So while no one really ever reads this blog I thought I'd start writing my own little personal thoughts and stories that happen in my often crazy life, but mostly boring :)  I've tried to start other blogs to do this anonymously but I always forget the name of the blog or my password so I'm just going to do this here since I already know those important facts!  Recently life has been frustrating not just because of kids but just little things that are on my plate or my kids.  I really wanted to stop babysitting because sometimes lets face it those cute little kiddos (two year olds) with the constant whys? how comes? NO's! not listening,  not eating, throwing tantrums, hitting each other, and well just being 2, gets a little tiring and it wares on this lady after awhile.  I tried to get more hours at my part time job but my boss got fired and she was the one that was promising me more hours if I could just open my availability a little, so I did, I found someone that would watch Alaina and everything.  Well, she's gone and so is that promise so here I am babysitting again.  I did also try and get a job being a lunch lady but that didn't pan out either.  So while I really don't want to babysit anymore I am.  Don't get me wrong I really like the little boys I watch, but today I needed to run an errand and I had Alaina and Brody, both 2 yrs old, I took them to the bank to pay a bill.  We were there a minimum of  5 minutes, they pulled down those stretchy fence things that tell you where to form a line, they ran into a conference room and screamed at me!  All of these things still didn't deter that man behind the counter from trying to sell me some kind of service!  REALLY!  Why yes let me just stay here a little longer while these little people of mine go about this bank annoying everyone in their path.  Sigh....So yes babysitting again.  This leads me to my next thought.  I'm really a selfish person.  I should be very happy that I have a babysitting job and a part-time job, there are people that don't have any jobs.  But yet I still complain.  I'm sitting here now with a bag of chips in my lap a messy house and 2 sleeping toddlers and no other kids.  Yep living the dream :)
Don't get me wrong I love my life and really wouldn't have it any other way it's just been one of those days.

So being a mom of 4 kids is hard....well pretty much just being a mom no matter how many kids you have is hard.  There are so many levels of being a mom, it's crazy and exhausting, you love your kids no matter what but there are those days, you know... those days.  Every mom has them.  The days you're thinking, WTH did I do wrong, this really isn't my child, you have got to be kidding me, is it bed time yet?  Can I take a Valium or better yet give my kids one?  Yeah, those days.  Now that my kids, well some of them are a little older those days are coming more frequently, and while I really enjoy my kids getting older I still miss them little.  Having a 2 year old still is awesome, I still get those sweet moments of hugs and kisses, arms wrapped around your legs hugs.

No doubt this is the best calling of life I have, I wouldn't want it any other way.  I recently have made some decisions and gone back on decisions and yet again still don't know what I'm doing.  I was doing in home day-care and while it was great staying at home, I've never gotten one on one time with Alaina.  This past summer some of my families have lost jobs or have gone on maternity leave so I have been struggling to find just what I'm going to do to make a little extra money.  I asked around to see if anyone could watch Alaina, while some said yes sometimes and others said no I did find someone to watch her.  So I decided to go to work during the days at the Loft where I work.  THEN, a flier came home with my kids about the schools needing help in the cafeterias, that actually sounded fun, so I went and applied and now am just waiting.  I really am not sure if it's the right thing to do because I really enjoy spending time with Alaina, she's a cool kid :)  But at the same time we all know that in this economy we really just cant sit back and wait for money to fall in to our wallets (that would be super rad!)  So while I write this I still don't know what I'm doing I guess I'm just waiting for inspiration or something.

So about the kids, Bailee is now in 7th grade and is such a great kid, I couldn't have asked for a better pre-teen girl.  She is in band and still super smart.  She really loves school.  I'm so proud of her!

Maddi is in 3rd grade, she has Bailee's 3rd grade teachers and she loves them, they are 2 part time teachers that share a class, it's pretty cool.  She also got baptized on her birthday, and for those of you who don't know in the LDS religion kids are baptized at the age of 8.  And for her to have it done on her actual birthday, that's pretty cool!  She was so excited and almost all of Conan's family was able to be there it was a very special day.

Samuel is a big 1st grader and he has a class with his best friend Ryan, and he loves it too.  Although I think he gets really tired since this is his first time going to school all day everyday.

Alaina is just hanging out with me and she is my shadow, she follows me around all day talking my ear off.  Yesterday in the car she said she wanted to stop and do somersaults down the hill, but decided she better not because it was too hot out side.  She said this all with a very serious look on her face.  She is too funny!

Conan, he is working his butt of at work for all of us and then comes home and works just as hard taking care of things so I can go to work.  He's getting tired too. :)  So that about sums it up!


                                                        This is the serious look!

My super awesome sister in-law Megan came for Maddi's baptism and took our family pictures.

 So apparently I'm a horrible blogger.  Every time I post I try and figure out time to do it more than once a year, so I'm not making any promises this time but just that I'll try.   So my good friend Beckie came to visit me from Utah and she took our Christmas picture after church, and while one of them is a little fuzzy it is still my favorite.

 We have been busy just doing what we do.  This summer I think was the kids's favorite.  We went to a place in Washington called Ensign Ranch where we rode horses went canoeing, and went down a HUGE slip and slide.  We also stayed in tee-pee's which were so much fun.  We went with the Stagg family and it was sooo much fun!

 A day after we got home from going camping the kids and I (mom) went to Utah to visit family and friends, we do this every year and it's so much fun. The kids had a blast!

 Alaina has grown up a lot and is a sweetheart, a cutie pie, a tornado and a huge source of entertainment for all of us :)  She just turned 2!  We went to Chuck e cheeses for her birthday and she had such a great time she didn't want to go and she loved Chuck E!

So while I didn't cover everything that has happened I'll try and sum it up.

Bailee is now 11 and will be 12 in March which means she goes in to Young Womens at church!  I'm really not ready for the teenage years.  She is in middle school and doing great!  She is a very awesome kid.

Madelyn is 7 and she is just a sweetheart.  She loves taking care of Alaina and being a little mother.  She works very hard at school and is doing really great as well.  She has been working at getting across the monkey bars at recess and is also doing great with that, (she gives us an update everyday )

Samuel is now in kindergarten and is also doing fantastic.  He is learning how to read and he sings us songs all day long.  He also loves taking care of Alaina and playing with her.  He has a huge imagination and has big plans for the future.  He wants to be a builder during the day, and a police man at night.  He's got plans!

 Conan and I are just doing the parent thing and most of the time really loving it.  We hope everyone is doing well and have Happy Holidays !

Just had to add a couple more!! My friend Courtney came to visit at the beginning of summer and she took a couple of pictures of the kids. Thanks Courtney these are awesome!

We are still alive!!!!

Ok, so it's been a REALLY long time since I've posted on here. So here is what is going on. Bailee went through and finished 4th grade and is now in 5th, WOOT WOOT! Madelyn went through kindergarten loved it and is now a big 1st grader! Samuel had his 1st year of preschool and took a little while for him to get into it but now is excited to go back. We added the sweetest addition to our family, Alaina Ruth on December 2nd. And now she is.....well just like her siblings and gives me a run for my money! Haha but I love them all!!!! Here are some pictures from the past year, enjoy and I will try and post more :)

Sam Turned 3!

I've been horrible about keeping up on our blog, sorry. Samuel turned 3! He's gotten soo big! he's come along way! He is such a fun little guy to be around and loves his sisters so much. He loves riding on anything with wheels and loves to play in water so that's what we did for his birthday.

He loves his hair spiky, he even asks for it that way. Sometimes he wants a mow hawk and so that's what he got on his birthday. We love you Sam, we couldn't imagine life without you.

Starting off the Summer!

After the kids got out of school I decided I needed to do something fun a few times a week. So the first day of summer vacation we went to the park and played. They had a lot of fun.

Samuel and his sisters. He's such a stinker! But we like him that way.....most of the time.

The next day we went hiking. Maddi started out liking it then we got higher and into the forest a little more and she really wasn't enjoying her self, so like a good mom I had to capture the moment.

We found gigantic leafs. Super cool.

Happy hikers! Madelyn, Allison, Samuel and Bailee. Taking a rest once we were done.

After the hike we went across the street and played by the river. The kids had a lot of fun throwing rocks and cooling off. I'd say it was a pretty good start to the summer. Of course now they expect something fun everyday.....I'll do my best. :)

Moving on....

Madelyn finished pre-school. She went to Gresham Barlow High School pre-school called the Bruin Buddies. Each child gets their own high school student to follow them around and help them cut and past and pretty much do whatever the kids wanted. It was a pretty sweet set up for my little princess. She had such a good time and always wanted to go to school even when there wasn't school. I can't believe she's going to be in kindergarten. She's growing up too fast. We love you Maddi and are so proud of you!

Sam is the Man!

Samuel who will be 3 pretty soon is really showing his personality. He's so funny he makes us all laugh. He's very creative. He's wearing this bib because he wanted it to hold his fruit snacks, because they are so heavy.

He has really out done himself as the boy. He loves cars and ramming things into other things, he plays hard and loves to play with the big kids. Our 1st trip, and probably won't be our last, to the urgent care because of an accident. He was jumping with Bailee and her friend on our trampoline and got a little too much air and fell on the edge of the trampoline and cracked his head open. While it really wasn't too bad he still got 1 staple and we had to wake up every couple of hours to check on him. He was so brave didn't even cry at the Dr's. He plays so hard sometimes he just falls asleep anywhere. This one particular night he fell asleep during dinner. I had to take a picture, because that's the kind of mom I am.

Easter

This Easter was pretty low key. On Saturday we went to 2 egg hunts. My mom was here visiting from India. She came to see my play and to play with the kids. It was a lot of fun having her here.
Samuel wasn't so sure about the egg hunts at 1st, but he got the hang of it on his 3rd Easter egg hunt at home.

Getting new dresses for Easter is a tradition and taking pictures after church is also a tradition. So even though some of the pictures don't turn out they still look great and have fun. This year since it was raining we had our egg hunt inside. It was still a lot of fun and everyone stayed clean.

So I haven't updated our blog in a really long time. So I'm catching up. We have been pretty busy. Conan has been super busy at work. Bailee is in the 3rd grade and doing homework and playing with friends. Madelyn is in pre-school and loving every second of it, especially show and tell days. Samuel is potty training and learning all sorts of things from his sisters. I'm still watching kids during the day and doing my church callings. I'm in another play too. It's called "Murder on the Re-Run". I play a gossip columnist. It's occupied a lot of my time. It ends April 18th.

Conan and I also went to Vegas, because he was in a bowling tournament. We went without kids it was awesome!

It was Conan's birthday too. Bailee and him have the same birthday. He's only 34! You are such a great husband and dad. We love you so much. You will always be the 23 year old that I fell in love with. Thank you for all the things that you do for us. You are such a caring person and think of others. Thank you for being in our lives. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!