Busy Busy Busy!!!

I couldn't sleep tonight, so I thought I'd do a little bit of Facebooking and so on, when I thought to myself, "Ya know, Karlie, you haven't looked at your blog in, like, 2 or 3 months...". So, I looked it up. Turns out my last post was in November. Of LAST year... Yikes! I can't believe that it has been that long ago! This last year as flown by so freakin fast! After Christmas, I got a job selling cars at a Ford dealership not far from Mom and Dad's house. I walked in thinking I was going to apply to be a receptionist and walked out the newest member (and only female) of their sales team. Dan has finished up all but one class (which he's taking now) of his prerequisites. He's applying for grad school at the end of this month when the applications become available. He took the PCAT last month. It seems weird that something we started preparing for a little over a year ago is finally here. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. He and I have worked so hard to pursue this career for him. I am so grateful that he's had this time with the kids and that I've had this time to walk in his shoes. We've learned a lot about each other and grown closer together. We have a better appreciation for what the other does, and I honestly think every couple needs to have this.

The kids are getting so big! Jayden is reading small words and writing as well. We have him in a trial class of Karate to see if he's ready or not. You can tell this is something he really wants because he works hard and, for the most part, pays attention. He loves to come home and show/practice what he learned. I can't believe how big he is getting. It is weird. He is so helpful around the house now. He's always asking what he can do to help, and he actually likes to keep his room as clean as he can now that he has his own place for his things. He is such a sweet little boy, and I love him so very much!!

Karah does her best to keep up with Jay. She's not reading yet, but she loves to try. She also loves to tell stories. She is a little dancing machine. If music is playing, that girl is moving. We are hoping to get her into some dance classes soon. We need to work on her listening skills a little bit before we do that...the child is stubborn.

It is 3:00 am right now, and I've finally hit a wave of sleepiness, so I'll post some pictures sometime soon.

Hogle Zoo, A break from the yard work.

We have been out in Utah replacing half of the roof and putting a yard in the back yard of my rental unit. It has been adventurous: injuries, fatigue, excess rocks, and of course 3 squad cars to calm down the rampant biker dude. The important thing is we are still alive and the zoo was great. The lion drinking fountain has been there forever, I remember using it when I was Jayden's age. My mom remembers using it when she was a kid.

My Beloved Husband...

I just want to publicly say that I love my husband. This man is the sweetest, most patient, and most caring man I know. He puts up with a lot, being married to me. But he's always there for me, ready to show me how much he loves me. Next month we will be celebrating 5 years of marriage. It has gone by so fast! And yet I feel like he's been my best friend since before I can remember. I am soooo grateful that Heavenly Father sent me such a wonderful man. A man who, when I throw a hairbrush at the bed because I'm frustrated that my hair won't do what I want it to and it bounces up and breaks the window, just takes me in his arms and tells me how beautiful I am. Nevermind that we had to pay $350 for the window. We'd been married 3 months when that happened. The next year, not long before Jayden was born, I was home crying on the floor because I couldn't reach my toenails to paint them when he walked in from school. He'd gotten out early, and I wasn't expecting him. He somehow figured out why his crazy pregnant wife was on the floor bawling her eyes out, and without a word knelt down and painted my toenails for me. Nevermind that the man hates feet. The next year, he not only held a full time job, but he'd spend most of his free time working on fixing up our house so that it would be livable before Karah was born. He still found the time to do sweet little things for me, like give me a back massage because he knew Karah was sitting in a way that made me ache. Nevermind that he was working his butt off at work and then some. Karah was a very difficult infant. I tried to be strong and to give my sweet husband a break by letting him sleep the night through when I knew Karah wouldn't. There were several time, though, I would be so exhausted from Karah getting her days and nights mixed up and then having Jayden be awake all day, that I would wake up in the morning to a note explaining that he'd felt I needed a break, so he'd arranged for his mom to take the kids for the day, and for me to get some rest. Nevermind that he would have to wake up close to 2 hours before work to get the kids fed, ready, over to his mom's house, and then to work on time. Last year he gave me a wonderful gift. He took the kids up to the cabin for a whole weekend. I got to read, lounge, clean, shower by myself without little people banging on the door or flushing the toilet (old house...), and SLEEP without interruptions. I missed them all, but how wonderful it was to just have a little "Motherhood Appreciation" weekend! Nevermind that he had to change ALL of the diapers and take care of 2 kids by himself for 3 days...I bring up all of these experiences because throughout the years that we've been married, he's always looked for little things to make me happy and to brighten my day. This latest incident triggered these wonderful memories of my husband's love for me. Yesterday I started the day throwing myself a little pity party. I was extremely frustrated with myself after stepping off the bathroom scale for, pretty much, the first time since Karah was born. I usually don't fret about my weight because, well, I've never had to. I've always been tone, I've always been thin, and I've always felt like I looked cute. I've felt a little frumpy from time to time since having kids, but even after I had Karah, I dropped the baby weight within the first couple of months. I'd jumped onto the scale to feel good about myself, and then got off feeling horrible. Most people would probably get mad at me for being upset with my results, but I have NEVER been that heavy outside of being pregnant. And I am NOT pregnant. My frustration with my weight turned quickly into frustration with my wardrobe (which I HAD noticed getting a little tighter), and then it turned into frustration with my hair. I was close to tears when Dan came into the bathroom to talk to me about our schedule for the day. I guess he recognized the look in my eye (see the hairbrush versus window incident) and he offered to help. With loving patience, he straightened my hair for me. He complimented my clothes. He held me and let me know I was beautiful. And I hadn't said a word about my self loathings other than my frustration with my hair not doing what I wanted it to... I know that I have some work to do in order to get back to where I want to be, but he erased any and all feelings of self loathing I'd had that day with his gentle and loving attitude towards me. I truly, truly love this man, and I am so grateful to have spent the last (almost) 5 years as his companion. And I look forward to spending the rest of forever with him, as well.

Carving Pumpkins 4

Carving Pumpkins 3

Carving Pumpkins 2

Carving Pumpkins 1

Jack O' Lanterns

Daddy Showing the kids how it's done...

Jayden abandoning his phobia of getting dirty and digging into the pumpkin...

Jay's hands are covered in "Pumpkin Guuuuts!"

Jayden posing with the finished products.

Mommy/Karah's Cinderella, Jay's pumkin (which he drew on the pumpkin for Daddy) and Daddy's sculpted pumpkin. Yes, I know that there aren't many pictures of Karah...she spent most of her time playing with the dog and giving commentary on how yucky this was...

Patiently Waiting...

About a week and a half ago, Jayden, Karah, and I all took a nap during the day. Jayden woke up first and went downstairs. While Karah and I were asleep, he and Grandma started making cookies!! Karah and I came down to a very excited Jayden. Grandma was very brave and let him pretty much do everything, even crack the eggs! Jay was enjoying licking the wisk, and Grandma let Karah have a small spoon of dough as they waited for the cookies to go into the oven. She also turned on the oven light so the kids could watch the cookies bake. And they did. They sat there the whole 11 minutes, and made comments about each cookie on the sheet. "Oh, that one is very big and pretty...That one will go to Daddy...That one has LOTS of CHOCOLATE...Let's send that one to Uncle Scott's Birthday!" They were so sweet and they were actually getting along and not trying to one up each other. And they were being patient and not asking "Are they ready yet?" a million times. Sometimes they are just at each other's throats and constantly bickering and driving me up the walls, and then they have moments like this that remind me that they really are good friends and that they really do love each other.

Our Cousin Nolan...

Jayden LOVED having Nolan here. One of Jayden's favorite things to do was feed Baby Nolan. And Nolan seemed to really like Jayden's help and company. Jay would also help us get diapers and wipes, toys, and he would make sure Aggie's dog food was out of reach. In fact, he was so concerned about Nolan getting the dog he would pick her dish up off the floor every time he saw it- even when Nolan was down for a nap or out with Grandma! Some days poor Aggie didn't get to eat until after Jayden went to bed!

Karah loved to share with Nolan. A few times we found grapes, big apple pieces, and I think one time a piece of candy in his mouth. She was so kind and generous with her treats and food. Aunt Karlie quickly became one of Nolan's least favorite people because she was constantly fishing the goods out of his mouth.

Last One...

More...

More Car Wash...

Car Wash!!

Grandpa decided to wash Grandma's Van about 2 weeks ago. He had 2 little volunteers to help him. They were so cute! They really got into the work and were so excited to be helping with a "grown up" job. Jayden had been Grandpa's Little Helper all day that day, and he even earned some money for the work he did! Grandpa told him he would get a dime for every weed he pulled up by the root. He made $.70. They worked in the garden and flower beds, washed cars, built towers in the dirt, and a few other things around the house. Karah had a blast washing the cars. And that child is thorough! We have some little scratches on our bumper and she scrubbed and scrubbed and got frustrated that they weren't washing off! I love these kids and their love for helping.

Tempting to leave them there....

This was one of those days that I was afraid I was going to go bald from pulling my hair out. The kids were at each other's throats, and anything I said went unheard. Running, screaming, hitting, biting, crying...I'd about had it when I heard Jayden giggling and Karah screaming. I walked in to see that she had climbed into the bird cage (that we had out to put on Craigslist) and Jay had closed her in. I couldn't help it. I laughed. It looked so darn funny to me, especially since my kids were acting like little animals at the time. I snapped a few pictures and then let her out. About 10 minutes later, I heard giggles coming from both of them, along with "Mommy! Come look!" So I did, and both of them were in there. I took more pictures and was tempted to leave them in there while I cleaned up their mess of a toy room. I got them out and made them clean it instead. Things were much better after that...probably because I warned them they'd get stuck back in the cage for an undetermined amount of time if they didn't listen...

Fall Fun

Ok, here we go. This was actually a few weeks ago. We went down to see Megan dance. The kids had an absolute blast. They had candy (yay), games, rides, music, food, and booths. One booth for a day care was doing free face painting and hair coloring. Jayden chose black scary spiders and blue hair, and Karah chose red flowers with pink hair. Megan wasn't sure if she wanted to get hers done, but after a while she warmed up to the idea and got purple or pink butterflies, I think, and pink hair, too. She also wanted make-up, so the lady drew beautiful Mimi eyeshadow and eyelashes. Karah thought it was absolutely gorgeous and wanted pretty eyes, too. Word of advice: don't spray your kid's head pink. The blue came out with one wash. There is STILL a hint of hot pink on Karah's head...

We're Still Here...

Ok, ok, I know I haven't blogged in months. We're okay. A lot has happened to us. We've moved across the country and Dan has gone back to school to complete the prerequisites for Pharmacy school. Although he already has his degree in Art, we felt that with the economy being the way it is (aka-artists being laid off right and left...marketing always gets cut first) that we needed to rethink his career path. He'd already had most of the prerequisites done, so hopefully he'll be in school to become a pharmacist next fall.

So, that was the last few months in a nutshell. Now for a hilarious story about Jayden. Yesterday afternoon we got a call from Megan if Jayden could come spend the night "Saturday Night". I asked him if he wanted to, and the answer was a very enthusiastic "YES YES YES!!!" He and I had a very important talk about how spending the night was a very "grown up" thing to do, and that he and Megan were big kids and needed to behave as such. I told him that he needed to listen to Mommy or he wouldn't get to go. He was practically perfect for the next 24 hours. Well, being so good was getting hard as the minutes ticked away waiting for Megan to pick him up. They weren't coming until 4:30 pm, and at around 3 he was just dying of anticipation, and starting to take it out on Karah by taunting her that she didn't get to go. So, I decided to include him in the packing process. He didn't want me to have anything to do with it, so I took Karah downstairs while he sorted through his things. I did have to convince him that he didn't need 10 pairs of underwear for one night, and that some pajamas and clothes would be a good idea, but other than that, I stayed out of it. This is what his backpack held: toothbrush, 2 pairs of underwear (huge accomplishment talking him down to 2, trust me), jeans, two shirts, 3 Agatha Christie novels (because he and Megan were now "grown ups"), 3 VHS movies (I only caught the name of one...Spartacus...), and a wall hanging of a cross-stitched CTR shield "Because I like it, and I'm sure Megan will like it, too...". He wore his backpack for about 1/2 an hour waiting for Megan to show up, and then the entire time Aunt Erica, Uncle Jeremy, Mommy, and Daddy visited. He could not wait to get going on his "grown up" adventure and share his treasures with Megan. That little boy cracks me up!!

Karah was having a little bit of difficulty watching Jayden being so excited, so she and Daddy are on a little date to the store right now. She dressed herself. She has on a backwards purple pajama shirt that says "Daddy's Little Angel", overalls, and her pink princess glitter shoes. I tried to fix the shirt, but she threw a royal fit. "I CAN DRESS MYSELF!!!!" *Sigh* The only time she asked me for help was to do her hair in "Twos" (pigtails).

My children crack me up. I loved how Jayden was so thoughtful of the things he picked out for his sleepover with his cousin, and I love how Karah tries to figure things out on her own and only asks for help when she absolutely needs it!

The Fly Hunter

Jayden cracks me up. Two summers ago, when we first moved into our house, Granna bought Jayden his very own flyswatter because he was terrified of flies. It became his "security blanket" that summer. Well, we lost it somewhere, sometime, since then. I'd totally forgotten we'd even had it. We didn't have any real fly problems since then, either. Well, this afternoon when the kids came back home from Grandma Richardson's house, there was a fly in the house. All of a sudden, I see Jayden flying up the stairs with the flyswatter above his head like a soldier charging into battle. That little boy gave me an hour of free entertainment as he stalked and "hunted" the fly. He'd charge it from across the room with a battle cry, he'd hide upstairs and then tip-toe through the rooms stalking it, and he'd jump and twirl around while he tried to swat it out of the air. Every so often he'd ask me to go "Get that fly, 'cuz I can't!". I'd just tell him to keep on trying and that he would eventually get it. I was just having too much fun watching him! Oh, he took it so seriously! We even called Grandma Kathi a few times to keep her updated on Jay's fly hunting progress. When I'd ask him what he was trying to do, he'd reply: "I'm gonna SMACK dat fly DOWN!!" He'd crouch, crawl, jump, climb, and just do anything he could think of to get that blasted fly! And he DID! He finally got it, BY HIMSELF! The fly had landed on the windowsill behind the couch. (And Jayden reinacted this, too, by the way...I'm going to see if I can borrow Kristi's video camera tonight and see if he'll do it again...) Jayden brought the flyswatter up like a spear and jabbed it. He was so tickled and excited that he'd actually gotten the fly. We called Grandma Kathi and he told her (and showed her) exactly how he'd done it.
Since then he's been patrolling the house with his flyswatter, ready to pounce at the next fly. He's even pretended to chase a few and asked me if I knew where any "real flies" he could SWAT DOWN were.

Imelda Marcos in Training...

Holy Cow. Mom and I just took Karah shoe shopping, and MAN, that girl loves shoes!! We turned down the shoe isle at Target and her eyes just lit up and she gave a delighted gasp. And that was when she was still in the basket! I can't even describe her euphoria when we let her out to look at and TRY ON the shoes! She is definitely Megan's relative, because she made a beeline for the infamous "hideous purple shoes" and kept going back to them. Anytime we'd give her a new shoe to try on, she'd squeal and run to us. Sometimes that was the only way to get her to stop modeling the shoes for the other shoppers. Mom and I were constantly giggling at this little girl's shoe fettish. She had so much energy, and it was nice that Jayden and Daddy were having their own adventure elsewhere in the store. We were looking at shoes for 45 minutes, and finally Mom and I had to call it a night. That child was still going strong, looking for any and every shoe she didn't get to try yet. We had to stick her in the basket, buckle her in, and then put a new pair of shoes on her feet to get her to think about calming down. In the end, Karah chose her own new tennis shoes. They have Cinderella, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty on them. (Anyone surprised?) It was a tough decision for her, though...there was a pair of pink shimmery-type shoes that she ran around in for a while and seemed to like a lot. The final choice was between those two, and the Princesses won out. I just hope we got them big enough to last a while so Mom and I have time to recouperate!!

Jayden's Girlfriend

Over the last few years that I've lived in Utah, I haven't really gone out of my way to make friends, so I wasn't really liking it here. I decided that I would take the matter to Heavenly Father to help me find a good friend that could totally relate to me, and who also had kids that my kids would get along with. (Let's face it...the kids get to pick our friends now) I also was looking for someone who we could hang out with as a family or couple. (Meaning the husband would get along with Dan, also) We have gained many friends now that we've been a bit more social, but we still hadn't found the "magical everyone loves everyone" family. I'll admit that our expectations are pretty high. We needed kids that wouldn't fight, someone who could talk "nerd" with Dan, and someone to understand my "unique" personality and embrace it. One day, I don't remember how far back, I was on Dan's Facebook and his friend, Debbie, from his pre-ME days started chatting. We became fast internet friends and would giggle and chat through Facebook. We added each other to our friend's lists, and continued to enjoy our conversations. On her page, it said she lived in PA, but she'd just forgotten to change it when they moved (3 years ago.) . We discovered that Dan and I live just down the street from her parents, and that she lives about 1/2 hour away from us! We started planning right away to get the kids together for a play date. Her daughter, Ava, is 2 and Simon is 2 months old. We decided to do an Easter Egg Hunt with the kids the day before Easter to kind of prepare the girls for Sunday. It was a BLAST! The kids did not fight ONE SINGLE TIME! Jayden and Ava were both so sweet with one another and they included Karah in everything they did. We were there from noon until 5:30 pm!! We were having so much fun that we decided that Debbie, Chris, Ava, and Simon would come down to our house and eat dinner with us so Dan could meet our friends. Lo and behold, the men were able to have a wonderful "nerd" conversation, the kids continued to get along fight free, and the mommies were having a wonderful time not having to worry about the kids and just giggling at how this was the first time we'd actually met in person!

Ok, now that I have the background out of the way, Jayden has decided that Ava is his "girlfriend". These two are so sweet with one another! He just adores her! After Ava went home, that is all I heard about for the rest of the week. I called Deb and relayed a conversation Jay and I had about Ava:

Jay: "I want Ava."
Me: "Do you miss your friend, Ava?"
Jay: "Not my friend, Mom...my GIRLFRIEND!"

Debbie started laughing and relayed a story about how Ava lectured a little boy that came over that only she and "Her Jayden" could play with a certain toy! We went back up this last weekend for Simon's baby blessing, and the two were so excited to be able to see one another. Deb and I cracked up, because their outfits matched! They were just so cute, and we did a "photo shoot" with the two of them. Debbie took the pictures (I'd left my hardly working camera at home), and they are posted on Facebook. I don't know how to do the links, but I was tagged in the pictures and a completely adorable video.