Principal's Pride.

Jake received the Principal Pride award at school this month! He was so excited! It was a great experience for him! He is a good student at school. He received his Principal's Pride Award for his exceptional performance in addition (100 problems with 100% accuracy in less than 12 minutes!) as well as his improving handwriting! We are so proud of his performance! He has really taken off this year! With his math abilities it is obvious he is his father's child!
Principal's Pride award allowed him to have Mommy come have lunch with him and the PRINCIPAL!!! How cool is that? He saw me waiting in the gymnasium for him and he was beaming! He was so happy! When the Principal called him up to the podium to receive his certificate and be recognized, he RAN up there so quick! He was jumping up and down clapping while the Principal read his certificate! I was a proud Mommy! Here are some pics of Jake's big day!
Jake was THOROUGHLY enjoying his McD's Cheeseburger!















You can kind of see Jake clapping in the second picture
It was a fun day for Jake! I absolutely loved seeing him so proud of himself. He was on top of the world!!! Kuddos to the school for having awards like this!

Cell Phone Funnies...

I hope you all enjoy this as much as I do!

Ragnar Las Vegas!

Yup! You read it right! I headed to Las Vegas for the Ragnar Relay. It was so much fun! I left the children with my sweet hubby for three straight days, and enjoyed running, in some strange circumstances whether it be in the middle of the night, along side some guy who tried to hit on me, or running among tarantulas and donkeys (weird combination, I know!)

I joined the team of 12 runners only knowing three of the 11 other runners. Sounds odd right? It was fun! I rode in a nice suburban with three friends and two strangers. Luckily we all got along! We were in the car for literally THIRTY HOURS! That was just for the race, add in about 15 hours for the drive to and from Vegas, and well, let's just say I am done with cars for a bit!

I had a great experience on my three legs of the race. I was runner #9, so I ran leg 9, 21, and 33. My first leg was 3.1 miles, the second was 4.9, and the third was 6.2. I was pretty happy with my performance on all three. The first one I finished in 27-28 minutes, the second I have no idea since it took place at 2:30am, and the last one was finished in an amazing 54 minutes! I say amazing because it was all up hill! Hot DAWG! I was one proud girl! This was an event that I will never forget! I loved every minute of it... okay all of it except the few hours I felt sick from drinking those disgusting protein shakes!
Here are a few pictures of my adventure!

My friend and Teammate Marinda posing with the car! Our team name was 24 Feet!

Some of the ladies in the car that I rode in, from left to right, Marinda, Jana and Brenda

This is my last handoff. I was so nervous about this leg of the race, but it proved to be the best of my races!

Is this not the coolest picture? This was taken as I was finishing the last leg of my race, luckily the girls got a picture of this cute donkey. There were three of them in the middle of the road as we ran by... Quite the experience!

These are the girls I joined the team with, Marinda, Brenda and April! Wow I haven't laughed so hard in a LONG TIME! Thanks ladies!

I was FINISHED! I was so proud of self and my time! It was a huge accomplishment.

This was another aspect of the race... Tarantulas. I have never crossed one of these creepy crawlers, but how cool! And freaky at the same time!

Huge thanks to my sweet Hubby who stayed back and took great care of the kiddos for me while I went off to run and have fun! I am grateful that he is so supportive of me and my hobbies! He is joining me on the next race!!! Just you wait!!! Even if it means he has a football in his hand for the entire race! I missed my family so much, but I know the children loved the time with just DADDY! Thanks to my parents who helped out with the ward Halloween shindig, Turtle couldn't have done it with out ya! Big HUGS!

PUMPKINS!!!

One thing you must know about my boys, is they LOVE pumpkins. I don't think LOVE is quite a strong enough word to describe the passion they have for these fruits! All year long they look forward to Halloween. Not for the costumes, not for the candy, not for the fun parties, but for the PUMPKINS! We have a decoration pumpkin that Jake used to take down in the storage room, just to play with!

This weekend we told the boys we would go pick out pumpkins. They were so excited. Friday night came and unfortunately we were too late, the patch had already closed. Saturday morning came and the boys were roaring to go get their pumpkins. We had my nieces baptism, and Jake had TWO birthday parties to attend, but we still made it to the pumpkin patch, (hence the reason they are in church clothes!)

It was so much fun to watch the boys in their selection. Joe was easy going. He found the first pumpkin that was the size he wanted, put it in the wheel barrow, and that was that. He was done picking! He wanted to ride in the wheel barrow with his pumpkin. Jake was a little more selective. He had five pumpkins in the wheel barrow at one given time, and he had to eliminate from those. He loved to compare sizes, shapes and whether they would stand up on their own.

As mentioned before, we were able to attend my niece Breanna's baptism. Turtle performed the ordinance and it was definitely a neat experience! Breanna looked beautiful in her new white dress, and loved having the family there to support her! After the Baptism and Confirmation we headed over the Chuck A Rama for lunch. Breanna was thrilled. The boys loved having lunch with their cousins and loved the ice cream bar (surprise surprise!) It was quite the event and lots of fun! I am glad we were able to share this special day with Miss Bre!

Poundin' Nails...

Turtle and the boys have had some fun this summer building a garage up at the cabin. I have only joined them twice, but the boys and Turtle have had some wonderful time up at Bear Lake spending time with family, and of course, pounding nails!

Jake, Age 6 ( um.... Child Labor laws???) Tee hee hee!

Joey, Age 3... (DCFS is gonna have some fun with this one! LOL!)

The First Wall...

Turtle and the First Truss... He loves every minute of this by the way!

Starting the Shingles...

From Left to Right, Mother In Law, Brother in Law and Turtle. I wish I was that comfortable with heights! YIKES!

Where they left off... it's coming right along!

Some stories...

The first weekend up there, the boys had so much fun with the family. They were both so excited when they got paid by Gramma! They immediately had to show me what they earned for working so hard and helping out!

Joe loved ensuring the fact that the family thought he was funny. He asked several family members several times, "Am I funny?" "I am funny, Huh!"

They loved riding on the 4 wheelers each weekend.

They absolutely LOVED playing with the cousins!

I missed them while they were gone, but I know they had a great time, and how fun it is for them to have time with daddy all to themselves!

Thank you to my sweet SIL who let me use her photography! She has been there every weekend helping as well as keeping me up to day on my boys! Thank you!!!! Love ya girl!

Aye Aye Cap'n!

Over Labor Day, the whole family went up to the Turtle's family cabin in Bear Lake. We had fun with a few little setbacks (like no running water for the first 12 hours, and Magellan picking fights with dogs twice his size) but overall it was fun to spend time together as a family.

One of the days up there, we took the children out on the boat along with the dog. This was a first for Courtney and Magellan. The boys have been on the boat so much it is second nature to them, they know where to sit, how to sit and often tell me what to do!

Courtney was not a fan. Let me repeat that, NOT A FAN! The life jacket, the noise, the bumpiness, the wind, everything, wasn't too appealing to her. Once she fell asleep she was fine, but whew! She was not happy!

Magellan on the otherhand was happy as a clam! Turtle was working on burning up the old gas in the boat, so he had a decent speed, and Magellan had his front legs over the front of the boat just taking in the splash. I guess it is all in his name!

Bow anyone?

I had to share this picture. This is the boys masterpiece for their sister's hair. Jake came up with the idea, and Joe made sure to help! Forgive me for the quality, it is a cell phone picture!

Demands...

I want to write this down, because Turtle and I find this humorous each and every day...
Our children are quite demanding. They have wants and they make sure we know about them. EACH. AND. EVERY. DAY.
For example, every morning, (and I mean EVERY MORNING) Joe wakes up and comes in our room, if he isn't in our bed already and makes his first request. The first thing out of his mouth isn't, "Hi Mom and Dad!," "Good Morning," or even "wake up," this is what it is verbatum...
"I want you to turn on a Cartoon and get me some milk." EVERY SINGLE MORNING.
Jake is an exceptionally finicky eater. When I say finicky, I mean EXTREMELY finicky. In fact 85% of the time I make supper, I am pretty sure he isn't going to eat it. For example.... If I am making enchiladas, he must specify that he will NOT eat CHICKEN! When I ask him why? He explains that chicken is slimy like a stingray. If I mention that he likes chicken nuggets from McDonalds, he will very politely inform me that "Chicken Nuggets is not real chicken." While I am sure there is some truth to this statement, it is difficult for Turtle and I to not bust out laughing.
Courtney is little. However, at 6 months old, she makes it very clear what is and isn't satisfactory with her. She will not just hang out in her carseat in play with toys. Instead she wiggles, and fidgets, until she has maneuvered out of the carseat (when she is not in the car of course.) If she is strapped in, and not in the car, she turns red in the face and growls until I get her out.
I love that the kids are so willing to speak their piece. While it does get frustrating and stressful at times, I am happy to be able to share the days with them.

Sleeping...

I was going through the pictures on the camera, and I found some pictures worth showing...

Apparently, my boys like to sleep...together, apart, but never on their beds!

Miss Courtney at 6 Months!!!

It's official! Miss Courtney is SIX MONTHS OLD!

Time is flying and we are having so much fun! I love babies at this age!

We took little Courtney in for her 6 month check up! She is 13 lbs. 8.5 oz. Just to give you an idea of how shocking this is to me, when Jake and Joe were six months old, they both weighed 18+ lbs. She is definitely small and dainty! She is 24 1/2 inches long. So, in the grand scheme of things she is in the 12th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height.

She is more and more fun everyday!

She can now sit up for about a minute or two on her own.

She loves to jabber, just like her mother.

She is rolling all over the place.

Magellan is the king of getting this little princess to laugh hysterically!

Her sleeping patterns are pretty much unchanged.She is eating solids. So far she LOVES sweet potatoes, apples and bananas, and she will tolerate carrots. Green beans, well, those are just nasty to her.

She is a bundle of fun and we just love her to pieces!

Simple life...

Lately I have been thinking about how things were when I was a kid. We had an Atari growing up. It was awesome. How often did we play it? Once in a while. I would guess maybe an 3-5 hours per month, every other month, not a bunch. We had the Nintendo, you know the first one. Once again, we played it very minimally by today's standards. In fact, I still have the Nintendo. It has been in the original box/styrofoam, etc. Crazy eh?

So what did we do for fun? I for one, rode my bike. EVERYWHERE! I played outside pretty much all day long. Jumping on the trampoline, riding my scooter (which I still have), riding my bike, playing "Steal the Flag" or a nice game of softball in my parent's cul-de-sac, were my personal faves. In the winter time, we would make slides in my parent's backyard. One time we made a slide that had a jump that landed in the pit where the trampoline was during the summer. We would spend hours! My mom would have to drag us inside. It was great!

I want my kids to have the same type of life. I am looking forward to cooler temperatures... where we can find changing leaves, make snow angels, snow men, and my personal favorite SLIDES!

The past few days have had some not so optimal weather. I built a little Marble run for Joe and he LOVED it! These bring back memories of what we used to do when I was a kid! Forget all the automated toys with obnoxious noises/sound effects! Give me a marble run any day! Check out how entertained Joe was with that Marble Run! He played with this thing for HOURS!

I Never thought...

Lastnight I had a great phone conversation with my mom that I haven't been able to stop thinking about, so I thought I should write it down.
Five years ago, Jake was a cute little toddler, walking around, curious, just being the sweetest little boy ever. He was my only child, and I loved him dearly. I worked. A LOT! Money was good. Turtle and I were comfortable. We did whatever we wanted. We had a big suburban, (yes...with only one child!!!). Handsome and I went boating several times a month. I had my hair done every six weeks, I bought clothes because I felt like it, and never really questioned finances. My days were hectic. I would get up at 6am to do my hair and get ready to spend the day doing what I loved, my career in CMBS. I got in my little hot rod, drove Jake to the sitters, and off I went to work. I would race around all day long. I went to lunch EVERY DAY with my girlfriends. Get home around 7pm order takeout, or on rare occasions prepare supper, and put Jake to bed... and repeat. This was my life! I was happy, and I NEVER thought I could ever do anything else that would make me happier.
Fastforward to the present. I get up at 4:30am nearly every morning to feed my sweet baby. I put her back to bed. I check on my sweet sons. I love seeing them all snuggled up with their favorite blankets. I get up again at 7:15am. I eat breakfast. I go wake up my handsome Jake. I make his breakfast, and talk to him as he eats. I prepare his lunch, and my little Joey comes in, I give him a hug, prepare his breakfast and listen to the boys talk about whatever they want. It is so entertaining, I wish it could last forever, but I have to cut it short, and get the boys dressed. By this time Miss Courtney is awake, and I get her dressed. We strap her in her carseat, plop her in the wagon with Joey, and we walk behind Jake as he rides his bike to school. We visit for the few minutes until school starts. When we get home, I work on various chores for a couple of hours, I prepare lunch, which is often times a PB & J or a case of dilla as Joe would say and I spend time with my little ones. 3pm comes and we jump in the wagon to meet up with Jake and his friends. We walk home with a large group of kids (10-12 I would estimate.) A couple of kiddos come home with us, we have a snack, we visit, and I start dinner.
I NEVER thought I could be happy living life as I am today. But I am. I am so happy to spend the time with my kiddos. I love knowing who Jake's friends are, how he interacts, and what makes his eyes smile. I love being able to volunteer at his school. I love that I am able to teach Joe his letters. I love that I am the one to see Miss Courtney's firsts. It makes me happy to know that I can make stuff rather than buying everything. . I love living....THE SIMPLE LIFE!

Have to share before I forget!

Monday we met Jake's first grade teacher. It was a great opportunity for the teacher to get 15 minutes of one on one time with Jake. She took a minute to ask Jake a couple of questions...
Teacher: So Jacob how are you today?
Jake: Fine, thanks.
Teacher: Are you excited for school tomorrow?
Jake: YES!
Teacher: What do you like to do at school?
Jake: Fun stuff.
Teacher: What is fun at school?
Jake: Not Reading!

Nice!

Who said my kids could grow up on me!!!

As if it wasn't tough enough to send Jake off to first grade, my little ones are getting big on me!
Joey is a smart little cookie. Really smart. I am not just saying that because I am his mom either. (Okay, maybe I am slightly biased! I admit it!) But this kid is a smarty pants! The past few weeks we have begun working on letters. He is going to be starting preschool in September, so I wanted to get him somewhat started... I was AMAZED! I was amazed that A. He already knew some of the letters, and B. he knows a lot of the sounds! Here are the letters he has down pat...
A, B, C, D (usually), I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, X, Z I love it!
He has also started a new thing... if he asks you a question and the answer is, "Yes," you must annunicate YES!! It cannot be yep, yeah, uh-huh, sure... It MUST BE YES! Otherwise he will repeat the question, over and over and over and over! It's pretty funny!
Joe is super excited for preschool. He wants to be like Jake. He wants a backpack too... he even wants to take a lunch to school... *I have since informed him his school is only a couple of hours!*

Miss Courtney is now five months! What ? Where did the time go? She is super adorable as she always has been, but I am completely loving this age. Here's her accomplishments this month...
~ She can now roll from her back to her belly. But now she refuses to roll from her belly to her back!
~She jabbers. I love it! If she wakes up in the middle of the night... she jabbers. If you are holding her she will look at you and jabber. It's adorable.
~She isn't sleeping through the night anymore... I don't know why...but I think she is learning if she wakes up to call for me and I will be there.
~She loves to hold on to my hair, or anyone's hair for that matter.
~She likes to take cat naps.
~She ate Bananas... and she LOVED them!

In with the big boys!

We just ended the phase... the introduction to big kid has been completed. Yep, you read that right, Jake is now a big kid. No more kindergarten for my little dude! He finished up the first week of July. It was definitely bittersweet for me! I loved his Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Parker. She made things good for Jake. She took time to work with him. She was sensitive to his weaknesses. She was upfront with me... to sum it up, she just worked! Jake's last day of school was fantastic! He got wet. He ate treats. He even discovered that a Ham Sandwich can be enjoyable! He had fun playing with his friends, it was an overall fun day for him. He made a lot of friends in Kindergarten, and I am excited to see a few of them are in his first grade class! Here are some pics of his last day...

So here comes the inevitable, Jake started first grade yesterday. He had such a fun day! We met his Teacher on Monday, and I have to say, I dig her! She is wonderful! Mrs. Parker (his Kindergarten Teacher) was phenomenal, and I think Mrs. Jacobson will be the same! Jake loves his teacher, and finds it rather cool that his name is in her name. He loves riding his bike to school. He loves the recesses. And he is really enjoying eating lunch at school with his friends. He wants to help put his lunch together, (good thing I stocked up on some lunch stuff) and he ate every bite yesterday! The first day was quite a big day for him, and he truly was exhausted by 8pm.

Here are some pics of his first day:

Father and Sons...

Two weeks ago, Turtle took on a major feat. When I say major, I mean M*A*J*O*R!

He decided to take the boys camping with the Elder's Quorum. He did this last year as well, but here is the kicker, it was raining cats and dogs! It had been raining all week long, and he knew that the weather would stay the same through the weekend. He braved the storm, and the boys and off they went!

Anyone who knows my hubby, knows he is great at improvising, and making due with what he has. Lots of rain and a rather nice tent probably wouldn't go over too well... the whole clean up scenario would be less than enjoyable, so he decided he and the boys would sleep in the Pilot. It worked BEAUTIFULLY! They stayed snug, warm, and DRY!

My boys had so much fun! They thought it was so cool to sleep in the car! They loved playing with the other boys in the neighborhood, and most of all having their dad all to themselves! I was pretty proud of the boys, and very happy that Turtle took them out! What an amazing daddy!

Turtle got some fun pics on the way home. They took the scenic route and were able to see a moose, and some pretty nifty waterfalls, and of course play in the mud and snow!

Check out my handsome boys!

Growing on up!

Miss Courtney is four months old! Four months of solid fun! We are loving this little girl like crazy! What an amazing little spirit she has! Here are some facts about her...

She LOVES her binky. She won't take just any binky, it has to be the Soothie binky...you know the big rubber one that they give you in the hospital? Yeah, that's it, that is all she will take! I did find it in pink...she seems to be okay with that!

She is a good little eater, she eats about every three hours, sometimes 2 sometimes four hours, but usually every 3.

She is very easy going.

She loves to swing still! It's here favorite place to nap!

She loves to be held!

Her brothers make her smile at least a dozen times a day!

Each night she will sleep about 8 hours, then wake up, eat, and back to sleep for 2-3 hours.

She is now wearing 3-6 mos. clothes. I was quite sad to put the 0-3 size in a bin!

Her daddy is her favorite.

She has rolled over about 6 times in the past month. She doesn't do it everytime, but she is getting there.

She still let's me put bows, headbands, hats and bracelets on her!

She loves kisses from her daddy and her brothers.

She loves to be outside!

Brothers and Bicycles...

This has been an exciting month at our house! Jake has learned to ride his bike with NO TRAINING Wheels, and Joe has learned to USE THE PEDALS!!! GO BOYS!

These two have such a special relationship. I am so grateful that they play so well together. Jake is very protective of Joe, and vice versa. They love to play cars, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Transformers, and most of all ride bikes together. As long as they are together they are happy! Today we went out and rode bikes while Courtney was napping. It's a little too windy outside for her, so she stayed inside asleep and the boys and I played outside in the front yard. I love watching my boys ride bikes together, so I thought I would share some of the magic!

Three months.... ALREADY?

Little Courtney hit the three month mark this week!

YIKES! She is growing up fast!

At this point in the game she is a sweet little baby, who absolutely ADORES her daddy and her big brothers. (They adore her too!) She weighs about 12 lbs. (this is with me on the scale and then subtracting my weight!). She still has those bright blue eyes, and the hair... wow it is coming in! She has really fine hair, and it sticks straight up! Love it! Her favorite thing to do is swing, and kick and wiggle on the floor! She sleeps pretty good, usually getting up once a night at 4AM. Sometimes she sleeps through the night, but not consistently yet! She loves to be held... and she loves to coo and stick her tongue out. She loves her binky, but she will not touch those cutesy MAM binkies... it has to be the standard green hospital binky! So cute! She doesn't mind having her brothers kissing and hugging on her all the time and will usually look around to see them if she hears them in the room! We as a family are so grateful for her, and just love her to pieces!