Everybody Needs...

A Bath Buddy

A Riding Buddy

A Daddy

A Hand to Hold

A Best Buddy

Thanksgiving Update

I'm always behind on blogging! Oh well. Better late than never.

Thanksgiving was tons of fun. We were up in Logan and joined the Israelsen side for lunch. Of course we barely made it through eating before Allie decided she needed a nap and was in no way willing to compromise on that. So unfortunately our visiting was cut incredibly short. We still had a great time.

While up in Logan, Jacob surprised me with tickets to go see the Forgotten Carols-LOVED IT! However, McLean has added too much to it. I liked it better when I saw it a few years ago. But, still the perfect way to kick off the holiday season.

The 29th we celebrated Kenna's 3rd birthday with the Otte clan. It was so fun to play a few little party games with the cousins. Absolute chaos but it was a lot of fun. Yep, my little firstborn is 3! I truly can't believe it. She's knockin' at the door of the Sunbeams! Wow, we are graduating nursery. I thought it was crazy when she started nursery! Even crazier than that, Allie starts nursery in less than 2 months! Time flies. We'll hear wedding bells before we know it. Okay, whoa, slow down.... don't even want to think about that.

We celebrated with the Israelsen clan the next day, so Kenna got two cakes! She is sure blessed to have two awesome families who love her.

Before we headed down South, we stopped in at Temple Square and saw the lights. It was SO SO FUN! I haven't been there for a few years and I just ate it all up. The weather was amazing and the lights were beautiful and the Spirit was so peaceful. I love that place. Another perfect way to ring in the season.

Want to give a shout out to Grandma Shelly- she had a hip replacement last Friday (on her birthday- but what a heck of a gift, huh?) and so far is doing pretty darn good. So glad everything went well, mom. You'll be waterskiing before you know it! HA! You just keep on getting better. Sure love you.

Good luck to everyone on all the shopping and wrapping and eating and caroling and baking and eating and trimming and stressing and eating and tree-gazing and cocoa-sipping the next few weeks. I love stoking up the fireplace so our house is super toasty, then Jacob and I can snuggle on the couch and enjoy all the fun Christmas lights. Take time to enjoy the season and remember how incredibly blessed we are that the Savior came to Earth, and all the remarkable things He has done- and continues to do- for us.

Catch Up

Happy Halloween! Jacob's sister Andrea and her husband Ben blessed their baby the first Sunday in November, so we headed up north for the weekend. On Halloween, I had been doing applesauce all day with my mom (thanks mom, you're the best!) and then all of the sudden it was time to get the girls ready to go trick-or-treating. I was pooped, so the girls got a quick costume change and we headed out the door. Allie was my little lion cub and Kenna was a princess. Sort of. It's as princess as she's gonna get, anyway! She is all farmgirl, so princess almost doesn't fit. A week before Halloween she was invited to a princess tea party, so I found a cute little outfit at Family Dollar and I figured we'd get some good use out of it. Yep, I'm sure a fancy mom! As long as she got to hold her plastic pumpkin to collect candy in, life was good and she really could have cared less. We stopped in at Hayley's house up the street and not only got to see Hayley but also the whole Johnson fam! For anyone not familiar, Hayley is as close to sister as you can get without being biologically related. We pretty much grew up with the Johnson clan and I miss them a ton. It was so good to see you Hayley and Linda and the rest of the gang! Sure love you guys!

During the visit up north, Jacob was mostly out at the farm (shocker?) and that is really where Kenna wanted to be the whole time too. The camera never made it out there but they sure had a good time riding horses and doing all the farm stuff. She helped her Aunt Marlene make cookies, and I believe the cookie beaters aren't quite the same. I suppose "help" is a very subjective term, huh? The girls sure have some great Aunts and Uncles who give them lots of love. And patience!

We finally got to meet our new cousin Olivia! She was definitely worth the long drive up to Idaho. It was so fun to spend the day with family and I couldn't get enough snuggles from sweet little Olivia. Kenna especially loved holding her first Israelsen cousin. Allie really needed a nap and didn't cooperate so well with me holding a different baby, but I still managed to hold Olivia a bit. It is still just amazing to me to see a baby just lay there so content as can be. We are so happy for you Ann and Ben and can't wait to see little Olivia again! Okay, I guess we want to see you too. Ha!

Here we have Kenna who somehow managed to pop a seam and empty out the entire contents of the little green bean-bag-like pillow that used to sit on her bed. Looks like snow, but it actually is teeny tiny little styrofoam-like balls that created the stuffing for the pillow. Yep, all over her floor. Fortunately it hadn't been scattered yet. Jacob and I had just sat down to rest and have some peace and quiet for the night when Kenna came in and asked us to "come see!" The peace and quiet was delayed a bit as we roared up the vaccuum. Kinda looks fun to play in, though. I still find those little bits around my house every once in a while.

Don't have a picture, but I spent a few days up in Salt Lake with my sister this week. Jacob had to be in South Jordan for meetings Tues-Thurs, so the girls and I bummed a ride. Matt (Steph's husband) was out of town for work, so we were single moms together for a few days. Love you Steph! It was kind of a whirlwind with no husbands and 4 kids, but it was so fun to chat and stay up late. Okay, then we really paid for it. Not quite sure how we did that when we were younger. That wasn't that long ago! Let's just say we are looking forward to a girl's retreat sans kids in the near future. Thanks for being such a great hostess Steph!

A House of Order

So I walked into the living room yesterday to find this second picture. And I sighed. Yep, that's my house folks. Let me break it down for you: A) the cushions have been pulled off the couch- every single one of them. B) the Tupperware has obviously been invaded and who knows where else the other pieces have been scattered. C) this picture was taken right about high noon and my child is still in her pajamas- well, to make it even better she is actually only in half of her pajamas. D) speaking of pajamas, they are covered in chocolate milk. E) said child is covered in snot due to the cold that has been passed around to all of us. F) hair has obviously not been combed in about 3 weeks. G) This is only ONE of two children, and the one who does the least amount of damage in the house. Hmm. You always wonder what life is like at other houses? Well there you have it. Yep, usually there is some sort of mess somewhere in the house and I can really let my mind wander and feel guilty about not having things always "looking" just so. But you know what? After I took a deep breath, I took a second look at that. Just look at that cute little thing kicked back on the couch just as content as can be. So I guess I'll be just fine if my house is torn apart at high noon on a Wednesday with lots of chocolate milk and snot. Perhaps we need to just throw the cushions off more often.

First picture: What is better than a good pumpkin carve? That was FHE this week. We got the ol' punkin carved and ate M&M's. Obviously Kenna was in heaven and loves to look at her punkin all lit up. She wanted to fill up her pumpkin with M&M's. Ha! Nice try sweets, nice try.

If there was a third picture it would be of our company this past week. (Woops, guess we were having too much fun to take pics). Wednesday and Thursday we had Grandpa Clark and Uncle Benson (Israelsen) stay with us. Kenna LOVED Uncle Benson and thought life was great when she got to snuggle with him to fall asleep. Thanks for being such a good sport Uncle Bens! They were our little slaves getting in some gravel and had quite the trial getting another load of wood for us. Then Friday-Sunday Grandma Shelly and Grandpa Kerry (Otte) came down to see us. We went to see "Beverly Hills Chihuaha" and depite a few tense moments, Kenna really liked it. Other than that we just enjoyed each other and were spoiled rotten. We are always so sad when family has to go back home. We sure love you guys!! Thanks for all you do for us. We are so blessed with such awesome families.

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission....

I had the coolest experience the other day that I always want to remember, hence I add it to my little e-journal I've got going here.

I never went on a mission, but have always had such a great respect for the wonderful people in my life who did serve. I've never considered myself a missionary, and in fact have always been so nervous about sharing my beliefs with strangers. I always get to upset with myself about that, because if I truly believe, then I should have no problem sharing it with others regardless of them accepting it or not- Something I have been working on. Well, recently our ward has been doing a continous fast to help boost our member missionary efforts. Our family took our turn a few weeks ago and I KNEW that opportunities would surely come, so I am going to have to get over this little shy thing of mine. Well, the other day my doorbell rang, and there stood a cute little black lady selling some cleaner of some type. She introduced herself and was really so sweet. So I listened to her schpeel on the cleaners and throughout the conversation just tried to make small talk with her. She was actually really fun to talk with and we laughed a little bit here and there. It wasn't too long into the cleaning demo I had an instant impression I needed to make a missionary opportunity out of it. I started asking questions about her and her job and found out that this cute little black girl was 20 year-old Carmelita from Detroit, Michigan who was hoping to start nursing school in January. We laughed at how our culture out here was pretty different from what she is used to back in inner-city Detroit. As the conversation was winding down, I asked her if she had heard of the church while being out here. She hadn't, and I continued to ask her if she belonged to any church of her own. She didn't. Now was my time. Normally, this is where my heart starts thumping out of my chest and I can't get myself to talk. But this time was different, and I suddenly felt like I knew just what I needed to say and the words just rolled out. I told her we belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we believe in the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ which is a companion to the Bible. She was so cute and pulled out a paper and wrote down the name of the church and also the church website. (This is where I needed a spare copy of the BOM, and will definitely get some). I invited her to look it up when she gets back home, and if she has a chance on Sunday to find one of our churches. (She is staying in Beaver for a few weeks while they go around selling their cleaners). She was really open to hear me out and left with a smile. As the door closed, I realized I was feeling the Spirit so strongly and that I had truly been guided through my little missionary experience. I may never know what turns out with cute Carmelita, but I pray she also felt the Spirit and that a little seed was planted that hopefully in time will grow to give her the most incredible gift she could ever have. In no way do I mean to boast, because I have a LONG way to go. I also realize there was a lot of things I could have done differently. I konk myself over my head not finding out where she lived in Michigan so I could get the missionaries to her door. But I was so grateful for this little experience, as small as it was, to teach me that I can be a missionary. I look forward to future opportunities and hope that whenever someone comes to my door, even if they are trying to sell me cleaner, they will leave with much more than they came with and hopefully will be touched by the Spirit. I challenge those of you reading this to find missionary opportunities of your own. I would LOVE to hear your stories! Thank you to all you wonderful people out there who are such great examples to me and help me strive to be better.

Where Does The Time Go?

Today I have been trying to organize my pictures while both girls are napping. Let's give a quick hallelujah to a double nap! Anyhow, I've been going through all the pictures on my computer and putting dates on the hard copies so I can put them into albums. We just won't talk about how far behind I am. I still have oodles on my memory card that need to get printed. Somewhere in the hundreds.....(groan). Anyway, back to the story. So I'm going through my pictures and started looking at the shots from when Kenna was a baby. Oh my goodness! I can't believe how I have forgotten what she was like as a little tiger. Now she's become my walking talking little angel/devil. (I say that with oh so much love, mind you.) I can't imagine what it will be like someday when we sit around as a family with teenagers laughing at all our pictures. THEN I will really wonder where the time has gone. But, just for fun I put up pictures of my babies who are no longer babies. Even my little Allie isn't really a baby anymore. NOPE, not quite baby hungry yet, don't you worry. The days of perma-scream-infant are still a little too fresh in the ol' noggin. But I definitely look forward to more sweet little ones to come. I need to have these moments to remind me that being a mom is one of the greatest blessings I will ever have. Somedays are more devil than angel, if you will, and I need some rejuvination every now and then. Ah yes. Looking at baby pictures is rejuvination for mom and redemption for the kids. Of course this double nap thing is scoring the girls some really good points too. Love you my ladies!

New Cousin!

We have our first Israelsen cousin! YAY! Little Olivia Pulsipher was born September 10th and is doing very well. We are just so sad we live so far away. Jacob's sister Andrea and her husband Ben live up in Idaho. I am just dying to see the new little bundly of joy. Hopefully we are up there before too long. Congrats Ann and Ben! We are so excited to have Olivia in the family.

"WHY?" This is the word I hear at least 2.6 million times a day. It doesn't even really seem to matter what answer I give either. Kenna is never satisfied. I am really trying to be creative with my answers too. Why is Dad at work? Why can't I go outside? Why is Allie crying? And everytime I give an answer she just keeps asking why. Circles and circles. The other day I tried to repeat the same answer over and over to try and wear her out, but I ended up wearing out and quitting first. Nice.

Here is another cute Kenna moment. A few weeks ago she was riding in the car with Jacob at night and looked out to see the moon. She always gets so excited when she finds it and says, "Hey, it's the moon!" Then she said, "I need to get some of those....oh what are they called? I need to get some wings so I can fly to the moon!" So cute. Then the other night when we were driving home she found the moon and was watching it, then after a little while she said, "Hey, the moon is following me!" Jacob looked over at me and said, "I don't think I realized that until I was like 6." HA! Thank goodness our child is smarter than us. We must be doing something right.

So for some sad news, our dog Sydney has diabetes. Yep, who had any idea dogs could get diabetes? It really is so sad. In order to keep her around, we will have to give her a shot of insulin every day. Hmm. The poor thing is so skinny and is just not doing well. We have been resolved to the fact that we are going to have to put her down. Now you have to know that I have really come to love this silly little furry creature. Jacob got her as a puppy on the day we went on our first date and she came with us on the horse ride. Not only that, she has been with us ever since we've been married and has made the trek with us on all our moves. But, I suppose that's how life goes. Amazing how attached I get. I tell Jacob she is kinda like our first kid. I'll keep you updated.

Whew, that was somber. We really have been having fun down here lately. To try to be brief, I will update along with the pictures.

#1 is at the County Fair on Labor Day. In the morning Jacob and I ran our 4th 5K together. It was really fun. I am quite proud of myself! I improved my time just a hair more. We had a little neighbor girl watch Kenna and Allie while we ran and then immediately afterwards there was a parade. Kenna LOVES parades! Allie just squirms and wants to wander everywhere. She hates being confined and gets pretty ticked when she can't move around, but we managed. Then we went over to the fairgrounds and Kenna was so excited to ride the carousel. Jacob kept holding on to the tail of the horse and Kenna kept pushing it off because she wanted to do it all by herself. Everytime she came around she would wave like crazy, it was so fun!

#2 is at the State Fair in Salt Lake. After growing up on a farm where horses were readily available, Jacob was pretty dismayed to be paying to let Kenna ride the pony, but after her sweet little smile and all her excitement, Jacob probably would have paid for it a few times. These little girls have daddy wrapped right around their little fingers! She got to ride all by herself and she was the proudest little girl there ever was! Allie just watched and squealed for Kenna. Maybe next year little Allie! We had such a fun time at the fair with some of Jacob's family. It made us homesick. We weren't ready to come back to Cedar City.

#3 is also at the State Fair. They have a little pre- 4-H show, so Kenna and daddy went out to practice a bit the night before. She was in heaven and thought she was big stuff. They got so many stares and comments, it was so fun to watch people gawk at them. Then the next day was the little show and she walked around the arena like she was quite the little cowgirl. They gave all the kids a little blue ribbon at the end and she displayed it proudly!

#4 is me and my ladies last weekend. We decided to go for a ride up the canyon and around by Cedar Breaks. It's really pretty up there. We drove around by Navajo lake to let the girls play for a bit, but it was really windy and cold. Yep, jackets and shorts. That's great parenting right there folks, go ahead and take notes. This picture turned out really cute of the two girls. It's hard to get them both smiling decent and looking at the camera. No, I'm not trying to look like Tina Turner, it was just windy. But I would like her legs....

Allie got the shaft on pictures, I guess. Don't you worry, she definitely makes her presence known. She climbs on EVERYTHING and I have to watch her close. She is finally starting to take a few steps and is so very proud of herself when she does. Still waiting for an official first word, but sometimes she calls Kenna "na." Not sure if it's on purpose or not. Guess we'll just keep waiting!