I swore I would never...

USE ONE OF THESE! I thought they were so tacky and so mean. And now look at me. I went out and bought one after deciding that Cooper is crazy! He only lasts so long in a shopping cart or stroller. At first he would freak out when we put it on him, but now he knows that it means he gets a little more freedom. The girls like to put the leash on him to take him on a walk when we are out front. See we do have a family dog:)

He's 18 months!

It's official. Cooper is now legally old enogh to go to nursery. He's actually been going since the beginning of the year, but there is just something great about your baby turning 1.5! I have walked the halls at church for too long! I've enjoyed sitting in Sunday School and RS for the past 3 weeks. He wasn't great yesterday so I missed Sunday School. I'm gonna have to do the shove-in-the-door-and-run routine next week. I took like 20 pictures and he would not look at the camera. He is very in Little Einsteins right now. The smile is because there singin the "pat pat pat" song. He's a little stink but he's just too much fun to complain. Love you Coop! My baby's growing up. Guess it's time for another one:)

New hair

Before:

After:

Lindsay has been wanting a new do for awhile now. When I had Cooper she cut her own hair at my mom's so she had to get a short bob. It actually turned out so cute that we kept it like that for awhile. We were at my mom's today and Corri was there so Lindsay got her birthday present from Corri. This is my absolute most favorite haircut.

Happy Birthday LINDSAY!

My Baby girl is the big 0-5 today! I can still remember the morning she was born very clearly in my mind. The first thing I remember seeing when she came out were her cute chubby cheeks. As you can see not much has changed. She is very proud of her chubby cheeks. Lindsay is the sweetest, tenderhearted little girl. She always gives me hugs and tells me

"You're my best mom" or "you're my nicest mom." (I don't know how many other moms she has) When the new year came, Jeff woke up and was telling the girls Happy New Year. Lindsay came in my room and asked why he was saying that so I explained it was a new year. Her eyes got so big and she had this huge smile and said " Now I get to go to kindergarten today!? "We kept telling her that next year she got to go to kindergarten so it was next year now. She was kind of disappointed. Anyways we love our Lindsay, Lulu, Lulu Hall, Baby Cakes! Have a very Happy Birthday!

I heart my Daisy girl!

I taught her Primary class yesterday and we talked about choosing the right and what we can do to CTR. Well last night when all the kids were in bed I came down to finish cleaning the kitchen and I found this on my dry erase board. It is so cute because every other word is misspelled. I love it!

Soudns like good new year's resolutions to me. I'm out- it's time for family home evning!:)

Is This Dangerous?

(The soap not Cooper's shirt.) So I was on the phone with my mom telling her how happy Cooper was in nursery and the whole way home he was just smiling and laughing and singing. I noticed as I was talking to her it was very quiet upstairs where Cooper was. Of course the rest of the family was standing right next to me listening to my whole conversation, don't know why. So I get off the phone and I see Cooper sitting in the laundy room with the lid off the detergent with the scoop and he is picking it up with the scoop and dumping it on himself and the floor. As soon as he saw me he smiled and said "shovel". Just like he was at the park playing with sand. I grabbed him and hurried and put him in the tub. He had it all over his sweater and shoes and pants. I really hope he didn't put any of it in his mouth. But we cleaned him up and the mess and got him dressed in his new shirt. This is just for you Jillyn & Brandon.

New Primary Classes

Cooper started nursery today! He did awesome! The teacher said not onse did he cry or act sad. That's not surprising because he is always happy. I checked on him a couple of times and he had about 3 big trucks up on the table and he was playing with them, happy as can be all by himself. Lindsay is in CTR5 and says she has the nicest teacher. Daisy is in CTR8 and doesn't have a teacher yet so I subbed today. So she can say she has the nicest teacher too. I forgot to take pictures of them before church so I took them after. Cooper is in the tub because he was getting cleaned from the detergent. He looked really studly today in his argile sweater.

Happy New Year!

I was going to post pics from Christmas but Jillyn took more pics of my kids than I did so just look at her blog! I wanted to post some of my favorite pics from our Christmas cards so here you go. Ok so the top one isn't my favorite. That is just so you know why Cooper isn't in any of the other pictures. He wanted nothing to do with the camera.

Avery is here, finally!

My newest nephew is here! Actually my only niece or nephew on my side so I really feel like an aunt! Chad and Corri went to the hospital on Saturday afternoon. Corri got induced but Avery didn't make his way into the world until Sunday morning at 7:45 am. It was not the easiest delivery but Corri seemed like it was nothing! We're just glad he's here. We've been waiting and waiting! And he shares a bday with Joseph Smith. It's a good day!

Super glue fixes everything!

If you read my last post, you read how we scarred Lindsay. Well I don't think she is thinking of that anymore. She had her own traumatic event last night and today. She fell on the sidewalk and split her chin open. I didn't think it was that bad until I took her to the bathroom to clean it. It was a deep cut. I thought for sure we needed to take her to urgent care. We called our family and got their opinion. We ended up putting a butterfly bandage on it last night. Well I put it on becasue Jeff got "lightheaded". Poor thing:) My dad looked at it this morning and he thought it looked ok. They have a doctor in their ward and he is awesome. My mom took Lindsay over to his house this morning and he looked at it and said he could fix it. They met me at his office and he fixed it with super glue! Who knew? He glued it shut with that and some bandages that will disolve in a few days. I am so glad she didn't need stitches. Their doctor is the nicest guy and he took his time and talked to us and Lindsay and made it so nice for us! He is so awesome! Did I mantion that already? Lindsay was brave, but I know she would have been terrified if she needed stitches. It goew back to the needle thing.

"I'm Scared! I don't want to have a baby!"

Ok calm down, I'm not pregnant. This isn't about me. Last night we were at the Day's for dinner and Jeff was giving Chad and Corri birth advice. Mr. Avery is due any day. So as he is giving them advice he says "oh yeah and Chad when Corri gets her epideral you might want to leave the room(he gets queesy) because the needle is huge and it made me sick." I told him to be quiet for Corri's sake because we all know that a first time mother doesn't need to be told certain things. Well they kept all talking about the needle and the pain and all that good stuff. Well all of the sudden Lindsay starts screaming her head off so I turned to see if she fell or what and she belts out "I'm scared! I don't want to have a baby!" I had no clue she was listening or even understood what we were talking about. We were all trying so hard to not laugh at her. I was holding her, but I was dying on the inside. Wait to go Jeff, you just scarred our 4 year old for life. So I told her not to worry, she doesn't have to have a needle. She can be brave like grandma!

The Real SANTA

Lindsay is totally convinced that we have seen the real Santa. We were sitting at Taco Bell a couple of weeks ago with my mom and sisters. This old guy was sitting at the other table. Of course Cooper kept looking over and talking to him. When he got up and left, he stopped by our table and said hi to Lindsay then gave her a wallet sized picture and walked out. It was the guy(who did have a white beard) dressed up in his red suit. Lindsay's eyes got so big. We told her that it must be Santa. He was dressed in normal clothes because if the kids knew it was Santa they would be on their best behavior and he wants to see how kids really act. It worked like a charm. She could not wait to tell Daisy when she got home from school. We also saw him outside a grocery store. (fat guy with a white beard and a red long sleeve shirt with suspenders) Then this guy came to tune our new piano and he had a white beard and glasses. Lindsay said when she walked down the stairs he looked up and smiled at her.
So the moral of the story: Any fat guy that has a white beard and somewhat resembles Santa- tell your kids that is the REAL SANTA and he's watching. It' s worked like a charm for us!

Bling Bling

Lindsay is so stinkin funny! I was sitting at the table with Daisy and we had a whole bunch of change we were counting for homework. Lindsay comes in and sees it and it gives her an idea. She comes back with a piece of paper and gets to work. She shows me her artwork. It's a guy with a necklace around his neck with a dollar sign on it. She makes the peace sign with both hands and says "Bling, Bling!" Daisy and I were laughing so hard! Then she drew another guy and it had a think bubble and in the think bubble was a dollar sign. She said, "He's thinking of money. Bling, Bling" Where does she come up with this stuff?


Lindsay is qiute the artist. She really is so creative with her drawings. Some of my favorite drawings: The Jonas Brothers (one of them had curly hair), a spider web, flower with a lady bug on the leaf, fall tree, our family(jeff & cooper were indians). They drew what they were thankful for in sunbeams and when Jeff picked her up her teachers were telling him how impressed theywere with her drawings. All the other kids just scribbled something and Lindsay had drawn the whole family and a picture of her bike. It was so cute. When she brings me her pictures I can totally tell what it is before she tells me. She's awesome!

Daisy's prayer

Tuesday night I was putting the kids to bed and as I tucked Daisy in I looked at my finger and realized I didn't have my wedding ring on. I thought to myself that I didn't remember taking it off. So I went into my drawer where I put it and it wasn't there. I got a little panicked so I looked all through the drawer. I keep all my jewelry in the top drawer so I took it all out and it was gone. I started walking through the house. I went out to the family room and saw the towels still on the floor from C & L's bath. I thought I probably took it off when I put their lotion on. Well it was nowhere on the floor. I knew C found it and who know where it would be. Jeff was gone when this happened so I went into the girls room and asked if they had seen it. So they got up and looked for a little bit but I then told them to go back to bed. By now, I was crying and looking everywhere! In the back of my head I kept thinking go say a prayer, but I didn't. Jeff came home and I was trying to tell him why I was crying. So he started looking through all of Coopers cars on the floor. Anyways, about an hour later, I found it. It was on my floor under my bed next to one of Cooper's hot wheels. I was so happy. I went in to tell Daisy because I knew she would still be worrying about it. Her response was so sweet and innocent that I once again started to cry. She said "I know, I said a prayer." I'm so thankful for her and her understanding of prayer and that she had so much faith that if she said a prayer I would find my ring. She taught me a lesson that night.

Thanksgiving

We had a great holiday week. Hope yours was good too.
Here are some highlights of our week.
1. Daisy got the whole week off
2. We got to sleep in every day of the week.
3. I didn't have to cook dinner.
4. We had yummy food at the Hall's
5. Then we had leftovers that night at the Hall's
6. I took Daisy, Lindsay, and Becky to see Enchanted.(so cute by the way)
7. Jeff did my Black Friday shopping for me so I could sleep in. I gave him a list of what I needed at each store. He came back with all of it too. Bonus!
8. We got our family pictures taken for our Christmas cards. Thanks Emily!
9. Jeff got up early on Saturday, went to Walmart and bought icicle lights, and then came home and put them up. I was once again sleeping in. Boy I sound lazy.
10. The Days finally came home from Utah. Lindsay asked me almost everyday if we could go th grandma Shellee's.
11. Sunday ended our fun filled week. As we went to church and enjoyed the day with our family, I realized that we have so much to be thankful for. I love this time of year!

No No

ok I don't mean to keep posting about Cooper but he is at that stage where he is learning so much and he is a crack up. We went up to Showlow again last weekend. This time we stayed with Devin (THANK YOU SO MUCH) The dogs got a little too comfortable with Cooper and Cooper with the dogs. Anyways, Bella (girl corgi) growles at Cooper everytime he got too close. So she's growling, Cooper is laughing, and Devin says NO! to Bella. So Cooper would walk around to the dogs and point at them and say no no! Even if they weren't doing anything. So now if he hears a dog bark, he first barks like a dog, then says no no!
Not to leave Daisy & Lindsay out, because I think they are so stinkin funny too- Bella & Lilly (girl bull dog) don't always get along. Total girl fights. They would start growling and barking at each other and I look out the window and there is Daisy & Lindsay in the middle of it telling them to stop and be nice to each other. Then Lilly goes off to the side and cries and Daisy is over there comforting her telling her it's ok. I was laughing so hard. It was total girl drama out there. I just stayed inside and let all 4 drama queens work it out.

Happy Birthday Marmee!

Today is my mom's birthday. She is on her way to Utah so hopefully she will see this when she is up there. So here's to my mom!
She homeschools, runs a business, runs errands, cooks, remodels, reads, teaches nursery, babysits, vt's, goes to the temple, has FHE with the family, has Sunday dinner for us every week, and will always find the time to hang out with her kids and grandkids. She is very giving and always happy, and has patience and a positive attitude towards life. I hope to be like her someday. I love you mom! Happy Birthday!

Where's your eye?

we've be trying to teach Cooper where his eye, nose, mouth, etc is. If we say where is your nose or mouth he just smiles. If we say where is your eye? He says "eye" as he puts his finger in his ear. It is so funny! If he hears the word eye of I in a conversation, he says "eye" putting his finger in his ear.We get the biggest kick out of it because if you ask him where anything else is he just stares at you and smiles, but the second eye is said, there goes his finger.

Friday I'm in Love

So I have this song set in my memory on my Sirius Satellite. So every Friday morning I hear it on the way to taking Daisy to school. Today it is very fitting because it is our 11th anniversary. Yep count it, 11 years of wedded bliss! ok maybe not, but it's still been fun! Jeff always finds me the perfect card on our anniversary. This year it said A kiss is just a kiss. A sigh is just a sigh. The inside says But a good loud snore means you're married. Amen to that! I still love you though sweetie! Happy Anniversary! Happy Friday!

Happy Halloween

Today is the real deal but I' kind of halloweened out. We had our party for church Friday night complete with dinner, carnival and trunk or treat. Let me tell you Daisy scored. She went around 3 times. Her bucket was overflowing. Then Saturday night we went to mom's trunk or treat. I had my halloween party yesterday for preschool. Lindsay has her party today for grandma's preschool and I am going to Daisy's class this afternoon for her party. The thought of having to dress my kids up again tonight just doesn't excite me too much. We have enough candy to last us through the millenium!

that feeling

You know that uneasy, queesy(sp?) feeling? I only get it a couple of times. Like when I am pregnant and have to get my blood drawn, or at the hospital when I am going to have my baby and they have to give me an IV. Then of course I want an epideral so it's the same feeling. If I ever think about having to give birth, I seriously feel so sick to my stomach and I get weak. I also can't watch show where they are doing any kind of surgery. Jeff loves those but if I'm watching he can't turn to those. And although I've had 3 kids I can't watch Baby Story or anything like that. That feeling comes back and I am once again queesy. Well I have ofund another thing that I can add to my list. Pulling out my child's tooth. Daisy just lost her 9th tooth last night, thanks to me. Her own dad was too queesy to do it so I had to step up. It was hanging by a thread and I kept saying let me just pull it. I've said this with all the other teeth too. She always said no because she was too scared and she eventually got it out. So last night she says to pull it so I get the kleenex and I pulled a little bit and I could hear it coming out. Gross! But I did it! Now I have to quit talking about it because I'm feeling a little weak. Gotta go lie down.

I could write a book

I've taught preschool with my mil for the last 7 years. This year I started my own. Let me tell you, with that many 3-5 yr olds you can imagine some of the things I hear. I have this cute spider that you put candy in. It has a button and when you push it the lid opens and shuts and the mouth moves and it sings "I want candy". Well they love it and have to push it while we are having snacks. So we're sitting there Thursday and this girl starts belting out at the chorus "I want panties!" I looked at my friend and we lost it. I want panties too, cause I about peed mine. She was so serious!

Showlow

I took the kids and went to Showlow over our October break. My mom, Jamee & Toree drove up with us too. Devin & Kristin just moved their from Payson. They had a cabin for us to stay in. It was just down the road from their house. We had a ton of fun! Thanks so much to D & K for letting us come up and crash your joint and wild up your dogs! Here are some highlights from our trip...
1. Wii Bowling! We all thought we were so good we decided to do the real thing. That leads us to #2.
2. Real bowling. We knew we were in trouble when Devin & Kristin pulled out their own balls and shoes. Yes they are good.
3. For me, putting the kids to bed at 8 pm every night and then playing cards until midnight every night. It was a blast. And I even didn't mind when everyone laughed at me when I shuffled. I guess I don't do it right. You think someone would have told me sometime in my 30 years.
4. Devin took the girls on the golf course. (they live on one) He would hit the ball then they would run and try and find it. Then he took them to the lake to fish for golf balls. They came home with a good collection.
5. For Cooper, it was watching the dogs eat, poke the dogs, and play in the rocks in Devin's front yard, backyard, the cabin yard, anywhere there were rocks, Cooper was there.
6. Riding the golf carts at "The Ranch" and trying to break in to the air hockey machine. Oh and feeding the fish with dog food.
7. We just had so much fun being up in the mountains and enjoying the company. I don't think I've laughed so much for so long. We would be playing cards and we would be laughing so hard we couldn't breathe. So thanks to everyone who made this trip fun and memorable! Can't wait to do it again soon!
8. I forgot to mention it was Kristin's birthday! We decorated her porch with balloons and had dinner. Jamee made her famous cookies and let me tell you, I think they were the best we've ever had!

general conference

Don't you just love g.c.? You can lounge in your pj's all day and it's a good excuse to not to have to go anywhere. And best of all(I know this sounds bad) you don't have to go to church. No meetings, no waking kids up to go, no walking the hall for 3 hours. I was so excited for this weekend. We went up to watch conference in the mountains at the cabin. Just the 5 of us. I was reaady for a weekend of R&R. Well we had a weekend of that, however, we didn't get to watch conference. Total let down. We didn't have the remote for the satellite to set it up. Jeff went to the dollar store in town and found a universal remote. It almost worked. So here it was 10am on Saturday and wondering if we should go home. But we decided to stay and relax. Good thing there's Tivo, right? So after feeling guilty, we decided to make the most of it and we had a great time, and yes I stayed in my pj's the whole time. I did take a showers though. And Jeff even went to the preisthood session all by himself. What a guy!

Updates

our computer is officially broken so I haven't been blogging for awhile. I need to give an update on the kids.
Daisy is enjoying 2nd grade. She is quite the fashion queen. She lays out her clothes the night before. This takes lots of time, making sure it is just right. She just finished a 6 week choir class. They did their performance 2 times for the school and 1 at night for the parents. She was so fun to watch. She used to be so shy to get up in front of people, but she was up there dancing and singing. She has really come out of her shell this year. We just started reading the BofM with her. She actually reads it herself. We are proud of her.
Lindsay is such a goof ball. Daisy is silly too, but she knows the appropriate times to not be that way.(church & school) Lindsay doesn;t get it. At church she came home and said our teacher said 3 strikes and you go to your dad. Lindsay says, very proud of herself, I got 2! She makes all the other kids laugh at preschool. She is very funny I must say but she is also very sensitive. If you raise your voice just a little, she takes it personal and cries. Hopefully by kindergarten she will figure out there is a time to be silly and a time to listen,(yeah right)
Cooper has a battle wound on his nose. He runs full speed and laughs. That means he wants to someone to chase him. Well he ran and fell right on the sliding glass door track and has a huge mark down his nose. The kind of funny thing is nobody was even chasing him. He also thinks it is so funny to turn the TV off and run away. He seriously did this for 1 hour the other day until I just told Lindsay to go watch her movie in my room. He can say bath, ball, bus,(they all sound the same ba, but he uses them at the right times), spongebob, (thanks to his sisters), car, shoes, hello, bye, daisy, lindsay, mom, dad,bottle(even though we don't use them anymore, he says it for cup). He is a riot!