight to show that with a bow in her hair, she almost does look like a little girl, not a wrinkly old man :)

She decided that she was curious (like always) and the ducks on her swing caught her attention. She is so serious about figuring them out!

I just love this cutie...

2008-09-24T00:22:00.000-07:00

Man alive...Paisley kept me up for an all nighter last night...no kidding! By six am this morning, I'd had an hour and a half of sleep! Trev said I looked like I'd been hit by a train. He took pity on me and took a half day even though I begged him not to! He wanted me to sleep. He says he can make up the hours just fine. I really am gonna have to figure out this little one's schedule.

I have already had a three hour nap tonight and it's only 1:00 am. I'm gonna do this. I can be strong :). I feel so old right now!

Anyway, I just thought I'd hurry and post a couple pictures before I crawl back in bed. I about have Paisley asleep, and praying she will sleep for at least a few hours!!! :)

Paisley had her first bath in her real bathtub today. Um...not such a big fan. Give it time and she'll love baths as much as her mom does though :)

My cute wide-eyed little bug just looking at me. She forgave me for her bath. She loves to just look all around. Very curious baby.

Catching up a little....

2008-09-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

Well, our little Paisley is now officially a week old! Thankfully, she is still a sweet, calm, quiet baby. She can still surprise us by all of a sudden having a temper one of these days, but so far she is just the calmest baby you've ever seen. :) I love it.

I promised to tell the oh so fun adventure story of how she got here. Here it is:

I found out Friday the 5th that Paisley was for sure breech. I knew she was. I could feel her and it was PAINFUL. They couldn't find a day to get me into the hospital for the turning procedure called an aversion (I have no idea how to spell it actually...but that's what it sounds like). They made me an appointment for Thursday, September 11 with the doctor that does the aversions and said he wanted to "talk" to me and discuss what options we had. I went to my 10:00 appointment so sure they'd send me home disappointed.

I met Dr. Hughes and he confirmed that Paisley was still breech and that I was dialated to a two and 60% effaced. He figured Monday, the 15th, was a good day to do the procedure and left to call the hospital. He came back in and sat down and sighed. He told me Monday and Tuesday were both full, and that he'd be out of town for a convention the rest of that week. He said he'd called my dr., Dr. Joseph, over to talk it over. Dr. Joseph came in and Hughes told him the situation. They both looked at each other and said "what about today?" They agreed and then asked me. Well DUH of course I said yes! Their only condition was it had to be right then. I was good with that. We walked over to the hospital right then. I was frantically calling and texting family to tell them we were doing it right then!

I got to the hospital (next door), they gave me a gown, and told me they were calling the anesthesiologist for my epidural right then. I changed and got into bed and he showed up and gave me my epidural. Not too bad. This was at about 11:00 am. My dad managed to show up and be there for me because I was all alone. Surprisingly Trev showed up not long after....he'd driven from Magna in record time!! At about noon, Dr. Hughes showed up to try the aversion. My dr. came in and said he'd never seen the procedure before and was excited to watch. I couldn't look, but basically Hughes pushed his hands deep into my belly where Paisley's head was and pushed downward and pushed upward where her legs were. I felt a LOT of pressure and some digging into my ribs.

It wasn't working right away, so they gave me some nitroglycerin to relax all my muscles. Yes, the same drug they give heart attack patients. It dropped my blood pressure and of course I started throwing up. Not fun. But it came back up right away and I was ok. He tried one more time to turn her but couldn't. He apologized, but I told him it was okay because he'd really tried hard and there had to be some reason she wasn't turning. He then left. My dr. said the procedure was SO hard to watch that he'd had to leave the room. He's practiced for over thirty years and he couldn't stomach it. Must have been pretty bad. :).

I had to wait until five for my C section when my dr. finished all his patients for the day. They turned off my epidural...and what do you know? Yeah, I went into labor from the stress of the procedure. I was having contractions one to two minutes apart. Needless to say, they had to turn my epidural back on. My nurse started calling my dr. saying that if he didn't get there for sure by five then we'd be trying to deliver a breech. Not so good. :)

Five o' clock rolled around and Dr. Joseph showed up. We got all ready and Trev suited up in the cutest little surgical suit and we headed back to the operating room. I still could feel quite a bit, so the anesthesiologist kept giving me more medicine. Yeah...it made me throw up again. Ugh. The C-section wasn't too bad until about halfway through. I could feel a LOT. It was lots and lots of pressure but also kind of hurting me. They got Paisley out, held her up, asked Trev if he wanted to go out with her...and I don't remember anything after that. I vaguely remember calling out "Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow!" (Oh yeah, I also remember Dr. Joseph saying the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck TWICE! No wonder she was breech, and no wonder they couldn't turn her. The C-section was DEFINITELY the best thing for her!) . I woke up at 8:30. She'd been born at 6:01 pm. They'd taken pity on me and knocked me out once she was out. Apparently they'd given me an epidural for the C-section since I'd had it for the aversion. They prefer a spinal block for C-sections...they're more effective. Oh well, I made it through ok. :)

The hospital stay wasn't too bad. I was in pretty bad pain the first thirty six or so hours, but began bouncing back soon after that. My nurses were awesome and so so so friendly. I actually had a great time there. Paisley was completely healthy, a great eater, and such a calm baby. She decided to be a poo launcher and had all the nurses cracking up! She shot Trev, but he caught it in the diaper just in time. I was rolling with laughter and pain! I wanted to cry it hurt so bad but it was SO FUNNY that she about rocketed poo on him! She shot one of her nurses, and shot across the nursery floor, AND shot poo at her pediatrician too. Even the nurse that filled in to discharge her from the hospital said "oh, THAT'S the baby that was shooting poo everywhere!" :) That's my baby!! Thankfully, she has stopped that fun little habit already. :)

Anyway, that is the oh so fun story of how Paisley came to be here on 9/11 and made her mark in the world by cracking everyone up! :)

Well, to wrap up I thought I'd post a bunch of pictures and play catch up. Of course some more of Paisley, but I also have a few more of Sadie's birthday and some others I wanted on here. :)

(p.s. I am SO sorry to all of those that I didn't call when Paisley arrived. I was pretty drugged up most of my hospital stay and not really up to phone calls. I really have no excuse since then for not making phone calls other than that I've been sending the girls to and from my mother-in-law's, having my mom here at my house to help me with me and the baby, and trying to catch up on sleep while my mom took over the baby for hours! Please forgive me for flaking out on everyone!!)

Isn't my hubby so cute in his surgical suit?? Ha ha. He's cute. Me, not so much.

The first picture of all FIVE of us!! Our family is complete!!! :) We're all here!

Cousin Madi LOVED holding her new baby cousin!!!

Um...yes....that is Paisley holding my sister's finger with her toes! She has the LONGEST toes! :)

I think this is my favorite picture of Paisley. My newest angel. :)

Sadie and Anna both just love to climb up to the bassinet and talk to and look at their baby sister. They absolutely love her!

This is from Sadie's party at Grandma Parker's. The picture of her is not so great but I thought it was hilarious that I asked her to show me what she got but she couldn't help reaching behind her to open another gift while she posed. Ha ha. That's my Sadie!!

Anna, Sadie, Cailin....and Paisley in this picture! :) Man that belly is massive!

Cousin Cailin really loves to be one of the "big girls"! She has so much fun playing with them and they just love her. :)

Ahhh....she is here!

2008-09-14T22:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I think most of you have heard by now we had Paisley! I'm making this a very quick blog so I can go to bed, but I thought I'd hurry and post a picture and an update on my little cutie.

We had her Thursday, September 11, 2008 by C Section at 6:01 pm. She weighed 6 lbs 9 oz, and was 19.5 inches long. She came out with quite a bit of black hair too!

She is (so far, knock on wood) a VERY happy and calm baby. She only cries when she is getting her diaper changed and wants to be wrapped back up and fed. She's not such a big fan of being cold and hungry. :) She sleeps and sleeps and sleeps. She is so peaceful. If she wakes up, she seems to only want a little cuddle and her binky to go back to sleep. Anna and Sadie never took binkies, but I admit I didn't push the issue much. I am extremely glad Paisley loves her binky and this time is a new learning experience for me.

I am bottle feeding Ms. Paisley, and I was worried that I would have regrets of not even trying nursing, but after a LOT of prayer I felt that I was supported in bottle feeding. It would be nice to know Paisley was getting my milk and how healthy it is for her, but I have to say I know in my heart I made the right choice for me and her. I have not had one second of regret. I am LOVING cuddling her and talking to her and singing to her while I feed her, and not struggling with being so massively sick from nursing when I couldn't eat. Again, this is a new experiece for me, to bottle feed straight from the first time, but I am really enjoying this new experience. :)

I am healing up great, which I was pretty worried about. I generally don't heal well at all...I have a long history of trying to heal. However, after feeling like I'd been hit by a train the first day and a half, I have bounced back amazingly. I barely have any discomfort or pain at all. It's hard for me to remember that I had a major procedure done and that I'm supposed to not do anything, because I feel just great. It was the C section itself that really was hard for me, and they ended up taking pity on me and knocking me unconscious right after they got Paisley out. That surprised me how extremely uncomfortable it was. Oh well, things are great now and I survived and my awesome recovery is more than making up for it. :)

I will take a few more pictures the next few days, and tell the oh so fun adventure story of how Paisley got here...and how she cracked up all of the nursery nurses at the hospital her whole stay....but for now I'm just going to post her introduction picture!!

I give up on the doctors....

2008-09-09T19:59:00.000-07:00

Sigh....well, here's an update for those I haven't been able to text. I went to my ultrasound appointment Monday and what do you know? She IS breech, just like I thought. I KNEW I could feel her kicking nerves in my legs. I knew I wasn't insane. It's extremely painful in case you're wondering.

My doctor made it sound like they would decide on Monday if they needed to turn the baby and then break my water and put me in labor so she couldn't turn again....he made it sound like it would be right away. However...my nurse dropped a hint that it might be as late as this Thursday or Friday. I was hoping for Monday since I would already be there and Trev would be there, and we'd already celebrated Sadie's bday early in case.

Well....grr....they left us waiting forever in the waiting room, and then my nurse came out and said they'd tried to get me in for the procedure next Tuesday (FOUR days before my due date! ugh) but it was full and she thought next Wednesday or Thursday would be too late and I'd already have had the baby. Well, hello! Who really makes it all the way to their due date? I'm surprised I have made it this long after going 24 days early with Sadie!! (For the record, today is 11 days to my due date. By the time this is read I will be on day 10....the day I had Anna).

So, here is the plan. They want me to "meet" the doctor that turns the babies on Thursday morning. And he will talk about it and check for dilation and decide from there. He has not even picked a day to do this. If I go into labor before they can get me in, which is extremely likely, I am going to have to do C-section. There's a teeny tiny possibilty they could turn her in labor, but that never works they said. I'm trying to word my frustration at this. It's not that a C-section is a big deal, but why would I want to pay all the extra money and go through all the extra recovery if I didn't have to. If they could prevent it. And they CAN prevent it but they're just too busy to get me in. Grr.

Actually, the more I think about it, and the more I am reassured by those close to me, the C-section is almost looking like a good option. It would save me hours of labor, the possibility of the baby getting stuck for hours like Anna did, and the possibility of the baby getting wrapped in the umbilical cord...like Anna did. If they turn the baby there's a huge chance she will get wrapped in the cord anyway. And that's even if they could turn the baby. It's not always successful. I'm sure I'd be one of those on the non-successful list. I've come to terms with the C-section and it's not looking bad really. :) Thanks for the support on this. I needed it.

Anyway, that's my update. I go in on Thursday morning to "talk" about things, but I could go into labor any time really. Fingers crossed. I'm very happy that Sadie and Paisley don't share a birthday, and I'm enjoying the last few nights of good sleep I can get, and trying to be positive. I can't wait to meet Paisley, see what she looks like, not be pregnant anymore, and cuddle the little munchkin that has been beating the tar out of my insides! :)

To keep with my positive mood, I decided the other day to take my traditional Fall pictures. I don't know when I'll have the chance to go get them printed, but I at least wanted them posted on here for now! They still aren't perfect, since I'm far from a photographer, but I really think they turned out cute and I'm so happy I had it in me to do them this year!!! Let me know what you think!

That's all I have for now. I took about a million pictures, but as you can see, the sun was out and poking all through the trees. The pictures are so cute (I think) but there's only so much I can do about the lighting on most of them. Wish I would have thought of that first. :) Oh well. I did the best I could and save a ton of money doing it this way!!

I can't wait to call everyone and tell them it's the big day!! I swear I have GOT to be the most impatient person I know, and I have to tell you Paisley is more than comfortable in there and in no hurry to come out. Actually, ha ha, I don't think she's that comfortable from the way I saw her in the ultrasound, poor kid. Her poor little face is pressed up against my side and her legs are all squished up down low. No wonder she kicks me so dang hard! My mom joked today that she's going to come out with stripes on her forehead from my ribs....oh she just needs to get here already!!!! I'll keep you updated!!

Oh....I am STRESSED!

2008-09-06T22:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am trying desperately to not let myself get behind in my blogs again at least until I have Paisley. I will be so busy when she comes that it might get hard, but right now I am just exhausted and busy getting ready for her. I can spend a couple minutes doing my blogging that I love, right??

Anyway, I thought I would update you all on what is going on with baby Paisley. I went to the doctor Friday, and I still have two weeks left to go (as of today). I told him I was sure she was breech because I can feel her kicking down SO LOW and it is excruciatingly painful. He wasn't so sure, because her heartbeat was in a good location. However....then he checked me for dilation. Mmmm...he was not so sure after that. He said it was awful soft to be a head...more like a bum down there. So, here are my options. Either I go into labor this weekend from the stress of being checked (I did last time with Sadie) because it was soooooooo painful cause my uterus is way way way tipped back. If I do go into labor this weekend, I have no choice but to go C-section if she is breech. You can't turn a baby in labor. My second option is they scheduled an ultrasound for Monday and if she is breech then a doctor in the office is going to try to turn her. If they can turn her, they want to break my water right away so I can have her and not give her a chance to turn again. Doesn't sound so bad, other than the pain of the turning thing....except Monday is Sadie's birthday!!!!!!!! As I said in my last blog, I soooooo didn't want them to have to share a birthday, but what can you do? I will make it work if it happens that way. I will just have to make sure both girls get their special time and don't suffer for sharing a day. :) There is a very slight possibility that they might wait until Thursday or Friday to do the turning because my doctor is only in the office for a few minutes on Monday and then has the day off. He might want to wait till a day he's scheduled, according to my nurse. I don't know. And then again, I can still feel her all over the place and maybe she has turned herself head down by then and then I won't have to worry about C-sections or turning and going into labor on my little girl's birthday.....I have no idea what to think. I want this baby out so badly, I am so excited to meet her, so excited to see what she looks like, so excited to move on to this new stage of our lives......but I am struggling because I have no idea what is to come in the next few days!!!!! I just don't like not having control. :)

Anyway, to add to it all, we are not wanting Sadie to miss out on her birthday if I happen to need to go into labor Monday, so we last minute decided to do cake and ice cream at the two grandma's houses. Tonight we went to my parents' house, and tomorrow night we will go to Grandma Parker's. :) I will post pictures from the Parkers' party later, but for now I have some very cute ones of Sadie's (early) third birthday!

Hamming it up for my sister... :)

She got some nightgowns! Anna has nightgowns...and it is a battle all the time cause Sadie wants to be just like Anna.

Telling everyone she is THREE now!

Anyway, I will try to keep everyone updated by phone when the big event happens! I have more fun pictures to blog, but they might have to wait a bit. :)

What We Have Done This Summer....

2008-08-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a LONG, hot summer. I don't know if it's because it's my third time around and my body is saying I'm not up to it anymore, or if it's just because I am chasing two little girls and being massively pregnant in the heat of the summer....but I've really struggled with keeping up this summer!! I took this horrible, horrible, horrible and very time consuming summer class starting in June, and it about took me out. It wasn't really hard, but it was mind-numbingly boring and a freakin TON of reading! After I finished, with an A grade by the way (go me! an A in a class I HATED!), I went on a computer strike. It is the first time in about two years I haven't been on the computer daily! I thought I would miss it, but for some reason, I keep finding things I have to get done and then bedtime hits and I haven't even touched it all day. I guess you could say I have been nesting. This is going to be a long blog, but I'm hoping to catch up on all that we've done this summer with pictures!! Here goes:

(These may be out of order, but oh well)

First, in May, we found out that our baby number three was another little girl, and our whole family was very excited. Then came the name hunting. That was a loooooong process. :) We finally decided on Paisley. Then we realized that she had to have a middle name because her initials would be PP if we kept with the no middle name tradition. We just barely this week decided on my sister's middle name, which was also my great-grandma's middle name. So, she will be Paisley Marie Parker. Here is a sneak peak at my little cutie:

We've gone swimming a few times in my parent's pool this year. I braved it and bought a maternity tank top and some boy's board shorts and it turned out really cute for a pregnant swimsuit! The girls had so so so much fun, and I wish Trev were home a little more in the evenings so we could have gone more. I can't do it by myself!! But, what can you do when it's summer and he works in the construction field? He works so hard to take care of us, so it's all good!

We have gone to the Zoo this summer...already have pictures up for that though. We went to the park with my friend Pam and her little one, and we also had a very eventful trip up to Perception Park with them. It's been very nice to get out of the house and let the little ones play for a little while!

We had a mommy and me water party at a neighbors and the girls LOVED it!

Jenni, my sister-in-law, invited us to go to a park in South Ogden that we'd never heard about. It was SO FUN! It is a park with two regular playgrounds, and a large cement pad with water toys!! And it's free!! We loved it. We have been back already to take my sister and niece! Thanks Jenni!

(I have some VERY cute pictures of Cailin and Jenni, but I'd better ask before I post them. :)

My sweet little four-year-old showed up with a very fun trait that came first from my mom, then went to me, and now to her. Sigh. It's just being far-sighted, but one eye is more than the other and it crosses. I was so sad to pass that down to her. (I sure know how my mom felt when I was little! Shh...don't tell her! ) :( But we love my eye doctor, he was so great about the whole process and Anna really made good friends with him, and he helped to find her some very cute glasses! They are purple, with glow-in-the-dark Disney stars on the sides, and they are Disney Princess brand. She was very excited to get them, and I have to admit, as much as I didn't want my little girl to have to wear glasses like I did, she pulls them off very very well! They are so cute on her, and I'm glad she loves them! She knows that she is beautiful, and they are a good thing for her!

Because we've had such a crazy summer and Trev has had to work late so much, he's been missing his girls. He got this crazy idea to have them help him make cookies the other day....and I just sat back and watched. :) They are so good about it...but if you've ever tried to direct an almost 3-year-old and a 4 and a half year old in the kitchen....you'll know why I am smiling.

(Yes, his apron says "Mom". I thought it was funny. I made him wear it. He humored me. :) )

However, most of our summer has been spent taking it easy and just playing in our house. I have been busy cleaning, doing laundry for us and the new baby, and just doing boring mom stuff. Surviving day to day really. The girls don't seem to mind it so much though. They have had a ton of time to play together and really learn to get along! We play lots of dolls, house, and dress up here!

(Ballerina dress up....AND dolls!)

And finally, my last update is what we've been doing to our house. I definitely am nesting! We realized that Anna and Sadie would have to share a room. Our neighbors just happened to hear that I was looking for options, and they offered us their trundle beds! It's a day bed with a bed that slides underneath it. I absolutely love it!! I can tuck Sadie's bed underneath during the day so they have room to play! Great invention. Anna told me she was too old for the carebears I'd painted on her walls three years ago...so I decided that she deserved a room makeover if she was going to have to share. We painted the room a light pink and put up wall stickers and rearranged the whole room. It was a VERY long process. But it turned out really cute. Now both girls plus toys are settled in and very happy.

(New pink walls. New flower wall stickers. And freshly painted white doors!! Yeah for me!)

(I know the beds are messy...the girls wanted to make their beds by themselves. But this gives you an idea of what they look like! I love them!!)

We put the crib back together, and this last weekend we got the last of the new nursery furniture settled in (new for us, given to us by my parents and my sister's friend). I've gotten all of the baby's laundry washed and put away and ready to go. I have made so many things for this little girl. I have made binki clips (no pictures right now. I forgot), crocheted headbands that have the loop for the removable bows, a blanket I am really proud of, and am working on another blanket right now. I have also boiled all the bottles and binkis, etc, and done everything I know to get ready. Can you tell I'm hinting to her that she can come anytime???? :) I'm even putting the carseat into the car today so she knows she can come. Out baby, out!!!

(New dresser/cupboard. Most of the teddy bears are painted! The blanket I crocheted for Paisley. Fun stuff!)

(Yes, yes, yes...I am obsessed with Little Suzy's Zoo. I have no clue why. But that's what the nursery has been decorated in since Anna was born! I just finished almost all of the paintings on the walls too. It's only taken me five years to do it...:) This is her crib, her bed sleeper thingy, and her hospital outfit)

(Her other new dresser thingy. Now that we have the bigger white one, I don't have much to put in this one...for now. So I think it will hold Anna and Sadie's dress up stuff and whatever else needs a home for now. It WILL get used! :) )

We rearranged our room for the first time since we've lived here. We bought a really really nice bassinet because our old one was falling apart. I realized that our room was so dang crowded that I had no room to rock the bassinet and that was my favorite feature about it! So, even though most people do not put their beds against the walls, we did and it works great. We cleared up SIX feet of room in our room! We deep cleaned it too, which it desperately needed!!!! I even rearranged the girls' books into empty cupboards in Paisley's newest dresser, and I took their old bookshelf and stuck it in my closet so that we won't have a million books all over the house. :) If I could count up the number of books I have, it would make you sick. I am not exaggerating....not even a tiny bit! I now have four deep book cupboards full of books, a full bookshelf full, and even a tupperware tote full. They are 98% mine too. I think I have an addiction. :) But the bookshelf in the closet is a HUGE improvement! I don't have pictures of our new room arrangement because it's laundry day and my room looks like a tornado of clothes hit it. :)

Oh, and my favorite thing is my sister and mom took pity on me and decided to come help me clean BEFORE the baby came. They always come clean after I have the baby. My sister thought I could have less anxiety if my house felt comfortable to me, and I had to agree and was so so so so grateful. It was hard to have my mom and sister see how dirty and cluttery my house was, but they really made HUGE improvements. I don't think I could have ever decluttered my house the way they did! I've been stuck living in it for five years now and ran out of ideas. It just looks so so much better! I'm sure it will still get messy, but my ultimate goal is to keep it almost exactly the way it is now...decluttered and clean!!! I can do it. I know I can! It did help take a lot of my anxiety away too. Now I'm not so afraid of people coming by to see the new baby! :)

Anyway, I'm sure I forgot a million things we've done this summer, but that's all I have pictures for and can think to put in here. My goal is to keep on top of my blog and do much, much shorter and more frequent blogs. :) I think it's time I came out of hiding and at least keep doing ONE thing I love....that's my blogging.

I will keep you all updated on the baby news by the way! Nothing really is happening though. :( I can feel some definite changes, like my braxton hicks contractions are happening every single day now instead of taking four day breaks between. They're not hurting yet, like they did a few times, but still everyday is something. My body is slowing down and just....changing....I can't explain it. You moms know what I mean, I think. It just feels different. Just enough to make me think it could be any day now. I keep watching for the signs. I know it's way early, but this is when I had Sadie...three and a half weeks early....so it could happen. :) My real goal is to go into labor on Labor Day. How many people can say that?? That's in five days!! I can make it five more days!!! I just truly don't want to have her right before or ON Sadie's bday....the eighth of September. I know she's only turning three, but still, I don't want to be in the hospital for her birthday!!

Our Idaho Weekend

2008-07-08T10:18:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Trev came up to me and said that he just couldn't stand the thought of staying home for yet another Fourth of July weekend, especially this year where it was a three day weekend. He never wants to make plans and leave! I was very excited.

We tried to plan out several options, but we are not very good planners. :) We ended up getting in touch with Trever's cousin Brian to see if they were headed up to their property in Idaho...and we were so excited they were and were more than happy to let us tag along!

We didn't do a whole lot while there, but that wasn't what we went up for. It was just so nice to pack up and leave our house for a few days and go hang out with our friends, and the girls had a BLAST playing with their "cousins" (I think they'd be second cousins or something along those lines. We just call them cousins) :) Our girls are kind of princesses and they don't get very many opportunities to play in the dirt and play with boys. They will be talking about this trip for a long time to come.

Now here's my confession: this weekend was my girls' first four wheeler ride, their first campfire, their first s'mores, their first hobo dinners.....It was just a quick trip up to visit and play and get away, but it was the very first time we've taken our girls "camping" (other than when we stayed overnight in a cabin but they don't remember any of that and I don't think we did a fire then...). We have always had babies that are soooo much work camping and have never had anyone to go camping with. Our families aren't too big on camping even though we love it. We haven't been since me and Trev were engaged seven and a half years ago! Next time we go, we'll camp for real. We cheated this time a little and stayed in a bed and breakfast. I didn't know how I'd do at 7 and a half months pregnant in a tent...but after sleeping on that mattress that was older than me....I'd be just fine in a tent I'm positive. :) Then I will really be able to say we've officially taken our girls camping. This was very very close though, and we all loved it!

Sadie thought it was really funny that we were all sleeping in the same room...and kept popping up out of "bed" and driving us nuts. Finally after 11:00 she crashed....and apparently crashed hard! This is how she was sleeping when we all got up and were getting going for the day. She slept through it all. :)

The kids really did have a lot of fun. Ashton was so nice to take Anna on his four wheeler for so many rides. Sadie even braved it once or twice. Even though Branson was a year younger, Sadie really stuck by his side and made quick friends with him. I think my favorite part of watching the kids play was when Anna and Ashton were on the four wheeler and Branson and Sadie were chasing them...and sometimes hanging on to the back. It made me very nervous, but Ashton was extremely careful to drive slow for the "babies". All four were laughing so hard! Then the moms stepped in and put an end to it before someone fell or got burned on the muffler. :)

Sisters....Best Friends!

2008-07-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

Well, lately we haven't really done anything exciting around here. It's sooooo HOT and I am melting just even staying in my house...I haven't dared to go too many places at 7 months pregnant and 100 degree weather with two little girls. :)

But of course I always have my camera near, and for some reason the girls have been playing extra cute lately. They really do play all day with each other with not too many fights. I just love these little girls, and you can tell they are each other's best friend!

We Love Our Daddy

2008-06-18T18:06:00.000-07:00

This year, we didn't do too much for Father's Day...and I was a little sad. I'd sent Trev out on a shopping trip to go pick himself out something that his wife just wouldn't be able to pick for him. I love to do this for me...and pick out my own gifts....and he was really excited to go.

Unfortunately, he couldn't think of anything, and he decided to save the money towards our TV fund. :(

I was so sad to not have anything to give him for Father's Day....I think next year I'll just trust me again because I have to have something to honor what a wonderful dad he is to this family!! He might just discover some random gift one of these days because I don't think he should be allowed to just skip a Father's Day gift. He has a mean wife like that. :)

We did have a good day at home just loving our Daddy, but I decided to make something sweet to just show how much he means to us and how much our little girls adore their Daddy....

We love you so much Daddy, and thanks for being the Greatest Dad in the Whole World (and we'll fight that fact too....)! We hope you know just how much you are appreciated and adored by all of us!

A Day in Our House....

2008-06-12T10:48:00.000-07:00

For all those of you reading this that have little boys...THIS is what a house full of girls looks like on your average, ordinary at-home day. :)

(Sadie's is a swimsuit...with a princess dress slip...and a beaded necklace)

(Anna's is also a swimsuit...with a cheerleader skirt, a headband, a tinsel crown, "fairy bracelets", and her baby bear with diaper bag off to the right! And ballet slippers you can't see)

(For the record, I did not make them do this....they were already dressed up and being silly. I just made them sit for me and tell me about what they were doing so I could get these so cute pictures! But I did have fun with my editing program)

My whole house is pink....every toy is pink I swear...and I'm afraid it's only going to get worse with Princess #3 on the way. Poor Trever! If you want to join the "Save Trever's Sanity" program, have your husbands call him and take him to go do GUY STUFF!!! :) Just kidding.

Our Trip on Front Runner

2008-06-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we FINALLY made our trip on Front Runner. We've been planning to go since the opening weekend and it never worked out. So, we went May 31st, early in the morning, and headed out to breakfast at a little cafe in Layton. (We will do a longer trip when we can devote our whole day to shopping in Salt Lake.)

The girls (Anna, Sadie, and cousin Madi) were SO excited! My girls didn't have a clue what I meant when I said we were going to ride a train. They were picturing something like the zoo train at Hogle Zoo. So when they saw the tracks and trains coming and going on them...they were fascinated.

We were so impressed with the train. It was clean, and it reminded all of us of riding on an airplane with the hum of the noise and the announcer and the staff. We went upstairs so the girls could sit at the tables.

After a VERY eventful breakfast in a cafe that has tripled its business in the last month but can't keep up with it.....(long story).....it was time to head home. We missed our train by a few minutes so we had some time to kill on the platform. I thought it was really cute that Madi decided to teach Anna how to play Rock, Paper, Scissors.

The girls saw me taking the candid picture of them playing, and I guess they are ALL too used to parents taking way too many pictures, because they all decided they had to have a cute posed picture. :)

We had such a fun time...even my mom, sister, and I all had a good laugh at the very very odd breakfast! It was an experience we won't soon forget. :) I wasn't sure if Sadie, at two and a half, would even remember the trip or know what had really happened, but she surprised me the other day. When we drove over the tracks, Anna said "Oh, Mom! I know what those are! They are train tracks for the train we rode!" And cute little Sadie chimed in "Yeah, for the choo-choo train with Gma Olsen!" That made me so happy to know my kids not only had fun but made a memory that BOTH of them could enjoy. I love that my kids are getting old enough to do stuff now!

Our Family Picture....

2008-05-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

I promised my sister-in-law I would post a blog on the very long process it was for her to take our cute little family picture. :)

She did a great job and only had to take about 12 pictures to get the one we wanted. Actually, my brother took over and you'd think HE got the winning picture at the end....and he did get a pretty cute picture for his last one...but the winning picture was really Jessica's. Shh...that's for her to know and Chris not to find out.

I think all of you who might read this have kids, so seeing this set of pictures you know what it's like and you've been there!! I just thought it would be fun to post this for Jessica's hard work.

I blinked.

(I always blink.)

Sadie blinked. I think on purpose.

Sadie got bored...

Anna got bored
(and apparently so did Trever...)

Anyway, if you haven't guessed the winning picture, it's the one at the top of our page here. Gosh trying to get a cute picture is hard!!

What I've Learned Doing Laundry!!

2008-05-29T23:13:00.000-07:00

Being a mom is never without learning experiences!

A few weeks ago, I was doing laundry in what I like to call "marathon style" (which means basically I've stalled laundry until I have NO clean clothes left and have to wash it all load after load after load....). I was doing so good and had done about 12 loads that day when I decided to just put one last load into the dryer for the morning. I opened the dryer...and my jaw dropped. I got to experience what it looks like when a crayon melts in the dryer all over your clothes. Bless my sweet little budding artist Arianna....I was just SURE she'd stuck her favorite crayon in her pocket since she'd been coloring all day. Needless to say, I just shut the dryer door and walked away.

The next morning I got on the computer and did some research, and just for all of you moms out there who might run into this situation....what worked for me was this formula:

**1/2 cup of your laundry detergent (I use Arm & Hammer but the websites mostly said Tide)

**1/2 cup of your stain remover (they said Shout, but again, I use Spray and Wash)

**wash the clothes on HOT/COLD and when the washer fills up, stop it and let the clothes soak in the detergent & stain remover mix for 45 minutes.

**If spots didn't come out, repeat the detergent mix and the 45 minute soak.

(p.s. just because I happen to know that hairspray gets ink out of clothes, one person said she'd sprayed hairspray on the spots...so I did and that seemed to work too. I don't know if it worked, or just used up all of my hairspray, but the spots came out either way).

Anyway, as a side note, I'm glad I didn't get frustrated at Anna for the crayon, because it turns out my sweet hubby had decided to help with the laundry and instead of looking at the laundry he was putting in the washer, he just took my hamper and shook it upside down over the washer. I discovered a cute little Barney CRAYON APRON in the dryer in all of my streaked clothes. I think a crayon apron might have a crayon or two in it....I would have checked personally...but I couldn't blame my husband for helping me with the laundry for only the second time ever in our marriage!! Thankfully it only had one crayon in it...not the 24 it can hold. Can you imagine??

What made me think of writing this blog about the horrible subject of laundry is something cute I discovered in my washer today. It reminded me of my crayon incident, and I figured I'd write about it for those who haven't heard my story. Anyway, I pulled the clothes out of my washer today, and the cutest thing was sitting in the bottom staring up at me. I just had to take a picture. I only think it's cute though because I found it BEFORE it went into the dryer. I don't want to know if this cute little rubbery plasticky thing can melt.

I guess the moral of my wonderful blog here is that I've learned that it's finally time I start checking my little girls' pockets. Cleaning Arianna's room the last few times have taught me that she is very much a scavenger and likes to pick up the strangest little "treasures" from all over the house. Why would she not be putting some of these in pockets? And of course, being only a year and a half apart, Sadie watches Anna and does whatever she does. I think between melting a crayon in the dryer, and finding a rubber turtle in my washer, I've learned my lesson on trusting pockets to be empty. (I have been known to wash a notebook or two in my hubby's pants and man can those little notebooks shred....everywhere....) It's time to just be checking all of my laundry. When are kids old enough to help with laundry??? Two and a half and four?? Right?

Welcome Summer!!

2008-05-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

Well, after a VERY long winter, we are more than ready to rush in Summer full-force around here! Technically summer doesn't officially start for awhile yet, but we think it's here (despite our latest freezing rainstorms) and we're celebrating! We haven't done much, but I had some cute pictures I wanted to share and couldn't wait to post.

On May 17th we went with my family to the zoo for a late Mother's Day for my mom. Almost everyone in the family could make it, and the girls had a blast! It was Sadie's first trip to the zoo that she stayed awake for and could actually enjoy. We brought the wagon for her and Anna, but she ended up kicking back by herself with the cooler and she was just fine with that.

Anna got to walk like her older cousin Madi and felt very grown-up.

My sister bought a Chinese hat for my dad as a joke, and we had all of us pose in the hat. I won't be posting pictures of ME in the hat, but I personally took pictures of my girls in it and they turned out cute.

We had such a fun day, but because I was so claustrophobic at five months pregnant, I didn't get up close to the viewing areas to get too many pictures. These will have to do for this trip. :)

The other day though, my friend Pam called and asked if we wanted to go and do something since it was such a nice day and she had the day off. We decided to do a picnic lunch at Riverdale Park and it turned out GREAT. We like picnic lunches at the park anyway, but this park is gorgeous so it was even more fun as a mom. It was such great weather and the pictures turned out cute, so I wanted to post them too!

Anyway, we are more than happy to be outside now after being trapped inside for so long. I hope to have many more pictures before I am too huge and miserable to haul all of us around and do fun stuff!

Easter 2008

2008-03-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

My vote is that Easter came waaaaayyy too early this year! What do you think? However, we had a lot of fun. We got up early, and the Easter Bunny had left the girls baskets. (He told me ahead of time he wanted to hide our eggs at Aunt Jandy's so they could share their hunt with cousin Madi).

We headed off to church, and had a great day. The girls were extra cuddly in sacrament meeting and kept wanting to lay on me and let me rub their backs, and it really made me feel happy to be there surrounded by my family on such a beautiful day.

Then we headed straight to Aunt Jandy's house. The girls hunted all over, and came back with TONS of eggs. Sadie in particular was cracking all of us up because she is old enough this year to know how to gather the eggs, and while Madi and Anna were busy with putting on their shoes, she ran like a madman picking up as many as she could with this very serious look on her face! What a funny little girl.

We had a nice little lunch, and all of the guys played the Wii, and they even got my grandma to try it. I have to get the picture from my sister, but it's PRICELESS.

Then....(long day, I know....) we headed to my in-laws for dinner and yet another hunt. After everyone had taken pictures, the little ones finally took off after their eggs! There was a little confusion on what color egg which kid was supposed to find, but eventually all was found and the kids dove happily into the candy.

All in all, it was a LONG day, but a fun one. It would have been nice to have warmer weather, and have it in full force spring instead of the end of winter, but it was fun and a great holiday. One of my favorites for sure, and it was really fun with the girls both being old enough to enjoy it.

I Fell in Love Again!

2008-03-31T20:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I wanted to write to say I had a fun experience a little while ago. I fell in love again. I got to see baby #3 in our ultrasound, and just as I thought, I fell in love just as quickly with this baby as I did with Anna and Sadie.

It's been a crazy pregnancy so far, and it's been a hard juggle between school and two kids at home. I was really having a hard time finding babysitters, and so I hadn't been able to make it to the doctor as soon as I'd hoped. I was a few days past three months along by the time I was able to go in. Thankfully I'd had no problems at that point. :)

I had to go by myself, because Trever couldn't get off of work, and Anna didn't want to come with me (Sadie, love her, but she was not an option) but played with her cousin instead. So, bright and early in the morning, all by myself, I went into my ultrasound.

Yet, the second that tiny baby popped up on the screen, my eyes started watering. It was so tiny, yet kicking and playing and waving its little hands. It sucked its thumb at one point, and even opened its mouth and yawned. I knew I'd love this tiny little baby, but up to that point, the pregnancy had felt rushed and different because I didn't have the luxury of treasuring every little part of the pregnancy. Seeing the little one all of a sudden made it real to me.

We're excited to find out what we're having, and we'll find out in the second week of May. I have a feeling that this baby will be a fun one because even in that ultrasound it was kicking and flipping like crazy, and it took twice as long for the ultrasonographer to get her measurements because it was so wiggly.