Addicted

He's only 19 months old, and He's addicted.

This boy knows how to work the iPhone, and he gets VERY upset if you try to take it away from him! 

Usually, I don't mind, it's actually quite the lifesaver when we're shopping.

I think it's funny how many people comment on a baby knowing how to use a phone...I'm sure there are plenty that do these days!

He only likes the best...a $200 toy. Gotta love it!

A new Niece & Family

Alright, apparently my dad wasn't too appreciative of a post without pictures of his grandkids. 

He should just move out here and see them whenever you want. 

I don't think that's gonna happen though, so this one's for you dad! 

In early January we welcomed a new niece to our family. She is gorgeous, and I was able to go take some newborn pictures of her....my favorite thing!

She wasn't too interested in sleeping though, and I only got a handful of pics. I feel bad that we didn't get many, but the ones we did get were great, not hard to do with a beautiful baby girl!

So here she is: Zoelle Jackson

And here's her baby announcement, kinda fun, and I love the colors!

The week after the pictures, my mom headed out to help with baby Zoe and we headed up and joined them for the day. We got to spend some time playing at the park, and nothing makes kids happier than that!

If you look at LaNea, you'll see that her sisters beauty comes naturally. Eric and Jill make some super cute girls! 

Maybe someday they'll be like us and make a super cute boy too!:)

Oh yeah, Kevin and I make super cute girls too! I may be biased, but I don't care!

LaNea and Lexie are the best of friends and they absolutely love being able to play together. We wish they lived even closer so we could do it more often!

See what I mean? What could be more fun than playing at the park with cousins and grandma! She was there, I'm just better at taking pictures of the kids I guess! We love any reason we can find to get together with family, but a new baby is one of the best there is!

Procrastination

I'm a big procrastinator. I'm not proud of it, just being honest. I NEED a deadline to accomplish anything. Really, I do. I've been meaning to teach Peyton to read, and she REALLY wants to do it, but I'm not consistent at all with lessons. We maybe do one a week. It's gonna take a long time to teach her at that rate.

Also, don't come to my house on a Monday. That's laundry day, and there's bound to be lots of it unfolded on my bed...I absolutely stink at doing laundry. I can wash it, it's the folding part that holds me up!:)

Really though, it's the things that I want done around the house that just don't happen. We've been meaning to get a piano for over a year now. Granted, we're trying to find one on craigslist, and we almost got one, but the guy sold it to someone else. I really need to finish JJ's room, he's been in it for quite some time now, and we went to all the trouble of painting it, but it still looks the same as it did over a year ago, in desperate need of some molding.

I'm also anxious to build one of these...

A laundry pedestal, I love the look of it, and the function would be so great to have!! Of course, I've been anxious to build it for quite some time. Not sure it's actually going to happen. Plus, once we build it, we'll have to move out the washer and dryer and it all sounds exhausting. :) Maybe someday.

I've had plans for things I want to do around the house, even little things, and I'm just not motivated enough to do them right now, and there's absolutely no deadline for anything around the house. Just a desire to do it. 

Kevin is begging me to make a simple key hook to hang our keys on. I have everything I need to do it, and it'll be kinda cute when it's done. All the supplies I need are sitting on the counter in my kitchen....and it's been there since christmas. Seriously. Is there some kind of therapy for my problem? 

I don't know if I use the four kids as a reason procrastinate, it's hard to get anything done with little ones following you around all the time, and honestly things around the house are usually not things you want the kids getting into. Thats me making excuses for being a procrastinator. I'm good at that!:)

My other excuse is that Kevin is so dang busy all the time that I don't have any help to get anything done! high adventure is amazing for these boys, but man is it a beast to plan and get everything arranged for! That boy is on his phone ALL. THE. TIME. these days. scheduling, and fundraising, and rescheduling, and researching. and they still have to finish all the fundraising and training before they go. 

Alright, enough complaining, that was just to distract you from my procrastination. Anyway, there's no real reason for this post, other than to admit to myself and everyone else who I really am. Someday maybe it'll get better, but seeing as how I've been like this for life, I'm not to optimistic. At least I'm aware of it right? If I ever do actually finish any of these things, I'll be sure to brag about my accomplishments, but we'll see if that ever even happens!!

Christmas 2011

Guess what happened in our house Christmas eve? Yes, it's no big secret, Santa came. We had four families at my house this year, and one of those families was Grandma & Grandpa...so there were an abundance of gifts under the tree! 

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the house on christmas eve, after the kids are asleep and Santa has come. So beautiful and peaceful, it's my favorite!

The stockings were nestled on the couch, cause they were too heavy to hang by the chimney.

Except for JJ's stocking. It was nestled by his new horsey.

We get a little carried away with gift wrap in our house. Especially when there's super fun ribbon to be found!

My favorite picture of the holiday. The tree on Christmas eve!

Brett was checking out the goods.

Then, it was morning, and the kids were up, early. Luckily with all the other families/adults there, Kevin and I actually got to sleep till 7!

Hot cocoa, a must have on christmas morning. Someone was feeling shy!

The kids were spoiled, again. They had a blast, as always!

Peyton was stuck on the couch on Christmas due to her nasty swollen foot. Which I just found out this past week was actually broken. Dang Kevin and his thinking that every ankle injury is just a sprain. Luckily it's healing well, and she'll be fine, even without a cast!

Halli couldn't figure out what a CD player was. It has a docking station for an iPod, which she doesn't have. But she also got a Selena Gomez CD, that's her favorite singer right now!

JJ even got into it, and figured out that opening gifts was fun!

We spent some more time that morning playing with new toys, and eating!

I love this rapunzel hair and think Lexie looks so different with it, what a doll!

Relaxing in their ball pit.

I'm the worst at posing for pictures. I had the most darling christmas outfits for all the kids, and didn't take a picture of them all dressed up. But the rest of the day was spent at church, and cooking for christmas dinner with the Williams family. We then spent the rest of the evening there, and I didn't take any pictures. Sometimes I just get caught up in the moment, but we had an awesome christmas surrounded by both of our families, that was a first. Then we got to keep Kevin home with us for the next week, and loved every second of it!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I've sort of been a slacker about blogging lately, but in my defense, there's just not enough time in the day! I can't be on the computer when JJ is awake, cause he thinks it's his own special toy, and like all toddlers, he somehow knows just which buttons to push in that micro second he touches the keyboard, to just screw the whole thing up, so I've quit! That only leaves bedtime, and frankly I'm just super busy editing photos. Alot of them!

There are just so many things I need to catch up on though, like Halli's basketball league, which she loves!

Or Lexie's new Joy School that she goes to once a week that a friend of mine does. She LOVES it and asks everyday if she's going to school. I think this girl really needed some structure, and time away from me!:)

Oh, we also had our ward party last friday night and met Santa. JJ may or may not have had fun, but don't worry, a candy cane totally made it all better. Everyone must have a picture of their child crying with Santa, it's tradition!

We also got to go see Halli in her school choir performance, and apparently I only took video and no pictures, so that will be coming soon. She did amazing and even had a solo, we're so proud of her for getting past her fear and doing it, she did awesome!

Kevin had an awesome dream vacation right before thanksgiving, when he went to Maui.

Yep, he got to play lots with his brother and dad. I'm totally fine with it....I think. Don't worry, next year is our tenth anniversary, and he'll make it up to me then, I'm sure. Right?:)

Other than that, it's just been some crafting here and there  to get ready for christmas (like the girls christmas shirts, easiest thing to make ever and so cute!), a little bit of shopping, lots of photo sessions, and lots of editing, and lots of designing. I'm having fun with it, but it takes up a significant portion of time. None of this even takes into account all the day to day stuff we moms do. Cleaning, working out, which I found a new program that is AMAZING and I love it, running kids all over the place, cooking and just having a 17 month old who is basically into EVERYTHING! I'm planning on being done with all of the photography stuff by this friday though, and then I can soak in my kids and no school for two whole weeks...I'm looking forward to it!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!!

I just love this time of year! So glad my whole family does too. We're trying to just soak in the magic and enjoy our family traditions...I'm loving every minute!

Thanksgiving

Our thanksgiving was full of great food, wonderful family, and Kevin coming home from his big trip to maui...I'll have to post about that later, but he is one lucky dude!

So, here's our thanksgiving in pictures...lots and lots and lots of pictures. For once I remembered to bring my camera, and I used it this time!

Jamie holding our niece Miss Ellie. What a sweet and big baby girl she is, she's adorable!

There was absolutely no shortage of food there...always tons of food and tons of leftovers!

Everyone in the kitchen, ready to dig in!

We had Eric and Jill there with us this year too! It was great! We didn't head over to grandma & Grandpas house till later that evening, so it was nice to have more family in town to hang out with during the day, and Lexie absolutely loved having LaNea there to hang out with, she loves her!

I just saw a quote that says.

Grandma's house: Where cousins go to become best friends. So very true in this instance. These girls all love each other so much, and the four little guys are getting a little older and interacting more too, it's so much fun to watch!

Speaking of the little guys, here's one of the cuties himself, colt!

Sweet Savannah, with her other cousins from Jamies side of the family. Halli loved having a couple older kids there to play with too.

Oh my heavens, she almost makes you want another one right? Only when they're happy and can't move though.:)

I just love all these girls!

And apparently the boys just love babies, and miss Ellie in particular.

What else are you supposed to do with olives?

I didn't get any other pictures, but do you notice the shirts their wearing? I saw them on pinterest and thought they would be cute...little turkeys. The girls loved them, so it was worth it!

I guess with 19 kids all 9 and under, and 16 being 5 and under, things will get a little messy!

While we were cleaning, I started wondering what the kids were all doing. They were, as always, up in grandma's storage/secret room, having a blast!

Spunky girls!

There's miss LaNea, wandering around in her princess shoes. I always have to remind myself that she's younger than I think. She's the same size as Lexie and over a year younger, and almost a big sister herself, can't wait to see what the new baby will look like!

At some point that night, Alan, Greg and Kevin wanted to review the maui invitational games to see if they could see themselves in the stands at all. We had found them two of the nights there, and they had fun showing us everything that was happening. They had a dream vacation full of hawaii and basketball, how can it get better than that? Oh, maybe bring the wife along? Yeah, that might help! More on that later though, I'm sure!:)

We had a great thanksgiving and had a small redo the next day with the leftovers too.We're so blessed to be surrounded by so much family and love that we can get together with them, we just need to try to do it more often!