The Family Bed

Jackson is now six years old which means that for the past six years I've had a little one in my bed at night. To say we adopted the "Family Bed" method would be accurate. Or perhaps it chose us. Anyway, I have never really minded this at all. Since I've always worked full time this is when I get to snuggle with my kids.  I have always felt like this was the best opportunity for me to bond with them.  This was our time.  When I come home from work during the week it's constantly go go go.  Drive Grandma home, make dinner, clean up after dinner, do homework, Baylee's exercise, laundry, clean house, more laundry, the list goes on and on.  There isn't a ton of time just to sit and hang out.

As we went from one boy, to two boys, and now three boys it's getting crowded.  Jackson is old enough that he can be reasoned with.  Wyland is more willing to follow suit I think.  And Oliver has never really spent a ton of time in our bed (because there wasn't room for him too).  Sad.  So this week we've been working on transitioning them to their beds.

Oliver just wants to be a part of whatever they're doing.  And I've resorted to bribing.  I told Jackson if he not only slept in his bed, but actually went in there and laid down to go to sleep that I would buy him a new Skylander guy.  Wyland has decided he wants a lantern (but what he really means is a lamp .. I have no idea why he even wants a lamp but he does).  We have experienced great success with Jackson.  He's gone in there and stayed in there (after the million times of checking on what I'm doing prior to actually falling asleep).  Wyland hasn't been as successful which is kind of interesting because he hasn't gone through the whole, "I'm scared" stuff that Jackson has.  But yet it's Wyland that's up in the middle of the night and wants to get in bed with me.  Well .. all in all I figure it's progress.  We'll keep working on it. I actually think it's equally as hard on me as it is on them.  I miss having them snuggle up next to me.  But I know it's time. 

Wyland's Preschool End of Year Program

It's been a long year of preschool.  Wyland went to school with Xavier to the same school that Jackson went to.  He was in the two day a week program and seemed to acclimate well to going to school.  He would usually say he didn't want to go, but yet always go with a smile on his face.  He enjoyed it for sure.  I am so grateful to my mum who sacrificed her lunch break from work two days a week in order to drive to Riverton to pick him up and drop him home.  It's a long drive and sucks to have your only break from the workday spent driving kids around.  I tell you having both parents work and getting your kids to and from school sucks so bad.  I'm already stressing about how to get Jackson home from school next year when he goes to first grade.  I really hope to find someone I can carpool with that will be able to do the picking up portion.  We shall see.

Anyway back to the program.  Wyland has come home singing songs for months now. Even though I've seen what they do when Jackson did a similar program it's still really fun and cute to go watch.  We picked up lunch and headed to the park.

After they sang the teachers called each child by name and handed out their end of year book.

I can't believe how big this guy is getting.

This was a little bitter sweet.  I loved the school and all but I don't think that we'll be returning next year.  For a couple reasons.  One, it's a long drive in the opposite direction than where my work is.  And two, I wasn't especially happy with Jackson's academic strength when he went into kindergarten.  So I think we're going to give somewhere else a try.  Right now I'm debating between a lady that does it out of her home that one of my neighbors went to and Challenger.  I think I would prefer the smaller home setting, plus it's more affordable.  However, recently someone (NOT ME) lost the paper with the ladies phone number on it so I have to get the number from my neighbor again and see whether there's even room for him next year.

As we wrap up all the end of year activities I'll get on making those arrangements next.  May has been such a busy month for us.

Anyway, congratulations to Wyland for his first successful year of school!!

Jackson's Birthday Party

Last Saturday we hosted Jackson's birthday party.  I am amazed how much money birthday parties can cost.  We looked at bouncy house places, bowling, Jungle Jim's, and Chucky Cheese.  We settles for a pool party at Dimple Dell.  We've done that once before for one of Baylee's birthday parties and it worked out nicely.  To say Jackson was excited was a complete understatement. For a couple weeks we talked about it constantly and about how many sleeps there were before his party. I think he had a hard time understanding the concept that his party wasn't actually on his birthday and then we had a family party that wasn't on his birthday but wasn't his pool party. Very confusing for a 6 year old.

After the expense and all the planning I'm really hoping we can get our yard under control this year so that next year we can just do something at the house.  While it was really fun at the pool I know we can't afford to do that kind of thing every single year for each of our kids.  I purchased, wrote and out and sent into Jackson's school 20 birthday invitations.  Out of those 20 invitations I got 2 RSVP's.  Seriously annoying.  Jackson has been invited to 1 birthday party this year and he went, and I RSVP'ed. What is wrong with people?  I was so stressed about how many goody bags to make and how much pizza to buy because I had no idea whether people would just show up or what.  And I made it so easy too.  Phone, text or email the RSVP.  They didn't even have to talk to me!  Who doesn't text these days?  Good grief!! I finally got an email from my next door neighbor the night before, at least she emailed.  Our other neighbors across the street, nothing.  I guess I'm just really disappointed that people don't have more courtesy.

Anyway come party day it was crazy!  We had spent the morning at Baylee's PWS fundraiser and in between I had to pick up the cake, the ice cream, the soda, and the pizza.  Busy busy. Oh plus get 4-6 kids ready to go swimming. Fortunately we only had one child show up that hadn't RSPV'ed and it was Jackson's really good friend Ivan from school.  A very pleasant surprise.  And the kids had SO much fun.  Dimple Dell has a good pool for kids because it has the zero entry and a big play area.

Love these kids.  Cousins = Instant friends.

They decorated the party room with a pirate theme.

Jackson and Ivan

Oliver LOVED being in the pool.

Baylee always loves the pool.  So glad she swims now.

My BFF and her boys.

It's crazy that we rarely get together with our kids and yet they're so close in age.

My poor mum was in the pool helping to keep track of kids.

I stayed out taking pictures and trying to keep track that none went to the deep end.

It was really stressful trying to watch so many at the same time.

Oliver was more than happy to step in off the side to Jeramie.

After swimming for an hour we pulled all the kids out of the pool for

pizza, cake and ice cream, and presents in the party room.



There's the birthday boy!

The party was a success.  Jackson had a really fun time with his friends and cousins.  It was awesome that most of Jeramie's family stopped by to celebrate with us. My kids are loved so much.  They are very lucky.  This wrapped up all of Jackson's birthday celebrations.  Next up in our house will be Wyland.  Already he's starting to get a little excited.

Five Things Friday

I have lots of thoughts rolling around in my head today.  So here are just five of them.

1.  Evan, Rachel and I got on a Wasatch Back Ragnar team!!  So very excited about this.  Jeramie had the opportunity to join us but decided against it.  I was originally thinking that this would be a really great learning experience for me.  I was expecting to get a really easy leg.  See we (Evan, Rachel, Jeramie and myself) wanted to do the Wasatch Ragnar but it was sold out so instead we decided to put our own team together for the Las Vegas Ragnar in November (this is still happening).  Since I've never done one of these relay's before I figured getting onto the Wasatch team at the last minute would let me experience it prior to having to really pull my weight in Vegas.  Well we got our leg assignments this week and there's nothing easy about it.  Evan got a really hard leg and then Rachel and I both got hard ones too.  Apparently there are less experienced runners than us that took the easy legs.  Darn.  At least we all are able to ride in the same vehicle, which was questionable at first.  They rank all the different legs as Easy, Moderate, Hard or Very Hard.

Evan is running Leg 6 a total of 17.2 miles

6.5 miles Very Hard, 8.2 miles Very Hard, 2.5 miles Easy

Rachel is running Leg 3 a total of 19.4 miles

6.8 miles Moderate, 4.9 miles Moderate, 7.7 miles Hard

I am running Leg 5 a total of 14.8 miles

7.8 miles Very Hard, 4.2 miles Easy, 2.8 miles Easy

Yep that down there would be my 7.8 miles straight uphill on a dirt road.

I got the leg that Rachel ran her first year and she has assured me that that 7.8 miles uphill will suck really bad.  But I guess the bright side is that it's my first leg and then I'll have nothing but easy.  That is IF I survive running straight up hill.  I'm a little scared.  Or a lot.  Ultimately my only goal is to run the whole way, even if that means running really slow.  The mileage itself isn't a problem .. I can run 8 miles without much thought.  It's the straight uphill climb that has me worried.

But either way I'm still VERY excited about running it! 

2.  In my mad rush to get out the door today I forgot to grab my breakfast (a protein shake).  I thought, oh no big deal I'll stop for a McDonald's Oatmeal.  The line was SO long.  No breakfast for me this morning.  And darn it I was really looking forward to that Oatmeal. It's so good.  And so I'll be hungry today.

3.  I have only taken 1 day off of work since last year and that was for Wyland's dental surgery.  I'm REALLY looking forward to this three day weekend.  I just need some days off of work.

4.  Putting my family on a relatively strict budget 2 years ago was the best thing I ever did.  It is unbelievably powerful to know that you are choosing how to spend your money and not being stupid about it.  I love knowing that when it's time for a kids birthday I have already set aside the money to pay for their presents. I get that it's not all about what you "get" them. But at the same time we all know we're always going to buy our children birthday presents.  It makes it SO much more fun to buy them when you know you have the money to do so, you don't have that nagging in the back (or front) of your mind reminding you that you don't really have the money to do this.  But this comes with sacrifices too.  Jeramie and I don't eat out all that often anymore, frankly because it can be really expensive.  And I find that when we do get to go out to eat it feels like much more of a treat.  I know what an extra $100 today will mean for me 3 months from now.  It's empowering.  It's not always fun though .. but it's really worth it in the long run and I'm really glad that I do it.  Some Monday's (after a weekend of spending) I absolutely dread balancing the books after that weekend.  But once I do, I then put a plan into either making up for it or make other adjustments to make it work.  Once I'm finished .. huge sense of accomplishment.  And I know ahead of time which weeks are going to be tight.  And I tell Jeramie .. hey .. we have NO money this week.  We make it work, sometimes that means planning for CHEAP meals and getting the bare minimum at the grocery store.  But at least it's all under control.

5.  Dieting. Isn't it funny how being on a budget is kind of like being on a diet.  You don't get to do the fun stuff when you're on a budget and you don't get to EAT the fun stuff when you're on a diet.  Impulsive purchases and meals can really suck to have to make up for.  And being on a budget means constantly working hard, just like being on a diet does.  It comes down to good decisions and bad decisions.  I've figured out as I work to get faster at running that if I could just lose 15 lbs then I should automatically be able to shave 30 seconds off my pace per mile.  That's huge in running.  Now if only I could diligently lose 15 lbs.  It's kind of a lot and would take a lot of work.  How bad do I want it?  That's what it comes down to.  Just like with money.  *sigh*

That was a lot of randomness and ended up being a long post. I guess that could have been 5 separate posts.  Note to self:  In the future blog more frequently then you don't end up with long rambling posts that people probably can't be bothered to read the entire thing of.

What are you all up to this LONG weekend??

PWS Summer Fundraiser

We had a really really busy weekend this last week and I'm still trying to catch up with all the pictures I've taken.  Saturday morning we were headed over to the Prader-Willi Syndrome summer fundraiser.  I do believe they are getting better and better at organizing these.  This year included a walk, dancing, singing, raffle drawing (in which I won a iTunes gift card), food, a park, "carnival games".  It was fun. Baylee loves getting together and seeing some of the kids that go to Camp K with her each year. 

They make this cute flower garden with pictures of our kids on them.

As well as a few things that describe them.

Oliver decidedly LOVES slides.  Laughs the whole time.

They had Miss. Teen Lehi there.  Baylee was enamoured with her instantly.

They also handed out medals to all the PW kids, and then their siblings.

Well and you know we love a good race medal in our house!  Baylee included.

The kids loved playing on the swings too.

Brothers are good supporters.

They also brought a fire truck and ambulance for the kids to check out.

Baylee and her friend from camp, Lindsey.

I'm not sure how much money was actually raised.

But it was a fun way to spend our morning.

They also had some really yummy food this year.  Kabobs and beans.

T-Ball Season .. a SUCCESS

I have to say that I'm very jaded (in a good way) when it comes to sports.  For those that don't know this about me I played LOTS of them growing up.  Basketball, Volleyball, Swimming, and Softball.  Softball was definitely my first love.  We tried Jackson with soccer a couple years ago and I think he was just too young.  So we waited a couple of years before we tried something again.  It was worth the wait.  He loved it this time around.  I should also mention that this is one of the things I've really looked forward to with having three boys.  LOT'S of sports. Not that girls can't do that, because of course I did.  But let's just say it's not quite as common.

I took these pictures at his very last game.  I'm actually really pleased with how some of them turned out.

I love how he totally makes contact with the ball here.

Maybe he'll be a runner!!

This was a very social game for Jackson.  He was ALWAYS talking to someone.

I love the top left picture here where you can totally see he has his eye on the ball.

Oliver and Wyland kept each other entertained by throwing grass

on each other and everyone around them.

I'm sure they were conspiring against me here.

Finished the season out with a trophy.

I am so excited for what the future holds with regards to baseball.

This season went so well I think we might sign up for the summer session next month.

Happy 6th Birthday Jackson

I cannot believe that Jackson is already six years old.  I am running way behind because it's been over a week since his birthday.  This has been a really big year for Jackson.  He started kindergarten just a couple months after turning five.  He took to the social aspect of school so very easily.  He's just like his dad and likes to talk to lots of people.  It's always evident to me that he will always make friends easily.  Just watching him play t-ball these past few weeks I've seen the same thing.  No matter what base he was on he was talking to the kid on the opposite team.  I love this about him so very very much.  And I think it will make him successful in life because of it.  When he's picked up from school it never fails that multiple kids call out from behind the kindergarten bars, "bye Jackson!". I don't see that happening to other kids.  I tell you this kid is NOT shy at all. 

Perhaps it's evident in this first picture of him below.  This was Jackson at 5 weeks old!  That's still a very small baby.  And yet he definitely smiled (BIG SMILES) before any of my other kids.  He was happy go lucky at freaking 5 weeks old for heavens sake! 

Okay so, here are 6 things you may or may not know about Jackson.

1.  He doesn't like any sandwich other than plain butter.

Yesterday on our way home from school we talked about how he was going to first grade

and that he would get to take a lunch to school.  I said we needed to figure out a sandwich

that he liked.  He says, well I like bread and butter.  There you go.

2.  Jackson is REALLY good at video games.

I am amazed at his hand eye coordination.

He didn't cut his first tooth until well after his first birthday too.

He was over a year old in this picture and look how gummy he is!

3.  He loves his brothers.  And is a good friend.

So very social this one is.

4.  Jackson is a really good sport about being the one that frequently has to 

give in and let one of his brothers go first.  This often comes into play when

we're choosing movies or reading books.  I know what it's like to be the older

kid, and having to let the younger more whiny one go first.

5.  Jackson still prefers to sleep with anyone other than alone in his own bed.

6.  He's had a lot of hairstyles in his 6 years.

Curly

to Mop (see above)

to Moppy Spikey

to Short Spikey

to Buzzed.

I seriously just love him to pieces.

He's growing up before my eyes and it amazes me how quickly times seems to be flying.

Jackson's Favorites:

Favorite Color:  Blue

Favorite Food:  Ham and Chicken

Favorite Sport:  Baseball

When I grow up I want to be:  Work at Mom's work.

Favorite Book:  Green Eggs and Ham

Favorite Song:  We Will Rock You

Best Friend:  Ivan (from school)

Favorite Drink:  Sprite

Favorite Movie:  Batman

Favorite Toy:  Crocodile Toy

What does Dad like to do?  Watch TV with Mom.

What does Mom like to do?  Watch TV with Dad.

Favorite thing to do with my family:  Making Muffins

Favorite Animal:  Crocodile

P.S.  I think Jeramie and I need to watch less TV!