Gratitude a day #19

Today I am so thankful for places to eat out! Silly i know, but really the LAST thing I wanted to do tonight was cook dinner. After the dentist and feeling very pregnant all day, I just wanted to call in the towel. Thankfully my hubby loves me and gets it, and we all went out for a very yummy dinner at Robintions. A place that makes our whole family happy with dishes we all want! :) Plus, there was NO cleaning up. WIN WIN!

Gratitude a day #18

Today I am grateful for NAPS!!! I love a good ol nap! The best part about Sunday is taking a nap with the fam! I know I need to get as many as I can before our little man makes it here! :) I am sure he wont feel the same as me when it comes it naps! :)

Gratitude a day #17

Today I am grateful for date days! My good friend and old roommate was in town and we decided to get together at City Creek. She has an adorable little girl Abby's age. I decided to just bring Abby with me and leave Jackie with Derek so they could have some good time together. Abby was SO excited for our date. She wanted to get all dressed up and looked adorable. :) 

We had SUCH a fun day together! She loved playing with her new little friend, and I had a blast seeing my old friend. After we were all done Abby told me she did not want to go home yet. She needed more mommy time. I could not say NO to that! So we went shopping and walked around the mall more. We talked and walked hand in hand. It was so nice to get to see her outside of her sister, and spend a lot of time together just the 2 of us. 

When we got home the day only continued to be more perfect as we spent time together as a family laughing and playing. :) 

Gratitude a day #15

Today I am grateful for cellphone cameras! I have a horrible time remembering where I park in parking garages! Seriously I am the type who would walk around lost for hours. When Derek is not with me I am always scared I am going to forget where I parked. So I always snap a picture of where I park. Makes my life MUCH easier! :) So if you look through my camera you will find lots of pictures like this.

Gratitude a day #14

Today I am glad for my daddy bringing us some dinner so I do not have to cook! My dad loves to stop by when he is in the area, and usually always has left over food from a lunch in. My girls love to see him and I LOVE not having to cook!
Plus I get to see my dad who I love more than anything! I am so grateful for such a caring dad who loves my girls like his own kids. He would do anything for them, and as soon as they see him all they want to do to is cuddle and play. If there is an owie or a problem they just want their grandpa!
I am forever grateful for the example of Love and kindness, and dedication to the gospel my dad shows me.  I hope when I grow up I can be like him ;)

Gratitude a day #13

Today I do not know how to put into a simple I am grateful for. So here it goes. I used to be annoyed and frustrated that we do not own a home, we have debt, we have lots of bills and not a lot of money, ect. It can get stressful! Lately that stress has started to die down, and I have not been near as worried lately. Last night the girls and I were having a dance party in their room. They got up on their bed, and had their legs in the air and were laughing and giggling. I could not help but realize how lucky I am. Our home has love. There is so much love and happiness in our home. Nothing much more matters than that.
I am so glad I am a mom. I am so glad I get to have Jackie and Abby in our lives. I can not wait to bring our little Brigham into our home. I have learned that things do not matter. We have a roof over our head, food, and heat. We will be just fine because our home is full of love. I can not express my happiness and gratefulness for that. I am glad we did not wait to have kids until things became perfect. Things and time are never perfect. I know we will have a house someday. Our debt is going down, so one day we will have less money going to pay those bills. For now, I am just happy and grateful that I have my little family of four. Soon to become a BIG family of five. With the Gospel and each other we will always be happy and make it.

Gratitude a day #12

Today I am grateful for snuggles and cuddles! Today is my day off.  I have spent it loving on my cute girls and getting lots of snuggles! I love that they want to feel my tummy and talk to baby brother. I will take all the cuddles and snuggles I can get! :) Being a mom is pretty awesome.

Gratitude a day #11

Today I am grateful for date nights with the hubby! We had a chance to go to the BYU game last night just the 2 of us. It was a blast! Even if we froze in 27 degree weather. It is nice when you get more than a 2 hours a way from your kids. I am so glad that we have family close by that watches our kids for us and to know they are safe and happy while we are gone. Even better we got to watch our cougars dominate another team ;). I sure love my hubby, and I enjoy when I get to be the only one holding his hand!

Gratitude a day #10

Today I am so grateful for SNOW and kid to kid! My girls were SO excited today when they saw the snow. The first words out of their mouths were lets build a snow man! We did not have any snow gloves for them, and I did not want to go out and buy expensive new ones. SO one trip to kid to kid, and $5 later, 2 pairs of gloves and a hat!

We got all bundled up and made our way out. A nice fresh 6 inches of snow all to play in. We had a blast! We made a snow man, a snow fort, and started a snow ball fight with Derek as soon as he got home. The girls thought that was the best part! Throwing things at parents and NOT getting in trouble is way to much fun!

I love fun family activities, and snow gives us lots! Here is to more snow, and more fun!

Gratitude a day #9

Today I am so happy and grateful for a car port! When I saw the snow today and wanted to cry thinking about the ice and snow awaiting my windshield, but nope my car was nice and clean and clear! I am thinking winter will be MUCH nicer with one! :D:D:D 

Gratitude a day #7

Today I am SUPER grateful for Jackie's School. We talked and debated a lot on what school to send her to. Finally we decided a charter school would be best. I am SO glad we made that choice! She loves her school and is learning SO much! She learned to read so quickly, loves all her teachers, loves her friends, and is getting smarter every day! I love that she comes home with stories of Christopher Columbus, the  names of trees, and what tribes of Indians she is learning about!
It is really fun to watch the world open up to her as she learns and grows.

Gratitude a day #6

Today, is short and sweet! I am grateful and happy for my right to vote! We had to drive down to Provo, but really that is not too much to do to add my voice to who  want to lead our nation. :) 
I know a lot goes into protecting our freedoms.  I am so thankful we have willing Men and Women who chose to put their life's on the line for us. 

Gratitude a day #5

Today I am grateful for modern technology! I had my 20 week Ultrasound today. It is very nice to be able to get my baby boy all checked out before he is born to make sure he is as healthy as can be told. :) I am glad to report he got a clean bill of health. It did take an hour and a half, and 2 ultra sound techs and a radiologist to come to this conclusion though. I guess I have a very active boy. The techs and the radiologist were SHOCKED at how much he moved. All three made the comment that they have never seen a more active baby in utero. Guessing he is going to be a fun one! :) On the plus side, I got to see him for 1.5 hours. My girls were not as excited as I was to be there that long though! :) But yes, I am glad we know can tell genders, see if there are health concerns,  and can see so much of our little ones before they come out! 

Gratitude a day #4

Today I am VERY grateful for Daylight savings. I LOVE fall back. It is so wonderful to get an extra hour of sleep! I am also super grateful for 2 little girls who were troopers staying up an hour later, so they would still wake up at their normal time. This pregnant mama needed an extra hour of sleep today! What did you do with your extra hour?

Gratitude a day #3

Today I am thankful for temples. I love my little family so much! I would hate to think that we would no longer be together after death. It is such a blessing to me to know that they are mine forever. I am so glad that I meet a man with the same goal to get married in the temple and to live a life that will keep those covenants in our life's.  Our world has became a very scary and wicked place. Raising kids right now makes me realize how important it is to teach them young about the blessings of the temple and show them how to act to go there someday. I know I do not go enough, but each and every time  go to the temple I feel so at peace and everything in the world just seems right. I love knowing that when our little boy is born he will already be part of our eternal family. :)

Gratitude a day #2

Today I am forever grateful for my love of cooking. I LOVE to cook! It is something that relaxes me and makes me happy! The super plus side is I get to make food my family enjoys! :)

I have always liked to cook. I helped my mom cook a lot growing up. It was not until I was married, I really fell in love with cooking. I found it so exciting to see my husband get all excited and ask for 2nd and 3rds. I learned how to tell whats food needed by smell, and what just a pinch of more spice would do to the flavor combo. I love searching pintrest for new recipes, reading over them, and the comments to see what changes I will make to the recipe (because I for the life of me can not follow a recipe ;))
I am such a dork. Every time I try a new recipe I get all excited and nervous about how my family will react and how they will like it. The good news is my family is sweet and always loves everything. Every meal they girls say k on three thank you mama. Then they count to 3 and yell thank you mommy! It is the sweetest thing and I love it.
So there you go. I am glad for my love of cooking...might be a weird thing, but I really am. Last night I made a big Mexican meal (recipes here) and just thought...wow this is fun!

Gratitude day #1

Nothing like a REALLY REALLY long lack of blogging to jump straight in and agree to try to do 30 days straight right? I am sure through them you will get an update. Plus I am sure if you do read this you also read Facebook and know the basics!

So for today I am going to go with this little man growing inside of me! I am very excited to add to our family in just 19 weeks! And to add a boy as well! I am very excited to learn how to be a mom to boys, and to see what changes I will have to make. We will see how switching from man to man defense to zone goes...

This pregnancy took us a lot longer than our others to get. I think we both took advantage of the ease we had with our first 2. Going through a miscarriage and 6 months of trying after really has made me so much more grateful for every discomfort that has come this time around! (and there has been lots of extra fun ones this time!)

He has been a little mover! I started feeling him about 13 weeks. Now he just goes nuts when ever I am holding still. He LOVES to kick my in the bladder. Guess he is getting in his soccer practice!

We have been talking a lot about names, and think we have decided on Brigham Kirk Stell. Hopefully that helps explain the B in the pumpkin ;). The girls really wanted him to have his own. :) (also I do reserve the right to change his name haha ;))

Jackie and Abby are so excited to have another baby. They both were hoping for a girl though! When the ultrasound tech told us it was going to be a boy, Abby looked up at her and told her she was wrong she KNEW it was a baby sister. haha! They are both coming to terms with the idea of a brother though. After all Jackie said they need someone to play robber when they play cops and robbers!

Derek is really excited to have a boy! After all the pink and princess in our home, I cant say I don't blame him! Lets just hope he likes hockey....and BYU! :)

So there you go blogging world. I am not dead. I am very much alive and growing a human.

Princess Abby is 3!

Dearest Abby,

Mommy can hardly believe that you are already 3! It seems just like yesterday I got to meet you for the first time. You sure have changed a lot in these 3 years. As a baby you were very easy going and let everyone have their way. As you have grown you have developed a very strong personality. You know what you want and are not afraid to fight to get it. I love how much you care about everything! It is so neat to see what is most important to you and how you are going to get it. (granted sometimes I wish you would just listen to mom!;))
Your favorite thing to do right now is wear dresses. You HAVE to wear a dress every single day, because as you say Princesses wear dresses, and you are a princess. Mommy did have to limit your dresses down to 2 a day. We were running out of dresses faster than I could wash them! Luckily for your birthday you got 12 more, so I can cut back on laundry ;)! You even sleep in your dresses, because how else does a princess sleep!
You have started to want your hair up, which makes me SO happy! I love to do your hair and get some time when we can just talk and giggle at our self's in the mirror!
You like to make jokes and love to make us laugh! Every morning when you wake up you come into my room and tell me all about your dreams. I love hearing about them (even though I think lots are made up!) and listening to you talk. You are a good snuggler!
You do not like that Jackie leaves you for school each day. You keep asking me when she is coming back. When it is time to leave to get her you shout YAY and run to the car. As soon as we get Jackie you ask her how her day was. I love how much you love your sister and that you guys are little buddies!

I love you Abigail. You are and will forever be my little princess!

Happy Birthday Sweet Jackie!

Can you believe my Jackie FIVE! I sure cant!

Dear Jackie,

I seem to remember 5 years ago like it was yesterday. I was walking around our apartment CONVINCED i the pain in my back was not labor. I was going to head into work. Your Grandma kept pestering me to go into the hospital to be checked. I decided I would go to the doc first. I went in and sure enough I was in labor. They sent me straight to the hospital.
After a while a was rushed into surgery because your heart was not doing so great. I still remember the little purple baby they pulled out. I did not get to see you for about 4 hours. It was one of the longest four hours of my life!
As soon as they brought you to me and I held you, my heart just melted. You stole my heart. You made me a mom. I love being your mother Jackie. You are such a cute sweet little girl! I dont know how we got so lucky to have you! You listen, are sweet to others, rarely do you cause fights with your sister. You are a peacemaker. You always want to make others happy. You are the easiest kid ever! You love to be by my side helping me at all times. I love that about you! Thanks for all you do to help me around the house!
I love how hard you try to do what is right. You always want to make sure that the actions you are doing are the best! You care what foods you eat, how much you play outdoors, and that what you are doing is something mom and dad want.
Everyone always tells me how much of a joy you are. Your Sunday School teachers always love you. They say you love to comment and help.
Never lose that sweetie! Always try your best, always do what is right!
School is starting soon. You keep telling me how nervous you are. Don't worry though sweetheart. You are going to do great at school! You have such a thirst for knowledge, you are going to love it. I have no doubt you will make some good friends quickly. I know you will learn lots and enjoy being away from home. I cant wait to see what you do with school.
Love,
Mommy!

Summer!

We have been enjoying our big back yard this summer! Best thing about our new place is that it has a HUGE back yard with garden area and fruit trees!

Jackie and Abby love looking at our garden and eating the cherries off our tree! :)



The girls love the slip n slide-and are slowing getting closer to making it to the end when they slide ;)



Our crazy sprinkler. Abby laughs her head off at this. She loves how it wiggles! lol



Swimming pool is their fav though!

Last week we had a big water party play date for our ward at our place. We meet some people which is nice! We are slowly making friends up here-and Jackie and Abby are loving that!

YAY for summer! Now lets hope we can stay cool with a swamp cooler! Wish us luck!

Life

Hmmmm sooo I guess I just dont blog anymore.....I think I am now soooo far behind that I hate playing catch up! So I am just going to blog like everything is normal-and I have been blogging all along haha!

Jackie started T-ball! She looks sooo cute in her uniform. :)


She is having fun and slowly getting better! Hopefully by the end of the season she will remember how to hold  a bat ;)


We are having fun going to her games. Watching 4-6 year olds play T-ball is entertaining. I love how they all run to the ball no matter where they are standing.

I love how they get so interested in the grass and dirt. It is pretty fun to watch! No matter what though as long as they get their treats at the end of the game life is good! ;)




I sure love my Jackie! She is such a cutie!

I am still alive...promise

So I guess blogger decided to change since I have not been on. Super LAME! I just wanted to let everyone know, Yes we are alive.

Maybe one day I will blog lots again. We are busy very busy.

Me~

It is good. I am enjoying being home with the kiddos. Working from home is pretty awesome, but sure keeps me busy! I sure love my job. My company is pretty awesome! I do buy a heck of a lot more now that I see things in person! lol

In case you were wondering my goals because I did have them!
March was simple survive. I did it too! :)
This month my goal has been to kick my butt back into shape. :) I am still working on this one but it is coming together. I am sure I will post more about it some day.
May-I have not decided yet!

Jackie-

Well she had her Kindergarten orientation for her school. She is going to a good charter school near us. I am super excited for her. It makes me sad to think she is getting so big though! She is supposed to forever stay my baby!

Abby~

Is getting so dang big. She talks all the time, has SUPER strong opinions, and is adorable! I love her to death. :)

Derek~

He is good. :) He is not as busy with work since the season ended so we see him more which is nice!

Okay. that is a SHORT post to let you know we are alive.

Blogging slacker

YES! I am a slacker SO much has happened and I do not blog about it. :( I am going to do  a quick update!

1. We are MOVED YAY! We are loving our new place! It is nice and have a lot more space, AND I got my dishwasher back. :) We are pretty much unpacked just need to get pictures up! The girls love that we have stairs and climb up and down them all day long.
2. While coming home from cleaning our old place i was hit on the freeway. Not my fault and lots of cosmetic damage but everyone was okay.
3. I was offered full time at my job at steal network! YAY! We wanted that to happen and took a leap of faith moving without it, but it sure all worked out!
4. My full time job does require me to work Sundays here and there. I am feeling okay about it though. The fact I get to be with my girls more helps make it okay to me. :)
5. We did date nights with the girls last night. They both LOVED them! Derek took Jackie to see Alvin and the Chipmunks and I took Abby to Chillies. :) It was nice to spend some alone time. Next month we plan on switching it up! :)

Well that is about it. Simple and short! :)

I love Derek!

Do not let the date of this fool you.  This is supposed to be for Derek's birthday.  Yesterday he turned 29.  :)

Due to our move it was a pretty low key birthday, but after he got home from work the girls had a few goodies for him! Just some of his favorite treats from our local Smiths haha.  We made him some brownies and took him out to Sushiya so he could eat his favorite food that i HATE more than anything.  He enjoyed his dinner and i hated mine....:). 

Afterwords he decided to take the girls to the mall to let hem run around and play, and then we went to look around at his favorite stores....and some of mine where he tried to buy me things.  lol hes too sweet!

Afterwards we came home to do brownies. I had bought trick candles and the girls thought they were the funniest things EVER!

After brownies Derek went to go play hockey his favorite thing to do ever! :)

I hope he had a good birthday! I sure love Derek he is such a great husband to me! He always puts my needs above his own, and cares about what makes me happy.  He loves our daughters so much and they love him and always want to play with him! He has such a strong testimony of the gospel and I am so happy to have the Priesthood in our home.  Derek really is my better half.  He knows me so well, sometimes i swear it's better than i know my self.

Love you Derek!!

Jackies talk

Jackie gave her 2nd talk yesterday in Primary.  She was so cute and did such a cute job! She wrote it mostly by her self.  I helped add a few words and the scripture.  She wanted me to make sure we put pictures in it so she could "read" it all by herself.  She did pretty good too! I was so proud! 

I think one of the greatest joys i have so far discovered in parenting is seeing my little girl gain her own testimony of the Church and share it! I love always hearing what she is learning at church.  I love and hate how big she is getting and how quick she is growing up! 

You can read her talk and see the pictures she picked to help her remember her words. 

 

HI I am Jackie, and I am talking about Choosing the Right. 

 

Choosing the right means we do what Heavenly Father and Jesus wants us to do. 

 

 

They always want us to choose the right. If we do what they say we will get blessings

Blessings are not just when people put hands on our heads, it’s also when we get things we want and need, that make us happy.

There are lots of ways Heavenly Father and Jesus tell us what to do.

 

Prophets tell us what to do to Choose the Right.  Our Prophet today is President Monson. 

 

Our mommies and daddies help us know what to do to choose the right

 

Our teachers also teach us what we should do too! 

 

We can also know what we should do by reading the scriptures.

2 Nephi 10:23 Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life. 

 

When I choose the right it makes my heart happy.  I hope we can all listen to the commandments and follow them. 

I want to bear my testimony…..

Changes changes changes!!

SO, I am pretty sure anyone who reads this also is my friend on facebook.  But anyway, we have decided that it is time for me to stop working at Prosper and to move up to SLC area.  :) So last week i put in my notice with Prosper and we put in our notice with our landlord! Can you say CRAZY! :) haha I am still in the this is crazy thought process, so we will see what happens.  I sure LOVE Utah County and it will be really weird for me to leave it.  I am excited though.  I really really really want to spend more time with my girls. 

Oh Derek is also excited for no more hour long commutes!

I will still be working for Steal Network, but i can do most all of it from home! I am really excited about that.  I love our sitters, we have been SUPER lucky to have some good friends babysit our kiddos.  But really I am happy they will be with us again! :)

We are still looking for a place up there, Derek really wants to move back home to Bountiful.  SO we will see! We applied for a place up there, and I have my fingers crossed we will get it! :) It meets Jackie's requirement of stairs inside the apartment. haha And its cheap! Best part of it!

As for me, my body is still screwed up.  I am not sure when it will all get back to normal. :s i am annoyed with it though.  I just want to feel normal again.  Doc said to give it time.  Time is what i need.  :( I trust my doc though, hes pretty awesome.  So here's hoping things will all get back to normal again shortly!

February Goals

So, with doing new goals each month,  I also want to roll over some old goals. 

So here are this months old goals:

1.  Read 5 chapters of scripture a day
2. No soda (oh this was last months too, i just never put it on)

New goals to add this month:

1. No fast food ( I was going to do no eating out, but its dereks b-day and V-day!)
2. Exercise 4 times a week
3. Morning Prayers 


While I like the blogging one, I am trying not to stress my self out.....if it happens it happens! :) 

Surviving

As I guessed these past 2 weeks have been CRAZY! You can tell everyone is going a bit nuts.  This month has just been really hard.  REALLY hard!

I guess its time i say out loud, I started the month with a miscarriage.  Not the way I had planned on starting my new year.  Shortly after Derek's grandma was admitted to the hospital and passed away on 1/19/2012.  She is a awesome wonderful lady who will be missed!

The day of her funeral i started re-bleeding and had to go in for an ultrasound to make sure everything was okay.  LUCKILY i did not need a d&c. Doc just decided my body was struggling, but SHOULD right it self out in a month or so.  We will see.  Needless to say it was not a fun day for either of us. I think going in to the doc for the ultrasound might have been one of the hardest parts of everything.  Seeing all the happy pregnant moms made it really hit home what had happen.

Working both jobs back to back with a drive to SLC from Provo has been crazy nuts! I have been enjoying my new job, but i am SUPER excited for training to end so i can resume a more normal life again. 

My kiddos have been SUPER TROOPERS as they have had to spend a lot more time at baby sitters houses than normal.  Thankfully a bunch of days my sweet dad was able to pick them up early and play with them until we got home.  Can i just say i have THE BEST DAD EVER! He helped with my kids, bought me dinner, AND did my dishes and took out my trash when he was over. :) He knew how crazy my life was and just wanted to help. I sure love him!! My kids love him bunches as well. :)

I am excited for every thing that is to come.  Mostly i am looking forward to next week when life will calm down and I will be home more :) I think that i want to take the kiddos to a hotel next weekend so we can just relax and spend some good time together! :)

Here is to January ending and a new beginning for February!

crazy 2 weeks!

These next 2 weeks are going to be pure crazy! Its okay though.  I am really excited! I just started working for Steal Network! I am SO excited! I have already LOVED the first 2 days of training. :) I am still working at Prosper just you know doing both jobs. :) 
Its from home though so its not bad ;)!
the reason its SO crazy is because training is up in SLC.  So i am going from Prosper straight up to training in SLC.  My poor kiddos are living it up at sitters A LOT these next 2 weeks. :( But its for a GREAT reason! They are being good sports so far.  Lets hope they continue to be for the 8 more days i have. :)

So yeah, I am excited!!!!

Derek in the paper

Derek made the paper with his work.  Go read :)

the happenings

Jackie:
I pulled her out of preschool. I was not impressed with what she was learning. Not enough learning and too much playing for my taste, i don't want to pay for that! We are going to work with her at home. I was testing her the other day to see what letters she could write and what letters needed more work. When we got to "U" she dropped her pen looked up at me and said, "Mom! I can't write that letter! Its the stinking Ute letter!" lol Oh how i love my little girl! (don't worry she wrote the "stinking Ute" letter just fine after i reminded her its also in BYU)
Hopefully, I can help her enough at home. 

Abby:
Is just continuing to be Abby.  She is growing up so fast its amazing to me! She is no longer my little toddler.  She is my big toddler!  She SURE has her opinions and wants them to be heard!
She LOVES babies/dollies.  She has lots and lots of babies, and loves to take care of them.  Its so cute to watch her be a little mommy!

Jessica:
This month i am doing good on my resolution! Read 5 chapters every day, yay! Well i am blogging right now so that knocks this week of my list. 
Oh so guess what, I am going to be starting a new job Friday. Its just on call so i am still going to work for Prosper. :) It's from home too, yay! I am excited, its for Steal Network. You know, babysteals and kidsteals. I am EXCITED! :)
Wish me luck to stay sane :) 

Derek:
Is still working his job and enjoying it!!  Hes a great husband and father and I love him!! :)

new years resolution

This year I am going to make a few goals a month. Its so hard to do a bunch of goals a year for me. This month I have 2 goals.

1. Read 5 chapters of scripture a day
2. Blog once a week (this so counts as this week!)

Hopefully this will help me focus more on my goals and they will happen.

What are your goals?