My new walls...

It seems like I've been trying to get this project done for months now! I'M FINISHED!!!

I have never liked public restrooms...

We've been out running quite a few errands this week as it is that "special" time of year! Emily is now obsessed with public restrooms. She loves lining the toilets with toilet paper. She needs to be in the stall all by herself - preferably with me on the other side of the bathroom. I peek in and she is sitting there prim and proper looking around as if each stall is a magical and wondrous place. She loves to flush the toilet and each time she does it, she claps her hands with all of the energy of her little 2 year old body and giggles and giggles and giggles! She loves washing her hands and it's an especially good restroom when they have a hand blower! OH MY! I still don't like public restrooms!

My little dancing girl...

Jessica is had her hip-hop recital Friday night! She loves to dance and I love the way she sings or counts to the beat while she dances! It was so much fun to watch her!

Jessica and her friend Maddi.

Well, I'm having a bit of a "early-life crisis" (cuz I'm definitely not "mid-life" yet!)!! You'd think this would be a happy and momentous occasion in my life. I should be out having a party, going on a shopping spree, having a diet pepsi/chocolate binge - but instead I'm ready to cry...You see my baby has potty trained herself! I know - I've decided I'm probably crazy - but what this means is my children are growing up! I realize that's that whole point of this little ride I'm on called "motherhood" but I still don't have to like it! They are sweet, innocent, and light up my life and I never want it to end...but the clock just keeps tickin! This is the 1st time in 11 years that we have been diaper free! Kinda amazing isn't it???

I do have to say - we're not TOTALLY diaper free yet..she refuses to wear underwear! So, we wear a completely dry diaper every day...she wakes up in the morning dry - stays dry - wakes up from a nap dry, etc...Silly little girl!

November Catch Up!

It's been so long, I'm doing some major catch up! So here goes...

Last week we took a 3 1/2 hour quad ride in the desert mountains! I love it there! Garrett is all smiles and Nick is tired of having his picture taken.

Em, Jess and Jordan

Emily's-a-strippin! She decided that she didn't want her shirt on anymore - so she took it off and put it in my pack!

Silly Girl!

Thanksgiving Dinner. It was just the 7 of us this year. We had a wonderful weekend and although I missed being with our extended family, it was nice to have a quite (or not so quiet):) weekend at home.

Jessica made our cute name tags for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Goofballs!

More goofballs!

On Veterans Day, (and Jordan's Birthday) our ward held a little parade in our neighborhood. We began at our house. The kids decorated their bikes and we made quite a little sight as we wound our way through the streets that morning. We ended at the Primary Presidents house for cinnamon rolls and juice. It was a fun way to start the day. There's Jessica in the corner!

Getting ready to leave...

Cheesy Jordan!!!

This year, Nick played soccer for the first time since he was 4. He had a blast and loved it! These pictures are from his soccer award party. He's the cutie in the middle! Can't you tell??? :)

Nick is receiving his trophy. He earned the "Most Improved Player" award. His coach is in the military and expected a lot from the kids...they really responded to all of his yelling :)!!

Garrett is in pre school this year. He loves it!! We went a beautiful new fire station in Gilbert for a field trip. This is their "Theater Room". Actually, they called it some sort of a conference room...We thought it was pretty amazing! There are 3 cascading rows of leather recliners.

There is the screen...

Garrett and his class standing in front of the fire truck.

Garrett and Ezra are in the same class. I love this pic! Typical! They always have to be wrestling!

Garrett and I are waiting for our turn to get in the fire truck! We left Emily behind on this trip. I love to be able to spend alone time with my babies!

Sitting in the fire truck! We'd make awesome firemen!

This picture was taken at pack meeting. Nick and Riley are playing an Indian wrestling game. Nick got his little tail kicked. It's not fair when the other boy is twice your size! He did use up every ounce of strength he had though!

Jordan received his "Arrow of Light' award! We are so proud of him. It is the highest award that you can receive in cub scouting! Don't you love the face paint! He wasn't thrilled! (with the paint that is:))

Emily Ann...I'd just gone grocery shopping and she had to make a tower! Love her!

And last but not least...you know you are a nascar fan when your 2 year old insists on sleeping with her big brother's nascar underwear over her mismatched pajamas!

Thanksgiving Recipe

Yes, I'm sooooo behind on my blog, and yes I promise to do better! :) So, with that said, my friend gave me this thanksgiving recipe and I thought I'd post it! It looks yummy and she is an amazing cook and said that though it sounds a little strange, it is delicious!

Cranberry Salsa

4 crisp apples chopped small

2 jalapenos (or to taste depending on how strong) seeded and chopped

3 green onions chopped

handful of cilantro chopped

1 can of whole cranberries (not the sauce)

Dash of balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

Mix and serve. Especially good on a turkey sandwich with some good bread and some muenster cheese or cream cheese!

I can't wait to try it! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'll post soon! I promise:)

Okay...I'm officially tired! Really I am :). It's been quite a week. A week ago Saturday, Jordan fell on his bike and hit his shin on his pedal. It caused a little scrape that I didn't find out about until a the next day. A few days later, he started complaining that it was bothering him and by Thursday night, it was warm to the touch and looking a little strange. Mark and I both looked at it and thought it was odd. On Friday morning, he got up and went to school as any other normal day. But the time he got home, he was a mess. He had a fever and a splitting headache and his leg was a MESS! It was burning hot and covered with little boils. By Saturday night, after going to both the Dr. on Friday and the Emergency Room on Saturday, we found out that he had a nasty staph infection! YUCK. So, needless to say, he is on some strong medication for the next 20 days. Fortunately, the medicine has kicked in and he is doing soooo much better. Thank goodness.

Nick on the other hand is on the down hill slide! He hasn't been himself for over a week now and I had him to the Dr. today. He's had fevers off and on and constantly wants to sleep. Strange for my little one that has NEVER needed sleep! :) His Dr. couldn't figure out what was going on and I took him in for a series of blood tests today. Hopefully in the next few days we will be able to solve our mystery!

On top of it all I still need to clean my house, get my grocery shopping done, get to the fabric store for a project that I'm working on, finish my project :), Organize a meal for 600 at our school next Saturday (I just found out about it last week - I even have a budget of $200...hooray:)), help get ready for the primary activity on Monday, make cupcakes for the soccer party on Thursday, get ready for Jordan's Arrow of Light ceremony on Wednesday, etc., etc., etc., and make sure my husband and children are healthy and happy! I know I can! I know I can! I know I can!!!!

5 Days in Paradise

Cannon Beach, Oregon

Yes, it really was paradise..wet, rainy,sunny at times and absolute paradise! There were 6 of us for the weekend doing a whole lot of nothing and laughing so hard that we pulled a few tummy muscles! I am eternally grateful for these women in my life! They are the epitome of true friends! Here are some picture from our trip!

My bedroom...I called Mark after the first night and told him that I needed an ocean in our backyard! :) What a sound to fall asleep to!

Cleopatra - No..really Tiff..we'd just had an afternoon and evening in front of the big front ocean window making cards and needed some FOOD!

Haystack Rock...we tried to brave the waves and reach the rock - not a good idea ..even at low tide. I'll save the near drowning story for another day! :)

Haystack Rock again! So pretty!

The six of us...Tina, Shawna, Stacy, Tiffany, Luanne and Me..holding little Rachel (Stacy's new baby)

Shawna feeding the seagulls!

In the hot tub overlooking the ocean!

Luanne and Shawna at the Cape Mears Lighthouse...I love the Rocks in the background!

At the Cape Mears lookout point.

We spent a day in Portland and visited the Portland Temple. This is taken at the Atrium inside of the temple!

Yes, that is me in front of the prettiest tree at the temple! I miss those colors!!!

Multnomah Falls! It was freeeeezing cold!!! Brrr!

Mom and Dad were at the coast for a Judicial Conference. They came up to Cannon Beach and we were able to meet for dinner! It was soooo good to see them!

Playing!

Well, I'm back from my "5 days in paradise"...(I'll post pictures of that later). Mark deserves the "Dad of the Year" award and spoiled them all rotten while I was gone. All that Garrett and Em wanted to do this morning was play with mom. I made some play dough and this is one of our creations:

Funny little men...

My little partners!

Jordan came to Mark and I last week and asked if we would buy him a lizard. Mark wasn’t thrilled, but eventually I persuaded him (they’re only going to be little once! J). Monday night for family night we ventured to the local Petsmart. Jordan and Nick pooled their money and donated $85 dollars to the cause. We donated to the rest of the cause. Needless to say – we had no idea what we were getting into. . .

Spike is now an official member of our family. He is sooo cute! He is living the lizard life of luxury – He get’s fed collard greens and mustard greens in the morning, get’s misted at noon and receives little ALIVE baby crickets dusted with vitamins each evening. His cage is at a constant warm temperature during the day and cool at night! WHO KNEW!!!

It has been an experience, but we are all enjoying him so much! Mark is the funniest because he worries about him as much as the rest of us!

Spike sleeping...what a life!

Setting up his terrarium. – oh the things we do to make our children happy! :) I really do love Spike!

I'm Failing....

Well, I had a conversation with Garrett in the car today and I've decided that I'm completely failing...We got the new Friend in the mail and he was looking at it as we were going to pick up the kids from school. There is a picture of the temple on the front cover. Our conversation went something like this:

Garrett: Hey mom...I think this temple is the one at Grandma's house.

Jill: Why Garrett?

Garrett: Well, It has that "golden guy" on the top.

Jill: You mean the Angel Moroni?

Garrett: Ya mom...What is that thing in his hand?

Jill: It's a trumpet Garrett.

Garrett: Ahh..So he played that during the War?

Jill: What war?

Garrett: The war when Jesus died.

Well...we talked about the "war when Jesus died" - (I have no clue where that one came from) and on and on from there...nice isn't it?

Then came the second realization of failure...Some background..I believe that our conversation started with all of the talk of the trumpet. Our Bishop plays the trumpet and is extremely talented! Here are the two sentences that made me sink a little lower in my seat:

Garrett: Mom, you know that "Missionary Guy" who has candy in is office?

Jill: Um Garrett..you mean the Bishop?

Garrett: Ya Mom...He plays the trumpet good doesn't he?

That's it in a nutshell! I'm not doing so hot! I think I'll move to Australia!

Emily Funny...

I was putting Em down for a nap when all of the sudden she said, "Mom, my bum burped!" Well...you know what happened! I got a good giggle!

Random Pictures... I just love this picture of Emily. Love matching pink bows in their hair.

Emily loving on Nicholas.

So the other day I asked Jordan and Nicholas to do the breakfast dishes. Sadly for me, I'm fairly controlling over my dishwasher and don't often have the boys do the dishes - they always empty the dishwasher and clear the table - but I get the privilege of loading and washing up! I know...it's a little problem of mine. Anyways, it's very obvious in this picture! Love the gloves, garbage bag apron and don't forget to check out the dishwasher. Notice the pitcher on the top shelve! :). Needless to say I had to teach the boys how to properly reload!

Okay...I'm so far behind on my blog...uggg! It's been quite the month! Over the next few day, I'm going to post - post - post until I'm caught up! It's amazing how a little bit of sickness can put me behind! Thank goodness all is well now and we are back to normal here at this crazy house :).

Mark and the boys got home Sunday night from their "Boys Weekend". It was quite disconcerting to hear Garrett tell me all week long how excited he was to go to "Vegas!"

Three years ago, I gave mark a "Nascar Experience" for his birthday and he was finally able to experience it this weekend! He took the three boys with him and they left Friday night and stayed in a hotel by the Las Vegas Speedway. Early the next morning they went to the Speedway and began. Mark said it was the time of his life...I told him that it was too bad the scouts weren't watching! :) He got to race 8 laps around the track and went up to 132 mph! The boys had an awesome time watching their dad. Grandma and Grandpa Woolley met them there from St. George and hung out with the kids while Mark raced. Afterwards they went back to St. George and spent the afternoon swimming in the pool. They slowly made their way home on Sunday. Apparently, they had the greatest spitball fight in the world at Pizza Hut in Flagstaff and it even spread out into the parking lot afterwards. The cars were great cover! It sounded like they had way too much fun! I'm so grateful for Mark - that there is nothing better to him then spending time with his kids! Love him!!

Get Ready...

Get Set...

Go!!!!

And going 132 mph!!!

I love the fact that it's so easy to get out of these things!!!

Is it really over???

They staff at the raceway was so kind to the boys. The loaded them up on this van and took them on a ride on the racetrack. The boys LOVED it!

I love these pictures of Mark and the boys! They're such buds!

Best Friends! I love the fact that they all have their Dale Jr. shirts on!

Cool Engine!

One of the highlights for the boys was sitting in the number 2 car!

Life is good!