Hello from Utah!

We have now been in Utah for a little over 2 weeks. The drive up was not as bad as I had expected! We left early Friday morning & made it by 8pm Saturday night. My dad flew down to TX & then drove back to Utah with me. He pretty much drove the entire time except for maybe 3-4 hours of it. Thanks Dad! We went stayed the night in Pagosa Springs, CO where my aunt & uncle live. It was 1 1/2 hours out of our way, but well worth it! I told Kiley that I wouldn't mind living there when all is said in done! It was so beautiful & quaint! Loved it! My Aunt Mary & Uncle Butch have done a lot with their yard. It was quite the garden!

We left the next day & made the 7 1/2 hour trek to my parents house. Surprisingly the kids did great. There were a few times Livy needed to just get out of her car seat & roam the car & the boys did need to be bonked on the head a couple of times, but other than that, it was great. I would definitely do the long drive again!

We have had so much fun & have LOVED the weather. Yes, it does get hot during the day, but their is no humidity & the evenings are amazing! We spent the first week playing with cousins & having sleepovers, too. Teagen & Brayden were having a conversation in the car the other day & I was eaves dropping. This is what was said:

Teagen: I like Utah the best.

Brayden: Me too. We have lots of cousins & friends to play with here!

Teagen: I wish we lived here.

Brayden: Me too!

That made me so sad for them! It is a lot more fun being around family-but I have got to make Texas a little more exciting for them so that they love it there, too. The first week here we had lots of fun playing with cousins & having sleepovers! I don't normally let my kids have sleepovers, only if it is with cousins. They had fun swimming in the "recycling" can-don't ask! Fun running races in grandma & grandpa's big back yard.

Kiley got here a week after we had been here. We went up to his sisters house in Rexburg, ID for a few days. That was AMAZING! The weather was perfect. Teagen & his cousin Brady rode their bikes all over & we didn't have to worry about them getting hit by cars etc! Brayden & his cousin Spencer played so well together & enjoyed helping Uncle Rich on the farm! They swam & played literally all day long! Teagen loved the 4 wheeler & Kiley even taught him how to drive. They boys loved going for rides on it! I did get sick with some nasty stomach bug & spent a lot of time in the bathroom. Unfortunately, this was just days before the big Marathon-I will post more about that later! The pool, 4 wheelin, good food, riding the motorcycle, watching the crop duster, getting blasted at 3 in the morning with the pivot, a night out at the movies, Cold Stone, & good company=PRICELESS! Thank you Blasers for such a fun few days! We love you guys!

The 24th of July was a blast, except for I was barely able to walk! We had a little BBQ at my parents with all of my siblings & kiddos. The kids had a good time on the slip n slide! It was a LONG day, but one full of great memories! Liv has absolutely adored her Uncle Shawn & her Grandpa Tom. She has a thing for men & won't give women the time of day, except for her mommy, of course!

We spent a day with Kiley's sister & her family, The Conrad's. It was fun to have dinner with them & let the kids run wild! They had these things called Kinder Eggs or something like like (German made) & the kids (adults, too) had lots of fun opening them & putting them together!

We had a fun family BBQ on Saturday with several of his sisters & their families & a couple of our nephews whose families live out of state & then of coarse a few of my siblings & my parents & some of our friends stopped by, too! It was a lot of fun! The kids had a blast playing on the slip & slide & swimming in the kiddie pool! Kiley left on Sunday. We were so sad to see him have to get back to work & leave us for a long 2 weeks!

Memory Lane......

Okay, so I don't normally take the time to do tags & all of those other cute things, but I couldn't resist this memory one. It is cute & I have had fun leaving memories on several of my girlfriends blogs! So if you have a memory of me, leave it!
Love,
Jen

I thought it would be fun! I hope you will play along.

Here are the directions:1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

UTAH here we come!

The kids and I are heading up to Utah this weekend. My dad flies down tonight and then we are braving the 20+ hour drive Friday & Saturday. I am really nervous about this drive. It seems like the car is where my kids fight the most & Liv screams the loudest! Why am I doing this to myself? Truly, I do not know! Okay, I really do know......we miss our family & friends up in Utah, we miss the "cooler" evenings & mornings (a little sick of the humidity here), I am running the Deseret News Marathon on July 24th, and we need a break from Texas life! AND, I really need a break from trying to keep up on the household duties. Kiley has a week off, so he will be flying up on the 19th & then back home on the 27th. He will be able to cheer me on while I am running. He wasn't able to be at my first marathon a few years ago because he had to be here in Texas for a rotation. I am very happy to know that he will be there at the finish line to resuscitate me! My good friend, Andrea & her hubby Austin will also be running. Andrea & I have been doing our LONG runs every Saturday together. This last week we did an 18 miler! It was tough......I am so grateful to have had a running buddy on these horrific long runs. Good Luck Andrea & Austin!

Just finished up a whopper of a run (18 miles)!

The kids & I will be up at my parents house in Highland, so we would LOVE to see any of you who are in Utah or will be there visiting as well!!!! We will be there until the 6th or 7th of August & then we'll head back down to Texas with my little sis. Should be an adventure!

My cute kids!

I need to send a shout out to my three adorable kids! I feel like this summer has been tough on all of us! I now know why my mother always despised summertime! I have tried to keep us all busy-we have swim lessons at 9 every morning until 10. One whole hour. One whole hour that is filled up with something to do. What next, you might ask???? GOOD QUESTION! It is so blasted hot during the day & we don't get much relief in the evenings, so we live for swim lessons in the morning & then struggle to make it through the rest of the day! We do "Miss Jen's Summer School", but even that is a hit & miss! My boys are always BEGGING to go over to a friends house & so we have had lessons on proper manners.....We Do Not Invite Ourselves to Other People's Houses. They didn't like that too much, but I think they are figuring it out. They want to have kids over at our house every day, but I am a mean mom & don't usually let that happen too often. I think we have the "Summer Blues", kind of equivalent to "Winter Blues". They have a hard time listening & I have NO PATIENCE! Seeing that today is the beginning of a new week, I am going to set some new week resolutions!

1-No more yelling! I resort to yelling after asking or telling 100 times! Seems to work, but I know there is a better way! :)

2-Less stressing about having a "clean" house! I need LOLA (she cleans for a lot of my friends)!

3-Have MORE fun! We have had spurts of fun, here & there. A birthday party. Boating at the lake-both boys even tried to knee board. Teagen got up & did great! Swimming at the river with friends. A few play dates. Bowling. Movies. Sea World (not so much fun for me having to lug around 3 kids with out losing one of them!). Ya, we aren't lacking too much in the fun category!

4-Enjoy my kids while they are young-they are already growing up too fast!

I do love my kiddo's! Each one of them adds so much to our family! They are always making me laugh & occasionally cry! The other day, Teagen asked me as we were driving in the car:

Teagen: Mom, who puts the chicken poop(what we call eye boogers) in our eyes at night when we are asleep?

Me: What do you mean?

Teagen: Who goes around to all the sleeping people at night & puts chicken poop in their eyes?

Me: (trying so hard not to laugh hysterically) Well Teag, who do you think does it?

Teagen: (thinking really hard) I think it is definitely the parents who do it!

Me: Well, I think we had better ask daddy what he thinks when he gets home tonight!

Teagen: Ya, my daddy will know. He knows everything.

Me: (well this is what I was thinking-I never said it out loud) Does this kid really believe his daddy knows everything??? Sometimes the man doesn't even know where HIS wallet is! :) ***LUV you Ki! :)***

Teagen did ask Kiley later that night & I believe Kiley gave him the "medical" version of where eye boogers come from! Cute boy!

Hope everybodys summer is going by quickly & enjoyably (is that a word!)!

OOOOWWWWWWWW!

The boys had swim lessons this morning & since they are on base, I figured I would take Liv over to the hospital to get her one year old shots & blood test. She is quite the fiesty little thing & I kept wondering how on earth I would be able to hold her still while she was getting 4 shots & I knew it would be even tougher getting her blood drawn. She laid down on the table & looked up at the two men & then started to cry. They quickly gave her the shots & she was wailing! She kept saying, "Ow! Ow! Ow!" Then she'd proceed to sob! It was quite heart breaking & I felt like a terrible mother putting my baby girl through that. We then headed to the Lab. She was still crying a bit & kept saying, "ow!" She finally calmed down & they called us back. The gal that was going to be taking care of us realized that the labs were for Olivia & not me. She said she didn't want to do it (she was new, in-training-I didn't want her to go near my baby! :)) So she grabbed the guru who was WONDERFUL at drawing toddlers blood. Liv was great until they put the handle down in front of us & she realized that something was going to happen & it wasn't going to be fun! I had to hold her down & the new gal held her arm down while the Lab Man stuck the needle & collected the blood he needed. Liv was spent! She was sweating to death! I felt so bad-in the civilian world, labs are not done on little kids. I think it is cruel, but obvioulsy there is some reason for it! She was out before we pulled out of the base. Poor baby!

Brayden's end of the year program & water party!

This year Brayden went to a Mother's Day Out preschool. He absolutely LOVED it & had several of his good friends from church in his class. He had the best teacher-Ms. Kim! She was so great with the kids & would always tell me that she loved Brayden & wanted to take him home. The MDO program is at a United Methodist Church & so Brayden learned some pretty awesome songs. For their EOY Program the green & yellow classes sang "Our God is an awesome God." It was pretty funny to see Brayden up their singing his heart out with his BYU shirt on. It was a cute program & I of coarse shed a few tears! The last day of school was a fun water party. I went for the last 30 minutes & again shed tears when Brayden said good bye to Ms. Kim. We had gone in on a gift for Ms. Kim & Ms. Rose with a few of our friends, but Brayden insisted that he give her a necklace, too. So he picked out this darling silver necklace with a heart & gave it to her. She loved it! She gave him a big old hug & shed a few tears herself! What a great teacher!

Soccer Party!

So, I am behind & have lots of stuff I'd like to blog & seem to put it off because I get so discouraged----I have decided that I am going to just keep posting new blogs with old stuff until I am caught up!

Let's head back to May....

Teagen had a great soccer season! He really improved from the beginning of the season to the end. He is so fast out on the field & really has a love for the game. The last several games he made at anywhere from 4-7 goals. He talked about that for quite a while-yes he sure is humble! His coach put on a fun end of the season party at Cici's Pizza. The kids all got a fun trophy.

A year has come & gone......

It is hard to believe that our little miss Olivia Beth is a year old! What a fun year it has been! I have loads of pictures to share & I don't want to put it on a slide show, so hopefully y'all will enjoy the millions of pics! Hopefully they will be in chronological order!

These pictures are obviously right after she was born. The second one is of the Doctor who delivered Olivia. She just happens to be our neighbor across the street & also a close friend whom we all love & adore! Thanks Dr. Berryman for the special treatment! We love you!

*Her brothers have adored her since day one. Yes, I would find little action figures surrounding the poor girl every now & then. She didn't seem to mind, though!

*Grandpa Tom was able to visit & be here when she was blessed in July '07!
*Olivia has grown leaps & bounds this past year. She conquered eating food at a very EARLY age. She mastered the baby stuff & moved on to the real stuff by the time she was 6 months old. Some of you are probably in shock, but my kids like food & they are not fooled by the baby goo-they know at a very early age that what we are eating is way better than what they are eating!
*She didn't sleep through the night until she was at least 7 months old. Of coarse, once she finally did, she has slept through the night since then!
*She mastered crawling when she was 9 months old & then started walking when she was 11 1/2 months old.
*She loves baby dolls. She has several & can be found cuddling them & patting them on the back.
*She is already pretty girly & loves to hug daddy when he gets home from work. She has been a mommy's girl from the get go, but has done really well with others this past month.
*I have mentioned to Kiley several times these past few weeks that I just can't get enough of this girl!
*She has an amazing smile & beautiful blue eyes.
















*She loves the water!

*I love this girl!
*We can finally put her hair up in one little ponytail on the top of her head! She LOVES to pull it out, especially when she is tired.
*This picture is from last Sunday. I gave her an oreo on the way home from church & apparently she devoured it! That's my girl!
*I also have to add that since sleeping through the night, she has been an excellent sleeper/napper! This picture of her sleeping is how I find her a lot-her little bum up in the air. So cute!
*These last few pictures are from her birthday party. We didn't do anything big, just had a few friends over for pizza & birthday cake. Liv was sick that day. She had a temp of 102.8. So I had to drug her up so she could put on her party face. Didn't last long.....we sat her in her highchair to do the whole cake thing. She started to dig in right away & then before I could blow the candle out for her, she grabbed the flame with her little fingers! Luckily they were covered in chocolate frosting, but she did start bawling & then she pretty much was done for the night. It was still fun!





*Olivia & her birthday loot!

*It has been so fun to have a girl-she is so different from the boys already at this age. She is our little cuddle bug!
*She can only say a few words: mamma, dadda, Teagen, & hi.
*Happy Birthday Sweetheart!