My Little Climber

This is why I am taking Abbie somewhere else for her official one year pictures!! I can't deal with both sides of taking pictures when it is my own child and she is as active as Abbie is. I swear, you give her a chair, box, stool, anything you might possibly climb onto and she is climbing it. I really wanted her standing by the bench, but since she can just simply walk away, there was little hope for that shot and I gave up after only just a few minutes. I did get a good one thank goodness so I can give up until I take her to a studio next week. (I have only been trying to get a picture of her for the past 2 weeks, I have tried about 6 times to get a decent shot of her to no avail, she just doesn't want to have to hold still that long.
The stress I put myself through for pictures...Jake tries really hard to not be around when I am taking pictures cause he hates it so bad. But I got a good one!! Ya!!!!

Lexie's Party

Lexie had a friend party yesterday. Since every girl from 4 to about 14 loves Hannah Montana, she wanted a Hannah Montana themed party. I was even brave enough to make her a guitar cake, but was wishing that I didn't about the second that I had to start frosting the thing. I guess that it turned out ok, but I was wishing that my sis-in-law Sara lived a whole lot closer, then Lexie would have gotten a really cool cake for her party. Lexie said mine was cool, so I guess that is all that matters.

During the party we decorated cardboard guitars and then they sang and danced karaoke style with them. Lexie really likes doing that sort of thing, but I don't know how crazy the boys were about that idea. I ended up having them play a very exciting game of Uno attack.

Happy Birthday Lexie!!

Sweet, friendly, responsible, curious, loving, these are just a few of the words that describe Lexie. I can't believe that my little girl is 9 years old today. It seems like only yesterday that we were bringing her home from the hospital as first time parents. She has grown into such a sweet girl, she is my best helper and has been her whole life. She can see a need, and then figure out a way to fill it all by herself. I am so glad that she is a part of our family. She is a great example to her younger brother and sister. I love you Lexie!!

T-Ball

Ashton had his first T-ball game tonight. His team is the owls. Although it is slightly painful to watch 3 and 4-year-olds play T-ball, there are no outs and everyone gets a turn to hit, plus most if the kids don't quite understands what is going on so there are kids running everywhere. It was fun to watch Ashton have a good time and really enjoy himself. After the game I asked him if he had a good time and he said that it was "awesome". So that made it all worth it.
Playing in the infield-the only place the ball is ever hit so everyone gets a turn to play there so they get a turn to get the ball hit towards them.Waiting "on deck" to hit

"Playing" third base or would that be socializing at third base?? Either way he did a good job.

So for those of you who have never had the pleasure of sitting through a T-ball game here is a picture of one of the things that is very common during a game.. that is a player from the other team (who should be getting ready to bat) trying to get the ball that Ashton is trying to get. A parent or coach of the other team had to come and get the little girl and make her come off the field because she just wouldn't leave the field.

Abbie is 11 months old...(and nearly two weeks I guess I am behind)

I can't believe that Abbie is already 11 months old. She walks really well now, and just like I thought she waited for Jake to get home before really taking off, but still making sure that she got it done before he had to leave for Moab (that gave her just over 2 weeks to perfect her walking skills). She is truly a Daddy's girl, although she really likes her Mom too. She is a happy baby and is always getting in to something. She is definitely a curious little girl. She is a climber, neither of my other two were ever climbers, but she can already climb into our recliner and onto almost anything. If you set a box on the ground she sees it as the next thing she needs to sit on top of. I'm betting that we only have a few more months before she is climbing out of her crib. She loves her sister and brother and loves to play with them, she especially likes Ashton to wrestle with her and be crazy with her, sometimes I think that he is being a little rough with her, but she just laughs and laughs. She just got moved into her own room, we definitely weren't planning on doing that, but it would seem that Lexie and Abbie were both waking each other in the middle of the night so that neither of them were getting a good nights sleep (which in turn was effecting my sleep) so our home office has temporarily been turned into Abbie's bedroom.
It seems like life is on fast forward for everything around here. We had a fun Easter, I have pictures (I promise) and I am working on getting them up loaded so I can put them on here. Most of our Easter fun was on Saturday because Jake had to go down to Moab early for an apartment that he thought they were holding for him, but they weren't, long story-might go into more detail later might not, I'm still really mad about the whole thing.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks so much to all of my wonderful friends!!!!!! People who brought something by the house, called me on the phone or said a prayer for me and my family. I appreciate everything that everyone has done. I know that all of you have busy lives, and the thought that you would take time from your families to help mine means a lot to me. So in case I didn't tell you before, thank you so much for being there in my hour of need, for listening, for caring, and for being such great friends.

Each Life That Touches Ours For Good

I had the privilege to speak at Trisha's funeral. I am scared to death to speak in public and would normally run the other way, but I would do anything for Trisha, anything. Although she came into this world mentally and physically challenged, Trisha was one of those people who never cared what the world thought or what the latest trends were. She loved life and was truly happy with the simple things. If Trisha knew you, she loved you plain and simple. It didn't matter how long she knew you or what you had done you could feel how much she loved you. She had many great loves, one of which was babies. Even though she was never to have a real baby of her own she loved her nieces and nephews with as much love as we did. As my brother so greatly put it she was blessed with bionic arms and could hold a baby for hours, loving every minute of it. She never complained, she had a joy for life. I learned so much from her in the short amount of time that we had with her, I just hope that I can live my life close to the way that she lived hers. Giving love freely and finding joy in simple things.

Trisha

My sister Trisha had a heart attack Thursday morning. After three days of letting her heart rest as much as possible to see how strong it was (or wasn't) it was decided that her body could not take the invasive surgery that she needed, nor could she withstand (or understand) the intense rehab and recovery that would be needed for her to have her normal life. She passed away at 8:58 this morning at St. Marks hospital. My parents, sisters and I were able to be with her all night. Her funeral tentatively is set for Thursday at 11, dependant on family's ability to get here. And I couldn't make this post without saying thank you to the wonderful ICU nurse, Carolyn, for her wonderful care of my sister and my family as a whole during this most difficult time.

For Jake

I was hoping that Abbie would wait to walk until Jake got home, but she has proven again that she does things on her own time table... she is only 10 months 17 days old.

St Patrick's Day Fun

While the kids were outside playing I hid some shamrocks around the house for them to find. Nothing spectacular but they had fun finding all of them.

Since it is Tuesday I have my nephews, so Josh got to search too.
Even Abbie got in on the fun.
And here they are with all the shamrocks