My Baby is 3!!!

Well it was Jaynie's birthday right before Thanksgiving and like they say, better late then never. I seriously can not believe that my little girl is three now. Time really does go by fast. It seems like only a few months ago that I was crying over the fact that I had an 8 month old baby and was shockingly pregnant again. But oh the joy she has brought to our house. Jaynie is like a can and a half of spunk. She has so much energy and is soooo happy (except for when she is sooooooo throwing a temper tantrum, which happens at least once a day). Jaynie gives the best hugs and is always telling me that I am her favorite mom, which brings a smile to my face. She is very polite and quick to remind the rest of us to say please, or excuse me.

For her cake Jaynie wanted a naked Cinderella. I know my jaw dropped wide open too the first time she told me. But we eventually worked it out and convinced her that a fully clothed Cinderella would be the best option. When we picked up the cake Kiya look at it and said, "Mom, I'm gonna cry it is so beautiful." Then I cried because I was laughing so hard.

We love our Jaynie, and are very grateful that she is part of our little family.

Loving This

This is amazing to me. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Dang Library Books

Now I know why my mother always disliked taking us children to the library. One book . . . count it O.N.E. book always ends up missing. It's hiding in a different place every time. But every 3 weeks without fail I cannot account for that sneaky little thing.

Today our library books are due back. I was going to take the books with me in the morning so that when I picked up the girls from Grandma's house we could go strait to the library. Except for that I could only find 3 out of the 7 books. So we came home this afternoon from Grandmas to look for the books. I left everything in the car and dashed up the stairs to begin my search. An hour later I found all of the books except one, and have no idea where it is, but Ben read it to the girls the day before so it should be easy to find, right? WRONG! After much more searching I finally found the book under my bed. Don't ask me how it got there, probably the dog.

Now here is where it gets exciting. We get shoes and socks back on everyone and head down to the car where I left everything and I mean everything, purse, keys, coats. And guess what . . . my darling Jaynie has locked the car doors. Why you ask, well I don't know. But now I have two crying children who are so sad that they can't go to the library and want to why in the world I can't open the car doors. But wait it gets better, Ben has class and won't be coming home from work and then school until around 9:30 to let me into my car.

I guess that the library will just have to wait another day.

Pre-Halloween Activities

Well all, I guess it's time for that once a year occurrence where I (Ben) get to contribute something to our family blog. I seem to find reading blogs of friends a lot more entertaining than actually posting one of my own.

Well our little family has been all a buzz this year in anticipation for Halloween. The girls are excited to dress up as princess'. Now since Jaynie dresses up like a princess every other day of the year, I asked her if she wanted to dress up as something else... and she wouldn't have anything to do with it. Oh well, she'll always be one of my princess', so might as well let her dress up as one as often as she can (that is until dressing up as a princess becomes socially unacceptable...I give it 11 more years). We made it up to Cache Valley to participate in the annual tradition of walking through the pumpkin patch. That event is always such a fun memory maker (and for the first time in a long time we didn't have to wear winter clothes as we walked through).

Tonight (28 Oct) we happened to be flipping through the channels and noticed the opening credits to the Charlie Brown cartoon "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and the girls and Amanda wanted to watch it. To be honest, for some reason, I wasn't ever a real big Charlie Brown fan (it seemed to dull and boring to me), so as the girls settled in to watch the movie, I went downstairs to work out. After about 45 minutes I came upstairs and happened upon the following scene...

I guess I'm not the only one in the family that thinks Charlie Brown is kind of borish after all.

Well I guess that about wraps up my time for the year. We all excited for Saturday to go Trick-0r-Treating. We're just hoping that one of our Cinderella's don't lose one of their glass slippers as were going door to door.

Elder White and a Snake

Ben's brother Landon left this week on his mission to Villahermosa Mexico. We are so excited for him to be a missionary, and know he will be wonderful. But at the same time he will be sorely missed around here. Ben's golfing buddy, and to the girls Uncle Doofer.

Tuesday night we were at Ben's parents house when Landon was set apart by the stake president. The spirit in the room was just incredible, and Landon was given an amazing blessing. I was grateful for the opportunity to be there and take in the feeling that was there.

Wednesday morning we all had one last family breakfast together, and then took a few last pictures.

Today Ben was out pulling up the garden and found a little snake. The girls were so intrigued, yet so afraid of it. They wanted to watch in, but wouldn't get very close. Not that I blame them, I'm not a big snake lover either. But we had fun playing with it for a while.

Hello Again Blogland

Don't fall out of your chair, but yes we do still exist. I know, it's shocking news. Summer came and went and I seemed to have forgotten how to use blogger for a while. And honestly I really didn't think any of you guys missed reading about our little family, but I have heard lots lately from friends wondering whats going on with us, so here we are back again. I hope.
Mostly I think that I am back to blogging because I used to take pictures of things just so I would have something to post here, but since I wasn't posting anything I was't taking any pictures. And then I go to scrapbook and uh-oh, no pictures. What is a mother to do?

So without further ado, a catch up on our lives for the past four months.

Ben participated in a triathalon. It was so much fun to watch him, that I think I may even do it with him next year. With fall here he is back in school and working on his Masters.

We ran the Ragnar Wasatch Back race again this summer. Always a BLAST! And just a little side note we still need people for our team next summer, so come and join us. You don't have to be fast by any means just like having a crazy time and getting a lack of sleep.

Kiya turned 4. I can't believe how fast my little darlings are growing up. She also started pre-school this year and is loving it. She gets to go to Teacher Vicki's, and can't wait everyday for it to be time to go to school.

Jaynie is just as cute as ever and makes us smile everyday. She also tests my patience like no other but I still love her. Every day is a princess day for her, so I rarely get to see her in normal clothes.

As for me, I loved every minute of my summer off with the girls. We spent the summer just enjoying being with each other and doing all sorts of fun things. This year I have gone to teaching part time which has been a great thing for our family. I love it because I don't come home exhausted and mentally drained like I used to, which is so much better for my patience with the girls. I also spent lots and lots of time quilting. It is my new very most favorite hobby. I tell Ben all the time that I am just going to stay at home with my girls and make quilts when I grow up.

There you have it. Our life in a nutshell. And I promise I will be back again sooner than later.

Fabulous Friday!

Today was my last day of working! For a little while anyway. It was such a great day, I got my classroom all packed away and ready to be moved to my new school. Went to a quick lunch with a few of my teacher friends, and then went on a date with my sweet hubby. We went and saw Iron Man 2, which was not as good as the first movie in my opinion. But then again I can't think of any movie where the sequel is as good or better than the first. What a great day it has been.

Oh, and I finished Tiff's (my sister) birthday present for tomorrow. I'm so excited to give it to her, I'll post pictures tomorrow after the party just in case she reads this today.

The Best Picture Ever

I bought my grandma's computer from my grandpa (they each had their own, funny huh), and thus got all of her pictures with it. To me this is the best picture ever because this is exactly how I remember Grandma looking before she got sick. Glasses on, and a great big smile on her face, and hair pulled back in a ponytail. I have no idea why they are holding up their hands showing their CTR rings up, but I like that you can see their hands. My mom's hands are just like that, not quite as wrinkly yet, but still just the same.

The Magnificent Obsession

I have a new obsession . . . quilting. It is on my mind all the time. I'm constantly trying to figure out what I have to get done before I can do more sewing on the quilts for my girls. It may be driving Ben crazy, but he is surviving.

I have the tops of both quilts finished, and the backs almost complete. I am going to be brave and try free motion quilting on my machine, this makes me nervous, but I'll let you know how it goes.

Here is Kiya's quilt top. I love how it turned out. At first I was worried about the colors being to bright together, but I think they look great.

Now for Jaynie's. I'm not sure how I'm feeling about this green border. It may be too bright and distracting for the rest of the quilt, so it may be coming off and being replaced.

My First Quilt

I came upon this blog a few months ago from a link my friend Emily posted. I found a tent there that I wanted to sew for my kids. Well, I was feeling in the crafty mood one day last week, and decided it was time to finally make a tent for the girls. Lets just say I'm now a little distracted from making a tent and am set on making my first quilt ever. All I know how to sew is straight lines, so hopefully this is just right up my alley. Care at Obsessively Stitching is running this series, and I get so antsy every day waiting for the next instructions on the quilt. It is so exciting for me, and I love making and creating things lately (I think it makes me feel like a little bit of a better mom). I honestly am disappointed each day when I have no new instructions on what to do for my quilt.

I took Kiya to the fabric store on Saturday to pick out the fabrics for her quilt. We had a great outing and spent over a good hour picking out fabric. I tried to get her to pick some pinks and purples or something similar but she was set on the yellow with ladybugs. There was nothing I could do to persuade her decision, so I spent forever trying to find 9 other fabrics that would match. Finally I ended up with classic primary colors, when I first got them home and started cutting out I was a little worried that I wouldn't like them together, but now I think they will look great together.

I was almost done cutting a got a little bit careless and cut 2 of the squares 5" instead of 6". It just so happened that that particular fabric ended up with about 2 inches extra, so instead of going and buying another cut of fabric I just sewed my 5" piece and 2" piece together and made a 6" square out of that. Hopefully this doesn't bother me later on. If it does I guess I will just have to deal with it.
And here's where I started getting really excited. Sewing the squares together, and guess what it was super easy. Care's suggestion of joining the blocks together in a chain is great. Maybe that is a commonly known thing among quilters, but I think it is a fabulous thing to know.

Then putting all the nine square blocks together. I decided that I should have picked more than 3 colors. It was quite difficult to not get the same colors next to each other. Now I'm wondering if it will be even more difficult after I cut the squares and have to rearrange them again. More to come again later after further instruction from Care.

Goodbye Grandma Cheney

Grandma holding Jaynie

My Grandma Cheney passed away early yesterday morning after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Watching her journey down that road was tough, but I will be forever grateful for the small amount of time that we had with her knowing that it was close to the end. Each visit with her seemed to be more special than the last. I will treasure in my heart the recent conversation that I had with her about scripture study and coming to love the scriptures. Personally, I do not know anyone who knows the scriptures better than Grandma did and she truly loved reading them.

My most favorite memory of my grandma, or one of my most favorite memories, was one day not to long before we found out that my grandma was sick. My little family and I were going out to visit Grandma and Grandpa for some reason, I don't remember why. When I told Kiya that we were going to visit Grandma and Grandpa Cheney she jumped up and down and got so excited. Once we got there Kiya and Jaynie asked Grandma if they could go downstairs and pick out some toys, so Grandma went with them and got some toys. Then they all came trekking back upstairs with toys galore, and Grandma sat on the floor and played and played with my girls until we left to go home. I loved watching my kids with my Grandma.

I am going to miss her family news letters, treasure hunts at Easter, her calling me Mandy (I never let anyone else besides Grandma call me that), always having home made wheat bread at her house, hearing her say "Oh, Goodie" anytime she was excited about anything. Grandma I am just plain going to miss you! Thanks for being the best white-hair-grandma you could have possibly been.

My Grandma, My Mom, Me and Kiya

New Recipes

So cooking dinner is not one of my favorite things to do, but I really don't mind it unless I'm stuck in a rut and feel like I'm making the same things all the time. So, I try to cook new recipes quite often to change things up. Most of the time these turn out just short of disastrous, and I'm not kidding you sometimes they can be really bad.

Today I got lucky. I found a great new recipe on the Taste of Home website. It was quick and easy to do, had a few common ingredients, and my kids even ate it. I posted the recipe on a cooking blog that of few of my friends and I do, so you can check it out HERE if you like. I did change the alfredo sauce to a bottled instead of refrigerated sauce because it was much cheaper. All in all I was very pleased with the results of trying this new recipe. I guess I keep trying new things because every once in a good while I find one worth making again.

Edward?

My favorite thing to listen to at work is Pandora Radio (pandora.com) it is a great site for playing the kind of music you like with out commercials. This is the stock photo that they have of Michael Buble, which comes up on some of the songs that he sings. Every time I see it I think that is what Edward should look like. Much better than Mr. Pattinson, don't you agree?

More about Our Girls

So I guess my life must revolve around my children because I don't have anything else to talk about besides them. But they just do so many cute, fun things everyday. So here goes . . . more about my girls.

Jaynie loves to sing. She picks up on every song that I sing to her after just a few times of singing it to her. Lately one of her favorite songs is 'I love to See the Temple'. She is having a harder time picking up on the words to this particular song, but she does know that it ends in "This is my sacred duty." After singing it to her several times and having her ask to sing it again I decided to sing the second verse instead of the first verse yet again. I got through the whole song and Jaynie looked at me and said, "Mom, you forgot sacred duty." I laughed and sang the first verse over again for her.

While I was driving somewhere with the girls the other day, I turned onto the road and then Kiya asked me if I had turned right. And I was completely shocked, I had indeed turned right. So I thought to myself wow, I wonder how she knows that. For the rest of the drive every time I made a turn I asked Kiya which way we went, and to my great surprise she was correct every single time. We have never once talked about left and right with Kiya so the only place that I can think of the she could have learned it from is either tap dance class or Grandma 'Nita.

I love my girls. My life truly has been blessed by being their mother.

Does a three-year-old have any tact?

I would argue NO. Over the past several days I have had some experiences that will prove my point.

1st: All of our crew (Ben, Kiya, Jaynie and I) were at the grocery store shopping. Ben was up next to the cashier, Kiya and I were standing back behind a little bit. Then Kiya turns to me and says in reference to the cashier, "Mom, look at that lady . . . she is sooo fat."

2nd: Ben and I took our girls to see the movie 'The Princess and the Frog'. After the show got over, which was absolutely adorable by the way, we went to the restroom. When Kiya and I were leaving the restroom a lady with crutches walked in. So Kiya asked about the lady and why she had crutches. I explained that she needed help walking all the time, so she uses the crutches. Then Kiya and I were waiting outside the restroom for Ben when a gentleman in a wheelchair pulled up to wait too. Then Kiya asks, "Mom what does he have?" To which I reply "Popcorn" trying to avoid an embarrassing situation. She of course isn't satisfied with that and says, "No, what is he sitting in?" I quickly explain that it is a wheelchair that helps him move. Then Kiya in her infinite 3 year old wisdom says very loudly, "Mom, he can't walk all the time so he needs that to help him move." The gentleman looked up chuckling and showed Kiya how his chair moved and how he could even go on only two wheels. I was grateful for his kindness and being willing to show off to Kiya.

3rd: The whole fam was at the grocery store shopping again. A gentleman walks near us and Kiya asks Ben who he is. Ben just says, " Ummm, a friend?" So then Kiya says to Ben, " Well, he looks really sick." This man turned to us and gave us the strangest look. He looked like a perfectly healthy man to me, but I guess not to Kiya.

Now I just wait for the next tactless incident, and in the mean time enjoy the sweet innocence of my little girl.

So Amanda has informed me that it has been over a year since I last wrote anything on our "family" blog. I will have to admit that it has been some time since I last wrote, but my reasons for doing so were valid. The last time I wrote, Amanda criticized my writing saying that, "I went too far into detail and possibly gave more information than people needed to know about our personal lives". To this I stated that I would take a vow of (blogging) silence. Well I suppose it's time to return and also update about the activities of our family.

As my first posting after my absence, I would just like to echo what Amanda posted about. Our girls have grown up amazingly this last year.

Well, so I won't dive into "too much" detail about our family and our activities I will just share one of the most recent things that impressed me about my girls. On Christmas Eve we have a tradition of going over to Grandma Smith's house, going caroling, having soup, and ending with a nativity program. This year for the nativity, Kiya was asked to be Mary, and so she wouldn't be scared I was asked to be Joseph. We said okay and went and got our costumes on. The program started and when they called us out we walked over next to the manger and I sat/knelt down with Kiya sitting on my lap. When the story announced the birth of Jesus, I placed Jesus in the manger. As I did so, Kiya started to get rather restless. I asked her what was the matter, and she whispered back to me, "Daddy, I'm Mary, I have to go be Mary". After her statement she stood up, walked around to the other side of the manger, knelt down and clapped her hands together like she was praying. Confused, I again asked Kiya, "what are you doing?" to which she again responded by saying "Daddy, I'm Mary, I have to act like Mary." She didn't move from that position for the remainder of the program.

How on earth does a three year old know the humble and reverent demeanor that Mary probably had as the mother of the Savior of the world? We talked about the Christmas story, but never about how Mary acted. She just knew the importance of being the mother of Jesus, and acted like she thought Mary would.

I love these girls, and sorry to just focus on Kiya on this post, but I learned a great lesson from her that night that when we are given a name to represent, we are to represent that person to the fullest, and not just do the minimum. Every week we take a name upon us, and this experience has made me realize that I need to do a better job in reverencing the name I receive every time I take the sacrament and be a better example of that name in all I do.

What a great year we've had!

As I've been thinking over the past year today, I have remembered many great times that we've had in our family, but I am amazed by one thing . . . how much my children have grown.

Kiya is one of the smartest three year olds I have ever seen (and I probably should only say this because I am her mother, but it is my right to think that and I believe that it is true), she picks up on absolutely everything that anyone around her says. Today we were at Grandma Smith's house (Ben's grandma) when Kiya asked me if she could have a treat. I told her that they weren't mine to give away and that she needed to ask Grandma for one, so she left the room to go ask. A minute or two later she came back to me and said "Mom, I'm too shy. Can you go ask for me?" I have no idea where she got that from, but it made me chuckle.

Jaynie has gone from my baby to a two year old with an amazing vocabulary and enormous personality. She is so fun everyday, she is our little singer and will just make up her own words when she doesn't remember the real ones. I like the songs better Jaynie's way, they are more fun to listen to. Jaynie is either the happiest kid I've ever met and keeps us laughing or is a screaming terror throwing a giant temper tantrum. We get one extreme or the other with her, and I wouldn't change a thing about her.

I am grateful to have the chance to be their mother, and thank my Father in Heaven for sending two precious angels to me. I love them very much.