the ogdens

gratitude day 25

2011-11-25T21:05:00.000-08:00

Today I am so thankful for my cousins! We all went shopping today, it was so much fun. Leah Derek's girlfriend came too, I just love her, she is the sweetest girl. It was fun to all be together, (along with about 5000 of our closest friends) everywhere was crazy busy and so crowded. We shopped and went to lunch, then shopped some more! I just love those girls, I don't have a sister but I have them, which is the closest thing to having one, and I am so grateful for that. All 3 of them in their own way are such an example to me, and they help me to be a better person. I love them all, and I don't know what I would do with out them!

gratitude day 24

2011-11-24T20:55:00.000-08:00

It's finally here! Thanksgiving! Today I am so thankful for family time, and to have the weekend to just hang out. We took the kids to see The Muppets, they were so excited to go to a movie as a family. They had been looking forward to this for over a week. We always go to a movie on Thanksgiving morning. Usually we would go with Rob and Jennies family, but since they moved we obviously didn't go with them and my kids were sad about that. After the movie we went to the Ogdens to eat and then to my parents house for dessert. After all that all of us girls went shopping. I love my cousins! It was a great day, it was so fun to get to see our families and laugh and hang out.

gratitude day 23

2011-11-23T20:16:00.000-08:00

I am so thankful to have the time to be able to help out in my kids' classes. Every Monday I go and help for an hour in the morning in Ryders class. I just love seeing his cute face grin when I walk in the classroom. It's fun to get to see how he is at school, he is actually calm and obedient. On Fridays I help sell snocones for Krews' fundraiser for Sea Camp, he loves having me there to help. I love that he loves me being there. Today I went on a field trip with Jades class, she was so excited I was able to come. She wanted to sit right by me on the bus and didn't care if she was with her friends or not.

I have realized at their school I have 3 names, Krews' mom, Jades' mom, or Ryders mom. It all depends on whose friend or class mate it is, I love it. I am so thankful that my kids love me to be around.

gratitude day 22

2011-11-23T15:15:00.000-08:00

Today I am thankful for my mom and Cafe Rio! I worked from 9am -8pm today, I was crazy busy because of Thanksgiving and working a short week. I was booked solid but then ended up getting a break at 1:00 while my client processed. My sweet mom and Violet ran me over a Cafe Rio salad, I scarfed it down. Man that was just what I needed. Thanks Mom!

gratitude day 20

2011-11-23T15:03:00.000-08:00

I love this weather! I just love these over cast skies. I am so thankful for fall. It is so fun to see all the leaves change colors. There aren't very many trees that do this in Vegas, but when you do see them they stand out. I drove by some trees with red, yellow, and orange leaves, they were so pretty. Even my kids got excited to see the cool leaves.

gratitude day 21

2011-11-22T15:07:00.000-08:00

Today I am thankful for Violets dance class, she just loves to go and thinks she is so big. She loves all the little girls in their. Her first day she was nervous and said "mom I don't know how to dance so I don't know if I should be going here!" Then she said "will my teacher hold me if I'm sad?" Of course she loved it. She will come home and show us all her moves. The older kids just adore her so they are so in to watching her. When she put her feet in a pose and said" this is 1st position" I just about died. How cute is she?! She will also do this funny dance and move her whole body and say "that is my famous dance" while grinning ear to ear.

gratitude day 19

2011-11-20T14:53:00.000-08:00

Today I am so thankful for soccer. As annoying as it is to have our Saturdays all tied up with games, my kids just love it! Jade is so stinkin' cute to watch out there, she is the best little forward and has been doing really good at it. She seriously lives for game day and counts down the days. Ryder is just so cute out there with his white hair, and he is a really good mid fielder, that the position he loves to play. He is in his uniform ready to go by 7 am , and he is ticked if his game is last. Krew this year has gotten sooo much better this season. We have never made him play, he always wants to but once he is out there he just could care less and isn't competitive. This year he is into it and is actually playing hard, he has even headed it a couple of times and Jared said"who's kid is that?" Violet is said she doesn't play yet, at the beginning of the season she said "Where is my unicorn at?!" she meant uniform but we loved it so we didn't correct her. Anyways it's just so fun to see my kids enjoying themselves and being in to something good for them.

gratitude day 18

2011-11-18T20:21:00.000-08:00

Today I am thankful for my little buddy Violet. On my days off she just follows me around, she helps clean, do dishes, laundry, and she loves to go to the grocery store. She really is the sweetest girl, and she is hilarious! As we clean if we are in different rooms she will yell "MOM!!" and I say "What?" and she will say "I love you!" it is so sweet. Amber Whiting had her the other day and she yelled Amber and when she said what Violet said "I like you!".

She knew we had to go help sell snocones at the kids' school so all day she would yell "Mom is it time to go sell snocones yet?" She is too cute, our whole family just loves and adores her.

Violet is one of the funniest girls you will ever meet, she says the craziest things, here are some examples.

The other day she was driving with my mom and she said this....

"Grandma can you drive me by Michael Jacksons house I just miss him! Why did he have to take that bad medicine and die? He should have taken my dads medicine and he wouldn't have died!"Really what 3 year old says that?! My mom does live by Michael Jacksons house he had in Vegas so that is where that came from.

Amber had Violet the other day and she took her to the park, she also had her nephew with her and I guess he wouldn't quit touching her and hitting her and she said "I am warning you I hit really hard!"

Her nursery leaders name is Sister Brown and she calls her Brown Sister, we don't correct her because its so funny!

Marci was babysitting her the other day and she said "Marci I am hungry". She asked her what she wanted and she said "Pizza, ice cream, and root beer, and miiiiixxx it up". She said this while she was doin' a little dance.

gratitude day 17

2011-11-18T12:07:00.000-08:00

Today was awesome, even though I worked for 9 1/2 hours to make up for being off, at least I was able to work. I am so thankful to be back to work and not hurting anymore and able to use my left hand fully. It is still sore but not like it used to be, man if anything really bad ever happened to one of my hands or arms(cause this was only 1 week and it stunk to not be able to work) I would be in trouble as far as not being able to work for a long period of time. So yes I am so thankful to be back in action!

gratitude day 16

2011-11-16T11:39:00.000-08:00

Today was a no brainer I didn't even have to sit and think for 1 second what to be thankful for, I am SO thankful to have my cast off! That thing was driving me crazy! I now can shower a lot easier, do my hair and make-up better, wash dishes, drive safer, sweep, mop, work, and sleep more comfortably! I can't believe how nice it is to have 2 working hands, I still have stitches so it is wrapped up, but I am allowed to take it off to get it wet then dry it of right away. It is really sore especially when I move my wrist, but I am so glad to be free of that cast!

The purple is from the sharpie he drew on me to mark where to cut. He said the tumor was

totally stuck and grown onto my main artery, so he had to carefully cut it away from that and

then it popped right out in one big chunk, he actually said it looked like an egg, which sounds

so gross, so sorry for that. it is in a zig zag because if it was a straight line the incision would

not be able to stretch when I would bend my wrist, so this way the skin has more stretch to it.

gratitude day 15

2011-11-15T23:34:00.000-08:00

This might be bad but I am so thankful for pain pills today. I went back to work today(which was a joke, bad idea, I ended up canceling my last 3 clients cause with the cast I just could not manuver my hand like I needed to and it hurt to try to) my wrist was killing me when I got home. I've only been taking half a pain pill at night now, it's not like I'm a addict! It just really does help to relieve the pain and I can sleep better. I sure am glad for modern medicine and to have the medical care that we have.

gratitude day 14

2011-11-14T11:20:00.000-08:00

I am so thankful for family night. My kids love having family night, Jade and Krew fight over who gets to do the lesson, we trade off, but they each want to do it every week. It is cute listening to their lessons, we sometimes help, but they usually just get an idea out of the friend and don't want our help. Jade assigns everyone their part, like song, scripture, or prayer. She loves being in charge. Violet loves to lead the music. This week Violet raised her hand when Krew asked a question and she said "The Prophet died and is in Heaven" and Ryder said "DUH if he is a prophet of course he is in heaven". It was so funny especially since Krew's lesson was on being honest, Im not sure where Violet got that from. For the game we played rock band. I had to leave to go to this parenting class that I'm in, and when I got home at 9:30 everyone except for Violet was up and rockin' out still. I asked Jared why they were all still up, since it was a school night, and he said"We are rockin' out thats why! and rockin' roll doesn't have a curfew!" then the kids all yelled"YEA mom!" Oh sorry my bad. They are so lucky to have a fun dad. I love my family!

gratitude day 12

2011-11-12T17:06:00.000-08:00

Today as a family we participated in the "Race 4 Rob", it was a charity run for Rob Hale who recently suffered a stroke. He is from Vegas but currently lives in Texas, all of the $ raised today is going directly to his family, he is only 30 and has 2 little kids, it is such a sad story, he is doing much better now than 2 months ago, but he still has a long road ahead. His sweet wife blogs everyday about their life, it is a very inspiring blog and she has an amazing attitude - www.helpingthehales.blogspot.com.
So today before the race they announced that they had already raised over $12,000, isn't that awesome?! There was a 5k or a 1 mile walk/run/ride, so we did the 1 mile with our kids, they rode their scooters. It was was so neat to be there with my family, my parents and my cousins were there too. Cherie's husband Stephen was working the drink and snack booth, he is good friends with the Hale family. During the race channel 8 news was there, when we ran past the camera Krew got up in it and said "YEA I'm gonna be famous, I'm gonna be on TV!" The camera guy loved it. Krew is so funny, just like his dad.

It was so fun to being there today, you really could feel the spirit. I was so thankful to be apart of this and that my kids got to experience this as well, it was just so neat to see so many people come together for a special cause. It really was amazing, and a day that I will never forget.

The only shirts left were really small or really big, Krew looks so funny but he really wanted a shirt, their #s cover it up, but it says "race 4 rob". My kids pray for the Hale family every night so they were excited to be apart of this.

Jared was making fun of Carol, thats why he is posing like that.

They had this banner to sign and then they are sending it to Rob and his family, my kids couldn't wait to sign it.

halloween

2011-11-11T21:00:00.000-08:00

We had quite the posse out trick-or-treating, it was so much fun to be with so many friends!

Jared grew out a mustache just for the occasion! He went around trick-or-treating in this riding on one of our kids' scooter. It was pretty funny to watch. When he would go up to the doors with the kids people said he looked so good he deserved some candy.

Jade was so excited to hold baby Dylan.

Jackpot! my kids got so much candy!

The weekend before Halloween was our wards trunk-or-treat, it is always fun to see everyone and to get to dress up more than once.

Ryder did his own hair, he got mad at me for trying to spike it up all crazy, he said"Skeltons don't have any hair so it has to be flat!"

My little bumble bees, Violet was so excited to be matching Jade.

My kids are the biggest posers! I'm not sure what Krew is doing in any of these?! Violet wouldn't stop rubbing her lips since she had lipstick on, and she would put her trick-or-treat bag down either, but she is still cute trying to pose like the big kids.

Krew helped pass out the candy from the truck, he was thrilled to be helping.

My cute cousin Denise came to my wards trunk-or-treat with her kids, we just love them.

The kids had so much fun carving pumpkins over at Carols house.

I helped in Ryders class with their pumpkin decorating, I think Ryders was the most creative, no one elses had eyebrows!

gratitude day 11

2011-11-11T16:10:00.000-08:00

I am so thankful for great friends, everyone has been so good to me. I am so thankful for all the help with my kids, they have been farmed out all over the place for 2 days, which has been so nice so I can rest in peace and quiet. I also have gotten so many phone calls from everyone checking up on me, it feels so good to be so loved. We also have gotten meals brought over which is awesome, Jared could have cooked, but my sweet friends insisted on brining dinner.

Also the Dr. called this morning to check on me and said it was a tumor not a cyst, and that it was not cancerous. I wasn't really worried that it would be, but it is crazy to think I grew a tumor on my wrist! I still can't believe I had to have full blown surgery to remove this stinkin thing. Well I am so thankful to be healthy, and tumor free!

Here's a picture of the tumor, its kinda hard to tell in a picture what it really looked like, but it was pretty ugly!

gratitude day 10

2011-11-11T15:35:00.001-08:00

I am so thankful for Jade, she is the most thoughtful little girl you will ever meet! This morning I had to have surgery on my hand, it sounds more dramatic than it is. I had a tumor/cyst on the back side of my wrist they are usually never cancerous only 1% chance, but it has doubled in size lately and if I pressed on it my hand would go numb. Since I do hair and it was on a tendon or something the Dr. said we should probably remove it. Well sweet Jade was so worried about me, just as I was leaving she handed me a few cards and a some candies for Jared to eat while he waited, she said I didn't get any cause I'm not allowed to eat or drink anything. She was so cute all morning she kept reminding me not to eat or drink. The cards were so sweet, I had to take a picture of them. She gave me a ton of hugs and kisses and asked if she could call me later to see how I was doing. I just love that little girl with all my heart.

Jared said he over heard Jade explaining to Violet what they were going to do to me, she said" They are going to cut the bump open then dig it out, not with a shovel though, and then they will stitch her up." I can only imagine what was going on in Violets head.

my favorite part is the "sincerely your daughter Jade"

how cute is she ? Have a nice day with no kids. The next word is hopefully she wrote hovale, her spelling cracks me up!

Jade helped Violet make me a card, they were both so excited to give them to me as I left.

gratitude day 9

2011-11-09T22:37:00.000-08:00

I am so thankful for my calling, I am in scouts with Jared and we are over Krew. It's fun to have a calling with Jared, and Krew loves us being his leaders which makes it even better. Most people think scouts would be awful but I love it, the boys are so excited to be there and we have a lot of fun. It is always cool to see them in the halls at church or at school, they will say hi to me and have a big smile on their face, I have really grown to love all the boys in our group.

gratitude day 8

2011-11-08T22:49:00.000-08:00

I am so thankful to not have been a pioneer, I would have never lasted. When I got off work I ran to my car an blasted the heat, and thought I am so thankful for this. I know its a simple thing but I really am thankful for heaters. I am such a wuss when it comes to the cold, I have such a respect for those poor pioneers. We are truly so spoiled!

gratitude day 7

2011-11-07T22:17:00.000-08:00

I am so thankful for my parents, they are so good to me and my family. My mom is so helpful and watches Violet every Tuesday and Thursday for me, she is the best grandma. Every Tuesday they go to Pottery Barn Kids for story time, then to the Gap to shop the sales(Violet gets something from the sale rack every tuesday!), and then they go to Cafe Rio for lunch. On Thursdays they go to story time at the library, she always makes sure Violet has a fun time with her and I really appreciate it. Violet has gotten so spoiled, on the days I don't work she asks" can I go to Nanas today?"

My dad Is so good to my kids he is always so excited to see them and can't go over a week without seeing them. He is such a fun grandpa in the summer he takes them to the lake, and loves to swim with them at their house. He also takes them camping in his fancy trailer, my kids love it!

My parents have been through a lot and they don't let it get them down they always stay positive and are such good examples to me. They are some of the most Christ like people I know.

I am so glad I live close to my parents and I don't know what I would do without them!

gratitude day 6

2011-11-06T21:15:00.000-08:00

Church was so good today! I am so thankful for Relief Society, I love love love Relief Society. It is lessons like todays that make me feel so bad for primary teachers and YW leaders that they miss out. Of all thing the lesson was on gratitude, and thru having gratitude it can help us thru our trials. This lesson was exactly what I needed to hear. Jared had a ruff weekend and didn't make it to church so I took the kids myself and was pretty bummed out, but this lesson helped me to have a change of heart, and the testimonies born afterwards were awesome. After church I told my kids how great my class was and asked them if they knew what gratitude was, after explaining I asked them each to tell me some things they were grateful for, I was very impressed.

Krew said- for our house and that we are not homeless

Ryder said- for his parents and family

Jade said- that my parents aren't divorced and for shelter, food, and water

Violet said- for trees, plants,and houses

Wow! I was not expecting such great answers. I love my kids so much! Jades answer practically made me cry.

It seems like every week at church there is something I need to hear or intended just for me, and that strengthens my testimony. I am so thankful to be a member of this church and a part of Relief Society.

gratitude day 5

2011-11-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

I just love my sweet brother Ryan. Today was his 30th birthday, for those of you that don't Ryan he struggles with some major mental problems, and lives in a group home. He was so excited to be 30, he calls me just about everyday(our conversations are very comical!) and the last 2 months he has reminded me it's his birthday and that he is going to be 30 and if I have any advice for him on entering his 30's. We really do have the same conversations almost every time, they always start off with"Hey Toni it's your baby brother RyRy!" He also asks me every phone call if I am good for a $20 gift card to Walmart like I got him last year, and I say of course. He wanted to hang out for his birthday, I told him we could but we had soccer all day. Since he doesn't do well with crowds he said he would think about it, I told him we could go out to dinner that night and he liked that idea. My parents were out of town so the took him out a couple nights ago to celebrate so I wanted to make sure he had a good day. Well this morning he calls me at 9 am and I was at work and he said can you get me now and that he might want to come to soccer so I said in between games I could get him. So he rode the bus over to our side of town and I got him from the bus stop, he was so excited to see us, and gave me huge hug as usual. He about crapped his pants over the $30 gift card(since he was turning 30 I wanted to get him a $30 instead of $20). He said "a dollar for every year, I like that!" We got to the game and walked up to the field and as soon as we got there he said he was sorry but he needed to leave and that he couldn't handle being there and that he would just wait for the bus across the street to go home and that he was sorry. I held back the tears and he hugged me and left, I just feel so bad for him, and the fact that he suffers so much mentally it is so sad, I could tell he was really struggling. He was so sweet he called me about 1o min later and thanked me for getting him and for the gift card and that he was on his way to walmart, he seriously loves that store. He called me later to say thanks again and that he got some axe body wash and a bunch of chicken wings, he was so excited to tell me about it, bless his little heart. I am so thankful for him and his sweet spirit, and for the love he shows me, I am his favorite he always tells me that. Ryan is such a great kid I just wish he had a normal life, poor guy.

gratitude day 4

2011-11-04T20:43:00.000-07:00

Today I am so grateful for music, I love listening to music and singing along. It so fun to just belt out the words, of course I only do this alone cuz I am a horrible singer, which is too bad cuz I really do love to sing. I really love all kinds of music, I recently have been listening to church music in the mornings when I get ready and it really is such a good way to start off the day. I just downloaded 2 really good songs, one is by Hilary Weeks called "Beautiful Heartbreak" and the other is by Laura Story and it is called "Blessings". I listen to these over and over, they are both about trials and over coming them, they have such a good message and give you hope. I have listened to them so much that even Violet knows the words, it's so cute to hear her sing. It is so neat the spirit that music can bring, I just truly love it!

gratitude day 3

2011-11-03T22:42:00.000-07:00

I love my job! Of course there are those clients that stress you out but for the most part all my clients are great. Since I need to work I am so lucky to have a job that I love to go to and don't dread. Work is also a good break from being a mom, although the days I do work are more hectic at home before and after, but while I am at work I get to talk with so many neat people(some weird), but I really do love it, and the weird ones make for really great stories, and boy do I ever have some stories! It's so fun to hear about other peoples lives and how they are doing, I have even turned into to somewhat of a therapist! I am really close to a lot of my clients and truly care about them. It is also rewarding to do some ones hair for the first time or do a big change to their hair and when you are done and they look and in the mirror and can't stop smiling because they feel so good about themselves and feel pretty. It is such a good feeling to think "wow I was apart of that". Or when you get done with their hair and they say over and over how much they love it and how great you are, that is one of the best feelings. I'm not claiming I am the best hairdresser out there, but I think I've convinced some of my clients that I am! ;) Today I was thinking just how fortunate I am to be able to work just a couple days a week and to love what I am doing as well. I am so thankful to be a hairdresser, it is seriously the best job in the world!

Gratitude Day 2

2011-11-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

Krew is the sweetest boy, even though he is 10 and in 5th grade he is still so kind and thoughtful. He just makes you smile! He hasn't turned into a punk yet and hope he never does. You always hear about how awful these 5th grade boys can be, he is still so innocent.He is such a mommas boy and I love that, he still calls me mommy and likes me to cuddle him before he goes to bed. I don't ever want him to grow up! He is the best big brother, today at Jade and Ryders soccer practice Violet was sad and crying, he came right over and hugged her and took her to the park along with Preston to go play.

He is such a happy kid, people always tell me how he is just so smiley and happy. Even kids at school notice this about him and tell him how they can't believe he is always in a good mood and happy,I asked him if he told them its because he has such a great mom, he just laughed at me. My friends from church have told me how they see him at school and how cute he is that he says hi to them and talks to them, instead of being too cool for them. I think that is such a great quality to have. On top of being nice he is funny, he for sure gets this from Jared. I seriously love this kid and I am so grateful he is my oldest to set such a good example for the rest of my kids, and I feel so blessed to be his mother.

Cherie and Stephen are Krew's primary teachers and on Sunday she texted me this. They were playing hang man and this is what one of the boys did for his turn. If you can't tell, it says "Krew the happiest guy in the world". Kobe, the kid that did that, is always telling me how he can't believe how happy Krew always is. How cute is that?

Gratitude Day 1

2011-11-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

Since it is November and it's the time of year to be thankful, everyday this month I am going to write what I'm grateful for. I got this idea from Kelly Ahlander, her whole family does this and emails it to each other. I love this idea, it is such a good idea to think and reflect on what we are grateful for.

I am so thankful for Jared. Today was a long day at work, I didn't get home until 7:30, and I was not in the best mood. I thought for sure I would be coming home to make the kids do homework and knew I would need to clean up but didn't have the energy to do so. Even though Jared was so exhausted, he had all the kids finish their homework, they cleaned the down stairs, Jared did laundry, and part of the upstairs even got cleaned! This was seriously the best surprise ever. Coming home to a thrashed house no matter how hard I try, it just puts me in a bad mood. I am seriously so grateful for Jared for doing this for me cause I know this was a huge sacrifice since he doesn't feel good. I love coming home to a clean house!

an answer to prayers

2011-10-30T19:14:00.000-07:00

Church was so good today, I swear one of the sacrament talks was just for me. It was mostly about prayer and how prayers are not always answered the way we hope they will be, or as fast as we are wanting them to be answered. He read a quote about just that, it really touched me, I'm not sure who it was by but it read-"sometimes He calms the storm, and sometimes He lets the storm rage, and He calms the child". Isn't that awesome? I'm pretty sure He is calming me and not my storm, I'm not sure why, but at least I have the strength to get through each day. It's crazy how this talk was an answer to my prayers. I'm embarrassed to admit, but I have been feeling like what is the point in praying? It isn't changing anything and Jared is still not better. I'm all talk cause I have never stopped praying but I was thinking what's the point,and praying to know why my prayers can't be answered, which is awful to think that way. After the talk today it reiterated what I already knew, that my prayers are what's getting me through this mess and making me stronger, Jared may not be getting better as fast as we want but we will be stronger from all this in the end. In the talk he talked about how sometimes our prayers never being answered the way we want them to is our answer, and whatever we are going through is given to us so we can grow and become who he wants us to be. I guess he is wanting me to become a crazy lady! I'm just joking.

posin' for the camera!!!

2011-10-30T09:13:00.000-07:00

So we went to disneyland back in June and I just posted the trip but I back dated it so my blog would go in somewhat of an order, for the purpose of making it into a book. There was some crazy funny pictures of Jared that I wanted everyone to see, since no one would be looking up stuff I blogged in June, I decide to post these pictures so you could get a good laugh! Jared knows where the cameras are on every ride and he trained my kids as well to pose for the camera. So check these out!

Jared is nuts! He took his shirt off and just went on the ride with a zip-up hoody so when it came time he could quickly un-zip the hoody and be shirtless. That isn't me behind him, it's some lady with her kid, she didn't realize until she got off the ride to look at her picture, she was dying laughing. There was literally a crowd around Jareds picture laughing hysterically and people were actually taking a picture of his picture cause the thought it was so funny. Jared said he nailed it, and there is no way he can ever top that! Even Krew and Jade did a pretty good job posing! Look at Jades tongue out, they are all so stinkin' funny.

labor day hike

2011-10-30T08:41:00.000-07:00

On Labor Day we went hiking up at Red Rock with my cousins. Krew wore his Harry Potter glasses and a sweatband, when Stephen saw him he said "man why didn't you tell me we were dressing up?" Krew has the best personality he is so funny, just like his dad!Denise said it was a 20 min hike in to this waterfall, after an hour of hiking and still no sight of a waterfall in sight Jared had had it, he was so tired. Jared and Stephen were giving Denise the hardest time, it was pretty funny.He was barely up for a hike anyway, but figured he could manage 20 min. then rest to eat and go back. So we left with Violet, who was only wanting to be carried, and left our other kids with them. It was still fun just not what we expected. I love my cousins!

star student

2011-10-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

In Ryders class every week there is a star student of the week, this means they get spotlighted and everyday they get to do something special like bring something for show and tell, bring their favorite book, and one day she had me write a letter to him telling him how special he is to us. He was so excited to fill out this poster and color it, then it gets put up in his class room for the week. In the part where it says"when I grow up" he put that he wants to be an art teacher, I thought that was so cute. Where it says "These are my hobbies" he put soccer, swimming, coloring, riding his bike, and reading. I'm so mad I didn't get a picture of him holding it, oh well.

picture day

2011-10-29T19:50:00.000-07:00

So it has begun! What happened to my sweet little girl? She is already acting like a pre-teen! Very, very dramatic. She knew exactly what she wanted wear for picture day(and she wasn't caving) which was her favorite tank top ,with a shrug, with tights! not leggings but with tights, we told her no way since this is a shirt you need leggings not tights, I explained tights go under skirts or dresses, and that this would be immodest. She was insistent because her leggings aren't long enough and they would show part of her leg between the leggings and her boots, which she was not a fan of. I told her it didn't look bad and that last time I checked school pictures are just of your face. She was in tears, and was seriously flipping out over this. She stormed away from me and yelled"I just want to look my best mom!!" I couldn't hold in the laughter. Then she yelled"I'm not going to school tomorrow. I finally told Jared to go deal with her.

So I kid you not she came down in the morning with the leggings on and the tights over them, that's right over them! I said"What are you doing?" she said " I followed the rules! I have leggings on!" She was right, I told her it was a little funny but if she liked it whatever, I was so over fighting about it.

Here is the finished product, since it's all black you couldn't tell unless you were close up.

star wars mania!!!

2011-10-29T19:15:00.000-07:00

So Jared has a serious star wars collection, he has about 6 huge bins stuffed with star wars parafinelia. Some of the figurines he has 3 of, so he decided to give a set to the kids, they were in heaven! They literally spent at least 4 hours going though stuff. Jared has been collecting since he was a kid, everything was still in its package, it's crazy how much he has. They loved ripping every last one open.

New couches and new pictures!!!

2011-10-29T17:57:00.001-07:00

So we finally got new couches and I love them, plus they are super comfy(well we have had them for a month or 2 now). Jared said "I think we need a few more pillows! Don't you?" Of course he was kidding. It might be alot but I like it. We moved the old ones into the living room that was empty and the same week I got our family pictures back that we ordered on canvas'. Meghan Poort took these photos and I think they look great, she did an amazing job.

Planking

2011-10-29T17:32:00.000-07:00

My family is obsessed in planking, from the moment my kids learned about it they started planking all over the house. They are good at it cause they don't yell for us to come and look at them, they just plank and wait for us to see them. At soccer Krew planked on the side line it was so funny, other parents were dying laughing, then once we got home from soccer that day Krew and Jade wouldn't stop planking around the house. They were entertained for hours.

Even Violet has gotten into it, occasionally we will hear "Look mom and dad I'm planking!" Jared and her planked out in front of our house the other day on thewall, the other kids and I pulled up to the house and we busted up laughing!

Then Jared had to one up them and got and the roof, when the kids and I pulled up we about died. I told the kids don't you even think of doing this!!!

Jared on the roof!!!!

Violet and Jared on the wall, look how good her form is!! I love that girl!

This one looks uncomfortable!

Yea I'm not sure this one was very safe, I walked up stairs to this, and busted up laughing. I kept my phone one me all night so I didn't miss any good photo opps!

Be happy now!

2011-10-28T22:06:00.000-07:00

I was reading some ones blog and came across this quote......

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."

I really liked this quote because it so easy to get hung up on how life isn't fair and nothing is going how I planned or how I envisioned my life being right now. I just got home from our wards trunk-or-treat that I took my kids to by myself. I got them all ready hair and make-up, they were so excited to go, unfortunately Jared didn't feel well enough to go when it was time to leave. I was so bummed, the poor guy has grown out a mustache for his costume for this stinkin thing! Seriously it's so hard to not get discouraged why can't we catch a break and why can't he get fully better?! I've been trying hard to stay positive despite how hard my life is but days like this make it difficult. Jared is doing better, but he is still not that great, everyday for him is a struggle and he pretty much fakes it all the time, and I love him for that. If things weren't so bad last year and the beginning of this one I would say things are awful but compared to then things are way better. He isn't sleeping on his lunches or staying after work to sleep to be able to drive home to only go to bed once he got home, but he still doesn't have much energy and feels like crap everyday. Work is all he can handle(barely), which at least he can work, but I can't imagine feeling completely exhausted and achy everyday of life, it really is hard for me to watch knowing he is so miserable, he is good at trying to go to things and helping with the kids more but it's hard for him. Soccer on saturdays wipes him out but at least he is there, some times he leaves early to go home and sleep but he has been to almost all the games this season. I can't believe it has been 16 months since he has been this way, I guess time flies when you are living in chaos, but it does seem like forever since I have seen the old Jared, which makes me sad for both of us. A lot of people say how good he is doing and how good he seems, what they don't realize is if you are seeing him most likely he just got up from a nap to give him the energy to go wherever we are going and the second we get home he is back in bed, but at least he is going to events or whatever it is we have to do. I have learned to be greatful for whatever help he can offer, I can't believe how much easier life is for me when he has the energy to help, I feel sooo bad for single parents, it's truly is awful doing it all on your own.

I loved Pres. Uchtdorfs talk at the General RS meeting about the forget me not flower and the 5 things the petals represent. I loved all the things the petals represent but my favorite one was not to wait for your golden ticket in life and to basically be happy with your life now and where you are at, not always thinking it will get better or be better someday, we need to enjoy it now. That was good for me to be reminded of that, to try to be happy and not to get down or be negative. I need to accept the way my life is and be happy, and enjoy my kids now, not to keep thinking I will be happy once Jared is better, cause who knows when that will be. So for now I just need to count my blessings and smile! I have found that serving others and Jared helps me to be happier and to forget about my own problems or how hard my life is. I am so thankful for this talk. If you didn't hear his talk it is amazing and definitely worth looking up online or reading it.

Never leave your air vent opened!!!

2011-09-12T14:05:00.000-07:00

Jared had the air vent opened to change the filter, well in the mean time Jade managed to chuck a huge ball up in there and it got wedged in the vent, Jared is to big and heavy to go in there and lean on the tubing so we thought of him lifting Jade up in there to get it, she was thrilled and the rest of the kids were mad they couldn't. She said" It's not like this is fun, this is work and it's my fault its stuck, so I have to do it!" Yea right, work? She was so excited to get it. I left to work so I didn't get the final picture of them with the ball out, they ended up taping a knife to the end of a broom and stabbed it to get it out.

Back to School

2011-09-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

The first day of school was crazy!!! As much as I prepared the night before it didn't seem to matter, we were still running around like crazy people trying to get out the door. Getting 3 kids to 3 different classes is a joke! Jade is in a portable so we dropped her off there, which she was not happy about, she wanted me to stay with her. Then we had to go search for Ryder and Krew's dots to line up on, and by this time the bell rang , so Krew is flipping out, there was still 10 minutes until the tardy bell but they wanted to line up with their classes. So I finally spot Ryders teacher across the playground, so then I asked a teacher where Krews dot was at and she pointed in the opposite direction, great! So Krew was fighting back the tears and said he would go find it by himself since he knew I had to take Ryder to his class. I felt awful almost all of them were upset and I felt so bad for them to start of the first day like that. I only managed to get 3 pictures since we were in such a hurry. I left there practically in tears, but in the end it was fine they all had a pretty good first day of school.

family pictures

2011-09-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

We finally got new family pictures!!! I love them, Meghan Poort took them and did such a great job. I was lucky that my kids were so good, I did bribe them with $5 each if they were good, right away Violet said I want bubbles and water balloons, so that's exactly what she got.

the ogdens moved!

2011-09-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

Rob and Jennie moved to Texas the week before school started, my kids were devastated, especially Krew and Jade. Zach was so cute and made krew a necklace and gave him a stuffed animal to remember him by. Kelsie gave Jade a necklace too. My kids are so in to these keepsakes. It was really sad saying good bye, Zach, Krew, Jade and Kelsie were all crying it was heartbreaking! Zach hugged Krew, they were both crying and Zach said"I'm hugging you for 2 minutes and I'm not letting go!" Isn't that sweet. We are going to miss them so much, but we are excited for their new adventure in life. Plus now we somewhere to go visit, my kids have never been on a plane so they can't wait!

4 little monkeys jumpin on the bed

2011-08-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

I love taking 4 kids to the doctor!!!So Jade had a sore throat and Krew was just getting over strep throat so we were pretty sure thats what she had, but I needed to take her to the doctor to find out to get antibiotics. Since it's summer and everyone was out of school I had to bring them all, it was pretty much a nightmare. They were so hyper, but they had a lot of fun. I'm glad I went cause she did have strep throat after all.

Doesn't jade look so sick?! She still had some ibuprophin in her.

Disneyland !!!

2011-06-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

We surprised the kids and went to disneyland, I found some tickets on craigs list for super cheap so we decided to go last minute. We woke the kids up early in the morning and said get in the car we are going to disneyland, they about crapped their pants. We had a lot of fun!

Tower of terror freaked them out!

I really like this picture of them, Krew looks so old here I can't believe he is 10!

Since it was Jades birthday we let her pick where we went to dinner, she wanted to go to Red Robin, the kids were so good, I'm sure cause they were so tired. The sang to Jade and brought her out an ice cream sundae, and of course Jared smashed herface in it, after she blew out the candle!

Jared knows exactly where every camera is on every ride that takes your picture, and he has now trained our kids to know exactly when to pose. I seriously love them, they kept going on splash mountain over and over to get a better pose. With the no shirt I think Jared nailed it, I'm pretty sure it can't get better than that! He was wearing a zip up hoody, so prior to getting on the ride he took his t-shirt off then once the ride started he un zipped the hoody so he could get it off quickly for the picture, I'm sure the lady behind him was thinking what a weirdo. Ya it might look like it's me back their but it's not, it's a stranger with her little girl! The people looking at the pictures at the end of the ride ere dying laughing and were taking pictures with their cameras of him on the screen.

Violet loved the tea cups!

Ryders Birthday Party

2011-05-10T18:16:00.000-07:00

Deciding what to get with your tickets is the absolute hardest decision when you are a kid, and when you are an adult it is the most painful thing to watch!

I can't believe my sweet Ryder is "6". I call him sweet Ryder because whenever I get home from work or being out he says to me "How is my sweet sweet mommy?!" and gives me a hug and a kiss on the cheek, it is so cute, and for being such a monster it's actually pretty surprising that he does that. Ryder can be the sweetest boy and then be a holy terror seconds later.

Jared's sister Jaime is the best and made his soccer ball cake, she did it exactly according to his request. He wanted a teal and black soccer ball with green grass, teal is his favorite color, which is funny to me, he wants everything teal. For his party he wanted to go to Chuckie Cheese, and then to the park to have pizza and cake, it ended up being really fun, I thought it was going to be crazier than it was.

Here are some of Ryders favorite things.........

color- teal

candy- bubble gum

show- scooby-doo

song- I am a child of God

movie- Garfield

thing to do- draw pictures

food- mac n cheese

He loves to spend time with his family, play the computer and his dsi, and he loves to play soccer. This is actually what he said when I asked him what he likes to do.

He only wears plaid shorts, and shirts only with graphics on them, he said and I quote " I don't wear stripes or solids". He is a one of a kind, and I love him like crazy!

cousins

2011-04-29T18:57:00.000-07:00

waiting for the easter egg hunt

Good Things to Come.....

2011-02-05T21:40:00.000-08:00

This week I was listening to a few of the "Mormon Messages" on LDS.org, if you don't know what Mormon Messages are, they are quick little 3-5 min videos on different gospel topics, they are amazing, and I highly recommend trying to listen to them. They are on the home page of LDS.org under quick links, down on the bottom left. One especially touched me, it was called Good Things to Come, it was a little part taken out of one of Jeffrey R. Hollands conference talks, it was on knowing that things will get better when we are going through hard times, which was perfect for me, at the end he said this...........

"Don't you quit, you keep walking, you keep trying, there is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come 'til heaven, but for those who embrace the gospel Jesus Christ they come. It will be alright in the end, trust god, and believe in good things to come."

As I listened, tears streamed down my face,he had such conviction in his voice, I can't believe how much this touched me, it just gave me so much hope to know "yea things are really crappy now but they can and will get better". Jared is still sick and it's been going on for so long, we both have discouraging days,and definitely have days where i feel like giving up, so this was exactly what I needed to hear. I'm a nerd and typed this quote up, printed it out, and put it up on bathroom mirror so I can read it everyday.

These little Mormon Messages have been so neat to listen to, I just thought I would share this with others so you too can be enlightened, and I am so thankful for Cheryl Johnson(my R.S. pres.) who shared it with me.

Where's Violet???

2011-01-22T19:24:00.000-08:00

We have an old family picture framed on our side table, it's the back of us all holding hands walking, I love it, except for the fact it was before Violet was born, so she obviously is not in it. Well a couple weeks ago she came crying to me holding the framed picture and said while holding back tears "Mom I can't find myself in this picture! Where am I?!" I was trying not to laugh and said"oh sweetie you weren't born yet you were still in heaven."That did not fly with her she started balling and cried "why wasn't I born yet?".

So about every other day this becomes an issue for her and upsets her, I really should put the picture away but I love it, so anyways last night she comes over to me and jared holding the picture crying "why wasn't I born yet?" and Jared said "oh are we missing one of our kids in that picture?" and she cried "it's not a kid! it's a girl! and it's me!". She is so stinkin' funny.

Violet can definitely hold her own!

2011-01-20T21:45:00.000-08:00

The other day Ryder and Violet were fighting over something, so he hit her, and she flipped out! She attacked him and just clawed the heck out of his face. I think he learned his lesson!

Once again I wish i took pictures the day of the incident cause he was all bloody and looked way worse.

Ryder is just like Jared, he can never be serious in a picture. I seriously love this kid!

Is a spoon really that sharp?

2011-01-20T21:05:00.000-08:00

So it was a typical Sunday morning, I was about to walk out the door to choir practice(yes you read that right I am in choir, I know crazy!) anyway Jade comes running into our room screaming"Ryder thru a spoon at me!!!" I'm thinking man how bad can that hurt? Cause she was screaming so loudly. When i finally see her she is holding her forehead, we move her hand away and there is blood everywhere, in her hair and all over her face, and the cut is gapping open. The second I saw it i knew she needed stitches. So apparently Jade did something to tick off Ryder, we have yet to figure out the whole story, but he was mad at her none the less and decided to chuck a fork at her while she lay innocently on the couch watching cartoons, and it sliced her open. So i called my mom in a panic to have her call Dr. Rodriguez, he is a plastic surgeon in her ward and he has already done stitches 3 different times for my kids, he is amazing and since my kids seem to always need stitches on their face i'm not about to go to the ER and get some hack to do them. We are so lucky to know him. So my dad and Dr. Rod just got put in the high council for their stake and they were both speaking on Sun. but in different buildings, so my mom went to the church bldg. my dad was at to talk to him as soon as he was done speaking, my dad didn't have Bens cell # with him so he went to the bldg. he was going to be at to speak at 11, he waited until about 10:50 but he had to leave cause he was speaking again at 11 in a different bldg. so he left Ben a note with the bishopric to give to him. He called me during the mtg. and said "meet me here at 11:50 as soon as i finish speaking i will dismiss myself and we will go to my house to do the stitches". Cause he had to be back to speak again at 1:00, which my sweet dad offered to give his talk for him. It sounds like a circus but in the end it all worked out. The reason we didn't wait until he was all done with church is because right after his 1:00 talk he was going straight to the airport to go to Bangladesh to do surgeries on kids with clef pallets for free for a week, he is neatest guy and so giving. He said to me" I 'm so glad this worked out and i was able to do this for you guys." Seriously who says that? most people would be bugged and not have been so willing. Jade was so brave she didn't even cry when she got the shot. These pictures don't do it justice, it just looks like a little cut, i wish i would have taken pictures that day, cause 5 days later it looks almost totally better. For the picture Jade took her bandaid off, Violet iswearing a bandaid on her forehead so she can be like Jade, she has had a bandaid on since Sunday, she puts a new one on every morning. I've ran into people this week and they are confused and say "wait i thought Jade was the one that got stitches on her forehead?" Violet is so funny.

They wanted to do a little re-enactment!!!!

Jade wanted a close up of the blue stitches for our blog, she specifically asked me to take pictures and blog this!

SNOW

2011-01-10T21:56:00.000-08:00

My kids were so excited to wake up and see the snow. They played in it for about an hour then they had to go to school. They couldn't wait to get home and play in it, little did they know it would all be melted, i was so sad for them. After school they went running in the back yard and said they were going to have a snowball fight. I was so confused cause clearly they could see the snow had melted, well they are in-genius! They filled the play kitchen that is out back with snow, the stuffed the little fridge and oven full of snow, so sure enough it was still there, so they had their snowball fight.

Violet loved trying to catch the snow in her mouth.

When the fun was over Violet came in the house screaming that her hands were freezing and that the were so cold they were bleeding, and that she needed bandaids on them, so that is just what we did.

Christmas Day

2010-12-27T13:06:00.000-08:00

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Christmas morning was so much fun, my kids were so cute and thankful this year. love Violet wanted play doh and a purple DS that was it, which we got her a purple leapster instead, its a little more age appropriate don't you think, she is so funny. Ryder and Krew only wanted DSI's, and Jade wanted a camera. So over all christmas was a success! I love those snuggies! Jared was so tired but he was able to stay up and play with the kids for a little while then he took a nap before we went to visit our families.

Christmas Eve

2010-12-27T09:44:00.000-08:00

Every year for Christmas Eve we go to my moms house for a big dinner with my aunts and cousins on my moms side. On the drive over every single one of my kids fell asleep in the car. We had already had a long day. Jared insists on going to a movie every christmas eve, so we went and saw Narnia with Rob and Jennies family, actually they all saw the movie, Violet was not feelin it so we spent half the movie outside.

After dinner we do a little program, we sing, read christmas poems or stories, and the kids and some of us big kids do a live nativity. Then my dad comes out in a santa suit, it's hysterical. I love my cousins, they are more like sisters to me since i don't have any. If you notice Cali is a wise man, she is on top of Denises shoulders, it was so funny.

My mom has a tradition of getting all the kids christmas jammies!

Making ginger bread houses

2010-12-21T12:14:00.000-08:00

Every year Jareds mom has us over to make ginger bread houses, my kids love doing this with their cousins, they usually pair up build and decorate it together. Ryder and Mason got the award for the messiest! They had sprinkles everywhere! Poor Krew and Zach had a hard time their house kept collapsing so they fianally gave up. Jade and jared took this very seriously they are the perfect pair, and Kelsie was so sweet to let Violet help her.

After making the house we always play a white elephant game, it gets a little crazy.

Krews arm really is broke!

2010-12-15T22:16:00.000-08:00

So after thinking Krews arm would just get better it didn't, so when i took him in it was broke at the top of the arm right below the shoulder. You can't get a cast when it broke so high up it will do no good cause you can still lift your arm up, so he has to have it in a sling ace bandaged to his body for 3 weeks then we go back to see if it's heeled or not. Poor kid, but like Jared said "Thank goodness he can still play video games!" as you can see in the picture he is playing his DS. He absolutely hates wearing this to school we do it under his clothes cause he's embarrassed, but i think going around looking like you have one arm would be worse but he seems to think it's less humiliating.

When it rains it pours.........or in my life it stinkin' storms!

2010-12-05T22:05:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged in months, I'm not sure if it's cause I'm lazy or that my life is crazy. I was reading my friends blog who all of november blogged about what she is thankful for, and I thought I should at least do one post about what I am thankful for, since I feel so blessed lately.

Things have been pretty awful for the past 5 months, Jared has been really sick and we have been going to Dr. after Dr. trying to figure out what is wrong with him. We are finally kind of having success, it's a very long story, but long story short, his pituitary gland is not working, they aren't sure why, but everything it controls is not working right like...... his adrenaline, his thyroid, his human growth hormone, and his trygliserides. He also has a yeast infection in his intestines and inflammation of his stomach lining. I know it seriously sounds like I am making all of this up, how can this many things be wrong with one person. He has basically been sleeping for 5 months, he is totally fatigued, very weak,his stomach hurts off and on everyday, and he feels achy. The poor guy barely makes it to work, he sleeps on his prep. and on his lunch, then he stays at work once he is off to sleep some more to have the energy to drive home, once he gets home he goes back to bed until around 8 eats then usually goes back to bed. On Tues. and Wed. when I work he has to come home to get the kids, he tries to stay up but usually falls asleep, so we try to find somewhere for them to go. As I write this I can hardly believe this is our life. It is so sad to watch someone you love feel so sick and not be able to help them. It's been hard on everyone, my sweet kids hardly have a dad right now, but he tries his best to play video games with them every night, since it requires little energy to do. I was joking around but serious when I was telling some friends, I would have never thought I would ever be thanking heavenly father for giving my husband the energy to play video games with my kids,unfortunately this is our reality. As different trials come your way it changes how you see things and what you are thankful for. We certainly have a new normal now. I find myself being thankful if Jared is just simply awake and on the couch and not in bed. Or thankful he could stay up with me and talk once the kids are in bed. Through all of this I have a huge testimony of prayer, it is what gets me through the day. The way I pray has definitely changed.I am not going to lie I sometimes feel my prayers aren't answered, but it doesn't stop me, I feel as if I almost always have a constant prayer in my heart, I think it is the only way I am able to function.

I am so thankful for my ward, my family and my friends. I can not believe how much they have done for my family. My visiting teachers showed up the other day at my door with a mop and cleaned my whole down stairs, mopped, and folded laundry, they even moved my couches to vaccume under neath them. It's amazing how fast you can clean with 3 people. I was so thankful for them. Some of my friends have also come over to help me clean. My ward brings dinner 2 nights a week, which I feel really guilty about, but I love it all the same since I work a couple days a week it is such a help. So many people have helped last minute with my kids when I am at work and Jared is just too tired to take care of them, or for when we have to go to the Dr.. There have been countless phone calls to see how we are doing, or to see how another Dr. apt. went. I feel so blessed to have such great people in my life, I am crying right now just thinking about all the acts of service my family has received. It has been hard for me to let people help me, it has been very humbling, and I m finally starting to ask for help when we need it.

The one thing I have learned through all of this is that if you are healthy life really isn't that bad. Your health is everything. It takes something like this for you to truly appreciate feeling healthy on a daily basis. We all still have our daily trials, big or small, we have kids to get to school, homework to be done, dinner to be made, bills to pay, jobs to go to, houses to clean,our ups and our downs, and whatever else life throws at you. All of this is hard enough, but to go through all of this and to be chronically sick(or married to someone that is sick) is seriously, I hate to say it but not fair, this has by far been the hardest thing I have ever had to go through and I'm pretty sure Jared feels the same. It's been really hard for me to make sense of all of this and wonder why we have to go through something like this, and I don't know the answer. I do know that once Jared gets feeling better how great life is going to be,to not feel so alone, to go through all of life's trials with someone who feels good and is not always in bed. When and if that day ever comes I will look at life differently, and when I get down I can come back and read this and realize" oh crap it could be worse!"

So like I said when you have health issues you still have the rest of life to deal with, it doesn't get put on hold. This has been an eventful week. Sweet Derek was honorably released to come home from his mission due to medical reasons, so he is living with us and hoping to go back out in a few months. We had 2 days to get ready for him to come home, so the play room is now his room. My kids are totally fine with this since the Wii and the big screen TV are now in their bedroom. We have loved having him here, he has been such a huge help already, I feel awful for him having to come home but it is and will continue to be blessing for our family. On Wed. I got a call from the school nurse that Krew fell and hurt his arm, so my mom picked him up since I was at work. It seemed fine or at least not broke just maybe sprained or some bruised muscles. The next day he didn't want to go to school cause it hurt too bad , and then Friday he didn't want to go either. Well almost 5 days later here we are, he is still complaining and not using it so I finally took him to the Quick Care today after church and sure enough it is broke!! Of course it is, that is just my luck. I feel like a horrible mother. Krew Said" See I did have a reason to be complaining!" Its broke at the top of his arm, up by the shoulder so we need to go and see an orthopedic surgeon, like yesterday! Hopefully I can get him in to one tomorrow, poor kid! One of my friends said I am really good at making Dr. apts. so it should be easy for me to do.

Well I have definitely made up for the months of not posting, man I guess this might have been therapy for me to just write and write. Well as crappy as things might seem, I truly feel blessed and I love my family.

Derek's Home!

2010-12-03T08:29:00.000-08:00

My kids were beyond excited when they heard Derek was coming home, the first thing they said was "yes he will be here for Christmas!" Poor Derek is having trouble sleeping, he has really bad insomnia and can go days before being able to sleep. So they felt like for medical and health reasons he needed to come home, he can go back out if he can get feeling better. WE had 2 days notice so we turned the play room into his room, and my kids were so excited to have the big TV and the Wii in their room. Jared flew to NYC to get him and we waited all day to go get them from the airport, their flight didn't come in until 9:05 pm, so my kids were going crazy waiting to see him. We made posters for him and decorated his room, he is not into stuff like this at all, but kids are so I didn't care if he did, not being rude but Jade was just so excited to get balloons( they had to be purple and maroon, his 2 favorite colors), and she wanted to make signs for his room, and to take, she is darling and loves Derek!

Cherie and Nicole came with us, it was so exciting, it was crazy to think it's been a year since we have seen him. We went to the baggage claim and anxiously awaited them coming down the escalators, it was funny cause there was 3 escalators so whenever we saw a crowd coming down we would race over with our signs, after about 4 different sets of people, it was finally Jared and Derek! The kids were a little shy but within 5 mins. they were climbing all over him and hugging him. We Love Derek!

Just sitting and waiting for them to come!

Libby's Birthday Party

2010-11-28T08:11:00.000-08:00

I pretty sure Libby Newbry was born to the wrong family! For her 5th birthday party she wanted to have a Star Wars party, you had to come in costume, anything Star Wars related. All of my kids were invited, Krew was going to help Jason with the Jedi training, he was so excited, but when they told him he had to let the little kids beat him he was like "WHAT?" but he did let them. There really is a Jedi named" Jedi Jade", so Jade was beyond stoked. Violet called herself "Jedi Violet", Krew was Darth Vader, and Ryder was Anikin Skywalker. They had so much fun, they gave all the kids light sabers for their party favor.

Thanks to Dave Morgan I was able to go out with my friends while all my kids were at the party, he said he would watch them all afterwards! Jared ended up taking them after the party but Dave was still awesome for offering. He has been woried about me since Jared is so sick and I'm close to break down myself. So he told Marci to plan a night out with my friends, seriously that was so sweet of him. We went to CPK and then shopped around Town Square, it was a perfect night for everyone, and for 2 hours Jared got to sleep in peace!

Halloween

2010-11-25T20:07:00.000-08:00

Violet and Preston were so happy to just sit on the back of the truck and eat candy!

Krew sprained his shoulder and had to wear a sling, so we just adjusted his costume accordingly, a zombie who got his arm cut off!

I love Jade! She is the best big sister ever! She took violet all around to the different cars.

This is all of us in the car ride over.

Check out Ryder and his "mustachio", as he calls it!

I can't believe these are all my kids! I love them!

This year Halloween seemed to go on and on and on, and we didn't even trick-or-treat on halloween since it was on a Sunday, so because of that I stressed that they would get jipped, but that was not the case. It all started on Friday with their class parties, then on Friday night we went to our friends ward trunk-or-treat, and then on Saturday night to our trunk-or-treat! By the end I was so over Halloween, and we got way to much candy, so they were just fine.

Pumpkin Carving

2010-11-24T19:36:00.000-08:00

Every year we all get together to carve pumpkins at my mom's. It gets really competitive, and Jared being the artist that he is usually wins and there is always spray paint involved. This year wasn't quite as fun since Jared's sick he didn't make it and Stephen had class that night so it wasn't the same, but we still had fun. Thanks to my cousins my kids had help cause I'm not that into it. Krew was so excited cause this was the first year he did it all by himself! I'm so mad I didn't get any pictures of the final products, what was I thinking? Check out the cookies my uncle Kerry made them he is so talented!

Soccer Boys

2010-11-20T08:45:00.000-08:00

Ryder and Sesh play soccer together they are so cute, they are really good, Sesh scores almost every game and after he does he goes running for coach Steve and hugs him. At the last game Ryder scored his first goal it was so exciting, only he didn't do a victory run like Sesh doe , he was so embarrassed from allthe people screaming his name and cheering for him he looked like he might cry. Afterwards he was so happy about it. What a way to end the season.

I'm so mad I didn't take more pictures this seasons, I don't have any of Krew or Jade.

Violet wants to play so bad or atleast dress like she plays soccer, in the morning when we are

getting ready for games she cries "where's my soccer unicorn?" Jared found some old tiny kleets

so she wears those and is pretty happy.

Church Boy

2010-10-23T09:01:00.000-07:00

I got my boys some new ties, Ryder was thrilled and Krew almost cried since he hates wearing ties. He wanted me to take a picture of him in his tie so we could send it to Derek. Violet jumped in and wanted a photo shoot too. These pictures kinda did a weird thing and made his forehead look way bigger than it is, but I didn't want to delete them since he looks so cute!

Town Square

2010-08-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

We went shopping at Old Navy with my mom for school clothes and we bribed the kids with going to the park and running thru the water if they were good and would try stuff on. Nicole with to help and she took all these pictures, i love them!

They love to be funny and act like they are meditating.

Look at Ryder, the girls slid down and he is still up there meditating.

Ryder is always throughin' a peace sign!

How stinkin' cute are they?

Our trip to ZION!!!!

2010-08-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

In August we went to Zionwithmy dads family, we had so much fun, andcrammed in so many fun activities into 4 days. My kids were in heaven since my uncle Curtiscame and his kids came, they are so good with my kids and love to play with them. We stayed in this amazing cabin, it had 3 bedrooms, a huge game room, a pool table, fire pit, horse shoes, and access to an awesome pool. It also was right next to a play ground, rock climbing wall, and a zip line. Every night us adults would play games until 2 am, and the kids would all just crash in the movie room watching movies or playing the Wii. It was so fun to be with all my family, we had a blast!

Our first day there we played miniture golf, and then we went zip-lining and climbed the rock wall, it was definitely an action packed day. Jade was in her element climbing the rock wall since she naturally is a monkey, she was so good and fast at it. The kids weren't scared of zip-lining at all, which kinda surprised me.

I absolutely love these 2 pictures!

Krew did not have smoothest landing!

One of the days we headed to Zion National Park, we were going to do a couple of hikes, we rode the shuttle bus around to all the stops.

Here are all the kids at the start of our 1.2 mile hike to a little waterfall.

After we got to the end of the hike the kids were climbing on the rocks and chasing lizards, Jared and I stopped and asked Brad to take our picture, as soon as he finished we both looked over and saw one of the worst things I have ever experienced watching in my life. Ryder was on top of this rock about 7 feet high, water was dripping down on it so it was covered in moss and very slippery. I guess Sesh yelled to him to run across it and as soon as he did he slid and was falling head first off of the rock, he had the look of complete fear in his eyes, I looked down and realized he was going to land on his face/head onto another rock. It was as if it was in slow motion, we were too far away to make it there in time to catch him, but we running to him non the less. My mind was racing, I was pretty sure we would be life flighting him out of there, or else Jared would be running the mile out of there with him in his arms and race to the nearest hospital. When we got to him I was scared to even look and see what Jared was picking up, I honestly thought he could possibly be dead, all of us that saw him fall thought the same thing, it was awful! He started screaming, his head was gushing blood, so Jared just held him and held his hand over the main cut. I was was trembling, we were trying to find something to apply pressure to his head with, like a shirt. A couple walked by and had a first aide kit, they were so scared, they gave us some gauze then they were just throwing everything they had at us, saying "take it all!" We used a butterfly bandaid on his forehead, and then cleaned up the rest of his cuts, he was scrapped up on his arms and legs. Once he stopped crying he was pretty dazed over and lathargic. I could not believe he was as fine as he was, I was still shaking, and looked around and realized Krew was not there, one of the kids said I think he started walking back, so I took off running, I finally caught up to him, he no clue that Ryder had even fallen, so we took off running back to where everyone was. When we got to them Jared was giving Ryder a blessing off in the bushhes with my dad, Curtis, and my grandpa. I was bummed I missed the blessing, but I was so thankful he was ok. It was seriously a miracle that he was alive.The whole hike out Jared carried him and my dad and I talked to Ryder to keep him from falling asleep, cause he kept dozing off. Within 2 hours he was running around like normal, but Jared and I were still completely shook up. All of us that witnessed him falling were at the time of the fall thinking he is probably going to be dead, I just cried thinking about it and picturing him falling in my head seriously made me want to throwup! Im so thankful he was ok and even more thankful for the priesthood. Later that day we ran into the couple that gave us the bandages, they could not believe that was Ryder running around fine, I wanted to yell "the church is true, and priesthood blessings really do work!"

Here is the dumb picture we were taking, that didn't even turn out, while Ryder almost plumitted to his death!

Ryder on the walk out, poor guy.

This is Krew and Sevin, aren't they darling?

After the hike we all got ice cream cones!

We can't forget Mr. Squirrel! These are only 3 of about the 30 pictures Jade took of the squirrel.

We hiked in to this river in a canyon, it was gorgeous! The kids got completely soaked walking back and forth to the big rock.

My cute mom and dad!

All of the sudden I couldn't find Ryder, then I spotted him over in the bushes takin' a whiz!!! It was way to funny to even get mad at him.

Jared and Brad both were tuckered out, Jared napped on this rock while we all played in the river, and Brad fell asleep on the shuttle bus back to our car.

Here's Violet getting ready to go to the pool. We went to the pool pretty much everyday, it was so fun, there was 2 water slides and a hot tub the kids were in heaven!

Ryder decided to take a swim break and draw for a little bit, he

Jade and Sesh were loved playing horse shoes with grandpa and helping gather them all up.

Jared was so excited cause he thru 2 ringers!

Violet said she was" just stretching"

Because we just wanted to have some fun.....

2010-05-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

This is what I walked out to on Friday afternoon on our trampoline, Ryder and Violet were already inside so I yelled to them to come outside, I asked him" why on earth would you do something like this?" he replied " because we just wanted to have some fun". I didn't know wether to laugh or cry, so i grabbed my camera cause it was pretty funny. These cheese puffs were less than 2 hours old, we had barely just gotten home from the store, those little stinkers. I'm kinda bummed I missed seeing them jump on them, not that it was a good thing.

I love my GIRLS!

2010-05-02T21:50:00.000-07:00

Violet wanted Jade to paint her toenails, I kinda thought this might be a bad idea, and that was confirmed when Violet grabbed the nail polish and dumped it on her foot and then yelled " I'm bleeding!" But look how cute they are, and they had so much fun!!!

Derek the Lizard has passed away!!!

2010-05-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

On Friday Derek the Lizard died, there was a lot of tears, i knew they were into him, but I didn't realize him dying would be so up setting. On wed. he was not acting like himself and wouldn't eat. By Thursday he was almost totally lifeless and he died on Friday. We are having a funeral tomorrow, and barring him out back, I'm not joking, my kids are dead serious!!! Jade was the most upset she said crying hysterically, " the saddest part is that the real Derek will never meet Derek the lizard!!!" I had to try so hard not to laugh. Well I kinda miss the little guy, but I won't miss going to petco every 3-4 days to buy crickets, oh wait I might be still because the kids want to get a new lizard, but they are worried a new lizard will remind them of Derek and then they will miss him and think about how he is dead, this is in their words.

You know your kid is cute when.......

2010-05-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

So my friends Michelle and Marci got called into nursery at church, and they have the older class, but they asked for Violet to be transfered into their class, and it got approved. Well today she was in her regular class and i told Eve her teacher i think she's supposed to be in the other class, and she said"no i'm not letting her go over there with those bigger kids, plus she just got used to being in here I'm keeping her in here", she said this very feisty ,I really like Eve she is hilarious. So after church michelle and Marci were sad and said they missed Violet and it looks like she's not going to be in our class. Who would of ever thought nursery leaders would be fighting over having my kid in their class! Violet is stinkin' cute though.

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T20:17:00.000-07:00

Easter was so much fun this year with Violet getting older, she was so into it, at first she was scared ,"oh my dosh the easter bunny is doing to det me!" but once we explained how it works she was excited. The kids were so into helping her find all the eggs in the morning. We went to my moms for dinner and another egg hunt with the cousins. I feel bad we didn't talk at all about the real reason for easter but we will tomorrow night for family home evening.

My baby's 2!!!

2010-02-28T20:46:00.000-08:00

Violet loves balloons so we took her to pick out some. She wouldn't look at me to take her picture.

She is trying to show me that she is 2 but she can't get her fingers to do it.

Here is Violet with Calli, who she adores.

Violet was singing happy birthday with us! She was so funny.

She wasn't quite sure how to blow out the candle.

She was saying "It's my birthday!"

Violet just turned 2 on Friday the 26th, i can't believe how fast it has gone by, i feel like she was just born. Our family is so in love our little Miss Violet, we can't imagine life without her, she is so loving, she is absolutely hilarious, and says the funniest things. All last week she kept saying "my birthday is tumming up!". For her birthday she wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese, well with the strong influence of her brothers and sister, she picked to go there. She does loves to put the tokens in the machines and putting the tickets in the ticket counter, we had a good time, she was really excited to go there, and kept saying while she skips around "it's my birthday, it's my birthday!".

Some of violets favorite things are.... her daddy, her brothers and sister, playing legos (which she calls wegos), play dough, watching Biggest Loser( i kid you not, she says "mom i wanna watch biggest woser" and she will sit and watch it), she loves beans from Taco Bell, drinking apple juice, playing with her babies, following Jade around,playing with Jades kitchen, going in the stroller to pick up the kids from the bus stop, singing songs in the car( she loves anything Hannah Montana and Black Eyed Peas-"I Gotta Feeling"), and playing with Calli and Deegan (she says Tallideegan all one word). I seriously cant believe my baby is 2 years old it makes me so sad, I used to think that was weird when people said that, i thought if you miss having a baby have another one, but now I get it, because I am definitely not having another baby, but I miss her being one. Happy Birthday Violet!!! We love you!

Snaggle Tooth

2010-02-28T20:30:00.000-08:00

Jades tooth was hanging on for dear life. Her and jared thought they were hilarious taking crazy pictures with her tooth of centered. She is so excited to send the pictures to Derek. They aren't very flattering, but Jade is still cute.

Our New Pet Derek!!!

2010-02-28T19:00:00.000-08:00

My sweet dad just got Krew a pet bearded dragon(a lizard). Krew has been having a hard time at school with getting made fun of for being short. Sorry to say Krew but you are pretty much going to end up short, have seen me and dad ? Anyways, he's been getting called midgit man and shorty, and it's been really upsetting him, so my dad said if he can be confident and not let it get him down he could get a surprise, and this is what they came up with. Krew researched online what he wanted to get and he told me" i think i want to get a bearded dragon!" i was like " a what?! i'm not so sure about that" this was before i knew what it was exactly. Krew said" well if you didn't want one, after you read this you are sure to want one". So the little master mind brings me over to the computer to read about how kid friendly they are and how they don't bite and how the make great house pets.So he has orange stripes, and since Dereks hair is pretty much orange they named him Derek!!

Today Jade said "I miss Derek", and Krew said " the person or the lizard ?" thats a very valid question now. She sadly shouted back "the person". It was pretty funny.

Violet loves The Book of Mormon

2010-01-22T13:16:00.000-08:00

Last night Violet came up to Jared with The Book of Mormon in her hand and said "Daddy will you read this book to me pleeeease?" it was so cute. She climbed up on his lap and totally listened I couldn't believe it, she was so serious. He showed her the few pictures that are in there and told her the different prophets names and when she saw Jesus in a picture she yelled"JESUS!" she was so excited. That definitely made both of our nights.

Daddy's Girls!!!

2010-01-17T17:09:00.000-08:00

Well it is perfectly clear to me now that both of girls prefer Jared over me, which I actually think is adorable. This week we were leaving Chilis, and we had 2 cars there so I was going home and Jared was running to Walmart to grab us a few groceries, and Jade yells"I'm going with daddy!" and ran over to give me a kiss goodbye and said"mom I'm just a daddy's girl so I'm going with him" I said "ok",and she took off, then she came running back to me and said"Mom I love you both the same but I'm just really a daddy's girl and I need to go with him to spend time with him". I laughed and said " don't worry I know you love me thanks". Then 2 days later I'm holding Violet and I said to her while giving her a hug"Oh i just love my Violet sooo much", and she says back to me" No I'm daddy's Vi-o-wet". WOW !!! Even my one year old is being brutally honest with me. No actually it was really cute, I am just thankful my girls have such a great dad that is crazy about them too!

Our little boy is gone!

2009-12-31T09:00:00.000-08:00

We just got back from taking Derek to the MTC, it's so crazy to think that he is gone. The MTC is no joke we pulled up and they had us park along the curb where 2 elders that are already in the MTC bum rush our car, open the doors and start grabbing his stuff, and say"lets go elder!", so i took a quick picture of him and Jared, then we hugged him, told him we loved him, and off he went. I am not kidding it was really that fast. My kids miss him already, it is so bitter sweet, we are so proud of him for going, and are so excited for him, but 2 years is such a long time. I can't imagine how hard it will be when it's one of my own boys, we are having a hard enough time with Derek leaving . The first morning after he left Jared came down stairs and looked over at the couch expecting to see him sleeping there and then realized oh ya he is gone. We really loved having him here, he helped out so much and was the best free babysitter anyone could ask for.
Here he is wheeling off with his luggage.

My kids love Derek so much. The first night he was gone Jade came up to me and said "mommy what do you think Derek is doing right now?"

Zobrists Halloween Party

2009-11-01T22:00:00.000-08:00

The Zobrists had an awsome Halloween Party. Jared only took an hour on his makeup, both Jared and Derek have ocd, so they were being perfectionists with applying the makeup. It did look good in the end. I borrowed my entire costume from my cousin Denise, she had a party the following weekend so she didn't care if I used it, wasn't the 80's fun?I felt kinda cute being all missed matched. Brandon and Jaime had seriously awsome costumes! Chris Whiting was out of control, being a girl definitely brought out the wild side in him. Russ was completely grossed out by Chris, he could hardly be in the same room as him.

Ryders 1st Day of Pre-School

2009-09-13T21:47:00.000-07:00

Ryder was so excited for school to start, on Tuesday morning he put his back pack on around 7 am, he was ready to go! He is going to Miss. Heather's, Krew and Jade went to her too, we just love her. Ryder isn't digging on the whole homework thing, which surprises me since all these years the other kids have had homework he has wanted to too. I figured once he went and didn't get a treat for not doing it he would quickly change his mind, so after school I said " so are we going to do our homework now so you can get a treat next time?" he said " no I'll do it next year!". Hopefully this won't be any indication of how this year will go. But that's Ryder for ya!

I Almost Forgot!!

2009-09-11T13:01:00.000-07:00

I totally left out in my last blog the fact that over the summer our washing machine flooded( Kelly was right I would forget stuff if I didn't write it down). O

ur washer is located upstairs, so it leaked through the ceiling into our down stairs bathroom!!! We were getting ready for church and I was doing Jades hair and she said "mom why is there water dripping on my head?!" we looked up to a very soggy ceiling, and then I screamed for Jared. My brother had an extra washer so we were using that 'til it broke on us last week, so

we are going washer shopping tonight!!!

P.S. I kid you not...... Jared had a soccer game last night(he just started playing

since he just got clearance from the Dr. that it was ok with his shoulder). Well he fell/got tripped and jacked up his foot, he sat out the rest of the game. He went to the Quick Care this morning and they x-rayed it, luckily its not broke, but it's sprained and he's on crutches. Brittany's right, never say "what's next?". Last night I didn't know wether to cry or laugh, at first I thought he was joking. My friend Emilee said I think there is a dark cloud over Jared!!! I'm starting to think so.

This is one ugly foot! It actually looks worse in person.

Is It 2010 Yet?

2009-09-01T18:25:00.000-07:00

WARNING: this post is kind of negative..... Sorry :(

I just wanted to write all this down so I could remember it and look back and possibly laugh someday! Hopefully I don't sound like a whiner, I know we all have our trials, I just wanted to document mine this year, it is kinda funny!

This year has been a rough year for our family, Brittany Holt gets mad at me every time I say "what's next?" cause something else happens. Violet just got stitches in her eyebrow and forehead, it was awful having to help hold her down, she is stronger than you would think!!!

So lets just recap what's happened this year........ January started off with a bang, Jared was so excited to start playing soccer again, at the second game he got taken out by some big dude and landed on his shoulder which he ended up tearing his rotator cuff, tore his labrum (whatever that is), and broke his shoulder, which needed major surgery, and 5 months of physical therapy 3 times a week 2 hours every time!!! Awsome! Oh how could I forget the first 8 weeks he was in an arm machine for 6 hours a day to help prevent scare tissue from building up until physical therapy started, I love taking care of 4 kids all by myself all day and night!!!! This was seriously so hard on our family, thanks to my friends who helped take my baby when I was at work late so Jared could do the arm machine when he got home. Well just before all this he started getting very dizzy and nauseous, then it got worse the next couple of weeks over lapping with all of this shoulder crap, they thought he had vertigo, after an MRI, and lots of different Dr. visits(he went to with his big old arm brace on), they found he had a chronic sinus infection behind his eye near his right ear, which they said they couldn't treat but that would explain the dizziness and nausea,( completely stupid of us to go with that answer you will see why later), they just gave him nasal spray and some over the counter medicine. SO 2 weeks after surgery we found out Jared was loosing his job for the next school year due to budget cuts, WOW just when I thought it couldn't get much worse. In the end we were very blessed that among all the art teachers without jobs applying for the couple of jobs out there he got hired at a new school, he was so bummed to have to change schools but at least he got a job. The kids at his old school were so upset that they started a petition called"keep OG at our school" there was over 300 signatures on it, I thought that was so cute of his students and shows how much they loved Jared and why he was so sad to leave. SO a few weeks later he got a massive sinus migraine and went to quick care( it scared me how much pain he was in I've never seen him like that), they were floored that he wasn't given an antibiotic for it in the beginning when they saw he had a chronic sinus infection, once he was on the antibiotics 2 days later he felt better and wasn't dizzy anymore thankfully. SO a couple weeks later Jared fell asleep driving, took out a light pole, and totaled his truck..... is this all really happening?! May was pretty calm( still going to physical therapy draining our bank account, but nothing new). In June is when Jade got jumped over by a horse and knocked down and broke her elbow, that was fun, a cast in the heat of summer. July was fine I'm sure Jared had a few migraines but who doesn't right? Well it's now August and the sinus migraine is back so he went to quick care and got back on those antibiotics(just for the record Jared has suffered for years from migraines, he throws up from the pain, and will get cold sweats and hot sweats, and has gotten lots of priesthood blessings but not until these 2 has he ever gone to the quick care for relief , so that shows just how painful they are) . Now it's Jared's first day at the new school and on the way in his truck at a stop light he manages to almost cut of the top of his middle finger cutting a wire with a rusty razor blade, so a quick detour to the quick care,( that he was just at 4 days earlier for the sinus infection), for stitches and a tetnous shot, he called the school to let them know he would be late, they were impressed he was still coming. Well now that brings us to Violet falling in the kitchen and landing on the chair leg corner slicing her eyebrow open exactly 1 week after Jared's stitches.

I'm probably jinxing myself for writing all this saying what's next, but a while ago Kelly told me I should write down all thats happened cause I'll probably forget,(which isn't such a bad thing), but I can look back and think wow look what we went through, we can get through anything! Needless to say we are ready for 2010!!!!!

Jades Graduation and Play

2009-08-20T21:58:00.000-07:00

Jade's class performed "The Little Red Hen" the last week of school. Jade was a chick, she was so excited for us to come and see their performance, she did a good job, it was pretty funny.

Sevin was a dog.

Jade's Kindergarten Graduation was cute, I can't believe she is going into 1st grade!

Everyone wanted to wear Jades hat!

Even Violet!

Jade and Miss Kern

Jade and Sydney are so cute together, it looks like me and Michelle, Jade hates being short!

Jade is such a daddy's girl. I love it!

Jade and Sevin are the cutest little cousins!

I think they're excited to go swimming!

2009-07-24T07:20:00.000-07:00

We were on our way to my moms to go swimming and I turn around and Jade, Ryder and Parker all have their goggles on, I busted up laughing and then I grabbed my camera.

Jaders 1st Concert

2009-07-23T23:24:00.000-07:00

Derek got Demi Lavato tickets for me and Jade, she was so excited to go,especially since this is her favorite singer. She wasn't quite sure exactly what you do at a concert, she thought we were going to get to meet her and be close to where she was, i think she was picturing it being a littlemore intimate,the 10,000 screaming girls was a shocker for her, she kept saying" it's so loud!why do they keep screaming?!" she also wondered why Demi won't just meet everybody, I said"Jade look around there is sooo many people here, it would take forever." she replied "Oh".David Archuleta opened for her he was really good, I can still hear little girls screaming" DAVID!!!!". It really was crazy. Demi did a great job she is such a pretty girl and very sweet, but i guess she wouldn't come out Jade was in heaven when she would sing the songs Jade knew shewas singing word for word,it was so cute. Thanks to Derek we had a fun girls night out.

We took a picture of ourselves.
Jade loved taking pictures of the TV screens and of the stage.

Jade having the time of her life!

Happy 30th Birthday Kelly!!!!

2009-07-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

For Kellys 30th birthday a bunch of us girls went to St. George for an overnighter, we stayed at Mirandas in-laws house that they have there. We went to see Annie at the Tuacan Theatre, it was really good but it was sooo hot, 105' hot!!!!! There was the cutiest little family sitting behind us with spray bottles, they felt bad for us so they let us borrow one, that was a lifesaver I will tell you what, we were seriously sweating. Poor Denett she was dying so they let her use their spray bottle with a fan on it.

That night we stayed up until 3:30 playing games and talking. The next morning we went out to breakfast then went to the temple, it was really neat for all of us girls to go together. Afterwards we went shopping and out to a late lunch, then we headed home. It was such a fun quick getaway.

Kelly is such a great friend and such an example to me. She makes you feel so special , anyone who is friends with her knows what I mean. I am so thankful for our friendship, I can't believe we have been friends for a little over 6 years now, I don't know what I'd do without her. Here are few of the reasons I love her.... she always looks amazing, she is such a great mom and wife, she is very spiritual, she is so humble, takes magnifying her calling to a whole other level, she is an over reactor, she tells the best detailed stories ever, makes the best chocolate chip cookies( claims she can do it in her sleep), she is always concerned for others, a great listener, and she just makes you want to be a better person when you are around her.

I love you Kelly!! I hope you had a great 30th!!

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow!!!

Don't I make a cute Annie, but better yet isn't Kelly a hot Daddy Warbucks, and Tirza a sweet dog?!
Isn't this set so cool?!
Here we are with the infamous spray bottle!
Denett with the spray fan! Poor thing she is 35 weeks pregnant!

Miranda was so sweet and order cupcakes for Kelly, so we could sing to her, and have a treat.
I'm pretty sure the only kind of a/c in this temple is a swamp cooler, it was so hot!!! I think thats theme for the weekend!

Park City

2009-07-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

We recently went to Park City with a bunch of friends for 5 days and with no kids( thats the key part), we had so much fun, and laughed a lot thanks to Jared. We stayed in our friends the Whitings cabin up there which was gorgeous, it has 6 bedrooms all with flat screen tvs walkin closets ,and most rooms had steam showers in the bathrooms, there's a movie theatre which is unreal, ping pong table, pool table, hot tub, a small little workout room, and 2 sets of washers and dryers. There is a deck with the most beautiful view of the mountains.

This is the view from the balcony!!!

The first day we went to the Park City Olympic Park where we zip-lined, and rode the alpine slide. Of course Russ found us a buy one get one free coupon for both rides, he is awsome! At the park they have a camp for people to go and practice ski jumping and flipping and you land in a pool, it was really neat to watch. Poor Denett couldn't do any of it since she was pregnant, but she did great at taking our pictures! Afterwards we went shopping at the outlets.

Behind us are the slides the go off of into the pools, it is crazy to watch.

Me and Jared riding up the chair lift to do the zip line and the slide, i realize in my old age I'm a little afraid of heights!

This is Russ, Brian, Kenny, and Spencer racing down the zip-line, Kenny won due to his tucking into a ball skills.

Here we are about to go, see the door our legs are against, it opens up and your going, I was freeking out , I thought it was going to be more of a free fall but it wasn't. I kept asking the guys in charge if anyone has ever gotten hurt, they were bugged with me they said NO, and Jared said that's code for shutup and go!

One of the days we went to temple square, the Salt Lake Temple is amazing!!! We wanted to do a session but when we pulled up to the parking garage it said TEMPLE CLOSED, this was such a bummer, it was closed for cleaning. So no big deal (ya right it just about tore our group apart, some of us wanted to go to another temple and others didn't, it got a little heated but after Spencer made us all group hug we got through it). We walked around temple square and went and watched the Joseph Smith video, which is a tear jerker. Joseph Smith was an amazing man!!!

We went and toured the conference building, did you know there is more than 7000 pipes on the organ?!

We played volleyball for hours my arms were beet red and sore for about 3 days, the guys played even more than us girls their games got pretty intense to say the least, Kenny dove for the ball and scraped his knee on a rock underneath the sand, it took about 4 butterfly bandages to close it up, but he did not let it slow him down.

We went to Midway to go swim in this old volcano thats right a volcano, it's now filled with water and they let up to 12 people at a time swim in it for an hour, you have to wear life vests the whole time. We played Marco Polo, and sharks and minows. While we were in Midway we ate at a little burger joint called Dairy Keen, this was the highlight for Jared because he and Russ met Elder Jeffery R Holland, he was very nice they just talked to him for a couple of minutes, he was just eating there with a few of his grand kids.

Here is a view looking up out of the volcano from the water.

When we were driving on the freeway back to Park City, Kenny yells" Spencer look out!!!!" we thought a car wrecked from but it was a truck full of hay loosing all of its hay onto the freeway, so we jumped out to help him get it out of the road and load it back on his truck, it was actually a fun experience, another guy stopped and helped, he was from New York.

In the end we asked the guy if we could take a group photo, he was happy to, the New Yorker started to walk off but we called him back. Check out Spencers arm around him, how funny is that?! Russ said little do these guys know in about 48 hrs. they are going to be all over the blogging world (he was right).

Russ brought up his Wii, which was a hit for the guys. He only has 2 controllers so Jared told him to go by our house and grab 2 of ours if he wanted to( we were already gone). So of course Russ wanted to but he wasn't so sure that Denett would want to do all t, so he told her they had to go by our house to pick up Jareds medicine that he forgot, just think how happy she was to see him come out with a bunch of wii parafanelia. Russ is so funny. Here is the guys playing Mario Kart, and Rock Band.

We played a ton of ping pong, and Spencer is the guy to try and beat, man he's good, but I did make it to the finals 3 times in around the world ping-pong!!! But who's counting?

Sorry Jaime!!! Jared took this of Jaime, she was passed out after a movie. It had been a long week of fun!

4th of JULY

2009-07-06T07:15:00.000-07:00

For the 4th of July we went to my moms to bbq, swim and do fireworks we had a blast! My brothers and my cousins came also the Walkers,

Oconnells and Spencer(his family was out of town) came to join in the fun.

Denett and Jackson made these awsome red, white and blue popsicles!!! They also made the hamburger and hotdog cupcakes.

I could just eat that little face. I love this girl!!!

How cute is Denise she is 36 weeks and 1 day, she was supposed to have the babies on July 3rd but the amnio came back negative, she was sooo bummed. But she came with a smile!!

Look mom no hands!!!

The guys, Nicole and Cherie all played a friendly game of basketball.

Of course the guys had to play toothpick!!! It's tradition, and Jared always wins!

Kenny with his torch lighting sparklers.I hate sparklers they scare me that some kid is going to burn another kid, but the kids love them.

Russ was running around with a sparkler poked in his sandal!!!

GRAND FINALE!!!!

And the rockets red glare!!! The bombs bursting in air!!!
Violet was wiped out!!!

Jades new hair cut

2009-06-26T15:49:00.000-07:00

Jade decided she wanted her hair cut off so we did it! It looks so cute on her, she was so excited to do it. The next day at church Sydney saw it and wanted it just like Jades, so that night we cut hers too. They both look so cute. Now we just got to get Sevin to join the club.

Violets 1 year pictures

2009-06-25T19:54:00.000-07:00

Meghan Poort is amazing!!! She does such a good job, she took these pictures of Violet and literally these were the only good ones, she wasn't into it at all, she kept pulling off the head band and saying" I wanna go, I wanna go", she's a funny girl, and stubborn. We are going to take more pictures with her and Jade once Jades cast comes off, I think she will be more into it if her beloved Jade is there with her. Thanks Meghan for letting me put these on my blog.

Adri is Graduated!!!!

2009-06-25T13:51:00.001-07:00

Before Adris graduation we went with the whole Ogden family to Cheese Cake Factory.

Isn't this a cool picture that Jennie took?

Isn't she gorgious? Well now that she is graduated she off to hair school in Provo to take after her 2 sister-in -laws, she be so good at doing hair. Jennie was so sweet and helped her moved up there last weekend , and got her all settled in her apartment. I'm so excited for her!!!

When Adri came out Jared ran over yelling her name and hugged her, she was a little embarrassed.

Best Sisters

2009-06-24T15:03:00.000-07:00

Jade loves to play with Violet and Violet loves to play with Jade, it is so nice. Jade is the sweetest sister, she loves reading to her. When Jade is gone Violet walks around saying" Where's Jade? Where's Jade?". It is really cute, she is obsessed with Jade.

Jades birthday party

2009-06-22T17:48:00.000-07:00

For Jades party she new exactly what she want to do, she wanted to do hair, make-up, nails,and of course a pinata. My mom thought of also making bracelets which was a huge hit. Thanks to my mom, cousins, Kelly and Shelly everything went perfectly. Denise, Shelly and I did their hair, and Denise brought flowers and clips so they could make a flower to match their outfit, what a good idea. Kelly did their make-up which consisted of blush, eyeshadow,mascara, and lip stick. My aunt Carol did their nails,and my mom did the bracelet making. Nicole helped out everywhere, mostly with Violet. I couldn't believe how well it went the girls were in heaven.

They all looked like little princess'.

Deciding what colors to choose is a big decision!!

Emily had fun even though here she looks miserable.
Even Violet got her hair done..... she kept it in all of 5 seconds!
Violet loved looking at herself in the mirror.
The finished Product!!!!!

Jade helped me make her ice cream cake, she wanted chocolate cake with mint ice cream.

Did a horse really jump over Jade????

2009-06-21T21:12:00.000-07:00

The other night my cousins were babysitting at their house, they wanted to go outside with the horses., Nicole said no since one of the horses was out of the corral but Denise thought it would be ok but Nicole said no. Jade said " well since Denise is older she should be in charge of us so we can go outsid." How clever of her. Well Brent was roping a fake cow head, then to make the kids laugh he started roping Denise, well it spooked the horse and it jumped over Jade and while doing so its stomach hit jade in the head and knocked her over and she landed on her elbow, ouch! They said she was in shock but never cried, she was holding her arm across her body but could move it pretty good, by moring she couldn't move it and it was swollen and black and blue so we went to the doctor and sure enough it was broke. So of course we got a pink cast, she has to wear it 3 weeks then we go back for x-rays to see if its better. I was at work so Jared took her and my mom met him there, when they were waiting for the doctor jade said" ok grandma you ask some of the questions and i'll ask some of the questions' my mom said" what questions do you have?" Jade "I don't have any." She is such a funny girl, poor thing its going to be a long track break with no swimming, but she has been a good sport and hardly even complains, she is my toughest kid. The next day Aidan comes over to play and Jade comes running in"Aidan has a blue cast on!!!" he broke his wrist how crazy is that?

Jade was excited to go to school to tell the story. The next couple of days teachers and parent asked if the story was true cause they weren't sure if their kids got the story wrong. No actually a horse really did jump over her.

Her face got a little beat up too.

Fast Asleep

2009-06-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

These kids are passed out! On the couch is Ryder and Krew, and on the ground is Jade, Max, Jackson, and Malakai. Jareds sisters babysat for us and the Walkers, the kids all fell asleep watching a movie.

Ryder fell asleep in the middle of drawing! This kid can fall asleep anywhere!