Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Precious...
Jay woke up again last night and came into our bedroom just miserable. He was coughing, wheezing, crying from a tummy ache, and feverish. He climbed up into Dan's lap and said, "Daddy, I want a blessing." Dan and I just looked at each other, amazed that he A. remembered what a blessing was, and B. understood that it could make him feel better! I have never seen him so still or reverent during any other prayer in his life. After it was done, he gave each of us a hug and went back to sleep in our bed. How awesome is that? I can't really describe how that made me feel to see my little boy be so filled with faith at such a young age. I am so blessed to have such great men in my life such as my husband and son, and I am so blessed that my husband is such a great example to my son.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Icky Sickies
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Little Miss Idependent....
Jay's Party!
Jayden had a wonderful birthday week! He got phone calls from both
Grandmas, Aunt Kelsi, Uncle Andrew, Daddy, Grandpa Rick, and even
Cousin Megan on Thursday, he got a special breakfast of chocolate chip
pancakes, and Daddy brought home a pizza for dinner! We decided that
since his birthday was during the week, we'd have his party on Saturday.
We had a great time! I did plan for too much cake, though. We only ate
the pirate hat one. We still have a whole huge cake to eat...He got an
Aquadoodle mat, Play Doh, a Tom and Jerry DVD from the Richardsons,
a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ABC-123 game from Rylee and Nolan, a
basketball (and the cakes) from Mommy and Daddy, and a learning
laptop from Grandma Kathi and Grandpa Rick. It is the same laptop
that Jay and Rylee constantly fight over when we go to her house, so him
getting his own is great! Thank you, everyone, for your efforts in
making this little boy's birthday special!!
I Am My Mother's Daugher...
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Jayden's Birthday Thought...
"No, I smart big, not growing big."
Monday, January 19, 2009
What brothers do...
Poor girl. While I was making dinner Jayden found a Care Bear Band-Aid and decided that Karah needed it. I ran into the living room after hearing screams of protest from Karah to find this. I didn't want to take it out right away because Daddy and Uncle Jeff were very close to getting home and I wanted them to see it. Unfortunately Jayden had other plans and ripped it out of her hair before I could stop him. *Sigh* Sibling love...
Silly Daddy
Uncle Jeff's Visit!
Jeff came into town for work this evening and had dinner with us.
We loved sharing our new nightly routine with him, however I
wrote down the wrong date and was expecting him tomorrow.
Luckily I felt a little inspired and made a big dinner . I did not,
however, focus the same amount of attention on the cleanliness
of my house as I have been due to the whole play-dough activities
that went on today. Bad Karlie, I know, so please ignore the mess
in the background. The kids LOVED playing with Uncle Jeff, and
it was so neat to sit back and watch them bond. He even put
Jayden, our nighttime terror, to sleep , no sweat! Thank you,
Uncle Jeff for the presents from Japan and for spending such
sweet time with us tonight!
Play Dough
Not So Fast Food
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The Church History Museum
Friday, January 16, 2009
Yummy Breakfast!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
The Wrath of My Children...
Band-Aid Buddies
A little about myself...
A. I like fun.
B. I don't like anything that isn't fun.
C. Cleaning isn't fun.
D. My kids are fun.
So...add my kids to cleaning, and what does that make? Chaos. Yes, chaos. I hate using a mop and prefer to hand-scrub the floor. So, I decided to let the kids help me in order to insert some fun into cleaning. My kitchen turned into a toddler water-park. Karah was more interested in playing in the water bowl than scrubbing the floor, and Jayden discovered that if he braced himself up with his arms he could run in place where the floor was wet. The ENTIRE floor was soaked. I'm not talking just wet, but SOAKED. It was "splash in the puddles" soaked, and so were they. It was fun, but it got a little dangerous at the end when they wanted to play chase. We grabbed some towels and walked on them in order to dry the floor. It is clean now, but I'm thinking about cleaning it every night after the kids go to bed in order to avoid this situation again...if I try and do it while they are awake, there is no keeping them out of it!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
It WAS logical, I guess...
Friends Made Over Cookies...
Lately Dan and Jayden have not been getting along very well...Jayden will NOT listen to Dan, and that just ticks Dan off. They have gotten into a few arguments that just make me giggle to listen to, but then I get reminded by both of them that "It isn't FUNNY!!" It has gotten to the point where Jayden has all out said that he doesn't like Dan and they aren't friends. (The biggest insult that Jay can come up with.) Dan understands that Jay is almost 3 and that it is kind of normal for little kids to say things like "I don't like you!" when you keep them from doing what they want, but it hurt him when Jay told me he wanted a new Daddy after a fight they had over bed time. Dan and I sat down and had a "meeting" about what to do with their relationship, and decided that it was my job (since Jay would talk to me) to find out why Jayden resented Dan so much, and then we would make another plan after that. I discovered that Jayden was hurt whenever Dan left for work because he thought Dan didn't like us or want to spend time with us. I tried to explain to him that Daddy needed to go to work and get money so we could go to the store and buy things. Daddy really loved us, and because he loved us he went to work so we could have a house. He seemed understand, but when Dan got home they got into it again. Dan's problem isn't what Jay is doing, necessarily, but the disrespect that Jay has for him. So, after the kids went to bed, we had another meeting and I told Dan what Jay had told me. We decided that we would start a new daily routine to teach Jayden respect while repairing their relationship. Every morning we all wake up together and have breakfast as a family, Dan takes time with each kid to tell them he loves them and then they plan an activity to do together when he gets home. He gives them hugs and kisses and then leaves for work. Throughout the day I remind the kids of the activity they will do with Daddy when he gets home from work to keep them excited about it. Then, when Dan gets home they immediately get started on their activity while I finish getting dinner ready. Yesterday's activity was baking cookies. Jayden was so excited for Dan to get home and talked about it all day. He was watching a show he earned (he finished all of his jobs on his job-chart) when Dan got home. The kid actually turned OFF the show when he heard the door open and jumped up to meet Dan, screaming "LET'S BAKE COOKIES!!!" They were so cute and precious together. It was mainly a Daddy-Jayden project, but Karah was an excellent spectator. The funniest part was when Dan decided that Jay was old enough to add the eggs. I kept my mouth shut because this was "their time". Dan handed Jay an egg, and then said, "Crack the egg and put it in the bowl". So, Jay chucked the whole egg into the bowl as hard as he could, then exclaimed, "Yay! I cracked it!" It took Dan a few minutes to fish out all of the shells. All in all, we lost about 4 eggs because Jay decided he would help Dan put away the ingredients while the cookies were baking and tripped while he was carrying the huge carton of eggs. I asked him later if he had fun with Daddy, and he said: "Yeah, he's my best friend."
Sunday, January 11, 2009
A New Fashion Statement




Before this weekend, Karah was doing WONDERFUL feeding herself with a fork and spoon. She got about 80% in her mouth and only 20% on the floor or her body. That is, until she decided that food was much more fun in the hair, on the clothes, and smeared everywhere in between. These were taken yesterday and today. The white stuff is cottage cheese (something I still won't touch, but Karah LOVES it) and the other stuff is oatmeal. It is difficult because she refuses to eat when we try to feed her, but then as soon as we've turned away from her to get on to Jayden about something, her plate or bowl is on her head. She has also discovered that bath-time is tons of fun now... I remember this time last year when she would scream and scream during bath time unless Grandpa Rick was holding her, and now she screams and screams when we take her out. I think that the food antics is her way of tricking us into bath time during the day instead of right before bed...
Monkey See, Monkey Do

Lately Jayden has been all about Superman and LOVES to have a cape on. So, that means Karah must have one, too. The other day I was being silly when I was tying their capes and gave them each hoods. This is the only picture I got, unfortunately, but the kids were so funny running around. Karah had to pick the biggest "kid" blanket we had and would NOT allow me to give her a smaller one that would be easier to maneuver in...
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Why?
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
She's too smart sometimes!!
Monday, January 05, 2009
"Mudder and Fadder"
I hate snow...
...and here we go...
Our little Sweet-tart (yes, I put tart, and not "heart") has decided to push all my limits the last few days to see how far she can go without getting put into time-out. Luckily, she's learning quickly, and now all I have to do is ask her if she wants a "time-out" and she stops, looks me in the eye, shakes her head, and says "No out, Mommy". For the most part, she corrects her behavior after that.
This last Sunday I had to teach Primary and forgot that Dan was teaching Priesthood. I didn't want to take Karah with me, so I asked the Nursery leader if I could leave her in there. They LOVED her, and told me we could bring her in from now on. They said she was so easy and they were amazed at how much she talked compared to the other kids. They also told me that Jay was super playful and protective with her. He made sure that the older kids didn't take her toys, but in a nice way. They are going to miss him when the older-nursery teacher comes back. He cracks them up with his "Puppy-Choo", "Spider-man", "Superman" and now "John the Baptist". (I'll elaborate on that in the next post...) I have such awesome kids!!











