Issues

I truly am so sorry to all those out there who think WalMart is a dump. I admit, I love a good trip to WalMart. They just have lower prices- and then when I can throw a few good coupons in there to top it all off.... aaahhhh, it just doesn't get much better than that folks. Who needs marijuana when you can get an equally great high by saving an extra $5 in one shopping trip simply by using coupons? I think I need to get a T-shirt that says "I have issues."

So thanks to daddy who loves to spoil his little toddler, Kenna has discovered the joy of the ice cream truck. I think she also has discovered her talent of super-human hearing. The other day she comes running as fast as she can into the kitchen and says, "Mom do you hear it?!!" I couldn't hear a thing. "It's the ice cream truck!" she yells. By this time, she is so excited I think she is going to burst. She runs at mach speed back into the front room to look out the window. I follow her in and still can't hear a thing. She keeps insisting that the ice cream truck is coming. I open the front door and listen for a minute until I finally can hear the faint little jingle of the ice cream truck coming up the street. "MOM! LET'S GO, COME ON!" I don't even have time to give the old money-doesn't-grow-on-trees speech. Besides, based on her excitement, I'm afraid saying no will ultimately scar her for life and send her to a mental institution. So we try to calm her down enough to throw on her shoes and head out to the ice cream truck. Okay, I admit it. The past few times the ice cream truck has come, I have really had my eye on the Choco Taco. But it's only Thursday, and I don't splurge until Sunday! What ever is a mom to do? Well, friends, I am proud to say the Choco Taco stayed in my freezer until Sunday. HA! How ridiculous is that? Jacob sometimes wonders about my little methods. However, I was sorely disappointed. The picture looked much better. Oh well. Now I know.

We've been trying to teach Allie how to walk, but she still just likes to fall down and crawl. She is the funniest little thing in the world and is always pulling the cutest little face. She pulls her little mouth into an O shape, her eyes light up big, and then she bursts into a big smile. It is so cute. She especially loves to look at herself in the mirror and pull her little face. We just laugh. I've been trying to teach her to say "mommy." So far all I get is an occasional "mmaaaaa." But she says it so sweet and I love to hear it. Other than that she is the loudest little screamer in the world. The kitchen window sits low enough that she can pull herself up to look out. If she looks out and can see Jacob or Kenna in the backyard she just starts screaming and smiling.

Not too much else has been going on. The weeks just fly by. I am looking forward to the weather cooling down a bit. I better be careful though, because it'll be snowing before I know it. I'll be grateful for the heat I guess!

MOMMY OLYMPICS

It has been fun this past week to watch a little bit of the Olympics. So to keep alive the Olympic spirit in my home, I give you The Mommy Olympics.

**Good afternoon America, we are here LIVE from the famous downtown of Enoch, Utah. There sure is excitement in the air as we begin the umteenth annual Mommy Olympics. You know, this event dates clear back to Eve as she started out as the world's first mommy. Tradition holds strong as moms all over the world continue to show impeccable skill and precision in maintaining some form of peace and harmony in the home. Let's see how mommy holds up in 2008.

EVENT #1: SWIMMING
Welcome to those of you tuning in as we broadcast our first event Saturday night here at the ever-popular bathtub. You all know how the song goes, Saturday is a special day and mom is gearing up to get ready for Sunday. Here we go in 3, 2, 1... and Mommy is off! My goodness there are two little squirmers in the tub, I don't know if she can pull this one off. Whoa! Look at that form as she whips out the baby wash. Water is splashing all over, I don't think she can even see! But she is sure holding up as baby #1 is washed and ready for the shampoo. There is a lot of screaming here, that is one grumpy baby! Here comes the rinse..... she's running behind, she'll really have to make up some time on the toddler. Scrub #2 is going a bit smoother, she's even getting a little help from the 2-year-old. Mom is showing excellent maneuver skill as she dodges a fast one from the flying rubber duckie. She is sure picking up time here as she washes her last set of hair. Can she do it? She picks up hooded towel 1... now towel 2.... she's pulled the plug and OH! Mom gets the girls out of the tub in record time! Dad doesn't even have time to make it in the house to help! Mommy is soaked, but those girls are ready for bed. Gold Medal #1! Watch out Michael Phelps, mommy is in town.

EVENT #2: CURLING
This event has proven to be a real time-consumer for mommy. It seems she constantly has a broom in her hand. The girls are occupied in the back, it's the perfect time. Mommy has to be swift before the girls realize they can come destroy the dirt piles. And she's off! Look at that broom go, it's all a blur folks! She sweeps left, she sweeps right, the piles are growing quickly. Here's the real challenge... can mom get to that cheerio that rolled under the table and is stuck in the corner? I hear the girls, they're heading this way. You better hurry mom! And she's got the cheerio in the pile! Uh-oh, missed a piece of 4-day-old hot dog on the floor under the high chair. She sees it... look at her whip that broom around! I have never seen a broom do that before! She's got the dustpan, but the girls are coming in.... She sweeps pile 1, pile 2, pile 3, pile 4, and pile 5 and scoops up the last of it just as a little hand dives in. She did it! The dustpan is emptied into the garbage can just in time as Mommy scores her second Gold!

EVENT #3: HURDLES
Mommy is finding that there is always something lying around on the floor. She's geared up and ready as she attempts her 3rd medal. It's 5:00 and Mom is getting ready to sit down on the couch and rest for the first time today. She is sitting down in 3,2,1.... and there is the scream from the baby in the bedroom. Mommy is off and running! She is really picking up speed as she heads for her first hurdle. Oh my it's a big one. She better get some good air so she can make it over that baby-doll stroller. She's up and.....lands perfect! No time to rest for hurdle #2, the pile of blankies. Way to clear it mommy! Look at her go as she jumps right over the choo-choo train, the shoes, the stuffed animals, and the sippy cup. She shows quite a stride on the last hurdle as she gets her left leg just barely up and over the toddler. Mommy makes it in record time to wipe a tear and give a love to the baby who just got whacked by big sister. Way to go mom! And WOW- Did you see her red face as she tried to count to ten and not yell at big sister for hitting the baby? What sportsmanship mommy! The medals are really adding up here for mommy. We'll see if she can keep her winning streak alive.

EVENT #4: SHOTPUT
The Mommy Olympics sure has some dirty events that challenge even the best mother. The diaper has been changed and boy is it a smelly one! Let's take a look at the track mom needs to finish to get the Gold. She'll start in the back bedroom by the changing table, then head down the hallway, round the corner into the kitchen, head out the back door and lastly throw the diaper trying to make it into the narrow opening of the garbage can. It's a tough one, can she do it? Mom's got the diaper in hand.... hold your breath, the fumes will slow you down mommy! Ready, set, and GO! She's out the door of the bedroom at top speed. Down the hallway... Watch out for daddy in the road!... She skids around the corner.... Time is ticking.... She can't hold her breath much longer...Almost to the door... Whoa! She sure is flying as she gets ready for the toss....She pulls her arm back and there is the throw. It's going, going..... and I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! The diaper bounces off the rim of the garbage can and barely makes it in! Mom scores again! The crowd goes wild as everyone takes a big breath!

EVENT #5: FENCING
Mommy has the knife in hand. The crowd is anxious. It's 6:30 and the family is sure hungry. Can she get dinner on the table before the starving group lands into a famished heap? And the microwave beeps... She's off! The microwave flies open as mommy grabs the defrosted chicken. Look at that meat slap down on the cutting board! The knife is flying as mommy cuts up the chicken and throws it in the fry pan. Holy Cow! Watch out folks, here come the vegetables. That woman sure can handle a knife, look at her go! Chop! Slice! Watch your fingers mommy! And the veggies are in to cook. The table is set as mommy throws the hot pad on the table.... Here comes the chicken.... Mom better show some hustle and grab the tortillas warming in the oven... Family is at the table.... Uh-oh, run back quick to the fridge for the sour cream... And she's done it again! I don't believe it! Fajitas are on the table and ready to eat at 6:59! Another world record for Mommy! Once again Mommy scores Gold with dinner.

Thanks for tuning in folks! Once again we are wowed as mommy manages to keep it all together. We send a big hoorah for all those great moms out there who keep scoring Gold. Join us again tomorrow as we start the Mommy Olympics all over again....

Events

What? A new post and it hasn't been a month yet? Wow, both my girls must be having a nap or something to give me a second to myself! We've had an eventful past week so I wanted to make sure to squeeze it all in.

First of all, HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY ALLIE RAE! Our little Rae of Sunshine hit the big year mark on the 8th! I can't believe it has been a year. It was a bit of a wild start with her, but we couldn't be happier with the sweet little girl she is becoming. Her sweet smile, her big, bright blue eyes, and her cute little button nose make our home even that much greater. Her squeal adds quite a few decibels to the house as well. My goodness can that girl scream. She was with me in Relief Society yesterday while Jacob taught in Young Men's. She is actually becoming fairly difficult to contain at church (countdown to nursery!), but was doing all right in Relief Society. We made it all the way to the end of the meeting until she worked her way over to the piano during the closing song. She managed to squeeze in behind the piano and loved putting her hands on it to feel the vibration. I was looking over at her, and she looked up to catch my eye and then let out 3 of the loudest, happiest squeals I have ever heard in Relief Society. All I could do was laugh. She was behind the piano and no one could see her, so of course all eyes were on me and joining me in laughter. But she wasn't done yet, oh no. She kept squealing and laughing all through the song until I finally had to go over and pick her up in order to keep some form of reverence in the room! Such a little character. We went in to her year check-up today and she is not happy to report she got 3 shots, but she did good. The picture is of her in her new carseat she got for her birthday. She looks so darn cute sitting in the backseat and seems to really like the new view. I look in the backseat of my car and see two cute little ladies staring back at me and I think, "Holy cow! Those are mine! I am just an old mom with 2 carseats in the back of my car. When did that happen?" Nope, definitely not announcing a third carseat any time soon.

I'm afraid to say Allie's cake and ice cream got postponed until last night because Jacob and I ran another 5k on Saturday. Yep, my third 5k! I shaved another 2 minutes (almost) off my time and managed to get 3rd in my age group! WOW! Then I thought that there was probably only 3 of us in the age group. Ha! I'm not really sure. Gosh dangit I was so proud of myself. Never in a million years did I think I would ever do anything like that. Jacob got 2nd in his age group. It was a lot of fun. I stood there after the race and told Jacob that a year ago I had delivered a baby less than 12 hours earlier. It was quite an incredible feeling. I think I was feeling a little better this year than last!

On Saturday Jacob was sitting on the couch trying to eat some leftover pizza and Kenna kept trying to climb on him and was bumping him. I was sitting down on the floor smiling to myself and watching as Jacob kept getting more frustrated. Pretty soon Jacob got sick of it and all the sudden grabbed his pizza, moved to the other side of the couch and said, "Gosh Kenna, you're not the boss!" Oh my goodness, all I could do was start laughing! He looked over at me and started laughing too and said, "That was not what I meant to say!" It was the funniest thing. Maybe you had to be there, but in my mind all I saw was a cute little blonde-headed 10-year-old boy getting mad at his little sister. We just laughed and laughed over that one. He really didn't want me to add that, but I just had to put that memory on paper. Sure love ya, Jacob! You definitely keep me laughing with all the funny things that pop out of your mouth.

I am proud to say that after nearly 3 years of being down here in Cedar City, we have finally seen a show at the Shakespeare Festival. Our neighbor who works for the festival got us some tickets to go see "Fiddler on the Roof" in trade for some tractor work. We did dinner and then the show. It was so darn much fun. I haven't been to a show for quite a while and I absolutely loved it! It made me want to get up on stage again. They actually did a really good job with it. It was such a fun little date night. Jacob really quite enjoyed himself as well. I must say, however, I make a much better Grandma Tzeitel. Ha!

We have a neighbor who built a bunch of train-like carts he can pull behind his 4-wheeler. He is such a nice man and has been taking a bunch of kids for rides the past little while. He's more popular than the ice cream truck! He stopped by our house Saturday night and Kenna got to take a ride. At first she was hesitant but ended up loving it. It was so fun to see her in it. Such a big girl! Allie stayed behind and was in heaven crawling up and down the sidewalk waiting for her to come back. As long as that girl can be moving, she is happy.

The countdown is on as we wait for our first Israelsen cousin. She is due to join the family the middle of September and we can't wait for a new baby in the family. Good luck on your last month Aunt Andrea! We are so excited for you and were so sad we had to miss the baby shower. This living 5 hours away sure is a pain sometimes. Thank goodness for the internet, I suppose.

Israelsen Summer Updates

Ya ya, it's been a while. Summer has been crazy and getting down to fire up the computer has been a task, but I'm here! Warning: this is a lengthy update. I just like to print this off for journal stuff so I try to add a bunch of stuff.

To update from the last blog, the wheat grinder is fabulous! I have made two batches of bread so far. The first batch wasn't my favorite but the second I made just today is so so yummy. It works like a charm. There is nothing quite like a fresh piece of bread right out of the oven. Mmmmm.

Next update: I feel pretty confident in saying Kenna is officially potty trained! Can you hear the heavenly choirs singing? I sure can. I don't go through near as many diapers- yay! She is really good at letting us know when she needs to go potty and is quite proud of herself. I am also very glad to say she doesn't have to have a sucker every time she poops, either. Yep, I resorted to sugar. What can I say? I was desperate to be done with the whole thing!

Speaking of my eldest little angel, we apparently have bears in the house. I have not actually seen one myself, but quite often find myself helping Kenna scare one out of a room when she is going in it. I try to downplay it so her imagination doesn't start to really kick in and scare her, so I'm trying to be inventive in my approach to the bears. This morning however, she said she "catched the bear." So funny. It is so fun to see her language develop. Lately she is learning how to use is, am, and are, and of course they get easily mixed up. She told me the other day, "I is funny!" She obviously has quite the imagination. We went to the park today and she had to come sit by me at the picnic table so we could eat "dinner." The table was empty, but boy was it delicious. Then we had to move around the table eating at a bunch of different seats. She is always pretending something with her baby and her stuffed animals.

Over the 4th of July a friend and I went up to a craft fair in Brianhead. I made a bunch of cute baby headbands and hooded towels. I must say, they turned out very cute. (Okay, thanks a ton to my awesome mom who made most of the towels- we spent a day while I was up North making some and had such a good time). We did the craft fair for two days (thanks daddy for having two days of bonding with the girls!) and it actually went really well. It was fun and I sold a pretty darn good amount for my first time. I had a lot of people ask about a website, so now I just need to decide how serious I want to get. Trying to sew with my two little darlings is quite an endeavor. I'll have to see what I decide.

SO- one of my husband's great talents is that he can be a real sweet-talker. Another one of his great talents is that he is a pretty good runner. So what happens when you combine these two great talents? Well friends, you get me, running a 5k. Yes, you read that right. ME. The one who would drive past the track at Sky View after school and laugh at all the hoo haws out there running on purpose. For some reason however, I told Jacob I would do it. We went up to Nephi a few weeks ago to the Ute Stampede rodeo with some cousins of Jacob's and discovered there was also a little "fun run" the next morning. Now, I don't really understand the title. I have never considered putting those two words together in the same sentence. On the way to the "fun run" I was quite certain I was heading into a death trap. Jacob was getting all geared up and was talking about how fast he wanted to run and the time he wanted to beat. My mind was in a daze- quite frankly I just wanted to cross the finish line. Alive. My only salvation was my wonderful sister-in-law Marlene who was so so kind to come run with me. We started off and my goal was to just make it through the first stretch before I started walking. Jacob of course was long gone. But we got that far and just pushed a little further to the next stretch. Before we knew it, we hit the two mile mark! "Holy cow, I think we can make it Marlene!" She was so good to endure all my cheering for us. Jacob finished and came back to find us and ran the rest of the way with us. Yes! For the first time in my life I ran three continuous miles! Mar, I couldn't have done it without you. Now here is the real kicker- I have since run another 5k. Yep, we went up to one in Beaver on the 24th. I am so proud to say I shaved 5 minutes off my time. And can I just brag about Jacob? He took second out of everybody. Way to go Jacob! He kicks my tooshie. We are planning on running one down in Hurricane in a few weeks. Hopefully I can shave some more time off. I'll keep you updated. Call me crazy but deep down I am starting to enjoy this running stuff.

A few weekends ago we headed up North to my family reunion at Bear Lake. We had a ton of fun. Allie LOVES the water and Kenna just likes to play in the sand. Fortunately after a few handfuls, Allie quit eating the sand. Jacob fried his legs playing golf with all the boys. Just goes to show that his legs NEVER see the sun. They probably see the sun about as much as a golf course sees Jacob. But, he was a good sport and had fun. Of course we didn't get as much time as we like up there, but we take what we can get.

My little Allie is getting her molars. I have decided they are the bi-polar molars. She is happy one minute and grouchy the next. Hmm, or maybe she is just a girl. Wow. She is still not walking yet, but loves to crawl and is starting to climb on things that are low enough. I was loading the dishwasher yesterday and turned around to see her standing on the door of the dishwasher and holding on to the top rack. Whoa there little lady! I had her downstairs the other day and she was too quick and got up quite a few stairs. I came running just in time to catch her before she hit the bottom. Ya, I felt like a million bucks. Parent-of-the-year award right there. Always on my toes.

Jacob and I were talking about small miracles the other day and for journal sake want to remember two little experiences we've had that remind me we are truly looked after. The first one was after a trip to Logan a few months ago. We always say a prayer before we leave to make sure all is well while we are gone and that we can travel safe. Well, we had just gotten home in time for Jacob to hurry and shower and get to work. Just before he pulled into the parking lot at work, the car started lurching and having some serious problems. It ended up needing a huge repair with the computer system and was out for a few days. Jacob called me to tell me about it and we both new immediately how blessed we were to make it home okay and that it wasn't until we were home safe that the car started having problems. The second one was a few weeks ago. Jacob had forgotten to turn the sprinkler off before he went to bed, and had it been left on all night, it probably would have ended up leaking a ton of water into our basement. Well, for some strange reason that night I had a crazy dream (I don't even remember what it was) but it made me sit up in bed and say something about water. It woke up Jacob and he remembered the water and ran out to turn it off. It was the weirdest thing. I didn't even know there was water on that needed to be turned off. Once again, we knew that we have these small little miracles that constantly remind us that the Lord is truly looking out for us. Hopefully I can slow down enough to recognize God's hand in my life because we are so incredibly blessed.

PICS:

My wheat grinder-love it!

Kenna got hold of the butter (and ate most of it-yuck!)

Allie's first piggy tails- can't believe she's almost 1!

June at the Israelsen's

I just purchased a wheat grinder. I've been hesitating, they aren't the cheapest little gadgets in the world. Oh by the way honey, if I forget to tell you and you read this, I just bought a wheat grinder. He he he. But, I finally decided that having 500 pounds of wheat will do me absolutely no good unless I have a wheat grinder. I'm certain using a stone from the backyard will get me tired much too quickly and we'll just starve- or just resort to eating wheat berries. I think it's a good purchase. I'll let you know how my new kitchen toy works. I'm excited to fire it up when it comes.

Pretty much Jacob and I have decided potty training is definitely not a strength either one of us possess. I'm not sure if I just have an incredibly stubborn 2 and 1/2 year old, or if I have really faulty training techniques. I will however, rejoice in a poop-in-the-potty triumph we had a few nights ago. I caution you, I am a mommy and I say it just how it is, so if you don't want to hear the potty talk, just skip on down to the next paragraph. Anyhow, we caught Kenna squatting and got her to the bathroom before the dirty missle had landed in the pull-up, and judging by the screaming it was much to her dismay. So to try to not make it a horrible experience for her and never have a potty success again, I tried to be as happy and excited as I could when she finally did her duty in the potty.
Me: "YAY Kenna! You did it, I am so happy for you! See, going in the potty is fun! Poo-poo loves to be in the potty and is so happy!"
Kenna: (she cocks her head to the side, scrunches up her cute little face and says,) "Mom, poo-poo can't talk. But it's nice!"
Yep, it sure is my little darling, it sure is. Yesterday I told her she could wear her very special panties but she couldn't pee in them or they would get all wet and dirty. So what does she do? She takes off her panties to pee on the carpet. Finding Nemo was much too enthralling to leave for the potty, I guess. Nice. I guess I'll just keep trying.

So I took Allie to the Dr. yesterday. She woke up with a fever and it would't come down, so when it hit 103 I called the Dr. Her ears looked good and from the blood test they couldn't tell if it was viral or bacterial but just in case put her on an antibiotic. She's been pretty fussy today, but hopefully will get back on track soon. Jacob got the random yuckies too, he came home from work sick yesterday but is better today- he must be anyway, he is out mountain biking. Yep, bikes are the newest project around here. Jacob found one on KSL and we picked it up with our bike cart that we also found on KSL in Salt Lake on our way home from Logan. Since then we have also added a bike from mom and dad Israelsen's (for me), a bike rack, and a helmet to the bunch. We've actually had fun taking the girls out for a few rides. They look so cute sitting in the bike cart together.

Last Saturday we met up with some friends (Mike and LeeAnn Adams) who have property up the mountain and got a jump start on firewood. Chances are if we wait much longer, we won't be able to afford the gas to get up there! They have two little girls too, so it was fun to get out and get dirty.

Our trip to Logan was a lot of fun. Kenna was in heaven having so many people to give her attention and play with. My mom and I spent the better part of a day sewing some really cute hooded towels that I am going to try and sell at a craft fair up Brianhead over the 4th of July. I'm also doing some cute baby headbands, so we'll see how they do.

Well, I guess it's time to go, Allie is on my lap screaming. She just isn't appreciating the blog. Hopefully one of these days I'll get the motivation (or time) to add some pictures.

The life of a two-year-old

I found a little line-up of Kenna's animals in the hallway yesterday. She told me they were in timeout because they didn't listen. Hmm, wonder where she got that from? She is such a parrot sometimes and has a killer memory. Yep, that means BE CAREFUL mom and dad! A few weeks ago I sang in sacrament meeting. When I got done and came to sit down, Kenna hopped into my lap and said "you're a good singer mom!" I looked at Jacob to let him know I appreciated the prompt, but he was just as surprised as I was and said that one was all her own. Then she grabbed my face in her hands and said, "That was wonderful! I'm so proud of you!" It was the sweetest thing in the world! I was really trying to figure out where she would have got that from and then finally I remembered. Later on that day when Kenna had a great potty moment I heard myself saying, "That was wonderful! I am so proud of you!" I instantly knew where she got it from. Ha! I'm so glad to know that the positive things are remembered as well as some of the not-so-fun mommy moments like timeout.

Well, it's official. My little Allie can crawl! She finally got her coordination figured out. It is so cute. Fortunately she still is content to stay put for the most part, but when she fully discovers her mobility I am really in for it. She is constantly moving some part of her body. Whenever she's in her carseat, she kicks her legs and gets herself rocking like crazy. It is the funniest thing to watch. I sometimes forget about it, but whenever we're in public and she gets a-rockin' we manage to get all sorts of attention. Especially when she kicks so hard the carseat falls back and she gets stuck. So then she'll just sit there and kick her legs some more. Silly little thing! It has been so fun with her lately. Jacob and I often comment on how nice it is we can really enjoy her without all the fussing.

This past week we finished up getting the side of our driveway done. We put up railroad ties for the back support, then planted some bushes in the front and filled it all in with some pretty red rock. It ended up pretty good, I must say. Tons better than it used to be. Considering what we had to start with when we moved in, we have made vast landscaping improvements. I just really have a hard time paying for rock. What? Paying for rocks? Even worse is having to pay for a load of dirt. Dirt? Now come on. What's next? Paying for worms? Wait a minute, they do sell worms. If that's the case, I really need to get in the business. Kenna at least would love it. Last week I showed her a grub worm that was crawling on the driveway and it instantly became her new best friend. Nice. Way to go mom. Now, I really struggle with creepy-crawly things, but am trying to not give Kenna the same heeby jeebies, so ya, I showed her the worm. She carried that thing around all afternoon! She kept squishing it and telling us how cute it was. Cute is definitely a stretch. Um, not even in the same ballpark my sweet little princess. I can think of a whole slew of other words to describe a grub worm. I tried hard to remain optimistic without letting my detest of the grub show through. She showed anyone who came within 50 feet. I told her to feed it to the chickens but she vehemently declined the offer saying, "No, it will die!" Well, I thought, it would meet its demise either by being pecked or smothered to death. Now if I were the little worm, I would opt to just get the whole thing over with quickly by the chickens rather than a slow, painful death in the grimy little hands of a two-year-old, but whatever. We add the grub worm to a growing list of creepy-crawlies Kenna has had to manipulate and investigate. We've already had grasshoppers, ants, and regular old slimy brown worms. I'm not sure what I'll do when she wants to hold a snake.....

We're Alive!

WOW. Almost a month since my last post? Woops. But, definitely time for an update. I have so much to update on this could take forever. I will try to abbreviate.

FIRST AND FOREMOST: I must tell y'all about my new BLING! So our anniversary was May 6th. Yep, the big 4! Yay for us! I ended up in Logan on Monday the 5th, and Jacob had to be up in South Jordan for work on the 7th and the 8th, so we didn't even see each other on our anniversary. Kinda weird, but okay. Anyhow, the girls and I finally met up with dad in Salt Lake on the 7th and stayed in the hotel with him. We were in the hotel getting ready for bed when Jacob handed me a little bag with a letter in it. He wrote me a beautiful little love note (sigh, I loved it) that had a huge wad of cash in it. I wondered "what the heck?!" Okay, didn't wonder, said that right out loud. He said he had been saving up. Hmm, nope, I do the checkbook, there is no way that amount could fly under the radar. He persisted and told me he wanted me to go buy the tracer band I've wanted to go with my wedding ring ever since we got married. I told him there was no way I was going to spend THAT much money on a ring for myself, and we could figure something else to do with it, oh, like put it into savings. Well, I finished getting ready for bed, hopped back into bed, and hopped right onto a little box. I can only imagine the look on my face seeing as though I had a really good idea of what was in that little black box. All I could do was huddle into Jacob and cry! He said, "you don't even know what it is yet!" I carefully took off the wrap and peered into the box to see an absolutely BEAUTIFUL diamond band. I was thinking of a nice little silver band but Jacob got me the the little silver band that included a row of amazing little diamonds in it. WOW. Double triple holy cow I can't believe it WOW. I was stunned. Floored. Humbled a bit, even? I just couldn't believe it. How did he do it? How did I not know about it? Well let me back up (this is getting way too long, but I just have to tell the whole story). A few weeks before my birthday I found a business card for a jeweler in Jacob's shirt pocket. I just smiled and kept it to myself wondering what my sneaky little husband was up to for my birthday. Well, my birthday was just perfect so I didn't worry too much about it. Then a while after my birthday, curiosity got the best of me and I asked Jacob about the card. He quickly came up with an elaborate story that he was helping out his brother who was looking into getting a little bling of his own for a special someone, but had been sworn to secrecy. He really is quite the little actor, and I ate it all up and my curiosity was satisfied. I was so fooled. I was actually thrilled that Karl was looking into getting a ring! So Jacob completely had me blindsided on our anniversary. It was like a little fairytale. I still look at it like a little girl and watch it sparkle. The bad news? I can't get my camera to take a good picture of it. I'll see if I can get it figured out. But if I keep putting off the blog it will never get updated. The other bad news? I was actually really very disappointed that Jacob's brother Karl isn't looking for a ring! And about the big wad of cash? Here is the most amazing and kind and thoughtful thing my husband could do: he sold a heifer. I don't think anyone truly understands how incredibly loving this is. Jacob, the animal lover, sold one of our heifers and took a large chunk of the profit just for me. So, the cash in my love note was the remaining amount from the heifer. Sounds silly, but it was one of the kindest gestures a girl could ever have. Thank you Jacob for being so wonderful. You don't know how much that meant to me. It's not the diamonds. It's knowing that I am married to a man who loves me more than anything in the world. Again, wow.

Okay, this is long. What else has been going on? Well, the girls and I drove with Grandpa Kerry down to Arizona for my cousins wedding. The trip actually went pretty well considering it was a 7 1/2 hour drive. Then we had a really quick trip up to Logan and Salt Lake and, like usual, didn't have nearly enough time to see anyone we wanted to see.

Kenna has some great news to share: she has had some great success on the potty this past week! YAY! Each day gets a little better so hopefully soon we can say she is officially potty-trained. I LOVE IT!

Allie is just a happy little cuss and cute as can be. She can't quite crawl but is trying to figure out how to get her caboose to catch up with the front of her body. Too fun! I am a little worried, though. When she gets going she won't stop which means I will be incredibly busy.

Well, that's it! Hopefully things will slow down a bit so I can be better at updating.

Oh, the pictures: First is me and the little ladies on Mother's Day. Thanks to Grandma Marsha for the incredibly cute dresses! Big shout out to Jacob (is he on a roll or what?!) for the beautiful corsage. The second picture: I came into my bedroom to find my silly little girls peeking out from under my bed. Still not quite sure how Allie got under there, but I have a suspicion her sister helped out a bit.