Katelyns 6th Birthday!!!

March 28th

Wow, six years ago I was getting ready to have my first baby! That doesn't seem that long ago, but a lot has happened since then.

Of course Katelyn was so excited for her birthday to be here, so I wanted to make it extra special for her. She wasn't too excited about it being on a Sunday, but I told her it would be great. Since we don't have church until 1pm it gave us plenty of time to give her breakfast in bed(which she was so extremely excited about), and to open all of her presents and still have plenty of time to play with them.

Katelyn is about 4-5 months old here with her cousin Aubree. Out of all of our kids she has definetly lived in the most places and been in the most states(Jason keeps track). When she was just 2 months old we drove from Boston to Hill Spring, Alberta Canada, to Las Vegas within about a week or less. She was a real trooper and still is to this day. We lived with my sister for the summer while Jason worked. She got spoiled by all of her bigger cousins who wanted to play with her all the time.

After 45 hrs of labor we were so excited to welcome our adorable little dark haired(none of which stayed) girl into this world. What a wonderful experience it was, we were so excited and a bit scared at the same time. She has just been such a joy to have in our lives though!

Until Katelyn was one, she got to share a bedroom with mom and dad in our one bedroom apartment(yeah, I'll never do that again). Between baby, daddy snoring, and hearing everyone come into the building we decided to upgrade to a 2-bedroom apartment. So yet another move across town we did. But it was so much better and fun for us to be closer to friends.

Now that Katelyn is 6 I can greatfully say that she definetly not sharing a room with us anymore, although she often tries to sneak into bed with us, which we allow once in a while if I'm too tired to send her back to her own bed.

Katelyn is absolutely inlove with dolls right now, especially the 'American Girl dolls,' and since I loved dolls so much when I was younger I wanted to spoil her and see her happy. Well she was very happy as you can see. We got her Ruthie(Kits best friend) because she already had Kit. She had no idea that she was getting her.

No, all of this isn't from us, my sisters and I all get the neices and nephews birthday gifts and it is so fun to see the kids open them and get excited, so Katelyn got tons from her Grandparents and cousins. She had a great birthday!
After church we had Grandma and Grandpa come over for dinner and cake. Katelyn got to pick what we were having, so we had Ribs. Grandpa said that he wanted to come over all the time. We are so blessed to have Nancy and Norm live so close to us, they support us in so many ways, and always try to make it to Katelyns dance events and soccer games. They are the best!

Katelyn is very girly and loves to do anything that I do. So I had a girly afternoon with her and watched a girl movie while we did face masks, paraffin wax(shown above), painted nails and made smoothies. We did all of this with her dolls close by, she absolutely loved every minute of it, it was great!

The funniest moment of the day was just before this picture and before she decided to hold her hair back. She was trying to blow the candle out and you guessed it, her hair caught on 'FIRE,' Nancy was yelling at Jason to grab her hair and everything was crazy for a moment, it was hilarious. I was being the photographer on the other side of the table just laughing. It was a good thing she didn't have too much hair product on or else it could've been a lot worse.

Well, it was a great day for Katelyn and we are glad that she had fun and got to have a special day all to herself. We love Katelyn so much and appreciate the hard worker that she is and the caring big sister that she is as well. We could'nt have asked for a better first child, she really is that great.

Happy Birthday Katelyn!

March Madness!

This has been a pretty busy month for us, but since it is finally over, I can blog about a few things that we have been up to.

First of all, you read that I had a birthday so I just wanted to fill you in on a couple things. I ended up taking the IPod Nano back to the store because Jason told me it was either that or a NEW CAR!!! And do you think that I'm crazy to turn that one down. We actually have been looking for one for a while and knew what we wanted but couldn't find the exact one with everything that we were looking for. So a week or so after my birthday Jason had been searching the internet and 'whoola.' We were looking for a Nissan Armada and this dealer had an Infinity QX56 with a few more miles for the same price. It had everything that we wanted and a great color that we loved. They said that it was like the Armada, but on steroids.

So we traded the pilot in, which they gave us more for it than we thought they would so we were pretty excited about it.

So Happy Birthday to Me!!! What a great husband I have! (Sorry I don't have a picture of it, I will try and put one on here)

Morgan eating popcicles with her little friend Adam! They are the best, they are the 'slow melting, mini popcicles,' you've gotta try them for the wee ones!
Katelyn was soooo excited for wacky day at school. Not many kids would actually go to school dressed weird, but she was a real trooper. She has on her tights from her witch costume, and miss matched clothes, with about 4 pony tails all over her head.
What a WACKY looking girl! She absolutely loves school!

My big girl!

After Katelyn got all ready, she asked me if she looked decent, too cute!

We had my sister in law take a few family pictures of us, but she hasn't been able to edit them yet so here are a few that I took with my own camera. The kids were great and we found a fun place for them to run around, it was great, but a bit chilly.

My stylish little man!

He wasn't as brave as Morgan when it came to the jumping part, but I thought this picture was cute with my two boys!

We just have so much fun with Morgan, she is always so happy and fun to be around. What a great trooper!

Morgan is such a good little cuddler and kisser! And she sure loves her daddy!

I got to watch my nephews while my sister in law had surgery, I had them all day and they were soooo good. Henry loved playing with his cousins and having a great ol time.

Katelyn and our cute little neighbor Elizabeth that just got baptized. She is also a great helper with Morgan and just loves to play with her.

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!

It's fun to have these random little holidays to celebrate with the kids. They have so much fun with them, so I've tried to make it special by making little traditions out of them. We started the day with green eggs and pancakes. The kids weren't too sure about the eggs, but they sure loved the pancakes.

Then of course we had to wear green all day, but daddy wasn't as much fun so he got pinched by the kids quite a bit. Katelyn had a soccer game and since daddy is the coach, she told everyone on the team to pinch him because he wasn't wearing any green. Maybe next year he will choose more wisely as to what he is going to wear on St. Patricks Day! The kids have been enjoying the swingset and outdoor toys now that it is a bit warmer.
It's so nice to have a happy child, but what kids aren't happy when there is food in front of them!

This doesn't happen very often(Henry actually looking at the camera)!

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

That's right, I just had a birthday, March 11th!!! I know that when we were all little kids, it was the best day of the year and we were so excited. Well I guess that there is still a little kid inside of most of us, because I still get a little excited to know that I get a special day to myself. Actually I am privileged to share it with my cute little nephew who passed away almost 10 years ago this summer.

The kids were so excited for me to hurry up and come downstairs to open my presents. Jason is one of those guys that ALWAYS waits until the last minute to get his shopping done. But he pretty much always comes through with a great gift. He did it once again for me, he got me an 'I pod Nano' for running. So I guess this means that I need to get off my butt and start running again, right?

So after getting Katelyn and Henry off to school, a good friend of mine(Kristina) took Morgan and I out to breakfast at 'Grannie Annies.' They have the best scones ever! Thanks Kristina, you are such a great friend.

I got tons of phone calls and messages from friends and family via facebook, which was really great! It's nice to be thought of once in a while.

Then that evening my sweet inlaws(Nancy and Norm) came over to watch the kids while Jason and I went out to dinner(Thai Lotus) and to a play(Our Town). It was a fun evening with just the two of us, so thanks Jason for coming through once again. I love my husband and wouldn't trade him for anything(today anyway, just kidding). What a great guy I married!

*Funny moment of the day was when Henry told me 'I hate your birthday!' I guess it was because I kept telling him that he had to be a good boy today, because it was my birthday! I laughed and thought it was pretty funny, what a little stinker!

Weekend in Price!

We were able to go down to Price, Utah this past weekend for my cute nephews ordination. He just turned 12 and was able to receive the priesthood. What a wonderful experience for him, I'm so glad that they live close enough for us to be able to attend these special events. We had a little fun with the girls! We put face masks on(hence McKenzies shiny face), and put our hands in the Parafin wax. The girls loved it, it was cute watching them get so excited about it.
So our whole weekend wasn't full of just fun, we did have a little accident. Yes it was Henry, he was doing somersaults on the futon and fell and cut his head open. He ended up getting 6 stiches from Uncle Brian. We were out of network for our insurance so my brother in law said that he could take him down to his Podiatry office and stich him up, so we took him up on it. Jason and I held him down while Brian sutured him up. Thanks a ton Brian!

Brian also helped me out with my toe nail. It has been trying to fall off for weeks and keeps getting caught on everything, or stepped on in basketball, so Brian pulled it off for me, my hero! Jks!

Is running really worth it? Since I started running a year ago, this is my second toe nail that has fallen off, and I think that I have another one that I may lose as well. I'm sure that it is because I didn't have big enough shoes, so if you are going to start running get a half size bigger so that you DON'T lose your toe nails as well.
I'm sure that all of you that are ready this, will just love that I posted about my lovely, cute feet!(Emily Allred, my feet are definetly cuter than yours now)

BEFORE...

AFTER...

I can SEE!!!

That's right, I can finally see without contacts or glasses now! I got LASIK surgery done on February 25th and it was the best thing ever. I have to admit that I was pretty nervous because I really didn't know what to expect and then there is that thought in the back of my mind (Am I ever going to be able to see my kids faces again). I know that noone really ever goes blind from this, but it just made me appreciate what Heavenly Father has blessed me with. I'm so greatful for the great health that I have and that I'm able to take care of my children and be an 'okay' mom to them.

Anyway, so yeah the surgery went great. My wonderful friend watched all three kids for me, and my father in law took me to my appointment. He has had Lasik done before so he prepared me for what I was about to do, it was very helpful(Thanks Norm, you are the best!). Jason did show up to take me home. Things were a bit blurry at first and then the Valium had kicked in and made me pretty tired, so I just rested for the afternoon.

So if anyone is thinking about getting LASIK done, I highly recommend it. What a great thing to be able to wake up in the morning or middle of the night and be able to SEE! I am still not used to that part yet, thinking that I need to go put my glasses on, silly I know.

Happy Valentines Day!

Well we barely made it home for Valentines Day. We got home from Las Vegas at 2:30am on the 14th and we were very exhausted. The kids slept pretty good in the car, althought they did wake each other up a few times. But we are glad to be home and to know that we aren't going on any far away vacations for quite a while. We are done with traveling, because for the past few weeks I have taken each kid to the Doctor for something different. I took Henry today and he has an ear infection(he kept me up from 3-6 last night). At least we got some meds for it now. We don't do much for the kids for Valentines day, but I wanted to get them each a little Valentines case with a couple treats in it, a couple of books, and then the Cootie game to share. They had fun with it and were pretty excited. Katelyn says that Halloween is still her favorite holiday(more treats)! Sorry sis, it won't be here for quite a while!
Katelyn with her 'I Carly' tin purse and matching P.J.s!

He really was excited, I promise!

Our little big girl, she loved getting the same thing as the big kids!