January 2014

Hailey went through the temple on the 2nd. It was very special and she looked beautiful. David is taking fun pictures of his adventures with a picture of Stephanie. It's very sweet.

After the temple Steven said that he thinks good things are going to come to our family this year.  I agree.  We both feel like his career will take off and that he will be doing what the Lord wants him to be doing.  I have set the intention to serve others more, including my children. I am doing my best to look them in the eyes and give them my full attention (Stephanie was a great example of this), to play with them more and to have one on one time with them each day.  Yesterday after Max fell down the stairs I joined him on the floor and we just laid there talking.  Sam kept interrupting my time with Elese saying, "My Turn." He and I spent a lot of time just playing in my bed (ie this little piggy - tickels etc).  Elese and I talked about school and looked through her school stuff. She is the one I have to try the hardest with because Sam and Max are content just snuggling and visiting while Elese wants constant action and excitement...that's a bit much for me but I can do it for her. On New Years day we all went to Leatherbys for ice cream.

On January 5th Steven made "dump dinner" for the kids for the first time and they loved it.

Max is 9 and almost 10. Very excited for his birthday. We decided on a Ninja Turtle party and we will make pizza's. He wants to finish his Bear but hasn't done much to complete it.  He had great intentions but needs reminders to follow through.  Some of his school work has gotten forgotten. I had him make a plan for how he can get his Bear.  He is going to work on it for 10 minutes every day.  We have cards for responsibilities and that has really helped he and Elese remember what things they need to do so we added a "work on Bear" card to it.  He is sweet and thoughtful.  As Sam struggled going to bed last night (Jan. 7th 2014) Max tried to help...it was really hard for him to have to hear Sam cry. I had to shoo Max away because he was unintentionally taking away Sam's consequences. Max is such a good example to Elese and Sam. One day he was playing with Olivia so I took a picture and the other kids immediately wanted in on the photo action.

Max was student of the Month and daddy came to the assembly.

Elese is busy busy and loves her new desk.  She is always moving or creating something.  She loves to just grab you and hug you or get right in your face and insist you play with her.  She is very determined and that is a good thing. I want her to be determined to make right choices, to be kind, to be the person she wants to be...she's great at all that, She just needs to be more confident and happy with who she is.  I know that as I work harder to love her for who she is that she will start to do so as well.  She has a crush on Angelo in her class, he has long hair and is very kind and polite. She came home the other day and said, "I don't have a crush on Angelo anymore because he cut his hair".  She is a good student and very affectionate. Steven is very sweet to her and trying to be more active with her. "Here comes the airplane and it's coming for a landing!"  Elese said that Tyler taught her that. Liv seems to like it - she would watch the spoon with her mouth wide open.

On January 10th Elese started complaining that her ear tickled. Then she said, "I'm so mad!  I didn't chew my bread up all the way so that it would scratch my ear for me and it didn't work!"  Lol. So random. One
day Elese brought home a letter from Shanade...or so she said.

 She and I had a girls night at Classic Fun Center. This is where I learned that I don't remember how to roller skate.

Samuel is so cute! He's been having a tough time since Thanksgiving and my surgery to get back into his schedule.  He's been tired and cranky.  Now that the kids are back in school he's doing better but still not sleeping great.  His favorite things to say are "Poo Poo Head", "Pee Pee face", and "Darn it". Today we had the following conversation: Me: "Sam, are you my boy?" Sam: "Me daddy favorite. "
Me: "You're Daddy's favorite?"
Sam: "No, Daddy me favorite."
He tells you how it is.  I love him so much! When we read before nap he likes to repeat the words after me. If I read too fast he will shout, "No Mommy! Me do it!" then I'll slow down and he will repeat whatever words he can after me.  His favorite books right now are Thomas ones we got from the library.  I substituted in Nursary a couple of weeks ago and since then he has had a really hard time going in there. He loves his leaders so I'm not sure what the deal is.  I think he just liked having me in there. I sent Steven a text telling him that he is sam's favorite.  I laughed at it and Sam said "mommy me see!" so I showed him the text that he obviously can't read and he laughed and laughed. One day Sam insisted on eating his eggo waffle frozen. I finally convinced him to let me cook it but he had to help me toast it.

Sam and I play ""mommy daddy date". We pretend to go on a date. He drives this car.

Today we went to McDonald's and daddy ordered a chicken nugget happy meal. Then we drove to the movies, ate popcorn and watched lightening McQueen. The mommy daddy game got a little more exciting once weather became a factor. There is "snow street" and daddy crashes. Then he gets the car new tires and new batteries and he fixes them.

He loves his big girl cousins and they love him!

One of Sam's favorite things was having PaPa come over every Tuesday to babysit while I volunteered at the school. Mostly he loved the treats he would bring.

He's so cute.

Olivia is so sweet.  She is smiley and happy and has started to love anyone and everyone.  She is also very tough.  The last two times she has gotten shots (Hep b booster and flu booster) she didn't cry hardly at all.  For the Hep b she cried until I picked her up and then was just fine.  Today for the flu I was holding her arms down and talking to her. Then I heard the nurse say "All done", the band-aid was on and everything and then Liv made a little whimper and then she was fine. I picked her up and she smiled right at the nurse.  It is so nice to have her sweet spirit in our home! She had her first big girl bath on January 11th.

Her cousin Kaitie made her a cute hat to keep her head warm.

She hated it. She also started eating everything. Even socks.

She also loved getting into Elese's hair stuff.

Me: I had surgery to remove a cyst from my breast.  All the tests came back normal. I was nervous when I discovered it in Texas considering that Stephanie had just passed from cancer...it had doubled in size.  It took me about a week to not feel tired anymore from the anesthesia but the pain really wasn't too bad.  It hasn't quite healed up and I seem to be leaking some milk but it's only a little so I think I'm ok.  Tonight is food group.  We are going to Shanade's and bringing healthy food to eat.  We haven't done VD in a while but we are starting back up on Thursday.  I'm looking forward to it.  Steven put it best: I need to be with people that don't have any expectations of me (ie cooking, cleaning, kissing...). I am going to be singing in Stake conference a solo for adult session and trio for regular session. I'm always happy to have opportunities to sing. This is also when I was introduced to Jamberry Nails. I love themish.

Steven is working but has been around more than usual because Chad was out of town the last two weeks of December and Tyler is a great help.  He is in the middle of a screen play and has a goal to complete it by January 31st and then get an agent. He really is very talented and I know that he is meant to share his talents with the world.  I love him very much and over the last several months we have been working to strengthening our marriage. Things are good but we don't want to be stagnant.  Liv and I are going with him over Valentines weekend on a shoot and Hailey is going to babysit. One day at work Chad aproached Steven with the idea of  a Geek News show and so the Geek Report was born.

After a few days of hard work they had a newly painted set that would also work for The County Seat.

Of course we must mention his scouting duties. He went on the Klondike with the boys.

He also had a commercial shoot at the Ice Castles in Midway which I had been telling him for years that he should go to and he thought it was fantastic but always says something like "I didn't realize that it was so cool. It sounded lame when you told me about it."