Just some holiday bragging

This Christmas was wonderful Kai is at a really fun age he wasn't into un-wrapping presents but he loved all the cool new things around and just ran around the room looking at everything. JR and I made out good this year too. We started off the season saying we wouldn't spend much money and then ended up spending more than we said we would. We were able to as a whole family my mom and all do a really nice secret santa for a family we love so much. My dads wife made Kai the coolest "busy book" that I will post pictures of because you just have to see it. My mom gave him this busy train toy that he can push around and it reads letters to him. He loves reading books right now and is busy, busy running around exploring. It is so fun to watch him experience new things that I just take for advantage, I fed him pineapple last night, and you could see it in his eyes when he took the first bite that he thought that was pretty special stuff and he kept wanting more. It is just so fun right now with him but then sometimes he has a "terrible two" moment that scares me of what is to come I just pray he stays sweet cause I don't know if I am the best parent and I am scared to teach in the wrong way. Which leads me to a thought I just had does anyone think it is too young to start teaching him potty training? I have heard boys are harder to teach and I am wondering if I start now that it will be more easy? Well hope all of you had a good Christmas and here is a picture of our matchy matchy pajama's from Christmas eve (missed you Brooke and Brady).

Disco Elf's...

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/fI1BY5QLdaVYsapJcV36

Temple Square, and my wonderful family!

Thank goodness for family! And all I am going to say is that I have the best sisters in the world and don't know what I would do without them! Jessica is so talented and was asked to play the violin at the assembly hall on Temple Square Sunday so it was a good excuse to go see the lights and they were GLORIOUS (that was for you JR and Nick). We didn't stay for Jessica's concert cause it started at 8:30 not 7:30 like my mom had told us but we were there to support anyways and she knows that :) I just love my Erin too she is one of my best friends and I love that she is so rational and that she listens to me even when I say the same things over and over (which I do a lot:)) I can't wait to spend Christmas with them all and am so sad Brooke, Brady and Eli won't be here too we love you guys! Happy Holidays!

Tis The Season

Christmas is right around the corner and this year more than ever I have the desire to give...I know that sounds selfish since I am 26 years old (it isn't like I have never wanted to give before I just always had a list of things I wanted to recieve as well). But, considering all the service my family has recieved this year from others and the blessings we have been given from all the service I guess it just wouldn't feel right to not do something for someone else. I want to be more like Christ and this is what our Savior did his whole life, he served. In our ward letter this month there was a poem from President Monson....

There's Christmas in the home and church,

There's Christmas in the mart;

But you'll not know what Christmas is

Unless it's in your heart.

The bells may call across the snow,

And carols search the air;

But, oh, the heart will miss the thrill

Unless it's Christmas there.

Merry Christmas and thanks to all of you who have served me, JR and Kai so much this year I really don't think you know how much you mean to me it is because of some peoples selfless prayers, and service, and endless hours of teaching that we will be an eternal family soon...love you all.

Little bit of and update and TWILIGHT!

Ok so life has been busy lately but finally calming down. Thursday swimming lessons ended until December first so I have a full week off and I am very excited I have a million things I would like to get done first one being cleaning and getting Christmas decor up I love this time of year and living with my mom is so fun cause she has the best house at Christmas we go all out. Kai is good he is still not walking but the doctor is not worried he just said he will do it on his own time (maybe he is a bit like his mom). JR is good work is not as busy as it was last year but that is nice cause we still see him so much, I am almost scared to see what December brings. Life really is good...Now to Twilight. I was bummed all week cause I didn't think I was going to be able to see it for a few weeks cause the movie theaters were all sold out. Then Lindsay called and said she had bought four tickets online for all of us... what a good friend. I liked it and loved Jacob wow he was cute I know he is young but I don't care I love him. I was a little disappointed that they did it "low budget" because really they could have done so much more. I do have to say I was laughing at a part and a girl behind me was crying oops...That is all I am going to say cause I want to know what other people thought that saw it as well...and here is a picture of us after. There were too many girls taking their pictures in front of the poster so we just took one next to it and called it good. Thanks Lindsay for the tickets and thanks Lindsay B. for the picture steal.

This is all for you Brady...

So JR was worried you might feel left out so he asked me to dedicate a whole post to you, here it is...

SLUSH...?!

How could I not counter this one..

So alot of you who look at my blog look at my sister Brooke's blog as well and for those of you who don't... you should :). So I log in today and as always check Brooke's blog first and to my surprise there are four sweet picture's of my son and a small "miss you" paragraph above them (that made me cry thanks Brooke). I guess all you parents out there will know what I am talking about when I say that, I as a mom, love it when someone else seems to love and adore my child as much as I do. My sister Brooke does this she has LOVED Kai since the day she met him and would have taken him with her to NY if I would have let her. I have never told her this but I always admired how she could love Kai so much and still love her son just as much times ten... I think it takes a special kind of person. You said so many nice things about Kai and I wish I could say those traits are because of me but they aren't. JR gets to take full credit for those but they are all true and I love that about him too. I remember the day of their blessings when we were taking pictures of them in the vibe chair and Kai just held Eli like he was protecting him and then all the picture's later of them where Kai just kinda looks like the "protector"...oh our little chancho. So thanks for the sweet "ode to Kai" I feel like an inadequate sister and auntie because I didn't think of it first. You know I love Eli and want to steal him and eat candy all day and snuggle (oh what a snuggle would feel like right now)....SO COME HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS PLEEAASE we will help pay! P.S. Tell Brady I will be thinking of good "ode" to him for later so to keep posted :)

Halloween

Halloween was pretty fun this year we had the trunk or treat which I am not sure if I like or not then we went to Auntie Shelley's house aka The Jensen's and hung out way longer than we should have, because we had Shaun and Mauren's halloween party to get to and then by the time we got there Kai was spent so we didn't stay long. After we got home and got Kai in bed we asked maama aka Grandma D to listen for Kai and went bowling with Nick, Shantel, Brady, Jessica, Justin and their friends and family. It was pretty rockin and I will for sure have to post photos from that when I get them from Shantel but for now I just have this one that Mauren took at her Halloween party and the picture speaks for itself...(it's pretty sad when your dads costume out-shines your cute clown costume don't you think?)

People at work and their "policies"

Since I can't go into any details in case some blog stalker checks my blog and it gets back to work all I am going to say is green booger policy's don't make sense if you are judging it on kids under two cause guess what they all have green booger, snotty noses, and this doesn't mean they are sick or contagious! After what happened at work this week I felt alot like Andy...here it comes from left field you have no time to react..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHfbmjTAJbo

I'm just saying

So for some reason I have this thing in my head that I have to have some awesome photo, video, or vacation (as shown in a few posts down) to talk about in order to post. It is more fun to look at pics than read a full paragraph of someones views on politics, sports, reality tv, (my fav) or what happened to them at the park the other day, I mean seriously is life really that AWESOME!! Not mine! Now don't get me wrong I am very happy with life and my husband and little Kai but does anyone else out there struggle too? It sure doesn't seem like it, so this is the thought I had. All of you know I am a member of the LDS church and this past weekend we listened to general conference, I found it very inspiring, President Monson's talk on finding "joy in the journey" was specially inspiring for me. I just recently read a post on a blog I stalk that brought up the story of that cute couple in AZ that got in a plane crash and have severe burns all over their bodies. She linked the blog to her post and I was able to read all the compassionate things people were doing for their family while they are fighting for there lifes in the burn unit at a hospital in AZ. Her purpose for the post was to say life is hard but there are always others in more need and then simply said something like this, "and to all my friends who know me well, no I am not depressed I am just trying to find joy in the journey." How profound that statement is to me and ironic that just a few months later our Prophet said that same thing in his closing talk Sunday session. I figure I must need to hear this. So now I will try to not care as much and really the biggest thing I think I learned is to just be happy with your life where it is and everything else will work out. So to all of you who are already there I am happy for you and to all of you who are in the same grind as me lets find joy together... I need help! Love you all and hope nobody thinks I am crazy now I think this is as personal as I have got on my blog and of course I had to end with a rockin awesome picture...aren't they "special"

Somebody turned 1!!

WARNING LONG POST: Wow my little man is 1 how exciting! We had such a busy weekend Thursday the 21 was Kai's birthday, the 22 was mine and that same day our daddy got baptized!! It was the best birthday present ever, JR was very happy to finally get baptized and confirmed the missionaries did a great job and the meeting was very special. Then Saturday the 23 we celebrated Kai's big 1, we had a slip n slide, food, and snow cones it was fun to have everyone come and was a good "relaxer" for the crazy weekend. Kai is still crawling around and the therapist is teaching us how to help him stand up on his own. He loves books, and music and bobs his head like Stevie Wonder when he hears a song he likes, it is way funny. He has four teeth now, two of them are his upper fangs.. I have got to get a picture for everyone to see cause soon the two in the middle are going to be poppin through, I wish it were Halloween and he could be "Edward":)... Enjoy the pics I do have and the videos are mostly for Auntie Brooke who has not seen Kai crawl yet and didn't get to slip n slide, it might bore everyone else though so don't feel bad skipping it, and thanks for still checking me out even though I suck at updating this.

More San Diego Pics...

Ok so I should have put these with the post below but forgot so here you go hope the swim suit doesn't offend anyone just ignore the "rolls", and I have to tell you, the picture where Kai is laughing at me in, well right before the laugh he was pulling at my face and then pushing me away, the little stink didn't want to be held to take his picture.. p.s. be sure to look at the post right before this it has more pictures ;)

It's never too late...

Ok so I realize I really need help keeping up on my blog, but it is better late than never to update so here you go... We went to San Diego for vacation and loved it I want to live there. We went to the Zoo, Seaworld, and the Wild Animal Park, oh and the BEACH (my favorite). I could bore you with all the details, but I won't... just take a look at some of the pictures, I wish we had more but Kai broke our camera while we were there so we got what we could. Kai is finally crawling and he will turn 1 this month. Brooke and Brady moved this weekend and it was very sad I guess I didn't really think it was going to come that fast. Today when I got home from work Kai was so excited to walk in the house he was just smiling as we were walking in and when the house was empty he looked confused, you see Brooke would always have a big hug and smile for him and he didn't have his loving audience today. I am really going to miss my Eli too he is the only one that will give me loves whenever I needed them and I love that about him. The only perk is we have an excuse to go to New York now. Alrighty then, I hope everyone is doing well and I will try and keep up on my posts!

What a week!

Kai kissing himself in the mirror soo cute!

Well I was debating on posting about this because I don't want to make anyone worry but I guess since this will probably be the best journal that I will keep for my family I will post it. Tuesday morning around 5am little Kai had a seizure caused by a fever, he woke up screaming and the way he sounded I knew instantly something was wrong, when I got to his room his body jerked in his crib and I thought I had startled him but then he kept jerking... I knew it was a seizure so I grabbed him and held him as he continued jerking (it was awful). We are so lucky we live with my mom who is a nurse, I was able to run to her room and ask her what to do. She told us to go to the ER, as we were driving there the seizure stopped, it had lasted almost 6 minutes. In the ER they took his vitals said everything looks good and told us to keep his fever as low as we could and to follow up with our pediatrician (apparently this kind of seizure is very common). At the pediatrician office he said about the same but because of JR's family history of seizure disorder, if Kai had another seizure he would order a full work up. Now for those of you who don't know JR's mom died from a seizure she had in her sleep, December 06. She had seizure disorder pretty bad her whole life, so we have always had the fear of seizure's in the back of our minds. Now even though Kai's seizure was caused by a fever you can imagine what we were both hoping wouldn't happen. All day Tuesday we could not get his fever to break and he was not feeling good at all. We kept giving him motrin and bathed him, hardly dressed him, and the air conditioning was on full. He had a blessing that night and we all were just hoping he would sleep good. Well Wednesday morning comes and this time we are waken by the same scream around 6am. JR ran and got him this one lasted only 2 minutes but afterward he was vomiting violently and that lasted another three minutes. I was a mess, we took him to the ER again but this time they did the full work up, blood tests, CT scan, urine samples and everything came back normal, what a relief. So this morning came and no seizure just a happy boy he still isn't 100% and got another fever this afternoon but nothing like the past few days. Like I said earlier it is very common the stats say 1 in every 7 children before the age 6 will have a febrial seizure ("fever seizure") and that unless he has one agian in say the next few months they won't treat him any different even with the family history. So thank you to my family, neighbors, and my great friends it is so comforting to know that so many people care. The prayers that were said in Kai's behalf were much appreciated. We love this kid!

CRAZY, BUSY...

Wow May hit for me and I have been so busy since.. I think I need to pay someone to keep my blog running haha. Since JR's birthday I have started teaching swimming lessons and I feel like I live at the pool even though I am usually home by 2:30. Kai is in daycare two of the hours and then my boss and the lifeguards play with him the rest of the time and it is all free for me so it's worth being there. I think Kai is going to have a long summer though it's rough without mom all morning. JR and I had our 2 year anniversary yesterday and we celebrated on Saturday at The Roof. It was delicious and we had a good time. Yesterday during the day I had my primary kids over to help weed this patch of dirt on the side of my mom's house there were so many weeds I kinda felt bad after we started working but they had a lot of fun and when we got done I fed them pizza so at least I made up for the hard labor. Well, I hope you enjoy the pictures from our date to the roof and the weeding "service project" I am such a slacker!

Happy Birthday JR!

Today is a special day for our daddy for two reasons it is his big 26th birthday and it has been 9 months today since Kai was born. JR was so excited when he found out that Kai would share the 21st with him. We love J you are a great dad and husband and we are super lucky to have you. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Wedding, Mothers Day, and Kai and his BOOK...

Ok this weekend was a pretty busy one, so this will be one of the longest posts I have done in awhile. Saturday JR's cousin got married the wedding was beautiful and JR looked HOT (so did the bride)! It is not that often you get to see your husband in a tux so that was fun for me. They got married at a place in Salt Lake called Millenial Falls, we had sushi, chicken, chocolate covered strawberries and danced the night away (ok JR and I really didn't dance the night away but all the funny drunk people did)! Then Sunday was Mothers Day, I bought myself a dress the one I wore to the wedding and a new cute hat in the picture with me and Kai. Kai bought me a Willow Tree statue and JR gave me some perfume and a cute card. It was weird to have my first mothers day but it was a good one thanks J. Then just as entertainment I have to tell you about "the book". Friday morning I left Kai on the bed like I always do to play toys while I got ready, well I hear him talking to himself but he sounds ticked off he wasn't crying but he was "cursin". I walk into the room and he has a book his Auntie Erin had bought him torn up and the barn window around his leg! It was pretty cute...so Enjoy (and sorry it's so long)

Just an Update

So it has been awhile since my last post but nothing cool has really happened. Kai had his first ear infection 2 Sundays ago and then this Monday he had his first fall...lovely huh?! He was sitting on the couch (I know what you are all thinking) and Brooke brought Eli in the room and sat him on the floor and as soon as she sat him down I thought Kai is going to reach for him. So I looked over my shoulder and right as I did he was head over feet and getting ready to fall right off. I yelled and as I yelled he went right off and Brooke and I both jumped for him but we weren't fast enough. Man talk about being worried all day I didn't want him to go to sleep I felt so bad. I learned my lesson though he won't be sitting on the couch anymore, poor guy! Other than those two things he is growing well and he is healthy. I have just started teaching swimming lessons at The Legacy Center in Lehi. I teach from 4-6 pm right now and then in the summer it is a 10-1 pm schedule, and the best part about it, is that I get FREE daycare because I am an employee. I like teaching and I am glad I have this skill to fall back on especially since it doesn't require me to be away from Kai for very long but I can still help out a little. Well that is about it I am pretty boring otherwise JR is just working hard and has been busy this last week with his cousins helping get ready for one of them to get married so maybe I will post pics this weekend from the wedding. Sorry no pics this post just don't have any to share right now.

RECIPES

So I saw this same idea on another friends blog (thanks Liz) and thought it would be fun to see what kind of response I get. I love to cook but just like so many people I find that I make the same thing over and over cause it is easy. So any of you that have any good recipes, that are easy but not common I would love to get them and try them. I decided as well since I am the one begging for "non common" recipes that I could share one myself hope you all enjoy!

Chicken Rotell:

4 chicken breasts
1 can rotell tomatos (mild)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1-2 cups shredded cheese
Doritos

Cook chicken and shred it. Mix rotell tomatos and cream chicken soup together in bowl then add shredded chicken. In a 13X9 baking pan start to layer, Doritos first then chicken mixture then cheese and repeat until pan is full. Cook in oven at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes just until cheese is melted and chicken mixture is bubbling a bit. Serve with a little sour cream and maybe a salad on the side mmm it is really good.

For all of you that try it let me know if you like it and thanks for sharing if you do ;)

COUSINS

Auntie Jess took pictures of Kai and Eli the other day and I just couldn't pick one they were all cute. Can you believe Kai is only a month older than Eli!? In some of these pics he looks way older. What if Kai has Giantism?