I have the bug... but no money :(

I want to paint... Lots of color everywhere. Last night Sher showed me some of the stuff that she's done, and then with Motherboard talking about all the painting that she's done, I can't help it, I want to paint.

But have you seen what it takes for us to be able to paint? Let me share my last experience in that area. It was at our last house. We had been in the house for 6 years, and I finally (after much convincing) talked Steve into painting a wall red.

Here's the before picture...But in order to paint that wall the correct red, and do the correct faux type paint, we had to find just the right red and glaze. So here's our sample board. And yes I know some of those are absolutely hideous, you should have seen the ones that we painted over on the bottom there with the color we actually chose.And ta da! This is what we came up with. I tried to get a close-up of the tecture, but none of the pictures actually turned out to where you could see it very well. We did a base coat in a color called French Red, (it is a Kwal color). And then glazed over it with a burgundy glaze. We rolled the paint on, and then painted the glaze on with X's and then ragged some of the excess off. We could have left it with the glaze painted on with the X's and would have looked great, and ragging off the excess just added a little more texture.Here it is with the furniture in.

Honestly, I don't think the pictures do it that much justice. And when the people who bought our house moved in and added a mirror and some pictures on the two walls, it looked even better. We never did because we put our house up for sell about two months after we did this - and it sold and we moved out that same week. I know, the years of begging and I only got to enjoy it for two months.

But this house... which at this point I would swear is our final house, if I could, but I am practical enough to know that things happen. I am just itching to do it. SO, I am taking action. I am tightening the belt. No more frivolous spending until I can afford paint. I am pinching my pennies and I am going to finish my living room. We already have a plan for in there, we've talked about it for MONTHs before Steve quit his job, and so I am going to make it happen. And I am putting it out there into cyberspace because that way it will right? And when I do have my money put together, Sher and Motherboard are going to paint with me right? That is if Steve will let me...

So, am I mean or what?

Melissa and Spencer have been fighting more and more lately, so my brilliant husband came up with the best punishment of all time. We are making them share a room until they can learn to get along. What do you think? Will it work? Jenna hopes it doesn't because for her and Jayden (who are sharing during the punishment) it is like a slumber party!

Yep!

Yesturday, I asked Jayden if he wanted some lunch. We were in my room at the time and he said that he did, so we went walking down the hall together... I gave his head a little pat and he looked up at me and said, "You love me, Mom." Not a question, a statement. And a true one at that! I'm glad he knows it, let's just hope it doesn't go to his head.

Spencer's work of art

I have Spencer and Melissa alternating each day loading and unloading the dishes. Spencer can't quite reach up to the tall shelves in the cupboards, so I have him just set the dishes he can't reach on the counter and I put them away. The funny thing is everytime I go to put the rest of the dishes away, I have a 'work of art' waiting for me... Notice the nice lines of symmatry? Funny kid, everything is a puzzle to him.

Oh, and a couple of other things that I didn't mention about Jayden in my post about him. First of all, he is a lefty. Our pediatrician mentioned that even though he prefers his left we should try and teach him to eat with his right (so that he isn't bumping elbows with others at the table when he gets older). Which seems mean to me, have you tried to eat with your left hand lately? It's tough. Anyway, at dinner, Steve will tell Jayden to put his fork in his right hand, which he does, and then uses his left hand to help his right hand poke the food.

Judy made a comment that I forgot to mention the "Timmy" thing. It's actually kind of mean, but have you ever watched SouthPark? There is this handicapped kid named Timmy, that will always say "Timmy!" in this kind of raspy voice. Well, when someone does something around the house that is not the smartest, like spill or bump into a wall, we will call them a "Timmy!" (raspy voice and all) and Jayden has kind of picked up on it. It's funny... He's also picked up on my overusage of the c-word. Which at times is funny (even though it's not). There's nothing like your kids reminding you of all your faults!

St. George

Since we were running the St. George half marathon, our next-door neighbors invited us to stay at the home down there and hang out for the weekend. With 14 people hanging out in one house, we were guaranteed some fun! Here we are getting breakfast going Sunday morning! And yes, Steve is the one cooking the bacon (and doing a great job at it I might add, maybe he should be in charge of that more often :)) Jayden enjoyed Guitar Hero and the trampoline the most!

In fact, he was always asking for 'D-O games and jump!'

There was plenty of room for the kids to all spread out, but for some reason, they all slept in one room all together. Jenna's first sleep-over! I think they just didn't want the party to end, so they just stayed all together.

Melissa and Erin took a spin on the Pocket Rockets. Those things scare the crap out of me, but they sure had fun!

Here's Jenna, Valerie and Grace pretending to Hula-hoop with pool floaties. I don't think I heard anyone once complain about being bored. When we first pulled up to their house, the kids all got out and hugged their friends and were all excited to be together. You would think that we never see them, not live next door.

Spencer's favorite was the BB gun.

Steve gave it a whirl and then said afterwards that the sites were a little off...

Yeah whatever, cause on my second shot, I hit the bulls-eye. And that was only because Steve said that the site was off a little to the right, so I adjusted a bit for my first shot and missed. And yes, that was right after we got back from the run on Saturday.

It was nice to get away from the cold and snow and go somewhere warm. Thanks to the neighbors for a fun weekend! And when we got home, the first thing the kids wanted to do was play some more with the neighbors. I'm glad to know they aren't sick of each other!

Blogging Break

So, I have kind of been out of the blogging picture this last little bit, and why you ask? My next door neighbor and I ran the St. George 1/2 marathon this weekend. One thing that I learned this weekend, is all kinds of people run. And lots of them too. And why you ask (again)? I have no idea, I think somehow we are all insane.

So, what kind of people run? Any and all, be they thin or not. There was this one guy that passed us twice, which I don't ever remember passing, that was kind of chubby with this curly fro and funny run and I remember thinking, (because I am conceited) that I should totally be able to beat that guy. Then when we got to the finish line, Steve says, "I almost took a picture of this guy {then describes the guy that I just mentioned} just to show you that that guy beat you!" Not being mean or anything, but just to show, you never know what someone is capable of.

There was one leg of the race where the course overlaps, so you are passing all the people faster than you, and I couldn't help but laugh at the way some people run. Remember that episode of friends where Rachel is embarrassed to run with Phoebe? Well, there were some definate 'Phoebe's' out there, but then again maybe I shouldn't talk, because I don't run so 'cute' either (seriously, pick up your feet there Andrea!)... Steve and our neighbor's husband took the kids to meet up with us at the finish line. And boy did we have quite a cheering section! I don't know who was more excited to see us, the kids, or the dad's, but it was sure fun for us and gave us that little boost we needed for the finish line.

This is us at the finish line! Half done, now on to the Marathon! (or maybe not, ask me when my hips stop hurting!)

Jayden

Now, last but certainly not least we come to Jayden. Jayden is the kind of kid that I have feared my entire life. The overly active, get into everything, full of energy kind. But I have certainly loved every minute of it. I don't know if it's because he's last in line and I'm kind of taking the time to enjoy the last baby rather than dread having to do it again for the next baby, or if he is just fun. He really is a happy kid. I don't think he has ever woken up grumpy. From the minute he wakes up, he is just thrilled with being awake. And usually (he's had his moments) he is fine with going to bed because I think he has worn himself out playing all day.

He's kind of got a little of the same thing that Spencer had. In that he will throw up if he's had too much to eat, but it usually never gets to that point because I have a hard time keeping at the table for very long. Usually he just wants to get down and play.

And boy does he ever get into things. At least for the last year, this year I've noticed he doesn't do that so much. But in the past, he was constantly in the cupboard. And even before he could actually reach the door knob, he could open it. He would just get something to stand on and open the door. The other day when I got out of the shower, I called out for Jayden to know where he is and he yelled, "Right here!" from the FRONT PORCH! It was a good thing someone had dropped a few fishy crackers on the front porch because that made him stop to eat them. If they weren't there, who knows where I would find him.

He is the first kid to really be Daddy's little buddy. He loves to watch Steve do whatever project he is working on. Steve put a chair in his workshop just for Jayden. And Jayden will just sit on the chair and watch Steve for a while. He likes to point and ask Dad "What you doing Daddy?" Occassionally Steve will give him something to hold and then hand to him as he needs it and Jayden thinks that is the best thing ever! Whenever Daddy gets home from work, Jayden will come running for the door. And then in the morning when he is getting in his car to leave for work, Jayden will watch out the garage door until he's gone waving and saying good bye the whole time.

And no, I wasn't embellishing on the sentence above that Jayden put together. He is quite a little talker. He will string about 6 or 7 words together for a sentence. And he seems to talk correctly as well. Except for when he wants you to pick him up, he will say, "Hold you?" And boy is he a singer! I think that's why he speaks so well, is he loves to sing and has quite a few songs memorized. The funniest is when he will sing some part of a random song that he heard on the radio. His latest is "Don't you want me baby, don't you want me 0-o-o-o!" And for some reason when he gets the ketchup out, he sings, "Shake, Shake, shake, shake a shake it!"

His biggest downfall, is candy. He LOVES it! And he is constantly asking for it. Spencer tried to be sneaky and whenever he wanted a treat, he would say, "Can I have a T-R-E-A-T?" And now, Jayden will say, "Can I have T-A-T?" Can't put one past him! Funny story about him the other day at dinner, Melissa started singing and Jayden said, "Please stop." The surprising thing was, she stopped. If anyone else had said it, she would have kept going until I told her to stop.

He's a lot of energy this one. And even though we are tired quite often, it has been a lot of fun!

Jenna

When Jenna was born (a month early) she cried like mad and then just stopped. Apparently she was having a hard time getting oxygen, so she spent the first little part of her life in the NICU. There after, she slept, for two months she slept. I had to set my alarm for every three hours around the clock so that I would make sure and wake her up to eat. Otherwise, she would just sleep. Then about two months after she was born, she just woke up.She was always content to just lay on her blanket and do whatever. She didn't cry much and was just happy. And for as skinny as she is now, she was a chubby baby. She had these thighs that just had so many rolls, you wouldn't have thought that she was capable of such chubs. But then one day she started growing and just hasn't stopped. She is certainly tall compared to what Melissa ever was. She is currently wearing clothes Melissa wore in first grade.

So what does Jenna like? She has always been fond of 'little' things. She loves miniatures of all kinds. She's always got some container full of little animals. She also thinks that little tea sets are cool and she thinks of Polly Pockets as mini Barbies. However, one year for Christmas, she asked for a 'real' horse and so we got her this stuffed horse that is as big as her. Which is the biggest thing shes ever liked, other than that the smaller the better. She is very content with just playing by herself. She has always been very easy to entertain. When she feels like she needs a little Mommy time (which isn't all that often) she'll let me know and I'm happy to oblige, but other than that she just takes care of herself. My oldest two will say, "Mom I'm hungry, and need something to eat..." Not Jenna, she'll usually go find something she wants and then just 'inform' me that she is going to eat it (regardless of what I say sometimes).

Mostly I think she just wants to be big like her brother and sister. She is the one that I worry most about. I think that she will be the one that I never know what is going on. She doesn't seem to like to tell me all the goings on like her brother and sister do. Usually I have to drag any kind of info about what went on at church or preschool out of her.

Her favorite meal of the day is lunch. She mostly hates breakfast foods and asks just to skip it and go right to lunch. She likes crepes and that is about it. Occassionally she will eat some cereal, but not much else. Except bacon and sausage she'll eat those and lots of them.

She's also a night person. We have a hard time getting her to settle down at night. In fact we made her give up her nap at a young age just so that she'd go to bed at a good time. When she was 2, she would be staying up until nearly 11. So I would spend from about 3 o'clock on in the day trying to make sure that she didn't fall asleep. Which was no easy task because she would disappear downstairs to play and the next thing I know, she would be asleep on the floor amongst all her toys.

So there she is, little miss Independence.

Spencer

When I first found out I was having a boy (which was Spencer) I cried. I know, not a great way to start out, but it's true. Boys scare me. At least being a mom to a get down and dirty, jump off the furniture, you-can't-handle me kind of boy. But then I had Spencer who was the most mild-mannered boy I knew and I changed my mind about boys. I could have a dozen just like Spencer. He has always been my 'little boy'. He was born with the most amazing kind of red hair and his eyes kind of match. It is just this reddish (not orangey) brown hair. Pictures don't ever do it justice, but if you ever get to see it in the right bit of sunlight, it is stunning. Even though he is mild-mannered and calm, he is still into video games, riding bikes, roller blading, and legos. He is really my only kid that ever got 'obsessed' over anything. When he was two, it was Buzz Lightyear. He would watch Toy Story 1 &2 daily. Then when he got tired of that after about a year, he fell in love with Rescue Heroes, and then it was Star Wars, then Ninja Turtles, etc. There has always been some thing that he is obsessed with. He still does 'dumb boy' stuff. Like the kids will sometimes slide on the wood floor in their socks after I polish it, and Spencer will try sliding on his tummy. Or, there is something on top of the entertainment center so he'll just scale up the shelves and get it down. Or the time that he wanted to see how far he could throw a rock and ended up hitting Jenna causing her to get a couple staples in her head. He's my only kid so far to have broken a bone, he broke his leg jumping on the neighbors trampoline.His biggest hobbies, are puzzles. Of all kind. When he was little like 4 (and I'm not exagerating either) he started doing puzzles. Hard puzzles too. Like 500 to 1000 piece puzzles. And he would dump the puzzle out and without even sorting it, just start putting it together. He'd just have this little pile of pieces that he would grab pieces out here and there and put them together. He likes doing Sodoku puzzles too. And he's got a very mathematical mind. {I wonder where he gets that?} Someday I see him being an Engineer of some kind.

Not to make it sound like he's perfect, but he's had some challenges in life as well. When he was little, he didn't understand to stop eating when he was full, so he would throw up all the time. Every time he ate, until his mom got it right and learned to make him stop eating. So, as a baby he ate every 2 hours. And never took a bottle. Never took a binky. I learned how to cup feed him when he was about four months old, but it's hard to find someone willing to cup feed him for me while they are babysitting, so he stayed with me ALL THE TIME until he was old enough to have regular milk from a sippy. He finally learned when he was a little older to stop eating when he was full. But that was crazy. I cleaned up a lot of throw up with that one. Speaking of throw up and Spencer, he learned when he was little that if he threw up in his crib Mommy would have to come get him out of bed to clean it up. So he did that too EVERY NIGHT and EVERY NAP. Mommy finally wised up though and just put shower curtains all over his floor and just let him throw up and fall asleep in it. I know, it's gross, but it sure taught him!

When he was about 3 he all of a sudden got this anxiety problem where if he didn't know where the adult was that was in charge of him, he would freak out. So, if he was in my room playing while I was folding some laundry and I told him that I was going to go put some clothes away in his room, if he forgot while I was gone, he would all of a sudden start screaming at the top of his lungs. That went on for about a year. A year of me having to constantly tell him where I was, what I was doing, and if I had to leave him with someone (including Dad) I would tell him what time I would be home and by dang make sure I was home when I said I would be home. None of this be back in a minute. It was, I'll have to go to the store and I will be home in one hour. And then run like mad to make that happen. However, the time came for him to go to school, and this is how he has been ever since. Always heading out the door. Off to play with some friend or another. Wanting to ride his bike to whoever's house while I am at home waiting by the phone for him to call and tell me he got there OK. I guess it happens to everyone at some point, but when it does happen it just seems way to soon. The nice thing though, he hasn't gotten 'so cool' that he still likes me to tuck him in bed every night. Hopefully he never grows out of that.

Melissa

Since I didn't include anything in the Christmas card post about the individual kids, I thought that I would take some time to let you know about each of my kids. So, to be fair I will go in order... So, first is Melissa. The first ultrasound we had when I was pregnant with her, they said she was a boy. But about the only boy in her is her Dad's stubborness. Other than that, we have all girl.I've mentioned her dance abilities before, and so you all know that dance is her first passion. And that she's pretty good at it. She's done some solos in competition before, and the first time, she got first place in the beginner category. Then last year, she had to move up to the intermediate category and she got second place even being the youngest in the 10 - 12 age category.What you may not know about Melissa is her love of making stuff. Any stuff. She really likes to make cookies, brownies, cake and then give them away. Sometimes I have to bribe her to let us keep some. This picture was taken in 2005. Melissa made and decorated a bunch of valentine cookies and then put one in a baggie and then took them around to her friends. She also likes to make all sorts of crafts. I've done a post before about her 'Lilly's Fashions', but on top of that I used to get a little card left under my pillow or on top of the pillow if it was a big one with lot's of stuff on top that she didn't want getting smashed.Melissa's also got quite an imagination. Here she is looking like Abraham Lincoln. She was in Kindergarten here and she learned about the president in school and she came right home from school and told me that she had a good idea she thought of in class and wanted to try it out. So she made a stovepipe hat and then gave herself a beard and mustache with tape. She's also made some pretty amazing tents in her day in the family room.

I had a picture in here of her at an awards assembly at school, but upon further inspection the picture gives out way too much info. And so, I will just have to tell you about it. She is a good student (I know, shock and surprise). She has always liked school. She hates missing school, in fact she has always had to miss at least one day each year, but this year, she tells me that she is going to get perfect attendance - so cross your fingers she makes it because she says this every year and hasn't done it so far. She likes to read. It isn't unusual for her to have like four different books going at a time and know what is going on in each of her books. Her teachers all call her a teacher's dream. And yet, there are times she will say that she worries about failing. She really wants to get into BYU and I hope that she will because she would be devistated to not get in and with it being so competitive, even I worry.

To top all that off, she is good. You know, she tries so hard to always do what's right. She gets so upset when her temper (yeah, she has one - mostly when she is tired) gets the best of her because she will cry about it after for quite a while when she feels like she's done something wrong. She is also quick to say sorry and she's very honest about everything. If she realizes that she hurt your feelings and she is apologizing, she will say something like, "Spencer I'm sorry that I yelled at you, I was just jealous that were doing that better than me."

Which leads to her next quality that is a curse and a blessing. She is competitive. Which is why she excells at so much. However, sometimes it gets the best of her when she isn't quite the best at what she's doing.

All in all I would say though that she is a great kid I am a lucky mom to have her.

Christmas Cards

If I was as computer savvy as some of you guys, I would actually have a scan of my Christmas card here in my blog, but I don't so this will have to do. I was a loser this year and didn't actually send out my cards until two days before Christmas, so I don't know if you actually got them before Christmas, probably not, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Usually we torture the kids and 'make' them sit still and smile (even though they are crying) and take a nice family picture for our Christmas card. But this year, I couldn't get myself put together enough to do a picture, so I just looked for a picture of all of us together and used that. The picture ended up being one that we took on our vacation to Disneyland when we went to the beach.Since you really couldn't see us terribly well, I added in some pictures of the kids, I used this one of the three oldest on the first day of school...And then this one of Jayden because it was the most recent and it wasn't a picture of him being naughty.

Then on the letter I put a bunch of stuff in it about how wonderful we are (which was all true BTW) and said Merry Christmas! Then I sent them on their way. All except my family's for some reason they are still sitting here on my desk. I will eventually get those sent out too.

For those of you who didn't get a card from me, it is either because I don't have your address, or I RAN OUT! Can you believe that? I ran out of cards. Who would have thought I know that many people let alone would send them cards. Actually most of them were Steve's friends. Before I ordered the cards, I asked him how many he needed, and he told me not many five would be good, (I estimated 15 for him) and he still used a lot more than that.

Christmas Afternoon...

Christmas afternoon, we headed up to my parent's house. They only live about 30 minutes from us, but with the weather it took us about an hour to get there. The roads weren't plowed very well. This was one of the first years in a long time that we were all together for Christmas. I didn't get a picture of everyone, but here's the ones I got. First of all this is what we looked like in 2002 the last time we were all together.

In this picture from left to right, there is Blaine (Lisa's husband - on the computer) Melissa, me, Steve, David and Ashton (Dave's youngest) is on his lap.

Here's my Mom and Dad

Most of the grandkids, (I'll go back to front) Brandon (Lisa's oldest) Matthew (in the red - he's James' oldest) Craig (David's second - he's in the grey shirt) Jenna (mine of course) Brittany (in the red, she's Lisa's second) Nathan (he's got the funny face going - David's third) Daniel (in the glasses - he's David's oldest) and then Spencer in the Vroom shirt (mine)

Michelle and her husband Brett with two of their kids, Rebecca and Tyler. They have another little girl Meagan, but I didn't get her in any picture.

Jim and Heather

I didn't get pictures of David's wife Cindy, Meagan Michelle's youngest, Jayden my youngest, Ethan and Justin Jim's two youngest, Lisa my sister and her two youngest BJ and Bryson.

These pictures were actually taken at Lisa's house. We went over there for the kids to play after we ate lunch/dinner at my parent's house. Then later that night, David and James' families slept at Lisa's house and Michelle and I went back to my parents and we slept there. We all had a lot of fun! Although, we always talked about getting out a soap box and letting each have a turn standing on it, but we never did. Unless they did that when Michelle and I left.

The next day we all went sledding, but I didn't get any pictures of that. Bummer...

Christmas Morning

So, here we are, Christmas morning. The big question is... what time is it? Spencer was the first kid awake for the first time EVER! Usually it is Melissa. She can't go to sleep the night before and then she is up at like 6. But this year, Spencer woke up around 7 followed by Jayden and then Melissa at 7:30. Daddy made them wait until 8! That's when we {read Steve} finally let Jayden go wake up Jenna. Jayden couldn't quite believe how many presents there were. He just had a birthday, so he knew exactly what all that meant. So, what did our kids get for Christmas? Clothes...

Clothes... And more clothes. Spencer was starting to get kind of bugged everytime he opened something and there was more clothes. Melissa though, said, "But Spencer, we need them really badly..." See, that's a girl for you. She never thinks she has ANYTHING to wear in the morning. Except this morning (It's the first day back at school) she couldn't decide what to wear.

After opening some clothes, we let the kids open their toys. Here is some video of that...

Jenna got some Littlest Pet Shop stuff.

Jayden got a "Handy Manny" tool set. Here he is later trying to open his Christmas Orange with the saw.

Spencer got an erector set. He wasn't all that excited at first because he didn't know what it was, but the ENTIRE week after Christmas he was up at the crack of dawn wanting to play with it.

The highlight of the day (for Melissa) was a new digital camera. She has been asking and asking for one, and we kept telling her they are just too much money, but then she would say, "Well, I thought the Nintendo DS last year was a long shot, but I got that." So, this was the last present of the day.

The reaction is priceless. You wish you could get this reaction from EVERY present, but I'll settle for one.

Christmas Week #3

On Christmas Eve we celebrated Christmas with Steve's side of the family. The kids all got their traditional clothes from Grandma and Grandpa. Jayden hadn't had a nap all day, so this was all I could get out of him.

Jenna wanted to make sure I got a picture of the ENTIRE outfit.

Here is half of Spencer's outfit. He also got some black basketball pants to go with the black shirt.

Here is Melissa with one of the shirts she got. The other shirt was brown with pink.

THEN, came the other tradition with Steve's side of the family. We had a special visitor...

Santa! Jenna was first to hop on Santa's lap!

Jayden wasn't so sure that he wanted to sit on Santa's lap, but he sure wanted the candy cane, so we had him hop up with Jenna. After a quick picture that was it, he was down and biting into the candy cane, wrapper and all!

Spencer had to show that he still wasn't too old to sit on Santa's lap.Melissa of course was very cooperative...

For eats, we had "brinner" (breakfast for dinner). Pancakes, eggs, egg burritos, sausage, bacon, cinnamon rolls, caramel popcorn, cake, and hash browns. Of course I know some of those aren't exactly breakfast things, but they are yummy so oh well...