Jason & Yaz's Family Updates

An update....Basketball, Diet, Ashton

2012-02-07T21:10:00.000-08:00

Life is just a movin' on, and we're loving it. I really think we're going to look back on these days as "the good days." Or maybe they'll just get better. I sure hope so.

Ash is growing in every possible way. He's developed quite a "tude" though, and is acting rather spoiled. Either that or he's got a tooth coming in. Although I really think it's the spoiled thing, cause he really doesn't like it when we hug one of the other kids. I took this video when Jason was hugging McKay and it's SO typical:

The boys are enjoying their little "boys club" and I love it. I love that they are getting old enough to go shoot hoops with their dad. And I love that I can take a few pictures, then go do my own thing. Ahh, happiness.

I brought Ash outside for a few minutes of fresh air, but the sunny day was deceivingly chilly. We went back inside quickly, even though he didn't complain. He just wants to be big and keep up with the big boys.

Can't wait for some spring! Darn groundhog.......

And in other exciting news.........drumroll.....................I have finished my 1st month of Isagenix! I had my 4th cleanse day yesterday and weighed myself this morning. The scale varies by a few pounds depending on the time of day, so I'm going to average my weight loss for the month as a satisfying 10 pounds! Yay! Hopefully I can get another 15-20 off before June, when Jason and I will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary on Maui.

Upon reflection it wasn't so bad, even though I remember wanting to abandon the program a few times. It was week 3 when it finally got easy-- the cravings stopped and I wasn't hungry anymore. I have more energy than before and when I cheat and eat crap I feel REALLY crappy, so I don't want to cheat as often.

And so another month of Isagenix begins!

Snow

2012-01-30T21:54:00.000-08:00

We had a good week of snow....and then it disappeared and spring weather returned. But school was cancelled most of that week and all the neighborhood kids got to enjoy it together.

Except for poor Ashy. He did NOT like the snow, not one bit. We went promptly back inside and played with his toys instead.

It was hard having the kids home for almost a week straight. I didn't want to go anywhere, so I had to entertain and feed them all day long. I tried to make it fun though. After doing a respectable amount of housework, piano, and homework, I let them have some movie time. I even served their snacks in the playroom and let them eat in front of the TV. They were delighted with these particular trays:

Due to the snow, Hunter's first basketball game was cancelled. So this week was his actual first game, and it went pretty well. Ash got bored, but was a pretty good sport.

Sorry about the poor picture quality...I'll have to play with my camera more during the next game. We finally got our basketball hoop set up at home so he can practice more. He had a blast and his team won even though we thought they'd get creamed, so yay!

The Brighter Side

2012-01-18T08:43:00.000-08:00

Slowly passing an illness around for a week does have some good points. (Oh yeah, Jason came down with it shortly after I did.)

It gives you lots of time to just lazy around, cuddle,

and feel sorry for yourself.

You can bundle up, lie around, and watch movies all day.

It's not so bad.

Ash definitely got hit the hardest. We all caught it, threw up for a day, then got over it. He's still lethargic, whiny, and just wants to be held all day every day. But, at least I get to cuddle him as much as I want.

On a humerous note:

So apparently my husband didn't appreciate my announcing to the world that he ran into our garage door. Probably because several of his buddies called to harass him about it! (Thanks a lot, I got in big trouble!) =)

The good news is that it looks worse than it is. The nice garage door repair man put a new roller on it and it worked! It just looks funky- mostly on the inside-- you can't really tell from the outside. SO, YAY. Don't have to buy a new door after all!

AND, today marks the first snowfall of 2012. It's dumping outside, and school has been delayed two hours-- maybe cancelled. It'll be interesting to see if the van can make it up the hill out of the neighborhood. I'm tempted not to try, and just stay in all day.

Yep, that sounds like a good plan to me.

No Good Very Bad Week

2012-01-14T19:21:00.000-08:00

So, you know what happens after you announce to the world you're finally going to get it in gear? Better yourself, eat healthy, all that?
You have a no good very bad week.

Oh my, where to start? Should I make a list?

* Started smelling sewer type smells around the outside of the house. After determining it was NOT the porta potty from the house being built next door, we called our septic system guy who informed us our pump has not been working since we moved in! Apparently when we had our irrigation put it they cut our pump pipe. The septic guy then fixed the problem immediately because it was only a matter of HOURS before it would have started to back up in the house. This included digging up our yard-- and all the grass seed we had planted over that area.

* Ashton started throwing up. All over his bed, then all over his car seat.
* The other kids wet their beds repeatedly. All sorts of other....bowel issues.....I won't get gross.

Then some Friday the 13th Fun:

* Forgetting to open it, Jason backed his truck into the garage door. It doesn't look good. Probably have to replace the whole door.
* McKay said his stomach was hurting most of the day. I kept waiting for him to start throwing up.
* Hunter started throwing up at 4:30 this morning. My stomach started hurting.
* I started throwing up about 9:30 this morning. Have had an awful day, only finally just being able to keep down some toast and apple juice. At least McKay never threw up. (Knock on wood.)
* Just tested Ash, who feels extremely hot, and he has a fever.

So my Isagenix diet was abandoned today, and even though tomorrow is supposed to be my cleanse day that'll have to get postponed. I'm just trying to keep ANYTHING down right now. Oh, the pregnancy flashbacks I'm having today!

But, there's a silver lining to all this. Even though I'm only supposed to weigh myself once a week, I weighed myself this afternoon, just for fun. I knew I hadn't kept any food down today and thought I'd probably have dropped at least a few pounds. I was very happy. Since Monday, I've lost 8 pounds! It's more than I had hoped for in one week, but I'm sure this illness has helped. More silver lining? I'm getting my book club book read pretty quickly.

But I'm glad this week is over.

Me in 2012

2012-01-11T09:28:00.000-08:00

Child bearing takes a toll on me. I love my children so much it hurts, but for each child I've gone through almost 2 years of frustration because of the way I feel. Jason and I morbidly joke that if we lived in pioneer days I wouldn't have made it through my first pregnancy and he'd be onto his 2nd wife by now-- someone a little tougher. But it's modern times and he's stuck with me, the woman who will NOT be giving him the 5 boys required to make our own basketball team.

Looking back, my best times have been the years between nursing and the next pregnancy-- that's when my body gets back to normal and I'm at my healthiest and happiest. It's that time again, and I'm giddy with excitement to feel that way again.

It's just that I'm so tired all the time.

Ok, so I'm busier than I was before-- uh, like WAY busier. I have more children, for starters, a bigger house and a nice spread of land that all need a LOT of TLC. Work has never been busier and I've never had to spend so much of every day in a car, driving someone somewhere.

I know, some of you veteran moms are thinking, "Welcome to the rest of your foreseeable future." That's what I'm thinking too.

So I've started a month-long Isagenix cleanse that my doctor brother Omar recommended to me. Him and Tiffany swear by this stuff, and after reading about it I'm convinced it'll make me feel healthier and lose some weight.

I am currently on day 3, so I don't have much to report except that it's nice having a checklist of things to eat during the day. It's actually making my life easier, not having to figure out every meal and how many calories I'm consuming. It even has little boxes to check every time I drink a glass of water, so I can track that too.

I start with a few ounces of an antioxident liquid in the morning that I drink like herbal tea. Then breakfast is a shake with a metabolism booster pill that's full of natural ingredients like ground cayenne pepper. There's some snacks I can eat before lunch, (one of which is a square of dark chocolate full of good mood boosting ingredients), and then I get to eat a healthy lunch. So on and so forth. I get 6 days like this and then I have to have a cleanse day, where I only get to drink the cleanse liquid and eat a few snacks. I am not looking forward to my cleanse days.

I am committed to getting healthier though, and so am determined to stick with it! I'm sure I'll be posting updates, and probably some whining after my first cleanse day.

So, I've also decided to do better on some other things too. Self-improvement things, ya know. Like, reading my scriptures and ensign more, going to the temple more, having more fun with the kids, keeping the house cleaner, etc. I make this same list every January and September, but I'm hoping that the Isagenix will give me more energy to actually stay on top of these things in 2012.

To drive my commitment to a new me really home, I chopped my hair. Ya know, because it was the thing to do.

Ashton is 1!

2012-01-04T22:26:00.000-08:00

1 year ago today, I was in SO much pain. Because of this little guy:

And now he's become:

Gene Wilder.

At least, that's what Jason started calling him. So I decided that for his birthday he was getting a haircut! 1st one.

Ahhhh, much better!

The festivities had to wait until Hunter got back from basketball practice, but then Ash got all our attention--- and attention is something he LOVES. This was his face while we were singing to him.

He got his own little cake

and dug in with fork AND hand.

Grandma gave him this awesome penguin, which he already loves. It's like McKay's Bozo the Clown, (which you can actually see in the background of the picture above with me and ash-- weird coincidence), something they can abuse over and over and it keeps coming back for more. Those seem to be our best toys. Hmmm .

Mostly, he got oodles of toddler snacks and yogurt drinks, which is one of the few things he gets crazy excited about.

And a jumbo box of goldfish. Life is good.

Ashton in summary: *21 lbs
                                  *90th percentile for height
                                  * Favorite thing to say is "Oh yeah!"
                                  * Loves yogurt
                                  *Repeats words like "thank you" and "love you"
                                  *Goes to bed at 8:00 and gets up at 7:00
                                  *Gets excited and clenches his fists and growls like a wild animal

And for any child of mine, the one year milestone is also my release from nursing. I'm FREE! Yippee!

2011: Big Year for the Gilberts

2011-12-31T22:52:00.000-08:00

Ashton,

Savior of the World,

Building our Dream Home,

Rehearsals,

Jason Transferred Departments,

Three Kids,

McKay 4th birthday party,

Sold our First Home,

Performances,

Moved,

Turned 30,

First Grade,

Hunters Basketball party,

Saying Goodbye to Old Friends,

Country Life,

Making New Friends,

Seahawks Game,

Happiness

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(photos by Karen Gilbert Larsen)

Goals for 2012:

1. Lose Weight

2. Organize and Decorate my Office

3. Catch up on Scrapbooking

4. Learn to play guitar

5. Aquire Blinds for new home

6. Go camping

7. Learn to shoot a gun

8. Aquire couch for new home

9. Aquire bar stools for new home

10. Be nicer and more patient

Christmas

2011-12-26T14:29:00.000-08:00

Christmas was perfect. Our greatest gifts are, of course, our children. I can't describe the joy they bring us. I mean, look at this little face.

And they love each other. They are such special sweet little creatures.

Christmas eve was a blast. Jason had to work until 7:00, so our neighbors invited me and the kids over for dinner and to join their large family gathering. Not only are they the nicest EVER, but they celebrate Christmas up right. There was a large dinner, everyone had fun opening the English Christmas crackers I brought, we sang Christmas songs so loud you could probably hear us a mile away, we watched a nativity video, shared a gigantic platter of cookies, and then Santa showed up with presents for everyone. Jason came just in time for Santa and games, and we ended up staying much too late!

(They made us.)

We went home, quickly got ready for bed, then put out milk and cookies for Santa. The boys were making a big effort to be angelic, so they'd deserve lots of presents.

Maybe not....

Christmas morning began at 6:30, which was ok with us because Jason had to leave for work at 9:00. We had plenty of time to open everything and have a nice breakfast before he had to leave.

They boys ran into our room yelling "Dad got coal in his stocking!" Which is true. Among other things he got a bag of "coal", (which was actually chocolate), because Santa had no choice. Jason had been pretty naughty, especially this last month. He's been teasing Gilligan (our elf) a lot and even knocked him down once, resulting in hysterics from Hunter and McKay. Jason made it better by apologizing to Gilligan (which I captured on camera and can use as blackmail at any time), but coal was still in order.

Ash was a little out of it since he's not used to being woken up so early, but he quickly got into a good mood and started playing with whatever got dropped on the floor.

One of our big gifts was this basketball hoop. Hunter starts basketball this month, and now he can practice with a decent hoop.
And McKay got his gun. Doesn't matter that he already has several toy guns, he was thrilled to get another and starts playing with it even before it's out of the package!

I got some great jewelry, slippers, and a step stool that was labeled "To the little people, from the land of the giants." Ha ha.

Jason got money for an AR-15. The boys were like, "See Dad, when you're naughty you get nothing but coal and paper for Christmas!"

Holiday Cheer

2011-12-21T20:40:00.000-08:00

The holiday spirit has been abundant in my heart and home this year, but I've neglected taking many pictures or posting anything. I finally realized Christmas is in 5 days and I better get my booty in gear!

Last year I was having a rough time, feeling like I was in labor for weeks, worrying about the show, trying to make decisions about the house, and wondering if I was going to make it through Christmas. This year we're in our new home, Ashton is happy and adorable, I have the show on DVD playing in the background (bringing back nothing but happy memories), and Hunter and McKay are at the BEST age for Christmas fun. Life is GOOD!

I worried about putting up the Christmas tree with an 11 month old, so we put it on top of the coffee table and it worked beautifully. Hunter and McKay decorated most of it themselves. (And continue to rearrange the ornaments daily.)

McKay was a reindeer in his pre-school Christmas play. What's funny, is that exactly 2 years ago Hunter was a reindeer in the same play, and wore the same shirt!

Here's a little snippet of the play. I love the kid who plays Santa-- what talent!

We love Miss Teddy. She had Hunter for 2 years, and McKay for 2 years.

Oh, did you notice something different about Hunter? That's right, now he looks like the smarty pants that he is. New glasses.

(He's adjusting.)

More Holiday Fun:

Our Elf on the Shelf brought us a gingerbread house kit to put together for FHE tonight. After delivering goodies to the neighbors we sat down and created our best gingerbread house ever.

More holiday cheer still to come!

Haley

2011-12-07T08:36:00.000-08:00

My friend that passed away was Haley Jo Morales, a girl I met when I moved to West Richland 7 years ago. Her and her husband JJ became good friends with Jason and I, until they moved to New Jersey where we kept in touch only through the internet and Christmas cards.

Her funeral was lovely. Sad and happy at the same time. Her family has an amazing attitude, because they all know she is with her Heavenly Father and that they will see her again. It was obvious they were also in a lot of pain, because they miss her and they feel for JJ and her 5 kids.

It's funny how you start to remember little, seemingly insignificant things about a person after they've passed. Like I remember how much she like to read, and how she gave me a Jane Austen novel for my birthday one year. I also remember being annoyed at her because she was the first person to ask me "When are you going to have another baby?" when Hunter was a year old. And how we used to play volleyball with her and JJ, and we'd roll our eyes at each other because our husbands got SO competitive.

She was a beautiful person, and we are praying for her family.

Pain in the Neck

2011-11-29T20:03:00.000-08:00

Literally. My neck is supposed to look like this:

and it looks more like this:

Probably the result of one of the 100 times I've been thrown off a horse. Left untreated neck surgery would be inevitable.

So I'm on a schedule with my chiropracter to fix my neck in 90 days. I've been going to him for 3 times a week for the last 5 weeks and will get reevaluated tomorrow to see what progress I've made. I haven't been as good at my "at home" therapy as I should have been, so we'll see.

On top of that I keep getting sick. Sore throats, actually-- I'm in the midst of my 5th one since September. My brother tells me I need to get my tonsils out, and has even offered to do it for me at his surgery center in Spokane. It's tricky having surgery when you're the mother of three, so I've been putting it off. It's become obvious though that I'm going to have to deal with it in 2012.

Life is good though. We've been counting our blessings a lot lately since several people in our lives are going through some really tough stuff. I'll be attending an old friend's funeral this Saturday. She died of complications after a heart attack last week leaving her husband with 5 children. She was just a few years older than me.

Recently Jason's best friend's wife was in a terrible car accident that should have taken her life and is going through a few surgeries. Also in the last few weeks we've had a few instances of "family members of family members" who have died or almost died in horrible car accidents. It's making me glad we're not doing any holiday traveling this year.

Our Thanksgiving was nice, even though Jason had to work that night. Although, I have to say I was irritated that the Friday Christmas sales started on Thursday night this year. I mean, can't we just enjoy Thanksgiving anymore? Spend time with family? What about those poor store employees who had to be there ALL day getting ready? I've honestly been sickened by all the holiday shopping hype this year. I'm tired of the focus being on STUFF. Count your blessings. Cherish your family. Be thankful for what you have. I know it's on sale, but do you really need a bigger TV? C'mon.

There. That's the end of my soap box rant. I love that the holiday season has begun and hopefully my kids will understand that giving is what's important. For family home evening I challenged the family to complete many acts of service in the month of December. The lesson was mostly for me since I was starting to let myself get sucked into the shopping aspect of it and getting stressed out. I want this December to be calm, reflective, and Christ centered.

(I'm typing this on here so that I'll remember!)

He's starting to cause TROUBLE

2011-11-16T18:28:00.000-08:00

I think he's learning from THIS one:

I Finally Captured Ashton Walking

2011-11-11T17:36:00.000-08:00

He's quite wobbily bobbily, but he's walking about half the time now. It's so cute, but I feel bad when he crashes and burns. Good thing his diapers add a little cushion.

My baby's growing up. I realized I better post more pictures of him!

"I LOVE graham crackers."

Carving and Costumes

2011-11-06T18:34:00.000-08:00

Family Home Evening Pumpkin Carving:

Hunter's Class Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch:
Jason went as a chaperone.

When I pulled out the Halloween costumes this year, we had a few options for each kid. They decided they wanted to wear ALL their costumes this year. I thought....why not?

McKay's preschool class costume party:
He went as batman.

The ward trunk or treat:

King Hunter and Knight McKay

McKay's best friend Caden:

Our friend Carson's Dad is a police officer too. I might have to steal this costume for next year.

Trick or Treatin'

Spiderman and a Pirate

Eli came over and showed us his cute bear outfit. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything that fit Ash, so he wore a Halloween shirt and a pumpkin hat. He can't eat candy anyway....

That doesn't stop him from trying though.

It's Autumn Time

2011-10-18T22:19:00.000-07:00

I suddently felt the urgent need to blog today. Even though I'm doing it at 10 pm and should be in bed, here I am! You know why? Because my baby took his first steps yesterday. He was holding onto nothing, and stepped forward.

And then he fell.

But still!

And then today, he did it again-- 3 different times. On the 3rd try he took TWO steps before falling backward onto his cushy little tushy.

And I realized I've been TERRIBLE about recording his milestones and growth. Which is funny because I've actually been enjoying his babyhood immensely. I spend lots of time playing with him and holding him, but I've been very lazy about pictures and writing in the baby book. See, I don't even have a picture of this massive achievement. And he's 9 months old! Where is the 9 month old picture? I dunno.

Anyway, so I'm behind. Here's whats been happening.

Soccer:

McKay is officially playing this year. (Last year the coach let him warm up with Hunter's team, so it was unoffical playing I guess.) See how excited he is?

YES!

Hunter's back at it, but still prefers playing goalie.

After taking this pictures I stood behind him and would yell at him to "pay attention to the ball!!!!" since he tended not to notice when the ball was coming at him. I had one of those moments where I realized I was sounding like "THAT MOM" -- you know, the crazy yelling mom who's screaming at her kid to hustle or whatever. Boy, it was weird.

Pumpkin Patch:
McKay's class went last week, and Hunter's goes next week. Jason is actually going with Hunter's class and I'm staying home, so I'm not sure if we'll get any pictures of that one.

McKay with his buddies Conner and Daeton.

"Where are the big ones?"

I found this cool green one, but McKay disapproved because his class has been learning about pumpkins, and how they're not ready until they're orange. He couldn't understand that I liked it BECAUSE it was green.

The 9 month picture:
I guess this can be it.

Ashton has been making friends with Eli, the 6 month old that lives across the street. After his Mom and I took them for a walk in the strollers, we went back to their house to play on the grass and look into the horse pasture. Luckily we've been having great fall weather.

It's nice to have neighbors with grass we can play on, because ours still looks like this:

It's coming. Slowly but surely......

Hunter's Birthday

2011-09-28T22:11:00.000-07:00

Hunter turned 7 on Sunday! Holy cow, I can't believe it. Such a big kid, in first grade, so responsible now... (I'm about to cry.)

Anyway, on Friday Jason met him at school to have lunch with him and took some brownies I had made for his class.

Saturday we had the party. We weren't GOING to have a party this year since we had the big bash last year, but I'm kind of ridiculous when it comes to birthdays. (Plus, next year he'll be getting baptized and I want it to be a special family only thing.)

This is how it went down. We were at Costco and Hunter announced that he wanted the basketball decorated cake for his birthday this year. I said, "Umm...honey, I was going to make your cake this year."

He got a sad look on his face and said, "But I really wanted the basketball cake." (See, if he had whined or screamed it would have been easy to say no. But he's such a sweet kid....)

So I said, "Ok, we can get a Costco cake, and I guess we could invite a few friends over to help us eat it......"

And so, the basketball party was born. I'm pretty proud of myself since I spent almost no money on it and it was great fun anyway. We invited 5 boys over and I brilliantly handed them over to Jason for some basketball games. Our awesome neighbors let us use their driveway and basketball hoop.

It turned out to be a VERY hot day, so we gave the boys their basketball shaped sports drinks early so they could stay hydrated.

Jason taught the boys some fun games and gave them a few tips on how to shoot the ball. His best friend Bart was in town so he helped out.

Jason wasn't able to get the basketball hoop as low as I wanted, but the boys did great anyway. I was quite impressed that 7 and 8 year olds could shoot so well.

When they were done they each got a 1st place ribbon and posed for a group shot. (McKay was having a hard time. I guess it's tough when you're 4 and it's not YOUR birthday.)

Then we went inside for some cake and ice cream.

The cake that started it all....

Bart and Jarrett gave Hunter a Michigan football figurine......but we all know who's REALLY going to be playing with it.

Hunter got the cake he wanted, a party he loved, and some great presents. It was really fun and easy for me, and McKay got over his jealousy because Hunter let him play with all his presents first. And Ash just had a ball playing with the balloons and wrapping paper. (And trying to eat them too.)

Things that make you go ewwww

2011-09-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

You know how everyone has that one thing they're irrationally afraid of? Well, mine has always been spiders. My Dad got worn out running to my bedroom when I was growing up because I was always yelling for him to come kill some spider. I'd always swear it was HUGE, and then he'd roll his eyes and tell me it was tiny. Now Jason is my spider killer, and treats me pretty much the same way.

Well, I'm TRYING to be a big girl now. With Jason's long work hours I've had to just suck up some of my fears and irritations and get things done on my own. I've learned to move heavy stuff, take out the garbage, mow the lawn, kill bugs, deal with mice, etc etc, and I KNOW that moving onto our acreage out here will be even more trying on me. I'm ok with that.

What I'm NOT ok with, however, is THIS:

And it's living inside my window-- the one right next to our bed on the side that I sleep on.

I tried to be cool. I decided to name him Herman, (thinking that would make him endearing) and tried to appreciate that he was catching bugs for us. But he's just THERE, being creepy, every day. I told Jason he needs to kill him, but we're trying to figure out how to get to him on the outside of a second story window without letting him inside and making a mess. (I picture squishing a spider this size and it makes me cringe.)

I switched Jason sides of the bed because I can't handle it anymore. Also, it seems to be growing and I'm afraid it's a SHE who might lay eggs and breed more creepy little Hermans. So I think tomorrow Herman is going to die. But I'm going to revert back to my wimpish ways and make my husband do it.

I'm tough, but not THAT tough.

(At least YET.)

School-Apples-Baby!

2011-09-22T18:03:00.000-07:00

This is sort of a catchup post. I can't believe I missed posting about McKay's first day back at Gateway. Ooops. He loves being back and seeing his friends and we're all very happy that he gets to go 4 days a week.

Apple picking! It's that time of year again.

We love having lots of apples. What to do with them....... hmmm.....

And finally..... Baby's got skills!

And he's off. Later 'gator.

Jason's Birthday

2011-09-15T22:12:00.000-07:00

Jason was forced to celebrate his birthday this year, however brief it was. You gotta do it, for the kids ya know. Didn't matter that he slept all day and only had an hour to eat and get ready for work. I made him sit. I made him eat cake and blow out candles. I made him open his present. I made him like it.

He was still a bit sleepy and camera shy, but I was able to get some shots. Gotta document!

Now he's 32. I remember his first birthday when we were dating when he turned 22. Weird.

Weird how much I still love this guy.

Happiness

2011-09-10T22:19:00.000-07:00

Things have finally calmed down-- and I mean FINALLY. This is the first time since before I got pregnant with Ash that I feel like our family is back to normal. And I've never seen all my boys so happy. First of all, school has started and they LOVE school. And we have more structure, and they LOVE structure.

Secondly, it still feels like summer and they can enjoy being outside. I mean, this is why we moved out here!

So, I told them they could dig holes in the dirt (we hadn't planted the grass just yet), but that they had to fill the holes back up before they came in the house. Then I left them to their own devices and went inside to tend the baby. About 15 minutes later I heard them open the garage door and yell: "Mom, we're muddy!" And I found these little urchins in the garage!

I am so happy to have a mud room now, but I have to say it is a MUD room! As in, it's constantly filled with mud!

More happiness: Jason on a tractor with his sons.

And Ash is just happy, because well, he's adored by EVERYONE, and life is pretty good when you're a baby around here.

I mean, REALLY.

The "college football is on TV" position:

And I'm happy because our irrigation is done, our grass has been planted, and this means less MUD in my future. Send us happy thoughts so our grass and pasture will grow fast!

On a different note- I'm also happy because I finally discovered Pinterest. From what I've figured out I love it, but I still don't really know what I'm doing. I don't know how to find people, so if you're on it, find me! I'm signed up under Jason's facebook account since I don't have one, so it actually looks like Jason is the one pinning craft ideas. (Don't tell him though, or he'll have a fit!)

Baby's First Summer

2011-09-02T10:33:00.000-07:00

Summer is over and it makes me think of how much Ash has grown over the last few months. He tries to keep up with his big brothers and wants to be a big kid. This summer he went from rolling to scooting to army crawling to crawling to sitting up.

He insisted on joining us every time we sat down for a meal, so I was relieved when he could finally start eating the solids. This kid eats. And eats. And eats.

He rolled himself into all sorts of places and situations.

Hung out with me in the shade while we watched the boys playing in the water at the park.

First trip to the beach.

First snooze on the beach.

First trip to the aquarium. (Sorry about the fuzzy phone pictures in the dark.)

First ride on the airplane.

First swim in the pool.

And just hanging out with the lazies.

He'll be 8 months old on Sunday.

I'll have to get some pictures of his new tricks: Crawling on his hands and FEET, and pulling up on anything he can. He can also take a few steps to the side once he's on his feet. (Oh boy. Slow down kid!) He's also babbling da da da (Jason thinks he's saying daddy) and says hi after I say it. He also loves to give us wet, open mouth kisses. It's totally gross but I love it.
He's been my biggest baby, my wiggliest and most active baby, and biggest eater. He tries to wrestle with his brothers and "growls" at them to get them to play with him. (This makes me nervous for the future.)

Can't wait for this holiday season and more firsts for Ashy Mashy! (Don't ask where this nickname came from. I don't know but we call him that constantly.)

First Day

2011-08-31T21:38:00.000-07:00

Welcome school! Welcome fall! We missed you. We NEED you.

Now that we're all settled we are craving the structure of school again. Hunter thrives on structure and loves to do school work and follow rules and go to recess and you know, learn stuff. PLUS he was excited about his fancy new school ("it has stairs and an elevator mom!"), and getting to ride the school bus with our awesome neighbor kids.

The bus picks up at the top of our hill and it was a gorgeous day, so of course I went picture kRaZy!

Our boys with Macy and Caden -- our across the street neighbors.

Our house looks very far away in this picture.

Hunter had a great first day. I picked him up since he had gymnastics after school and he was all grins. He was almost giddy to be back in school, and then had a blast being back at gymnastics after a month break. Then today I went and had lunch with him in the cafeteria, mostly to check out the school lunch situation and decide if he'd EVER be buying school lunches. I have to say, I was impressed by the quality and healthy-ness ??? of the food, and we decided he'd get to buy his lunch once in awhile. We also decided I'd come have lunch with him again. It was fun, and I'm enjoying that he likes to have me around. That might not last much longer....... =(

29 Again

2011-08-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

Goodness I'm behind on blogging. It's almost September and at the beginning of August I turned 29 again!

(I might have to turn 29 again next year too.)

...Hello Home

2011-08-11T17:24:00.000-07:00

We got moved and things have been crazy and chaotic and well, just plain lost. (Like my computer cords so I couldn't get pictures on here.) What a whirlwind month! But here's some catchup of the summer fun we've had along the way...

At the pool

At the park

And Ash has been busy honing his crawling skills

well, we're not quite sure what that is.

Ah, the simple joys of country living

Our new neighbors are um, AWESOME. Their kids entertain our kids almost daily. (I think they feel sorry for us cause we don't have a yard yet.) The other day they pulled out a slip n' slide and invited the boys over.

And once in awhile we treat ourselves to McDonalds smoothies. They taste like summer in a cup. Yes they do.

AHHH!

Goodbye House

2011-06-26T17:10:00.000-07:00

Well, we're in the process of emptying and saying goodbye to our house. It looks like we'll have to get out soon, since our buyers are kind of in a rush to get it.

Our wonderful little house. It's been a good home to us. I brought home all three of my babies home from the hospital to this house.

I got 1/3 of our stuff out so that it would show nicely. Jason thought it looked empty but I liked it this way. I'm going to try not to clutter up our new home too much. (Yeah, we'll see, right?)

Goodbye family room.

Goodbye entry way/piano room.

Goodbye bedroom. You've never looked so clean and now we're leaving you.

Goodbye kitchen, you glorious kitchen you.

Goodbye backyard. Sorry we didn't do much with you. Sorry I won't get to see my sunflowers bloom.

Goodbye nursery. Good thing I had all boys so I didn't have to change you over the years.

Goodbye Hunter's room that became McKay's room too. (Poor McKay really didn't feel like he had a room.)

As I worked this week to scrub all evidence of our life here off the walls, I was hit with a little sadness and a little nostalgia. I began wondering what the marks I was washing off the walls were from. "Was that the time that Hunter pushed his wagon up against here? Was this from that chair we moved around? Oh, here's McKay's handiwork when he got a hold of the crayons...."

It was a little sad, but really, it's just a house. It's our family that made it a home, and now we're moving our family into a new place that will become "home" in every sense of the word.

Now if they'd just FINISH the darn thing so we can move in already. (Should be just ONE more week. Like I haven't heard THAT before!)

He's On the Move!

2011-06-11T08:09:00.000-07:00

My sweet little Ashton is 5 months old! He's approx. 16 lbs of chunky baby love and is doing all sorts of baby things. He spends his days: rolling over the second he's set down, grabbing everything in sight, drooling extensively, and playing with his toesies. Time flies when you're adorable!

And his most recent trick, ladies and gentleman, is to......umm....I don't know what you call it. It's not crawling and I don't even know if you can call it scooting. Basically I set him down on his playmat and when I come back to check on him he's not there. Of course he flips over immediately and checks out his toys, and then he takes off! He demonstrates his technique in the following 3 short videos.

I'm in so much trouble.

McKay's Graduation

2011-06-04T13:37:00.000-07:00

Preschool wrapped up with a trip to the park and then a graduation ceremony a few days later.

My little guy with his buddy Tyler.

Conner, McKay and Tyler:

They sang all the songs they'd learned all year -- including the turkey song.

Then they got to put on their caps and take "the walk."

The future class of 2024. Weird.

The best teachers ever. Hunter had em' first and we've loved them so much.

Now what am I going to do with this boy 'till September?

One Month in One Post

2011-05-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

I have never been so behind on, well, basically EVERYTHING. I've always been so proud that I've kept up on scrapbooking and blogging but these last few months have been the CrAzIeSt my life has ever been. EVER.

Crazy but Wonderful.

So here's one month covered in one post.

Easter:

So fun! We went to Grandma Gilbert's house after church for dinner and easter egg hunt.

Mothers Day:

It was so cute to see the boys in their matching outfits go up with the primary and sing for me. McKay also wore it to the Mothers Day Tea at preschool the Friday before:

The house has been coming along. Hunter had fun helping us choose our paint colors:

We took a trip to Seattle to pick out Granite. After comparing our cabinet and paint samples to a ZILLION different slabs we chose this one:

We picked the stucco, trim, and rock from TINY samples and crossed our fingers that they would look good. We got lucky!

Getting rid of all the junk we've collected the last 7 years! We had a big yard sale last Saturday and it felt good to let some stuff GO. Hunter and McKay begged me to let them sell lemonade and cookies. I had them make the sign and help with the baking. Those little kiddos made over $20!

So there ya have it, all caught up. Brief, but that's all I have time for. See ya!

Post Play Depression

2011-05-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

This post has been a long time coming. I've been avoiding it partly because I've been so busy, and partly because it seemed so overwhelming to try to summarize what this has been for me. At first I was in kind of a "funk", a post- partum- play- depression, if you will. I feel like I've been living in a spiritual bubble and have finally had to come back to real life and focus on some hard stuff I've been avoiding.
The cast party was bitter sweet. The stage has been dismantled (sledge hammers was the only way to get it out of the stake center) and the men have all shaved their beards and cut their hair. I had to be honest with them -- I don't like it!

I finally decided I don't have to record this whole experience on this blog. I have a ""Savior of the World" journal, a picture souvenir book, a poster, a jumbo cast picture, an enlarged souvenir photo of the upper room scene, and I even have a piece of the stage, so I'm covered! I'll just share a few snippets and a few random pictures out of the thousands that our photographer took.

Here's the comittee heads with the Stake President in the middle. We joked in the beginning that the Stake President didn't really know what he was getting us into. By the end we were admiring his inspiration for embarking on this remarkable project. It was truly an amazing blessing for our Stake and for the community.

Each committee went above and beyond my expectations, turning this into the most amazing production I've ever been involved in, and combined with the powerful spirit that we had, it became one of the most amazing productions I've ever seen. We were on a spiritual high every night. In fact, at the end we were all afraid for the performances to end. So many people felt lifted and blessed (and even healed from illnesses and physical ailments) during this experience (including myself) that we were afraid for the blessings to end. This was definitely one of the highlights of my life, and after reading my patriarichal blessing I realized that I had been unknowingly preparing for this since I entered the Theater program at BYU.

The way I direct is to create pictures. I'm always asking myself, "If I pressed pause on this scene would it look like a nice picture?" With the combination of all the inspired elements of lighting, set, costumes, and makeup, the entire show became a gallery of beautiful artwork.

I'm not going to share some of our very tender experiences. I've been deleting things for the last few minutes, so I'm just going to say that we truly felt that the Savior was walking among us. In our home lives and at the show, we've never felt him so close. As a cast (hopefully the audience as well) we had to ask ourselves, how would we feel if he stood before us?

Our beautiful angels and dancers:

The live orchestra was a challenge, but worth it in the end. I really didn't want our ensemble to have to follow a music track. The live music really made it special.

Our wonderful stage manager Aimee. The real muscle behind the show!

I can't tell you how much I love the men that were a part of this. They were so dedicated and even grew real beards. ALL of the beards in the show were completely real! It was so much fun to work with Cleoplas and the Disciple-- their scenes became some of my favorite.

Zacharias' beard was one of the best!

My parents, Raj, and Anjuli's family came up to see it. (My Dad was the one snapping all the pictures.) I was glad to have their support and to finally show them what I'd been dedicating all my time to.

On the final night of performances Sarah and I put on angel costumes after intermission and went back stage. We didn't tell the cast we were going to do it, and I wasn't sure how they'd react. As they began coming down from the colonnade and saw us some of them cried and hugged us, and all of them beamed at us. Once there was room, we went up onto the stage with the other angels. I was planning to stand in the back and not get in their way, but when they saw me they grabbed me, pulled me to the front, and hugged me. Everyone was in tears. And I got to see the upper room scene from the colonnade, which was my goal. The atmosphere was very temple-like, and I felt like I'd crossed to the other side and was being greeted by my friends. Jason was sitting in the front row and I could see him smiling at me.

Then I joined the angels for the finale, who surrounded the audience to sing the final number. I panicked slightly when the lights didn't go down after the curtain call. "Why didn't the lights go down!!! What's wrong?!!" I thought. That's when the Stake President got up and presented all of the committee heads with a framed photo of the upper room scene. I came forward to accept mine, in my angel costume, and felt overwhelmed and humbled by the recognition. This was not my show....it had truly been the Lord's the whole time.

Since it was the night before Easter, we asked the audience to join us in singing "Jesus Once of Humble Birth" one more time. Everyone pulled Jason up to come stand by me and we got to hug each other during the last song. The feeling in the room was undescribable.

So depression it is not, but post-play SOMETHING is what I'm feeling now. Like coming back to earth after walking with angels.

I actually feel busier now. It finally hit me that I have three kids. I've been able to escape to rehearsal or performances for months, and I've never been Ashton's mom without also directing this show. It feels weird and a little overwhelming, especially since things with the house are getting hard. We're having to make a lot of decisions about flooring, counters, light fixtures, bathroom fixtures, etc. Plus I've been trying to pack up and sell the house we're currently in. Oh, and did I mention Jason transferred to another PD? And he's working TONS of overtime?

I'm NOT complaing, really. It's all good stuff, it's just A LOT of good stuff all at once! A major transition to the next stage of life. And I have the best most beautiful 4 month old baby ever, so I'm really a lucky gal. I really do feel very happy and VERY blessed for having done this show.

I'm Not Panicking

2011-04-13T15:54:00.000-07:00

We open tonight! And guess what? We ran out of tickets. Every seat will be filled for 11 performances!

You know what else is amazing? I'm calm. I feel good. You know why? Because I've watched miracles happen while we've prepared this production. We've been blessed beyond measure, and I know we'll be blessed during our performances. We've done all we can do, and now it's in the hands of the Lord.

I've been keeping a special journal just for "Savior of the World", where I have been writing down things I can't write on this blog. Things that are too sacred to share casually, but rest assured that directing this show has changed my life.

Here's a few teaser pictures taken by our amazing photographer:

Here's to an amazing two weeks!

McKay's Birthday

2011-04-12T11:03:00.000-07:00

McKay turned 4 on April 2nd. Since it was general conference we had a party the night before since I miraculously had a night off from the show.

This boy is quite a character. And a ham. I love him!

We started out the day at preschool, and I brought birthday treats for his class and took pictures.His teacher Miss Felicia:

The principal Miss Patty giving him a birthday kiss. He looks thrilled, doesn't he?

He had only 2 requests: That we have a scooby doo cake and that we go to Chuck E Cheese. I wasn't thrilled about either prospect, but it was his birthday right???So Aunt Anjuli whipped up some Scooby Doo invites, we got this cake,

and went to Chuck E Cheese. What a happy boy!

My Mighty McKay is now 4. Wow!

Hero

2011-03-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

Jason helped save a man's life at work and was in the paper last week. You can read the article by clicking here.

2 Months

2011-03-06T18:23:00.000-08:00

Ashton is 2 months old, and it's been a busy month for both of us. I still can't believe I have 3 boys.

Ashton is a mover and a shaker! He's got a sweet personality but there's determination behind everything he does. He's been pushing himself up for awhile and at 6 weeks old he started trying to crawl toward his toys.

He also mastered talking quite early. He's been cooing at us since he turned a month old, and every single day we have a conversation that goes something like this:

Lucky for me he's a good sleeper, and even falls asleep while playing.

Unfortunately, he won't take a pacifier. He rarely needs one, but when he does he prefers the thumb. It's quite adorable.

2 month stats: 12 lbs even

23 1/2 inches

Sneak Peeks

2011-02-17T14:00:00.000-08:00

We drove out to the new house this week and for the first time found it completely devoid of trucks or workers. It was somewhat clean so I decided it was a good time to take lots of pictures. Want to see a little of the inside?

When you walk in the front door:

Fireplace with guest bedroom to the right:

Dining nook with office behind:

Kitchen:

Master bedroom with balcony: (The balcony was a dream of ours! We'll be able to stand out there and spy on the horses.)

Master bathroom:

Play room:

Stairs with dining room behind and music room to the left:

Well, that was a pretty poor tour but it's hard to tell what's what at this stage anyway.

Savior of the World Update:

The show is going great! It's been both draining and fulfilling at the same time. (How does that work?) It's been rough having a new baby and having to be at rehearsal 5 days a week, but it's already been an amazing experience. Last night we rehearsed the scene in the upper room where Christ appears to the apostles for the first time. Sarah and I were in tears as we watched the looks on each mans face as they reached to touch his hands and feet. It's just impossible not to cry at every rehearsal. I mean, how do you watch a scene with Mary Magdalene singing a song about her grief and not need tissues? Note to self: Get waterproof mascara.

We gave the stake a little sneak peek at a fireside on Sunday night. We had the orchestra play, some of the leads performed an upbeat number in costume, a short dance number, and then a few speakers. Our dramaturg spoke on the traditions and culture of the time, the temple president spoke about the temple rituals, and I spoke on the purpose of the angels. We had it on the stage which isn't quite finished but is looking awesome. Here's a few pics I snapped at rehearsals this week to remember the placement of characters:

The Women of Christ:

The Shepherds visit Mary and Joseph:

The Shepherds on our shepherds hill:

More women of Christ:

Here's me with my co-director Sarah on the right and our Stage Manager Aimee on the left:

And my assistant director asleep on the job!

Blessing Day

2011-02-11T22:32:00.000-08:00

Sunday February 6, 2011

Ashton Clark Gilbert was blessed by his father in the Desert Hills Ward in West Richland.

We were lucky enough to have lots of family attend, including Great Grandma Gilbert and both sets of Grandparents. Then we had a lovely luncheon at the house afterwards. It pretty much mirrored what we've done in the past with the other two kids, so I guess we had to keep the tradition going.

Twinners

2011-02-03T20:27:00.000-08:00

So after I posted this picture of Jason and Ash, Anjuli emailed me a picture of Brandon with Cardon as a newborn. It almost looks like the same picture. Cool, huh?

3 Week Update

2011-01-26T10:23:00.000-08:00

I don't have a lot of time to journal due to play rehearsals almost every night along with everything else I've got going on, so this is just pictures.

Ash at 3 weeks:

And the house:

Growing

2011-01-21T12:08:00.000-08:00

Ashton is 2 weeks old and doing great. He's so sweet and precious-- a true joy to be around. Even in the middle of a sleepless night I can't get enough of him!

He spends a lot of time in this bouncy seat. The vibrations put him right to sleep and he can stay snuggled up here long enough for me to get a shower.

He's growing well and has past his birth weight already. At his last check he was 7 lbs 14 oz and 22 1/2 inches.

You know what else is growing? Our house! It's been framed in just a matter of weeks.

This is Jason with our contractor (and new neighbor) Ira, discussing things I just don't understand....

I'm getting so excited-- it finally feels real now that I can walk around inside and identify each room.

YAY!

He's Here

2011-01-09T22:19:00.000-08:00

Ashton Clark Gilbert

Born January 4, 2011

7:35 a.m.

7 lbs 12 oz, 21 1/2 in

We love him!

Christmas and a Little Moaning

2011-01-01T12:55:00.000-08:00

Ok, we'll get the moaning out of the way first. Yes, I'm STILL with child. We made it through Christmas and then I had a doctor appointment on Monday at which the doctor informed me I was dilated to a 3 1/2 or 4, and he'd be shocked if I didn't have the baby within a few days. Well Doc, I guess you'll be shocked to see me again THIS Monday! (And I'm sure you'll be pleased by my mood.)

I get it. Baby knows it's freezing cold winter outside. He knows it's way cooler to be born in 2011. And he knows that I need more stretch marks. This has already been my longest pregnancy and the biggest I've ever gotten!

So in the meantime, let's get Christmas covered.

Christmas Eve:

We had a delicious feast of prime rib, potatoes, roasted asparagus, pineapple and pie. We also carried on our tradition of opening Christmas crackers and wearing the crowns.

After dinner we had some music and read the Christmas story from the scriptures. Hunter and I played a duet of "Deck the Halls", he sang a solo of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", and then we all sang "Hark the Herald Angels" together.

Then we let the boys open a present before climbing into bed.

Snuggies!

Christmas Morning:

We were awokened by Hunter running around yelling things like:

"Santa came! And Daddy didn't get coal in his stocking! He must have been a little nice. And McKay was on the nice list. I didn't know that!"

He was also thrilled with his skateboard. It was the only thing he asked Santa for. McKay saw it and kept saying, "Where's my gun?" (That was the only thing HE asked Santa for.)

McKay finally found his gun! They also got a batcave that they were thrilled with, but McKay kept using Robin for target practice.

McKay had also mentioned he wanted a lightsaber, and since he's my Star Wars fan I couldn't resist.

After the presents were all opened we took the kids swimming at my parents hotel before cleaning up and taking naps.

All in all an awesome Christmas!

It's a Merry Christmas because...

2010-12-24T11:44:00.000-08:00

*I FINALLY got my computer back and in working order. I thought it would never happen. After taking it to Best Buy they said it would be 7-10 days, but then called a few days later and said that it would be longer due to "equipment problems." Then they called a few days after that and said our hard drive was completely fried and we'd have to come in and pay for a new one before they could start on it. I got SO far behind on work, blogging, and finances that it was REALLY stressing me out. But luckily we got it back this week and I was able to just about catch up.

*Even though I'm SO pregnant, 3 centimeters, and having irregular contractions, it looks like we'll make it through Christmas. I need to take another belly shot since this one is about 3 weeks old, but this is my most recent one, taken as I was about to go sing at Christmas party:

*We had our least dramatic Santa experience. Neither boy was shy, but approached Santa and excitedly told him what they wanted with no freak outs. Hunter asked for a skateboard and McKay asked for a gun. I dare say neither will be disappointed...

*We've had just enough snow to have some fun, but it hasn't really been too much. Here are the men enjoying our neighborhood sledding spot. Sadly I wasn't in any condition to join them, but had fun watching.

*Our best Christmas present this year.....the new house! Here's some pictures of the progress.

This is the land from the road coming into the "canyon". Our lot is the one on the other side of the finished house with the trucks parked all over it.

Our bit of Earth, all smoothed out and ready.

Then the snow hit, and we waited and waited for the gound to cooperate...

Then voila, the snow melted enough for the foundation to get poured and the framing to begin! We took my dad the expert out there yesterday to "inspect" the job site.

McKay was fascinated by the "working men" sawing the wood. He's very interested in construction-- an interest that prompted a few of his Christmas presents.

*My parents are here for the duration of our Christmas festivities-- in fact, my Mom and I are about to start baking pies for tonight's feast. She's been here for a week already, and thank goodness because my entire family came down with the flu and she was a life saver. Then we'll just wait for the baby....

Merry Christmas!

Sorry for the Suspense!

2010-12-03T13:36:00.000-08:00

I'm so sorry to leave you all hanging! Our computer got a virus and is in the shop for a week! I'm borrowing internet time at my cousin's house so I can't post pictures yet, but I can finally say what the news is.

We're building a house. After 2 years of house hunting we decided, no, we were led to the right piece of land in the right neighborhood and are beginning to build. They were SUPPOSED to pour the foundation last week, but it started snowing so things are kind of on hold right now. I'll be sure to post the pictures I have and any updates as it's being built!

Pumpkin pie is SO good! Why do I only make it once a year?

2010-11-27T23:03:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was delicious. I've almost eaten two pumpkin pies all by myself, but you know what? I don't care. The nice thing about being 8 months pregnant at this time of year is that I don't HAVE to care! Ha ha ha! (Evil laugh.)

I also discovered something new. Mixing cinnamon into the whip cream before putting it on the pie takes it to another level. Heaven.

We also celebrated Thanksgiving at McKay's preschool with a little program and luncheon. The kids sang some Thanksgiving songs, (Hunter joined in since he already knew the songs from his day),

and then the principal read "Stone Soup" while the kids added a bit of vegtable brought from home to add to the pot.

Then voila, the soup was "done" and we enjoyed it with rolls, apple cider, and cookies.

On a sad note, my voice teacher Elaine moved last week. I attended one of her other student's recitals and we had a small tribute to her after the program. Pregnant and emotional as I already am, it was quite a sob fest for me. I realized I didn't have a picture with her, (probably because she HATES pictures), but for once I didn't care and made her pose for one. (She is on the right and my most trusted accompianist Patti is on the left.)

This woman taught me much more than vocal technique. She was like having a therapist and the most talented voice teacher combined in one. I'll miss her so much!

Lastly, winter has come early this year. I usually love snow, but only AFTER December 1st. The weather and roads have been so bad that we've hardly gone out much and are starting to get cabin fever. It started Monday morning and within a few hours our yard looked like this:

The kids were thrilled and woke me up holding coats and snow boots. They spent an hour outside before breakfast and have tried to play in it as much as possible.

And they loved playing swords with the icicles they picked off of Jason's truck:

Yes, little kids in hats and mittens is adorable, but I'm still not loving this weather. It's not just the fact that I'm huge and have to walk on ice and snow with NO sense of balance. There's another reason, but I can't get into it tonight. I have a big announcement to make and more pictures to post, but I have to go to bed now. (I'm already pregnant, so what could it be??? Hee hee hee... more evil laughter.)

Soccer Wrap Up

2010-11-12T13:30:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow will be the first Saturday this fall that we won't be trekking off to soccer first thing in the morning. The boys are a little bummed, but this tired momma is ready for the break until Spring. (I finally got to take my mini van to soccer practice though! I'm officially a "soccer mom!")

For our first soccer experience, this season couldn't have gone better. Before we began I worried that Hunter wouldn't be a team sport kind of guy. He's always been a lightning fast runner, but I was afraid he wouldn't be agressive enough to ever go for the ball. I couldn't have been more wrong! He is definitely Jason's son!

This year we have seen a new Hunter. At school, gymnastics, and soccer he has become a confident and competitive little firecracker.

Every week he proved to be an impressive forward and scored several goals. For some reason though, he LOVED playing goalie!

McKay wasn't signed up this year, but the coaches let him warm up with the team using an extra ball. He's GOOD too!

Once the game started he was happy to sit with me and help cheer for his brother. On Halloween weekend my parents were visiting and came to watch the game. Both boys loved showing off for their grandparents.

With soccer over, I'm even more grateful for gymnastics! Hunter's really loving it this year and McKay's enjoying his first taste of it in the 3-4 yr old class.

I've just been so impressed with their athleticism this year, and am glad they have outlets for their energy. They like to pretend our family room is a gymnastics studio or boxing ring, so I'm seriously considering covering the play room in our next house with wrestling mats!

The Guilty Tooth Fairy

2010-11-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

I figured Hunter would start losing his baby teeth at any time, but hadn't really been focusing on that with everything else going on. Then suddenly I noticed one day that he had a permanent tooth growing behind his front bottom teeth--- with no sign of any baby teeth falling out. I took him to the dentist on Monday and they said he had another one growing next to it, and that each permanant tooth was the size of two baby teeth. In short they'd have to remove his front 4 bottom teeth to make room for the two new ones. Thankfully they didn't have time to do it that day so we made an appointment to return on Tuesday. I was grateful for this because I wanted Jason to take him, what with my pregnancy nausea and weak stomach. He needed someone strong to go with him!
Here's a picture of his perfect baby teeth the night before:

The poor kid didn't really know what was coming. Jason said he did fine during the procedure-- they drugged him up pretty good and he watched a movie. But once he got home the pain and realization kicked in, and he was kind of a wreck. He was upset that he missed an entire day of school and gymnastics, was upset by the sight of his teeth, was upset by the blood and drooling, and began acting angry at us for letting this happen to him. We gave him tylenol, finally convinced him to lay on the couch and relax, and got him some soft food to eat. After a few hours he was fine and delighted by the smashed up food and pudding he received. Mostly he was excited by the promise of a visit from the tooth fairy.

Here's his new smile before bed that night:

His teeth are in that little blue treasure box, and he was thrilled to put them under his pillow. The tooth fairy felt AWFUL about everything he'd been through, so she was extra generous (out of guilt) and gave him $1 per tooth plus an extra for being so brave. (This was all explained to him in a note she left with the money.)

Hopefully he doesn't expect this kind of generosity for every tooth he loses, or else the tooth fairy will go broke!

I'm a Proud Daughter

2010-10-31T23:05:00.000-07:00

Just more evidence of why my Dad is amazing and why he's probably the person I admire most. Go HERE to read an article that Deseret News wrote about him.

Pumpkin Time

2010-10-26T14:35:00.000-07:00

The best part of fall is definitely the pumpkins. What makes them so endearing? I dunno, I just love 'em.
We're always excited about our annual field trip to the pumpkin patch and harvest festival. Here's the boys with Hunters old and McKay's current preschool teacher, Miss Felicia.

They had a blast in the straw bale maze,

the petting zoo,

the straw pyramid,

and then finally got to ride the wagon out to the pumpkin patch!

McKay found a teeny tiny one and asked if we could bring it home for his baby brother. Awwww.....

Finally they each found the perfect pumpkin.

Then last night we had our annual FHE pumpkin carving and Halloween treat.

While Jason worked on the big pumpkin they colored all over their little ones.

The finished product:

Then Hunter designed this cylops pumpkin with our wooden decorations:

With the lights turned off:

For our treat we attempted these adorable candy corn parfaits: (Thanks Kirsten!)

It was a lot of layering of Halloween goodness, and we may have gotten a little carried away with the pudding. They were still delicious, though not as pretty!

All around it was a thumbs up night!

Church Callings

2010-10-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

***Warning! This is a long one, but I need to get it written down.***

Someone asked me how primary was going, and I realized I haven't updated on that.

Well....it WAS going great. I was really getting the hang of it and loving the children. The primary president told me I had the best calling in the church, and I slowly began to realize how true that was. Plus Hunter and I loved being together during singing time and I always got a big hug from him before he headed off to class.

Our primary program was early this year-- September 12th-- and it was wonderful. I had "bribed" the kids with a big silver gift box tied with several colorful ribbons. Each ribbon represented a song we were singing, and over the weeks we tore the ribbons off the present as they perfected each song. At the bottom of the ribbons was a large gold ribbon-- the program ribbon-- the final ribbon they got to take off once the program was complete. Inside they found a note that said,

"You sang so sweetly today! Here's something sweet for you." Besides a rose for the pianist there was tons of candy and primary stickers inside. They absolutely loved it.

The very next Sunday was my last Sunday in primary. Hunter cried and cried. He still tells me how he needs me in primary, and acts sulky when I don't go with him.

So what happened?

Another calling of course. A rather large, demanding one. Our Stake has decided to produce the stage production of "Savior of the World" in April, the musical that was written and performed by the church during the Salt Lake Olympics at the new theater by the conference center.

When I first heard about it I was frustrated by my pregnancy, thinking "bad timing" and that I wouldn't be involved at all.

HA!

I'm directing the dang thing.

Now I don't want you to think I'm insane. I DID protest. I spoke to the producers on the phone, letting them know I could be an acting or vocal coach, but that I'm having a baby. A BABY. I gave them advice on how to run the show, auditions, etc, and thought I was clear that I was willing to help but could not be counted on. Since I'm due Jan 5th and the rehearsals begin the next week.... well really this should be a no brainer, right?

A few weeks went by and then I got a call from the Stake President. He wanted to come to the house and speak to Jason and I. We set a time and then Jason and I speculated which one of us was in trouble. Deep down I knew what it was about and prepared my rejection speech. He was prepared for it. They had come up with a solution, he said. I was to have a co-director and everyone would be very understanding of my situation. I agreed to do it. Jason agreed to support me. And that was that. I waited until the primary program was over, and dove in.

The script is beautiful, the music is so touching, and the commitee members are wonderful. We've been having regular committee meetings, my co-director Sarah and I have been meeting once a week (and emailing and texting constantly), the set design is almost perfected (and massively ambitious!), and now we're in audition week! (Which is probably what made me think to start documenting all this.) We've already had two nights of auditions and tonight is going to be another long one. Then there's callbacks, orchestra auditions, casting decisions, a cast fireside, technical meetings, and hopefully a few chorus rehearsals-- all before Christmas break.

Stressful? Massive? Overwhelming? Absolutely.

Worth it? Definitely.

It's been a long hard pregnancy, and I've gotten into a bit of a spiritual funk lately. In the beginning when I was shying away from this project I was also thinking, "maybe I need this. Maybe this will get me through." Studying the script, the history, and the music has been wonderful. Everyone in the cast is going to be challenged to read Jesus the Christ, and I began reading it this week. Auditions has also been quite an experience. At the end of each person's audition we ask them to share a brief testimony of the Savior with us. It has been amazing to hear the testimonies and receive revelation about certain people and the parts they should play.

SO. If you're in my stake and haven't auditioned yet....there's still time. If you're going to be in the Tri-Cities area the two weeks before Easter--- you must come! It will be quite a show.

Babymoon

2010-10-17T18:58:00.000-07:00

Jason and I took a much needed break and escaped to Maui for a few days. We figured it was our last chance before we become sleep deprived and covered in baby goop. It was very nice except for the fact that I swelled up like a baby whale. (Don't expect any swim suit pictures.)

We had to go to Mamas Fish House, the best restaurant in the world, for our favorite drinks-- coconut mint refreshers. Oh how I dreamt of these when my nausea was at its worst!

Among other delights we had Mahi Mahi in a coconut sauce that was divine, and this chocolate caramel pie for dessert. Heaven.
(I will be reliving this meal whilst in labor-- it will be my happy place. =)

We had to check on Hunter's banana tree:

And snorkel with the turtles.

If you think that being preggo stopped me from boogie boarding and snorkeling you'd be wrong. (But if you think I felt like an old crippled lady while doing them-- you'd be right.)

We visited the Banyan Tree in Lahaina at sunset-- when all the Minah birds were squawking their heads off. (Jason may have gotten bombed.)

You can listen to how loud they are -- if you want.

We took a hike in beautiful Iao Valley (Didn't help my swollen feet),

Drove past the lava fields,

and enjoyed the ocean.

Yes, definitely my happy place. =)

While You Were Sleeping

2010-10-07T08:57:00.000-07:00

McKay frequently sneaks out of bed to try to watch TV with us. It's a common sight to find him sound asleep in the hallway.

That can't be comfortable.

With my Bare Hands

2010-10-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

Boys, Boys.....

That's my life. Sword fighting, wrestling, punching, shooting-- everything becomes a weapon in our house. (As I'm typing McKay is using a hanger and pretending to shoot arrows from it.)

Last week we moved all our furniture to get our carpets cleaned, and while we were waiting for the carpet man to come we used the family room as a fight zone. The guys were wrestling and sword fighting, but McKay got serious and decided he didn't need a weapon to take down Dad.

Take a look:

AND.... Happy Birthday to my little sister Anjuli!!!

Hunters 6th Birthday Party

2010-09-27T21:53:00.000-07:00

Saturday was Hunter's birthday, and it was a beautiful day. After scoring a goal at soccer in the morning he had a party with his friends in the afternoon. My sis Anjuli designed these party invitations for us:

I wasn't up to having a party at my house, so we had it at the childrens museum. The kids had a blast!

When we got home he dove into all his birthday presents. He played for a little while and then I noticed that he had disappeared. I found him in the hallway engaged in one of his new books:

That's why I love this kid.

I can't believe I have a 6 year old. What a big, bright, beautiful, special boy!

Saturday Soccer

2010-09-22T08:53:00.000-07:00

We've been enjoying watching Hunter play soccer every Saturday morning. This is his first year, and we are surprised how good he is!

He seems to like it too. Of course it helps that he's got fast, fast legs! He scored two goals last week.

I've been bad at taking pictures-- I'll try to get some good ones before the season ends!

Burned

2010-09-18T12:57:00.000-07:00

I know I can't be trusted around sharp knives, but I didn't think I'd ever ruin a whole day over a hot glue gun accident. Short version-- tried to glue something quickly and ended up with the intended object (covered in hot glue) sliding around in my hands. I got 2nd and 3rd degree burns on both hands and ended up helplessly soaking them in ice water for the remainder of the day. Jason had to take work off to take care of me, pick up my prescription cream, and feed and tend the children. This is a picture of the two worst fingers the next day-- you can see the massive blisters I ended up with.

The first night I had to have the majority of my hands bandanged up, but now it's just these two fingers. I have a new respect for burn victims. It's the most pain I've felt since my last child birth. The first 12 hours I felt like my hands were on fire. (Of course it doesn't help that I have a very low tolerance for pain, as Jason reminded me.)

Anyway. Needless to say I'll be more careful in the future.

McKay's at Gateway

2010-09-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

McKay has been WAITING for his day-- and it finally came. He's finally in preschool at Gateway Montessori and gets to have his VERY OWN school bag. Just look at the giddyness.

The first week he whined and clung to us a little when we left, but he's slowly learning that we're NOT leaving him there forever.

He has Miss Felicia and Miss Teddy- the same teachers Hunter had, so he feels like he knows them already.

Now he gets grumpy on Tuesdays and Thursdays when Hunter gets to go to school and he doesn't.

Jason's Birthday

2010-09-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Jason's birthday, and even though Sundays are our CRAZIEST days, we took a little time to celebrate. I made him his favorite dinner and a tres leches cake, and the boys put on the sprinkles.

As I was taking this picture McKay blew out the candles!

So we had to re-light them and try again.

Got it!

1st Day of Kidnergarten

2010-09-05T10:18:00.000-07:00

Hunter's first day of school!

He was so excited he barely ate his lunch and then watched out his bedroom window for the bus to come even though it was too early.

McKay REALLY wanted to get on the bus with him. I literally had to block him from hopping on with his brother. He was NOT happy when the bus left without him. Just 2 more years and then it's his turn.

And for this little one...we still have awhile! Here's my big belly at 5 months. I am going to get HUGE with this one.

Birthday Parties!

2010-08-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

Hunter and McKay are OBSESSED with superheroes. They pretend to be spiderman or superman on a daily basis. So they were SUPER excited (hee hee) when they were invited to a Superhero birthday party!

They practiced flying around the house before the party:

Here is Hunter with the birthday boy, Super Ewan!

They got to do activities like shooting the bad guy (Ewans Dad) with water guns...

and test their super strength against him.

Then later that day Hunter had ANOTHER birthday party to go to for a preschool buddy. It was at the Raquet Club where they got to play on the rock wall,

eat lots of pizza and cake,

help Graeme open his presents,

and go swimming! Here he is with his buddy Zach from school.

Graeme and Hunter were looking at each other above and under the water with their goggles on.

After such fun parties, Hunter already has some big ideas for his upcoming birthday...

The Results Are.......

2010-08-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

So...I was right. It's official. I'm to be the lone woman in a house full of testosterone.

Bring it on.

It's That Time......BOY OR GIRL?

2010-08-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

We find out on Friday. What do you think we're having? Make a vote on my sidebar!

(Just so you know, I'm 90% sure it's a boy and I've already accepted that I'll forever be outnumbered.)

Swim Lessons

2010-08-15T18:54:00.000-07:00

I've always said I hate paying other people to teach my kids something I could teach them, so I've resisted paying for swim lessons for a few years. I guess I thought I'd do it the way I do piano lessons, but I just haven't made time to take them to the pool, and they really haven't learned how to swim well on our vacations.

So this year we made arrangements for private lessons with a friend's daughter at their house.

It was the best thing. They just live down the street and we went everyday for 2 weeks. The kids loved it and I got some good prenatal excercise in the pool while they were having lessons. Jason even came with us a few times.

Hunter made the most progress and finally learned to hold his breath and put his head in the water. I think next summer they'll both really take off.

A Great Birthday Weekend

2010-08-05T12:48:00.000-07:00

I know it wasn't a weekend for the rest of you, but for us it was since Jason had Tuesday and Wednesday off. (Those are our "weekends" right now.)

Tuesday night was a blast. We were invited to a BBQ with some of Jason's police buddies and their families. I'd heard numerous stories about these guys but hadn't met them or their families, so it was nice to get to know them and their wives and let all our kids play together.

Kurt, Jason E. and Jason

You've got to automatically love and respect guys who have your hubby's back.

We had DeLiCiOuS food--- Kurt made these little cheese sliders that were SO good. They even found tiny buns for them at Costco.

Then Wednesday was my 29th birthday, so after swim lessons we went to Olive Garden for lunch and STUFFED ourselves with all it's deliciousness. Then my friends Beth and Christy took our boys so we could go see Inception. After the movie Beth fed us dinner and cake and ice cream. It was so nice to spend my birthday with family and friends-- I really had a great day.

Escape

2010-07-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

My parents offered to harbor me and the kids for a few weeks in an attempt to lessen my pregnant misery. I jumped at the chance to escape the heat and my messy house in exchange for some ocean air and distractions. The kids had been pretty bored sitting at the house watching me get sick and were thrilled to go to Grandmas house.

So I packed the kids up and off we went!

(Ok, not literally.)

65 degree weather. A big yard to play in. Oh the joys!

We went to the beach and it was really too cold to swim, but that didn't stop McKay from trying. I should have known and just put him in a swim suit--- he did the same thing last year.

We went with the family of one of my Dads friends that happened to be in town on vacation. He was my Dads partner from BYU when they were doing their Masters thesis project in engineering. He knew my Dad before he joined the church and before he married my Mom. It was fun to hear stories and spend the day with them.

We spent a day at the aquarium of course...

After a week at my parents house we decided I was feeling well enough to visit my sister in Pasadena. My boys were anxious to see their new cousin so my Mom drove us Southern Cal to see him.

Then the next day we decided to drive to San Diego and take the kids to the Zoo and Sea World. Here's McKay at the petting zoo. He turned into quite the little goat whisperer and we had to drag him away.

We finally convinced him there was more to see than just goats.

Sea World was awesome. I hadn't been there since I was 6 years old, and I was just as giddy as the kids were. We all got a little too much sun, but it was fun to see the kids so engrossed in the shows.

After a few days in So. Cal we decided to head back North and began the long drive back to Monterey. We took the 101 along the coast and stopped in Solvang-- a Danish themed tourist town. We spent about an hour exploring and had lunch at a small Danish restaurant and had their famous abelskivers for dessert.

Sorry about the lack of pictures. Yes I was on this trip, but I really didn't feel like getting my picture taken since I feel awful and henceforth have been looking awful. My mom and sis were also there but I was just a bad picture taker this trip.

We're back home now and dealing with 100 degree heat. We immediately pulled out our kiddie pool and the kids have spent everyday in the backyard splashing and swimming while I attempt to unpack and do laundry. (I took pictures on my phone but they won't load. Grrr....)

I also went to church today for the first time in awhile and tried to deal with primary. I'm the new primary chorister and haven't got a clue what I'm doing. The pianist is the former primary president, the president is the former chorister, and her counselors have all been in the Stake primary presidency (did you catch all that?), so they don't really feel the need to explain things to me even though I haven't been in primary since I was 12. It's pretty embarrassing when all the teachers know the songs better than me, and I'm scrambling to lead birthday songs, welcome songs, article of faith songs, practice songs, reverence songs, and then 20 minutes of singing time. I came home from church and collapsed-- it was exhausting! Now I only have 6 days to come up with something fun and exciting for next week, and the primary program is just a month away......

Anyone had this calling before? Help!

Holly and Devin's Wedding

2010-07-03T18:01:00.000-07:00

Jason's littlest sister--the baby of the family-- got married just three weeks after his brother. (I think they wanted to see if they could give my mother in law a nervous breakdown.) Aren't they a beautiful couple?

They got married in the Portland Temple and the weather was perfect. It made for a nice outdoor reception too. I wasn't feeling very good so these were all the pictures I got.

By the way-- we like Devin, he's a good guy even though he's taking Holly away from us for the next 4 years so he can go to medical school in St. Louis. A little selfish, but, I guess we understand. =)

A Visit to my New Nephew

2010-06-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

It was killing me that I couldn't go when he was born or for the blessing, so I decided to go right when we got back from Wyoming and Utah. Of course when I booked the ticket I felt great and fully intended to fly down there to help out. Luckily Cardon is an angel baby because Anj ended up having to take care of me!

The minute she picked me up from the airport she started feeding me well. In the car she handed me a bag full of food she thought might help me get through the day. She cooked and baked for me and even took me to the Huntington tea room for lunch one day:

I'm seriously jealous of how good this baby is! He let us drag him around town and hardly complained.

He even sat patiently in his car seat while we got pedicures.

I didn't feel good most of the time and wasn't much fun, but it was nice to just relax and hang with a mellow baby instead of my unruly and exhausting boys. Thanks for the sista time and for taking care of me Anj!