PLAYING CATCH-UP!

I have been slacking on the blog and so I need to play a quick catch up on a couple of things.

While Jared was still in Oregon, I took the boys to the Chandler Airport one Saturday because they opened it up to the public to come and check out old airplanes, old cars, etc. The boys LOVED it!! Emma, not so much, but it was secretly kinda fun to make her stay and suffer through it all because the boys have to suffer through her stuff, muhahaha!
The boys were sure this was a transformer and wanted so badly to get inside!The kids took a tour of the inside of a WWII airplane. They wanted to use the "shoot gun" and kill the bad guys outside.I realize this isn't anything that impressive, but it made me super excited. One day while the twins were napping, I got Eli out a little work book and gave him some crayons and just figured he would color in it. He came back to me later and showed me this piece of paper he had done. He figured out exactly what was supposed to be done...you count the dinosaurs and write the number in the box - he did it all by himself and got it all right - I was so proud! Last Sunday after church I decided it would be fun to make some cookies and I thought I would let the boys help me. They were so excited and as I was getting everything out and putting on their aprons I thought what have I done? This will surely be a disaster. Yes, the cookies took me 4 times as long to make, but it ended up being a really fun family activity. Emma decided she wanted to be our photographer and then even daddy came and helped us. We had to roll out all the cookies into little balls and lets just say the cookie dough went flying every where, we all laughed forever about it and then knew we could not share these cookies with anyone outside our home since they had been mutilated so much by everyone :)

ANOTHER PARENTING DECISION...

Who knew I would have to make another stressful parenting decision this year besides Eli going to kindergarten or not?! Sheesh, isn't parenting supposed to be all fun and poopy diapers?!

After Emma finished kindergarten her teacher wanted her tested for CATS (Chandler Academically Talented Students) - its a gifted program at school. We were worried if she passed, what we would do then, let her go into the CATS program or keep her in regular classes? We were so relieved when we got her letter back letting us know she tested higher than the average person who takes the test, but she did not qualify - phew, the decision was made for us. We were relieved.

We got a letter in the mail last week letting us know that Emma had taken the CATS test again (apparantly I had signed a permission slip allowing them to test her, but that was in the days when Jared was gone and I didn't read everything so I just signed my name - ha ha) and she had been accepted into their program.

Now what do we do?! I cried, not as much as I did with Eli's decision but maybe 4 or 5 tears fell from one of my eyes. It is stressful. We don't want to make the wrong choice for her. We met with her teacher twice, we went to the parent meeting, we talked to other moms and got their opinions, we talked to Emma, etc.

Tonight we finally filled out the paperwork, put it in the envelope and sealed it up. No changey backsies now. We decided since she had an amazing teacher this year and she has the opportunity to loop with her next year and a bunch of other decisions we will keep between ourselves, that we would keep her in a regular classroom next year.

We are happy with our decision, but still a little worried what if we made the wrong choice. We filed her acceptance letter and scores in her keep sake box. Congratulations Emma, we always bragged to your grandparents how smart you are and now we know you are indeed a little gifted - you must have totally gotten that from me and not your genius father :) Love you Em!
On a completely separate note, Emma had her first Daddy/Daughter Activity last week. There was a little drama involved there (but since we have moved her bedtime up a half hour - life has been pretty good and drama free so problem solved). When Emma wasn't throwing a fit about not getting her dad's complete attention at the activity, they had a great time together. Emma had been waiting a year for one of these to happen so she was thrilled when it finally did. After the activity, Jared, Emma, Blake and Maddy went out to dinner together and had great time.Fight or don't fight? That is the question. This year, the answer is; don't fight. Next year, Fight on ho bags, fight on!

Emma wanted to try out for the school talent show. She is a great little dancer, but all the dances she is in are made for multiple girls, you try and do it yourself and it doesn't look right. So, we agreed to let her try out for the talent show after her studio was kind enough to make up a little solo routine for her. I went with her to the try-outs and peeked underneath the curtain while the rest of my body was sprawled out flat on the ground (total nerd, I realize I won't be able to do that much longer before I 100% completely humiliate her) and watched her try-out. She knocked it out of the park, she was awesome! The judges peeled back the curtain and looked at me and told me how they couldn't believe she could dance like that. We thought for sure she was in. A few days later I get a phone call saying they loved her dancing but her song was not appropriate for school and so she wouldn't be able to perform, but they wanted her to introduce a couple of acts and do a leg lift, leap and a turn to sorta show her moves. It was hard to break it to her, she lost her self confidence a bit and then in true Emma fashion, by the time she came home from school and me and Steph met her and Maddy at the bus stop with flowers and candy for each of them to cheer them up and the girls were happy as could be and could careless about not making it.

I have since told this story to the studio, friends and read the lyrics online and they are NOT at all what the school said they meant. I didn't fight it this time. I didn't want to be one of those moms. I went to the talent show and sat through all the acts to watch my child introduce a kid and "dance" for 10 seconds. I don't want to be a snot, but after seeing some of the other acts, next year, fight on! I will first pre-approve Emma's song choice and then when they accept it they had better let her dance or else...bring it school! muhahahaha! (I am overdue for a good fight anyways, I need to get it out of my system!) Well, at least she can do her solo dance in her classroom's talent show :)

DANCE PICTURES 2011!

It's that time of year for dance pictures again! Brooke took some more AMAZING pictures of Emma. It was hard to pick my favorites to post on here :)

THINGS THAT MADE ME GIGGLE...

Here are a couple random things that made me giggle recently. Emma's school teacher emailed me the following stories:
The kids are working on their Mother's Day gifts, and I just overheard Emma say, "My mom is the light of my life."

Emma said the funniest thing yesterday... we were talking about these two traditional Chinese characters in the book we are reading, and I said in traditional Chinese households the man runs the roost and makes all the decisions... She says, "That's weird. That's like the total opposite of my house!"

Then on Sunday in nursery they had a sub in there and he wanted Tyler to move, but Tyler just doesn't move for anybody, so he didn't move. Then the nursery teacher decided to pick him up and move him himself and Tyson ran over and shouted with a mean look on his face, "HEY! PUT DOWN MY BROTHER!" as he was grabbing on to the poor guy's leg - ha ha! They love each other :)

The other morning after Emma had left for school, her hair stuff was still out on the couch and I caught the twins doing each other's hair...

MOTHER'S DAY!

I have decided that Mother's day is probably my most favorite day of the year (maybe). It might even be better than my birthday - and if you know me at all - you know I like to drag out my birthday for at least a week :)
I love having a whole day off! Jared is home all day on Mother's day because it is on a Sunday instead of being gone at work and so I just get spoiled. Usually I get to sleep in and have breakfast in bed, but since we have early morning church this year Jared would not let me set my alarm and he got up, got the kids all ready for church himself and then I finally dragged my lazy butt out of bed and only got myself ready and then I headed off to church to meet up with Jared and the kids who had gone early to save our seats. After church Jared took care of the kids and made us all lunch while I got to put things away in my room in peace and quiet :) After lunch we all ended up having a nap - Jared's favorite part and then we headed over to the Votaws for a Mother's Day Dinner prepared by the boys!They had gone to Costco a couple days earlier and bought the food all by themselves and prepared it all by themselves. We had smoked chicken, ribs, pulled pork, cheesy potatoes, corn on the cob, fruit salad, chips, drinks and brownies and ice cream sundaes to top it all off! While the boys did all the clean up in between dinner and dessert, Jaime and I took off on a lovely little bike ride. Afterwards we headed home and Jared bathed all the boys and put them to bed and then we stayed up and watched our recorded shows. It was a very relaxing, enjoyable day and it really was perfect and I wouldn't have changed a thing!

I wanted a picture with my kids but I thought it would be fun to do silly faces this year, they all turned out the same, ha ha. I love my job as a mom and I love the kids I am blessed to be a mom too.

MONSTER TRUCK SHOW!

Last weekend we decided to forego a group date night and take the boys to a monster truck show instead. The boys love trucks, jumping, etc; so we figured they would be in heaven. They did not disappoint. They LOVED the show. They stayed up until 11:15pm and were not cranky at all. The boys kept their ears plugged most of the time because it was loud but they didn't mind it one bit. The kind man in front of us even offered an ear plug option, "Do either of you smoke? You can bust the butt end of a clean cigarette off and stick it in your ears!" Geez, thanks. When the show was over, Eli looked at me and said, "Mom, that was AWESOME!" That made it all worth it :)

Eli and Kiki on Big FootThe motorcycles really got Tyson excited! They did so many tricks and he could have watched them all night long :) Robosaurus! He breathes fire and eats cars - what could be better?! See, told ya :)The EcalonosThe JensensWaiting for the show to start while our daddys got dinner!This was Kiki and Eli's favorite truck, it looked like a dog and I have to say, it did do the best jumps and spins! "Look Dad, the motorcycles!"When the cars go by at 285 mph - it gets a little loud...

HE'S HOME!

Jared came home last Friday night. We made it 4 months. Some days were better than others, but over all it was a great experience for the whole family. Jared was able to go to Oregon and learn the things he needed to learn there without distractions from his family, I was able to gain more patience towards my kids because I knew at dinner time I would not be getting a break and I had to do it all myself, Emma grew up quite a bit and really stepped up to the plate and did a little bit of babysitting, Eli was a good big brother and great helper, Tyson started talking more on his own and didn't let Tyler do all the talking for him and all the boys did really great pulling together and relying on each other for love and support and tried not to miss their dad too much! (although, now that he has been home for several days in a row they do tend to freak out a little bit if they wake up and can't find him! - "Daddy no go back to Oregon!" they say).

I have to say how proud I am of myself. During the week we kept so busy that there wasn't time to sit around and be sad that Jared wasn't here, the weekends though were a little bit tougher, that's when we had some more free time on our hands and I would get bored and lonely, but lucky for me that was usually only every other weekend.

I had a great support system around me. My family and Patrice were always willing to babysit so I could go and do the things that I needed/wanted to do and couldn't take the kids with me. My friends and ward were amazing with text messages, phone calls, play dates, dinner invites, random dinners showing up at my door, Circle K drinks, treats left at my door, people being so willing to go and pick up Jared in the middle of the night at the airport or coming over here and sitting while I picked him up, etc. It was really great to know so many people loved us so much. (I would also like to Thank all the people who helped me gain 7 pounds while Jared was gone! ha ha, true story)

I am so happy he is home, but at the same time it is really weird. There is an adjustment period I have to go through. I lived with him for almost 11 years, but I got so used to him being gone and now that he is back, I have to figure out a new routine with him in it. I need to check with him before I go somewhere (not because he is that type of husband, but just out of respect), I feel bad sitting around at night watching my lame TV shows because I know he hates them, just little things like that.

This week Jared is giving me "time off" and since I am only getting a week I am enjoying it and using it to my full advantage (by the end of the week my house will be totally cleaned - woo hoo). Last night I told Jared I was leaving to run some errands and he would need to take the boys and go get Emma, Tatum, Sidney and Maddy from dance and take them all home - he gave me a look like, "what? by myself? all those girls and I have to take all the boys?" and I just get to look at him and say, "4 months, really?" and then he knows he gets to do it and I giggle, out loud!

I am actually grateful for the opportunity we had to do this seed assignment. It was great for Jared and his career and let's be honest, we benefited financially from it too. It was great for me to be more independent and not just dump on him when he gets home, it was sooo fun to have him come home and even though over half the weekends he was here we didn't get to spend time together because we were busy with dance - the weekends we were together and got to go out on dates were really exciting and it was like we were newly dating again and I would get all excited and put on make-up and perfume. I also enjoyed the text messages I would get as soon as he was on his way home from the airport and he would ask me if there was anything I needed him to grab from the store and for the first time in 13 years - he would actually go to the store for me in the middle of the night! (when I was pregnant I would ask him to run to the store and he never would) That was really fun while it lasted :)

People ask me if I would do it again, Yes, I would, we both would. It was great for our family. We grew stronger and closer and now we are excited to have him home and get back to normal!