Aiden is here!

We have another baby in the family! Little Aiden Matthew has arrived. We never would have guessed that my sister-in-law, Sarah, his little tiny mama, could manage to have a 8 lb. 9 oz., 20 1/2 baby! We get to meet him tomorrow, and we are all excited. He looks nice and cuddly. Next to arrive: Baby Boy # 5 for my brother, Jared. and my sis-in-law, Trina. He'll be making his appearance sometime next month, my parents' 25 grandchild.

Just havin' a bit of fun

I've been a little obsessed lately with my newly remembered mission in life: TO FOCUS ON THE RELATIONSHIPS IN MY FAMILY. Translated: Getting our bunnuchies out of the house and doing as many fun things as possible. That means I've been trying to get the work done during the day, therefore, my computer time has pretty much been eliminated. But it's worth it. I can feel the love growing. My house isn't any cleaner, but I'm trying not to care as much. Anyway, here's some of what we've been doing:

I've lived near the Great Salt Lake my WHOLE life, and I've never actually seen it. So a couple of weeks ago, we packed our hiking gear and went for a day of hiking along the lush, wooded trails of Antelope Island (At least that's what I was expecting). When we got there, I was sorely disappointed. There is not a tree on the entire island, and our hiking consisted of walking along a mile of flat, salty sand to get to the water. We still had fun, however, in spite of the bugs that seemed to be immune to our bug spray. I felt the mama bear instincts arouse in me as little bugs constantly bit my babies. GRRRRRR!



This is our newly adopted member of the family, Allison. Not really, but we do try to get her to spend as much time with us as she can stand.

We love having a nice park and pool close by. We've been able to do late evening swims a couple of times, and it's awesome!

Allison and I took her nieces and my 2 little ones to Gateway. Lincoln was the only one brave enough to go into the cold water fountains. He was so cute with his wet T-shirt clinging to his chubby little belly.

I have some other blog ideas cooking, but this will have to do for now. My laundry and kitchen floor await...

Comfort or Style?

My sister in law sent me these pictures and I just had to share them. Joseph asked me why I wanted to be "gruesome" and I told him that they were too shocking to keep to myself. How willing are you to sacrifice comfort for style?

I entered Swen into a My Kids' Mom (or Dad) Totally Rocks contest on my friend, Heidi's, blog http://www.franticallysimple.com/. I write my feelings so much better than I say them, so I'm afraid that a lot of the time Swen doesn't know how great I think he is. So, here's a little tribute to my main man:

Sometimes I feel like I have 5 kids, although I've only given birth to 4. This is because my kids' dad is a kid at heart. He is louder than all 4 put together. He tickles, wrestles, teases, and laughs. He insists on doing risky flips on the tramp. He constantly shows us some new "move" he's figured out. He turns off the lights and has light saber fights with the boys. He loves to play, but he also dedicates every moment he has to showing them the kind of people he wants them to become. He takes them along when he helps neighbors, he teaches them from the scriptures, and he includes them in daily prayer. He has it all when it comes to being a devoted father. My kids' dad totally rocks!

The winner gets a box of personalized fruit roll-ups! Cool! The winners are chosen randomly, but I'm still planning what message I would want on my treat. Go enter the contest for yourself, but first, tell me what YOU would want YOUR fruit roll-up to say...

JOSEPH... a.k.a. Joe, Joe-B, Scooby-doo, Joe-Bear, Joe-B-yo-B, Jo-Jo, Joe-Bear-Doonk

In honor of Joseph's 8 birthday last Sunday, this post is all about him. This guy is one in a million, and he has been looking forward to his 8th birthday for HIS WHOLE LIFE! I thought I'd quote from his journal throughout the years.

Aug 27, 2000 (4 mo.) "Joseph ... has the loudest cry in history. It's unbelievable the sound that he can project out of those tiny lungs. He gets really bored because he can't entertain himself yet. But then when he smiles and laughs, you'd have a hard time believing that he's ever ornery. His laugh lights up the world. I love to watch him sleep. He's such an angel. Tonight he fell asleep sucking his thumb while I was rocking him. I stared at his beautiful face with a lot of love in my heart. Moments like that make being a mother wonderful."

Aug 30, 2001 (1 1/2 years old) "Joseph is always cuddly. He makes me smile because whenever he sees something soft, he'll dive for it, put his thumb in his mouth, and lie down."

Feb. 19, 2003 (almost 3) "Joseph is at such a fun stage right now. No one can believe that he's only 2 years old. He's super tall, and he speaks really well. He loves to be friendly to other people. He'll follow people around talking and talking and talking. He never stops. He's always asking, "What are you doing? Oh. Sitting there? Oh." He's a big tease. He'll do something wrong, then he'll tattle on himself in a very tattling tone. "I spit on the floor." "I pee-peed in my pants." "I poured water on the floor."

"He says the funniest things. A couple of weeks ago, Joseph rode with Grandma and Grandpa Tadje to SLC. G & G said that Joe talked the entire time (as usual) so Grandpa said, "Jo-Jo you are such a jabbermouth!" "No, Grandpa. I'm Jo-Jo, I'm a guy!" Then Grandpa asked, "Why are you so cute?" Joseph shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I don't know. I just do it!"

July 27, 2004 (4 years old) Every morning Joe finds me and tells me about his dreams. I usually have to limit the time because we've been doing a lot of morning activities. This morning I was really tired, so I decided to let him talk until he quit on his own. I wanted to see how long he'd actually go. He started at 9:05 am. He told me about baking a cake for his granny with fuzzy sugar, and lots of other strange things. Isaac came in at about 9:45, but Joe kept going. I fell in and out of sleep, but he kept on telling me his stories. At 10:04 Isaac begged Joe to stop so they could play, so Joe said one more sentence, then announced, "The end!" Whew! 59 minutes of made up stories!"

"Joe is still really cuddly. He would wear his spider man jammies all day, every day if he could. He likes to be "cozy". He still carries his little pillow with him, and cuddles in blankets even if it's 100 degrees outside."

"Another wonderful aspect of Joe's personality is his friendliness. He seeks people out and introduces himself enthusiastically. "Hi! I'm Joe. I'm 4!" He puts his four fingers one inch away from their eyes. "This is Isaac. He's 6, and that's my dad. He's 30!" Then, "How many are you? What's your name?" Everywhere we go, he entertains and says funny things with lots of facial expressions. On Sunday, some people in our new ward invited us over for Sunday dinner. After his 2nd roll, (and after his announcement that he didn't like roast beef very much) he stood up on his chair and said, "I want another roll. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?" He's so funny."

Sept. 16, 2004 (4 1/2) "Joe is so smart. He read his first book a couple of weeks ago. I'm trying to keep up with all of his questions. THEY NEVER END. Some are deep and profound like his questions about the devil, Heavenly Father, the curse of the Lamanites, how/where ants sleep, how videos are made, etc. But some are really annoying like, "Why is this blue?" and "Why was the chicken that I'm eating alive?" Sometimes I think I'm going out of my mind!"

Feb. 9, 2005 (almost 5) "On Monday, we took Alyssa to her 2 mo. check-up. Joseph passed the time by writing on the crinkle paper over the doctor's check-up table. He pushed too hard and wrote on the doctor's table accidentally. He was very scared. "I'm doomed!" he said, "Let's get out of here, let's run away. I'm doomed!" I told Joseph that he probably wouldn't get in trouble, but it would be better if he told the truth. He was scared at first, but then he knew it was a good choice. He opened the door and called the doctor into the room. He showed the Dr. his mistake and apologized. He also confessed to the nurse. I was very proud of him."

April 5, 2007 (almost 7) "Several months ago, your life goal was to make a lava suit. You were fascinated with lava and you asked endless questions about it. You finally came to the logical conclusion that it was going to be pretty impossible to find something to make a lava suit out of since lava is melted rock. You decided that lava would melt any material since it melts rock. Yesterday you told me that you're going to invent a medicine for people with type 2 diabetes. You are going to either find a cure or a medicine to prevent the disease. Good luck! If anyone can do it, you can!"


October 9, 2007 "Hey, Joe-man, wassup? You've been doing great in school. In the national test you took last year (we just got the results) you got 100% on everything except geometric shapes. I couldn't believe it! You rock!"

"You love to take time with Lincoln. You've always loved babies. He loves you, too. You always make him happy."

"In your spare time (and any time in between) you love to make CONSTANT loud noises- spitting, belching and loud "uuuuuuuuhhhhhh"s. You are such a vocal child! You also love to pretend with Ike, play games, jump, and listen to Radio Disney. Your favorite foods are taco soup and bar-b-cups. Your favorite movie is any watched with family, and your favorite job is toilets (really)! I love you, bud"

As you can see, Joe is quite an amazing kid. From the time he was born, I felt like he was just going through the motions of childhood because everyone has to. But inside I know he's a wise spiritual giant, who is much older than I am. I feel so privileged that he chose me to be his mother. Happy 8th Birthday, Joe!

Welcome Madelyn!

Hear ye, Hear ye! We would like to welcome another adorable cousin into the world. My sister, Carolyn, had her 5th child, sweet Madelyn, on April 21. After a long pregnancy filled with no energy and many ordeals, we are glad that she has finally arrived. We are SO SAD that she lives in Texas because we really want to give her hugs and pinch those adorable cheeks.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Next to arrive: Aiden (little fire)

ETA- June 17 (on big fire's birthday)

Explanation: My brother, Nate, has bright red hair, hence the nickname FIRE. He and Sarah have chosen to name their baby Aiden, which literally means little fire. I think it's SO COOL! And the fact that Aiden is due to come on Nate's birthday tops off the coolness.