Charlie

Becca

I'm not doing anything


Happy waking up.













Sad you took so long to get me out of my crib.
Happy or sad, she's still cute.

Kids and errands

I can't get the post picture function to function. I have a bunch of new pictures I wanted to post, but I can't get them to load. Computers are wonderful when they work, but are terribly frustrating when they don't.
Today is a cloudy day, a bit of a rarity here in St. George. My mood always feels a bit more somber when it's cloudy. I tried to get some errands done this morning, but only got half of them done. Taking three kids along presents quite a challenge - and today I wasn't up for the challenge. Tom and Charlie have a hard time staying still and an even harder time not touching things.
I was at Target and got one of those big shopping carts with the extra two seats attached to the front of a regular shopping cart (I feel like a bus driver when I get one of those carts). Tom and Charlie were sitting in the seats and Becca was in the back of the cart (I can't sit her in the regular baby seat section because even with seatbelt on she still climbs out). The boys could not sit still and were climbing from the back to the front of the cart and back again. Needless to say this drove me nuts. To top it off the boys had to each use the bathroom - when we were at the back of the store and had to walk all the way to the front of the store. When I took Tom I asked Charlie if he needed to use the bathroom while we were there. No. So we continued shopping. Not ten minutes later Charlie informed me that he needed to use the bathroom.
After Target I needed to go grocery shopping, but there was no way that I was going to attempt that feat - not after my nerves were already rattled enough by a twenty minute stop to Target.
Usually I do my errands while one of the boys is at preschool (they rotate days, Tom on Mon & Wed, Char on Tue & Thur). When I only have two kids they behave like a charm and it's not a big deal. Christmas break is going to be a long three weeks - I'll survive, but we might run out of food (because I am NOT taking the three of them to the grocery store).

love my camera

Tom and Charlie playing in their room. I was playing with my camera trying to capture good light without using my flash. I think these pictures turned out good. The boys don't play with their toys very often (at least not for the intended use, ie. everything doubles for a hammer), let alone play in their room, so this was a rare moment.

Tom's Preschool

This is a picture of Tom's preschool class. The kids are three years old. They are all wearing brown shirts because they learn a new color every two weeks and on the last day of that color we take a picture. This past week the color was pink and the little boys were not happy to wear pink - even though they only had to put the shirt on long enough to have the picture taken. It is a neighborhood group and each of the mom's take turns teaching.
I taught this past week - we had a Christmas party. We played a couple of fun games. One game was "guess what's in Santa's sack and each child takes a wrapped gift out of a sack and feels it and shakes it and describes if it is hard or soft, big or little, noisy or quiet. I just used a bunch of Tom and Charlie's toys for this game and explained to the kids that they didn't get to keep the gifts they just got to unwrap them. It was fun to see how well they did at describing the wrapped object. We also made Christmas tree ornaments and dipped pretzels in chocolate. The only reason that I was so brave to do those last two projects with three years old is because their moms were there to help them.

Sweet Becca

What a sweet face! Could there really be anything cuter? Even at 11 months old (the picture was taken in October) Becca is aware of the camera and knows how to cheese it up. This day of the picture Becca was climbing down off of the couch and I wanted to take a picture of her getting off. Well, as soon as she saw that I had a camera she reversed her progress and got settled back on the couch and began smiling for the camera. Notice the drool down the side of her cheek. She is teething, but even as of today has no teeth yet. My kids teethe for months and months before teeth ever show up.
Becca turned one years old on Novemeber 27, 2007. She's really taken a liking to walking and practices as much as possible. I was impressed at how rapidly she progressed from a faltering step or two to walking small distances, from tottering from side-to-side to even, little steps. Sometimes when she knows she is about to fall down she picks up speed and almost starts running and then gravity takes over and she falls face down. She never gets frustrated or whines about falling, she just gets right back up and keeps going.

Becca Loves the Tub

This picture was taken at the end of November. Becca had already had a bath and I had just gotten her dressed in her pajamas. Then I got Tom and Charlie in the tub and had Becca out in the living room with me. Becca could hear the boys in the tub and crawled down the hall to the bathroom. The door was shut, I was sure to close it after getting the boys in the tub because I know how much Becca loves the tub. I could hear her banging on the door with her little fists and I yelled out for the boys to not let her in. The next thing I heard was "splash" as Becca basically jumped into the tub. Tom was being helpful and undoing her jammies to get the wet clothes off. Becca has always been a tub lover, since she was very young. Neither Tom nor Charlie enjoyed the tub until they were able to sit up, but even as an infant laying in the water Becca has enjoyed being in the water.
This past summer, when she was 8 months old I did a mommy and me swim class, and she couldn't do much more than splash and kick, but she loved every minute of it. She is probably going to be a fish like her daddy. He loves the water and especially loves swimming under water. He has been very good to work with the kids in helping them to be comfortable with the water and they love jumping into the water and diving to get golf balls (grandma taysom's house is on the golf course and her pool gets lots of golf balls).

Merry Christmas

I love the Christmas season. Even in St. George the weather cools down and it feels nice to bundle up and to have a fire and drink hot chocolate (however, in St. George the days still get fairly nice, and often we don't even need a jacket).
My house is nicely decorated. I love night time when the house lights are off and the Christmas tree lights are on. I already made my neighbor gifts and took most of them around- now we just need to figure out what to get for the kids.
The one thing I need to get around to doing is our Christmas letter to friends and family, so just in case Christmas comes and goes and I never get it done this will count.
We've had a wonderful year! Becca turned one (she is walking), Tom is three (he can count to 50) and Charlie is the big 5 (loves to draw), but he didn't start kindergarten because his birthday isn't until October. Jeremy started back to school and tomorrow he has his last final for this semester. He isn't enjoying school, but he is doing very well. I'm very proud of him for all the hours he has put into studying. He is going back for his bachelors degree in nursing and is contemplating where to go from there.
I'm busy being a mom of three kids. I also do some photography on the side (I convince neighbors to let me take their family photos for them - this past month I've done four family photos - for Christmas cards of course, and they've all sent out their cards) The problem with me being the photographer is that I can never get a good family photo of my family.
We went on a family vacation in April to Sea World San Diego and the boys loved it - they still ask when we are going back to see Shamu. In June we went to the Manti pageant and also went to the BYU campus (to see where mommy went to school) and all got BYU shirts.