My Boys - How much have you Loved in your life?

Pretty much I love these boys. I'm so lucky to have three darling boys. I'm just cruising through some pictures and I realize with Alayna in school she misses out on several photo moments...I need to change that! Because lately, she has just blossomed to the most darling obedient little girl. Jared and I both are just loving her. When she's full of sleep and food, she is the BEST 7 year old ever. Honestly, I feel so blessed from day to day to be surrounded by the best kids and hubby. The other thing I've thought about is how our hearts as parents just grow bigger for each child. It's amazing how our love doesn't change or diminish or love your other children less, it just GROWS bigger and bigger. I've loved growing and maturing and watching myself be so filled with love for the people around me. I've been reading a book over the weekend (on the flight to Seattle) Toss the Guilt and Find the Joy, from Merrilee Boyack. She mentioned in the book this question...
"How much have you LOVED in your life?" I realized how sometimes I get distracted on the less important things...(to-do lists, my personal high-expectations, clothing, status, being cool, friends, cool cars, hobbies, etc...ugh...it sounds like highs school...the list could go on and on...forever) And while I get stuck in this place I realize (yet again another wonderful moment shared with me from my darling visiting teacher...)"Put down the mirrior and pick up the magnifying glass" That way we stop worrying about ourselves and look for how we can love, serve or bless others around you.
I've loved these two thoughts this week, because honestly, I needed to be reminded that these are those moments in life where I need to focus on how much I have and how much am I actually LOVING (people and all my blessings) in my life. I realized real quickly that loving comes from looking upon others, giving of myself to lift and care for them. It also starts by enjoying those super simple moments in life....and this is easy to see when you spend time with your kids...enjoying them!

1st Day of 2nd Grade

Miss Alayna is growing up! I have a 2nd grader. Unreal. It seems like this little beauty is just blossoming before our eyes. She really is so thrilled to be in 2nd grade. I love how excited she is about school, each and every day. She is thrilled to be on the same track as her cousins again. I think off track time is going to be a great success this year! It's been fun I looked back on all these pictures from Preschool on up till now. It's amazing how similar she looks but this year she just looks like she's maturing. Oh, she's a beautiful girl. Honestly, how lucky our we to have had such a pretty-all-girly-girl-girl in our family? Here's to 2nd grade!

Check out how she's changed and grown over the past few years....Preschool, Kindergarten, First Grade.

(It's funny, I think she looks older in her Kindergarten pictures than she does in her first grade ones!)

On the first day of school she was lucky enough to have her cousins sleep over. Their parents were out of town and so we were able to send them off and meet their teachers! It was really FUN to have them with us.

She sure LOVES her cousins! Conner (5th), Olivia (4th), Miss Alayna (1st)

Wedding and Hair...

So my darling cousin was married this last Friday in the Draper temple. It was beautiful. Honestly, from the wedding dinner, wedding then the reception it was awesome! I loved all of it. It also helps that I find my entire family just wonderful to be with. Seriously, how lucky am I to have such a beautiful family.

Conner came to the temple as the "baby" watcher while we were inside for the sealing. He was not willing to take a serious picture, so this was my dad teasing him. What a fun grandpa he is.

These are my three beautiful cousins. Kimberly on the left was married about 10 months ago. Then Morgan in the middle. Then Brianna will be married here soon. They lived in Oregon their whole life and were about 5 years all younger than us. We've always thought the world of them, not to mention they have this amazing style and beauty. Gorgeous girls!

Grandma Perry...honestly, this picture describes her. She is WONDERFUL, full of life, and an ever example of joy and happiness. Her counsel to my cousin Morgan in the sealing room after the ceremony was to remember to laugh. Laugh at each other, and have fun together. Life has enough serious moments, but take the time to laugh and enjoy each other. I think she did just that! I sure love her!!!

So this picture is of my three uncles (my dads two brothers), Alan on the left, then Doug the father of the three beauties in the middle, then my dad.

OK...and here's for the NEWEST change for the day.....

 Long lushes locks...gotta love the straight from the pony tail and braid hair pictures.

 Awesome before pictures!

 Back view...gotta say she has some great thick hair...she must take after her momma!

Before....and After....She was so excited to cut off more than 8 inches of hair to donate! She set it as a goal and she totally accomplished it! 

Oh, and here is Alayna....she chopped her long locks of hair off! I can't believe it but she did...and she LOVES it! Here comes second grade!

So cute.

And a happy oh so lovey wedding anniversary to us...11 years baby! I sure love this kid more than words on this blog will ever describe. We had a perfect date and it was honestly the most fun I've had in a really long time! I love you!

Happy Birthday Alayna!!

Our oldest and most wisest child has turned 7 this morning!

I decided to make a delicious breakfast that any child would LOVE to look forward to for their birthday...Chocolate Pancakes with Strawberries, and Strawberry Syrup.

My sister Krista let me borrow her DARLING birthday banners and chair cover. I have made a smaller one in the past, but when Krista made this large, bright and festive banner. I knew that this new design would please Alayna greatly. I was totally right, she was in HEAVEN! The good thing is, I have all the matching fabric to sew the same thing! Maybe by Jake's birthday I will have it done...wishful thinking.

These three monkies are birthday-loving-children. Seriously, it's a good thing that as the year comes around Alayna's birthday comes first, then Jacob and then Caleb. Seriously, there isn't a day that goes by that Alayna doesn't talk about her birthday. She LOVES being special. She LOVES being pampered and shown extra attention and love. It's surprising that I have a 7 year old girl. Wow, I think I'm finally getting older...Happy Birthday to our happy obedient little girl. We love you!

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!

Early Christmas Wish

Alayna has three older cousins. All of which lost their first tooth in Kindergarten. Well, Alayna's Kindergarten year came and went without a her loosing a tooth. Since she started first grade she has been "wishing and hoping" that her teeth would fall out. She has talked about this day for SO long. So on Saturday Jared took the kids out sledding, since there was SNOW on the ground. Apparently she hit her tooth on the sled...it became wiggly. To say she was thrilled was a complete understatement. She was in luck, the next morning she was getting ready for church and...(drum roll) her tooth fell out!

She quickly created a SAFE place to keep her little tooth until later that evening when she would be so excited to hide it under her pillow for the tooth fairy to come and take the tooth but leave some $$$. Well, this is where the story goes from happy to sad. Sunday evening arrives, she has said good night to us. We go through the routine of where you place your tooth, etc. But just as she has some extra nervousness (as Alayna often does), she returns back down stairs to ask yet again, MORE questions about the tooth fairy. (ridiculous if you ask me, but it was her first tooth so I figured I could play along.) Anyways, as she's holding her once safe baggy for her little tooth, she pulls on the tape no the bottom. I notice it pulls the plastic bag away from the tape. I then think to myself..."Oh, great that's all we need is a hole to end up in that bag!" So before I said anything out loud, we scooted her off to bed, up the stairs she ran...and no more than 10 seconds later we hear a blood curdling cry! You guessed it, the tooth had fallen out from downstairs to upstairs. I could hardly contain myself, so I shot Jared a look that said, "You better take over or else I might just ruin her excitement." So Jared calmly takes over, takes her upstairs and explains in great detail the "magic" of the tooth fairy. After about 15 minutes of explaining, Jared returns downstairs and is telling me what he explained to her. He said, "But this is the best part listen to what she said, "Dad, what if the tooth fairy isn't real and it's really the Mom and Dad's of kids?" Jared then said he SMILED, Alayna noticed and said, "Dad why are you SMILING? Is that TRUE??" He at that point shut her door and said, "Good night, I love you!" So thankfully Jared saved the night, kept it a secret so she could wake up SUPER excited the next morning to find a .25 cents under her pillow! Oh, the joys and drama of trying to keep secrets, or silly traditions alive for our children.