The Spirit of Christmas

I have a list of people I know
All written in a book
And every year at Christmastime
I go and take a look
And that is when I realize
That those names are a part
Not of the book they're written in
But of my very heart
For each name stands for someone
Who has crossed my path some time
And in that meeting they've become
A treasured friend of mine
And once you've met some people
The years can not erase
The memory of a pleasant word
Or a friendly face
So when I send a Christmas card
That is addressed to you
It's because you're on that list
Of folk I'm indebted to
And you are one of many folk who
In times past I've met
And happen to be one of those
I don't want to forget
And whether I have known you for
Many years or few
In some way you have a part in
Shaping things I do
This, the spirit of Christmas, that
Forever and ever endures
May it leave it richest blessing
In the hearts of you and yours.

-Anon

My birthday

Well although I cannot go and do something fun because we are moving tomorrow and Saturday, John is trying to make my birthday wonderful. He woke up and made the kids breakfast and got Paige to the bus by 7:30 am. He had wrapped presents last night and had them waiting for me when I woke. The "kids" each gave me a picture frame of a photo of me and each one :) then John was so sweet and knows I love hot coffee and hot tea, he got me a BIG mug from the Girl Scout shoppe. It was a 95th anniversary mug. He keeps calling and texting Happy birthday and such! I have the best husband!!

Resolutions

So I have a few resolutions

1-lose 30-40 lbs
2-read 52 books bigger books count as 2 ;)
3-spend more time with the kids actually playing or exercising
4-stop complaining so much (I think this will be the 1st to go) j/k

and I will add on when I think of them

Pictures

I will post some pictures of the happs when I get settled at our house in Toquerville

Pictures

I will post some pictures of the happs when I get settled at our house in Toquerville

Birthday Boys

We had the Boys' birthday party on the 4th. Joey picked How to train your Dragon party first and at the last minute changed to Star Wars. It was a lot of fun. Christine decorated the cake with some legos and it was too cute. Joey had his only friend Max there and some of his cousins. He got some cool toys too. Johnny turned one today (14th) and I still can't believe how fast that went. Thanks everyone for coming and celebrating this wonderful day with us. (pics soon)

So I have to brag

My husband is so sweet. I have a girl scout troop and only one mom (thanks Anna) paid her dues when she was supposed to. So when it came time to order the tunics and petals i could not get them before the ceremony meeting. So I ordered them in Vegas, a lot better than Ogden< and John went there last night before it closed. He picked up everything I ordered and he got a screaming deal on a little gift I am going to give the girls. It was in North LV in a part of town that had pimps and gangsters on every corner (yikes!). But he made it home OK at 10 pm without any complaints. I love you hon!

Halloween

Well this year we were going to just stay in New Harmony, but as we were leaving to go to the library's party we felt the wind and how cold it was and called Bekah and said we were coming over. We didn't get much candy because we got there like an hr or so after it got darker. but Sunday we carved our coolest pumpkins ever and watched "Earnest scared stupid". I remember being scared a little, but Katie wouldn't go into the bathroom by herself and was up until 10:30 scared. Lesson learned!! Anyway, we had fun nonetheless.

Milestones and chompers

I took JW in to his 9 month appt (10 months) and he is tall and average :)

21 lbs 15 oz
32 inches

He is 50% on weight and 95% on height. I was surprised he was not proportionate. He is not skinny, but I guess he is not too chunky either.

Well he walks around the house with his various walking toys and around the couch. He stands alone until he realizes it. He has taken one step towards me, but that's the extent. He loves to give John and me hugs and he smacks his lips and clicks his tongue now. He loves to look at touch and feel books and also lift the flap books.

I quit nursing him this week because he got back into the biting and when I yelped and scolded him he thought it was funny and then just bite me again. So, although it has been very hard for me, I put him completely on formula. I cry every so often because of it, but he was almost a year anyway. I would always think how nice it would be once I was done, but when it came down to it I really enjoyed snuggling with him and nursing him to sleep. I am really going to miss having a baby in the house. (getting all teary eyed) But every milestone just makes life a little easier for me. Well I could sound depressed for hours about my last little guy being almost a year and growing too fast, but I will spare you. I love him and am proud of all of his accomplishments, even how small they are.

what I've been up to

I have been SUPER busy lately. I was going to work out 3-4 times a week and I LOVED it, but I ran out of gas money and my house was trashed so I decided

Johnny 91/2 months

So my little guy is 9 1/2 months. Here is his new skills:
Almost clapping
standing alone for 30 seconds
took one little step
walks around all the time with push toys
walks along the couch
goes brr brr with cars
LOVES balloons ans the stairs
weighs 21.5 lbs
and his smile and laugh just melts me :)

Surprise

So while John worked on the mountain one day I went out to dinner with my family where my niece announced she was going to be a big sister in May. Congrats Shumate's :)

Reunion '10

We had a great time at the reunion this year. Katie and Joey won their races and Paige ran her heart out. John shot some birdies with the skeet shoot. I actually shot a 20 gauge and John's other gun for the 1st time too :) It was HOT, but lots of fun.

The girls were the Chipettes and I even went up and sang and danced to the song "Hot and Cold". I had So much fun. Joey, Jayden, and Harvey were the chipmunks and they sang the chipmunk Christmas song. Shelly's Daniel was Dave, it was so cute to see all the boys do a cute song :)

Soccer

Paige and Katie were in Soccer this fall. Katie Rocked!! She was the only one who scored goals for like 6 games and then one of her other team mates did. Her last game she scored 6 goals. YAY Katie!!

Paige was on a team that had a not so good coach and stuck her on the goal for maybe 5-10 minutes a game. So she learned nothing. Her last game she blocked a goal and then got pushed down by her own team mate (hence the horrible coach for just laughing at it) and bit her tongue so she would not play any more. But he did let her go past the half way mark in the last little bit. She tried her best to be goalie, when she wanted. So glad the season is over!

1st day of school

Well my Paigey is in 1st grade now. She is LOVING it!! She does all her homework on Monday so she can get a prize out of the treasure box. She is reading on a level J, which is 2nd or third grade level. I am so Proud of her.

COMING SOON:
UPDATES ON US
just need to find the time 8-}

thought I'd do a comparison

JoeyKatie
Paige

7 months

New things Johnny can do:

pulls self to stand
eats crackers and lots of puffs
LOVES food
likes to feed himself
says bah and aaah
crawls like a stink bug
does not sleep very well anymore
teething (UGH)


I can't believe how fast this year is going. It seems like yesterday I had him. Well hopefully the next 7 months will be just as fun (I know it will be)!

Poor Katie

So June 1st we had Katie's tonsils out. Oh what a Hell week!!! She tried to be good and listen to me. She hated the taste of the Lortab and I had to coax her for 30 min. before she would even take a sip. Every 4 hrs, for 8 days! She got so nauseated from the meds that I wound up taking her to the ER because she couldn't keep anything down. Then the medicine they gave her for nausea gave her horrible stomach cramps and diarreah. She slept in our room for 8 days and finally got acting like herself around one and a half weeks. I am glad we did it, for the most part. She doesn't snore anymore. we just had her 3 week check up and she has healed great. She still has minnie mouse voice, but they said after 3 months it should be completely gone. But I am So glad it's over.

Crawling, teeth, and 6 months

Already!!??? it's been 6 months. My little boy is crawling. He has two teeth with two more on the way. He weighs over 20 lbs. I take him in Monday so I will re-post what his actual weight is. I am in love with this little guy. He is so darn cute, he makes me smile every hour.

1st vacation of the year

For our first vacation we went to Capitol Reef National Park. We had tons of fun being with family. On Thursday we left. It took 4 hrs to get to the campsite that was available. Friday, we went into the Fruita campground. They have a beautiful meadow that you can have a pic nic . The kids played in a river there and, of course, we didn't bring changes of clothes. So we went back to camp and was not able to "see the sights". Sat., we went to Goblin Valley. It was a dust bowl and the wind was somethin' fierce. But the rock formations were fun to play in for about 10 minutes. Sunday we rested and packed up to go home. John and I went the "long way". And I must say it was GORGEOUS!! I would love to go again to see that beautiful country. My next vacation I would like to go hiking at Escalante. It was SO beautiful there. OH! Yeah! Susan had the kids have a boat race and a critter race. Paige's boat won and her one legged grasshopper also won but it was a close one with Jayden, Neveah, and Katie's caterpillars coming in one after the other. John Wyatt did so great. He is by far our easiest kid to camp with :)

Mother's Day

This year we went to eat at Panda Garden with my family. John had to do work on the property so he missed dinner. He gave me a spa day the next weekend which was SO nice. Christine and I gave my mom some stepping stones with the kids' hand prints and names on them. I am going to make this a tradition to see how much they grow every year. I also gave my annual updated picture shirt.

Our vacation

We left on the 20th to head for Capitol Reef. It was a long car ride, almost 4 hrs. We found the campground, but it was filled so we went hunting for another spot to camp. We found a campground in by a mountain and it had a little stream by it. We set up camp and Grandma had the idea to have a boat race in the morning, so me and the kids set out to build boats. After losing three each the kids had their boats ready for the race. Dinner on Thurs. was these yummy hot dogs from a place up north. Thanks Mike and Helen.

Goodbye Kindergarten

Paige Graduated Kindergarten on May 12th. They put on a little performance for the parents. I was such a boob and bawled through it. There was one part where they showed a slide show of their journey through Kindergarten and they sang a goodbye song. It made me have tears rolling down my cheeks. Here's why:
It was just so special to see my little girl up there so grown up and actually remembering all of the songs and things they were supposed to do.
I know she will have many performances in her school career, but there is something really special about my little 6 year old growing up and going into first grade.
I wish I could have been there at all her little field trips and functions. But with working and being pregnant, having 2 other kids, and then a newborn there wasn't much time to help at her school.

I hope to be more involved next year and have told John he is going to be watching the kids more so I can. I am sad that my first child will no longer need me as much and I won't be #1 any more, but I am excited for her and for the fact that I will not be on a kindergarten schedule for a year. Paige says that her ambition is to be a teacher just like Mrs. Ziegler. She always says how she will be Mrs. Pectol at Iron Springs Elementary. How cute is that?

Bradley and JW

These two look so much alike it's unreal. Look how cute Bradley is??!!

Bradley and JW

Hiking

We took a Saturday and went hiking. We had a lot of fun doing the "River Walk" in Zion. It was the perfect day. Not too hot, not too cold. We had a yummy picnic and then off we went. The kids LOVED the shuttle. Paige did the grossest thing ever. She licked the bar on the shuttle. Don't ask me why. I have more trouble with her than the younger ones doing gross things like that. It took us 2 1/2 hrs, kids in tow, to do it, but it was so worth it. I had a great time.

4 year old

4 months ago......

Four months ago I had this little baby......where did he go?
He no longer is sleeping through the night (STINKER). He is rolling over and would rather practice that or catching his feet than sleep. He is "talking" now and it is so cute. He is my most happiest of kids, for the most part. He is over 17 lbs now and I wish it would slow down. he LOVES rice cereal and MUMS

Katie turns 4!!

I would like to say how happy I am for Katie. She turned 4 on March 30th. She was so happy to just do whatever. We started the day with a nice walk. she LOVES walks. then I took her and the boys to pick up Paige and off we went to Mcdonald's to get a kids meal. They got Dragons from the movie, "How to teach a Dragon". Which BTW was one of our presents to her. We took everyone to that movie on Sunday and they absolutely LOVED it. We saw it in 3D and it was SO fun. Any who, we then went to an Easter Egg hunt with some mothers in the neighborhood (Katie's Joy school friends). After a Quick nap we made blueberry muffins with homemade frosting (Mom didn't buy frosting and she pitched a fit). Then for Dinner Katie picked out Steak and Potatoes, her favorite meal. It was present time. She got work books, cost. paper, Princess and the Frog shirt, sparkly pants, stringing necklaces, and some hair things from Mom and Dad. Paige gave her Princess and the Frog DVD and Joey gave her some "sewing" farm animals.

Hopes and Prayers answered, at a cost

Nothing comes for "free" in this world. John's work has picked up and I never see him anymore. When he comes home he gets right back on his computer after the kids are in bed. He usually winds up falling asleep working and coming to bed either when I wake him up or when he just randomly wakes up. I feel so bad for him. He is working so hard and still he loses some jobs because it is so competitive out there right now.

I miss him getting home at a reasonable time. I miss being able to talk to him whenever I would like. But it's a good sign that I can't. Maybe it will stay picked up and we can afford things again.

Joey James

My Mom took this picture of Joey. Isn't he growing up such a handsome boy? He is talking so much better now. I can actually hear sentences now. I will have to write down some of the funny things he says. He is actually a very funny kid. He loves to tell Knock Knock jokes. He loves playing with the girls. He usually is the Dad in any of the games they play. He even plays babies with them and cries like a baby and acts like one. He is very special and I am loving watching him grow every day. I swear he says things more clearly every day.