So this morning Kaylee asked me to get her a drink in a sippy cup and I told her to wait until i was finished feeding Taylor. So i look over a minute later and see Ethan getting her a drink and said to kaylee "oh is Ethan helping you get a drink?" then Ethan replies "Thats cuz Im nicer than you"

my response "you're probably right"

Kids are so great and so funny

Well it has been a while. But we are still good and all alive. Since the beginning of January nothing too exciting has happened. I have had another birthday. the big 27. Rob got me an ipod and I am surprised how much i use it. It is a nice thing to have especially for workouts. I have been good at keeping up with that resolution and also the book reading. I finished book number 2 last night. Right in the nick of time. I have not yet decided on book 3.

It has been nice that Rob has not had to travel as much lately. He has only been gone once so far this year to Wisconsin. There is 2 trips planned to Puerto Rico one the end of March (he will be gone for his birthday) and then he is home a week and then back to Puerto Rico. We will see if it works like that. Trips tend to change. We are grateful for his job though which allows us to pay our bills.

The kids are well over all. They have been pretty healthy this winter. We had the battle with swine flu in October and have only had little colds since. We are grateful for our health. Being sick is no fun. Ethan is getting excited to start kindergarten. This is a big relief because he is a shy boy until you get to know him. A little like me i guess. Big groups are really intimidating for him. We did Itty bitty soccer and he was really scared. the first and last day he wouldnt go out there at all. He stayed by me. The 2nd and 5th day he held his coaches hand and the 3rd and 4th days he just stood around with his team. I am sure it will hit him on the first day of school but we have registered and he is excited as of now. It kind of scares me to send him through a public school system but we will try it at least for now. He asks when he gets to go to real school and said that he will get to do lots of fun stuff in school. I think it will hit me harder then him. So will his birthday. He will be 5 this year. I know that is not normally that big a deal but for me it is a little different. My mom died when i turned 5 so realizing that and knowing my son is almost the same age makes me realize just how young i was and that every day i get with my son after he turns 5 is more than i had with my mom. Life throws us curve balls and it is how we adjust to and hit them that makes us who we are. I hope that i have been able to hit it out of the park.

Kaylee is pretty good. She has had a problem with wetting her pants lately. She peed on the floor 6 times in three days. 3 of those were after i cleaned the carpets. I was a little upset by that. I think I was a little meaner than needed. We hope to break her of this habit and soon. She also wants to go to school. I might look into a preschool or play group for the fall. That would make her happy. She is a smart girl. She already counts to 20 (she is just over 2 1/2) and is learning her ABC's and knows her colors and some shapes. I think having an older sibling close in age is a great help.

Taylor is almost 9 months old. She started crawling the beginning of january and has not stopped moving since. She is a determined little girl. She cruises around the furniture and is gaining confidence and lets go of things and stands for several seconds. She doesnt quite sleep through the night yet. We moved her to her own room and got Ethan and Kaylee bunk beds in the other. Since we put Tay in her own room she went from Waking up 3 times to 1 time. It may not be perfect but i will take it. We need to work on that and weaning her though because Rob and I are going to Hawaii the first week of May. We are going on a cruise and are so excited. Tay loves to eat real food and has pretty much given up baby food. She does pretty well with real food and feeding herself. She is so cute. She is beginning to like Rob more too. She will play with him when i am in the room now too instead of crying and trying to get to me. It is probably because he has been away less often. She is a cute little girl.

As for me, I am well. I just try to keep up with the demands of motherhood. These demands have stretched my limits. Patience should be a virtue I own but never seems to be one i fully can grasp. There are so many opportunities to master patience but i continue to fail. Maybe someday....when my kids are grown with kids of their own. My home never seems to be clean but i try. There is always something to do and never gets done. So in essence i am never bored. I look forward to spring and i know my kids do too. Especially Ethan who has a great love for the outdoors. I am excited to go camping and hiking this year. So is the rest of the Family. We love the outdoors. Life is good and i am greatly blessed. I love the Lord and hope i am able to teach my kids the same. bye for now

Renee

Wow!! 2010

Wow time flies. I cant believe that it is 2010 already. We had a pretty good month of December. Rob went to Puerto Rico in the beginning of the month and enjoyed the tropical warm weather. What a nice break from the cold. We hosted the family Christmas party (renee's side) at our house. It turned out pretty well. We werent able to go sledding but had a good time anyway. We had a nice ham for dinner, decorated cookies, played a game, exchanged gifts, and the highlight was Santa. My brother arranged for Santa to come. Ethan asked for an army gun, and Kaylee asked for a purple bike and purple helmet. (she didnt get by the way, those are for her birthday) It turned out rather nice. It was a great time to be with family. I was expecting some sort of drama but it all went well, and for that i am thankful.

The craziest thing that happened over the month was that my mother-in-law got married. This was unexpected to us all. She met him just before thanksgiving and got married on december 21. It was fast and unexpected but we hope she is happy. She seems to be so. We hope she still comes out to visit us as often as before.

Then we had Christmas. This was so much fun with the kids. They were so excited. We went to Robs sisters houses for Christmas Eve. We had a nice dinner, followed by a talent show by the kids, (it was awesome), then off to the nativity play by the kids (ethan was a shepherd, and kaylee an angel) it was so cute. Mary and Joseph are the cutest 2 kids possible. props to them. then we did gifts. It was a lot of fun. We came home and put out cookies and coke for santa. (Because Santa loves Coke) and the kids hurried to bed. Rob did his traditional Betos trip with the brother-in-laws and i got to work on the presents. Kaylee got a princess castle tent. it is enormous. It is 5x5x5 feet. it is huge. It took a lot of work to put it together. It has actual metal poles and is quite sturdy. she loves it though. She got disney princess dressup clothes and we cant get her out of them. Is cute. Ethan got some cool hot wheels tracks, dart gun and his army gun. Taylor got a little pink princess rocking horse. Rob and I covered the banister with blankets and put up the gate with a blanket on it so the kids couldnt go right down there when they woke up. we wanted to have breakfast first. At 6:45 am Ethan woke up and Rob and I heard him hit the gate and knock it over. Rob jumped out of bed and was able to prevent him from going downstairs. We got up and had french toast for breakfast then headed downstairs. It was so much fun to see the kids faces. The were excited and had lots of fun. We got a Wii as well. It has been so fun. It amazes me how good Ethan is at it. Kaylee likes to try it too. Over all the day was fun. The kids got entirely too much. I already have most of their birthday presents too.

We are on to the new year. We went to Heathers house where we had a fondue party and enjoyed one anothers company. We played the Karaoke on the play station. It was so fun. I was suprised that none of my kids went to sleep. Taylor slept for half hour or so but that was it. they were all up until about 1am. I cant believe it. They just keep going. They had lots of fun playing with cousins and watching movies.

so my news years resolutions are (in no particular order of importance):

1. Workout 5 days a week

2. Read at least 1 book a month

3. Read the entire Old Testament

4. Serve my family with a better attitude

5. Be more positive and Kind

hopefully i can live up to these

well that is all for now.

happy new year

renee

I know its been a while. So hopefully i can catch up for the past month. We did catch the mouse. We caught it monday November 2. Rob had to check the traps when he got home from work monday. I was too chicken to check. Kaylee was a little distraught when daddy put the "sweet mouse" as she called it and put it in a bag and threw it away. For several days she would tell me the mouse died and was killed and she genuinely looked sad. I think we are over that now. we have had a pretty good month. Rob went to New York for a few days. His hotel was right across from the Twin Tower sight. He took a few pictures it was kind of neat.

The kids are growing like crazy. Taylor is quickly approaching 6 months old. She has 1 tooth and another almost here. She has bitten me more than she should have. She sits up really well now and can stand and hold onto the bars in the banister all by herself. She will be on the move in no time.

Kaylee is learning who is a boy and girl. We ask her if so and so is a girl or boy and she responds. We asked her if Gabe (a nephew) was a girl and her response was "Gabe gorl ever gen" meaning Gabe is not a girl. She still uses that phrase for everything. We have started taking her to church now without a diaper. She has done really well. Now we have to work on nighttime training but that is all. We dont have to worry when we leave the house anymore. That is exciting.

Ethan is great. He earned 20 stickers for doing well in school so we were able to go to Mcdonalds. he loved it. He is so excited for Christmas. He has been driving me nuts about wrapping presents. We still need to do some shopping for him but for the most part we are done. He has made me laugh a few times witht he things he has said. Once he got hit by something and said "that hit my nuts" coming from a 4 year old made me laugh. It can be hard to keep a straight face. The other was when he was putting a dress on Kaylees little sleeping beauty doll and said "It looks like she can feed a baby too." He is too observant. Apparently babies get milk from my stomach. What will i do when he starts asking questions.

We had a good Thanksgiving. We ate over at Marys house. It is nice that we live next door to Robs sister. Rob cooked the 23 pound bird and we took it over. It was us and Robs 3 sisters and their families. It turned out nicely. We had a family get together with the Bishop side the sunday before. We drove out to Tooele to Jenny's. We got caught in a snow storm headed out there. It was a horrible one. We could barely see. We tested out the 4 wheel drive on the car for the first time. We had to turn off our head lights at times so we could see. It was horrible. We mad it though. For Christmas it looks like we will be having the Christmas party at our house. Hopefully all will go well.

Mouse!!

Well Rob and I were watching a show and we heard what sounds like a mouse in our ceiling. AAAAHHH. I hate mice. We looked to see where it could have come in from and we think it was the garage. Rob sealed the hole and went to get traps. I hope that there is only one and that it doesnt come into the main part of the house. I would scream. I dont like them. Hopefully we can solve the problem quickly.

On a brighter note, today was Halloween. Ethan was an army guy, Kaylee was an angel, and Taylor was a turtle. They were so cute. Picture will follow if my computer will ever load them. (its taking forever) They went to the trunk-or-treat at the park and then Rob took them around the neighborhood to a few homes. They had lots of fun. Unfortunately they become way to wired when candy is inhaled.

Over the past few weeks things have been crazy. Rob went to Puerto Rico and I believe that he brought back the flu. He came home late friday night and by tuesday the rest of us were showing symptoms. Ethan had a fever for 2-3 days and a little bit of a cough and was extra sleepy for a few days. Other than that he was alright. Kaylee got hit hard. She not only had a fever but developed Croup and was so bad Wednesday the 21st that we decided to take her to the ER because she had a hard time breathing. This was our first trip to the ER as parents. I had Rob give her a blessing before they went. They gave her steroids which didn't help, then some inhaled medicine, which didn't do much, then a breathing treatment. Nothing did a whole lot of good so they (Rob and Kaylee) came home at about 5am. They also tested her for the flu. We got the results Thursday night and it was positive for the Flu and probable for Swine Flu. so it looks like we had swine flu go through the house. Kaylee sounded a lot better the next day but was still fevered and tired. She was sickfor about 10 days or so and had a lingering cough. We all had the chills too. I had a cough, achy joints and muscles, headache, sore throat, the works. It was not fun. Taylor seemed to be alright. She had a very small fever (not quite a degree over) and a tiny cough. she had a higher fever Thursday night and when we found out it was the flu I made sure to call the DR. in the morning. The dr. put her on Tamiflu. She didn't seem to get any worse. No more fever, and coughed a few times and was a little restless. But overall she stayed pretty healthy. For that I am very grateful. We are finally all better. Ethan was so grateful to get back outside and play with his friends. He begged for a week to play. Then it snowed (monday and tuesday this week) and he had to wait longer.

Taylor is basically sitting now on her own. She is a strong girl. She like to sit in the exersaucer and grab at anything she can. she likes "real" food and has now tried 4 different things...peaches, applesauce, greenbeans and rice cereal. She first tired "real food" on October 9. Rob got the honors of feeding her some rice cereal with applesauce. She loved it. She is a huge fan of food and does quite well.

Kaylee sounds more like Ethan every day. She has increased her usage of "ever again" to mean "not" as well. Like when she says "pants dirty ever gen" it means her pants arent dirty.

She also follows her brother in that she will tell me she cant do some thing. This usually occurs when she needs to go to the bathroom and "cant" pull down her pants, and also when she "cant" do what her mom asks. She also adopted the phrase "too much." Ethan tends to cry and complain when we ask him to pick up his toys and always says that there is "too much" or "too many." Kaylee now uses these phrases when she is asked to pick up something. We usually respond with "then i guess we need to throw some away because there is too many." this only sometimes helps. They certainly are funny kids. One thing that i really like is that they have said I love you more lately. This makes up for all the times i am told that i am so mean or that i am not liked. One day while in the car I was "so mean" (Ethan lost his chance for having gum because he hit his sister) and Ethan told me he didnt like me over and over. I told him if he said it again that he would go to a time out. He was about to say it again but caught himself before it came out all the way and changed it to "im never going to play with you ever again." I hate to hear things like this but i guess you cant really be a good mom with out hearing it.

We started a "service jar" where the kids get to put pennies in a jar for either good deeds or acts of service. It is cute to see the excitement on the kids face when they drop the pennies in the jar. I need to be more on the ball with it to encourage the acts of kindness and i know they like it. Right now i will sometimes suggest things for them to do to help them learn what good deeds and service are. But more often then not, they (especially) Ethan will do something on his own. This jar helps me to focus on the good things they do. I need to focus so much more on the good things they do. I think the jar will help me with that.

well i think this is all for now. Until next time....

renee

This week has been pretty good. I made a robe for Kaylee. It is not the greatest but it is a robe nonetheless. I have plans to make one for Ethan too. Hopefully it turns out a little better. Rob has been gone this week to Puerto Rico. I think this trip has affected Kaylee more than the others. She has not been sleeping as well and having more temper tantrums. She wants me to hold her more too. It is a little challenging. Taylor had her 4 month checkup this week. She is 26 in (95 %) weighed 13 # 5.5 oz (50%) and head 40.9 cm which is 50%. so she is long and lean. Not surprising really. She is doing well though. She will be sitting by herself in no time. She doesnt like to lay down she likes to be up like everyone else. We started her on solids. First applesauce with rice cereal and today she had peaches with rice cereal. She loved it. It is nice to be able to give her real food. well she is crying and i must cut this short for now. bye

This week has been so much better since tuesday. I have been calmer and the kids seem to have been better. Yesterday we invited some cousins over (my nieces and a nephew) and we painted some pumpkins with them. Our garden produced 5 rather large pumpkins so the kids went to town painting. It was fun. I will post pictures later. Then later we made cupcakes and cookies and then Kaylee helped me frost cupcakes. She tended to eat more frosting then she put on then cupcakes. It was fun though.

So Ethan has been sneaking things lately. He is to creative about it though. In the past he snuck some otterpops and hid in the pantry to eat them. Lately it has been starburst. They are in The top of the pantry. Thursday while i was feeding Taylor, he got the stool and got a hold of the starburst. I knew what he was doing because i could hear him move the stool and open the pantry. So when he filled his pocket he came down by our rooms and said that he was going to play "hide from monsters" aka hiding under a blanket to eat the loot. I called him to my room. here is our conversation:

"what?"

"come here."

"why?"

"Come here."

"why?"

"I want to talk to you."

"just a minute"

then he ran to the kitchen to return the loot and then came back. I talked to him about it, he denied it at first but finally admitted it. He has taken candy a few times without asking lately. I have tried to explain to him that he shouldnt lie and he should be honest but i dont know if it has gotten through to him. I have told him it is not ok to steal and lie. I think what got to him was when i said "if you steel anymore you wont go trick-or-treating" hopefully that is encouragement enough. Hopefully i can explain things enough that he will understand.

I just looked over at my daughter who is 2 and saw her "feeding" her doll like mommy feeds the baby. how funny.

Taylor started solid food last night. Rob fed her and she loved it. We gave her Rice cereal mixed with apple sauce. I know it is 2 foods to start with but she really loved it. I hope the amount she ate doesnt make her have any problems.

Yesterday Ethan came into my room with a hand towel and wanted it tied around his chin and mouth so it would look like a beard and mustache so he could be santa. Then he and Kaylee went to their rooms grabbed all their blankets and "wrapped gifts" for me. They were playing "santa." It was cute. I ended up with quite the bundle of presents. They are some very creative kids. It is awesome.

My kids are great. They always keep me on my toes. Hopefully next week goes well because Rob will be out of town. well take care for now. 'til next time.

renee