Flashback Friday - Happy 10th Birthday Jade!

Things I love about Jade........

If anyone has heard Jade laugh, she has an infectious laugh, we just love it.

Even when she is unhappy, she is still cute.

Surprisingly, she used to LOVE pink. I love that she gave me the time to be a mom of a pink princess, and now I get to be a mom of the most creative, diverse, and independent individual who does NOT like pink.

But she has ALWAYS been unique in her choice of fashion expression and being silly.

Jade loves to dance and be with her friends, I love the lack of inhibition, she will just let loose if the mood strikes her.

She is always creative, artistic, and thoughtful, this is the first cake she decorated for her brother when she was 6 and it was his 1st birthday.

Jade has always loved animals, she is very sensitive to how they are treated and what happens to them. She is especially interested in horses, but most of you know that already. :)

She has a sweet spirit about her and deep faith.

I love the tender relationship she has with her dad, she has been a daddy's girl from day one.

I love what a big help she is to me with her younger brothers, I know even though they fight half the time, she loves them and will always look out for them.

She has been on a computer since she was 18 mo old, sometimes I think she understands it better than I do. She is quite witty, just check out her blog and you will see evidence of her computer skills and her humor.

She has loved school since she started pre-K. It is rare when I need to bug her about her homework.

I am so grateful for the blessing of having Jade for a daughter, it has been one of the major highlights of my life, and continues to be every day.

It has been the greatest delight to watch her grow and develop.

She will always be our princess, even if she never sets a toe in a frilly pink dress ever again. What a girl!

We love you so much Jade, and we are SO proud of the unique little lady you are!

The Mom Opera

I love this! A friend of mine posted this on her blog, and I just HAD to do the same! Enjoy!

Little Ed at 5 months

Edmund Cole was 5 months yesterday. It sure went by fast. I thought since I have not written in his baby book, or even taken any professional pictures, I should journal a bit of what he is up to. He is holding his bottle, half the time, loves to grab his feet, and smiles a ton at just about anyone who takes the time to say hello to him. :)

Bald, bald, bald.

He sure is a happy baby on the floor. He was rolling over, (or falling), when we put him on his tummy around 5 weeks, but now if we put him on his back, he just flips right over to his tummy and starts scootin around trying to get to me, or get something to put in his mouth. This really snuck up on me, I still have no idea what I'm going to do about a gate at the top of the stairs.

He is laughing hard here and getting up on his knees. Strong little tyke, just like Josh was. Josh started crawling in his 5th month. Eddie just seems too young for that, but I guess I can't stop him!

I have to say a special "thank you" to Jade for being the photographer, she took all these pictures of Eddie, Josh, and myself.

Josh just bought a transformer toy with his birthday money, and is calling it "my precious", he is such a mamas boy, but really he is ALL Bill.

Kelton's BD party

I have some very dear friends from my time in Vegas, one of them is my "creative kids party/gourmet cooking" buddie, Juliann. They spend each summer here in Utah with family while her husband works. Every year they have her son Kelton's birthday party with family. It has proven to be a treat I think I will look forward to every summer they come. She has a huge family, so much fun! She did a "superman" theme party this year, made personalized capes for each child, and some cute "super-power" games. I was Kelton's nursery teacher when he and Josh were in it together, so it's really fun to see how much he has grown.
Juliann is quite the creative sewing diva, I can't believe she made over 20 personalized capes! The kids are in line for one of the superman games. Josh had SO much fun, he has been talking about it for the past few days. (the party was on saturday)

Jade and Eliza are just a year apart, Eliza is a fellow budding artist. :)

It was a great party, made me miss my Vegas friends, but it also reminded me how blessed I feel to have such good friends, and opportunities to keep in contact with each of you. That has been one of the best parts about living in so many places, I have made some treasured friends, and I look forward to opportunities to get together again, even if there are years between visits. Thank you for the friendships, (you know who you are)!

Back to Blogging and getting caught up!

Wow, this is going to be a long series of posts, but I have alot to catch up on! The most recent shocker is that I cut my hair, all of it. That's one goal down, the rest to go. I'm afraid it has less to do with confidence and more to do with getting fed up with the hair loss that happens after a baby. At any rate, this is the new me. It was VERY liberating, and I feel even more motivated to get back into running. Jade took these pictures so I could show off my new look. :-) It's different, but I'm glad I did. At first, Josh said I had silly hair and he didn't want to kiss me. Jade said I was the coolest mom and she wants "boy hair" too. I'm happy to say that Josh has warmed up to the look, told me I was beautiful this morning, and even gave me his version of a shoulder rub to prove he still loves me. :)
Sorry, in this whole series of posts, I do not have ONE single picture of Bill. He is just so busy these days, but I'm sure I will catch him at some point and get a picture. For now, it's just the kids and I. (and the house, and Wayne) :)

Eddie pics

Just an update with random pics of Eddie. He is growing so much, it still amazes me how fast babies change.

He is with one of his other beautiful cousins, Lennon, at a Reunion.

Eddie asleep in his Amby bed.

He seems to be teething, we are just waiting for those teeth to pop out!

Little Ed with his grandma on their Prep-day, (their day off), for their mission. "Big Ed" is in the background. :)

That's it for now, I'll take more soon. :)

Kids "secret" clubhouse

This is the underside of the deck. Around the back is a gate that opens to store the lawn mower, etc. on the side of the house under the deck. We thought that was the only way in or out of that blocked off area. Then I became a genius for a moment and figured out that these two panels of lattice right under the stairs are on tracks and can roll to the side. Amazing! We just need to separate the side where we keep our yard equipment, build a few things for the kids, and they have their "secret" clubhouse with the "disappearing" wall.

We are letting them keep all our left-over junk like old toys, computer, video games, etc. and use as "equipment" in their hide-out. They had a blast with it yesterday, I hope the interest lasts.

Joshua's "Driving Birthday"

Well, from the last post about Joshua's BD, you know that he said this was his "driving BD" because we spent the day driving and moving all of our things from my in-laws house to our new house. My brother Enos and his wife Lindsay helped us move, and Lindsay made Josh a Spongebob cake at 10pm that night so we could still celebrate. THANK YOU GUYS!!!

Josh wanted Spongebob legos like his cousin Max had, so he got 'em.

Josh and his auntie playing with spongebob's eyes.

Jade and Lindsay made a way cool cake for Joshy.

Josh likes money. He likes to count money. Enos and Lindsay gave him $5 dollars in ones, he was SO excited! We felt bad because Bill's mother gave him a $20 bill, and he looked at it and said, "oh cool, a dollar!". It took him a while to figure out that a single 20 bill is more than 5 ones, he is at that stage where he likes to lay each bill out and count it. What 5 yr old doesn't?

"walking in a Paper-Wonderland"

I tried to lighten the mood while I was manic and going through boxes, so I let the kids have some fun with the small mountain of packing paper I had built up one morning. Those of you who have moved with movers, or military moves, know this is but a fraction of the packing paper one unearths as one unpacks. The kids kept singing to the Christmas tune, but changed the words, to "Walking in a Paper-Wonderland". A picture speaks a thousand words. :)

It was a tad emotional to know this is the last time in my kids childhood that they will experience this kind of fun with a move. We do not plan on moving again for as long as we can, at least not until they are in their teens at the earliest.

Semi-put-together home

Welcome to our home...... (Wayne must approve of you first)




I thought I would start out by showing the second worst room in the house. (The first is my art studio, but that might take months to get through!) The Family Room. It's downstairs and this is about 1/3 of it. There is a little reading nook around the corner, a bathroom, TV/entertainment area, a closet for all the games and toys, along with what you see here, the kids library and homework station. I have alot to do still with unpacking and organizing, but the kids love this room, it's all theirs.

This is one of the walls in Bill's office, (I mean his "cave"), and I love this painting he bought in China. We just picked it up from being framed last night, it is pretty big, and he LOVES it. If you google "Chinese art Yue Minjun" or "Chinese smiling man art" it might come up. :)

This is a view of part of our back yard. Our front yard is much larger, but this is where the kids love to practice soccer and play under the deck that wraps around the side of the house. It's hard to see clearly, but we loved how the property is all landscaped already, and other than the lawn, it's pretty self-maintaining.

The next few pictures are of my favorite parts of the house, (for now, until I get my art studio set up). The previous owners took out the wall and opened everything up when they renovated this part of the house. I have fabric laying all over the place and clipped onto the curtains while I try to figure out what I'm going to use as far as fabric and color goes. I am also waiting for a china hutch to surface on ksl.com, hence the use of garage utility shelves for china dishes. :)

One of the many things we love about this house and location, are all the developed trees everywhere. It reminds me of my childhood visits to my grandmother's home in Gilroy, CA, there were SO many trees everywhere. The previous owners also left about 10 hooks on and around the trees outside the major windows for bird feeders, so we get a bunch of birds fluttering around throughout the day. So far it has proved to be a very calming place to live. At the end of the day, Bill and I will just walk around the house in disbelief that this is actually OUR home, and it's permanent, no reassignments in the next year or two, or even 20!