Ally's First Day of Preschool!

The long awaited day has finally come! Ally has been wanting to go to school ever since Hailey's first day of preschool 2 years ago. I would have concidered puting her in a 3 year old pre-school last year, but we moved into our house in August, and all of the neighborhood groups were full and I guess I just didn't really want to tote her clear into town. She will be attending Early Intervention Teaching Center for district 93. This is just across the street from our neighborhood, so it won't be too bad taking her over there three days a week.

Ally is a very special girl. She is very different from her sister Hailey. Ally is not shy at all and she started talking at 9 months old and hasn't stopped since. She is always willing to give her opinion, and let you know how it is. When Natalie was born, Ally informed me that she "speaks baby" and that she could let me know what her sister wanted, and pretty much to this day if I can't figure it out I ask Ally.

She is a VERY affectionate and loving child. She is quick to trust and to get attached. She loves to cuddle up to just about anyone. Ally always knows how to make someone feel special. Allan's great-aunt Dot loves Ally because she is always excited to see her and will give her lots of attention. She will remember any little act of kindness you show her and be your best friend for it. (this is a trait I love, but it also scares me to death) She is also very sensitive, sometimes she will be crying and saying "oowwwee" and when I ask her what is wrong she tells me her feelings are hurt, but she is also very quick to forgive.

Ally LOVES her sisters. She looks up to Hailey, and mothers Natalie, and absolutely can not stay away from Lilly. It is like she has a magnetic force that draws her to babies, without even realizing it she will be touching them. Sometimes we ask her to leave Lilly alone, for whatever reason, usually because she is sleeping, and within 30 seconds she is right back there loving on her sister. Someday she will be a wonderful mother, one of those sentimental ones who cries when her children start school.

Ally is also so smart. I think it is because she spends so much time with Hailey. It seems like she learns everything long before her time. She started writing her letters at 2 1/2 when Hailey started school, when she went in for her 4 year old check up the doctor was surprised when she counted to 20 without missing any of the teens. She is great at puzzles and can just see how things go together. Ally has a lot of friends who started Kindergarten this year, and part of me thought about working really hard with her this year and testing her into first grade next year, but I decided in the long run she will be better off with the kids her age.

Thanks Friends

Thank you all for all of your kind comments. Really, I know that the perfect person does not exhist and we all feel like we can't do it sometimes. I don't know why, but for me just writing it all down makes me feel so much better. The afternoon went much better for me because I was able to let it out and move on. It is good to know that there are always friends around to lean on.

Bred for Motherhood??

Did you ever think about how there are those women who were just born to be home-makers? They always look perfect, and their children look perfect and if you were to just drop by their house it would be prefectly decorated and clean.

I am soooo not one of those people and I want to know their secrets. I have lived in my house now for a year, I have not hung one thing on a wall, the garage and basement are still full of stuff that I need to do something with, and I don't know when I am going to do any of these things because I struggle to get my day to day chores done.

It is probably partly my lack of sleep talking, but lately I just feel like it is impossible. I spend all day cooking meals and cleaning up and doing laundry and it is never done. It is just so discouraging. I feel like I don't have time to do anything extra. I really want to know what I am doing or not doing to make the most of my time.

Part of the problem is that my baby (without exaggerating) wants to eat every two hours day and night. I know lots of people who have had difficult babies, and now I understand. I feel like the worst mom ever because every time she cries I just think, "not again." I have been spoiled with three children who slept through the night, but even with those kids, I have never been very good at staying on top of everything.

Don't get me wrong, I love all of my children, they are the best things in my life, in fact, I may just be asking for it but I want to have one or two more. And I love being a stay at home mom. Those people who know me best know that I never want to have another job, I am happiest being mom and I think someday when my kids are in school may be the day that I can get everything done. I admire those women who can go to work and still get everything done. I am really just having a "sorry for myself" moment and wanted to vent to cyber space, and I know I just need to remember how blessed I am and keep on plucking away at the list of things to be done.

p.s. the hormones also come because I am trying to lose baby weight and so I am dieting and so it makes for a bad combination...TIRED AND HUNGRY! Not that I am really hungry, just hungry for treats, last night I had a dream that I cheated on my diet...pretty pathetic huh?

Hailey's Back in School!

Well, there were many mixed emotions as I sent my Hailey off to the first grade this morning. First of all I was excited for her, she is truly one of the big kids now, going to school all day long, eating lunch at school, and homework every night (acording to the paper at back-to-school night) And I was excited to have a break from her and for her to get a break from me and her sisters. (they have been bickering a lot these last few weeks, it's time) But then, a little saddness crept in there, 7 long hours away from home 5 days a week!

This seems like a good time to write a little bit about Hailey. She is an amazing child, so smart and inquisitive, I know she will do great in school this year. She is a big helper around the house and I know that even though I send them all in to clean their bed room and toy room, it is Hailey who will be doing most of the work. She loves to be organized and to catagorize her things. PaPa Burt bought her a first grade math book a few months ago, and she has poured over it wanting to learn more. She is working on her reading, and can do really well when she doesn't doubt herself.

Hailey is so excited to be in a class with all of her great friends from last year and to have new people in her class too. Alexis lives on our street and will be in her class this year!Hailey loves recognition for the good things she does, when she gets it her smile is amazing. She is an oldest child through and through, which means she can be bossy and stuborn, but also means that she is responsible and trustworthy. Each night when we are reading our scriptures we ask questions about what we are reading, and almost always Hailey is right there with the correct answers. She loves the gospel and going to primary and singing songs and is anxious to learn more and to be baptized in a couple more years.

She can be a little bit shy and quiet, but she loves her sisters and her friends and her teachers and well, just about everyone. She needs a lot of love and encouragement to build her confidence and I hope that I can always give that too her. She is always thinking about others, and often, if I give her a choice first, she will think about which one her sisters would choose and leave that for them. Everyone who meets Hailey loves her, she is a very special girl.

On a different subject, what did I do after Hailey got on the bus? I cleaned out the pantry... doesn't it look nice!

Ode to Bolgging--What I did on my Summer Vacation

So I am not really a poet, but I just had to say I LOVE BLOGGING! Today is the last day of summer vacation, and I was just looking over all of the posts just since Hailey's birthday, which was the first day of summer vacation, and thinking how great it was that all of our fun activities have been documented. I have to admit, not EVERYTHING we did was documented, for example, the kids did swim lessons, but I was in the pool so I never took pictures, but I think it is a pretty great record of our summer!

I also have to say it was exhausting, and I am ready for the kids to go back to school and I am really hoping things will slow down a little bit, but I know in reality it probably won't, because I remember thinking at the beginning of summer...I can't wait for school to be out and things to slow down! I guess if I wanted a slow life I shouldn't have had 4 kids in 6 years right?

Now that summer is ending we have lots of fun things to look forward to. Hailey will be going into first grade, Ally into Preschool, Natalie will hopefully have a little more mommy time, Lilly will start eating solids, BYU Football Season is here, We are going to Disney World on an amazing Land and Sea Vacation courtesy of Allan's Parents, and I am sure much much more, and I will have it all documented here on this wonderful blog!

My Sweetheart!

1. What is his name? Allan

2. How long did you date? Well, we got married a little more than 9 months after we met.

3. How long have you been married? 7 years

4. Who eats more sweets? This is a hard one, but I would say him.

5. Who said I love you first? He did, and I didn't hear him, my response was something like, "Oh my gosh I was supposed to be at my cousin's house already!" He, of course, was devestated, and my roommate had to convince him to say it again! hahaha

6. Who is taller? He is by the perfect amount in my opinion.

7. Who is a better singer? I am.

8. Who is smarter? He is.
9. Who does the laundry? I do.

10. Who pays the bills? I do.

11. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does, I like to sleep on the side away from the door, but when we moved into our house and I tried to sleep over there I was informed that I sleep on the left side of the bed!

12. Who mows the lawn? Allan has for the long 4 months that we have had grass.

13. Who cooks dinner? I do.

14. Who drives? Him.

15. Who is more stubborn? Him but I am pretty stubborn too.

16. Who kissed who first? That depends on who you ask he swears it was me.

17. Who asked who out? Again, depends who you ask, I guess I initiated but he actually asked.

18. Who is more sensitive? I probably am, but he has his moments.

19. Who has more siblings? Allan, I am an only child, he is the baby of six.

20. Who wears the pants? I do, he's the first to admit it.

Now you are all tagged! Copy and paste it to your blog!

Tired Baby

This Morning Natalie has been crying non-stop about everything, I tried laying her down once and it didn't stick, so then a little later I gave her a bath and she was still crying about everything so I took her to bed again and told her you can't come out 'till you're done crying. A little bit later I went in to get the towels from the girls bath and hang them up in the bathroom and this is what I found. I think our weekend had worn her out good, she was the only one who didn't take a nap yesterday after we got home, and she always wakes up very early in the morning. Hopefully when she wakes up she will be in a better mood!

Lilly

Lilly turned four months old yesterday, and since I haven't blogged about her in a while I figured this was a good time. She is now rolling and scooting most places that she wants to get. She started rolling from her back to her stomach at about 3 months old and then on July 25th, about a week later, she started rolling from stomach to back. About this time she also started scooting with her feet, but she doesn't use her arms very well yet so she had little red cheeks for a few days. She is starting to smile and respond to people a lot. She loves it when people talk to her, and she is starting to find her voice although her coos are still very quiet. She is such a sweet baby and we love having her in our family. She is still not sleeping through the night, she was doing pretty well around 2 months old, but then I guess she started growing more or something because I am often up with her 3-4 times a night. I am hoping now that I can start feeding her some cereal that she will be more full and sleep longer at night. She has a little bit of a temper and gets really mad when she doesn't get what she wants. It is so cute to see her little personality developing at such a young age.

Down-At-A

Our last weekend of summer we headed down to Down-at-a Hot Springs for the Lee and Jean Staker Family Reunion...or in other words, Allan's parents and their kids. Everyone was able to come except Jon's Family in Arizona and Jeni's Husband Shane and their 2 oldest kids. It was two full days of non-stop fun. Hailey really enjoyed the water slides and even went down the Black Hole once. Ally liked the small slides, but not the big ones, and had fun in the pool and playing with her cousins. Natalie is a BIG chicken when it comes to the water, so it is good because she stays close to Mom and Dad, she liked the hot pool and playing with the legos Aunt Robin brought. Lilly did what she is good at and mostly slept and ate, once though I put her down on the blanket to play and she saw the blocks and rolled over to them and started playing with them, her first interest in toys.

Spring Has Brought Me Such a Nice Surprise!

Allan's parents have a big apricot tree in their back yard, and it yeilds a lot of fruit. They have been asking us to go over and pick up the fruit that has fallen off the tree for a little while, and they had already thrown out several buckets of apricots, so I decided I wanted to try to make some apricot jam. Monday for FHE we went over and picked up the remaining apricots and got 2 big buckets full. I called Robin and asked her if she knew how to make jam, and she decided to come help me make it. (I am sooo glad I had her help, I couldn't have done it without her and it was nice to have someone to work with!)

So wednesday we headed over to the Staker's house and washed and split the apricots and then soaked them in sugar and lemon juice for 2 1/2 hours while we prepared the jars and then cooked them (I stired 5 batches constantly for 25 min. each) and poured them into said jars and cleaned up our mess. 6 hours later, we had 26 jars of Jam and 2 quart size bottles of Apricot Syrup! (The recipe we found said that you make apricot syrup from the foam when you are boiling the apricots) The best part of this whole thing was that the total cost was $0! We used Robin's jars and lids that she had, the apricots off the tree, and the Staker's sugar and lemon juice! (we left them some jam in payment) Next year we will have to start earlier in the year as soon as the fruit is ripe and we will probably be able to get 75 jars if we wanted to! So now you all know what you are getting for Christmas in 2009, this year you will have to come over to my house to have some!

Chukars Game

The Chukars are the minor league baseball team here in Idaho Falls. We went to the game last ni1ght with Allan's parents and Scott and Robin's Family. Matt got mad because I said Smile so he wasn't in the next picture, but my kids were looking better so I added both.

Hailey got picked to race the Chuckar around from 3rd base to 1st base. She of course won because she is super fast (and because it's rigged) but she had an awesome time doing it.

We had a great night even though they ended up losing. The kids were of course spoiled by Grandma with licorice and cotton candy and popcorn and peanuts.