Ellie!!

My beautiful sister had her baby last night. Ellie Nona was born at 3:58am this morning. Laura had the most amazing birth, she delivered the baby on her own, over the toilet. I don't have time to post about it right now, but I will tell the whole story tommorrow. I am so happy that Ellie is here and that Laura is doing OK. I am so sad I'm not there to go see her. I wont be able to go home and see her until she's 8 months. SAD. She's so cute.

Alone Again...

I just wanted to point out that it is 10:00 at night and once again I am ALL ALONE! I miss Chuck so much. He is preparing for finals that start next week, so I will be alone a lot for the next 3 weeks until finals are over. I really want him to do good though, so I'm kinda ok being lonely. Everyone pray that he does well. He needs everyone's prayers and positive thoughts sent his way.

I LOVE THURSDAY'S...

Because of this Man!!! The Mentalist

We really don't have time for TV, so Chuck and I only watch one show a week. The Mentalist is our favorite. Chuck likes it because it is witty, creative, and he loves to see if he can figure out the case before the Detectives do. Plus it is not gorry, descriptive or explicite about the murder cases. I love it because, well....the picture says it all. Simon Baker has the best hair, and the best smile.

But today, I love FRIDAY even more than Thursday because I am going to see this...
We love Harry! We are so excited to go see it. Thanks Julia for watching the kids so we can. CAN'T WAIT!!!

Update!

I've been meaning to update on how were doing forever, and have gotten so busy I just can't find the time. Chuck is gone again tonight and I finished all my lesson plans early so I have a little bit of time before I pass out.

Chuck is doing great. He loves school and is really interested in all of his classes. He is also really overwhelmed with finals coming up in the next month. He is trying to still stay ahead in all of his classes plus study for finals and write all his outlines, plus get his applications ready to apply for internships next summer. He has some amazing opportunities that have presented themselves to him for internships, and for a possible externship where we would do a semester in Washington DC. The IP program is amazing here, I can really see why the Lord led us to this school. The director of the IP program loves Chuck and is really taking him under his wing and helping him, so I know that we will have great opportunities from being here. He is gone A LOT, and we all miss him very much. He still tries to come home for dinner once or twice a week and always makes it to Cayden's soccer and basketball games. Sunday is his day off from all things law, so we really enjoy having him around for a day. I am so proud of him, he is always swamped with work but manages to keep a posotive attitude and a smile on his face. He reads his scriptures every morning before doing anything else and we can both see how much this is helping him to have the spirit, and to do his best. We have a goal to still go to the temple every month while we are here. It is 2 1/2 hour drive to the temple so it is still totally managable. I really feel that this monthly temple trip is what is sustaining both of us. I am so grateful to have a husband who is crazy busy and overwhelmed but he still makes time for the Lord and for the things that are most important.

I am doing good. I love having the kids home with me and I actually really enjoy homeschooling Cayden. I keep thinking that I am so blessed to have him home with me for a few extra years before I send him out into the world. I am grateful that I have the time to really make sure that he and Emma have a solid foundation both in their testimony and in their education. It makes it all worth it as I sit with the kids and teach them and I can feel the spirit so strong and I can see that they are feeling the spirit and I know that they recognize what they are feeling. That being said, it is really time consuming and hard to be homeschooling right now. I am basically like a single mom. Most days I have the kids all day, make and eat dinner without Chuck, do scriptures and prayer with them and put them to bed by myself. By 8:00 I am done for the day, but I still have to stay up to plan my lessons for the next day, and try to catch up on laundry and house cleaning. I always have piles of laundry in my room that is waiting to be folded. By the time I get around to folding and putting it away, it is laundry day again and I have to start all over. I don't think my bathrooms have been deep cleaned in like 3 weeks (I know, I am disgusting) and I can never seem to get bread made or any of the other homemaking things I used to do. Today I did not clean or do laundry, I didn't get anything done on my to do list, but I taught my children about the life of the Savior. I listened as they bore their testimony to me of him. I saw them filled with the spirit and express their love of Jesus Christ. So that is enough for me, even if we never have clean clothes. I try not to think to much about it, I just keep going, and praying. I think I hit my knees daily with a prayer that sounds similar to this, "Father, I do not know what to do, I am at a complete loss, I have tried everything I know how to do, please help me." And he does. He strengthens me everyday. And I am able to keep going and still be happy, and still enjoy life, even if it is without my husband. I really miss Chuck a lot, but I also want him to do his best, so I try to be supportive of all the time he spends away, and not let that get between us or become something to fight about. Our marriage is better than it's ever been. Maybe cause I miss him so much and I realize how much I need him. I worry that Gracie is not getting enough of my time. I need to do better at blocking out time every day for only me and her, and just play with her. Anyway, I have a tendency to ramble if I get going.

Cayden is doing better. He is still struggling with some behavior problems that have popped up ever since the move. He is praying and asking for help every day and so am I. He is my hardest one right now. He is doing great in school though. He loves it, and he is so smart. He is very sensitive to the spirit and I am grateful that he has opportunities to feel it daily. He is loving Harry Potter right now and wants all things Harry for Christmas. He started basketball and is doing OK. It is not his sport, he is much better at other things, but it keeps him active and in shape, and he thinks he is great. On the way home from practice the other day he said to me "Mom, I think basketball is one of my talents that God gave me." He has made a couple friends in the ward that he loves who are his age. I try to have them over a couple of times a week so he can still get to play with kids his age. Plus we have Italian, Music, and Art class with other homeschool kids. He has a crush on Hannah, who is the daughter of my friend Julia. He thinks she is so beautiful, but he told me that he really likes her because she is so smart and nice. Cayden loves art, and has a real talent for it. He draws and paints, and sketches all day long. He probly spends at least 2 hours a day doing art projects. Whenever he has free time he gets out the art stuff. He is becoming more independent every day. He does not like me to tell him what to do, I have to ask nicely, and he wants to make his own decisions. He is so strong willed. He is a stinker half the day, but the other half he is his true self, which is a sweet, loving, and kind little boy. He is so good with Grace and she just adores him. I really love him so much, even when he is difficult. He is still the cutest funest boy I know.

Emma is becoming more and more her own person. She is very independant and fiesty. She loves to learn and wants to do all of Cayden's lessons with him. She is learning all her letters and phonograms right now, and is doing kindergarten math. She has tons of friends both at school, at church and in our neighborhood. She is very much a fashionista, she loves clothes and will not let me pick out what she wears. She is starting to get into barbies, and seems to moving away from Princesses. She also loves art, she colors me at least 20 pictures a day. She would rather sit down and draw than do anything else. Emma is also very dramatic if she doesn't get what she wants. Everyday I hear things like "Now I'll never get to eat again," "I'll never get to play with friends my whole life," or "I will never come out of my room". Everything is never and always to her. I can't help but laugh when she has one of her theatrics. She told me today that she just wanted to live in a different Universe because this Universe was so boring, and in her new Universe daddy would only have to go to class but not do homework so he could come home and play with her every night. The kids favorite thing is the days that daddy comes home for dinner and he plays with them while I clean up. They take turns picking the game they will play. Emma always chooses hide and seek or reading and Cayden always wants to play Karate and wrestle with him. Emma loves Gymnastics and is really good at it. She also loves to sing and dance. We sing and dance around the house together every day. She loves to have tea parties and play dress up. Her and Cayden never really play with toys a lot, they mostly just play pretend. They have wild imaginations, and I love it. Emma is 4 going on 16. She has attitude, and rolls her eyes at me. She really is a delight right now though. She is so sweet and loves to help me. She always wants to help me cook and bake and clean up. She is my little helper.

Gracie is such a sweetheart. She is becoming much more independent and fiesty than I thought she was. She will not sit in a booster seat to eat her food, she has to be at a normal chair like the other kids. And she will not let me help her eat. She has to have a fork (not a kid fork, but the same kind that I am using) or she will not eat her food. She wants to do everything that Cayden and Emma do and gets so mad when she can't go play with them. When I yell up the stairs for the kids to do something she will go to the stairs and start yelling and pointing her finger up at them. She is talking all the time, we just can't figure out what she is saying yet. She loves babies and thinks that they are way smaller than her and that she should be able to hold them. She loves her blankie and wraps it around her shoulders to go to sleep. She is finally sleeping through the night, just this past week. She loves to color with the kids, but also loves to eat the crayons. She will go get her shoes for me all day long to put on her, then after I put them on she will go bang on the front door cause she wants to go on a walk. She loves playing with balls. Her favorite game is to roll the basketball with Cayden. She screams really loud when she is happy and having fun, and she chases the kids around the house and growls at them. She loves to dance with us to high school musical songs. She is actually a really cute little dancer, and has natural rythm. She loves her daddy and cries for at least 10 minutes whenever he leaves. She loves to cuddle, but will not kiss us. We beg her to give us kisses but she just shakes her head at us and says "no." I think no is her favorite word cause she tells me no all day long. She loves green smoothies and would live off of this alone if I let her. She is such a busy body, and is into everything all the time. Sometimes it drives me crazy! She loves to get up and stand on the table, probly cause I always tell her no, maybe it's her way of defying me, and she thinks she is so funny. I just love her guts right now. She is a joy to have in our home.

Your my princess!!

I have the cutest son ever. When I came down this morning after taking a shower he handed me the cutest drawing of a princess and gave me the biggest hug, and told me he loved me. I thought it was a little odd that he had drawn a picture of a princess since that is usually Emma's forte, but when I turned it over he had written "MOM, your my prinses, I love you." Isn't that so cute. Sometimes he is the biggest stinker, but then there are the moments that I remember why he is my favorite little guy out there. These moments are the reason I do this, they are the fruits of motherhood. I relish them when they come. I love my little Man!

Our favorite game with daddy!!!

Happy Happy Halloween!!!

We had a very low key Halloween this year, but we had a lot of fun. I have been so busy that I didn't make soup or carve pumpkins or do any of the normal things that we usually do at Halloween. I think all the kids cared about is that they got to dress up. Friday night we went to the party at the law school that Chuck was in charge of. We had a lot of fun trick or treating at all the professors offices. Then Saturday we had a trunk or treat at the church. Our neighborhood has quite a few LDS and Christian families who didn't want to trick or treat on Sunday so they sent a newsletter around the whole complex saying if you wanted to hand out candy on Saturday to leave your porch light on. So we got to go trick or treating a little bit after the ward party. Sunday we didn't even acknowledge it was halloween. I don't think the kids even realized that they missed the real trick or treating. I didn't want the kids to have all their candy (after Cayden was up all night throwing up from all the candy he ate,) so I instituted the candy goblin. The candy goblin will come to your house and take all your candy and leave you a toy if you leave your candy out on the kitchen table for him. Cayden was immediately up for it, but Emma cried and cried that she didn't want anyone to take her candy away. So Cayden got a toy and I let Emma keep her candy, but as soon as Emma saw Cayden's toy she decided she wanted the candy goblin to come for her too so she gave her candy away the next night.

My cute kids. Cayden was so excited to be a ninja. Emma is really into wedding's and brides since Becca got married and Steve and Vanessa are getting married this month. And Gracie is my cute ladybug.


Gracie's face looks so much like Cayden in this picture, Cayden always makes this face when he's trying to look cool.


Fire ninja. Cayden is obsessed with the old Karate kid movie's right now and is begging me to take Ninja lessons.


My beautiful bride.


I finally got her to put on her antenna, but she would only wear them for about 1 minute.



Chuck and I were Zorro and a spanish seniorita. He is such a hansome Zorro.


I didn't realize until I saw this picture that we all matched!


Cayden with his best buddie from Church, Jonas. Jonas is also on Cayden's basketball team and they love each other.


Emma and her little buddies from church. Sarah, Rachael, Emma, Emma, and Reese.


Trunk or treating with the Rogers. Emma, Luca, Elena, Hannah, Samual, and Grace


Grace was in heaven with all her suckers and candy. She loved it!!!


The girls sat with their candy and watched...


As Zorro, a fire ninja and Indiana Jones fought. who do you think would really win in a fight. My money is on Zorro.


Our cute friends the Christensen's. He was Mr. T (he actually shaved his head for this) and she was a deviled egg (she's pregnant.) Eli and Sharron were peter pan and wendy.

Family pictures

I realized that we needed to take some family pictures for our Christmas cards this year. I have no photographers out here to trade with anymore so I convinced one of my friends to come and help me. I set up the shot and she took the family ones for me and I took all the rest. It got dark to quick and so I think I want to do them again for my big picture for my house, but these are fine for my cards. I really love the setting!

Emma's harvest party!

I was able to go and help with Emma's harvest party at school. It was so fun to go and see her with her friends. She is so funny, whenever I am there with her she gets really clingy and whiney, I really think she is always better when I am not there. But about half way through the party she got used to my presence and started to act normal again. Emma was a beautiful bride and she looked so pretty!

Me and my baby

Emma's best school friends, Audrey, Zoe, Emma and Jenna. I always hear these girls names, so it was good to put a face with the name and see what cute girls they were.

Emma's class and her two teachers, Miss Angela and Miss Leanne. She loves her teachers so much, they are so good with her.

Family night!

We had the best family night last week. We didn't get to see all we wanted at Brown County State park when we were there with Dad and Brenda so we headed back to see more of the leaves. There is a place called the firetower and you climb up really really high on this tower and you can see the entire park of rolling hills. The view is amazing with the leaves.

The view from the top.



Then we came down and had a picnic for dinner. And the kids ran around and played.

They were teaching Gracie how to be an airplane.



We headed over to the little barn accross the street that you could see in the first picture and snapped some shots of the family.

We seriously had such a fun night just playing and laughing with the kids. We love the times that we get to be together. It seems that we appreciate time together so much more now that we don't get very much of it. I love my family so much and I am so grateful for them, I love to laugh and run and play with them.

Visit from Dad and Brenda!

My Dad and Brenda came to visit us a couple of weeks ago. It was so nice to see them. We had the best visit and had so much fun. It was so great to have someone come out here and see us and get to see us in our new element and see all of our favorite places. The first day we took them to our favorite bakery for lunch, Panera, and then headed up to Brown county state park to see the leaves. It was so amazing and beautiful up there. After the leaves we came home and I made dinner and dessert and we just hung out and talked. Then the next day we went on a walk on our favorite trail and took the kids to the park. We took them to dinner at our favorite resaurant, Cafe Ami, a Korean restaurant down town. It has the best Korean food and our kids love it too. We got cupcakes at our favorite bakery, Scholars Inn Bakehouse, and came home and gobbled them up. They had to leave that night, and we were so sad to say goodbye. We had such a great time and are so grateful they took the time to come out and see us.

Grandma Brenda and Caydo

The kids love Grandma, I love this picture

Cayden and Emma had a leaf fight with Grandma

Chuck kept trying to get Gracie to hang from the tree too, but she wouldn't have any of it.

The lake up there was so pretty.

Pretty Emma, I loved these grasses, I had to take a picture.