Happy Birthday Ali-Bug!!

Ali's birthday is on Saturday, but since we are having her birthday party on that day I figured I'd better do this now. I call Ali my "Love-Bug", or in short, "bug". I have to remember to add the "love" part in there every once in a while so that she doesn't think I'm calling her an insect!

Ali will be turning 4. Wow. That means we have been in this home for 3 years. When we moved in she was turning 1! Time flies. And in that time she has developed a strong personality as most of you know! I guess "bug" has a double meaning....she can be quite the "stinker" too!! Ha Ha!

Her story: The morning of March 28, 2005 started with me being able to "sleep-in" till about 8. I got up to go to the bathroom, came back and after laying down felt that "pop" that everyone talks about. And it was like a dull pop.....and then came the water. Luckily I had laid so that my back was to the outside of the bed so I quickly slid off the bed (keeping it clean!) and wobbled to the bathroom telling Joseph that my water had just broken. I wasn't in instant pain, and my water wasn't gushing. So I decided to hop in the shower, to try and have a fresh start to the day.

My brother-in-law, Bret had asked to borrow our truck that day and was coming over to switch vehicles. This worked out wonderfully because we sent Anna and Reese back with him to stay with my sister Heidi. The timing on everything was awesome! So at the same time Bret came, we were loading up in the car to head down to Provo.

Now Anna and Reese were both born at Orem Community Hospital, and we had lived in Orem. Well....things changed, we moved, so now we had to go from Eagle Mountain to Provo, in morning traffic. I made sure to have a pile of towels to sit on for the ride, and good thing, every time I had a contraction a small gush of water would come after it. I was more worried about getting stuff on the car seat then having the contractions! TMI, I know, sorry!

We got to the hospital, set up, and waited for our Dr. who himself was at a Dr. appt! Needless to say he got there right in time to deliver Ali. She came out as a healthy 8 pounds 7 ounces! Definitely our chubbiest newborn, and our darkest. She almost looked oriental!

Ali has grown up to be a determined little girl! She is now in pre-school and a dance class, and loves it. She loves her brothers and sister. She has a healthy imagination, and loves to do many things. We are very thankful to have her as part of our family. She keeps things exciting!

That's our Ali-bug, or Ali-babe! Happy Birthday Ali! We love you!

Time keeps "March"ing on....

Time keeps marching on at a nice quick pace! March sounded so far away, and yet here it is! March was holding a couple things for us.....like, the last weeks of Joseph's job, and the last month to get everything ready and organized before we head to Brazil. We've been booking things for Brazil the last little bit, and it has started to become real to me. I am so excited to go. I do want to give a HUGE thank you to everyone that is helping with our children. Joseph's sisters and my mom, and some neighbors are sharing this wonderful challenge! It almost reminds me of organizing babysitters for when I was going to school. Whew!!

I am also reading the "green dragon". That's what Joseph called the Portuguese textbook from the MTC. He has been wondering how to get one for me because he says it's the best book to help learn the language. Well he was making his rounds in the DI's when he found a "green dragon" ! He was so excited. So now....I am in learning mode!

For an update on Joseph......his last day is March 13th. How fitting,....Friday the 13th! He's been sending out resumes and all that jazz. But isn't too stressed yet because we will be gone for almost a month before he can start anywhere. But hopefully during this pause in time he is able to think about what he really wants to do. He says if anyone has some leads let him know! I am so proud of Joseph and thankful for him. He is an amazing person, husband, father etc. He has been a wonderful provider for our family. Love him!!!!

Ali's birthday is also this month. She will be 4. I will hopefully put together a birthday post later in the month.

I have been getting into "Parenting with Love and Logic". My mom had a workbook for the class 10 years ago I think. But the concepts of this "program" are awesome and I'm trying to learn them and practice them so that I can feel like I can control my children. I've been struggling with the feeling of "why have more children if I can't manage the one's I have?" It's a very frustrating and conflicting feeling. So I am trying this parenting concept to see if that will help me help them. It'll take practice though.

There ya have it.....there it is.

What Next?

Well, there was a time last month when I thought our water heater was going out. Luckily our furnace repair man bumped the nobby thing and turned it down. (That was also when we thought something was wrong with the furnace.) But it was something simple. Yay for us! About the same time our computer drives had been shutting down, and finally, the whole thing crashed. Bummer huh. Awesome for us, we didn't loose anything! Joseph was able to do a progression of things to get the viruses off the computer, and we are putting it back together. However not soon enough for me to have pictures or anything for this entry. Well we are using Joseph's old laptop that his sister Eliza was using; so we'll see what pictures she has in here!!!

But through all of those "scares", we ended up being okay. We are blessed.

Now here's the whopper. Through turns of the economy and such, the institution known as American Express decided to downsize. Half of this was to happen beginning of November, and the second half the end of January. Well I think you know where this is going.....Joseph was one of those. Thankfully he will still work for 45 days and then have 10 weeks severance. But in the middle of that, we have Brazil.
A lot of people have always said things like this are a blessing in disguise. So I decided not to be negative about this and push possible blessings away. I am trying to be positive about this, and challenge what is to come.
Joseph is an amazing person, with amazing skills. Hopefully he will be led to those sites and to know where to look to find a job. This will also give him a chance to think about what he wants to do. He had previously said he didn't want to work in a call center anymore; but now that he is in this position he is falling back on that as something he knows how to do. But I would hate to have him fall into the same old rut, instead of finding something new that he enjoyed.

So all in all, we will see what happens.

On a lighter note, the kids are doing well, and plugging through the school year.
Look what I found! This is a picture that Joseph's sister Eliza took when she was watching my kids while I was at school for something. This is in the new library at UVU. Cute huh!!

Time to catch up!!

Christmas was wonderful. Even with the bit of house hopping that we did on Christmas Eve, it still went well. Christmas Day was surprisingly relaxing, we got to hang out at home for most the day and then went to dinner at my Grandma Baker's house. Ususally we are house hopping.

We had a family party on the Keiser side (mom's side). This was the first year in a church, we are just too big for anyone's house!! It was wierd, but nice to have so much room. This picture is of the talent show. We played Jingle Bells on musical tubes, by hitting our heads!

Here is Anna with her white board that she asked for......

Reese and his BumbleBee Transformers.....

Ali recieved a FurReal pet monkey.......

Adam recieved balls and cars, which he loves!! It's so nice when they are easy to please!!

Lined up, in their new PJ's, waiting to go into the family room!!

And now.......the moment you've all been waiting for..........(well atleast I have!) It's official, I am done with school!



Up Next in our family is the countdown to Brazil!!! Joseph and I are going to Brazil to pick up his parents from their mission! So excited!

Christmas Programs and Fun!

As mentioned before, Anna is in Miss Margene's Creative Musical Generation. During the first part of December she was really busy with performances. But now only has 2 left! She was also in the Nutcracker, put on by the dance groups of the same company. She was in the Irish dance.

This is her costume for her musical theater group performances.

This is probably my most favorite song that they sing. I thought I could get closer......Anna is on the left in the front. (If I am able to get a better recording of this I will replace this one.)

This is Anna's costume for the Nutcracker.

Here's her part in the Nutcracker!

I think Anna has enjoyed this experience, and it's been fun to watch her do something she loves.

Ali also had a program, she had her part to say, which was, "J is for Jingle Bells sung loud and long."

After that, Santa came!! Ali has been able to recite her Christmas List, anytime you ask her too. Now, I thought she was going to just go through her list.........but she didn't.

She added something new!!! She said " ummm, my mom wants me to get a....dancing dolly." I never told her that I wanted her to get anything in specific. And she directly asked Santa for it.......so needless to say, I have had to adjust some things!!

Reese was part of his school sing a long, in which each grade got to sing two songs. He did an awesome job! I did not however get a recording of him, because I had Ali and Adam to deal with!! But here is a picture of him, being very good at Ali's program. (without Adam!)

We also decorated gingerbread houses with my family. It is a tradition that was begun when I was growing up.

Anna's

Reese's Ali's Adam's.....done by mom!

WOW, talk about Insane!

I don't even know where to begin.......I guess I do! Many of you responded to my last post (which was forever ago, I know, I'm sorry!) The majority got it right.....Reese is the top picture and Adam is the bottom! I love those pictures, and how much alike they look!

Next on my list of events was my Senior Recital. But while things were winding up for this event I had found out a few days before that my grandpa was not going to be staying with us much longer....and passed away the night before my recital. My grandpa lived to be 100 years old, and is one of the greatest men I know. He had a sense of humor that is like no one else's. I am so fortunate that my mom and Joseph and I have decided to carry on his Pine Nut business that he loved so much. It is an honor. I love my grandpa and will miss him terribly, but you know what? Just like with my other grandpa that passed away 4 years ago.....it's like they're not really gone, because I can still feel they're spirit. And it is so comforting to know that I will see them again.

So.....for my recital the next day I just blocked all emotion so that I could get through it. I had thought about postponing it, but thought I've got to get this over with, I didn't want to prolong the stress. So the show went on! With only 2 very minor glitches in words, one of which was a foreign language so no one knew that one, it went smoothly! And I'm so glad it is now behind me. I now only have my Vocal Juries to do, and then...... it will be finished. We did record it, and we are still trying to figure out how to put some of it online. We used my neighbors video camera...so it's all new to us.

Next in line was Thanksgiving, and the day after!!! We had a lovely day, and even got to talk to Joseph's parents who are serving a mission in Brazil, via web cam! So they got to see everyone, and we got to see them. It was a nice bonus to the day! The day after Thanksgiving was eventful. Normally I go out shopping just to be with my mom and sisters, but this year I actually had some things that I needed to get. So, my beloved neighbor (same as the one mentioned above) had my kids sleepover, so that Joseph and I could venture out at 4 in the morning! We went to Toys R Us while the rest of my sisters went to Walmart. I think we got the better end of the craziness. Over all, between a Thanksgiving Day sale, and the day after, I had gotten all but 2-3 gifts taken care of! AWESOME!! I hate shopping.

And then the next item in line was my LASIK surgery! It was cool! We have a video of that too, but I don't know it we'll put it on here, it can be kind of freaky! But the first couple of days I was blurry, and still am 4 days later. But it is much better than the first day, and is much better than I could see without my glasses! Yay! I got a different procedure than what people usually think of when they think of LASIK. Usually the one most heard of is that they cut a flap on the eye, do the laser work and then put the flap back down to heal. When doing this, there is no irritation after, and you can see well almost instantly.....and it's $700 more expensive. The method I did, is called PRK. This is where instead of making a flap, they scrape the tissue off the top of the eye, do the laser work, and then put a non-prescription contact over the eye as a band aid, until the tissue can grow back, which usually takes 3-5 days. Now this procedure is safer, less expensive, but does have a bit of irritation, and it takes a bit longer for your eyes to be at "perfect" sight. But hey all in all, I'm excited that I did it. And after having children I can put up with a couple days of irritation!!! And it's only because of our HSA that we were able to even do this! Oh, and thanks to Hoopes Vision, of course!

Now we are into the craziness of December. Anna is in a musical theater group, and with that she has to take a dance class too. Well, her theater class has 17 performances this month on top of her dance class doing the Nutcracker. Our December is pretty much gone! She loves dancing and music, and so this is exciting for her. But I think she doesn't know what to do about the time commitment. (we didn't either, wow.) We will figure out what will be best for all of us. I will post performance pictures when we take them!!!

So that is what has been happening since my last post. Now that school will be over, I will try and do better!

Who's Who!

I came across some pictures of Reese when he was Adam's age and really noticed the similarities between the two. So I tried to find the closest look-a-like pictures of them both and wanted to see if anyone could tell them apart! It might be really easy, it might be tough.....I'm curious! I will post the answers soon! Have Fun!!