West Yellowstone, Montana

What a long weekend! We were missing my mother very badly and talked her into coming and seeing us for several days and told her that we would meet her halfway (from Idaho) in West Yellowstone, Montana where my Uncle Bill lives and owns a Motel (it's called the Hibernation Station and if you are ever staying outside of yellowstone...this is the place to stay!) We stayed the night one night in Worland on the way to pick up mom, stayed one night in West Yellowstone and then planned on driving all the way home on the 3rd day. Well, I took the wrong turn out of Yellowstone and we ended up in the Grand Teton National Forest instead of the Shoshoni National Forest...so we had to turn around and go through the South part of Yellowstone Park again, lol..so we spent a full day in the National Park on accident. We did stop to see Old Faithful and the kids loved it and seemed to really enjoy the Park as well. Jackson pointed out "goose" in the river and "ruffalo" (buffalo) in the fields. He saw all the fall trees and kept saying "cute" :) He has really developed over the last few months and is now saying his ABC's with me. When I count down from 5 for Cartern when he is in trouble,  Jackson beats me to "4"!

Layla also has grown a lot and she started crawling over the weekend. Before she was getting around either by rolling or doing a sort of army crawl.  She is really developing a very cute personality and enjoys being around Jackson and stealing his binky from his mouth.  She is eating a lot of table foods now and I find her picking out the marshmellows from the Marshmellow Mateys and she feeds the dogs all the "matey's" lol. She picks out the green jacks in Apple Jacks and won't eat the orange ones.

On a side note, it may be a while before I can write again as my desktop computer has quit working and the MacBook that my mom loaned my has decided that it doesnt want the keys to work properly and several of them do not work and when you push them, a series of random letters appears instead. None of the numbers work so I can't type in my passwords to sites either, lol. Oh well, it can't be that bad being computer less, can it? AHHH...yes it can...I am going to go crazy!

So, until next time....Good morning, good day and good night!

"Daddy Work"

Ugh. Poor Jackson. The last few days have been so rough for him. He has been an absolute terror. He just screams and screams.  He gets very upset over little things and then doesn't calm down. He just looks at me with big tears in his eyes and he is either screaming mad or crying sad. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him until this morning I just decided to ask him and see what he would say.  He was particularly upset and I asked him what was wrong and why he was crying. He looked at me and said "Daddy, work".

:( Made me so sad. I knew that I would miss Tyler and that the older kids would miss him a lot but it didn't really occur to me that Jackson would have such a rough time with it. Poor guy, he loves daddy so much and just misses him. He's acting out because he misses his daddy. :( Hopefully he will understand that daddy is coming home soon.

Hot soup on a cold day

It is starting to get very chilly outside, and the kids asked me to cook some home made chicken noodle soup with a special request for homemade egg noodles.  It sounded good to me too, so we went to the grocery store and got the remaining items we needed but they didn't have a thawed whole chicken so it's going to have to be turkey noodle soup, that's just as good I think.

Having turkey cooking on the stove smells so wonderful! Every time that I make home made soup I always think about my dad.  I remember him sitting at the head of our table with a steamy bowl of soup in front of him on a cold day. Often times he had just came back inside from shoveling the sidewalk and driveway.  He would always say "The worst thing about hot soup on a cold day is that your bowl never gets empty" and then he would sniffle. LOL. He is such an amazing father. He's always there for any of us when we need him and loves us unconditionally.  My mother is quite literally the most wonderful person that I know. She is more compassionate than anyone I have ever met, more loving, more giving and more selfless than anyone I have every met as well. She knows just what we need before we need it and we don't have to ask.  She is always thinking of something that could make someone else happy or what would brighten someone else's day. She has evolved into the best grandmother with all her grandchildren as well.  I am sorry that so many things have been allowed to drive a wedge into our family relationships because we truly had the best of parents and they deserve to have their children be close.  Hopefully some day bygones will be bygones and we can all get back to being a big happy family.

"You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back. " ~William D. Tammeus

"Ding Dong"

I think that I might have the trouble makers in the neighborhood. I sent Savannah and Carter to check the mail and they came back arguing over who's idea it was to go "DING DONG"(we used to call it.....something different when I was growing up) the other houses on their way back from the mail box. So, after some investigation I discovered that Savannah was the culprit behind the idea and was sending Carter out to do the deed. Hopefully they won't be doing that again.

Then I sent them outside to play a little bit and they came back in the house after like 5 minutes and Savannah ratted Carter out for jumping into the back bed of someone's pick-up truck. Ugh. Needless to say I'm finding it difficult to explain to the kids that just because things as specific as staying out of other peoples trucks and don't ding dong the neighbors aren't spelled out in the rules does not mean that it's okay to do. So tonight we went over things like having respect for out neighbors and our friends and for other people belongings. Again.

Layla is getting around so good now. When put down on the floor she can find anything within a 10 foot radius. She really reaches out now and is loving exploring her surroundings.  She has also started pulling hair and scratching faces when she gets frustrated. Most afternoons both the babies end up napping on me and when they wake up they have a binky war.  Layla will notice Jackson's binky and reach for it and take it out of his mouth and Jackson will yell "NO NO LAYLA, NO NO" lol. I have been very surprised at how gentle Jackson is with Layla and never gets angry with her or tries to hit or hurt her. I think that they are going to be great friends.

I have been shopping for Halloween costumes and have found some very cute ones for Layla, but can't make a decision. I found one that's too small for her but I think that it's hilarious...it's a whoopy cushion for an infant.  I guess that I will keep looking...I have plenty of time. :)

Woopie Cushion Baby Bunting Infant Costume - Costumes

Woopie Cushion Baby Bunting Infant Costume - Costumes

Carter and his "Bro's"

This afternoon when Carter got home from school he came in and was going on and on as fast as he could about playing at school with his friends. Only, at first I couldn't understand what he was saying because he kept saying "me and my bro's".  I couldn't stop laughing when Savannah told me that Carter calls his friends his "Bro's". LOL. It's very strange to hear a 5 year old refer to someone as "Bro". "What's up Bro?" from a 5 year old?! HE HE HE! The things he is learning in school are amazing. I'm impressed at how fast he is picking things up! He can count backwards down from 20 and can already write his name.  He wrote a letter to Tyler today by drawing pictures and asking me to write the words "I LOVE YOU, YOU ARE THE BESTEST" on a seperate sheet of paper and he copied the words onto the letter for us to mail in our care package to Tyler this week. It's the most adorable thing to see Carter leave for the school bus in the morning because he has the best looking 'skip' I have ever seen. His skipping has a very "bouncy" nature to it and he just leaps right off the ground with each step. Every morning he skips too, it's not just occasionally.  He has been doing so much better with his behavior again and really seems to be understanding rules better and following instructions, yay! for some sanity around here!

I found an AMAZING website that is doing awesome things for me. It is www.flylady.com and let me tell you....I have never felt better and am actually enjoying keeping the house all nice and tidy nowadays. I shine my sink every single night just like she has you start with. When I first read that I thought, seriously? Shine my sink every night? What difference is that going to make if there are toys strung out all over the living room? I followed her instructions and shined my sink that night. The next morning I got up and went downstairs and saw the most beautiful site.....a glorious shining sink without any dirty dishes in it!!!  It made my day. I was so excited about the sink that it encouraged me to keep the downstairs clean and start on organizing the upstairs too! So, this whole week I have been working on getting "MOUNT WASHMORE" (laundry) done and put away and I keep my sink shining every night and I am starting to get my own bedtime routines down. I have always tried to establish night time routines for the children but never realized that it could be so very beneficial for me as well.  This has helped me let go of some of my perfectionist traits, and do things one at a time. I have a really hard time with starting one project and finishing it without finding another project that needs to be done in the process. For example...I would be cleaning the bathrooms and go to put away the cleaners into the closet, and realize that my closet needs re organized so I would start that without having finished the bathroom. To further explain something (because I know if my sister read the word "perfectionist" as a reference to me, she would laugh from now until Sunday) I am a perfectionist in my EXPECTATIONS and not so much in my ACTIONS. Read: I like things to look clean and tidy and perfectly organized but actually getting it there is a very big struggle for me. Guess what?! I'm doing it. One day at a time my house is getting cleaner and cleaner, and while it wasn't a huge cluttered mess before..the little things are getting done more often now. I am hoping that by establishing these things into my routine...I will learn to actually enjoy cleaning the way that my sister does. When you walk into my sisters' home, it is immaculate. She must bleach her mop-boards and wall trim weekly, maybe daily, lol. He floors are always shining and everything has it's place. She is my hero and my best example of who I want to be like. :) Best of all, her children have learned those traits from her and are also clean people and that is a trait that I would like to see my children absorb. We certainly don't want any Hoarders in our genes! 

Off to bed! Can't wait to wake up to a shiny sink tomorrow morning!!! 

Here goes!

Wow! Here we go on the blogging thing I suppose. It just seems like there is always so many funny things that happens in our family that I either don't have the time or opportunity or I just plain forget to share with the people that we love, so I'm going to try and stay up to date on them here for you all to enjoy and share in. I always enjoy reading my sisters blog but she seems to be a lot more creative than I am but I will do my best.

Tyler has been working out of town for a week or so and its looking like he will be out of town for another 3 or 4 weeks. He will come home for a few weeks and then be gone again until the end of the year. :( Unfortunate but I suppose we should be thankful that he has a job because in this economy there are so many people who are not so fortunate.

Savannah and Carter both started school this year. I can't believe it but Savannah entered 4th grade and Carter entered Pre-Kindergarten. They both love it so much and Carter looks so precious in the morning as he is skipping down to the bus stop. Warms my heart to see him enjoying something so much. Every morning when he gets up he gets ready for school and comes into my bathroom and puts his little hands under the sink faucet and wets his hair down and then puts the hair gel in his hands and rubs his hands together and then does own hair. He looks at himself in the mirror and fixes each spike so that it is just where he wants it to be. He's growing up so fast. Savannah is making new friends as well and seems to be enjoying her new school. She reads a lot and is currently working on "Inkheart". She is such a tremendous help for me around the house and all the kids have been so helpful lately with picking up and doing things that are asked of them. It's been a long haul to get there, but I think that things are looking up as far as routines go in the household.

Layla and Jackson are the only ones that are left with me in the house during school days now. It can be pretty quiet but we are all enjoying it. Jackson saw that there was a job opening for trouble maker in the house when Carter went to school so he has been quite a handful lately.  He is learning his independence and having a power struggle with mom. LOL. Layla is growing so fast I can hardly believe it. She pulled herself up from a seated position the other day and I was so amazed. She is working on crawling but prefers scoot around on her head. Jackson was my only other baby who actually crawled. Carter did the crab crawl  and army crawl and then started walking and Savannah just started walking at 9 months bypassing crawling altogether. Jackson turned 2 in July. He was so excited to see the dinosaur cake that we got him. It was interactive so the first time that it roared and popped forward he got scared and screamed, lol.

I have enjoyed living away from Evanston but do miss my family. My parents and I were really close and it has been very hard to be away from them but I think that Tyler and I made the best decision for our family to move away and start our family out on our own. I miss my sister and brothers very much, it's hard to keep in touch when everyone is so busy with their own lives. 

There is not much to say about me, other than I do a lot of cleaning and laundry. HA! I read a lot and I am always looking for new books so if you know any, share, share, share! I just ordered a book call "One thousand White Women" by Jim Fergus and I am really looking forward to getting it in the mail so I can read it.

I am thankful that we have cellular phones so that I can talk to Tyler every night when he leaves for work (he is working the night shift on this job) and every morning when he gets off work before he goes to bed. I am so thankful that Tyler and I found each other and fell in love. He has truly been a blessing from God for me and the kids. He's so caring and compassionate and will do anything to make sure that we are taken care of.  He won't read this because he hates computers and technology but I'm going to send a big "I love you, you're the best" out into cyber space for him.  He is so good about taking the family out to do fun things. We go fishing, walking and for outdoor "adventures" all the time.

We went out fishing for 2 days over Labor day and both Carter and Savannah caught their first fish that was cast and reeled in entirely on their own.

Well, I suppose in closing I will add that in the future I will try and post some more intriguing reads and try and have a little creativity in my posts while still keeping you updates! Happy Blogging! Here are a few scenery pictures from our outdoor adventures!

Here are some recent pictures that we took of the kids.