Does it get any better than this?

Last night when we put the kids to bed we put Layton in bed with Syd. Jackson and Layton have a hard time going to bed at the same time. Jackson usually cries a bit and if he's not Layton will get up to go potty or get a drink or any old excuse to get out of bed, and Jackosn will then start to cry. So I decided I want all the kids in bed at the same time and put Layton in with Syd. Layton was so excited,however Sydney wasn't exactly thrilled to share her bed, but was willing to put up with it.
So this morning I woke up and walked past Syd's room and could here little whispers and giggles. They saw me so both got up and Sydney said, "Mom I am so proud of Layton! Do you know what Layton did, he hasn't done this before! He told me he was scared in the night so I put my arm around him and he was okay!"
Seriously nothing is better than seeing them so happy to take care of each other. Right now Jack is taking his nap and Syd is reading books to Layton on her bed. I love these kiddos!! I am so blessed!!

Requested Pics

So for those of you who wanted to see my big belly and how fast it is growing, here you go. Tyler and I are both amazed at how quickly it has got big and bigger!



(Pics courtesy of Sydney)

It snowed here on Tuesday and Wednesday so I went out and took some pics of the snow and our house, so here are the requested pics of our house. We finally finshed all the siding, painting and stained all the brick a little over a month ago. It was quite the job and we wre so glad when it was all done. We really like the end result.


BEFORE




AFTER

Our Thanksgiving Weekend Fun

I actually was waiting for Tyler to post this because he said he might actually write a post on our blog, however after a while I thought I better do it for him. Besides I needed to post about our Thanksgiving too. After a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner with our great friends here,and might I add it was a really great dinner. Our friends have an 11 year old daughter who took care of all the kids eating in the other room, and even entertained them when they were done eating. We sat and ate our whole dinner without any interuptions. Amazing isn't it! It was so nice, great food and great company.
Anyway after dinner Tyler went out hunting with his friend Spencer, and they both got a white tail buck. It was Spencer's first time hunting and Tyler's first hunt in a long time. Tyler was so excited!!! It was so much fun to see him so excited, I only wish I could have been there to see him in action!!



Then on Friday night we got a babysitter and went out a spent the night with Spencer and Jamie out on her Dad's property where he has his ranch. It was so beautiful and peaceful, rolling hills, beautiful green pastures, and bare trees with their leaves all gone. It was so nice. I actually was amazed at how relaxed I was leaving the kiddos for the first time with a babysitter over night. We were lucky again to have great friends and knew they were in good hands.
Then on Saturday we just enjoyed a day at home with our munchkins. We definately missed them and it was nice to just play and have fun. We made a gingerbread house, from scratch which I have not done before. The kiddos had lots of fun rolling out the dough and cutting out the shapes, and of course decorating, and as if we hadn't eatedn enough sweets we finished it off roasting marshmallows in the fireplace and making smores. It was a great holiday weekend!
Watching the jollyranchers melt to maek the windows

Relaxing after our hard work

Our finished masterpeace, it did have a fence but Jackson got to it.

6 Years Old!

Friday we celebrated Sydneys 6th birthday!! I can hardly believe how fast 6 years has flown by. I feel so blessed to have my Syd. She is such a sweetheart and has such an earnest desire to do what is right. She loves so much to be a helper. This morning was a perfect example. On Sunday mornings her job is to help the boys in the car and help them buckle. She is so good with her brothers and it really makes her feel important to have this responsibilty. When I got to the car Sydney had pulled out a book to read to Jack to keep him happy while he was in carseat. I told her how nice it was that she took such good care of her baby brother and told her I was so glad she was happy to help because I might need her help when our babies come. She responded, "ya mom when you have your babies I can feed one while you feed the other one."
Another time we were writing letters and she told me she didn't know what to write next. I told her she could tell them how excited she was for our babies to come. she said," I am excited for one baby to come." I asked "Do you not want two babies?" She said,"I just think it might be alot to handle." It made me smile I then explained that we can just work together and we can do it. She responded,"Well I just think it will be alot to handle while I am at school."

How lucky am I to have this girl!!! I just love her so much!!

It was so fun to see how excited Syd was for her birthday she woke up Friday morning so excited for her special day. She requested "pancake balls" (ebiskews) for breakfast. After eating breakfast Tyler then gave her some special things for her lunch at school. She danced around saying, " this is the specialest day ever!" It was so much fun to see her so happy. She of course asked for a Hannah Montana cake, which I spent all of Jack's nap making. When I asked what she would like to do for her birthday she told me she would like to decorate shirts with her friends. I told her she could invite 3 friends. So we picked up her friends after school and they had so much fun. They were definately creative with their shirts and had so much fun doing it. She of course love opening presents and especially loved getting packages in the mail from her grandmas and grandpas, Thanks for those, that made her day extra special!!

Going Private

I decided I am jumping on the bandwagon and making my blog private. I feel bad doing this because I have reconnected with so many great friends. But I have heard some scary things lately so I think it is time. So if you would like an invite please leave a comment with your email address so we can stay in touch.

Sugar and Spice and Everthing Nice!

We had our big ultrasound today and it looks like two baby girls!! We are all so excited. Even Layton said he's "likes" the two baby girls. In the ulstrasound they could only see one placenta so there is a possiblity they are identical. Now we just need to think of two girl names. Any ideas?

Halloween Fun!

Halloween was so much fun!! I love seeing the excitement in my kids about getting dressed up and getting all those treats. We started out our Halloween day with orange pancakes. Thanks to my cute sister in law McKel who shared the idea of putting food coloring in her pancake batter to make it more fun,it's an easy way to make breakfast part of the holiday fun. Later the boys and I went to Sydney's school to watch her Halloween parade. They love going to Syd's school and are so excited to see her in her classroom. It was fun to see her excited to see us there too! We then went and did some trick or treating on base and then went to our wards Halloween party and trunk or treating. We all had alot of fun and the weather was great, we didn't even need jackets on. Tyler took the kiddos around trick or treating and I handed out the candy at our car.When he got back he was telling me all the cute things our "jack"o'lantern was saying, so of course I had to take him around again to watch my cute little guy. At each stop he would repeat what the person giving the candy would say like "there you go", and he said "thank you" after treat give away and then wait for eye contact from them to wave and say "bye". He has really taken off with his talking and it is so cute and fun to watch. Layton I think was just thrilled to wear his batman costume and all day he sang a song "Im going trck or treating!" Sydney had fun walking around the trunk or treat with her friends and made several rounds through the cars.
Tyler and I just got a kick out of watching them in all their excitement. It was a great night!!!

Pumpkin Patch and Pumpkin carving

I love this picture. This is how Jackson has started posing for the camera lately. He puts both arms up and say "cheese".





On Saturday I took the kiddos to the little pumpkin patch in town. It is nothing spectacular by any means but they loved pushing around wheelbarrows and being pushed around in the wheelbarrows and pulled in the wagon, climbing on the haybales and climbing up over a small bridge there. They had lots of fun!
Then for FHE last night we carved pumpkins. Sydney especially loved to stick her hand inside and pull out a hand the handful of slimy seeds and tease her brothers with it. Layton wanted nothing to do with the slimy stuff,and Jackson would stick his hand in and poke at it with his finger but that is as close as it got. It was fun to see all their different reactions. But they all loved telling Dad what kind of eyes, nose, and mouth to carve and watch their pumpkin turn into a Jack'o'lantern. I just love Halloween!! I think there are just so many fun traditions that go on this time of year, and Halloween seems to just kick it all off!!

Flooded!!

Unfortunately this past week has been CRAZY!! WE woke up a week ago Thurdsay at 5 am with water running out from under our kitchen cabinet. The water covered our kitchen floor and half of the dining room floor,as well as soaked the carpet in the hallway and living room and part of the family room. Tyler grabbed our wet vac and started sucking up water and I ran to the store to rent a rug doctor to help. Tyler worked for a full hour and a half, then got ready to go to work. I used the rug doctor and sucked up water for the next 4-5 hours. Ty came home from work at lunch to help out and worked for a while longer until we couldn't get anything more up then we pulled up the carpet to get air under it hoping it would dry. Well it didn't. And our beautiful wood floor in our kitchen and dining room was destroyed. We realized this was too much for us and we would make a claim with our insurance co. and called the professional disaster clean up guys. By Friday evening our home was almost covered with 26 big industrial strenth fans and 4 dehumidifiers, blowing out 120 degree air. We realized there was no way the kiddos could sleep in the house. We then went and got a hotel, hoping it would only be for a couple of days. By Sunday we were still in a hotel and Tyler unfortunately had an air force optometry conference he was leaving for that afternoon and would not be back until Wednesday evening. Needless to say I was not thrilled to be dealing with this on my own, and all the hormones running through my system right now definatley did not help. On Monday morning I checked out of our hotel because they informed us when we checked in the had no rooms available on Monday or Tuesday. I hoped we would be able to stay in our home that night. However when they checked the moisture levels in the home they felt they would need to keep the equipment in the home for 3-5 more days!! I was devastated. Monday night after searching all over town we could not find vacancy in any hotel. By 7:30 after driving around for a while I realized we would just have to stay in our house. We pulled up to our house and I gathered all the kids in my bedroom since it was the only room with the door still on (they had to remove all the other doors to put fans and other equipment. So I though we could keep the door closed and try and keep the temperature a little lower since the thermometers in the rest of the house were reading 95 degrees. I opened the door that goes outside in my bedroom help cool it down for a while. By this time I was crying of course and Syd and Layton asked me what was wrong. I explained to them that it was hard with our dad, and I was worried about finding a place for us to sleep that night,and I was even more worried that all my worrying might not be good for the babies in my belly. Sydney looked at me with a smile and gigling said "That's a silly thing to worry about!" I love my kiddos!! That was exactly what I needed to hear and we all started to laugh! It helped me get a grip and realize how blessed we were. Tuesday we woke up after not greatest night of sleep,and did our best to get find breakfast in our torn up kitchen and make Sydney's lunch o take to school. Amazingly she made it to school on time. I had a Dr. appt that moring and was relieved to find everything okay,and surprised that my blood pressure had not sky rocketed under the stress. The doctor gave me an ultrasound and said we might be able to tell what the babies are. But I asked him not to tell me so I could wait and find out with Tyler. Tuesday night my wonderful, fabulous,lifeavor friend let us sleep in their house. It was so nice!!!! We all got great rest and enjoyed some deilcious muffins her hubby made for breakfast. Wednesday Tyler got home and they removed most of the equpiment from our home because it had dries faster than expected!! As the drama settled down I realized how blessed we really are. We have great friends who fed us great lunches and dinners and allowed us to come hang out in their homes while we were homeless. Thank you all so much!!

This last picture is that cause of all our drama. One of the canisters attached to our reverse osmosis water filter obviously got a huge crack in it. Water was continuously flowing out of it. The previous owner bought an extended 10 year warranty on the filter but when we asked about it they told us this was not covered under the warranty. Oh well!!!

Our weekend

On Saturday was the air show at our base. I guess this only comes every few years,so it was the thing to do in this litle town. All active duty military stationed here were required to work that day, and since Tyler was in the med group that included him. So he left 7am that morning and didn't get back until 6pm. Just in time to get ready to go to the Priesthood session of conference. We decided to go on base and check out some of the event Saturday morning and Tyler was able to be with us for a while of that. It was fun to see all the different planes. They had a B-2 there, it was guarded by guys holding machine guns. I guess there is still some of the mechanics inside are still top secret intelligence. Watching it fly around I can totally see where all these UFO sightings come from. It was fun for the kiddo to spend time with Dad. They all love being wiht Dad. That afternoon Sydney kept saying she wished it was Sunday so Dad could be home all day.




Then after Sunday conference we made homemade Taffy. I remember making it when I was a kid with my mom and thinking it was so much fun. I found a recipe for choclate Taffy online. It actually was pretty good. The kiddos called them tootsie rolls, they look and taste alot like them. It was fun they really like pulling the taffy for a while until their arms got tired, but I think they enjoyed eating some best!!




This last picture is not this past weekend but the Friday night before. Tyler had planned to take Sydney to a 'Princess Ball' a Daddy daughter date at the local childrens museum. Dad'sget to take their little "princesses" all dressed up for a night of dinner and dancing. How cute is that. However I did not realize I needed to buy the tickets in advance and it was sold out. So Sydney just put on a church dress and they just went out on the town together. I thought Sydney would be disappointed, but she was happy just to have a date with her Dad.

Poor Layton!!

SO I just had to post this, i thought it was so funny, and I was on the blog. I was upstairs on the computer and heard Layton crying in the bathroom so I went to check on him and he was on the toilet. I asked what was wrong and he said," I fell in the toilet."
I am such a nice mom,I'm laughing at his distress.

Big News!

I hesitated posting my news, because I thought I would wait until I was further along, but after my dcotor appointment yesterday I am just too excited. I just had to post this!!! I have a great doc who does an ultrasound at every visit. YEA!! Anyway here is the ultrasound from yesterday!

Our New Pet!!

Today I was outside working on the house, as usual, when I spotted this little guy. Layton was so excited!! We found a box to put him, gathered some leaves so he would think he was at "his house", and water. We then went inside to get Jack from his nap to show him. He was so cute, he just giggled when he saw the turtle and immediatly tried to grab him. It was fun to watch the boys with their little turtle. We will probably let him go this afternoon, but we've got to wait and show Sydney when she gets home from school.

Riding the bus!!

So today Syndey rode the bus to school for the first time. I have been stressing over this for a while now. I know I really need to calm down, but I really enjoy dropping her off and picking her up. She has been asking me everyday since school started to ride the bus. On Sunday night I had a horrible dream about a terrible thing that happened on her bus ride. I told Syd I was too worried for her to ride the bus. She told me I can be brave. All day on Monday I thought about Syd's comment, and realized this would be a good thing for her. I needed to let go and let her gain more confidence and do this. So I talked to the bus driver yesterday when I picked Sydney up from school and she caught the bus this morning. She was excited but still a little nervous,as was I. I wrote her bus number on her hand, and we talked to a friend in her class that will ride the same bus she can buddy up with. I was so proud of her and me, and I cannot wait until the bus drops her off today to hear all about it!!

This past week has surely been a whirlwind of emotions. On Saturday morning, August 23, we received a phone call that Tylers' brother Scott's fiance Mandy was killed in a tragic plane crash the previous night. Our hearts were broken as we imagined what Scott must be feeling. We never met Mandy, but because Scott loved her, we loved her too. We immeditaly packed up and headed out to be with our family. Visiting with Scott brought so much comfort to our hearts. Although it was very effident his poor heart was broken, his has stood as such a wonderful example to me of unwaivering faith.
Going to her funeral was so special too. I loved hearing the stories of Mandy, because we never met her, it was easy though to see why Scott fell in love with her. She was not only Miss Hurricane but she was also a member of the FFA and raised a cow. Really how cool is that!! Her sister spoke of how she would go out and rest her head on her cow and talk to her. I really loved that story. In Scott talk at her funeral he spoke of one of the quotes she had written in her journal, "Life is too short to sit around". As simple as that is it really taught me something, especially when you consider Mandy. Life is short, too short to miss opportunities to serve each other, to procrastinate doing what is right, too short to be selfish.
As this past week we have felt so much saddness for this last, I also feel so grateful for what I have also learned. I feel my faith and testimony of our Heavenly Fathers' plan has increased, I have an increased desire to do and be better, I have learned alot from Scott and Mandy.

What I think about Kindergarten !

Thanks to a great idea from Syndey's cute aunt Jenny, Sydney told me what to write so you cold all hear from her about her school experience. She even picked out the picture for this post.


My day went good at kindergarten, and there was a book called Miss Bindergarten got ready for Kindergarten. I met a friend named Jacey, she is a girl. That was today, on Monday. She has hair as long as mine so we are almost twins. She told Hana she has a twin sister. Me, Charlee, Alexis,and Hana, and Jacey are the Cheetah Girls. I do centers and I play at recess. I did schoolwork on Monday. I drew a camel and a dog and I drew a tiger. I had a rest at Kindergarten and I sleeped at Kindergarten and I went to PE (after Sydney's first day she said this was called EP) , and I ate home lunch at school. I get home at 3 and my mom picks me up. Then I just go home and that's all.

Layton's Shadow!!

It is so fun to watch my two boys together. It is defiantely different with Syd gone all day, and it has been so fun to see the change with the boys already. Jackson follows Layton around doing whatever he is doing. Layton likes to pretend to be a dog quite often at our house and now Jackson does it too!! It is soo Cute watching the little guy crawl around and stick out his tongue and pant. One thing that hasn't changed is how Jackson LOVES to tackle his big brother, and Layton still screams every time. I know I'm terrible but I can't help but laugh. Layton has always loved playing ball and Jackson likes to join right in. Notice though we still have a sisters influence, Jackson is doing a slam dunk in high heels.

My Little Girl is Growing Up

Today was Syd's 1st day of Kindergarten. This day has come so fast and my heart is overwhelmed with emotions today. First of all I am heartbroken. Kindergarten is all day here, which breaks my heart to have my little girl gone all day. It just seems so long.
Secondly, I feel so blessed! I feel so blessed to have the gospel in my life. Not only does it give me perspective on days like this,to know that letting go and letting Syd make choices on her own and learn is an important eternal lesson, but I am so grateful for the direction the gospel has given me in teaching her what she needs to know to enter the world without me. I know I have not been perfect and there are things I would do differently, but I gave her the best I could. I am also grateful this day for the peace I have felt sending Syd to school. I am grateful to know that this is right for her and she will be okay.
Thirdly I am happy for the time I can take with my boys, and the time they will have together to play.