Future Design Star! (In my dreams)

So I am going to brag for a little bit and maybe this will explain my absence of blogging. We are trying to get our house ready to sell and on the market. Jake and I are incapable of moving into a house and doing nothing to it. We immediately start looking at where we can knock down walls. Some things we had already done, and some we started just to make the house look good for selling. We were worried that we would lose money on the house since we have only been here a year and a half and the market is bad. So we thought that if we put in some sweat equity it would help. Only time will tell. Your house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. So here's a few of my projects that we've been working on. A lot of it was started and worked on while Jake was here and I have been doing all the finishing touches. Above is my family picture wall. It was a big blank wall that we couldn't put any furniture against because it is also a narrow walkway. So That was my idea and I like it. Below is also my own pet project. It was a tree ring that had a stump and weeds in it. So I (with Jake's help) dug it all out and filled the bottom with gravel then I (on my own I might add) put two additional rings of bricks with matching bricks that were stacked under the deck. Now we have a fireplace. I have added seating and such as well.

This is the view to the side of the front door. It is our sitting room/office and you can see into the dining room. What you don't see is a huge giant custom bookcase that we got when we thought we were going to live here forever. It surrounds our piano. And the desk is in the other corner with cabinets above. I like it. I prefer an office out in the open and not in a closed room. That's just me. We painted this pretty much right after we moved in.

This is our biggest project ever and it is done as of TODAY!!! It was pretty bad before. It had retro-brown cultured marble tub surround and sink. With matching floors and cabinets to boot. When we started we had no idea how big of a project it would be. Due to a major mold problem that was not disclosed we ended up ripping out most of the drywall and some of the insulation, not to mention the floors, marble, and cabinets. We gutted the place. That tiling was done by Jake and I (I was the official tile cutter) and all of the plumbing, cabinets, counter tops, and even the toilet is new. After a week without being able to shower in my house I took a shower in it today!! YAY! It works! Don't worry we have been bathing at friend's houses. My other shower is not quite functioning yet though.
So that is our handywork. And my only finished things at this moment. I have one week left. Let's see if I can do it!!! Keep your fingers crossed.

Two Books

I had previously joined the two book groups because I had gone to both and couldn't decide between them. This month one group read 'The Count of Monte Cristo' which I decided to read first because I had picked 'Three Cups of Tea' for the other group and was to lead the discussion so I wanted it to be fresh in my mind. this turned out to be a mistake because 'The Count of Monte Cristo' turned out to be a VERY long book. It is my fault for getting the unabridged version, not realizing just how long it was since I got it on audio on my ipod. I had to have a rush of listening and listen to 'Three Cups of Tea' in 2 days, barely finishing it 30 minutes before the club was to meet. I thought I'd give a little review of the books for those who are interested.

1. The Count of Monte Cristo- Very good, but VERY long. Longer than I thought it would be. And even though it was long I still kind of felt like it ended abruptly. There was just so much story ingeniously woven together that it took a long time to get through. Definitely Dumas' greatest work IMO. It gets a bit sinister, but it is an awesome story. I think everyone knows or has heard the story, but you would never know how complex this twisting, turning plot is unless you read the book. No movie could ever do it justice. Though it is long, you won't feel like it drags on, it continues to be a nail-biting page turner to the very end. If you like action, you'll like this one.

2. Three Cups of Tea- Awe inspiring. This is a life-changing true story of the difference one man is making in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I think every American should read this book and see a different view of how to fight 'The war on Terror.' What struck me most was the love this man has for those people. Such hatred is being cultivated in America towards muslims and it is really sad to put them all under the same umbrella. This book makes you want to get up and do something and make a difference. It made me feel so insignificant and feel like I needed some loftier goals to work towards. I really recommend this book, especially in the political climate we have in our country.

One More from Lyla

This was the other day while we were at the store:

Lyla- Mom can sometimes kids wear a swimsuit with booby holders?
me- What?!
Lyla- You know the swimsuits that just have booby holders and panties.
me- not my kids.

Funny Sayings

I have some very talkative girls. Jaxon talks a lot, but he still mostly just jibber-jabbers. My girls are non-stop talkers so I thought I'd share some of the funny things they have been saying lately.

Lyla- Mom, were you ever a baby?
me- yes, we all were
Lyla- was it 100 years ago?
me- no I'm not that old
Lyla- 65 years ago?
me- Lyla I'm not that old
Lyla- But you look really old to me
me - Thanks Lyla

Lyla to Mckayla- Do you want some of my french fries?
Mckayla- No, I don't like french fries.
Lyla- Yes you do, you always like french fries.
Mckayla- No I don't like them anymore
Lyla-Why?
Mckayla- They're too Frenchy.

I had a bunch of things I wanted to write, but now that I sit down to write something I am drawing a blank. Look for a second installment another time.

PS.

PS. It is not that late here. It is barely 11:00, the blogger thing always says that it is super late when I post, but it's not. I am not much of a night owl anymore and I am off to bed right now. It must be on EST or something and I don't know how to change it. Any suggestions?

Lost Lost Lost

So I have spent all day continually searching for the Jetta key. I took the seats out of the van to transport stuff to Kyle and Hana's garage and had used the jetta for errands. Anyways I was going to go grocery shopping yesterday but I couldn't find the Jetta key. And though I had the van key and the van was empty, Kailey's seat was locked inside the jetta. I have cleaned house continually and worked and cleaned all the while looking for the key. I was able to get the girls a ride to school this morning with the Williamsons, but I really don't like to ask favors. Anyways, I had looked everywhere I could possibly think it would be. I was really frustrated and I knew I could not sleep tonight without finding it because it was driving me insane as to where is could be. I said a prayer asking for help (which I should have done right from the start) and began to look again. Not 10 minutes later I found it. It was a very clear answer to my prayer. We have a blue jar on our counter that is supposed to be a cookie jar, but as cookies don't last long enough at our house to be put into a jar, it is where we always throw our loose change. I don't even remember thinking that I should look in the change jar but I just lifted the lid without thinking and saw 2 lemons in there. This of course led me to reach in and pull out an array of things: lemons, candy, a straw, a small toy car, and the KEY!! Yay! I wonder how the key got in there? I just am totally confounded. It must have sprung legs. I guess we'll never never know.

The frustrating thing about politics

I voted yesterday in our local battle. There was only one thing on the ballot. A yes or no to a budget override for the school district. Because of budget problems at the state level our school district has lost over 1.5 million dollars in funding and has done drastic things like firing all art, music, and pe teachers, making schools share librarians, counselors and nurses, and shorter school days. Now the vote is to cut funding to the schools even more. It makes me so mad. There was a smear campaign saying that this would cost tons of money to everyone and the school district is just irresponsible, etc. But the truth is that this would just ensure that the appropriate tax dollars make it to the schools and it makes education the priority (as it should be).
Anyways. We lost. The schools will suffer even more.
I think there are 2 parties responsible for this. 1 - the retirees. You may think I am stereotyping and am being unfair, but they will vote down funding for the schools every time. The proof was when I went and stood in a very short line to vote I didn't not see a single person there without a significant amount of gray hairs on their head. From the time I got out of my car, till the time we drove off. I was the only person who was not a senior citizen. I had a few pro-override signs in my yard that kept getting pulled up and thrown down. And who is walking their dogs down the sidewalk day and night? Senior citizens. I don't know why they think it will benefit them to have crappy schools.
But who is really responsible? And what is so frustrating about politics? THE PARENTS!!!! Why weren't they at the polls!!! I have heard so many complaints from parents, and the principle sent out a newletter explaining the changes and how they were out of her control because of the complaints she had had. But yet, these parents didn't go out and vote! There were less than 8000 votes total and it was 57% to 41%. I know that doesn't add up and I am not sure how there can be a gray area in a "mark yes or no" vote. I was standing outside with our PTSO president who was trying to catch parents during the parent teachers conferences last week to hand out fliers with override information. He said that at least 70% of the parents had no idea what was going on and didn't want to stop and talk about it. This is for your kids! You need to talk about it! There was one guy who went by and TJ caught him to give a flier and he briefly explained what the whole thing was about. The guy had no idea. He wanted the school to get the programs back and to have regular school days again, but he had no idea. How can you not know!!!!?! There are signs posted on every corner of the city. You can't drive to the grocery store without seeing at least 20 yes or no signs. And the bigger clue... Your kids! You'd think that they would want to know what was going on when so many changes are made at your own kids school. You'd also think that more would get out and vote on an issue that has such a clear, distinct impact on their lives. But no.
After all the signs posted, fliers handed out, phone calls made, speeches given, we still lost. That is frustrating. It just seems like no matter how hard you work people still don't care and there is nothing you can do about it. They want the changes but still won't take the time to go to the polls. It makes me so mad. It just makes it all seem pointless. I hope the community we are moving to has better support for schools and more involvement in government. We'll see.
There is my opinionated rant for the next little while. I should do this more often.

I think it's Fall!! Oh wait, maybe not.

Last week we had to put a hold on some of our outdoor projects because we had a cold front move in. It was a shocker since we had been swimming only the week before. It was chilly enough that I had to go the store and buy jackets for all of my kids after I realized that we didn't own any jackets or sweaters for any of our kids. I still haven't gotten much more than light jackets because they just don't sell thick warm winter clothes here. I thought we had finally hit the start of fall weather. I felt like we needed jackets in the morning on the way to school though by the afternoons we are in T-shirts again. However, it warmed up again by Halloween. I made everyone wear jackets and sweaters under their costumes, thinking it would get cold as the sun went down. But everyone was stripping down after a short while. And today we were dying in the car on our ride home from the airport without air conditioning. It is crazy how much warmer Tucson is than us when it is so close. This week fall is officially gone again because we have record high temps. It's okay because we are enjoying getting to spend as much time outside as possible.

Hold the Roadtrips please...

My family has started to have a tradition of getting together (as many of us as possible) on Thanksgiving and leaving Christmas for other gatherings. Last year many of my family members made a huge effort to drive all of the way down here to Sierra Vista to spend Thanksgiving with us. This year my mom is hosting thanksgiving. I had been thinking for a very long time that that was where we would be spending thanksgiving this year. However, I am not so sure now. We took Jake to the airport this morning and after spending some time with him and saying our good-byes we stopped at a drive through right outside the airport for some munchies. Just 10 minutes after getting onto the highway Kailey is screaming because she is hungry too. So I pull off onto the access road for some privacy while feeding her. During which time Lyla decides she needs to potty. Since we are near the outskirts of Tucson there is only a ghetto Circle K. I needed gas and air, but after getting all of the kids out of the car and taking them inside we discover they don't have any public bathrooms and there are no gas stations nearby. I didn't want to drive back into Tucson, but Lyla decided she didn't really have to go potty and she was just kidding. Then 30 minutes later she can't wait and we are in the middle of nowhere. I pull off onto a Ranch Road exit and she has to pee in the dirt. By the time we get to Benson (the exit on the interstate that is about 30 miles from Sierra Vista and the half-way point to Tucson) it had been over an hour since leaving the airport. I took the van out of cruise control to stop at the exit and it started making scary noises and refused to accelerate. I was able to pull over and had to get out and check it out (not that I could have done anything). When I started it up again whatever happened stopped and we went on our way. By the time we got home we had taken over 2 hours on a drive that is usually just over an hour! I am not feeling confident about going on a mong car ride anywhere right now. Especially in our van that would probably not make it. Suggestions anyone?

Happy Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. It really started last weekend when we went to our Stake wide Fall Family Fun Fest. It was a huge event. My biggest complaint is that it did not go long enough. We didn't get to do everything. The girls sang in the talent show, they got their faces painted, got snow cones, cotton candy, played various games, played on the jumping castles, and (last but not least) I won Second place in the chili cookoff!!!! And just so you know how extremely huge this cookoff was, there was at least 50 crockpots of chili and I was 2nd place! Just to brag a bit. Anyways, on Friday the 30th Jake and I went to a grown-ups halloween party that was really fun. We ate food and played Bunco, which is now one of my favorite big group games to play. And on Saturday we went to the trunk or treat at the church then went trick or treating a little bit and went to a halloween party to top it all off. So can anyone guess what we were?
Maybe Jaxon was buckwheat......

Or maybe Kailey was a baby Dora...

Maybe Mckayla was Tina Turner with Lyla as Lady Gaga....

We bobbed for apples at the party, but after Jaxon touched the water a couple of times with his nose he discovered the real trick to getting the apples out of the water. At least he did try to get one with his mouth.

Lyla got hers without ever getting wet at all.

Mckayla managed not to get wet either. I don't think they get the point of boobing for apples.

Here's your next Halloween costume hint. Kailey is playing the perfect part in....

Any guesses?

Got it yet?

The Pacheco Family Mariachi band!!! Ey yie yie!!!

7 years and going strong!!!

Last monday Jake and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. We kept it small this year because of all of the projects we have going and the kids to take care of. But it was a special anniversary because for the first time we are in the city we were married in on our anniversary. We decided to take a walk through memory lane and we went out to breakfast at the little restaurant that we had our wedding breakfast at. Later in the day we left our kids with some awesome friends and took off to Tucson. Jake had written a bunch of things to do on papers and put them into a hat for me to draw out of. Lucky for him, I picked out the Pima Air and Space museum. Jake has always wanted to go there and he is a sucker for things like that. He wants to take a picture of every airplane and read every thing about it. It reminds me a lot of my dad in that way. But since we did an event that Jake wanted we ate at my favorite restaurant, The Melting Pot, and then headed home. It was simple but wonderful. It was so nice to get to go spend some time as just the two of us. We rarely get to go out together alone. I love our kids, but this date was long overdue.


I just wanted to say that I have the best husband ever. He is so supportive and he works so hard. He is a very awesome dad. We find ways that we compliment each other every day. It is not something that I can explain. I think everyone feels this way about their marriages (or at least I hope they do), but Jake and I have something special. At first we felt so opposite from each other and now it just feels like our differences work so well together. Sorry for the sappiness, but it was our anniversary, so I am entitled to it.

Today, one week after our anniversary, we said good-bye to Jake for the next unknown while. Though he has had several trips to Iraq this is his first to Afghanistan. Hopefully it will be short but I will believe that when I see it. The kids and I took him to the airport this morning and he is already half-way around the world. We miss him already. I love you honey!!!

Kailey's first word

I think this video speaks for itself. I just had to share my cute baby with y'all.

Stereotypes

Jake and I have decided that we have very stereotypical children in many different ways. Starting with our twin girls, they are ALL girl. They were born loving pretty pink and purple things and loving to play princesses, barbies, baby dolls, etc. They both are very sensitive and loving to their younger siblings. They are also stereotypical big sisters. They are the bosses of the house and love to be little mommies to Kailey and (much to his dismay) Jaxon. They are typical twins that people can't tell apart, opposite in some ways, but identical in many many others. They are best friends and rarely fight with each other. They often finish each other's sentences and complete each other's thoughts. They have just discovered the power they have in looking alike. Once a day after doing laundry they came out both wearing exactly what the other had worn the day before. They were beside themselves with a sneaky glee because they were excited to trick everyone into messing them up. I don't know if they've figured out that they don't need to switch clothes to trick people into mixing them up.
Jaxon is ALL boy. Before we ever thought he was old enough to care about boy-themed toys he would crawl into his big sister's room and steal the pink barbie car and push it as he crawled around making car sounds. He LOVES cars. He is obsessive about cars. He tries constantly to find new ways to inflict bodily injury on himself. He also is a stereotypical 2 year old. I don't ever remember my girls being this bad. He is able to make giant disasters in mere seconds and throw a fit about the tiniest things around him. Yesterday we were getting ready for church and I got him all cute in his shirt and tie. It was closing in on time to go so I went in to get my makeup on. He comes in only 2 minutes later with raspberry jam from head to toe. So we had to completely change his outfit and wash him off. Jake was getting the church bag ready and getting Kailey ready as I went to finish my half-done makeup job. When we headed out to the door we turned the corner of the kitchen to see Jaxon laying on the floor in the middle of a puddle of sprinkles he had poured out licking them off of the floor. Thus, we had to clean him off again and be very late for church. Some days he just drives me crazy, but he is still as cute as they come. He is also the stereotypical little brother. Jake and I laugh at how well he knows to push every single one of his older sisters buttons. They are always fighting and he is always finding new ways to drive them nuts. He is also a very protective older brother to Kailey. It is so cute how he adores her and she him. I am not sure why he is so mean to Mckayla and Lyla and so loving to Kailey. Just instinct I guess. And Kailey is just cute. She is so happy and we just love her. She has discovered her voice and we've never heard the end of it. I just love them all and I wanted to share that for no reason.

Kailey's Laugh

Kailey is a really happy baby. She is always smiling and laughing, and as soon as she discovered her voice box we never heard the end of it. She is always making cute happy little baby sounds. No one can make her laugh as much as Jaxon. They seem to have a special bond because she lights up whenever he is around. Here is a short video of Jaxon playing with her. He was doing his little thing to make her laugh and she was just cracking up, but of course, when I grabbed the camera to catch it, they stopped.

Book Reviews

I know it seems weird that I have gotten to read so much this summer, but I am a huge audiobook listener. I like to listen to audiobooks when we travel because it makes time fly and helps to keep me from getting motion sickness. I also like to listen when I am working around the house. It makes me more motivated to go and work because I can't wait to hear what happens next. I have been trying to read a lot of what most consider to be "classic literature" because I want to keep my mind working while I am not in school. Here is a rundown of some of my most recent reads:

"The Woman in White" - Very Awesome. Not on every classic literature list, but on some. This is one that my book club picked out to read over the summer break because it is very very long. It is considered to be the first mystery. It is told like an investigation. There is a combination of many different narrorator's accounts of a series of events that all combine together to reveal one thing. I'd highly recommend that one to anyone. The language is a bit hard to get into at first, but if you stick with it you'll love it.

"The Odyssey" - The coolest thing about this book is the author. It is beyond me that a story or book could survive for so long. It is debated as to when Homer lived, but it is believed that it was at least 600 B.C. I think it is crazy that we have other quotes, poems, stories and philosophies from ancient Greece. There are many different translations of this story though, but I think the overall story would be the same. I read the translation by W.H.D Rouse which in itself is over 100 years old. It is written in the form of the long poems that tell a story like "Beowolf". I had to read that one for school one time and I can't help but see all of the similarities. It is action-packed and filled with lots of blood and gore and love. But not written as graphically as people write today. It is written very matter-of-factly with lots of indifference to human life. But I think it is a classic because you come out knowing not only about every Greek God & Goddess but their own story and their personality which I thought was interesting. It was a lesson on mythology (which, by the way, I am not sure why that is considered a valuable subject, though interesting) and astrology. It was a good ancient story and I liked it. But I probably won't read it a second time. I think everyone should read it once though.

"The Great Gatsby" - I have to say that though I liked this book; I am not sure why it is considered a classic. I think that most classics are educational in some way. Though this is a pretty good story and is well written, I couldn't see the educational value. Maybe it is just me. Also, I didn't think that Gatsby should qualify as a "Great", in fact I thought he was kindof an idiot. So that one puzzled me. Still, it was a good story, but pretty slow and when it ended I went, "that's it?" Not highly recommended by me. Any thoughts on that one?

"The Jungle" - I really wanted to read this one because it is considered to be one of the most influential books in American history. I knew that this book was a hit to the meat industry in 1905. This book single-handledly made our country start the FDA. That is pretty amazing. What I didn't know is that That is not what the book is about. Sure, he talks about the meat industry in pretty gory detail, but he really was making a huge case for socialism. I am a pretty staunch believer in limited government and free markets, but half-way through this book you are asking where the communist party meets. It is pretty powerful. I read a quote, though I can't find who it's by, but they said "Sinclair wrote this book to hit America in the heart, but he ended up hitting her in the stomach." I read that he does acknowledge that he missed his original intentions and the ending of the book falls really short of the rest of the story. The last few chapters of the book are an all-out propaganda case for socialism. That's where he lost me. I thought it was interesting to have it all spelled out like that, but the story was more convincing than the lecture at the end. What I loved about this book is that it is such a vivid picture of how people lived in Chicago in 1905. It is so capivating as it shows all the gruesome details of that life. But, by showing that way of life he really does expose the issues with capitalism run rampant without any sortof checks or balances. The terrible things happening in the food industry were just one of the fall-outs of a completely corrupted government from top to bottom. It was really sad, depressing, and almost hard to read. But I think this is a book that everyone should read. It is extremely powerful and very well written. It is the polar opposite of "1984" which I read last summer. Both are powerfully convincing in their cases, but I can't help but think there has to be a middle ground somewhere.

I have just started "The Lost Symbol" and so far it does not disappoint. I am a big Dan Brown fan, so I was super excited for this one to come out. I am not excited about either book that my book clubs are reading this month. They seem a bit too light and fluffy compared to what I have been reading. But I will read them just the same. That is the whole point of being part of a book club is reading things that you would never have picked out yourself. It has broadened my horizons. Anyways, that post was a novel (get it?), but it is raining outside so some of my projects are on hold right now anyways.

Busy Busy

I almost feel guilty for posting because we have a lot of things we are working on and I hate to be spending time at the computer instead of working. But this is the only attempt at journaling that I do, and I want to keep it fairly up to date. We have begun our home renovations. And, as is always the way with renovations, each little project turns into a big project. Our house is 40 years old so there are bound to be issues underneath the surface. We decided to update the bathrooms. At first we were just going to resurface the countertops and shower and strip the cabinets and restain them. But we started srtipping the cabinets and discovered that they were unstainable (the paint hides many things), and there were so many different coats of paint on them that stripping all of it was out of the question. So we broke down and spent money on new cabinets for the bathroom. Taking advantage of a 20% off instock cabinetry sale. After scraping the old dated tile off the floors we discovered mold in the walls. So we had to take out a lot of the drywall in the bathroom too. And when we took the toilet out the lid got broken and we haven't found where to buy just a tank lid and not a whole new toilet. We knew we'd have to invest some money in this project, but we didn't want to spend a lot because we felt that was too risky. Right now our bathroom is gutted, but we have gotten the new tile floors down (to Jake's credit). I have finished painting all of the wood deck railing and fencing and am starting painting on the shed and entryway. What has made a lot of this hard is that Jake has been working a lot. They have a big project that they have to get done at work and it has required him to work every weekend this month, there goes any and all time he could spend on the house. BUT he has this weekend off, so we hope to get more accomplished on our gutted bathroom. I feel bad that a lot of those big things are falling onto his shoulders. I really just don't feel like I am competent enough to handle those tasks, and Jake is meticuluous to the letter with his projects. There's our update. Hopefully there is more to report after this weekend!

It's official....kindof.

Most of you know that we have been in limbo for awhile as to whether or not we will be moving. Right now (though things can change), we are definately moving. Jake has been offered a position in Utah with Northrop. We haven't gotten the official offer letter yet, but we have been told that we need to get things going especially since we have to try to get our house sold. I was a little bit hesitant at first because we just moved here a year ago. And we really moved here with the mindset that this was it. We thought this was where our kids would grow up. But now only a year later we are moving again. We love this house, we have become kindof the party house. There are usually several friends over at any given time and we have loved having a lot of friends close. These are a lot of people we've known for almost 8 years, so it has been fun to live near each other again. I never thought I'd move back to Utah again, and I wasn't really excited to do so.
BUT I am excited to get to live near my family. 2 years ago only a couple of my family members were living in Utah, but right now my mom and 6 of my siblings are living in Utah. And in 2 years we could scatter to the winds again. This is probably our only chance to live close to so many of my family members and enjoy lots of family gatherings. I am really excited about that. Plus, Jake will be working fewer hours and will get to spend a lot more time with us. Also this looks to be a good opportunity for Jake in his career. At first it didn't, but now it does. It's hard to explain that, so I'm not going to. Just know that now we are very excited about the move, though we were quite hesitant at first. We have met with our realtor and have begun doing many projects in order to get our house in shape to sell at a good price. We are just trying not to lose money on it at this point, which is hard since we've only been here a year. But I think the changes we are making to the house will make a big difference.
PS. We are going to be living in Tooele and Jake will be working out at Dugway Proving Grounds. It is an hour commute, but Jake commutes an hour to work on most days right now, so we aren't too worried about that. Hopefully we can get all of this work done in time for a good open house!

Potty Training has begun

Well, not really. I do hope to have Jaxon mostly potty trained before his next birthday (which is a long ways away if you've read the last post), but I don't think I'll be doing much heavy duty potty training until our lives are a bit less hectic. For now we are just going to be introducing the potty and having him sit once in awhile. However, Jaxon has started to tell me every time he is pooping. He stops and says "eewwie" and then makes the faces associated with that pasttime. So last night when he came into my room and said eewie I decided just to try it out. I took him to the bathroom and sat him on the toilet and he went poop. It was pretty exciting to have him poop on the potty the very first time I sat him on there. The funny thing was that he happened to be holding a book, so he looked like a pro sitting on the potty reading a book while pooping. Typical boy.

Watch out for the Terrible Twos!!!!

Happy Birthday Jaxon!!! Jaxon turned terrible 2 on September 2nd, though I think the terrible hit a few weeks ago. He has certainly lived up to the cliche. He has begun the tantrums and getting into things and destroying everything he can. But he is also a total sweetheart at times. He loves to try to help me do things. He trys to sweep and vaccum and is good at helping with the laundry and dishes. He loves to give kisses and hugs and he's very good at being the annoying little brother to his older sisters. He is also Kailey's favorite entertainment. Though he sometimes is unintentionally rough with her, he tries really hard to help with her and is always very sweet. He is also 100% boy. He LOVES cars. Everything cars. He loves the movie and he loves any car he can get his hands on. It is also one of the only words he knows how to say. He is a late talker and still only audibly says a few words. Hopefully he'll catch up soon. We love him so much and I can't believe that he is 2 years old already!!!!
PS. We had a few friends over for a little get-together for him on his birthday. We just ate and opened presents and let him play with his new toys. Nothing fancy. He got lots of new toy cars that he loves and we got him his own Lightening McQueen tricycle so he doesn't have to try to ride his sister's bike anymore. Our camera was left at Jake's work, so I have to get those pics from friends who brought cameras, but I'll have them soon. Love you Jaxon!

My Hubby the Pilot

Jake is now officially a pilot!!! YAY! He started his pilot's license training at the end of last year and he took his checkride last weekend and passed!! YAY! It took him awhile because he could only do it in his free time after work when he could schedule with his instructor. He has been done with all of the training for a few months, but it took over two months to get a date with an examiner, and he had to go to phoenix to do it. But he's done! I am so proud of him, he works so hard and is so determined. I love you honey! Congrats!

A Wedding at our House!

So I did say I would tell why I have been so busy, and now I have the chance to do that. We had a wedding in our backyard last weekend. I was the designated wedding planner and decorator for the event. It was for our very close friends Kyle and Hana Smith. She is from Japan and came to America to go to school where they met and dated. They had pretty much decided they would get married, but she only had a student visa so she had to go back to Japan since she had graduated from school. This past December she came back and enrolled in school down here so she could be with Kyle. They kept waiting to see if her parents could come out from Japan and it just never happened. So at the last minute they decided they would rather just go ahead and get married instead of waiting any longer. Plus she had to get married or start school in the next 2 weeks to still be considered a legal immigrant, and school as an international student is extremely expensive and pointless since she already has a degree and would only be going so she could stay in country. Anyways so we threw together a backyard wedding in our backyard in only 2 weeks. It was a rough and busy two weeks because several of the people that would have been helping me were not able to help. Two of our other extremely close friends were out of town visiting family because he is leaving for Afghanistan this weekend, and Jono went to CO to see family, and I usually rely on him for help in lots of ways. Also Jake has been really busy with a huge thing at work that had him working late hours; plus his best friend (that also would have been helping me out wherever he could) got really sick and was in the hospital for over a week. So Jake was working really late and then going to the hospital to spend time with him and support him however he could. I was kindof on my own (with the help of the bride and groom of course.) Aside from arranging wedding decor and ordering food (no, I wasn't going to take on cooking as well), we also did our own DJing, and we had a lot of stuff to borrow/rent. We also did a complete overhaul on the yard. At first it didn't seem so bad, but once we got going we had a lot of work to do. We had to prune and trim every tree and bush, plus weed pulling, and raking up lots and lots of pine needles. We had about 10 bags of yard waste picked up on Wednesday and by Saturday Jake was taking another 35 bags of yard waste to the dump! It was a lot. But now we don't have to do yard work for a long time:) I had a lot of help on the yard thankfully. Everything came together in the end with only a few panic attacks here and there. It turned out beautifully and the weather was so unbelievably wonderful. It wasn't blistering hot, or rainy or windy. Just perfect. So here are the pics from the wedding in total random order:

Here are Kyle and Hana in their Kimonos. Hana has her own family Kimono in Japan, but she couldn't get it here in time, but she was able to borrow one. She was married in a wedding dress because it was an American-style ceremony. She said she didn't want to wear a kimono unless she was having a very traditional Japanese ceremony. Plus, it is traditional for the bride to change attire 4 or 5 times throughout the wedding celebrations. So they changed to Kimonos for the dinner and speeches. Then back into wedding attire for dancing and the rest of the party. It was really neat to watch the little Japanese ladies dress her in the Kimono. It is such a complicated process. It was really beautiful and none of the pics I got do it justice.

Here's our reception set-up for the dinner. It looked so awesome at night with all of the lights.

Here's a picture during the ceremony. They were married by my stake president even though they aren't mormon. They all work at the same place, so Kyle felt more comfortable asking someone to marry them that he knew. They aren't church goers, so he didn't want to just get some random priest. The coolest thing was that during the ceremony a hummingbird came and hovered right between them during their vows. It was so beautiful. I wish I had caught that on camera, it was such a neat touch.

They didn't have a wedding party, but they did ask Mckayla and Lyla to be flower girls. They looked so cute and concentrated so hard on their flower-scattering duties.

Here's the reception set-up without people in it yet. We didn't have enough chairs to have them in both places so we had to ask people to take their chairs over to the reception. Kindof tacky, but oh well. I don't think anyone minded.

I had to show off the centerpiece Hana and I came up with. We also rolled the silverware and made the wedding favors.

Here's the ceremony set up. Jake has worked so hard for us to have green grass, and here we are putting it to good use.

I meant to take some pictures of the food, but I forgot. It was amazing! Hana is friends with the owner of a Japanese restaurant in town and she catered the event. She brought everything on big Japanese platters and it was delicious! She brought a lot though. There was a lot of sushi and spring rolls, tempura, potstickers, rice, teriyaki chicken, and a few other things. It was really really good. Anyways we are so happy for Kyle and Hana and their marriage! I am also so happy for all of the people that helped out and let us borrow things to make it nice, and I am so grateful for the perfect weather. We really are becoming quite the party house, but this was our biggest event to date. I don't think I'll be topping it anytime soon.

Summer is Officially Over

The girls have started school again. We can no longer go anywhere or do anything except for over school breaks. They started last Thursday. They are very excited about being big First graders. They now are allowed to walk home from the bus stop by themselves, though I am usually "taking a walk" down the street around the same time they get to the stop. They are disappointed that recess is so much shorter for first graders. But I think it is shorter for the whole school. This year there have been many drastic changes made to decrease costs. They have cut all of the art, music and PE for all elementary schools in the district and shortened the school day. It is practically half-day compared to last year. School starts at 7:55 and ends at 1:45. I am very disappointed with the changes and I hope that the voters in our district will wise up and see the problems they have created. Hopefully we will get to vote again and maybe have a shot at changing the budget now that we have seen the consequences.
Mckayla and Lyla are very excited to be back in school and hanging out with their friends again. It is funny that they have gotten the same type of teachers again this year. Last year Mckayla had a very structured class and we got frequent communications from the teacher, her teacher appears to be the same this year. And Lyla's teacher last year, although not the communicative type, was very loving and still a great teacher, though maybe a bit less structured and we were a bit more in the dark. Her teacher this year appears to follow that motif as well. But it really works for their personalities, so I think it is great. It is just funny how that worked out the same again this year. Here's hoping I can keep up again with getting the girls to school on time, and doing homework every night which they have now that they are big first graders.

Our Big Trip Part Three: Chicago!

Though I was born in the midwest and have been back there many many times I have never spent any time in Chicago. We've driven past a time or two, but I've never actually gone there to do sightseeing. We had one extra day to do stuff in between the reunion and our flight home so we decided to go see Chicago. It was really cool. I am sad we were so limited on time and didn't get to do much. But we did hit a couple of hot spots. I can not get pictures to show up in the order I want, or move them into a good order, so it is just random and I'll explain as I go.
We decided one thing we had to do was go to the top of Sears Tower, (or what was formerly known as Sears Tower). The thing is, that is the one thing that a lot of people decide they have to do, so the wait was really long. We ended up in line for at least 2 hours, and we were not prepared for it. The kids were starving by the time we got to the top so we bought some nasty overpriced popcorn at a gift shop. Still, it was an amazing sight. They had these glass balconies that you could step out on and look straight down. It was so freaky. Here is Jaxon on the balcony:
Here is a view from the top:

We also ended up going to legoland. It was pretty cool and the kids had a really great time. The thing is that if you go on a trip with kids everything has to be geared towards kids. Jake and I would love to go back and do grown-up things like visit museams, go to shows, and do more sightseeing. Legoland was still fun though.

The last thing we did was to go down to Navy Pier. They have the biggest ferris wheel I have ever seen there, but we didn't get to ride it because it started to rain soon after we got there. Everything shut down right as we were going to buy tickets because there were reports of lightning. We still walked down it and looked out over the lake and back at the big city. It was really neat. Here's a view of the city at night from the pier:

We went to this 50's style diner in downtown that not only served up some good food, but they served up a big helping of Chicago attitude with it. It seems as though people are proud of their rude population like the south is proud of their "southern hospitality". Our waitress yelled at us a few times, and got more than impatient if we took too long to decide. There were signs on the wall that said things like "eat and get out." It was all in good fun though and we were entertained by the rudeness of people and how some people got all offended and the servers didn't care. Here's Kailey in one of the hats:

Here's Lyla modeling a hat:

Here's all of us at the top of the tower formerly known as Sears Tower: (not sure why Mckayla is making that face).

Here's Jake and the kids on the glass balcony:

Here's some of the mini-Chicago at legoland:

The entrance to legoland:

There's a view of the tower formerly known as Sears Tower from the highway. We were at the very very top of that huge building! And it took less than 2 minutes to get to the top!

Here's Jaxon and a buddy in the jungle adventure part of Legoland:

And that is it for our big trip! Our flight home went really well. The kids slept the whole way because we had to wake them up so early to go to the airport. Plus it was a non-stop flight which made our lives so much easier. Then we got really busy when we got home, which explains my big delay in posting this last post. More to come.....hopefully soon.

Our Big Trip Part Two: Michigan

Wow lots of pictures! Too many to choose from! After Indiana we headed up to Michigan for a reunion with the Maple side of the family. We all split the cost of renting a lodge-type place that was just a 20 minute walk to the beaches of Lake Michigan. We stayed up there for 3 days and we had such a great time. Everything could not have gone any better or smoother (kudos Maria!), which was such a relief after the disasters of our last reunion. Some of the awesome things we did: blueberry picking, beach, family talent show, beach, campfire, beach, ect. I loved the blueberry picking, they were sweet and delicious, unlike the ones you can buy in the store. All of the kids left with purple stained mouths and hands, plus we had ample blueberries to eat for the rest of the week. The beaches of Lake Michigan were so nice! The water was surprisingly warm, and it feels like you are on the ocean minus the salt (which is a good thing). It wasn't crowded and there was plenty of sand for kids to roll in. I would definately love to go back to swim there. Our Family Talent Show turned out to be a huge success. We did our own version of "thriller" as a Micheal Jackson tribute. Everyone came up with creative fun acts. I think we will be doing that again. We also learned how to make our own jewelry and the girls and I made a few different jewelry sets for ourselves. We took nice family portraits that I will be sharing once I can copy them from Katie's picasa. The following pictures are in a completely random order.

Here's the Thompson family doing their act for the talent show, can you tell what dance they're doing?
Here's the Price family's act, they lipsynced to "lime in the coconut"

Here's Mckayla in the sand:

Here's Katie and Amber who FINALLY got into the water:

Here's some random guy I saw in the water who I thought was incredibly sexy so I snapped a picture without his knowledge, then put it online without his knowledge, but you have to admit- he's pretty dang sexy!

This is my mom and her older sister Jo being lifeguards.

Here's my cousin Maria holding Kailey. Ps-she planned this whole thing plus had to move to another state the next week, so BIG KUDOS to Maria for such an awesome reunion!

Jake with our baby fish Jaxon. He has shown a natural ability to swim and a love for the water. He will already swim across our pool by himself (with a floatie on, but no one helping him) and our girls wouldn't do that until just this summer after they had taken swimming lessons!

This is my niece Megan. I caught her doing meditative sand angels.

Here's Jessica's hubby Luke with Jane and Kailey all in red:

Here's Jaxon devoring a smore by the campfire:

Here's our gathering at the campfire behind the lodge:

This is my uncle Larry reading a bedtime story to all of the kids. One of the grandparents read a bedtime story every night. I thought that was a brilliant idea.

Here's Gabriella, Eve, and Lyla in the lake.

After 3 full days at Lake Michigan we headed off for the last part of our trip. It was so fun to have everyone together again under happy circumstances! We had such a great time with everyone and it was actually a relaxing vacation because we just played together and hung out and didn't try to over plan on activities. So then we were off to............