Silly Moments

Bear Lake 2011!!!!!

2011-07-31T20:33:00.000-07:00

We love our annual trip with The Meldrum's to Bear Lake. This year was really great (probably because last year was not so much fun, let's just say we had a 1-year-old...). Here are some of the highlights...
-new camping spot (always been to the same place since I started going in 2000)
-our own tent!
-yummy s'mores
-yummy dutch oven with the addition of Fale's teriyaki chicken (yum, yum it was tough to stop eating)
-HUGE shakes!
-being 5 minutes from Garden City instead of 30
-North Beach is way better than Rendezvous
-Alyssa playing by herself pretty much the whole time
-Hunter learning some water volleyball
-Jared diving for the ball and constantly splashing Bekah
-Tracy's not so good at water volleyball (or any other sport, in case you were wondering)
-pregnant women scare me when playing said game (Dix and Jess)
-following Jackson around trying to get him to put his floaty on
-trying to stay away from where everyone peed in the lake...
-big eyed creatures...
-chilling by the campfire laughing with everyone
-SKITTLES game!!! (89-88)
-spoons
-trying to teach 8-year-olds to lie while playing BS
-candy bar game (we might be getting to big for this...)
-the kids having fun just being together
-spending time with the best family (Love you guys!)

What we have been up to...

2011-07-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

...A whole lot of FUN! Busy as always, but we have had a good summer so far.

Been to the zoo, first time I have seen the ostriches.

Look at Miss Attitude. We love it...really!

"Mr. Two's" are always our favorite.

Hunter is freaked out and Jackson won't even look at me. He loves monkeys right now.

Walked right under this, was a little scared it would jump on me.

Spent a lot of time being silly...

She likes corn, can you tell? She went around the table and ate corn off every plate then still wanted more.

Love it!

Jared had a birthday, 33 now! We like to make him feel special. The kids colored these letters and we wrote reasons why we love Daddy. Then he got pink and yellow streamers because that is what we had;)

She is good anywhere as long as she has the pillow and blanket.

We had a great time participating in the fundraiser for Faye! It was great to be a part of something so amazing! http://www.fayesfight.blogspot.com

My best time for a 5k, just under 36 minutes. Jared's worst (ok his best too since it was his first) :) 31 minutes.

Our game for the carnival.

Hunter's first Pinewood Derby.

I put all the weight on the bottom so when they let it go it just stayed there. He had a few Scout leaders help him fix it. Here is the new car.

Getting stuck:)

The old car.

He didn't win any races, but we are ready to fight next year! We love him and think he is a winner still!

Lots of time at the Splash Pad! I love this place! It is always helpful to have something fun and free to do in the summer.

Hunter's Opera

2011-07-21T22:17:00.000-07:00

Before school got out we were able to go see Hunter's class do an Opera. It was fun to watch and the kids did a great job! They worked almost the whole year on it. First learning the story then memorizing all the songs and then practicing the actual Opera. They even made all the background props!

Two holidays and an odd Jackson

2011-04-24T16:52:00.000-07:00

I am being ambitious today, two post and now I am up to date. Plus it is STILL Easter and I am putting up the pictures! (This could have a lot to do with the fact that both of the little ones fell asleep right after church)

First-April Fool's Day. It snuck up on me this year (like most things these days) so I was trying to figure out what to do the night before. I decided on shrunken breakfast. A tiny piece of sausage, mini pancakes, a small scoop of scrambled eggs and a small cup of oj. Here are the confused/upset looks.

Now that they got a full breakfast and are in on the joke they are ready to bring Daddy his. By the way, Hunter is at the stage in his life where it is no longer cool to smile in pictures. He told me he wants to just make a straight face from now on. WHAT? Oh well, I'm sure he will give it up soon, maybe;)

Hunter got a lunch bag full of plastic food (with a lunchable underneath). I was worried he would get mad about it and throw the whole thing away (you never know with this boy these days), but he ended up looking at it before he even left for school. He knows I am always up to something!

Alyssa and Jackson got this. She told me "nooooo", like I was crazy and then they got their lunchable too.

Ok here is the odd Jackson part. He is too funny right now! I'm sure he will hate this picture one day. He sure does love these high heels right now though:)

He loves to put things over his head and squish his face apparently.

Easter morning, bunny eggs inside of toast and they all wanted their initial too. Oh and strawberries, Jackson will just sit there and eat them all day long!

Awww, I have cute kids!

And they even love each other (sometimes).

Love these hot air balloon baskets!

Alyssa turns 4!

2011-04-24T16:20:00.000-07:00

Alyssa's birthday started early....with PINK hair! Psh, kids these days. I never set foot in a salon until I was sixteen! ;) I do love being able to trade with my hairdresser though!

Sassy, sassy!

I just love staying up late the night before birthday's and getting things ready. I love the cute little surprised faces in the morning!

The birthday girl:) Alyssa turned 4 this year. Her birthday fell on a Sunday and she wanted a tea party so we decided to have a family party before church.

Here's all the fun food. Tiny pink sandwiches, heart shaped jello, fruit kabobs and flower shaped chips.

The princesses at their tea party.

Her "other" cake for FHE that night.

Petit fours are the perfect tea party cake!

A special girl who needs special blessings

2011-04-16T12:04:00.001-07:00

This sweet little thing was recently diagnosed with leukemia and has to live in the hospital for the next 6 months, at least. She is Jared's cousin's daughter. They live in Texas and as I'm sure most of the family does also, we feel helpless to do much. One thing we can do is get word out about her struggles. Please check out her blog and donate if you can. Please keep Faye in your prayers also!

www.fayesfight.blogspot.com

We love you Faye!

The Jack-Jack turns 2!

2011-04-06T06:34:00.000-07:00

Our little tiny baby boy has turned into a...

...great big toddler!

Happy Birthday Jack-Jack!!!!

Jackson has decided that he loves dinosaurs (which is so nice since we have a huge basket full of them downstairs from Hunter's addiction!). So naturally, we went to the Dino Park for his birthday. He had so much fun and was on a bit of a dino overload! He would see one and say things like "Wow!" or "Whoa!" and then immediately be looking and running around for the next one. It was so fun! We were so glad that the Papa got to come with us. Jackson was especially happy to ride in his truck with Niko!

Papa taught him to go under the ropes and get on the dinos...

Brobee cake. "You want a piece of me?" This was so fun to make!

He actually tried to blow out the candles.

Not shy about eating it, he was actually grabbing pieces off of the big cake and from Alyssa's slice!

The favorite gift.

Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate Jackson turning 2! We love you little man!!!!

Hawaii (lots of pictures)

2011-03-31T20:49:00.000-07:00

Here we go!!!!!!!!! Hawaii!!!

Our hotel lobby, it was completely out in the open, no walls, no doors. Pretty interesting.

The view from our room.

Hanging out by the beach.

On Monday we got up early and hiked Diamond Head (an inactive volcano). So much fun, but SOOOO sweaty!

Yeah, we hiked that!

This is the crater of Diamond Head.

At the top, Waikiki Beach behind us.

The view looking down...much easier than walking up!

(Here are a few pictures I forgot to place in, sorry they are out of order)
While walking the Temple grounds I looked over and this was the scene!

So pretty driving right by the ocean.

Driving the "freeway".

The trees were amazing!

We took a visit to the Temple right before going to PCC.

Aww, pretty:) On Tuesday we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Students at BYU Hawaii can work here and earn their way through school so that when they leave they are debt-free. Most are kids from the islands that are represented, there were a few white boys too though;) This was my favorite part of our trip.

On our canoe ride through the PCC.

Some of the islands...

Samoa was my favorite! They showed us how they cook. So funny too!

Hawaii, showing us their true dances.

Float show at the PCC, all the island represented there do a tribal dance/music show. It was so much fun!

Tahiti was the best! It is crazy the way they move their hips!

Luau at the PCC

Kalua pig, the BEST!!!!!

Cute!

Wednesday we went to Pearl Harbor. It was a humbling experience to see this first hand.

Battleship Missouri, it was completely sunken after the attack, crazy that they could bring it back up!

Arizona Memorial

Never realized it was so close under the surface.

Oil that is leaking from the Arizona.
Names of those who died at Pearl Harbor.

Thursday and Friday we just kinda hung out, walked around and chilled.
Miss it...

On the way to our massages(part of the chilling)! This statue has a live web-cam that runs 24/7. We called the kids and had them get online so they could see us.

Miss this too...

This was just at the aquarium, but I thought it turned out great! Looks like a poster or something.

Taking a walk along the pier on our last night.

While walking on the pier there was a ton of these crabs, We could barely see them. I'm surprised we didn't step on any.

I imagined this picture would turn out better. Our feet in the water as we stroller along the beach. (Romantic, right;) )

Finally a sunset that we could see! So beautiful! This was right outside of our hotel the night we were leaving.

Being in Hawaii was great, but it was so much better just to be Jared and Tracy for a little bit. I'm so glad we got this trip that we have these memories to keep with us.

2011-01-10T16:48:00.001-08:00

I have been really bad at taking pictures, no need to say how bad the blogging has been. It seems like so much has gone on and I have very few pictures to show for it. Jared would probably say that is a good thing;)

Christmas was good this year. It still surprises me every year how it doesn't control my thoughts like it did when I was a kid. Very weird since I have officially been and adult for 10 year, hahaha! See the matching stockings? Yep, I made them, 2 days before Christmas. I always think of things at the last minute.

Hunter got this fun and durable digital camera. It is pretty neat. You can fix the pictures on the camera and even give them fun borders and stickers.

Alyssa's 2 new crawling things. We like to race them and see who wins. She says her baby's name is Mommy and kitty's name is Sydney. The baby is a little freaky when being held up. Her legs just dangle down, kinda scary!

She asked Santa for a barbie house. "Santa" got it pretty close and didn't have to spend $80 on a real barbie house;)

What a cutie! I love his face!

Dancing Brobee!!!!!! He was sitting there letting Brobee "hug" him or at least I think that is what he was thinking. Got that?

Here are some other things from December.

Hunter wants to grow his hair out. It is freaking me out a little, but I figure we should let him express himself (dun dun DUNNNN!) He did look very handsome for church though. I'm not exactly sure what he wants to look like, but I think it could be the JUSTIN BEIBER hair. Maybe he will hate it and I can have my way!!!!!!

Getting his first patch/badge, whatever you call them. This is his Bobcat.

Alyssa painted her nail all by herself. I was amazed at how well she did. She would have been in trouble since I was in the shower when she did this, but she did so good!

I never let Hunter take a bath anymore, for 3 reasons. 1-He is too dang big now. 2-He still thinks he is little enough to lay down and splash around. 3-This is a new one and the picture explains it all.
I was getting ready and could see out of the corner of my eye that Jackson just had his hands in the water, playing and splashing. All of a sudden I hear a big splash and see this smiling boy all proud of himself that he could get in there. He didn't seem to realize that you are supposed to get undressed BEFORE taking a bath!

We went for, been thinking about it a lot, just took the plunge. So HAPPY about it. I love her new short hair!

10 years with the best guy...EVER!

2011-01-10T16:14:00.000-08:00

I really, really love Jared! Sometimes it is tough to appreciate your relationship as husband and wife with life going on all around you. I was able to realize recently how much fun I have with Jared and how nice it is just to be with him. He has gone far and above this year! First he surprised me with a trip to Hawaii (we leave in 33 days!). This is "supposed" to be our celebration for our 10 year anniversary. On top of that, he still surprised me with a great night for just the two of us on our actual anniversary.

He kept it a secret right up until we got there, but as we got closer I had a pretty good idea what he was up to. First, we walked around Temple Square.

Then we had dinner at The Roof. We have been there a couple of times, but not since we had our kids. I love being there and seeing the Temple grounds as we ate our meal. We even got to see the lights turning on!

After dinner we walked around a little more. It is pretty weird to get a picture of just the two of us, actually just having us both in the picture is weird!

Then he surprised me with a night at Anniversary Inn. We haven't spent a night alone since Hunter was a toddler, it was quite over due;) This was under the tree (see more pictures) everyone "carved" their initials into it. I did both of these dates since this was the room we spent our wedding night in.

A waterfall shower, very cool!

The room is called "Swiss Family Robinson". The bed is in a tree, pretty fun!

What a great night to leave the world behind and concentrate on the most important man in my life, but the one who also gets the least amount of time, I'm sure. It was a nice bonding experience to remember why we married each other and why we still love each other. Thanks Jared for giving us this night. I would be happy with just that, but I guess I'll still go to Hawaii with you;). The last ten years have brought so much, what will the next ten be? I'm so excited to see!!!!!

The stork

2011-01-10T16:03:00.000-08:00

We have been waiting forever to see this little beauty! Congrats to Jana, Brad and Sydney! We already love Rhyan so much!!!!

Random happenings

2010-11-29T23:05:00.000-08:00

Ok, let's go back to Halloween. These are the ONLY two picture that I took that had anything to do with Halloween. We love Halloween so this year it was a pretty big disappointment. We usually have a family party, trick or treat all the grandparents, trunk or treat and then go around our neighborhood. Jackson and Alyssa were getting over croup (the only time my kids have had it). Needless to say, they were pretty grumpy. We tried to trick or treat, but Jackson just screamed and Alyssa refused to get out of the stroller. Pictures were the last thing on my mind. Hunter was Venom (the black Spiderman), so naturally we had to make Jackson Spiderman. Alyssa was a cute little fairy (not as cute as Cole though, hahahahahaha!).

We did get some pumpkin carving in though. Never, I repeat NEVER, give Jared a knife!

Hunter's masterpiece being carved.

I love when the kids fall asleep in weird places. This is so cute. It just goes to show that no matter how much they get on each others nerve's, they still love each other.

This was the work of Blue's Clues, his new addiction.

This day he was following me around before church just screaming. All you mothers know that we don't have time for that. Jared took him to watch a little football. He fell asleep, no kidding, a minute later.

At Disney on Ice. I usually like these, this one bored me though. Jared and I agree that Monsters Inc. was the best we have been to.

Our friends the Lund's, we love them;)

You know these guys.

Ariel and Flounder

Lilo and a huge Hawaiian guy...

Some random pics from tonight. He wanted his picture taken and just sat there smiling until I took it.

They are best friends again tonight...

A little side note/excuse for not blogging. I was called to be the Relief Society president a few weeks ago. It has been a big adjustment. The kids are really great about the time I have to spend away and Jared is great at picking up my slack. Some days I don't feel like I can fit everything in and some days I struggle to still be a good mother and wife. I think that is part of the reason I was given this call. I think sometimes when Heavenly Father wants something done, he kinda backs you into a corner or at least a really tight space. I try harder now more than ever to be a better person to my family.

Hunter's baptism

2010-11-29T22:48:00.000-08:00

We are such a blessed family! Hunter has been a wonderful child. I am grateful that he instinctively knows right from wrong and that he tries to be good (most of the time). His simple testimony is amazing. He is such an example for our family. Funny how sometimes the child is the teacher. We should listen more often.

Hunter was baptized by his Daddy on November 6th, 2010. That is another blessing, to have a husband worthy to use his priesthood. I am very grateful for my family.

A wonderful lady in our ward made this program. It totally took me by surprise, I thought we were getting the white-2 page-picture of Jesus on the front (you know the one). She did an amazing job (thanks Melissa)!

Our little stud!

My handsome boys.

I may be prejudiced, but what a cute family!!!

It was a good day. Thanks Hunter for making such a great decision!

Catching up

2010-10-25T07:17:00.000-07:00

Here are a few things we have been up to...

Hunter is growing up too fast! Can you believe he is a cub scout already? I love it! It is fun entering a new parenting phase. Isn't he the most handsome scout you have ever seen?!?

Alyssa and her BFF Sydney. They love to have sleepovers, but sometimes they are together too much and just fight and whine. Then we have to keep them apart for a few days. True girls! Love the lipstick! Jared says Alyssa looks like the Joker...

Hunter chose to take 2 friends to Syracuse Family Fun Center instead of having a party this year. They had lots of fun (mostly with laser tag).

Pretty cool cake, huh? It was so fun making it!

Usually the kids wake up on their birthday with balloons all over their rooms. Jackson has decided that it is fun to bite balloons so needless to say, we had to change things up a bit. Hunter got this sigh hanging by his bed when he woke up.

About a month ago we had the chance to go to the Jazz scrimmage game. It is free, but first come first serve. Thanks to the craftiness of our friend Jana (being 6 months pregnant and pushing Jackson in a stroller by herself probably had something to do with it also) we were able to get front row seats! It was tons of fun seeing all the players up close. We might even be in a commercial this season. Here is a slide show of all the pictures. Sorry, some look pretty bad, I forgot to change the setting on them.

Behind again...

2010-10-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

So once again, I am way behind on blogging. I have a couple of cute stories to write down though.

First of all, I was in charge of the roadshow in our ward this past weekend. Hunter has come to the practices with me a few times and he was way into it and loved going. So I decided to let him follow along on performance night. If you know Hunter, then you know he always has every other kid around him laughing ALL the time. It is one of his best talents. While waiting for each of our performances to begin, guess where I found Hunter... surrounded by the young men and women in our ward, making them laugh and just playing around. I love that funny kid and apparently so does everyone else. We are so lucky to have a child like him!

The next story is about Alyssa. While we were in the car today, Alyssa had an old cell phone that they use as a toy. Hunter wanted it too, so Jared told Alyssa that once we got to Kaysville (we were just going to be driving by on the freeway) she needed to give it to Hunter. Alyssa replies, "Are we going to eat there?" After telling her no, she asks if she can get a toy there. Obviously she expects to go to lunch or at least get a toy everywhere we go.

End of summer fun

2010-09-20T08:18:00.002-07:00

I have been blog-lazy the past few weeks so get ready for a ton of pictures! They are kinda jumbled...

Alyssa started a dance class. She loves it, but won't tell us what she does or show us her dances. We might just have to sneak in and watch!

Hunter is turning 8 next week. We celebrated a little last night at FHE with some Mario "diaper-head" cupcakes.

Jessica, Bekah, Ereka and Jessica's friend Madi came to spend the night a few weeks ago. We had tons of fun (especially during Wipeout!) and Jackson made a friend.

ALYSSA CAN EAT EGGS NOW!!!!!!!!! She had her oral challenge and passed so now she is no longer allergic to them, YAY! She LOVES them too. She eats them every morning now;)

We went to a chocolate factory to watch how they make it (and to get some yummy treats!).

We went to the zoo. This is Alyssa's best friend Sydney, they love hanging out.

The gorilla played peek-a-boo with us. He also read a book;)

Hanging with the Mr. Twos

Hunter and his friends selling snow cones. They each made about $1. We will have to start earlier in the summer next year.

We finally had a vacation with the Jackson side! Last time was at least 15 years ago, probably more. We went camping in Bear Lake. My Dad thought it was too civilized, I thought it was too wild. There were bathroom though;)

These look fun, but try biking them all over. I can still feel the pain!

North Shore beach was very nice, the kids had fun playing in the warm water.

Jackson slept then got in the water for 2 minutes then cried at me. He usually loves water, he wasn't having it that day though.

At camp with cute little Myles!

Tiny Dancer

2010-08-29T20:59:00.000-07:00

Our little Alyssa sure has come out of her shell this summer. Here are a few things she has accomplished...
--She has made friends, her favorite one being Sydney.
--She has sleepovers!
--She likes/talks to Papa;)
--She goes to Nursery by herself and has even started going to a music class during the week.
--She talks to people in general (gasp!)
Next week she will start her very first dance class. We are so excited! She put on her outfit tonight and danced around the dining room. It shocks me every time I look at her. She isn't a baby anymore and she really isn't a toddler either, we have a preschooler! A beautiful one at that!

2nd installment of "The Sacrament Chronicles"

2010-08-15T14:06:00.001-07:00

This week's comic is dedicated to Brad and Melissa Petersen.

I'm pretty sure Jared needs to repent for this one...

Being reverent in Sacrament

2010-08-09T21:02:00.000-07:00

This is what Jared and Hunter did to occupy themselves during Sacrament meeting this week...

A little commentary, just in case you can't see it very well. On the top one, Jared is throwing Hunter into the basketball hoop. Below that, Hunter is picking up the basketball hoop and smashing Jared on the head with it. I love how creative Hunter is being...;)

Now Jared is throwing a truck at Hunter. (We really aren't a violent family;)) Then below that Hunter drew himself throwing my Dad's semi at Jared.

This is Jared's version of a comic strip, for Hunter.
It is a little tough to see. It is titled "Hunter Meets The Incredible Hulk".

He looks like a man!

2010-07-27T20:35:00.001-07:00

The title has nothing to do with the post, except for this funny little story. Jared picked up his glasses today and the kids are still trying to get used to them. Jared was holding Alyssa and she was looking right into his eyes and said, "Daddy, in your glasses you look like a man!". I found this extra funny because she usually calls him a woman;)

Here are just a few random pictures from the last couple weeks.

Hunter was showing off his b-boy tricks (he is pretty good, thinking about getting lessons). Then the kids decided to copy him. Jackson's was totally unexpected, but totaly cute!

Chonie heads!

Mhmm, ok. They all love to be as naked as I will let them.

We didn't get to see fireworks or go to a parade on the Fourth. Thank goodness we have Pioneer Day! I love to bring the kids to these things.
Whoops we are going backwards from night to day. Waiting for fireworks to start. We went to Sunset, they did better than expected. It was a good show.

Hunter wanted a friend to spend the night so we got Gavin, they had lots of fun.

Alyssa showing off her photographer skills. She did great especially since you couldn't see anything until the picture was already taken. (I am growing my hair out and I have to say I love it more than I thought. It still seems weird when I see myself in pictures though.)

Sitting at the parade. We got there 45 minutes early and there were about 3 other families sitting there. So if you want to see a parade, but don't want the crowd, go to Sunset.

Special notes

2010-07-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

This summer it has been tough trying to get Hunter to read. I hope one day he will enjoy it, but right now there are WAY better things he could be doing with his time. Or so he thinks. Last week instead of reading he decided he wanted to write something. He wrote us all these cute little notes that we got to read at dinner. I was saving them to blog about it, but he got upset one night and ripped them up (this is where the sorry note came from). Hunter, being the loving boy he is, made us all new notes. Plus a bonus one about the whole family!

Here is our family note.

My apology note. Breaks your heart, huh?

Daddy's...

Mine...

Lyssa's...

Jackson's...

I love our Hunter:)

Bear Lake with the Meldrum's

2010-07-10T16:52:00.000-07:00

We had a fun few days hanging out camping with Jared's family. We are grateful for Grandpa who makes it possible for us all to get together each year.

Hanging out at the beach, Jackson loved the water. He kept walking back and forth and screeching because he was having so much fun.

Where did Hunter go? Skinny kid;)

Daddy helping Lyssa make a sand castle.

We don't throw footballs, we eat them.

We found the Bear Lake Monster and tried to offer Hunter to him. Grandpa told the kids that the monster would come in their tents and eat them after they went to sleep.

This was a total model shot, look at the sideways look while running;)

The whole family.

I was not brave enough to get in the water, it was freezing!

These guys are pretty much inseparable.

Close ups of the cute kids

The "tiny house"

2010-07-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

We took our first vacation as a family of 5 this year. We kept it simple and just took the kids to Park City for a few days.

First we went to Temple Square to see the flowers and the new replica of the Temple. It was very neat.

You can't go to Temple Square without seeing The Christus.

Of course the boys needed a picture with some basketball stars.

Then we took them to Discovery Gateway. It was fun, but I wouldn't waste the money again. It is pretty much the same as Treehouse Museum, but more expensive. The kids had fun though.

Jackson playing with fake food (and trying to eat fake food).

This tiny room was cute. Jared looks creepy peering in the window like that;)

Hunter practicing "the Daddy". Ha! That was funny and you know it!

Hunter climbing the rock wall, he wouldn't go any higher. I don't think I would have either.

Next we went to the Aquarium in SL. This was a favorite! I wish it was closer.

The kids watching the penguins.

I LOVE the sharks, so did everyone else. We stayed here most of the time, waiting for the sharks to swim by. Hunter didn't even want to see anything else. They also had a stingray pool where you could pet them as they swam by. I was the only one brave enough to do it. They were slimy.

That's when we headed up to Park City. We got a condo for 2 nights. That night we swam and hung out.

The next day we headed to the Mountain Resort to have some fun. Here is Hunter getting off the Alpine Slide.

Whoops, here he is going up to the slide. After Jared and Hunter went, I took Hunter and Alyssa up. I haven't been since I was Hunter's age, it was fun. Then Jared did the Alpine Coaster, he liked that a lot!

We played mini golf, Alyssa has been dying to go. It was really windy. The kids looked so cute on this bridge.

Hunter did well. He hit his ball off the green a lot so we kept telling him that he was grounded. ;)

Jackson loved it, he would scream if he had to wait too long.

Daddy helping Alyssa. She pretty much cheated her way through. She would hit it off the tee then grab the ball where it stopped and set it right next to the hole and hit it in. She was pretty funny.

We swam some more that night and had movie night. Then we went shopping the next day at the outlets. It was Jared's birthday and he wanted a nice watch that he could wear when he wasn't at work. Happy Birthday!

The "tiny house" title has to do with the condo. Alyssa loved being in it and sleeping somewhere else. Since we have been home she has asked many times (in a really sad voice) if we could go back to the tiny house. What a funny little thing, too bad I don't have a picture of it.

Hunter's machine pitch

2010-07-01T15:39:00.001-07:00

I actually did it!

2010-06-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

About 7 weeks ago I decided to train for a 5k. I have never been good at running, but I thought if I tried hard enough I could do it. I usually give up on running after only a few times, if that. My friend Jenne trained with me (even though she didn't need it, she was already good to go). I am thankful that she stuck with me the whole time. She is a big reason that I actually finished this goal. It sucked to begin with though. I could barely run a whole lap at the gym (9 laps is a mile, 3.1 miles is a 5k). I never thought I would make it. After running for a few weeks and hating it, Jenne told me some tricks that she had learned. They seem so common sense now. Concentrating on keeping my breathing even and keeping my hands loose were the two that made the difference. That was the turning point and I knew I could do it. About a week and half before the race I ran 2 miles in 25 minutes without stopping. I was so excited and was actually having fun. I couldn't sleep the night before the race, nerves, I don't know why. That morning turned out to be cold, rainy and WINDY! I didn't mind the cold, it helped me run better. The rain was fine, it kept me cool. The wind was a whole other matter. If it had been at our backs I would have been happy. It blew in our faces the whole time. At points it got so bad that I was running in place! Of course the fact that we were running uphill didn't really help;) But, I finished. And I only walked about 1/2 mile total. I came in at 43 minutes. Not as great as I wanted, but considering everything I am just happy I didn't drop dead;) It felt so good to accomplish something that I set my mind to. Even though I know that being a mother is the best thing I can do and I love it so much, it was great to do something for myself and challenge my abilities. I am excited to run another one and see how I have improved.

Almost done!

Me and Jenne.

Hunter came to cheer me on, thanks Bud!

A Michael Jackson post...kind of

2010-06-26T17:21:00.000-07:00

I heard on the radio yesterday that it has been a year since MJ died. I have been meaning to tell this story, but always forget, I thought this would be a good time to relay it.

My Jackson was only a couple months old when MJ passed away. I'm sure all of you remember that he was on the cover of EVERY magazine. Well, my friend Jenne's little girl Shayla (she was 3 at the time), saw something about Michael Jackson dying. She was so upset and crying because she thought it was "baby Jackson" who had died. If I remember right, she had too see him to really believe he was still living.

I thought it was so sweet when Jenne told me this story. We didn't see each other a whole lot then and I think Shayla had only seen Jackson a couple times. I love that little girl, she is hilarious!

A Special Daddy!

2010-06-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

We love Daddy! Here are our reasons why...

He always has time for us.

He cuddles with us.

He is pretty funny.

He plays fun games.

He likes to play Daddy monster.

He teaches us how to play sports.

We know he loves us.

He lets us be silly with him.

He makes us happy.

He works hard so we can do fun stuff.

He takes me places with him.

He is always ready to have fun.

He honors his priesthood and is able to bless us.

He protects us.

He is our Daddy;)

He teaches us how to be good.

He likes to be around us.

He is SILLY.

He gives great hugs!

Bye-bye crib

2010-06-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

I am not sad to see the crib go...at all. It is so fun moving into this next stage in our lives, knowing we are never going to start over at square one again;)

Jackson was a great crib sleeper, that is until about 2 months ago. I think it was a combo of being really sick and his molars coming in (which by the way only 1 is partially through, they take forever!). He just didn't like being in there. Some days were good, some were bad. We got to a point where he would only go down for a nap, but not at bedtime. Then it got to where I would rock him to sleep and he would wake up the second I laid him in the crib. Finally after getting up every hour for about a week, I just decided to heck with this. He can sleep with me. Then after a couple weeks of him not using the crib at all, I wondered why we even had it still at all. So with my not wanting Jackson to grow up, you would think him being out of the crib would make me sad. Nope, no way. I love that he will cuddle with me again, I love that he will fall asleep anywhere and I love how cute he looks in his toddler bed.

I rock him to sleep at night and he stays in his bed for about 3-4 hours. Then he is my cuddlebug the rest of the night. The night I put the toddler bed up, he wouldn't stop running on it. He loves it! When he wakes up he usually cries until we come get him. A few nights ago though, he got out of bed (probably fell out) and walked into the living room. He was crying of course, but it was still pretty cute. Then just today during his nap I hear a door slam against the wall, then little footprints coming down the hall, then I see a cute little face peek around the couch. He looked so proud of himself that he did it. I love this little guy, what fun he does/will bring to our family.

A first grade masterpiece

2010-06-02T19:36:00.000-07:00

What a fun school day! I got to go help Hunter's class do an art project a couple weeks before school got out. They have an artist come in and teach the kids how to paint these butterflies.

The artist was great! She told them they could make their butterflies look however they wanted;fat, thin, short, tall, lots of wings or just a couple. The kids got to sketch their butterflies on paper then cut them out and trace them onto a canvas. Then they got to start painting. They had so much fun!

Here is Hunter with his butterfly halfway done. After they painted the solid colors it had to dry. Then they got to use "utensils". Which were really just stamps and sponges. They really were able to use their imagination and create a masterpiece of their own.

After finishing the painting, the artist stayed to trace around the lines with black paint. Here is Hunter's work of art. Isn't is great? I love, love, love it!

One girl is enough

2010-05-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

When Emma got here this morning she was in a bad mood because she wanted to go to Grandma's house, not ours. Alyssa, in typical fashion, decided to instigate a fight. Here is how it went (for almost 5 minutes)...
A-"My Grandma"
E-"No, my Grandma"
And so on. After about 3 minutes they started yelling it. Then all of a sudden it stopped for about 30 seconds. Then I hear Alyssa tell Emma, "I say my Grandma then you say no my Grandma. Ok?"
Not only do they fight for real, then they need to stage a fight after the real fight. I am so glad we have been blessed with only one girl!

Da, da, da, dum.....getting even

2010-05-24T20:57:00.000-07:00

Or getting ahead?...And the feud for Alyssa's love continues.

As soon as I walked into Mark's on Sunday he told me that we had one thing to get done that day, get a picture of Alyssa on his lap. He has reason to want to get ahead. This week my Dad went so far as to call me asking for Mark's # so that he could send Mark a picture of him and Alyssa at lunch.

Look at that cute smile, what a funny girl. They are creating a monster in her, I bet you anything she know exactly what is going on. She is playing it too.

We got a couple good ones. She had been begging me all week to take her to Grandpa's house. She likes to play "4 swear", that would be 4 square for the rest of us.

Here is the getting ahead part. Jackson has taken Alyssa's example and turned a cheek to the Papa. I will expect a call from my Dad tomorrow to discuss this...;)

Mark may have the upper hand right now, but I'm sure this battle is far from over. Jared and I should encourage this, maybe we won't ever have to buy a prom dress, car, cell phones...we could really do well with this.

In all seriousness though. I am so happy that my kids are growing up with the two best grandfathers in the world! I am thankful they get to know of the love that both of them have for the kids. My kids are so blessed!

Check out the post below for an update from my blogger absence.

Did you miss me?

2010-05-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

I know you did! Wow, we have been busy...doing what? I don't really know. Just living life I guess. No news is good news, right? Here is the rundown of the last month.

What a stud!
Hunter went on a field trip to the DUMP. I know, I thought "WOW, how fun!" (insert sarcasm). Jared was home that day so he went as a volunteer. I guess it was pretty interesting though. Davis County has a pretty cool recycling system going on. Jared said there are only a few like it in the U.S. I would suggest going if you want to teach your kids about recycling.

We have little blue robin eggs again! Every year they try to build a nest in our BBQ grill. We usually see them flying in and out and go tear it apart. I know that sounds cruel, but the first year they did it, the eggs never hatched because it was too hot and they cooked:( This year has been fairly cool though, maybe we will get some birds!

On the warm days we have started our walks again. I would say this is one of my favorite traditions in our family. It is a very relaxing time to spend together, a great way to end the day. No surprise Hunter is in front and Alyssa is pushing her "baby".

She was getting down! Shaking her butt and all. It was very funny!

Daddy's twin. We could be creating a monster...or two.

We always blow kisses at bedtime. Jackson recently learned to do it himself. He puts the back of his hand to his mouth and does a big "muaw". Look at those eyes!

His new thing is laying down anywhere. He had his crazy walking stage, now I think that since he figures he can get up anytime that he can sit and take a break. I will look over at him and he is just laying down sucking on those fingers.

Hunter, being the crazy boy he is. He wanted a picture that made him look like he was hanging onto the lights. I'm sure what he really wanted to ask was if he COULD hang on the lights. I guess he thought that one through first. I should be proud of him;)

This is Alyssa's new pose. She asks to get her picture taken and does this, not sure what it is. Cute though.

The boys hanging out playing games.

Pretending to have a favorite

2010-05-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

Since Alyssa was born she has BARELY tolerated Papa, sometimes I would even say she loathed him. For about the last week she has been warming up and almost turned a complete circle in her feelings for him. She has called him and talked on the phone, hugged him and been generally happy when he is around. Yesterday Papa and Grandma came to get Alyssa to take her birthday shopping. She was so excited! She kept telling me that only she was going and that I had to stay home. This is "happy" Alyssa when they came to get her.

As soon as they got back from the store, Alyssa turned back into stone. She wouldn't look at Papa again. This picture is a bit of a fake...we had to tickle her to get a smile. Dad and I both agree that now that she has the birthday gift that she is going to go back to ignoring him. I guess we will see in the coming days. :)

P.S. This post is a part of the ongoing "which Grandpa is the favorite" battle. Papa and Grandpa like to let the other know when they get a little love from Alyssa...to make each other jealous. :)

Favorite books

2010-04-26T06:09:00.000-07:00

As I was reading to Alyssa last night, I started thinking about how the kids have had a few favorite books and I thought of the funny memories I have of them. When Hunter was around 3 or 4 "Bedtime For Frances" was his favorite book. I am sure we read it at least 3 times a day, but probably more. As soon as one of us was done reading it to him, he would ask the other one to read it. We called it "Bedtime For Hunty" though and we changed things in the book to be about him instead of Frances. After a while, he started to "read" it by himself. He had memorized what to say with each picture so he started reading it to us. One of the times Frances gets out of bed, she asks for some cake and milk. We would always have cookies and milk at night so we changed that part. She asks to sleep with her teddy bear, Hunter has a stuffed giraffe that he calls Mr. Two so that's what we had him ask for in the story. In part of the story. I love remembering him looking at the pictures and then saying what we would have and in the same voice. My favorite memory of this book is when I went into his room and he was reading to himself. I grabbed the video camera and then Jared and Hunter laid down and he read the story to us.

"The Fooky Old Tree" Alyssa does an F for her S sounds, it makes for some pretty funny/interesting words. This is her favorite book right now. We don't change anything for her, but she is so cute when she "reads" it. When she first started remembering what each picture meant we would point to the page when it was her turn. That was on the pages where they show the kids, "one with a light, one with a stick and one with a rope". Then one by one they would all get the shivers. When it says shivers we shake Alyssa (she loves that part). Now that she knows the whole book (since we read it everyday) she likes to read it to us now. When she does, she likes to point and have us read the "one with a light..." part. Just like we used to do with her. Then she tells us we did a good job.

I am excited to see what Jackson's favorite book will be when he gets a little older! Right now he loves those touchy-feely books, the ones you can feel a dogs fur or a pigs nose. He also loves his family picture book. Daddy is on the first page so he always opens it and says "Da".

I'm sure Hunter had a few other favorite books that we read a lot, and I am sure Alyssa will have more. I am glad we have these special books and the memories they give us.

Hot and cold

2010-04-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

Tonight before Hunter went to bed we were all playing around. Alyssa was in a cuddling mood, she doesn't get like that often. I try to tell Hunter that he needs to take the "nice" Alyssa whenever he can get it, but he still insisted on trying to reject her cuddles (I think "cooties" might have been involved). Alyssa had that boy in a death grip and holding him down so she could cuddle him. They did this about three times with Hunter breaking away and Alyssa then crying. On the fourth time she got a hold of him she had just barely put her arms around him when she got this look of indifference on her face and let go. I always call her our hot and cold girl. One minute she loves the world and everything in it then the next minute (without anything changing) she hates everything. We usually get this a few times a day, but it makes us love her even more!

Jackson's birthday pics

2010-04-16T10:19:00.001-07:00

Below are Alyssa's birthday pictures.

The cutest birthday pictures EVER!!!

2010-04-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

Remembering Baby Alyssa

2010-04-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

I wish I had written about Alyssa's birth sooner, but I still remember most of it. When I got pregnant with her (after a year and a half of trying) I couldn't fathom having a girl. I thought we would have all boys, I didn't really know what I would do with a girl. The idea scared me, a lot. So when we were having the ultrasound and they told me it was a girl I was in denial a little bit. To be honest it took me a couple of months before I really believed it and started to really accept it. I am a pretty unemotional person, I cry maybe once a year. My emotions have never ruled me, up till then. So I was pretty anxious about the whole thing. That is not to say I wasn't excited. We had waited a long time to get her and I was so happy to be having a baby again. We went to my Dr. appointment on a Monday. I had been having lots of contractions so I was hoping he would just let me go to the hospital. For Christmas I had gotten Jared and Hunter tickets to a Jazz game and it just so happened that they were for that Wednesday night. I was worried I would go into labor while they were gone or just before and then they wouldn't be able to go. This was Hunter's first Jazz game, I really wanted them to go. Well my Dr. told me to go home and wait until Friday (our day to be induced). The next day after Hunter got home from preschool we decided to go get checked out at the hospital. I remember being worried about Hunter. I knew he would be fine with Heidi and that he would adjust well to being a big brother (he WAS 4 1/2). I think I was just a little sad that our time as a family of 3 was over, we had so much time with him alone. It was pretty weird to be adding someone else. Those feelings soon went away as the anticipation of meeting our baby replaced them. Alyssa's birth was great! This was my second time so I wasn't scared of the unknown and I also knew what kind of drugs I wanted and what I didn't. Plus we labored during the day. With Hunter it was all night and that made me really groggy when he came. After I had Hunter I remembered wondering why the women on tv make such a huge deal about giving birth, you know the screaming and yelling. I was so calm. We were talking with my nurse and the subject came up that I am really calm while giving birth, I don't think she really believed me. I pushed for about 20 minutes then she was here. I didn't make a sound at all. My nurse was amazed. I was sure that Alyssa would look exactly like Hunter, I couldn't imagine our child looking like anything else. I was surprised! She had the roundest little face, nothing like Hunter. Everything was so surreal, so much stranger that when we had Hunter. I just remenber I kept thinking, "WHAT? We just had a baby???". I kept looking at her face and wondering where this chubby little baby came from. She was so beautiful! Hunter was waiting outside while she was being born. I was so excited to have them meet. I knew Hunter couldn't wait, he had waited long enough. I always thought ?I had the best birth experience with Hunter, but it just got better and easier with Alyssa. Coming home wasn't so scary and we got into a rhythm pretty easily. I could sense a bond between Jared and Alyssa right off the bat. He wouldn't let her just lay in the bassinet or the boppy. I remember asking him why he always picked her up when I put her down. He said he felt bad for her being all alone. We were kind of opposites. I wouldn't really put the boys down much and he held her all the time. She was such a calm baby (she has made up for that though). She was always content to just sit wherever and watch what was going on. I really love to cuddle my babies to sleep, but after about 3 months she just refused. She did really well at falling asleep in her crib. She LOVED bedtime! Along with being really calm it was also hard to get her to smile and laugh, except at bedtime. We would swaddle her, lay her down and the fun would begin. She would giggle and smile until we had to stop so she could sleep. She did get colicky for a few weeks. I remember at about 4pm we would have to hold her until 7pm and it was time for bed. I remember the moment with her that I knew I had connected with her. We had been home about a week and Jared had taken Hunter outside to play ball. Alyssa and I were sitting on the couch. I was looking at her and this overwhelming feeling of total love came over me. I knew no matter how worried she made me or how much trouble she would cause me, that she was mine and I loved her with all my heart. She is now 3! Wow! She is the funniest little thing. I can't imagine life without her. We have had a few rough times and sometimes I swear we will probably fight the rest of our lives. But, those times make me realize that I can be a better, more patient and loving mother to her. She has given me the strength to get through anything that comes my way. She has brought so many wonderful, funny, silly memories to our family. I am so glad Heavenly Father sent us this crazy little girl, life would be boring without her. I love you my little Lyssy!

Two birthdays and Easter

2010-04-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Lyssy! I can't believe our baby girl is 3 years old! Alyssa loves princesses right now, especially Snow White.

I made a flower bouquet for our party at Jenny's house.

WOW! Look at all that princess stuff, no wonder she is smiling.

We had a girly princess party. Here they are playing "pass the tiara". We also made necklaces, body glitter and candy apples.

Playing jump rope with Grandpa.

Heidi made her a little cake at Walmart so we took that to Jenny's.

Alyssa was so excited for her "Snow White party". She has been more social lately with one or two girls at a time. I think we might have overdone it with10 girls there today. She got a little shy, but was still having fun. When she woke up I asked her if she thought there were presents sitting in the living room for her. She said, "Yeah, maybe we could take the gate down and see." For Christmas last year we put the gate up in the hallway so the kids wouldn't go out without us. It is funny she remembered that.

The Easter Bunny hid Hunter's basket really well.

Jackson's favorite place.

Hunter loves music. He has barely put this MP3 down since he got it!

Alyssa loves gumballs.

Jackson was too funny! While we were talking with the other kids about what they got, he realized there was candy just sitting in his basket. He had about 5 jelly beans in his mouth and was just stuffing more in. I'm sure he was thinking, "Mom left this here and she isn't taking it away, I need to get as much as I can now!" Darn! I just erased the picture. Oh well funny story still.

Hunter playing ball at Papa's house. Lately he is a sports junkie. If he is allowed outside he is only playing baseball or basketball. Jenny told us today that he picked up the sports page of the paper at her house and read it for about 10 minutes. What a funny kid!

Decorating Easter cupcakes.

My Dad likes to throw Jackson over his shoulder while hanging on to his legs. After doing this about 3 times, Jackson started trying to pull himself over Papa's shoulder is he didn't do it fast enough. It was pretty funny.

The kids and I made a sign for Jackson. We call him Jack-Jack sometimes, but Alyssa says, "Crack-Crack". We think it is kind of cute.
Jackson woke up the morning of his birthday to balloons all over his room. Soon they ended up in his bed and he had lots of fun jumping around with the balloons.

Happy Birthday Jackson!
His presents. Ok, this may look sad, but what do you get a kid who has hand-me-down toys from 2 kids AND who is going to be spoiled by everyone else? He loves them though. He loves to hit things, he got lots of hammer toys that day.

We took Hunter out of school early and went to the Treehouse Museum. They had fun, I love that place!

Jackson's favorite part, banging on the huge drums!

Pretend school.

Our baby Jack-Jack. I think he looks just like that.

While trying to help him blow out the candles, he took a huge handful of cake out of the side. He is an opportunist. He by far was the least shy of our kids with the first birthday cake. He dug right in and didn't stop.

Just one year

2010-03-31T21:27:00.000-07:00

One year ago today Hunter was in school, Alyssa had just fell laid down for her nap (in her crib, wow that seems like so long ago) and Jared and I were playing Monopoly Deal, our favorite new card game. We still didn't know whether we would have a Jackson or an Oaklee. I started feeling a little sick so I laid down on the couch to see if I felt better. We were scheduled to be induced the next day so I wasn't worried too much about being pregnant still. After about and hour and a half I was still feeling my contractions, so while Jared picked Hunter up from school I got everything ready to go see if we were in labor. This labor was different compared to my others. As soon as I stood up and walked around the contractions stopped, but when I laid down they would go crazy. After the whole routine of waiting at the hospital and talking to my Doc., we decided to stay. Jared and I were both hoping it would still take a while, since we really wanted an April Fool's baby. With Hunter and Alyssa I got in, got started on pitosin, got the epidural and was ready to go. My Dr. was delivering two other babies that night so she just let me wait and see what my body would do. I had Heidi bring the kids up, I always feel sad and miss them too much if they can't be there. The one thing I will really miss about my child-bearing years is the excitement of waiting to meet your baby and knowing you are only a few short hours away from it. That is probably a feeling I will never forget either. I am grateful for an epidural and glad I got it when I did with the other two, Jackson was a different story. I was never in a bunch of pain, my contractions would come and go and I was sure that nothing would happen until they gave me the pitosin. At about 10:20pm after only being on the epidural for a couple hours they stared the pitosin since my Dr. was almost done with her last birth and wanted to come deliver me then go home. I guess it takes about 15-20 minutes to start working, but 5 minutes later she was in and I was pushing the baby out. 3 contractions and he was here! I remember when just his head was out and my Dr. said that "it" had a chubby face and I was sure we were having another girl-that scared me a little. Then he came out the rest of the way and she announced it was a boy and I was in total disbelief! My whole pregnancy I thought it was a boy, but at the end all my feelings were gone and I really wasn't sure. When I saw Jackson's face for the first time I was amazed at how much I loved him already. It is wonderful the way our hearts grow for our children and how we feel so totally in love with them right away. I love that it surprised me each time we had a baby also. When Hunter was born, of course I was new and that made me nervous. Then with Alyssa I had some anxiety about her. But that first night with Jackson was great. He was the third, so I felt like I knew what was going on and that I could handle just about anything. So I had no worries, we just cuddled and I was just content. The next few days are a bit of a blur, getting used to getting up all night and juggling three kids. I remember how bad I wanted to just go home and be with my family. I was worried about Alyssa having a hard time with me being gone at night and I missed being there with the kids. We had to stay the two night though because Jackson had a heart murmur they wanted to check out. When we finally made it home it was the best feeling, to know that our family was complete and we were all home and together. I feel so blessed to have Jackson in our family. People tease me that I love him too much, but I honestly think he helps me be a better mom to all the kids. It is wonderful to have a naturally happy child in our home.
Jackson loves Alyssa and Hunter and he thinks they are the funniest things ever. They will do the most random things and he will just bust out laughing. This is reserved only for them though, I guess we adults aren't silly enough for him. He loves to hit things, like with a hammer. He learned how to throw a ball a few weeks ago. His favorite book is a picture book of us. I give it to him and he turns to the page with Jared and points and says, "Da da". He recently started cuddling with Jared more. He has been a bit of a Momma's boy, but I catch him laying on Jared or just sitting with him. He loves patty cake, but likes to hold your hands and make you clap. His naughty thing right now is making messes. He gets by the kids' bookcase and throws everything off or gets into laundry baskets and takes all the clothes out. He likes to chase me down the hallway and loves to be chased by Daddy. As soon as you put him on our bed he gets even more happy than he usually is, then we bounce and flip until I get tired, he never gets tired of it. He likes to dance now, he will bend his knees and shake his head a bit then laughs. My favorite time with him right now is in the middle of the night. He has been getting up and being really sad when I try to put him back down right away. So I just rock with him for awhile. I never want to get out of bed, but as soon as I am cuddling him, I don't mind it so much. I just realized that he won't want to cuddle forever and he is getting bigger everyday so I will cherish this while I have it. Happy Birthday Buddy, we love you so much!

Alyssa's book

2010-03-30T17:35:00.001-07:00

I found Alyssa with a little homemade book chanting, "I love Hunter, he's a cute boy. The End". Sometimes she really loves us ;)

This is just because the boys are so cute and because I feel kind of guilty, I don't have many pictures of Hunter lately.

Alyssa cuddling Jackson, she loves to hug him!

Alyssa decided to do Jackson's hair for me. Can you see the shiny forehead from the overdose of hairspray? His hair was pretty crispy. I am surprised/impressed that she didn't spray his eyes.

Jackson's last day before he is a big 1 year old. This is my bittersweet moment...

Is it ketchup?!?!?!?

2010-03-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

Last night I was telling the kids that Kathy and Grandma were coming over to stay with them today while Jared and I went to the Temple. I told them that Grandma would have a special surprise for them (she just got back from Hawaii). I hear Alyssa from the back of the car say, "is it ketchup????". Too funny, but easy to please.

Another funny thing from this week...Alyssa was mad at me for something so she called me a "freakin' turd". I really couldn't help myself and just started laughing. I know I say freakin' too much, but I never say turd. I'm not really sure where she picked that up at. Pretty funny though ;)

Rainbows, rainbows and more rainbows

2010-03-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

I love St. Patrick's Day! Just since I have been a mother though. When you are a kid it is cool because everyone wears green for one day. I have realized there are so many things out there to make this day extra fun for the kiddies. Last year we did all green, so this year I decided we would have fun with rainbows. It was a lot more work, but totally worth it. The kids loved it!

Here is what they woke up to, along with a bunch of balloons all over their room. Mr. Wee Leprechaun came to our house and he had lots of fun. He left his footprints and rainbows all over the house!

He also left little surprises wherever he was found.

Here they are enjoying their crazy pens while I made....

rainbow pancakes!!!! With a pot of gold at the end, of course (lemon jello).

Once Jackson woke up he even enjoyed some rainbow breakfast. I just made his into mini pancakes, those rainbows were a lot of work!

Here is Alyssa's rainbow do, so cute!

Trying to get a picture of the three of them, Jackson just wanted to get away. They are so cute in green.

This is the best one I could get, poor Hunter was trying so hard to keep Jackson in his arms. I love Alyssa's face, what a cheeser!

Mmmmm, rainbow cupcakes!

After school they were able to follow the clues and find the Leprechaun's treasure. I did good this year and didn't get any candy. I feel like we always have too much junk food, so they got prizes instead this year and still loved it!

It is so fun for me to watch the kids having fun and I hope they remember days like today. A few funny things from this year were...
-Alyssa was so excited about everything until Hunter left for school then she started telling me she was scared of our "mystery guest". She wouldn't go to the back of the house without me all day!
-I showed Hunter the footprints and told him the Leprechaun had stepped there, so he told me that no, he just taped them on the wall :)
-Jackson loved the balloons! He was having a tough time with them though. He would try to lean on one to hold himself up, but it would slip out and he would fall. He liked squishing them though.
-Alyssa was looking at the Leprechauns and saying, "he's awake Mommy", like she was a little nervous he would start running around everywhere.
We missed you Daddy and hope you can join in the merriment next year ;)

10 years and little funny things

2010-03-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

10 years ago today I began working at Ream's, I never would have thought that that day would mark the start of the rest of my life. I met Jared on March 14th, 2000. The last 10 years have been amazing! I am excited to look back on our first 10 years together and remember all the great times. More on that in another post. Here are some happenings in our home...

Hunter, Hunter, Hunter...he never ends his silliness, but we love it! He came to me the other day with a pair of chonies (underwear) that had holes in them and asked if he could throw them away. This is his favorite part because he likes to rip them up first. After ripping the rest to shreds he still had the waistband. He brings it to me and says , "can we save this for basketball next year?", and puts it on his head. What a funny dude we have. I guess I need to get him a sweatband. It still is crazy that he will be baptized this year! What a great kid he is, he still loves entertaining his brother and sister, watching the Jazz with Daddy and cuddling with Mommy.

Alyssa loves her Daddy (except when she doesn't)...just a little family joke :)

I LOVE this picture! Alyssa has one blanket that no one is allowed to touch. She needs it near almost all the time and will not fall asleep without it. When she gets grumpy she just needs her blanket, pillow and apple juice and she will be fine. As you can see the blanket has yarn around the edge. She hooks it around one finger usually and then sucks on two of her other fingers (it is her little comfort thing) she does it when she is upset or sleepy. I found her like this one day, she has it around both thumbs and a pinky finger...making sure it doesn't get away!

I bought this hat and love it, she looks so cute! Just FYI, they sell for around $8-$10, but I found a website that sells for $2.25, girlscrochetheadbands.com.

A prize from Chuck E. Cheese. It is lip gloss, but ended up all over her face. With her allergies I am surprised she didn't end up all swollen!

Alyssa has been learning some new sentences lately...
-"Hey, what's the big idea?" I figured out this is Donald from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
-"Oh, you bet I do!" This was when I asked if she needed to poop :)
I love her silly little attitude.

The kids playing ball today, I love that they are so close!

My totally ADORABLE boys!

Poor Jackson has been sick quite a bit lately, we have all been sick more than usual, not fun :(
My happy baby spent a few days just laying around or screaming. He is back to being happy now, I missed his smiling face and his cute little way of talking.

He loves to get under the table, I think it is his own little way of playing peek-a-boo or hide and seek.

Jackson is too funny lately. He has started imitating and it is the best! Tonight when I was putting him in bed I was shaking my head back and forth, swinging my hair. He loves that and thinks it is the funniest thing. After a few times he decided he should do it, so cute! He is still loving balls and we kind of think he is a lefty, he will grab the ball, put it in his left hand then throw it. He started getting the ball into our little basketball hoop the other day! Finally, he has learned the fine art of chasing. I was crawling down the hallway tonight, trying to get him to follow me. When he would get close I would scream and crawl a little faster. He thought this was HILARIOUS! He would start to crawl after me a little faster then would have to stop because he was laughing so hard. I am so excited to watch this boy grow!

My talking baby

2010-03-07T07:10:00.000-08:00

Well we are coming up on the year mark and Jackson just seems to be growing up too fast! Sometimes he doesn't even act like a baby anymore:( The other day I was trying to get his attention and calling his name, he turned to me and I could swear he said "wha" (meaning what). It was pretty funny. Then he did it the other day when I was calling Hunter. He is getting way more aware of his surroundings and what is going on. We were leaving my Dad's house yesterday and Dad was leaning in the car telling the kids goodbye. He started telling Jackson "I love you" in a sing-songy way and Jackson was being pretty vocal and I am sure he said "I love you" back. It was so cute, him mimicking my Dad. He also loves balls right now, if there is one in the room he will get it. He is just learning how to toss the ball. He will also go to give you the ball then take it back before you can grab it, such a tease! 3 1/2 weeks until the big day, can't believe it has been a year!

Smiley Boy!

2010-02-17T21:04:00.000-08:00

Just a little something to show what Jackson is doing lately. He loves to get his picture taken! If I am taking one of the other kids, I will look over and he is staring at me with a huge smile on his face. If I am within reach he is up and going, trying to get to me before I can move. Usually he grunts until I take his picture, sometimes he just shoves his way into the picture. What a happy little camera ready boy I have!

Harlem Globetrotters!!!

2010-02-17T20:38:00.000-08:00

I love to take our kids out separately and have some fun. Last week we saw the Globetrotters with Hunter. Jared took me when we were dating and I have wanted to go back ever since. For all of you Amazing Race fans out there, it was great seeing Big Easy and Flight Time play! They were so funny! Hunter loved it! We went with our friends Brad and Jana and they brought their nephew Cade who is Hunter's age. Hunter's favorite parts were...
--when Globey was breaking with the B-Boys
--they players ripped the clothes off of one of the Washington Generals and he went running of court with his underwear on
--Big Easy kept calling the little guy "baby" and he even picked him up, rocked him, then set him on some lady's lap
--the General's coach hypnotized some of the players with a black and white umbrella
--they did a football play (yes, I know, basketball? football?) anyway when they did the hike, the guy in the back got farted on (if you know Hunter, you know he laughed until he couldn't breathe)
I can't wait to go next year!!!!

Cookie College

2010-02-17T20:32:00.000-08:00

What a fun day we had today! I saw an ad for Cookie College for kids and thought Alyssa would love it. So we got our friend Jana and her daughter Sydney to go with us. It was down at the Naborhood Bakery in Gardner Village. First they gave us a tour of the kitchen and showed us some pretty fun stuff. Then the girls got to start rolling out their dough and cutting it into cookies. Mrs. H showed them how they go in the huge oven. While we waited for them to bake the girls got lunch (both had hot dogs, figures). After lunch they got to decorate the cookies. They each got 3 little containers of icing, 2 of sprinkles and 1 full of candy. The girls had so much fun doing it their own way. So much fun and it only cost $15 a kid. We will definitely go back next year!

I love love!

2010-02-15T20:28:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day started with chocolate heart-shaped french toast. Thank goodness for 11am church or breakfast would have been cereal, ughh. :)

Jackson so desperately wanted a picture of himself. He was standing there saying, "uh, uh, uh, uh" while I took Hunter and Alyssa's picture. He loves the camera lately.

What says love more than a plate of bacon? Really, I don't know.

Alyssa's hair before church. We practiced all types of hearts the whole week.

Last year we started a tradition of writing each other little love notes and then reading them after dinner. I am going to take all the notes and make a book out of them and we can add to it each year. Here are some highlights from this year...
-Alyssa and Hunter both love each other because they dance together
-Hunter loves Daddy because he tussles with him (I'm not sure how it started, but tussleing is what they call wrestling) :)
-Alyssa loves Daddy because he gets her applejuiceapplejuiceapplejuice (when she asks me it is "can I have some apple juice?", but Daddy gets it three times, it is very cute and sounds a little like when they say beetle juice three times)
-Jared and I both wrote how we love to play games and watch our favorite shows together, it was almost word for word :)
-We all love Jackson because he is so darn cute!

Daddy and Hunter with heart-shaped hamburgers, yep that's right. They were fun!

Alyssa, Jackson and me. Poor boy was so tired, Sunday's are not very nap friendly.

This Valentine's Day was great! Except that Jared had to work, so we really missed him. I slacked a little, I usually like to put either hearts or balloons in there room so they get excited when they wake up. But all in all we had a wonderful day, it is so nice to take a day to really concentrate on how much and why we love our families. I read online that Kelly Ripa and her husband always spend V-Day with their kids, they never go out without them. It seems like that is what we do, I never really remember going out ON Valentine's Day. What a great idea though, I think my kids deserve a day of being spoiled!

Snow White is in the toilet

2010-02-13T18:42:00.000-08:00

This is Snow White. Santa got us fish for Christmas this year and Snow White is the white catfish. Alyssa named her because Snow White is her favorite movie right now. Well she died this week, went belly up. Hunter was at school at the time, but Alyssa was home and she helped me "dispose" of the body. Tonight at dinner Hunter said that Snow White is in heaven. Alyssa responded, "No, Snow White is in the toilet, silly!".

He says arf!

2010-02-13T11:04:00.000-08:00

Alyssa was looking out our back door at the dog next door. The dog started barking at her and she looked at me with an amused expression and said, "look Mom, that doggie is talking to me". She gave the dog another look then said, "he says arf".

Being funny again

2010-02-07T15:42:00.000-08:00

What a silly boy I have! I was trying to give Jackson a bite of popsicle and as soon as it would touch his tongue he would back up and blow raspberries. We did this a few times and then when I would come at him with the popsicle he would shake his head no. He has been feeling sick and not been his usual happy self lately, so maybe that is why this just seemed so extra cute to me. I'm so excited he is getting better and is silly again!!

A week is too long

2010-01-29T20:40:00.000-08:00

Jared told me the other day that I haven't blogged in awhile. It had only been a week so I told him that he should do a post. Then I thought, I don't really want a football post on here. Unless he adds a picture of Peyton Manning, then that would be ok.

As you can tell, Jared isn't really the blogging type, maybe someday though. I was thinking of something to post and realized that Alyssa is really into singing right now. Everyday we sing her favorite songs. 5 Little Ducks, 5 Little Monkeys, I then have to ask if they are on the bed or in the trees, but we end up doing both anyway. 5 Little Speckled Frogs (yep, we like to count right now), Popcorn Popping, Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam (although she says sunbean) and I Am A Child Of God. Those are required daily, sometimes two, three, four times a day. Then we sometimes add other ones. It is fun to hear her as she learns more of the words and begins to sing along. She is starting to hold her fingers with 2, 3 and 4 fingers up, she gets so excited when she figures it out and we can just continue the song without stopping to figure it out. After every song she says, "Oh I have another song for you", then tells me what we sing next. Or if she can't think of one she says, "oh I to-got(forgot)", and kinda hangs her head. She is so cute and fun right now. Last night we were sitting around and she made up a baseball song for us. It goes, "baseball, it so fun to baseball". I definitely love having a toddler around :)

Living his dream

2010-01-20T20:26:00.000-08:00

Tonight was Hunter's first official Jr. Jazz game. It was so fun! He has been doing clinics and practices for the last couple of weeks, but tonight was the real thing. He did great! Papa was actually home and able to come and watch him play. Oh, sorry about the pictures, I can't get a good light in those gyms.

He got to do the jump ball. Daddy got a great shot of it! Hunter's number is 8 for D-Will, his favorite player.

Here he is waiting on the "bench".

Telling the other team "good job". Hunter scored 14 of the teams 20 points tonight. He did awesome! He also got a couple of assists, once we got him to pass the ball. It was so fun watching him do something he loves and cheering him on! It was so much more entertaining than t-ball. :)

Jackson, Mommy and Alyssa

After the game we decided to get ice cream for him. On the way there Jared said he didn't have his wallet and I wasn't sure where mine was. So with Papa there to rescue us, I would have to say that we conveniently "forgot" our money...
Thanks Papa!

Daddy, Hunter and Papa.

Hunter had to take one of us. Can you tell who his favorite is? Yep, Jackson! The rest of us were an afterthought. I'm glad we actually made it into the picture.

What fun, I am so excited for next week!

Hemwy Fadder

2010-01-05T20:27:00.000-08:00

Tonight while we were in the car the kids found some scriptures in the back seat and were "reading" them. After a couple of minutes I hear Alyssa say, "Hemwy Fadder where are you?!?". This is done in her bossy, demanding voice by the way. Then Hunter tells her that Heavenly Father lives in the clouds. So she looks up at the sky and yells, "Hemwy Fadder, you get in my book now!!!". She is such a crack up and I am sure that "Hemwy Fadder" was getting a pretty good kick out of that also.

Christmas...wish it came everyday...ok not really

2009-12-27T14:41:00.001-08:00

Ok, here we go...
Making sugar cookies, of course Alyssa is eating the flour off the counter. She loves to eat flour, kinda weird. Aren't they so cute hugging?

We like to make our family cookies.

We always go to Mark's on Christmas Eve. This year the kids read "The Three Trees". I love that book.

Grandpa opening presents.

I love this picture. We didn't even know Hunter was there.
This angle makes my forehead look huge, or maybe it is just my forehead that makes my forehead look huge...
While we were sitting here watching the kids open their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa, Jackson leaned backward and was looking at Jared and said, "Da da". I was the first time he has really connected a word with who/what it is. It was too cute!

Christmas Eve at our house.
We all got new pajamas. We don't look as cute as the kids, but I still think we look pretty good :).

Spongebob and Minnie Mouse.

Look at that freaking cute face!!!!!

Christmas morning.
Hunter and his Baku-Gauntlet. It computes the scores while battling with the Bakugan. So it is pretty much a calculator for $25. He loves it though.

The only thing Alyssa wanted was a "sooter". I would tell her, "Santa is going to bring you lots of toys", and she would tell me, "no, a sooter". She rode that thing all day long, until we decided it had to go downstairs. (She ran into Jackson a couple times)

Jackson just hanging around, checking stuff out.

I used my AWESOME sewing skills (yah, right), and made the kids and Jared blankets. Alyssa's is princess, Jared and Jackson got Tennessee (I cut the pillow cases apart to make Jackson's) and Hunter got Bakugan. Everyone likes their except Alyssa, she has another blanket that is her obsession. :)

So here are the pictures with all their gifts.
Hunter got a dartboard so he can get really good and beat Milt. Let's see a keyboard, drumset, punching bag, the Bakugan game for Wii and a few other things.

Alyssa got her "sooter", a sit and spin, Yo Gabba Gabba radio, a broom and some small stuff.

Jackson go a busy ball popper, basketball hoop and a few other things that I really don't know what to call them.

Christmas gets better every year! We love to teach the kids the story of Jesus and help them to understand what we are celebrating. One of out traditions is to watch "Mr. Kreuger's Christmas" on Christmas Eve. I love to see the kids when the lessons click in their brains.
We do an advent countdown with activities to do each day, that is so fun to be able to do something fun with them and feel the anticipation. I am so thankful for my WONDERFUL family, they are the best! Hunter asked us at dinner Christmas night what our best present was and I think his answer said it best, "My best present is that you are my family".

Look at our post below for Alyssa's amazing baking skills :)

My little baker

2009-12-27T14:29:00.000-08:00

Our friend Jenne bought Alyssa this baking kit for Christmas, how cute is it?!? So we decided to make some cupcakes!

She loves to measure the ingredients in.

"Turning" it.

You gotta try the batter!

Ready to go in the oven.

Then we made some icing, added some "frinkles" and served them on tiny plates. Yum yum!
Thanks Jenne! She loves it!

Always a busy week

2009-12-21T07:55:00.001-08:00

On my birthday we took the kids to Christmas Village in Ogden. This is the first time we have taken them and they loved it! After we were done we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. I have a picture of me on the saddle (they have you sit on it for your birthday), but it won't upload. We usually go out by ourselves for my birthday, but we have been out a lot lately without the kids and I thought it would be a fun night to share with them. It was great! Oh and each of the kids gave me a gift certificate to Bed, Bath and Beyond! Thanks guys!

Alyssa had her very FIRST haircut this week. It was getting really long in the back, but the sides were still pretty short. So we are going to keep it short until it all can grow in.

My Mom always cut our hair as kids so naturally she should cut Alyssa's.

Here it is short again. It was kinda sad :(

Here it is done after the cut, still looks pretty much the same, just a little more even. I can't wait to leave it down, I think the really good curls will come back!

Jackson got his first owwie this week :(

He was crawling around (yep, he is crawling now!) and he slammed his cheek down on a toy that he was playing with. He was so sad. I had to get a band-aid on it because it started bleeding a little. So, no that is not just a fashion statement.

Jackson is a funny crawler, he kinda does it all. He does army crawl, when he is being lazy. He does the scoot on his belly, which you can never really tell how he is actually moving, but you see him move. Then he does one where he plants his hands and pulls his knees forward without them leaving the ground. Then sometimes he crawls regular. It is a little sad watching him do all these things, I think I could have him be a baby for the rest of my life!
One funny story about Lys and then I am done. She was being bad yesterday so I told her that if she wanted Santa to bring her toys that she needed to be good. She tells me she doesn't wants toys. So I asked her , "You don't want Santa to bring you toys?" She replies, "No, a sooter(scooter)!" With about as much attitude that she could get into that.
Before I go I want to wish Jared a happy 9 year anniversary! I love you so much and I am so happy to be married to you!!!!!!!!

Look what I found under my tree!

2009-12-13T19:56:00.000-08:00

My little Christmas present :) I HAD to post this picture! Jackson has been scooting backwards for awhile, but he usually goes away from the tree. Well this time I found him right under the tree. This is now his favorite spot to be, well I shouldn't say favorite spot. He gets mad when he scoots under there, but he is constantly moving to the tree.
Just a side note, he is so close to crawling and has a tooth about to pop up! He is our only kid who army crawls, so that is fun to see.

Ahhh, a lazy Sunday. I love when we can just sit around as a family and just hang out. We had a great night tonight and I wanted to blog about it right away. It wasn't anything spectacular, but I feel like it was one of those nights we will look back on and just feel happy.

Alyssa was doing Daddy's hair, ha ha ha ha ha (what hair?)

Beautiful, Daddy!
Look at Alyssa's face, so funny. She was trying to make a grumpy face.

Then Daddy got to do Alyssa's hair. She hates when I get the stuff out to do her hair so I was surprised that she asked Jared to do (brush) her hair. She loved it though! Daddy is very relaxing.

Such a Daddy's girl

During this whole time Jackson and I were cuddling, love it, love it!

Who can resist a close up of those cheeks!

Hunter said he wanted a picture of him doing homework, although he was just writing in a book. Notice his feety pajamas? He is so proud of them. He wanted me to make him some, ha ha, I am NOT that good. So I found these at Kid To Kid!!! I can barely get them off of him long enough to wash them :)

Lyssa and Hunter giving hugs.
Our tree looks bare, but I promise there is stuff on there. Hmm wonder why it doesn't show up, oh well. What a great night!

First time for everything...even Santa

2009-12-07T20:43:00.001-08:00

Notice Hunter's leaning away stance? And then his semi-nervous smile?

Alyssa was just trying to get away (as soon as she had her bag of candy, of course).

Jackson is bewildered...

Santa came to the kids' Christmas party at my Dad's house. It was strained, at least for my kids. Hunter went first and he was keeping his distance. He did warm up though. I guess he just needed to make sure Santa wasn't going to eat him or something. After he got down he came to me a said, "that was the first time I sat on Santa's lap". He was just a little proud of himself. Jackson was called next and if you know Jackson then you know that he pretty much loves everybody. Well, not Santa. He tolerated it fir about 30 seconds while he tried to figure out who this strange man was. Then his pouty lip came out and he got pretty sad (which is actually pretty cute to me). I figured that Alyssa could really go either way. She must have been in a bad mood, you can tell by the pictures. Right before she got called she saw everyone else had their candy canes and were eating them. She wanted one, but not enough to go to Santa willingly. I had to carry her over and hold her there so we could get a picture. No surprise, but she wouldn't even talk to him and tell him what she wanted, she just got her candy and ran.
It was fun to finally get pictures with Santa. I refuse to pay so my kids can sit on him and scream, so I guess that is why it has taken so long. Maybe now Hunter will like mascots a little more...

Princess on Ice

2009-12-07T09:22:00.000-08:00

Alyssa and I had a chance to go out, just the two of us. It was so fun to spend some one-on-one time with her! She has been getting into Princesses lately so we went to the Princess on Ice. She dressed up like a princess and everything. We took Jared's car and on the way Alyssa kept saying, "I love this Daddy's car". What a fun night it was!

Hunter and Alyssa having a conversation

2009-11-30T09:54:00.000-08:00

This was the conversation on the way to church yesterday...
Hunter, "What is that?"
Alyssa, "A booger."
Hunter, "Where did you get it?"
Alyssa, "My nose."
I really don't have anything else to say about that :)

JAIL

2009-11-21T18:15:00.000-08:00

Since Hunter was about 3 or 4 Jared and him have played "jail". The jail is our bed/our room. Whoever has been "bad" gets pretend handcuffs and sent to the jail. They have to stay there and think about what they did. Well whoever is in jail always escapes and it turns into a chasing game. Hunter has always loved it, he loves to tell Daddy (in his pretend mean voice) to "go to jail and don't come out!". Tonight they played with Lyssa, it was pretty funny! When it was Alyssa's turn to go to jail she would get her sad face on, but would do her time. When it was her turn to send the boys to jail, she would say (in the sweetest voice), "come on Daddy, time to go to jail". After walking them down the hall a couple times, I guess she decided that was too much. She started telling them it was time to go to jail, walk them just past the couch and then let them go the rest of the way by themselves. One time Daddy turned back around and she just looked at him and said, "GO!". Our kids have such fun with Jared and his silly games. They are so blessed to have him for their Daddy!

Funny things from the Meldrum children...

2009-11-18T08:24:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know this is a weird picture to start with. Everyone loves Jackson's natural mohawk. Some of us think it makes him look like Spike, though not quite as evil. Sorry about the bad picture, if you look close you can see Jackson's silly hair.

The kids have been doing some really funny things lately. I feel kinda bad because these are about Alyssa and Jackson, but with Hunter in school all day we don't get as many funny things from him. We miss him though.
Jackson first...He thinks everything that Alyssa does is funny! Yesterday we were sitting on the couch and Alyssa had the tape measure. She was pulling the tape out really high then letting it fall, wow Jackson was just busting up, he thought that was the best thing ever! Then a few days ago we were sitting just chilling and Alyssa's face was turned away from us. Every few seconds she would turn around and say "peek-a-boo" then go back to watching her cartoon. Of course Jackson was laughing at that, but when she would take too long (meaning maybe 5 seconds) to turn back to us he would make an uhhh sound to get her attention. It was really cute!
Now our little silly Alyssa's turn. She is potty trained, but still needs a diaper at night. The other night I was putting one on her and she gets a weird look on her face, then I smell something really nasty! I looked at her and asked her if she farted. Her response was, "no, it was just a widdle tiny baby fart". Need I say more? So today she wanted to play Candy Land and I asked her if we could clean up the rest of the toys first. "No I not clean up, sorry Mommy." WHAT, I don't think so! It was too cute though, I couldn't get mad:)
This last one kinda has to do with Hunter. Jared and Hunter went to a friends house to watch some football the other day. About five minutes after they left Alyssa comes to me and asks, "Mommy, when is Hunty gonna be home?", in her saddest voice. She was in my room watching a movie and usually Hunter is back there with her and they do silly things and play around. She really does miss having him around.

SYTYCD Tour season 5

2009-11-09T20:15:00.000-08:00

This was the BEST birthday present ever! Dixie, her Mom and I went to the tour this year. It was so fun! There were the top 12 instead of 10 this year. We had some amazing seats, thanks Dixie! We were the first actual stadium seats, not folding chairs, pretty good for $50. Here are some of the best moments...
---If you remember the Russian folk dance and how everyone hated it, well Jeanine and Phillip kept showing up onstage in their getup and tried to dance it, pretty funny! Then towards the end the whole group came out and did a revised version that was awesome!
---The Cancer Dance, Addiction Dance and Heart Necklace Dance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No words.
---Jason!!!!!
---The Bollywood, I love that dance now.
---Phillip!!!!
---The Salsa/hip-hop table dance, where the girls were slashing water while dancing on the table, love it!
---At the best....Jeanine and Jason's kiss at the end of the Heart dance!!!!
I would love to go every year, it was so fun! Oh and it lasted 3 hours! We thought maybe 1 1/2 hours, but no, we got 3! Thanks Babe for going against everything you believe in and telling Dixie to get the tickets... :) I love you!

I did 2 posts today, so look below for our fun Halloween!

Halloweenie!

2009-11-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

So we started off our Halloween festivities with some pumpkin carving a couple nights before Halloween.

Here is Hunter's pumpkin, for those who can't tell (because of my awesome carving skills) I put the real picture next to it. This is Bakugan Draganoid!

Alyssa is loving Mickey Mouse Clubhouse lately, so she wanted a Mickey Mouse pumpkin. Easy!

I chose Jackson's. We think he looks like Jack-Jack Attack and he has the perfect natural mohawk, so we made a Jack-Jack pumpkin, cute huh?

I love making fun food for the holidays, that really is my favorite part! So we made Jack-O-Lantern pancakes, Alyssa was so happy to get chocolate nilks (chocolate chips) for breakfast. Hunter has to do a funny face:)

Now we didn't actually have this lunch, dinner or dessert on Halloween, it just got too busy. We were put in charge of the Trunk or Treat the Sunday before, so that kinda messed up my whole plan. Don't worry, we made up for it the next day! Anyway lunch was Mummy Dogs! Yummy!

Dinner: Green guts, blood and eyeballs!

Witch's fingers for dessert!

The Princess, Fighter Pilot and Pumpkin are ready to Trick-or-Treat!

I don't know what a coffin is...

2009-11-01T12:13:00.000-08:00

I had to post this before I forgot.
Last night we went to our friends house to play games. Hunter loves when he is allowed to play also and we played Halloween Pictionary, so we figured he could play. He did really well and was a great help to the boy's team. On one of his turns he is drawing what looks like a tombstone. He draws it and adds a few details and no one is getting it, when he just puts the marker down and says, "ok that's all" and just waits for the boys to get it. Us girls decide to help him so we look at his word, it is coffin. Then he says, "I don't know what a coffin is, so I just drew that". We could not stop laughing, everyone thought he was so funny! I just love that kid! He is so fun to have around and now we have a new FHE game to play!

Diary of the Meldrum's.

2009-10-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

I haven't been taking very many pictures lately and I have it stuck in my head that I need pictures to blog...I don't know why. So I am going to do an update blog, this is what we have been up to....

Hunter--is loving first grade and having friends next door. He plays with his Bakugans a lot still. We have been looking into getting him into an advanced program in school, that kid is just too smart! If he doesn't already know what is being taught, then he usually has it down right away. Most of the advanced programs don't start until 3rd grade, so we will just have to work on some stuff at home. We are so proud of Hunter, he is a blessing to have around. It will be kinda tough if we actually have to teach a child to do something though:)
He is also the best big brother and is still great at entertaining the kids! Except when he said he would trade Alyssa for Neko (my Dad's dog). Or that we should trade Alyssa for Carter so that we could have all boys! :)

Alyssa-- is POTTY TRAINED!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow, two weeks ago I told my Dad that she would be in diapers until she was 10. That stubborn child just needs to be in charge. We have a few accidents here and there and she still wears diapers to bed, but all in all this is great! I told her that if she went poop in the big potty that she could get some ice cream. This just isn't any ice cream, because of her allergies she can only have sorbet and we can only get it at Baskin Robbins. So anyway she went poop and we went right out and got her that ice cream, well she seems to think that every time she goes poop she needs ice cream. At $2 a pop I might have to think up another goodie or prize. I am so excited to have only 1 in diapers now!
Alyssa has also shown what a wonderful sister she is. Jackson just adores her and she him. She will go over to tell him good morning, the rest of us don't get a "good morning", and he just lights up! Today she had her hood up and was spinning circles, whenever Jackson got a peek at her face he just laughed and laughed! I love to watch my kids interact and see how much they really care for each other, it is precious.

Jackson--Ahh my sweet baby! He is on a roll lately. His new tricks are rolling everywhere, spinning circles on his belly and sitting up, with a little help. It always amazes me when they get to this moving stage and you leave them in one place, come back a few minutes later and they are all the way across the room. You just think, wait-you can't walk or crawl yet, how did you get there? It is so much fun though! He loves to watch Alyssa or Hunter build towers/castles and then we let him knock them over. That could keep him busy all day. He LOVES to eat, what a pig he is! We have one of those mesh containers that you can put food in and they can gum it away. Well I put some apples in there tonight and he went to town! We haven't found anything that he doesn't like, I am thinking that he will eat anything.
We have had some really cute moments lately...I love when he falls asleep on me, I don't think there is a better feeling in the world than holding a sleeping baby. I was on the computer the other day and bouncing him on my leg and I look down at him and he is about out of it. I wanted to feed him so that he would sleep longer, so I set him down on the floor with Alyssa and Hunter making all kinds of noise around him, not even a minute later he was out! He has also developed a habit of falling asleep in his high chair. I put him in it while I cook dinner since he is getting pretty grumpy by that time and doesn't want to be left on the floor. I guess there is no future in the Food Network for me, I must be a pretty boring cook. I will look over and he is sleeping so soundly. What a good end to our babies, he is amazing!

Jared and Tracy--I don't think there is much going on with us. We did get new callings....we are the ward activities chairpeople or whatever you call it. I am excited to have a calling with Jared. We have had a couple together before, first Primary teachers back when we were first married and then Webelos. I didn't have a clue about the Webelos stuff and we have had so many more years of working together on things since we were teachers. I think we will do a great job and get to know more of our ward.
Jared is almost all healed from his ACL surgery. He gets to go back to full duty at work in about a month. I think he is really looking forward to playing sports again. Plans are already being made for spring time basketball and tennis. I think he is even planning a racquetball "brother-date" for this winter. I feel like he is really in his element being a Dad to our three. He is great with them, much more patient than me! I could learn a thing or two, I hope he doesn't read that. :) I love that Jared takes care of our family so well and that we are able to teach our kids the value of that. It doesn't matter how much stuff we have, as long as we are all trying our best to make our family work. I can't believe it it has been almost 10 years since we met! Time flies when you are having fun!
Let's see, I am just staying really busy with the "womenly jobs" of our calling, helping out at Hunter's school, trying to sell toys and getting past Halloween so that we can get past Thanksgiving so that we can get past Christmas. :) I know that sounds bad, but I really do love this time of year. I have so many fun ideas for each of the holidays and so I get myself overloaded a bit. I love to try and make these times memorable for the kids. I need to remember to slow down a bit and that would probably help with my little patience problem.

All in all life is great and we are thankful to be living it together!

Pink!!!!!!

2009-10-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

About 3 months

About 5 months

1 year

18 months

2 years

2 1/2 years
"Pink! That's my favorite name!". -Alyssa

Hunter's Party!!!!!!!

2009-10-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

The obstacle course started out Hunter's birthday this year. Here is how it went...they had to walk across this water noodle...

then jump in and out of the basket...

crawl through the crawl tube (thanks Katie!)

slide down the mini slide...

hopscotch!

finally they threw the ball into the basket.

Here they are starting the course. We timed them and gave out prizes to the fastest ones.

Hunter got the slowest time because I made him stop so I could get this picture:)

The obstacle course was a hit! The kids kept going back to it and doing it all over again, they loved it!

We also played some flag basketball, they put flags in their pockets and had to try and steal the other ones while they were dribbling the ball.

Hunter being silly while opening presents:)

Basketball cake!
This year was Hunter's first ever friend party so we wanted him to have a lot of fun with his friends. He chose the basketball theme, helped me design the invitations (they were tickets to a b-ball game), and picked the kind of cake he wanted me to make. I think for a friend party with a bunch of crazy boys running around it went really well. Not to mention he made out like a bandit with the Bakugans! Wow our baby is 7! Happy Birthday Hunter!

7 YEARS!

2009-09-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

Here are some of my favorite memories of Hunter over the last 7 years. I still clearly remember the doctor laying Hunter on my chest when he was born. As soon as I took my first look at him all I could think was that he looked so familiar, like I had known him for forever. He was a sweet baby, always easy to comfort, it usually just took a hug and he was fine. We had so much fun together. I would sit on the couch and read a book while he was laying on a pillow on my lap, he was so content! I remember that I cried when I put his 0-3 month clothes away, I couldn't believe he had grown that much already.
The toddler years seemed hard with him at the time, but I look back on them now and realize that they were some of the best times. When Jared and I would sit down at night and watch tv together, Hunter would always snuggle up next to me and fall asleep. The couch was always our napping place, I miss that, he is too big now:(. Hunter started calling Daddy, Da-eee. He still does to this day, the d's don't quite make it in. He has always been such a funny kid, always doing something that made us laugh.
Hunter loves to learn and I guess it comes natural to him. We would sit and I would try teaching him things, he always thought it was a game, maybe that it why he likes it. I remember when we dropped off his registration money for his preschool. He was so upset that he couldn't stay and that he had to wait ALL summer to go back. That was new for me since he had always been so clingy. When he finally started going his teacher would have to remind him several times (in the 2 hours he was there) that I would be back. I was always so excited to go get him, the house was lonely without him there.
Hunter has just recently started going over to our neighbors house to play with his friends. It is tough trying to get him to come home, he prefers his friends over us now;). I am glad he has good friends though, and that he is able to experience that.
Cows, Diggers, Godzilla/dinosaurs, Bakugan. These have been his toy obsessions. Cows were when he was a baby/toddler. Anything cow-ish and he would freak out. He loved to come grocery shopping with me because there were cow pictures above the milk. Diggers came next, we would see them all the time while I was a crossing guard. Godzilla was Daddy's doing. He bought Hunter all the old movies for Christmas one year and that is where it started. That is all he wanted for about 3 years, I think. His new thing is Bakugans, these little balls that you roll over magnetic cards and they pop open into some type of weird animal. It is the new craze among 6-10 year olds.
Hunter is the BEST big brother! My favorite moments are when he is playing with Alyssa or Jackson because he wants to, not because I asked him to. He is always watching out for them and trying to make them happy. The other kids are lucky to have such a wonderful brother who loves them so much.
Jared and I are so blessed to have Hunter as our son. He keeps us laughing and is so caring towards others. We love you Hunter-Happy 7th birthday!

Fire Girl

2009-09-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

I know you are probably all thinking what an amazing artist I am, I know I know. It really is great, huh? Today during Sacrament meeting Alyssa wanted me to draw a picture of her, we do this every Sunday. I drew the body, arms, legs, face and pony tails. She always gets excited and says, "that's Lyssy". Then today I started to squiggle on some curly hair, she looks at me and in the most shocked voice says..."I'M ON FIRE?!". Yes it was a yell, in the middle of Sacrament. So I start laughing and I am trying my hardest not to laugh out loud. I was shaking and tears were coming out of my eyes. The missionaries behind us probably thought I was crazy:)

She does things her own way...

2009-09-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

I was feeding Jackson yesterday and was really hot so I asked Alyssa to turn on the ceiling fan. She grabbed a wooden spoon that she had taken out of the kitchen and said, "Oh I need this". So I am thinking she will use it to push the switch up, since she is not tall enough, I was wrong. She puts the spoon on the ground by the switch and stands on it! It made her just tall enough to reach the switch by herself, not sure how she figured that one out...maybe she is a genius!

Just like Papa

2009-09-08T12:24:00.000-07:00

The other day our very favorite friend, Ashley (sorry to all our other very favorite friends:)) told us that she thought Jackson looked just like my Dad. Since then a ton of other people have started saying the same thing, so we got the pictures out and sure enough they look identical! The pictures above are of Dad in his Levi's, he still has them, and I think every baby in the family has tried them on. You can see Jackson is modeling them above, I had to get a bum shot, it is too cute.

Here a just a few pictures that I thought looked a lot like Jackson.

Sweet sleepers.

I guess we chose the perfect name!

Unibrow

2009-09-08T12:06:00.000-07:00

We were at Jared's sister's house the other night and we somehow got on the topic of unibrows, don't ask me how. Someone asked Hunter if he was going to marry a girl with a unibrow and he told us yes. So I told him that he didn't even know what a unibrow was. He responds, "Yes I do! It is when you have a mustache on your forehead." He can explain things in the funniest way. Girls, don't feel bad about your unibrow, Hunter likes them, I guess.

Comic relief from a toddler

2009-09-04T11:27:00.000-07:00

Last night as I was making dinner (at 8pm, gasp, I know!) I said, "I am so hungry I am going to freakin die!". Alyssa then responds to me saying, "don't freakin die Mommy". I am once again thankful that I am not a swearer or I would be in a lot of trouble.
Another moment from the queen of funny...This may be too much info for some of you, but little Jackson sometimes needs a bit of help pooping. Well today Alyssa had her baby and was holding it's legs up in the air and telling it to PUSH! I think she may be a bit confused at how the world really works, oh well it makes for a great memory;).
P.S. Just for us to remember, "I yike Hunty, I yike Hunty!

My first day of First Grade!

2009-08-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

HUNTER'S FIRST BLOG!
Hunter is a dorkfish when he has a cupcake in his hand. (Hunter)
The night before school started we made Back To School cupcakes! (Mommy)

I like my school desk. My teacher's name is Mr. Abel, he is awesome!

Today is the first time I ate lunch at school. I had ham, green beans, a piece of cake and yogurt.
Hunter brought the yogurt home in his backpack, thinking it was applesauce. Yeah, we had to throw it away. (Mommy)

After school we went to McDonald's for dinner. I got to play basketball.

I went in the bubble.

Silly Daddy...Silly Hunter...Silly Lyssy!
When I got to school Mommy helped me find my class. I found my desk and sat at it. Class started and I was really excited. We talked about ourselves before we went to our first recess. It rained during recess and all the kids stayed under trees. There is a boy in my class that has a robot leg, because when he was born, he had a bad leg. We went to get our food, it was awesome, I got to choose whatever I wanted. After lunch I went to a SUNNY recess, we were playing around on the toys, and of course on the monkey bars. When we got into our class we sat down at our desks and we watched The Magic School Bus. Then we got our backpacks then we went home. I love being in first grade, it is fun being in school all day! Love, HUNTER

Riding bikes, popsicles and bubbles!

2009-08-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

This summer Hunter taught himself how to ride a bike without training wheels.

First I caught him trying to ride one INSIDE Kid To Kid, we stopped that pretty quick. Then he was outside playing with some friends and Jared looks out the window and there is Hunter riding all by himself! By the next day he looked like he had been riding for years, he was pretty proud of himself:).

Jackson's favorite (and only) treat is popsicles. He loves them! Especially now that he is teething, they help his little gums feel better. Notice his hand...he is concentrating really hard on that thing:)

Lyssa + bubbles = happy girl = happy Mommy

***More happiness***

Fun at the Cabin!

2009-08-22T13:24:00.001-07:00

Fun while Daddy was gone

2009-08-12T21:29:00.001-07:00

We had some fun while Daddy was gone. Our first day we ate everything on a stick, the next day was pizza dough, for breakfast we had doughnuts at home, no picture, we were too busy eating them. The third day was sushi day, everything rolled like sushi. It was fun. Not too many pictures of Jackson, he was battling thrush and teething. He loves those popsicles though. The last pictures is of us at the Sweet's Candy Factory, we went and took a tour, lots of fun. It was nice to keep the kids busy so they didn't miss Jared so much.

Bye, bye Daddy

2009-08-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

Jared took a trip to Texas for some work training, here we are saying goodbye at the airport. We barely survived that week!

Alyssa didn't know what was going on so she was just having fun. Hunter was pretty sad to be without Daddy for so long.

A piece of a prophet...

2009-08-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, Jared had surgery yesterday (pictures to come). He had to have part of a cadaver tendon mixed with his and we were telling Hunter about it. He asked what a cadaver graft was and we told him it was from someone who had died. Well he thought about if for a few seconds and then asked, "like President Hinckley?"! LOL

Out of the mouth of a 2-year-old...

2009-08-04T20:05:00.000-07:00

For those of you who hang out with toddlers, you know they say some pretty funny things. Alyssa totally talks like an adult sometimes, so today a wrote down a couple of the funny things she said.
On the way to McKay this morning we were going up the tiniest hill and she throws her arms up in the air and says, "weeeee we going up a hill!".
Since Jared left she has been asking me constantly, "Mommy, where Daddy go? Oh yeah to Texas, on a airplane."
This one is my fault and I can admit it, it just so cute when kids say things they really shouldn't (does that make me a bad Mom?). All day today, anytime anything happened she would say, "Holy Crap!". I know, a little too young, but kinda cute. :)
Finally at night when we put her to bed she likes us to leave her door open and she ALWAYS needs to remind us of that. So tonight I was saying goodnight and she says, "leave my... wait a minute, uhhhh, oh yeah, leave my door open".
I just love having a toddler around, they make everything a little bit funnier:).

Half Full

2009-07-31T08:31:00.000-07:00

So I was just looking around some other blogs and there is a "positive thing" going around today. I guess so we can remember all the wonderful things in our lives, rather than everything that is going wrong. This came at just the right time. I just sent the kids downstairs because they were annoying me, just one of those mornings.
I am going to start with Jared, he is absolutely without a doubt the best husband in the world. We are best friends and I am so thankful for that, he is the funniest person I know! He works so hard to provide for our needs and never complains about it being all on him, he is such a good example for the kids. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH! On top of being such an awesome husband he is also the greatest DAD in the world! Our kids adore him; Hunter follows his every move, Alyssa has starry eyes for him and Jackson just talks and talks to him (can't forget the endless smiles he gives to Daddy). Our children are so blessed!
Our kids...The reason we keep going and try our best in everything we do. I remember all I ever wanted to do was be a wife and mother, so how can I not be so grateful, I am living my dream. It is better than I ever imagined! The rough days are nothing compared to the great times. Hunter is the best kid, he is so great at being the big brother. He loves Alyssa and Jackson and always, well almost always has time to make them happy or play with them. Alyssa bring so much happiness into our home, (I think toddlers do that), she copies everything that Hunter does and loves to cuddle/smother Jackson. Jackson is our little gift from heaven right now. He loves everyone! He usually will smile at anyone and he always has a smile for Hunter, even if Hunter isn't even looking at him. I know that each of our children were meant to come into our family. It is great to know that even though we are not perfect as individuals, we are a perfect family unit.
I am grateful to have faith and a knowledge of Heavenly Father and Jesus. At times that is all that kept me going. What a wonderful gift to have a HF who loves me no matter what! I am thankful for family and friends who love and support us despite our faults. LIFE IS TOO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cupcakes and the sleeping cutie...

2009-07-22T21:07:00.002-07:00

Aren't these cupcakes cute?! I made them to give to some sister's in my ward who helped out with Enrichment Night. We did an "8 Cow Woman" night so I made cow cupcakes for them. I love making fun cupcakes lately!

Ohhhh he is just too cute. This is his favorite way to sleep, he cuddles a blanket and snuggles his face into it. I just have to place the blanket there and give him his binky and he is out. So precious!

The many faces of Jackson...

2009-07-22T21:07:00.001-07:00

Fun with the cousins.

2009-07-22T20:46:00.000-07:00

Alyssa not very happy about having the goggles on. Everyone of the kids put these on and had to have me take them off for them. No learning by example here.

Silly Aidan

We watched Sadee and Aidan for a few hours this week. We decided to have some fun in the little pool and have som lunch outside.

Alyssa went to town on the oranges, she was enjoying herself.

Hunter ate his ramen noodles scooped on top of apple slices, you never know what they are gonna think is good.

We used fingers, Sadee was having fun.

I ran out of sunscreen, so they all had to wear Hunter's white shirts.

Aidan going down the slide!

My fat little baby...

2009-07-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would let everyone know just how HUGE my little guy is. He got weighed yesterday and he is 16lbs 12oz! That is just 3lbs shy of what Hunter was when he turned1. His 4 month check-up is in a couple of weeks, we will see how much he gain by then. My guess is 10lbs...