Our Family

 

Our family has changed so much since I have posted anything real. Here is a quick update on all of us.

Jason is now the Head Custodian at a local elementary school. Over the summer the girls decided they wanted to go to the school also so we transfered them over and they love being able to see Daddy at work. WIth his new job he decided to take some time off school so that he can get things settled at the school but that is okay I get to see him more. He loves guns and shooting. He actually has free time now that he doesn't work 3 jobs so he has had time to spend with us lately and we love it! He loves to read and watch Star Trek but not more then his family. 

Katrina loves her babies! I get to stay home with my kids but since 3 out of the 4 are in school I get to have more quiet time to myself which is really weird. I am in school full time and at times I hate it because I just want to play, I know I need to do it. I am a great procrastinator.  I am so excited for the holiday season and excited even more to get more sleep as Axel gets older.

Novalee is in 4th grade and loves it. She loves her new school and loves her new teacher. Novalee comes home excited all the time about the new things that she is learning in school.  She is at a really fun age where she isn't a little kid anymore but not a teenager and not quite a preteen. She loves to do her hair and anything with fashion. She loves to write in her diary and loves to help out with the little boys. Novalee recently discovered the Fablehaven series which is one of my favorites and I can't wait to read those with her. She loves math and is really good at it. She likes to read to her brothers and sister.

Harley is a little mommy. I worry sometimes that Axel prefers her to me. She also loves her new school and LOVES her teacher. She is currently the student of the week at her school and we got to go to McDonalds yesterday to celebrate (her choice) she loves to read also and loves to take turns reading with me. Harley loves to play on the monkey bars at school. She loves to rock Axel to sleep and can do it magically fast.

Gunnar is now in preschool 4 days a week and a bus picks him up.He loves it too!  How lucky am I? I am trying to get him back to napping but its hard since I am apparently so much fun, he can't sleep. He loves superheroes. He loves to sword fight and shoot guns (most fun to shoot is at dad, with nerf guns of course). He still loves to dress up everyday and Jason has started buying replacement costumes for all the ones he has worn out. He has slept in his own big boy bed which is  a fort bed since a little before Axel was born.  He is finally starting to want to play with other kids and its great!

Axel is getting so big! Last Thursday (9/23) he started crawling and doesn 't want to stop. Ever since he was born he wants to see what is going on and as soon as he wakes up he wants to go. Luckily now he can crawl and go pretty fast. He is still having skin problems and the worse is around his neck which constantly itches but we are going back to the dr for that tomorrow. He pulled himself up to standing yesterday which was really cute! He loves to play outside and is just a happy baby.

Test Post

This is just a test post, let me know if you can read this in your email!!

I work for the Devil

Gunnar told me I work for the Devil. Does he realize what a mommy does?

Not busy just tired

Okay I am setting my blog back to private in a few days so let me know if you even read this anymore since I haven't had much time to blog. I am also on a new computer now so I have will have to redownload the Gunnar movie since that is why I made it open in the first place. I don't know where any of the pictures are or if they are all back on my computer but I just have to find time to go through what Jason put on the computer. When our computer crashed I was so nervous that we lost all of our pictures but we were able to get most off the hard drive.
In case you didn't know having 4 kids is harder work then I thought. I can't seem to keep up with what they are all doing at once and Axel who  did so great the first few months has now decided to wake up every 2 hours. Our dr told us to let him cry it out and it will take 3 nights but because of other reasons Jason and I have gotten little sleep the last few nights. We were so tired that we weren't making sense to each other. I woke up Wednesday night when I heard Jason come in from football and I couldn't remember who he was for a minute. We finally put on a cartoon series on for the older kids and we went to bed last night at 7:30 so even with Axel waking up I got pretty good sleep. He only wakes up for about 10 minutes. Maybe next weekend with Labor Day off we will let him cry it out since he sleeps in our room.
The girls are back in school and they love it! They go to school where Jason works and they are in heaven. It is a great school. Its weird because Jason will tell me to wait in the Teachers Lounge but I feel like I shouldn't wait in there because I am a parent too not just waiting for my husband to get off work. Yesterday I felt dumb because I brought Jason lunch after I had run a bunch of errands and I was so tired. The roads were blocked off by my house from an accident that knocked the power out, school was going to be out in 45 minutes so it would have been a huge waste of time to go home sit for 15 minutes then come back. So I stayed there. Luckily everyone is really nice. Anyways I know this is boring but the camera is on the couch like 10 feet away from me and I don't want to go get it.

This Summer

Alot has happened and I should put the many pictures that I took up, but that involves being on blogger instead of netflix, hulu or what I should be doing, homework. So for now imagine that you are looking at pictures from the 2 sessions of swimming lessons, the video that we made when Aunt Bonny came over, or even pictures from Novalee's baptism/Axels blessing. I will get to that someday because those are actually really cute. For now I am going to go back and help the kids count down the days until school starts because while they are excited to go to school and that is the reason for the countdown to them, I will be counting down the days until I have some sanity back.

News Flash

Gunnar just woke up and told me that I am boring because I clean and he wants to do something fun like watch a movie. Sorry Gunnar.

Also in case you wanted to know, when Gunnar takes his clothes off, he looks like a werewolf.

Oh I'm not pregnant! I just thought a ultrasound of Axel was fun to put up.

Dear Jason

The house is unbelievably hot tonight, please come home from work early and hook up the AC. Otherwise we are getting a hotel for the night.
Love
your extremely HOT wife

Pictures of Arizona

Here are some pictures of our trip. We had so much fun for such a quick trip. My Aunt Laura and Uncle David were so nice to let us stay at their house. The kids loved it and miss them already (mostly their dog).

Busy busy!

Our family has been so busy lately, however as of last Wednesday school is out for me for the semester. I might do summer school but I need a break for now, I haven't really had a chance to just be a normal mommy in a long time and I just need to focus on my babies and not homework for a while. Not to mention Jason is working 3 jobs right now since summer break is coming up.
We had such a fun weekend!! I am too tired right now do put all the pictures up but here is a blurry picture of an explanation why. Me with one of my favorite people of all time. I will put the rest up later. Forgive my look I had just traveled 12 hours with 4 kids one of them 2 and 1/2 months old and I just had a baby.

Boys and their Toys

This last weekend we went to Gunnison to spend time with some of our good friends. Harley went shooting with Jason. She had a lot of fun. The boys, Novalee and I stayed at our friends house, while I watched my friend make the food for the barbecue. They got back from the range and we ate, played games, and Jason wanted to get home before dark but we had to take pictures of him and his gun first. We didn't leave before dark but luckily we only saw one deer in the road and were able to swerve to not hit it.

For those who are wanting to see Axel

Before The Baby

The week before Axel came Jason had some time off work since there was a school break. We went to Chuck E Cheese since Gunnar now sleeps in his own bed. Jason was also asked to baptize his nephew Tru. It was pretty neat!

We were at the hospital around 7. I got hooked up to the pitocin and the IV. My dr came and broke my water. Of course I had the epidural. By about 10 I was at a 4. I was so excited because I thought that meant we would get to see Axel sometime in the afternoon. However Axel had other plans. He decided sometime after 10 to stick his hand above his head which slowed the labor down and I was at a 4 until at least 4 in the afternoon. By 5 I had went to a 6 which was so exciting because the dr had been thinking that we would have to do a c section just in case there was a problem with Axel's hand and arm coming out first. At about 5:45 I started feeling so miserable and they checked and it was time to get the dr. I went from a 6 to a 9 almost 10 in 45 minutes. The kids rushed up to the hospital with our mom's. The dr came and at about 6:15 pm we had Axel! Nothing is better then seeing your baby for the first time. The kids were in the room while I had Axel but they were busy playing games. When Axel was born they were so happy to see him! He was born healthy and adorable with a heart shaped birthmark on his chest. He has been such a blessing to us. He was on bilirubin blanket for a week and a half. That was an after effect from the blood imcompatibility problem we were having. Everthing is good now and we love our Axel!

I will update soon!!

Axel is here and is great. He was born just over 2 weeks ago on Feb 16. He is so adorable. I will post more later.

Fighting

Harley is coloring and telling us that she is not using her imagination while coloring its just how it needs to be, Novalee tells us she is using her imagination. Don't you love how our arguements start out?

Today my kids love me, well they LOVE to make me feel guilty I think because they know how to do it so well.
The rule at our house is if you want to have Mommy curl your hair before school you need to get right up and get ready. I knew Novalee wanted to curl her hair today so this morning I went in at 6 and turned the light on, Harley was already awake anyways so I said, "Novalee you need to get up now if you want your hair curled" I went in there at least 5 more times. At 6:40 I gave up trying to get her up since I can't do more then tell her to get up over and over again and I got in the shower. I got out and she was up and dressed and said, "Mommy! I am ready for my hair to be curled!" I told her, "Sorry, you should have gotten up when I came in the first time" Her smile instantly faded and had this look of disappointment on her face. I hate seeing my kids sad so I told her to finish getting ready while the curlers warmed up and we would just take Daddy to work with the curlers in her hair. We got Novalee's hair in curlers in time, had to fight with Harley to get dressed even though she was up, she didn't want to get dressed because "I like to tell her what to do, and I control her life" something like that.
We take Jason to work, run back home, take the curlers out, get back in the car, and Harley tells me that she wants her hair curled too. It is after 8 by now and if you have ever seen Harley's hair, it is incredibly thick and takes a long time to curl. I sighed and said, "well we don't have time if you had asked earlier I could have done it but can I please do something else to your hair? At least let Mommy brush it?" Harley goes to school everyday with this wild hair and bangs that are growing out. She looks at me and said, "Well I asked you before to curl my hair." I didn't remember that and she said, "I came in when you were sleeping last night and asked you" I smiled and said , "Harley that doesn't count if I am asleep" then she said, "well it wasn't last night and you were awake and playing with Daddy" Then she got a sad look on her face. I HATE SAD FACES! I didn't curl her hair but I told her if she got up early tomorrow we can curl it. She seemed halfway okay with that. While we were driving to school, Novalee was sitting in the front seat and kept moving the rearview mirror to look at herself in the mirror. I don't live far from the school at all but it was driving me crazy, so I told her to stop looking at herself in the mirror. She moved the mirror again and started posing. Finally I just said, "Novalee I am sick of this stop it! This is ridiculous! don't sit there and look at yourself" Another sad face.
Gunnar and I got home, he wanted to way a dinosaur movie which was fine so I could clean. I put it on and started cleaning. His movie finished and came out and wanted to play preschool. I was in the middle of cleaning out the oven so I told him to hold on. He said okay then kept asking if I was done. Sad face.
Novalee JUST called me and told me I need to come down right away to sign a paper for the science fair that she wants to be in, doesn't know what she wants to do for it but she wants to be in the science fair which is around the time that I am due. Jason told her he would help her with it but I apparently needed to go down this minute and sign the paper. Gunnar just fell asleep, I have to go pick them up in 10 minutes anyways can't I come later, I hear a big sigh then with this sad voice, "Okay Mommy" I tell her it will be okay and she can still do the science fair, then we hang up I call the school and talk to the teacher in charge about it, and I can come sign the paper tomorrow.
My kids know how to get me good.

3 WEEKS!!

This week, I have 3 weeks left. Which finally doesn't seem so long! Its great knowing that I could have him any day, which in reality I most likely won't until my due date, but still I am so excited. I still haven't gotten around to taking a pregnant picture of me which is okay since I look miserable everyday. I put makeup on one day last week, went to check on the girls in their afterschool art class, they didn't see me, but when I picked them up, they ran out to the car asking why I had makeup on. I guess the word got around. We are pretty much ready for the baby to get here. Well, I guess as ready as we are going to be. We bought all the baby things a few weeks ago and yesterday we stocked our pantry and freezer. There is a store going out of business by Jason's work so we have a huge supply of baby lotion, they were pretty much out of diapers by the time we went over there but Jason was able to buy a few packages. We were also able to stock up on non food items. After being too tired to go to the store for groceries for the last 2 months, it is SO nice to finally have food in this house again!
I am waiting for something to be shipped from Walmart and I want to get a digital camera still but we have time.
So lucky me I get to wait for the next few weeks, trying to keep up on housework and homework for me and the kids. Crossing my fingers that pretty soon my baby will be here!!!

Suprise I am Reading!

While I have always loved to read, I don't do enough of it, I have been reading this good book called Princess of the Midnight Ball, by Jessica Day George. She came to Dixon and signed books and Jason bought I think one of all hers and that is the one I started reading. Its a different version of the 12 dancing princesses story.
Today though I have been reading an old Ensign that was near the computer, its Feb 2007 about Temples. If anyone hasn't read that lately, it had really good article and I am glad I found it today. Here is the online link (hope it works!!) http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&sourceId=933b3c7842470110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=ccb1d48fa58db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Harley is 7!!

These last week has been beyond hectic. However, Harley still turned 7 and had so much fun! She is such a fun girl! She is such a loving girl and is getting to show more and more personality lately. We love her so much!! We went to Classic Skating on Monday which was so much fun. Only Novalee and Harley went out and used scooters. Daddy and Gunnar went a little wild with the Deal or No Deal game on the side to earn tickets for prizes. She got a Disney Polly Pocket castle that we have been keeping hidden since last year with 2 princess sets to go with it from Jason and I. Also thanks to some wonderful grandparents, she also got a creepy doll that won't stop making noises and a Hannah Montana microphone. Don't you love loud toys? I don't have a lot of pictures since I forgot my camera at everything we did but even though tears came and went and then came again, she loved her birthday!! To end it all we ended her birthday celebration on Wednesday by finishing up their room and going to our new favorite place for dessert.

Things I Have Learned Watching Jr Jazz

I am sitting at Dixon watching 4th grade boys playing basketball. We came to visit Jason and he gets home in a little over an hour so I am not going to go home and then come back to pick him up. Its so interesting sometimes to watch these how these parents talk to these kids playing basketball. I used to come with Jason all the time but as our kids have gotten older and don't just sit and watch anymore. The first year Jason did this I think was the hardest for us to get used to because the coaches would not only yell at Jason because he used to keep score and supervise the gym but they would just be so mean to the refs and the kids. Fights break out between adults watching and refs have quit because of the parents being so mean to them. Now Jason can take it all under control no problem. There was this guy who coached for a few years and I guess after he was kicked out of the games so many times, he wasn't allowed to be a coach anymore for that neighborhood. However he would still come to the games to "help". One family that we saw for a few years had a really mean dad. I would have thought it was just during basketball but, when I was working at Dixon as an aid, I worked with one of his sons and his sons friends that didn't know that I knew the family would tell me how mean his dad was all the time. Talking to Jason about it at home, he told me how they had discussed the family at a school meeting.
We have gotten to know a lot of nice people through this job and while I sometimes wish Jason would tell them he can't work, he does a great job at it.
The game just finished and we are waiting for another game to start. one thing I am sure of right now, my kids will never be in a sport where the coaches act the way they do.

When Gunnar Grows Up!

(He wasn't really asleep in this picture, I told him he had to take it off around his neck but he wanted a picture first)

Today while we were waiting for our ramen noodles to cool down at lunch Gunnar was telling me what he was going to do when he grows up. The majority of it was about Jason and I.

Gunnar: When I grow up I am going to slap you and Daddy.

Me: Why we don't slap you

Gunnar: I am going to slap your faces

Me: We don't do that to you why would you do that to us?

Gunnar: You are mean and put me in time out

Me: Well you don't make good choices and have to go to time out

Gunnar: You and Daddy are mean and I am going to slap you and Daddy and Novalee because she tattles.

Aren't I a great parent

So maybe

So maybe I have been up since 3 this morning, I felt fine, just couldn't sleep. It may be the messy house that we are trying to get back to normal, it may be because I am 33 weeks pregnant but it most likely is that even though I had a Spicy Chicken sandwich from Wendy's yesterday, I still am craving one, so maybe I will take Jason to work today just so I can go get another one.

Christmas spoiling and other things

Some of you might want to see a post about Christmas, being woken up at 2 am I took one close up picture of each of the kids and blurry ones too. From then on until about 6 we were putting things together and taking things out of boxes.
We have spent the last 2 weeks cleaning and putting things out in the shed. We still have more to do. We are getting Gunnar a "fort" bed which is a loft bed with space for his new playsets underneath, however to do that Jason is going to have to put it together and buy 3 new mattresses since the girls need that also. We told the girls that they can get new sheet sets too since Gunnar is getting one. That means no more toddler bed for my getting bigger boy. This project will take a whole day to get set up not to mention the time to shop and wait for the kids to pick out what they want on their beds.
I think it should go with out the pictures though that my kids had a great Christmas, the girls each got dolls that need diaper changes, numerous barbies and a new Snow White cottage. They got things for their dolls like a playpen and a stroller and high chairs. They got little princess playsets that haven't been played with. Novalee was lovingly given a microphone from Grandpa and Kathy. Still don't like that we were woken up Christmas morning over and over from Novalee telling the other kids what to do. Gunnar got more Bakugans then we can count in case you don't know what those are, we called those monster balls at first, its supposed to be part of a game but we haven't figured that out yet Gunnar just wants to have his monsters attack us and if we want to win we are told thats not how you play, he got a batcave, a dinosaur castle and a toystory playset with figures for all those different playsets with them. Luckily we got those ones last and they came with the figures so we didn't have to buy any extra. That is only a small portion of what they were given for Christmas. Maybe I will take pictures of the kids playing with their new toys later, maybe not. I still have a lot to do to get ready for the baby.We finally got the carseat this weekend and now I need to go buy some clothes. We didn't save much from Gunnar but thats okay its just the matter of having enough energy to go shopping.
Jason took the girls to get their nails done last night and they had so much fun! They can't wait to go to school tomorrow and show them off. I wanted to get a mani and pedi but since I am pregnant that wasn't an option. Gunnar and I went and got ice cream and Jason sat with the girls and helped them pick out their colors and all that fun stuff.
School starts tomorrow Jason and I are both going to only go part time this semester. It will be nice to have a chance to clean the house without my kids following us pulling stuff out as we clean. I have loved having Jason home but time is up and he needs to go back to work, and the girls get to go back to school.