Buying Happiness?

Someone once said you can not buy happiness........

Well I'm here to tell you that you CAN buy happiness AND peace of mind!!!!

AND IT ONLY COSTS $35!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This metal gate is IN-PENETRABLE!!! Infact, Emerson on down can't open it!!!

This sweet face is quite.....um.....trouble right now.

(oh yea, he didn't nap yesterday, just found a permanent marker under the bed and went to town in there.....quietly, I might add)

 Now he's not any MORE trouble then the other kids were at this age, but well, I'm  just a tad busier now. For example, I could be helping someone w/ homework and he'll be climbing the pantry and eating.

Or picking up the living room and he'll move the dining room chair over to the sink and have at whatever is there. He's VERY resourceful. And most of the problems happen in the kitchen!!!!

So this metal gate makes me smile...........like REALLY big when I see him like this.

So THERE all you nay-sayers who think you can't buy peace. I JUST DID!!!!!

And I can say GOOD-BYE to this sneaky intruder who CAN open the fridge (seriously, what one year old can open the fridge AND the freezer???!!!!) and then dump out out whole gallon of milk while I'm feeding Kellyn in the other room!!!!

TAKE THAT, Royce.

My favorite room

There are MANY things that I would change about this house, but the HUGE selling point for me was the boys' room upstairs. They ABSOLUTELY love it. (Camden actually says he likes this house better then our last just because of his bedroom)

So if you walk in the house there will be some stairs going up (no door to their room.....makes it PERFECT to hear all their silly conversations at night that gives me entertainment)....that's their room.

Oh, and here's Aleeya dancing on the landing going up to their room. She thinks it's her stage and she'll just sing and sing and dance (ALL DAY!!!!)

 The door to the right is the girls' bedroom and the boys' is up the stairs....you can see Camden's bed up there. And yes, I realize I have NOT made Kellyn's stocking yet, but I'm workin' on it.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand, Aleeya is STILL dancing.

 The boys' room is the whole upstairs. It reminds me of a dorm room w/ the bed-dresser-bed-dresser look. I love it. The 4th bed is eventually for Royce when he's older, but we didn't have a place to store it so there's a 4th bed up there. It has a bathroom/shower up there for them too (THANK GOODNESS!!!!) and a desk and closet in the other corner.

I just LOVE all the space up there.

The other interesting thing is our only TV is up there too. We didn't want it in the living room (there isn't much room anyway) so their room was the only option. I was worried about it at first, but it has turned out to be the BEST. They can't watch it unless they ask, obviously, but it makes for some fun Saturday night football watching when they can just fall asleep in their beds. Plus, it is SUCH a good reminder to me that we, as adults should ONLY be watching things we would allow our kids to. I don't watch movies much, but if I DID it would only be something appropriate for them. It helps the whole hypocrite factor of us parents. Now, now, I don't watch horrible movies (and haven't even seen a PG-13 one in 4 years) but still, some PG "chick-flicks" might have scenes I really don't want my 3 BOYS watching, if you know what I mean.

In our smaller home here, I just think it's so fun that they have their AMPLE amount of space in their room!!! The only thing it's missing is a multiple-shower-head in the bathroom (just like the dorms) to make school mornings go a little faster. :)

Thanksgiving

 There are no words to describe how SUPER DUPER excited I was to have my friend Allison (and her family) come visit us for Thanksgiving!!!! The best part was sitting around and visiting. I missed them so much. And WHAT better place to visit then in a ghetto kitchen so we could check on the turkey?!!?

 They actually cooked the turkey w/ all these fancy-shmancy herbs, etc. and it turned out amazing and pretty awesome looking.

 All the kids at the table ready to eat. So cute.

Allison also brought some SUPER fancy pies (pecan and apple). The sides had cut-outs of acorns and leaves that you can't see............and I provided a frozen pumpkin pie. hahaha. In my defense I DID make a blueberry cobbler too. :)

 The boys loved playing w/ their buddies Paul and Joshua at the park.

 And Iris wouldn't leave Abigail alone.

 Paul and Aleeya playing

And since the menfolk and Bronson were golfing, this seemed to be the easiest way to contain Royce AND hold Kellyn at the same time. The park was actually INSANELY crowded and turned out to not be that relaxing (code for: CRAZY!!!) because Allison and I were there trying to keep track of 9 kids ages 8 and under. 

 We went to Rise of the Guardians with the older kids

(will someone please tell me why boys start doing weird hand signs with their hands?!?!?)

 Aleeya looks EXTRA happy because she was sitting next to Joshua......who she couldn't stop flirting with.

 Paul and Emerson in the row behind us. We had to keep checking on them because it was kinda a scary/high action movie and we were wondering how they would take it all. (Honestly, I wasn't a fan of the movie all around)

But I WAS a fan of spending time w/ Allison!!!!!!!!! Who knew I would miss my friends so much!?

8 weeks

Kellyn is 8 weeks now, has slept through the night for me for 2 weeks and has a new best friend......the swing. HOLY COW, WHY DIDN'T I SET IT UP BEFORE?!?!? She's a happier and more content baby now and not so stingy with her smiles. I love it. 

This is Kellyn giving me the "WHY are you making those funny faces?!" look as I try to get her to smile.

 She thinks I'm so funny sometimes and can't even hold still because I'm THAT funny. She's a real self-esteem booster, I know.

 pleasant little face.

And THESE next 3 are just because I love doing it. I've had 5 people since Sunday tell me that Kellyn looks like Iris and I didn't believe it. Well, I went searching through some old pictures and she INDEED does. These 3 are of Iris. The only difference is Iris has some bigger eyes and Kellyn has the disappearing-eye-trick when she smiles (I had the EXACT same thing when I was her age......wish my scanner would work so I could prove it.)

Oh, I had these pictures of Iris up on the computer and Brooks walked by and said, "That's a cute picture of Kellyn". hahaha, Iris even fooled DAD!

Smile Winner

If anyone knows me, they would say I am the LEAST competitive person they know. I don't care if I win or lose and if I lose..........well, I don't give it another thought. For example, if I lost some lame smile contest it's not like I would refuse to blog about it for 6 days because I was pouting or anything. I mean really......I'm 31 years old for heaven's sake.

Trying to get the first smile from Kellyn wasn't really that big of a deal to me anyway. There were NO video cameras in my house taping me w/ hours and hours of me trying to get her to smile (only to make my cheeks KILL from pulling the weirdest faces and smiles).......so no one could prove it. Plus, when Kellyn WANTED to smile, I'm sure it would be for me. Besides AREN'T I THE ONE WITH HER (ALMOST) 24/7?!?!?

Last Wednesday, I took Bronson and Camden to scouts for one hour. We drive 25 minutes to our church so it doesn't make sense for me to come back home. I usually sit in the car and write in one of the kids' journals. I actually LOVE that time sitting and writing. I never take the time to do it at home because there's always some place to clean, , etc. We came back home and I resumed my spot on the couch w/ Kellyn to feed her..........YOU KNOW....TO KEEP HER ALIVE?!?!?!? She actually DID show me her gratitude by showing me a smile after I fed her. I looked at Brooks and SCREAMED/YELPED/GLOATED, "SHE SMILED AT ME!!!!!!!!!" (Not like it mattered though, like I said, because I'm not competitive and I don't mind losing.....it was strictly just to inform Brooks, that's all).

Instead of the "Unbelievable", "I can't believe you won", or "GAH!!!" I expected to hear from Brooks, he just looked over at me and calmly said, "Cool. She gave me 2 smiles while you were gone."

GAH!!!!!!

I was LITERALLY gone for a little under 2 hours. CLEARLY Kellyn forgets who keeps her alive.......... single-handedly!!!!!! Not only that, but she's been super stingy with her smiles SINCE then. (Hence the reason there is no picture of her smiling). I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't. I told Bronson the news and he just said, "Oh well, maybe I can be the first kid to make her smile." WHAT?!?!? Accepting defeat and the title of "loser" so easily?!?!?!!?

He must get that from me.

Indoor Court

There is only ONE door that will work for Bronson's basketball hoop, and it happens to be our front door. With the wood floors it makes for a great basketball indoor "court". 

And about everyday that's one of the first things the kids ask Dad to do w/ them after he gets home (when it's cold outside or too dark). It's always the same teams:

Brooks and Aleeya     vs.     The Boys

 It makes me laugh watching them.

 (Love Emerson's boxing out. hahaha)

 Aleeya plays some mean defense sometimes

The games always get SUPER close in score and then Daddy wins EVERY. TIME. He's pretty proud that he's undefeated with his kids.

I don't know WHY they even get sad or tear up or throw a fit after.......it's as if they're SURPRISED they lost (AGAIN!!!!). 

But yet they keep asking to play......hahaha.

The whole family will play football a lot in the field across the street so Royce is getting pretty good. He likes to "hike" the ball btw. his legs and he's pretty good at that. Then he runs out for a pass. I got a short video of it below. However he's pretty distracted at the camera and kept staring at me. Its the last part that really makes me laugh. He'll make a great receiver. Enjoy. 

(Mom, you can't watch the video via email post, you actually have to click through and go to my blog and then click play)

I love it how there's always SOMETHING being played around here.

Sleeping....

Sleep........it's a beautiful thing.

The last 3 nights I've fed Kellyn a tad later then usual for the last feeding around 9:30-10:00. (the one where I wake her up and she sleepily eats and falls back asleep regardless of how many wipes I wipe on her to wake up). After those feedings she has woken up until 6 a.m. Holy shnickies!!!

You NEVER realize how good a full night's rest is you get one and you realize what you were missing for all that time. ;) Come on moms, you know the feeling!

Anyway, as I woke up this morning I was reminded of my "Parenting and Family" class I took in college 11 years ago.

This was RIGHT after I was married and my sister and I were taking this online course from USU together. It was fun, but I'll never forget one of the assignments. It was something to the effect of asking any mom about how they would teach their babies to sleep. I looked at my sister-in-law (who was living with my parents for the summer w/ her soon-to-be-4 kids) and asked her what she did. The advice has ALWAYS stuck with me and I've done it for all 7 kids.

I tend to NEVER pass on "advice" since passing on parenting advice gets SUPER old to weary moms, but I don't really consider it advice. They're more like tips.

Some of my kids liked sleep a LOT more then others, trust me, so it's not a miracle worker but it really helps especially right at the beginning w/ newborns.

She told me when waking up to feed the baby at night, she ALWAYS kept the room dark and didn't play/talk/etc with the baby during night time.

Meaning, I go into the room (I'm one of those weird moms that has never had the baby in the same room as me, even from day 1), leave the lights off, feed the baby, burp and put right back to sleep. The point being to not let the baby think that it is playtime ("PARTY WITH MOM AT 3 A.M. EVERYNIGHT!!) and to get their body to reset their  backward schedule and understand that THIS is night time. Make sense?

It was such a small tip. But I really think it has helped. I try to keep diaper changing to a minimum too, oddly enough. Depending on the diaper brand you might be able to let a wet diaper go through another feeding if the baby doesn't have sensitive skin. Or not use a wipe for wet diapers during the night. (Seriously, wouldn't a wet/cold wipe on YOUR hiney wake you up?!?!? ). If the baby is poopy I just change the baby in the middle of the feeding, so the last part of the feeding relaxes them again.  

It's tricky when they're little doing it all in the dark but there's usually some lamp post on the street outside or moonlight enough to help out.

Anyway, it's funny how her one tip really helped me out w/ my new babies and how I've kept that tip this whole time. I started thinking, I wonder if someone else could use the tip. Granted every baby is different (DON'T I KNOW IT!!!!), so there's no blanket formula for sleep, but maybe this will help someone like it did me 11 years ago.

6 weeks

This week, the little lady will be 6 weeks.........which means it. is. crunch. time. 

Most likely this week she will SMILE and will no longer look at us like this whenever we make the silly sounds or noises!

 Brooks has gotten the first smile from the first 5 children. I got Royce's first smile (I know you're not surprised!). But  with Kellyn,  Brooks, myself AND Bronson are vowing that we will get the first smile.

AND IT'S NOT FOR LACK OF TRYING PEOPLE!!!!

 However, I think we're pretty safe in saying that Royce will NOT get the first smile from Kellyn

 The little lady does NOT like being on her back. Turn her over and she's good to go. See?

Maybe because it must reminds her of moments like these...... when Dad comes home super late from work and lays on his couch, snuggling his newest princess. 

 But she IS super close to smiling. Really. And I'm determined to get the first one. 

 It would be a WHOLE lot easier if I didn't have the magic-sleeping-juice. It doesn't help my cause AT ALL.

However, I'm pretty sure I would take this snuggling over smiling right now anyway.

The "Smile Winner" will be named soon though...........mark my words.

GAME. ON.

That time of year again

Last Monday night for Family Home Evening we got our Gratitude Tree put up!!!!

(Truth be told, I like it more then my Christmas tree. It makes me happier and just in awe thinking about every leaf. I smile every time I walk past it).

After a lesson on the 10 Lepers from the Bible each family member got 5 leaves to write something they are thankful for........and if you do the math, that is 45 leaves on the tree! 

I had the kids help me think of what Royce and Kellyn WOULD be grateful for.

Here are a few:

This one was Aleeya's. I just love it.












And no, I did NOT prompt this one. The kids made up their's completely by themselves.

(I love that Emerson's "frend" is just singular....as if he only has one.) ;)

These  next 2 from Emerson and Camden crack me up for 2 reasons:
1) the boys do NOT always like church....trust me
 2) NEITHER of them know how to spell it. ;)

Bronson is my little science wiz. And yes, he REALLY feels strongly about how grateful he is that the sun doesn't nuke us here on earth everyday.

I'll give you ONE guess who's this one belongs to...... ;)

This one is mine. I TRULY am grateful my parents on in Brazil serving a mission for 2 years. There have been times that I have felt some MAJOR extra help and received extra blessings because of their service. Before they left they were promised this would happen, and there are many in my family that can testify that it has come true.

Kellyn doesn't need much except some major snuggling and her "leche" (milk).

Yes, Bronson DOES have a huge talent in sports, and I'm glad he is grateful for it.





I just have loved seeing what they came up with!!! It's a constant reminder of how truly blessed I am.....even if I haven't been given kids that can spell. ;)