What little J's up too

I thought I'd show you what our little man is up to these days. He's crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything. Look out world, here he comes!

My day

Today was my birthday. I received many wonderful birthday wishes from family and friends both near and far. It was neat to hear from hometown and childhood friends, as well as those who are miles and miles away. And although I didn't get a lot of time to relax as many well-wishers told me to do, I still had a wonderful day.

My birthday gift to myself was actually attending a scrapbooking event last weekend. It was nice to catch up with friends and with our family books. I spent all of Saturday journaling about family events in 2006 I'd already scrapbooked. But I also feel energized to keep working on more albums. An aside: Friday night MJ and I worked on books together (we gave her one for her birthday). It was neat to see her pick out the paper and photos for each page. She then added her boxes to journal about each picture. Jayten stayed with Nana last weekend. His first overnight trip away from us and he did great. Josh was gone to a cattle sale all weekend. The girls had a fun time with our friend Shane who stayed with them Saturday. Sunday night we stopped by M&C's to visit and exchange bday gifts with Carla.

Another little gift was a night "in" with my girlfriends last night. I don't know what I'd do without these women in my life; they have been my rocks, as well as providing a source of laughter and joy as we roll through this journey of motherhood together. L, D, R and C-love you girls!

Yesterday and today, I got to babysit my sweet little niece. She's three months old and such a darling baby. And even though she shed some tears, she also had lots of smiles for her Aunt Maggie. I think she must have forgiven me for not knowing exactly what she needed when she needed it.

Today, I sat with E and she sang songs to me (Twinkle, Twinkle and Happy Birthday). It was absolutely precious. She wanted to be very helpful today with baby Mya. And even though I had cleaned up many messes before our day even really began this morning, I was grateful all day for the time I spent with my three-year-old.

I watched my baby boy move from the rocking chair to the end table by taking a few steps. Every time I look at him he beams me the biggest grin. It's awesome. I could stare at his chubby little face all day long.

I listened to MJ tell me about another great day at Kindergarten. She is so enthusiastic about school and I love to hear her share her excitement at the end of each day.

J and MJ went to town tonight and brought back dinner. They also surprised me with a Red Velvet cake, Chocolate Brownie ice cream and presents!

It was a great birthday. I can't think of any place I'd rather be than here with my family being a wife and a mother. Thank you God for my many blessings!

Twinkle, twinkle-Emma style

One month ago today

One month ago today, my first baby girl celebrated her 6th birthday. It seems crazy it's already been a month. She had a great weekend. On Saturday, we had planned to go to dinner with family, but that morning as she came and snuggled with us, she asked if we could just have dinner at home. So, we had Josh's mom and brothers over for a little BBQs and we made some brownies together and added Reese's pieces candies. The next afternoon we met her friends at the park for a little party. It worked out great--the kids loved having all the equipment to play on, we had some food and cake and ice cream of course. MJ wanted a strawberry cake with strawberry icing. She also picked out a no. 6 candle to blow out. She received some fun gifts including Barbies, art stuff and books.

Dear Mack Jo,

We love you so much and can hardly believe you've turned 6 years old. You seem to just more grown up all the time. You are a great big sister to both E and J. You and E have been playing so well together and you are really protective of both of them. You're always a great help to Mom and Dad. You are doing very well in school, soaking up all the lessons, making friends and just enjoying a little more independence and responsibility that comes with getting older. No matter what you'll always be our first baby. We love you so much and are very proud of you.

Happy Birthday (one month later) Sweet Girl!

Love, Mom and Dad

J's found a toy on the fridge. He loves to make the music play or he rips it off and pounds on it. Such a boy!

Another favorite of his-crawling into the bathroom and pulling up at the tub. He just stands there and pounds on the edge.

Early this month, I picked up some corn from Purdum's to make freezer corn. The girls were a great help and shucked it for me. I remember in the summers growing up my Dad would have big trash cans full of sweet corn and all us kids and our visiting cousins would stand in the back of the pickup and shuck corn.

MJ enjoyed getting some new art supplies from Great Granddad Bob and Great Grandma Janet.

Uncle Joe surprised MJ with lots of candy and treats for her birthday.

Group shot

September 2009

Some things in September

In September we attended the wedding of a friend. At his younger sister's wedding in April 2005, MJ danced the entire time. She was about 18 months old. It was so cute seeing her out there moving and grooving. By the end, she was just walking around the dance floor she was so tired, but she didn't want to leave! This time we had two little girls who love to dance. They had a lot of fun. I think I'll have to pull this photo out in a few year (hopefully many, many years) for when MJ and Josh have their father/daughter dance at her wedding.

For Labor Day, we went to J&S's for a BBQ with the Craig family.

Uncle Joe turned 30 this year. M&C had a BBQ for friends and family. Jayten was checking him out that night.

Some things from August

Every couple weeks or so we have family Wii night. In fact, we played quite a bit this summer. It seems much harder now being in school, but when we do play, the girls always enjoy it. Here MJ is trying to beat her Daddy in boxing.

This summer the girls also spent some time on the swather cutting hay with Josh. Some days he would take one for awhile, then later we'd swap. Then other days they both got to go. It was good for them to spend time with him and he liked having the company. They usually do really well with no complaints. Sometimes they fall asleep too.

I'm a big boy, look what I can do!

Some new photos of J doing big boy things. He crawls all over the house, enjoys playing with his toys in the living room, and is really good at self feeding.

This week

So, life is really crazy, isn't it!? I know we're not the only busy folks out there. And really, we don't have that much going on. I think part of my blog hiatus has been that I'm trying to spend more time being in the moment, whatever moment that is, however fleeting it is, instead of capturing and trying to preserve the moment and blog about it. Sometimes you end up missing the moment. Does that make any sense? Anyway, moving on.

I realized that when both the girls were little I used to write in my journal a lot. I don't think I've written in it since J was born. I guess I thought keeping my blog was my journal and now I'm totally behind on that! I have printed off a calendar page for each month and have been keeping track of things that have happened. But, even though I have written stuff down, I can't seem to remember one day to the next. It's scary how fast my memory goes!! So, in an attempt to catch up a little, I'm journaling here again. Please bare with me.

I had a photo shoot on Monday-cute little 15 month old. We met at the local pumpkin patch for a quick session. The girls had ballet that night so after that I met Josh and swapped vehicles to head to my shoot then home again. I'm not on deadline this week (yeah!) so I have worked on things around the house, cleaning up, paying bills, etc. I am so thankful for the work I have, but also relieved when I have some downtime. I've been able to read to the girls when they ask, play with J during the day, keep things a little tidier (which also relieves stress). I can't function in a messy space. Tuesday evening we went to Josh's grandparents for dinner with his siblings and Mom. They had just moved to a new place, so it was nice to see it and get together.

Wednesday morning MJ woke up with a headache and a fever of 100.7. The school didn't want kids there with anything above 100. She was so bummed she had to stay home. She also missed religious ed that night and was so upset. It was hard for her to understand why she had to stay home, as she didn't have any other symptoms. But, Thursday morning she woke up with a temp of 102.7. I started her on Tylenol and she stayed home again. I took E to school and met a friend for our weekly fellowship time. MJ and J went to Carla's, as I had plans to be in Boise all day. My workshop was cancelled so I stayed at home and worked on editing photo shoots instead. After Emma got off the bus, I took her up to M&C's. The kids stayed there for awhile longer. C called later and MJ had developed a temp of 104.4 and was really tired. That was the sign we needed to get to the doctor. They tested her and she was positive for the flu. We did get a prescription for Tamiflu and she started on it. She developed a cough, but for the most part she feels fine. Her fever broke today. All the kids had the seasonal flu vaccine, so I am hoping that is what is helping her not have it too bad. Just praying the other two don't get it. She can't be in school until she's 24 hours with no fever without meds, so I'm hopeful she can go back on Monday.

Thursday night, Carla ended up taking Emma to Matt's football game. She said they had a great time. She hadn't been around E much without the rest of us or the other kids. Her personality really shines through when she's on her own. I've enjoyed having her home with me while MJ is at school because I do get to see her doing her own thing. I guess she talked the whole time and played with some friends. She didn't even fall asleep on the way home and was really wired when she got home. She was being really funny, so it took awhile to settle down, but I got some extra snuggle time with her since it was late and the other kids were already asleep.

We had some friends stop by today we don't get to see very often so that was really fun to have them visit. Bobby Jean and Piper brought some cattle over and picked a few up, so they came up to the house to see us. It was great to see them and for the girls to play. It was also a beautiful day outside (finally some fall weather).

New pics

Okay, so I'm still so way far behind! But here are a few photos to show you the kids are great. I need to blog about MJ's birthday and all the fun stuff that we've been up to, but where is the time? Soon, hopefully, soon. But until then, I hope you enjoy these latest shots from J's 8 month photo shoot! It's getting a little harder to get him to sit in one spot, as he is quite mobile.

A little update

Thanks for your comments on the blog; seems that some can see the background photos and still others can't. I haven't had time to fiddle with it, but hope to soon. Seems we haven't had much excitement around here, but we're keeping busy. I hope to post some new pics soon.

MJ loves school. She can't wait for the bus to arrive every day and runs off of it when she gets home to tell me about her day. I love that part. We sit and talk while she eats a snack. She has an immense love of learning, which I hope stays with her. She is enjoying her ballet class too. Carla opened a dance studio and is teaching the class this year since Mich is in college. She said Mackenzie retained a lot from last year. MJ turned 6 a few weeks ago and had a fun weekend of celebrating with family and friends.

Little E is also doing well in school. She brings home speech papers that we work on. Every day brings new words and phrases. I love how excited she gets when I repeat something she's said to make sure I understand. Life is just so exciting for her. She pretty much does everything with tons of energy and excitement.

J Man is officially a crawler! He started out kind of dragging his legs and scooting, but he now has the motion down. We're finding out what needs baby proofed! He is also trying to pull up on things and pulled up to the bathtub today. He's still all smiles, loves food, laughs at his sisters, loves to cuddle, is a good sleeper, feeds himself Cheerios and yogurt snacks and is an incredible joy to all of us.

In September, we've made many trips to the local fruit/veggie stand down the road, cheered on the Broncos (both Denver and BSU), attended the local high school football games, watched Nascar races, spent time with friends, started organizing scrapbook stuff, played outside, stayed close to home and enjoyed the last days of summer. And it is definitely fall. The temp dropped about twenty degrees today and there is a freeze advisory for tonight. Yikes! We'll see what October brings.