Where are we now?

I'm going to try to be much better about this whole blogging thing. My friend Amy from church gave me the idea of turning her blogs into books every year, so I'm hoping I can keep it updated enough to start doing the same thing.

So, what have we been up to? Well, we're back in Missouri again for school [if our plans would stop falling apart that would be GREAT] and back to the good 'ol employment hunt [ugh]. I have been battling depression the past couple of months and it was pretty bad. You can read a little about my struggle on my personal blog. Luckily I have been back on some working medicine again so I seem to be getting back to normal. I am doing well with my new jewelry businesses I have started. I make and sell my own metal stamped jewelry for fun [I call that business Funky Jean] and I also signed up with Paparazzi last year. It's been a lot of fun and has definitely helped bring in some extra money which is always a plus!

We started homeschooling this past fall with Madison since she's officially in Kindergarten. It started out a little slow and I was starting to get nervous, but I finally feel like we are making some real progress with her. She's learning how to read and can do her addition and subtraction problems really well! I taught her the touch points system and I'm so glad I did! It's helped me with math so much and now I'm glad I could pass it along to her. Knowing she can do basic math without having to rely on her fingers is such a great feeling! I'm going to blog about it on my personal blog at some point. If anyone here is interested in learning about it, follow my other blog and be on the lookout. Also, Madison just turned 6 last month and lost her first two teeth! I can't believe how big she is getting!

Katelyn is still Katelyn. Nothing has really changed with her to be honest except she just keeps growing. She's exactly 1 inch and 1 pound less than Madison. The girls get asked if they are twins all the time! I've been also doing some home school stuff with Katelyn and she does really good as well. She's learning to write all of her letters and learning their sounds at the same time. I wish I would have done this with Madison but ... you live and you learn, right? Katelyn will be 5 this year and I can't believe it! Her favorite things to do right now are watch movies and re-enact them. Her main pick as of right now is The Lion King. She loves to pretend she's a lion and has this awful sounding roar that sounds more like a sick animal. But, I guess its closer to the real sound than your generic child sounding "roar". She's also pretty darn sneaky and I find myself having a pretty hard time with her sometimes. She's going to be the one who challenges me the most.. at least so far!

Allyson is growing so fast and it makes me so sad. My baby girl isn't a baby anymore! She's just recently started singing along to songs with me and saying two or three words together. She's also answering my questions and actually telling me what she wants. Last night she even used a spoon the right way for the first time! She probably would have learned that quicker but I've been lazy. That's what they say about having kids though right? You get lazier and more laid back with each one? That's definitely been the case with Allyson. Plus, we're just tired. She's definitely going to take the cake when it comes to who had the worst "terrible two's" stage. This girl gets into everything! We like to joke around all the time that she's are little wrecking ball, bulldozer, or football player. She's so funny though, you never know what she's going to do next!

Nathan has been absolutely AMAZING and helping me soo much with the kids. On the days where I couldn't get out of bed, he was up being Mr. Mom. I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am for him! The kids have discovered a love for video games [Madison with Mario and Katelyn with Star Wars] so he's pretty much in heaven right now. I guess I don't really need a little boy anymore - he's got my girls wrapped around his finger! I still have hope with Allyson since she's still so little though [haha]. Nate has also been dealing with his own depression problems that have been difficult, but I'll leave them off of the blog. It's not my place to put his personal business out there for everyone. We're hoping he gets back to work again in the very near future.

That's the "nutshell" version of our latest news as of right now. I'll try to be more detailed in future posts. For now it's time to run. I am helping a sister in our ward pack her house for her upcoming move. We all know I have plenty of experience in that department!

Revival - Welcome 2013!

I think its about time to revive the old family blog. Sorry for those who actually follow this! Life just got kind of crazy there once Allyson was born and then I just kind of forgot about the blog. A lot has happened between now and the last time I posted, so I'll try to put an update up in the near future. In the mean-time enjoy this lovely family photo [the most updated one I have at the moment, and it's a really bad photo because I had to use my point and shoot and its just not all that great. You understand.]!

Let's try this again... shall we?

I go through these spurts where I'm like.. I have to blog.. EVERY WEEK! And then I'm like.. eh.. I'm going to go be a hermit again. That's just me I guess. So, now I'm entering my must blog phase again. Hopefully I can keep up with it, but if I can't, just bug me until I do :P

There has been a lot going on with us the past 7 months or so. For a while I was working at JCPenney Portrait Studio in South Jordan as a photographer. I really liked my job and the people I worked with and it seemed like everyone liked me as well (I even got requests by name. It made me feel really good!). But, I had to quit a few weeks ago. Between school (did I mention I'm back in school full time - starting my photography degree from the begginning??? Long story on that one..) and being a mommy, and trying to get my own photography business up and running, I just couldn't swing the Pennies gig anymore.

Nathan has been working part time in the hardware department. We're still looking for something higher paying and with full time hours but for now this is at least helping us pay the bills and get out and do something when we need to get out of the house for some quality family time. He's been asked if he would be interested in a promotion into management over his department, so we're hoping that works out and soon.

Madison just turned FIVE. Im still not sure I believe it. My baby girl is 5 years old! We threw her a Candy Land themed party for all of her friends in her church class (and her cousin Kyha since she's the same age). The party was really cute with the decorations and all - but next year I'm totally just blowing up a bunch of balloons, giving them each a cookie, and calling it a day! That's pretty much what they'll enjoy the most anyways.

Katelyn is my little stinker child. We have FINALLY gotten her potty trained even though she's stubborn and just didn't want to. Unfortunately she still sucks on her fingers and twirls her hair so at least twice a day I have to get huge knots out of her hair. She is really becoming such a big girl though with such a big imagination. And with that imagination comes the hilarity. Here - see for yourself: (warning - this is 15 mins of just randomness. Plus she was very sick when I shot this so she's a little out of it).

Allyson is 8 months old. Almost 9. When did this happen??? She's getting so big so fast and I'm trying to soak it all up as much as I can. I miss her being super tiny, but she's also at a really fun age right now. She's almost mastered sitting up by herself and she's started army crawling! When she's angry, she lets out a screeching scream that the whole city of Herriman can hear. Okay not the whole city, but I was outside the house taking pictures one day and I could hear her while she was inside. That's some loud screaming!

These days we're all sick or recovering from being sick, so I dont know how fun and exciting our week is going to be. Maybe tomorrow I'll do an entire post of photo's of the past few months so you all can see.

Til then - I guess I'll go to sleep?

Weeks 11-18: Wost Blogger Ever.

It's official. I am the worst blogger ever. I've neglected this blog for about 8 weeks now, sooo lets play catch up really fast, shall we??

So, what have I done in the past 8 weeks? Well...

I had some maternity/family pictures taken...

I had a baby...

I turned 26....

Took the girls to a parade...

Celebrated the 4th of July with LOTS of fireworks:

Took this cool HDR picture of the "Up" House

Dressed up like a cow shamelessly for some free Chick-Fil-A

[insert photo here - as soon as I remember to get it from Nates mom's camera.. remind me?]

Interviewed on Media Minds Online for my photography business

http://www.iwatchradio.com/shows/business/media-minds-online

And gave talks during sacrament meeting. (I don't have a picture of us talking, so here's a picture of Ally I took today instead. She is already 6 weeks old!)

In between all of this - I've been working hard at getting my photography business up and running again, and taking a lot of pictures for fun. This is all in between all of our emergency room trips and kidney stone fun for Nathan. Don't worry, he's fine now. FINALLY. (And I probably just totally jinxed myself)

What? You want to know more about my photography business?

www.jeanettarobertsphotography.com

And that, in a nutshell, has been my life over the past 8 weeks. I'll try to get better at this whole blogging thing again starting with week 19 ;)

Week 10: Who say's our lives are uneventful?

We have had a very very busy week, to say the least.

Last Saturday was my baby shower and we had a lot of fun putting it together and celebrating baby Allyson's upcoming arrival. The theme we are using for Ally is an Owl, so the cupcakes had cute owl cupcake toppers and SUPER cute owl brownie pops! I got a lot of really great things from some people who either barely knew me, or never met me at all - so I was extremely grateful!

Cupcake Toppers

Me and my sister in law, Teresa

My sisters and Mother in law (Megan, Mom, and Katalina) working on the fruit bowl

Maddie helping me open my presents

My new super cute diaper bag. I love pink and brown ;)

some of us during the party

The owl brownie pop. This picture really doesn't do it justice. They were so cute!

Me and my girls (all 3 of them)

36 week belly shot

The next day we celebrated mothers day, but unfortunately there are really no pictures because we were all so exhausted from the day before. We spent Mothers day at church and had a great time! My class made coupon books to give to their moms and then we were able to go to relief society to have some goodies and listen to the bishop and his counselors teach us about the importance of mothers. Then when we got home, the girls gave me the presents they made for me the day before. My mother in law took them to Home Depot and each of them made me a different kind of flower planter. They were so proud of what they made and I was even more proud that my girls made them just for me! I'm hoping maybe someday this week we can go outside and plant some flowers to add to them. All in all, a very good mothers day! I am truly blessed to be a mother to 3 BEAUTIFUL and amazing girls. I can't wait until I have Ally in my arms as well :)

The rest of the week was spent working on Katelyns birthday present, a pillowcase dress (my first EVER), and gathering baby items to get ready for Allysons arrival. Up until this week I hadn't bought a single thing for her since I knew I was having a shower. We also were unable to bring any of the baby stuff to Utah with us from St Louis, so I was really stressed about having everything I needed in time for her to come. So I found a freecycle list for Salt Lake City and put up an ad stating I needed all of the necessities. The response was amazing! I now have enough clothes to get us through the first year, 2 car seats (we're going to use one as a spare), a bassinet, and 3 bouncer seats! We're going to pass along anything I didn't need to someone else who is in need. Now I have nearly everything I need for her arrival! Talk about a blessing! There are really good people in the world, its just not always easy to find them. Or, they're hiding where you least expect it!

Today, we had a birthday party to celebrate Katelyn's 3rd birthday which will actually be on Monday. We were supposed to all go to the park so the kids could play and we could enjoy some fresh air but right when we were about to pack up to go, it started raining and thundering. Me and Katy were crushed! So we had our "picnic" indoors, and then miraculously, the weather cleared up just long enough for us to go to the park to open presents and have cake. So, all in all - the day turned out to be a big success! Katelyn LOVES toy story, so we had a toy story cake and she got lots presents that she is really excited about.

The birthday girl!

Opening some of her presents.

blowing out the candle (seriously how CUTE is that cake?)

after devouring the cake. Daddy now calls her "the joker"

Mommy and her birthday girl (ignore mommy's appearance)

Nathan is still battling his kidney stone (this is stone number 2) and so far its been 2 weeks and still hasn't passed on its own. We now have a surgery date scheduled for this upcoming Friday if he doesn't pass it before then. This has been a very hard and trying time for our family. Nathan has been unable to go to work while he's had this stone due to the pain and heavy narcotics he's been on, and if he doesn't go back next week - then he will lose his job. Fortunately his doctor said he should be ready to return by next Tuesday after recovering for surgery so hopefully all will be well. His boss is trying to keep corporate from making her let him go. We're asking for prayers that this stone will pass before Friday and so he can get back to work as soon as possible. We're also praying that baby Ally doesn't try to make her debut until Daddy is well again too. Can you imagine me going into labor with Than in surgery?

And that's it for this week :) While I love having good news to report instead of always having something bad going on - I am really hoping for an uneventful week. I welcome a week of rest and sanity before things start to get crazy and busy again!

Weeks 8 and 9: Having fun, Easter, and unbelievable blessings!

There's never a dull moment around here, that's for sure. For instance - some days we do things like:

Get free frosties from Wendy's,

Learn that Katelyn has an allergy to latex (took us 3 outbreaks to figure out what it was),

Or just spend an afternoon at the park (when the weather lets us).

Easter Weekend did not disappoint either. On Saturday, my sister in law Melissa and her three girls came over and the girls had their first Easter egg hunt of the year. Thanks again Easter Bunny (aka Aunt Melissa) for all the candy! We'll be on a sugar high 'til Christmas now ;)

Then, after church on Easter Sunday, The bunny visited AGAIN! (What?? MORE candy?! Oy.)

We had lots of family (and some friends) over to celebrate with an awesome dinner that consisted of both ham, london broil, all kinds of great side dishes, and I made my moms strawberry shortcake (by the way mom - everyone seemed to like it!)

After dinner, the girls went on an indoor Easter egg hunt with all of her cousins, only this year, the bunny left some super special eggs. Instead of candy, the eggs were filled with different items that taught the girls about Christ and the resurrection. I can happily say that Madison can officially tell me the REAL reason as to why we celebrate Easter. Katelyn is still young, but she'll catch on soon. I think this will be a new easter tradition!

The best part of the day was after the hunt was over. My mother in law sat on the floor with all of the kids, and let them pick an egg one by one. Then when they opened the egg, mom explained what the significance was of each piece inside (such as the crown of thorns, the white linens, nails, etc). When asked what they thought each piece represented, the girls had some hilarious answers! We were all cracking up. It was truly a great Easter Sunday!

The best part of our week came on the Monday after Easter. Nathan was supposed to start a new security job that day, but after a blessing from his dad and lots of time spent pondering and praying, he just couldn't shake the bad feeling he had about accepting the job. I personally thought he was crazy (and I think part of him did too) that he was seriously considering turning down a job after we have been so desperately searching for a year and a half. I told Nathan that I trusted him and knew he would do what was best for him and all of us and make the right decision. So that Monday, he did not go to work. I was so stressed with the "What are we going to do?" feeling that I was literally sick to my stomach over it. But low and behold - Nathan went down the street to the grocery store, and came home with a job! Not only another job - but a job better than the one we turned down! More pay, closer to home (literally walking distance), and more hours. What a blessing!! So I learned a very important lesson this week: when you receive a prompting from God, you do it. No matter how crazy and senseless it seems. He has a master plan for you and everything happens for a reason! One of these days I'll get pictures of Nate while he's working at his new job (since we seem to live at this grocery store.. haha).

And that's weeks 8 and 9 for ya. In case you haven't noticed, I'm getting bad about this weekly blogging thing. But, this weekend I should be back on track. A lot of things are going on this week, and for the rest of May so I'll have plenty to talk about.