Catching up finally!

Our computer is sort of fixed! We have our new hard drive and thanks to Russ in our ward I think I have my pictures back. I have not had time to check the CD! Seems as if one thing after another around here is breaking or at the duplex where we have a renter who did not hook up his washing machine correctly and flooded the washer/dryer area and down through the kitchen cabinets. We had planned to fix it after he moved out because the floor was deteriorating but he made is sooner than later. We could be mean landlords and make him use his own money or renter's insurance but we are nice and are just doing it.

This is weird when you don't blog weekly you kind of lose track of what you are up to!

Ryan and I are training for a half marathon that is in 6 weeks from Saturday and are only up to 6 miles so we'll see how it goes the day of the run. Our goal: To Finish! My original goal was 10 minute miles but everything I read says no just make it to finish for your first half and full marathon. We run 4 days/week with the kids in the strollers but the last two weeks we will hire a babysitter and run on our own which I think will be awesome! Ryan is having issues with one of his knees but hopefully we can get it worked out this week! I have a sinus infection and finally after not being able to swallow I went to the doctor yesterday and got some drugs and am doing a little better but depends on the hour!

March was busy but nothing too exciting. Although we did pierce Reese's ears on her 7 month birthday! I have the cutest picture of Reese and Cooper but have not downloaded Kodak to put it on this computer - maybe tomorrow along with researching what grows good in a garden around here! Now that it is so nice outside we will be spending the majority of our time outside playing! I am kind of excited because Cooper is really into the Wii games that are a little too advanced for him but he loves to play with Daddy or Jason down the street and then thinks he can do it! So for me it is a little frustrating being at home all day and hearing the nasty words come out of his mouth because he is mad that he can't play as well as everyone else but I have no idea how to do anything on those games...I am good at MarioKart and that is about it!

This month will be busy! Erin the little girl I watch is potty training and so I decided why not do Chloe also and so in a few days I might change my mind but for now I thought why not! It is almost warm enough to let them run naked outside and get used to not wearing a diaper...Less mess for me to clean up off my floors!

Computer crashed

So this week has not been good...Our computer crashed and for those who have Time Warner Cable internet some hackers got into their servers...So needless to say I hate computers and service providers right now...Can I imagine my life without it, NO! And out laptop is only 15 months old! I lost all of my pictures from being a slacker and not getting them saved to a CD or printed. Luckily we have a friend who does a lot of computer work for us and is going to help us out again! To make things worse Ryan brought his work laptop home and we were having a money talk about our tax return and his computer started saying it had a virus and started running all these programs so we shut it off and went to bed! He took into work and will have the tech guys look at it but we pray nothing got into it...All I use the computer for is the blog, facebook, email and banking I never click on stupid pop-ups so maybe we got a lemon computer?!!! UGH!!!
On the other hand we are all healthy minus my trip to ER last Saturday and Ryan being sick Tuesday - the main thing is the kids are healthy! I LOVE having healthy kids!

Help Please!!!!!!!!!

So I think I am about to go crazy! We have been to the pediatrician's office 7 times in 5 weeks and we are scheduled for this Monday so 8 times in 6 weeks and that is if my kids get better!
Tonight has been lots of fun with Cooper vomiting all over everything...Especially the car seats that I JUST took out on last Sunday and cleaned inside and out! Poor guy last weekend had Croup and now this weekend he is puking and can't stop...I do feel bad for him because he doesn't have a fever and it all started 4:30 during a showing at the duplex and just now 10:30pm he had gone 45 minutes of 1 tsp of powerade every 5 minutes and now we are starting all over...He is sleeping right now but I have plenty of cleaning to do!
The girls are doing okay...Reese spiked a 101 fever on Friday and we went to the pediatrician and sure enough an ear infection and her congestion was so bad she was swabbed for RSV and sure enough she has it! Chloe has a double ear infection and her congestion is just as bad as Reese!
I don't know how it works but last weekend the kids got super sick and this eekend they started out okay but Cooper's vomiting was a bit much and still is...We took Ryan to the airport to fly to Boise this weekend for his sister's baby's blessing...He will be back tomorrow night but it is going to be a long day and night...
To top everything off we are trying get one side of our duplex rented and I have 3 showings scheduled for tomorrow - well supposedly...I am going to have to reschedule at this point but we need it rented as tomorrow is the 1st! Can you believe it is March??!!
Off to clean!

I feel so busy yet feel like I don't accomplish anything! I guess that is what happens when you have kids and love to spend time with them! I love to set goals and actually meet them but on the other hand my kids are only young once! I really do feel like you need a balance between family and personal time and my working out is my zone out of this life time! I really try to listen to music and focus on running or spinning....I LOVE spinning...If I could go more often I would but time and scheduling are major conflicts!
So things I am working on right now:
1)Keeping my house "looking" clean :O
2)Being a better mom by not yelling as much (Shanae I might read that book you posted!)
3)Finding ways to help my kids learn all that they can!
4)Being a good example and teacher to my girls at church
5)Being a great wife to my husband (and letting him go to McCall for 4 days soooo is bonus points!! - Sarah, Val and Natalie you tooo!!)
6)I am about 2/3 of the way done with my personal progress for church...That is what the girls ages 12-18 work on and it is amazing...It really teaches you about who you are, what you want to be, who you want to be and most importantly how blessed you are by our Heavenly Father...I have even started the new value Virtue which is a huge goal but worth it!
7)Helping one of my young women in my class to finish her personal progress including Virtue!
8)Working out 3 times a week so hopefully I can run a 10k or half marathon...I have been having a hard time getting work outs in and doing the paper route...I would get up early but I already miss out on 2 hours of sleep every night and sometimes more due to weather!
9)I would say taxes but they are DONE!!!!!!!!!!
10)Sewing!! I have so many projects going I LOVE it! I am making baby bibs and burp rags...I bought a pattern for some sun dresses for the girls and some curtain material for the toy room and whatever else I think of!
Okay I think that is it! If there is anything else I will update but for now the kids need to go to BED rather - I NEED the kids to go to bed!

Happy Birthday Chloe :)

So Chloe is 2 as of Monday, February 9th!! She didn't know what to think when we were singing to her and it was late! So we just did a little party with our family of 5 and cupcakes! She didn't even eat it! She doesn't really like cake for some weird reason...

Cooper helping Chloe open her presents...She got Mary Poppins and Little Mermaid for movies, boots, clothes and finally a Princess cell phone she LOVES! The cheapest present and she loves it the most! She calls "papa" (aka Grandma) at least 10 times a day and then just blabs and then lets Reese have a turn to talk and then tells her "no"!!

This is Chloe opening up the phone and it took her at least 2 minutes! She let Cooper pretty much open her other presents while she worked on that one!

Two Sick Girls and One Healthy Boy

This last weekend was crazy! Last week was crazy to start with but it began with Cooper going to his four year appointment at the pediatricians and is doing great! He has great eye sight and hand / eye coordination and even had his finger poked to begin with! Then his iron level came back low so luckily I had my awesome friend Elaine with my because she wanted to meet our doctor who is so much fun and so good with the kids! So she helped out because these rooms are seriously 7 ft x 7 ft with the bed and chairs and sink it gets cozy but there ended up being me and my three kids, Elaine, Sarah (my sister-in-law) and her two kids...Talk about packed! But it was fun! Sarah and her kids only stayed for a 5 minutes but Chloe loves Baylee right now so she had fun! They came back in and said Cooper's iron level was low so we went downstairs because the lady who is awesome with kids in the lab was working so we went and got his blood drawn - I just have to say how proud I am as a mom that Cooper barely squirmed! He flinched as he watched her put the needle in and we talked while she was taking the blood then he was done and got a Wolverine sticker and then he informed he never wanted to do that again! I don't blame him! The ped. office called a few hours later and said he was perfect and all his levels were perfect! YEAH!!
Okay so the rest of the week was okay but Ryan worked a lot for his new job because they were having some kick off party and then Friday - don't remember Friday oh well...Saturday Ryan went snowmobiling but called at 9:15am and had sliced his thumb partly open on his dad's trailer so the kids and I loaded up and went and got him and Thank Heavens we did (sorry Natalie and Sarah) but two of his other brothers did some mega damage to their snowmobiles!! And they didn't get home until late so I am grateful Ryan couldn't put his gloves back on and stayed at his parent's house until we got there and the kids had fun tearing Grandma Dawn's house apart!!
Also that night Chloe spiked a 103 fever...We gave her some medicine and kept her home from church and then Monday she spiked a 101 fever in the afternoon and we were already at the ped. office that morning but I was so busy with Cooper being a pain the in butt I forgot to have Chloe looked at so today Reese had a follow-up because she is extremely congested but does not have pneumonia or RSV so we are thankful but I had their dr. listen to Chloe and she not only sounds more congested than Chloe but she also has an ear infection so welcome to the house of sickies!! I am just grateful for Cooper and Ryan and I being healthy so far! Pneumonia is going around really bad right now and I am trying to keep the kids home as much as possible!
Hope everyone is doing well!!

Cooper is 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So yesterday was Cooper's birthday and at 11:38pm he was officially 4 years old! Gosh where does the time go! So I am also including a picture of his first Sunday as a Sunbeam which means he is out of nursery and with the big kids in his own class! And we gave him a haircut that same week so that is how long his hair was! You will see in his birthday pictures we chopped it! He has such thick hair, my color but Ryan's thickness!

Chloe busted for touching Cooper's Transformer cake before we even lit the candle!

Cooper excited about his cake! Cooper looks happy but he is honestly pissed because Uncle Darin pushed his face into the cake! Then he still had red frosting up his nose so it looked like he had a bloody nose! Uncle Darin did say sorry!

Cooper showing off the presents I remembered to wrap with the help of cousin Preston...Was he looking for the playdoh??Cooper and Mikey's dad holding the gift that cousin Preston got him for his birthday! Sarah doesn't Baylee look crazy in this picture! The first time I saw it I had to remind myself she had blue frosting!

Cooper's present I forgot to wrap. He also has a hulk set to go with his movie he got for his birthday, The Incredible Hulk! This set is Ironman to go with the movie he got from cousin Bryson for Christmas this year!
Cooper's first day as a Sunbeam and the girls and I had to stay home because Chloe was running a high fever! Luckily we all got to go the next Sunday but he didn't do so well at the beginning but daddy sat with him for a little bit and everything was fine after that!

I thought this was cute because Chloe puts herself in timeout and honestly she is a stinker most of the time but she doesn't fully the meaning of timeout!

This is just a recent picture of Reese! Chloe was making her laugh - that is something Cooper and Chloe are really good at!

Christmas in Connell Finally!

So we finally were able to go to Connell to have Christmas with my family and we even left while it was snowing but it is funny how right when you get out of Spokane the weather always is better! I think we are living on the wrong side of Spokane! We had a nice lasagna dinner and the kids always love to go the park that is almost in my parent's backyard! Lucky for them almost all the snow had melted (unlike here)! I am not sure when we will get to go to the park here!

Chloe wanted to smile like Cooper and cousin Jewel in the picture below!

Cooper and cousin Jewel smiling for a picture and it wasn't even pie time!

Cooper was in heaven playing with the dogs, Ariel and Charlie! He asked if he could have one for his birthday (other post!) - I feel bad and we said maybe when he is older! We figure we can visit Grandma and Grandpa more often and he can get his dog fix like grandparents get their baby fix with our babies! Cooper and Chloe eating garlic bread...I think that is all they ate besides drinking pop!

This is the cutest vest that my dad picked out for Chloe! We love it! And by the look on her face you can tell she does also!

Thanks mom and dad for having us over! It is always entertaining with our little ones!

Tax Time = Headache

So I was thinking last week that it is coming up on tax time! I am person who likes to be prepared and with everything we write off it takes about 10 hours to get everything ready for our tax guy! You would think after the headache of getting everything together I would just file myself but I think Ryan would rather pay a couple hundred dollars than have an even more stressed out wife! It seems like every time we get a new tax guy it works out great for a year and then they jack up our bill the next and we don't have that much change and if so I itemize everything! Having the duplex helps out a ton and now with three kids but Ryan didn't have any taxes taken out from his previous employer but we have thousands of miles we can write off from his totaled truck!
The worst part about itemizing I think is the medical...Seeing if we have enough to write off is always a pain and matching everything from bank statements to checkbooks to EOB's - it seriously all looks the same after awhile!
Okay enough venting...I guess I just needed a break! Friday I will post again with pictures of Cooper's small birthday! We decided to go small this year and big for #5 next year!
And Lindsay I totally have you on my list but I did the whole it shows updated posts so you just need to post more!! You always have awesome posts so quit being lazy! Just kidding you know I love you and love reading your blog!

My ideal job - NOT!!

I wrote this post and forgot about it! See what 3 kids does to you! (wrote Jan. 3rd)

So as I was driving around this morning at 3am I looked at the temperature reading in our rental car that we still have and it read -3 degrees...That is not a dash in front of the 3, it is a negative sign! So I got to thinking...Here I am at 3 am (sometimes earlier) and I am driving on sheets of ice to deliver papers to customers and it is -3 degrees (it warmed up to 1 degree when I got home) and although I am grateful for this job I really do not want to do it next winter...It has been nice having the subaru and we have to give it back Tuesday but on the other hand I would love to sleep through the night once in awhile...Reese sleeps through the night and I would love to join her! Another pet peeve is people not shoveling out their mailboxes and tubes! We have had so much snow here it is annoying...And we are supposed to get another storm Sunday night!

An update for today, Jan 9th, is everything is melting! YEAH! Lucky for us there is not much flooding but it is a bummer because the snow came so much at once the kids couldn't really play or I would have lost them! Then it has rained and melted so it is mega crunchy! We might try and go out later today since the sun is out! We still have 3 feet in our backyard...I asked Ryan when we were moving and he reminded me of his new job he starts on Monday!

I will try and post pictures later today!