my reasons to smile for the day :)

What about this picture does not bring a smie to your face! Awesome PJ's (my daughter has re-found her love for footy pajamas)  A SMILE from Jackie....lol oh how I LOVE this girl!

My always happy and always smiling Abigail brings more smiles to me then I could ever have asked for

She REALLY dug the corn on the cob for dinner :) isnt she the best?!

I never take enough pictures!

The other day I decided I do not take enough pictures of my girls.  I have a new goal! To take a picture of them a day doing something fun!  I hope this well help us have more memories of what we have done and also give us a chance to watch them grow!  I will post some here for you guys too....and well for me because someday someday I will print this blog into a book....

In case you are wondering what trying to get a picture of the Jackster is like here ha go

SHE HATES the camera! here she is telling me NO PICTURES MOM! lol she wont hold still the moment that camera is on she moves like crazy....hence the blurriness above.......I WAS able to get her to hold still while we were making brownies

She was VERY excited to help lick the spoons! 

Note to self a family picture cold be possible if you allow Jackie a bowl of brownie batter.....

mmmmm sooo tasty! a girl after my own heart!!  only now I have to share with her! maybe I will just have to make 2 batches next time :)

On the other hand Abby Loves the camera she will even try to say "cheese" when you take her picture it comes out "eeeees" but its as cute as ever!

My Abby LOVES big people food and loves to feed her self!

notice Jackies kitchen next to Abby another must in my kitchen!  Jackie cooks her meals while i cook the families :)

always more then willing to smile....and DANG she got dirty from the day maybe I SHOULD have done that bath tonight lol oh well guess its on for the morning!

My oldest child

I have always been told your oldest child will hold a special place in your heart.  They teach you so much and you learn and grow so much through them.  Jacquelyn is no different.  She has taught me more then I would ever know possible.  She has taught me about my self, about love, about Christ, about joy, and about how to have fun. 

There is not a day that goes by that she does not light up my life and make me happy.  She is a special little spirit and I know she will do great things.  As her parent I sometimes worry I am not giving her all I can.  I want to make sure i give her every opportunity to do great.  I want to make sure I teach her everything I can so she can be a light to others

I want to make sure when we are together I use that time for us.  I want to make sure I don't waste a moment of it (she is napping right now ;)) Time with our little ones is short.  We don't know where life will go or what turns it will take. 

I love my little cheese head...even if she is almost impossible to get a picture of. 

A few things I love about her

• While playing with a older kid in her sand box the older girl knocked her over and immediately started saying sorry sorry sorry.  As sweet as can be Jackie responded, "its okay Chelly accidents happen"
• The hug and smile she gives me when I get home from work
• She can hold a conversation and they are ever so entertaining
• She loves her little sister so much
• She does her best to listen and help me out
• she cares about everyone and always wants to help out
• she loves to PLAY!
• I see my self and Derek in her
• She loves to learn
• she loves the gospel and always wants to learn about it
• she is one of the sweetest little kids i have ever meet
• she LOVES to go to sleep with curlers in her hair
• most importantly she is mine!

Miss Jackie thanks for all you have taught me I love you sweetheart!  I cant wait to see where life will take you!

**coming soon a post about my dear sweet Abigail

short notes (again come on its fun :))

Dear Self,
I am sorry if you still think you drive a stick shift, i really hope you will learn to not attempt to press the clutch or shift the gears.....putting the car in neutral is just not the best thing to do while driving
Love, me

Dear Children who are not my own,
STAY OUT OF OUR SANDBOX WHEN ITS COVERED and really when its not but when its covered that means I don't want you in it hence the cover.  You tend to break our things which is NOT nice.
angrily yours,
your frustrated neighbor

Dear mind,
Why don't you want to go to sleep when Derek is at work?  I mean really I could get so much more sleep if you would go to sleep before he got home!
always sleepy,
Jess

Dear kiddos,
You are wonderful at going to bed can i tell you how much I love that! Who know sharing a room would help you Jackie go to sleep so much better?
love,
A happy mommy

Dear bank account,
its really nice to see you in the positive I am glad Utah agrees with you too
love,
a not as high strung women

Dear Husband,
Our 5 year anniversary is fast approaching, hope you got something fun planned! :)
Hopefully waiting,
Your not so good at waiting for surprises wife

Dear kitchen,
I love to cook in you but i HATE to clean in you....could you please have a self cleaning feature?
forever waiting,
a "lazy" cook

Dear multi-taking
Have you noticed how much easier and better we have got at work since they gave us a second screen? Isn't it just wonderful??
Love,
a much faster and even more multi-task er

Dearr Jackie,
This fall I really want new family pictures, do you think you could start smiling for pictures by then?
expectantlywaiting (but not holding my breath),
Mommy

Dear world,
does anyone need some service....I am feeling the need to help others
ready to help,
Jess

Jackie funnies

I know i had these on Facebook but i want them here so I can have them WHENEVER i get around to making my blog a book.....one of these days

as we were leaving Derek today Jackie said, "i only love mama" Derek told me how all day she has been telling him she only loves me not him. After we drove off she started laughing and said, "mommy i have been teasing daddy *more uncontrolable laughter* I love mommy and daddy but i am telling him i just love you"

 

we were eating grapes Jackie asked me how many i wanted i told her 4, i heard her count, "1,2,3,4, *uncontrollable laughter* here are your 4 grapes mom" she gave me 5, i decided not to say anything since i was cooking dinner. She would not stop looking at me and then started laughing like crazy again an...d said,, "MOM i gave you FIVE grapes not FOUR *uncontrollable laughter*" 

 

She ALWAYS makes us laugh and makes us wonder how the heck she comes up with this stuff :) 

inner workings of Jess's mind.....

works a bit slow today so yes my mind is a going.....

• Sometimes being a working mom makes me feel like a failure, i mean i miss out on a good 8+ hours of my girls, and when i hear they ask for me it makes me feel even worse.
• on the other hand I really do love working which will cause guilt also, its one of those never ending cylces

• Because I work i sometimes forget that I need time for my self and need to remember I don't HAVE to do the dishes, sweep, mop, vacumn every night our house will survive
•  Cooking always makes me happy, cooking for others makes me even happier! (anyone out there want to come over for dinner?)
• I doubt I will ever get enough sleep :) 
• this is for a few reasons, the first being Jackie is a night owl and WONT go to sleep before 1030 no matter what I do (oh i have tried just about everything she is SO her dads kid) so when she does go to sleep i want a few minutes of mommy time
• I HATE to go to sleep without Derek and he works until 11pm which means he gets home around 11:30-midnight, I wake up around 6:50am right there we are already getting off to a bad start.....
• I don't even know if I should put Abby in here since she maybe gets up once and only keeps me up for a minute or two...
• I feel really lucky to have my girls they are the best children I could have asked for.....don't get me wrong they each have their moments and each can get hard to deal with....but for the most part I am going to count my self as lucky!
• I really do want to put them in the same rooms, but the work to do so sounds hard, and convincing the husband to do it with me sounds even harder
• Jackie repeats things we say....no matter WHAT it is :)
• I doubt Jackie will ever understand how soft she needs to be with her sister
• I am so happy to have my husband in my life, I don't think I could make it with anyone else, he gets me and all the "weird" things about don't send him running! (TRUST ME THERES A LOT!)
• I miss having the Murrary's as my neighbors :) it was nice to have a late night friend whos husband worked late also that I could always complain to about ANYTHING and to assist me in all endeavors with my apt.  such as moving the girls lol she would SO help me figure out where to put everything!
• On that same note, i really do enjoy the people we live around they are wonderful and great to talk to and Jackie has her good little friend (at least until they move :( anyone of my friends out there wanna buy their condo so we know who is moving in?)
• I have a wonderful life :) i am reminded of this daily and I am so grateful to have what I have and to just live my life! 
• I might have a secret desire to be on Master Chef...although after watching it last night I might need to learn to make Chinese

11 months old

Abby-b-gail (as Jackie calls you)

WOW you are 11 months old today.  (well tomorrow)  This seems really old to me, and means I need to start planing your birthday party!! You have changed a lot this last month:

• You are starting to stand on your own for a bit!  This means walking is soon coming.  Mommy can wait on this one Daddy wants you to walk now since other kids your age are walking.  Maybe he has forgot how much HARDER kids are once they learn to walk 
• You talk a lot now a lot of its constant babling but you say, dada, hi, mama, no, and uh-oh ALOT.  you love to say "hi dada" the most 
• You love to "talk" on phones, you always pick them up and say "hi dada"
•  You walk around the furniture all day long 
•  You love to explore, but also love to sit and play with who ever is holding you
• Church has become a joke with you, you just want to play with everyone and crawl under the benches, lets just say we spend a lot of time in the hall but hey Jackie likes that 
• You are an eater! You love food! You want to eat what ever we are having and do great with your two teeth! You Love to drop food or your sippy over the side and say uh-oh its a fun game (you think) 
• You are no longer nursing you bit me one to many times and drew blood a few, so its pumped milk for now! :) you are down to about 3-4 bottles a day which I can live with its not much pumping 
• You are still sleeping great! in a 13 hour stretch you wake up once to eat and you take 1-2 2-3 hour naps a day! Its very weird going from a kid who did not sleep to you, but i am ever so grateful!

You still are a wonderfully easy child! You will just play around and do your own thing most the time. I am debating putting you and Jackie in the same room together and making the other room a playroom.  I think it could be fun but we will see :)

Mommy loves you!!!

wedding picture revamp!

SO my photographer from my wedding decided to re do a wedding he did back at the start.  I think we were his 3rd or 4th wedding!  Anyway he is re editing all our pictures! its pretty cool to see the difference  You should go look at them! 

I am pretty excited and like the revamp! :)

my favorite room in the house!

I

My favorite room in the house has to be my kitchen, I LOVE to cook! We had a lemon garlic herb roasted chicken  for dinner tonight

I cant take pictures of food lol, but this chicken was super tasty!  :) I have never made a whole chicken before so it was kinda fun! I really love playing around in the kitchen!  I could waste hours and hours looking up recipes and thinking up how to make them mine, because i have a thing for following recipes i just dont do it....hey I have to rebel somehow!! ;)

I think my favorite part was the gravy it made me sad i did not make mashed potato's lunch tomorrow i am thinking...or maybe a midnight snack...mmmmmm just got to make sure to do a workout if i eat them now lol

Now only if the kitchen would clean its self after cooking i HATE the cleaning part :)

Besides cooking I love the kitchen because its the one room in the house were we get together without TV or other distractions to spend time to eat :) its nice to have that time together (even if my children are SUPER messy! I blame Abby's new found Independence when it comes to eating)

So whats your favorite room in the house and why?

a few pictures

Its been over a month since i uploaded pictures from my camera :) lol here is a smiling Jackie! Hey with her i take what ever I can get!

Abby on the other hand is my smiler happy all the time baby! She LOVES water! While washing our car the other day she took control of the hose and had a ton of fun!!

I am so in love with this baby!

Jackie loves to wash our car and when we wont let her wash it anymore she washes daddys scooter

My non smiling princess oh how i love you one day you will smile for the camera again :)