A long awaited update...



Our family from the eyes of Jacob (age 4). Seriously, I love this picture. I love that he took the time to color us all, write our names and give us all belly buttons. Let's just say that this is being saved in the book of memories, forever. I love it.

Besides loving my kids and living regular life I decided I must have gone through a mini-four-kid-off-track-mid-life-crisis....My mini crisis isn't over yet, so these are just a few pictures to catch my avid readers up on my life...

A little paint....(Oh, and I chopped my hair off again! goodbye longer hair, hello familiar short hair!)

Goodbye brown...Hello WHITE...

I will take better pictures in the day time and when it's totally finished, but so far I am IN LOVE with the changes.

For those of you who know me well know that my paint color around my home has driven me crazy for three years now. So at the start of my projects I have painted my ceilings WHITE...I love it. love it. LOVE it. I then painted my kitchen (yes, I painted it again for the third time in 3 years) and painted the main wall...the wall you see in the picture above. It's the same color as my guest bathroom. I LOVE it. I LOVE it in the main room with the white entertainment center. The kitchen still needs a little change and lightening up, but for the most part I'm LOVING the changes. Did I mention I really like the new feel?? Well, I do. I still have to paint the inside of the fireplace nook white, spray paint the canned lights, finish the office and master bedroom ceilings, and some new changes to the kitchen. But for the most part all is done! Oh, besides deciding what type of decor to do on top of the entertainment center...give me some ideas. Don't worry what's on top right now is just random decorations that I placed up there away from kids. (And the decor on the fire place.) I did however add flowers to the flowers in the fireplace.

If you notice carefully Caleb has his pants on backwards. As mothers of young toddlers you all know that that means...He's totally 100% potty trained. Go Caleb! Let's just say after a week he was totally on his own. It's been HEAVENLY!

During potty training I realized quickly that this almost three year old was not taught (by me) how to get dressed by him self. So what did we do...we taught him how! Yes, he accomplished this as well. Shocking I know...what almost three year old doesn't get dressed himself...Jake and Alayna are really good helpers!

Family Home Evening is truly a favorite night around our house. We have added a new fun thing to our scheduled/planned FHE's around here. I recently thought that I miss not reading the Friend magazine regularly. So one night a month (or as often as I remember) we do an activity and read stories and make the kid friendly recipes out of it. Seriously, we are so blessed to have an AMAZING resource to help teach our children the gospel principles. I love it and so do they. I have to admit we are hooked on the pretzels. YUM.

How have you all lived with out this chubby guy. He is such a doll to have around. He's probably around 20 lbs. and growing. He downs 8 oz. every 4 hours with out an trouble. He looks deeply into your eyes and keeps eye contact with you for a really long time. I LOVE this too. (Look at those chubby elbows. So gooey and cute!

Happy baby!

This was darling. In all my adventures of painting I had the windows open and listening to the boys playing outside. I over heard Jake saying, "Now...Bend...Now...Kick...Now Bend...Now Kick..Good job Caleb." It was adorable. I had to lean out to see what they were doing, then I realized he was teaching him how to pump in the swing. I have to give Jake credit, he has taught Caleb how to swing. It really was so precious. These brothers really enjoy being together. I just love watching them be friends, wrestle and show love and concern for one another. This was a good mom moment.

The leprechauns returned again this year!

My other project that I have been up to is organizing my pantry. You know it was bad when Jake said, "Mom, every time I'm in here I think everything is falling on top of me!" So when Jared had to work out of town all day long until midnight, I rushed off to Walmart and purchased new uniform containers (Spent a fortune- I don't recommend that!) Scrubbed, threw away 2 garbage bags full of who knows what was hiding in there, cleaned, consolidated, organized, and beautified this area of the home. And thank heavens for labels. Because seriously, with those clear containers, I need to read to know what's found inside!! ( ha ha ha - this sarcasm is for my sisters who have teased me unmercifully about the need for labels on clear containers.) Either way I love it and it pleased Jared greatly. He's Mr. Organize Pantry Man...so this was GOOD surprise for him to return home too. I'm proud to admit that because of such great organization it has remained clean for a month now! That's a big deal around here.

That's about it folks. Because you are all wondering why in the world have I not blogged, well you guessed it...my computer ONCE again was broken. It's not fixed permanently, but for the time being it's working. So I'm saving all my goods and crossing my fingers that we can solve all my computer issues. Jared is just praying that we can get it fixed because heaven knows an Apple computer is my next laptop in line...Thank to my ipad for my birthday, this has completely sold me on that upcoming decision! Life is good around here. We are "Enjoying and Enduring" that journey of life!