It's My Last Day!

I have thought about turning 30 a lot over the years especially when my friends or family would turn the big 30, I always imagined that I would cry and be sad, that I would hate the idea of being older. So here it is the night before my big day and I am actually looking forward to it. I think I have felt "old enough" to be 30 for a while. now don't mistake me, I in no way feel old and I have no intention of being more "mature" but I feel like so much happened during my twenties I am kind of surprise I am not already 30! I am looking forward to spending the day with Kevin, he started a tradition the first year we were married and it has carried through every year since and I love it! He takes the whole day off on my birthday and we spend the day playing games watching movies and just having fun together as though we have no responsibilities, it's nice. We are also meeting up with some friend on Friday to go out to eat and then bowling, and a good friend and I are getting manicures on Sat. so all in all it is going to be a fantastic birthday week for me!

Everyone is healthy and school is in so we are doing great around here. Keith told me today he wished he was 5 and his birthday was to far away. We had a talk about being happy with what you have now and what age you are now because once he turns 5 he will never be 4 again. I think he understood what I was trying to say, a few minutes later he said "I do not get to be 4 for very long do I?" I think that says it all right there, when we are to busy wanting the next stage of our life to start we miss out on the stage we are in. Keith is a really sweet kid when he isn't destroying things, and he has a fun sense of humor. He and Kaiden are always playing pranks on me, they put a rubber spider under my pillow and I felt it under there when I picked up my pillow the only thing my brain registered was spider! They do this quite a bit and you would think I would catch on but it gets me every time.

K.E.I.T.H.

Keith is learning how to spell his name! He is always asking me "which one is this I can't remember?" It's cute but after about 100 times it is getting a little old. We are back in school this week and so far only one snow day has set us back! I thought of something I wanted to write about this morning but now that I am sitting down to do it I can't remember what it was!We made cinnamon rolls yesterday and I got to the sugar part and realized I didn't have any brown sugar so we sprinkled some orange jell-o on them instead, Julianna loved them the boys didn't care it was food and Evelyn said it was gross. I didn't have the courage to try them, I made a different batch the I put honey and cinnamon on and they were good other than the fact that I over cooked them just a little. I think next time I will just run and get the brown sugar.

I am feeling a little yucky this week, I have a sinus infection again! I think my sinus hate me! Koen stepped on my Kobo ereader that Kevin got me for our anniversary and broke the screen. I called Kobo and they said they would ship me a special box that I could mail it to them in and they would look at it and either fix or replace it if the warranty covered what was wrong. I have been stressed that they would say no way this is so not covered, but yesterday they sent me a new ereader without even having looked at mine. Instead of mailing the special box empty they mailed it with a Kobo in it!!! I am very happy to have a reader again there are so many books I have been wanting to read!

Not another one!!

So yet again Scott county is out of school! We are officially insanely afraid of a little snow here and it is eating away our summer vacation. The kids are so bored they want to go to school, they are sick of being cooped up in side and the worst part is the snow is not good snowman snow! It is also a little more stressful for me due to the fact that we are trying to get the last of the paper organized at the new scrapbook store before we open for business tomorrow. We are planning on heading to Lexmark to have lunch with Kevin today so that is at least one perk of the snow day we get to have a fun family outing! I hate the snow!

A little bit more every day.

So I really want to update this at least once a week and everyday would be the best son then I could just print these off and put them in my journal! We are loading and hauling all of the heavy item from the old Scrapbook store today to the new location. We are moving right along with the move and so far things have gone smoothly.

Yesterday I visited with a friend in the hospital that was nice I haven't really had time to catch up with her since we have moved back, I was sad that she was there but it was nice to be able to sit and chat like we used to.

The kids are loving the long weekend that the snow days allowed us, we are planning on cleaning up their rooms and getting the toys organized again. I feel like organizing and cleaning are all I do, once I get each area of the house done it's time to start over at the beginning.

We bought a car at an auction back in Oct or Nov. I think, we were worried that it would be a bad experience but so far the car has had no problems and I already feel as though we have gotten our monies worth out of it. It was a fun experience to bid on a car and the auctioneer was so fast!!

Violet. The Chihuahua

This is our super cute cutie, Violet. We got her in August and these pics were taken then so she is quite a bit bigger now but she still looks about the same. She loves the kids and always wants to be where ever they are. She crawls in bed with Kaiden at night and if any of the kids get out of bed she tattles on them. She is super fun we love her having a little dog is totally different than having a large one, we are still struggling with the house training part of things but she is getting better I feel like most of the problem is lack of diligence on my part. She ran out into the snow the other day and all you could see of her was her tail and head she loves the snow and when she can't handle the cold any longer she will come in and lay on the heat vent. The girls love dressing her up of course and even though she doesn't seem to like the outfits she tolerates it well.

It's a whole NEW YEAR!

So it's a new year and that means resolutions made and broken, I have made the same resolution every year since I was at least 7 years old! I always say this will be the year I stop biting my nails and every year I fail, well last year I succeeded! I have not bitten my nails since Oct. 2010, I am pretty happy about this and I feel like when I make my resolutions this year I will be able to keep them.

The winter is in full swing and the kids are out of school more than they are in it. We are already five days into our summer vacation for snow days, yesterday they canceled school and it didn't even start snowing until 2pm. The kids both love and hate snow days, they like the snow and being able to play but they are sad that they are missing school.

Koen has started going to nursery in the younger kids room, this helps us since we have so many in the older room. He loves it and hasn't had a problem but we will see if that keeps up. He still doesn't talk and I am starting to get frustrated, whenever he wants something he grunts and growls for it and even though that is super cute I wish he would at least say a single word now and then. Koen is everywhere all the time and into everything just the same as Keith was, he loves our little dog violet and he carries her around everywhere. I used to worry that when he was rough housing with her that he would hurt her, but I have been watching closely and it is very clear that she could avoid or get away from him if she wanted to. She loves him just as much as he does her.

Keith is getting bigger and more advanced in his mess making skills, a few weeks ago Kevin helped Julianna with a volcano project for school and showed the kids how to make a fake eruption. the next morning I walked into the kitchen and Keith was at the counter making his very own volcano, eruption and all! He even used the food coloring to make it red like lava!!!! It was a huge mess, I made him clean it up by himself. He is super sweet so he is still alive but I feel like I need a straight jacket for him some days. He is eager to start kindergarten and I feel bad that he has so long to wait.

Evelyn loves school and her teacher, she doesn't like her assigned seat because the boy she sits next to is "not hot" I asked her if he was ugly and she said "no, he just isn't very hot" I laugh now but I know in a few years I am going to be pulling out my hair! She is the sweetest girl, the other day I noticed that my hair is now naturally curly so I tried out letting it air dry with a little product in it to see if the waves would stay, I was looking in the mirror to check it out about mid day and Evelyn came into the bathroom looked and me as said "you are beautiful mom". It was a great moment.

Kaiden can not wait for the weather to improve so that he can go running again! He loves school and is making friends here so he is very socially busy. He loves playing the wii down at the store, and is starting to get the hang of Mario Bros. He got a small tin with mementos that will remind him of his baptism and he goes through it every night and reads the paper that tells watch each thing represents it is pretty neat to see how into the gospel he is. He is determined to finish the Book of Mormon before the end of this year.

Julianna is adjusting to life without Rachel she texts her almost every weekend so they are able to stay in touch that way. She can't wait for Grandma and Grandpa to come home from their mission and asks about it a lot. She brought her grades up in school by a whole letter in each subject so we are proud of her for her determination there. She loves to read but she says she hates reading at school because you have to do grammar there! Julianna informed me the other day that she will be ten in May and then she will only have two more years until she can be in young women's I think she sees the YW who come and go at our house and all the things I have chaperoned over the years and it make her look forward to it for herself. Julianna is my biggest helper though all of the kids like to do certain jobs around the house Julianna will do anything I ask of her and she is quick with it too!

I have been pretty busy with the scrapbook store, we are moving locations so we have been packing and painting and repairing the last two weeks, we will be reopen in our new location on Tues. so things should get more relaxed next week. I love being in nursery the kids are so sweet and it is so relaxing. There is never any drama!!! We have had fun with the lessons so far and we are looking forward to coming up with creative handouts for the kids.

Kevin pinched a nerve in his right shoulder about three weeks ago and had been in a pretty good amount of pain ever since. The pain makes it hard for him to do anything and it is also hard for him to get good rest so he has been a little cranky! I have tried to help but there is only so much you can do for that type of thing. He is doing really well with his running when the weather allows it, and he also really loves being in nursery. He spends most of his time trying to keep up with all of the things that need to be done around the house and since there seems to be a never ending list of things he is extremely busy.

We are looking forward to the summer we have a trip out to Utah planned for April and possibly another one sometime in late June early July. We are looking forward to spending some time with my family and possibly seeing some of Kevin's on the way.