Halloween 2010

Before I post pictures here for you all to see I just have to let you all know that I HATE trying to put pictures on here.  I really don't like it.  It is not easy at all.  I want them on here and to look nice without taking up a lot of space but I just can't do it.  I don't know how you all do it and make it look so nice.  Someone please help me learn the tricks of the Blogspot trade. 

Ok with that out of the way here is are attempts at costumes for this year.

A Bride's Maid Barbie

A Pirate Girl

Davy Crockett



Mom dressed up so Rebecca would and Pocahontas



The traditional 1st year puppy!

Too cute not to post!

Back to school time!

Yes, it is that time of year again!  Time to send the big kids back to school.  (Actually today is the start of the second week of school.)  Rebecca is in 8th grade, Savannah is in 6th grade, and Joe is in 3rd grade.  The kids all have mixed emotions about going back to school because they are not returning to the same school they left.  (They all appear to have survived the first week ok.) 

Dad made a job (and career change back to the education field) and since he will no longer be heading to work in the direction of the kids' school they will be going to the school by our home.  While I am glad that I will no longer have to spend 2 hours a day in the car getting the kids from school, I have my own mixed emotions about the switch.  I am excited that I can be more involved in their education by being in the school to help out more, but I am nervous about the quality of education they will be getting.  We attended Meet the Teacher night but were only able to meet Savannah's and Joe's teachers.  While the teachers seem like they will be great our previous experiences with this school and district have been less then desirable.  I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope they don't let me down.

Kiley is going through her own adjustment period now that the kids are back in school.  She doesn't know what to do all day long and is constantly asking if I will call her friends and invite them over to play.  When she has friends over she is good for about two hours then she gets bored and doesn't know what to do.  I was hoping with the kids back in school I could reinstate nap time but that is not going so well and the problem is that she really needs a nap. 

Sarah continues to be cute little Sarah.  She is just over 10 months and crawls but not like normal babies.  I have never seen a baby move like she does.  She scoots around the floor on her bottom.  I don't know what to do with her.  She now has her two bottom teeth in and appears to be working on the top too.  She eats lots of table food and not so much baby food. 

As for me I am here everyday with my two little ones and my computer.  As long as I have some kind of connection to life outside my front door I should be ok.  I am still working on my picture taking skills and my photoshopping skills.  I am proud to say I have learned how to do a few new things in each area but I will have to continue to work on both. 

We're going back, back, back to school again!

Lame Attempt at Photoshop

Turkey

Messed Up Turkey Leg

Kids at Easter

Today


I think I will stick with basic editing for now!  How totally Lame!

Vacation!

Wow, I had not realized that it has been such a long time since I wrote on here.  Spending so much time on facebook seems to be taking time and attention away from here.  That and not really knowing what to write here. 
The latest thing we have to share would be our late Spring Break Vacation to California.  Joe was unable to get the kids Spring Break off from work so we took them out of school for four days and went on a six day family vacation this month.  It was a great trip and a much needed vacation for everyone.  We began our trip with a quick trip to San Diego to see Mark and Angie and kids.  I really enjoyed them time we were able to spend with them and only wish we could have stayed longer.  Everything was great- the three older kids each had someone to play and visit with, the food, the conversations, the sight seeing, and for the most part the weather.  After our weekend visit with them we headed to Disneyland for three days.  It was the second time for Little Joe and the first time for Kiley and Sarah.  Surprisingly enough Kiley and Sarah were both great for the most part.  Kiley had her moments but those were when she was just so tired.  She missed the parade and Sarah missed the fireworks do to much needed naps calling their names. Overall it was a good trip but I think three days is one day too long for me.  I am trying to post pictures somewhere but there are so many to look through and I am having a hard time finding to best ones to post. 

At this time we are all doing well health wise.  Joe is currently working on a second masters degree.  This is a general History Masters.  He is really hoping to be able to get back into teaching some time soon.  I spend my days doing the things that stay at home mom's do best- cooking, cleaning, laundry, watching tv, and facebooking.  I would like to think that Sarah has finally starting to sprout.  She still doesn't have any teeth yet but we are feeding her more solids.  She is just the happiest little girl and that makes her so fun to be around.  Her little smile can melt the hardest of hearts.  So many people at church just love to hold her because she is so cute.  Kiley seems to be developing in leaps and bounds these days.  Sometime she is just too smart for her own good.  She loves to sing and dance and always wants to play with the "big" kids.  The older kids are on countdown to the end of the school year.  I think the school years seem to be getting shorter each year.  I am not sure what I am going to do with them all summer long.  We don't have any great plans in the works.  I am going to have to get creative and quick.  I am just glad that we are all currently health or at least appear to be.

Kiley- Too funny not to share!

My kids are big into tell each other what to do and I will occasionally follow with "Don't tell (blank) what to do. You are not (her/his) father, mother, or babysitter." So last night I had placed Sarah in her car seat on the island in the kitchen to keep her safer from Kiley while I was wishing dishes. Well Kiley kept coming over to the bar climbing up on the stools and then onto the bar. Joe seeing this kept telling her to get off the bar. I was getting tired of this so I followed with my line and went over and removed Kiley from the bar and told her to stay down.

A few minutes later there she was again climbing on the stools and the bar to get to Sarah. Once again Joe yelled at her to get down. To which Kiley yelled, "Not my father. You not my father. Not my father."

Sarah is here!

I have decided that Facebook is the reason I don't get my blog update enough. It is just so much easier to keep things short, sweet, and right to the point. Then I say to myself that almost everyone that would read this is on Facebook and they don't want to have to read about my boring little life twice so I don't update it. The other day I realized that not all of my family is on Facebook (yes, it is hard to believe, but we wont hold it against them!) so here I am today to update my blog in case any of them really look at it.


October started out a bit stressful trying to get the house clean and things ready for the arrival of baby number 5. Do to the independent nature of baby number 5, things did not get as prepared as I would have liked them to. I was scheduled for an induction on Friday, October 9th, but she decided not to wait that long. I started having regular contractions on Sunday, October 4th while watching General Conference. By about 7 pm that night when I realized that they were not going away I decided that I should time them to see how far apart the were. I clocked them at four minuets apart for about the next 45 minuets before I called the Dr. I was told to go ahead and go to the hospital and see what happens. So at 8 pm Joe and I left the kids at home and went to the hospital. After confirming that I was indeed having contractions (which were not doing much) my Dr decided to just break my water to help me out. In the past that has been all the help I need but this time everything was totally different. Shortly after my Dr. broke my water all contractions stopped. He then hooked me up to the drip to help get things restarted. Well to make my longest labor and delivery shorter, I will just say that about 5 hours later (2:27 AM) Sarah Kay made her entrance into this world (weighing 7lbs. 3 ozs). Did she ever have a story to tell and telling it she did for the next two and a half hours.


Despite the wrench in my plans and expectations for labor and delivery, we are all glad that Sarah is finally here. She has been a very laid back baby. She doesn't cry unless she is hungry or needs her diaper changed. There has been some concern over the fact that she did not make it back up to her birth weight by the time she was two weeks old. She will be three weeks old in a couple of day, and I am suppose to take her back in and have her weight checked again. I hope and pray that she is ok. There are no outward signs that anything is wrong. We will just have to wait and see.


Here are a few pictures of her.

Getting Ready to go Back to School!

So the count down to back to school is on. With that comes the change in background. I know that the kids and I are ready for school to start. Yes, all of my kids have nerves about starting school but they all adjust quickly.

This year I decided to give them each a small amount of money and tell them to shop for themselves but that is all they can have for new shoes and clothes. Rebecca did the best by far. Meet the teacher is scheduled for next Thursday and then school starts the following Monday, August 10th.

Other then getting ready for school there is nothing too exciting to report. We did not take a big vacation or make an long trips this summer. We did a few little day trips early on before it got too hot and now we are just waiting for things to cool off. Yesterday I reached week 29 and am counting down to the arrival of our little one. There still is so much decluttering that needs to be down before she arrives but I have come to grips with the fact that it just is not going to get done. Not a big priority on anyone list of things to do. Big Joe is working on finding and buying an SUV since the family has outgrown the other cars.

Update and Easter

So Joe pointed out to me that is has been a long time since I have posted anything here. I did not realize just how long it has been. I guess there has not been anything too exciting to share in our little lives.

I have been dealing with the fun of being pregnant for almost 14 weeks now. On top of that I have been battling a head cold (congestion) for over a week now. These two together have made me pretty miserable and tired, but I have a hard time sleeping. I am grateful that Kiley still takes a nap everyday so I can try and get a little more sleep everyday.

Joe just had his 33rd birthday and is feeling old. He is stilling working at USAA but really would like to get back into the education world. He is a few months away from completing his Master's Degree in Education Leadership (was Education Administration but without the school connection he was not able to do the internship required for that degree). He is thinking that he might continue with the schooling and get a History Master's Degree and try to teach at the Community College Level.

The kids are all doing well and continue to grow like the little weeds that they are. I counted yesterday and there are less then 6 weeks of school left this year. What am I going to do? The kids (school age) just had their field days at school and they all had lots of fun. Rebecca came in third out of seven girls in the 800 m run. She really likes to run and wishes she could be faster but doesn't like to practice because nobody will run with her.

As for Easter, we had dinner with my family. The annual McKnight Easter Party got rained out this year. The kids were very disappointed. Below are the Easter Pictures I took. They did not turn out as good as I had hoped. I need to learn how to take better pictures.

Spring Break 2009!

We started Spring Break early by taking a trip to the Pioneer Village on Saturday of last week. After a few hours there and watching one and a half Civil War Reenactment battles we left and headed to Mom and Dad's for a BBQ with everyone while Karena and Steve were in town.

The rest of the week is left in Savannah's hands.

On Tuesday, Joe went to Aunt Teddie's house and Rebecca and I went to Jarica's house (our cousin) and played till dad got out of work. We brought Jarica home and she spent the night at our house and we stayed up later.

Wednesday morning Mom took Jarica home on the way to her Dr's appointment and dropped us off at Grandma Lofgreen's. That afternoon she went to Uncle Scott and Aunt Heather's house and a swapped Kaylee for Joe. When we got home we played a game of life with the way her on the computer. And then after that Kaylee told us a scary story and she had to stop in the middle of the story and tell me a funny story because I got scared because she was telling a story about vampires and vampire hunters and so she kept saying that people died but I got scared and then she told me a funny story about a bunny and then I said she could go back to her story. And then Rebecca got crazy because in the story the vampire hunters used Stakes to kill the vampires and every time she said that Rebecca laughed. We stayed up till around 11:30 (it was much later then that according to mom and dad). We tried to sleep in but mom let Kiley in to wake us up at 9:30. So we woke us up then we had breakfast then we played a little bit longer and then we took her home and swapped kids back.

Back to mom- Today is Friday and it has been a small cleaning day (mostly laundry) with some shopping mixed in there. We are having the Missionaries over for breakfast tomorrow morning. We are also thinking about going over to the Air Force Base for Luke Days.

Long Overdue Update!

I have not written in a while because I am not sure what to say and I have been busy and sidetracked. So here is what I can come up with.

Let's start with Joe (dad)- on Wednesday of this past week he had the long awaited surgery on his right knee. We were told that there was most likely a tear in his meniscus. We arrived at the Banner Thunderbird Out Patient Surgical center at 9am for his 11:30 surgery. The surgery did not start until 1pm and his short 15-20 minute surgery turned into more like 40 minutes. The Dr came out and told me that he did not really see anything wrong with his knee. He did discover that he has an abnormally large meniscus and a small amount of cartilage under his knee cap. He removed the cartilage but was unsure if that is what has been causing so much pain. We left the center a little after 3 pm. Needless to say it was a very long day. Joe is spending his time recovering watching TV all day and most of the night. He finds it difficult to sleep due to a lack of comfort.

Me (mom)- I am dealing with the typical mom stuff. I am trying to help Joe be as comfortable as possible. He seems to sleep best during the day so I have to try and keep four kids entertained and quiet. Then Kiley has been sick for a couple of days and she is not a happy sick person. When not taking care of dad or the kids, I am eating. I have the overall feeling of blah all day long. I have found that if I eat a little bit every few hours then I don't feel so bad. It is a big pain but I do what I have to do to get from day to day.

The kids- well they are kids. It is school, computers, occasionally playing outside, homework, and chores for the three older ones. They are almost through the third quarter of school. Spring Break is in a couple of weeks. What am I going to do? Then before I know it school will be out for the summer.

Kiley keeps busy in her own little world where she is always on the move. If I don't keep a close eye on her she will disappear in a split second. She is somewhat interested in the potty. I am not forcing she use it only putting her on it when she wants. Some days are better then others. I cant help but thing how nice it would be to have her out of diapers before the next little one is here. Here is wishing!

Halloween

Where had a pretty good Halloween this year. The kids got TONS of candy. Thursday Night was our Ward's Trunk-or-Treating. They had a little costume parade and played the Charlie Brown Halloween movie using Joe's LCD Projector. Then last night I took them to Kim's for the McKnight's Annual Halloween dinner. They make up crazy Halloween names for the dinner food and the kids order food without knowing what they are getting. It doesn't take them long to figure out what they really want and what the new name of it is. It think all of the kids really like this. It went really fast last night because there were more teenagers and adults then there are little kids. Then we join Teddie in going around the block for more candy. We drove by Grandma McKnight's house and then went to Teddie's neighborhood for a trip around her block. It was more than enough candy and Kiley was clearly done. We hope you all had a great holiday and watch out because the Turkey is on the way.

Kiley turned the big 1

Monday, September 15 , Kiley turned one. I have found it much easier to post pictures on our windows live space so click on the link to our cyber photobook to see pictures of her first cake. I am going to try and take my own pictures of my children from now on so here is Kiley at one. If you would like me to print off a picture of her for you let me know what size you would like.

Back to school!

Yesterday was the first day of school for my three kids. I believe they were all ready to get back to school. There were a few first day nerves but they all survived just fine. I forgot to take pictures yesterday so I took them today. Rebecca (almost 11- August 25th) is in sixth grade this year and she will be singing in Choir again. Savannah (not 10 until December) is in fourth grade this year. Joe (six until February) is in First grade. He is excited because he access to the entire school and not just a "small baby section". I hope that this school year with not only be a good one for my children but for all of yours as well.

Kid Pictures

isn't she so cute!

Swim Pictures From Eisenhauer's 7/1/08

Joe's brother Mark is in town for a quick trip to drop his three kids off here for a few weeks. The family decided to get together for a BBQ and swim at Bruce and Lorene's. Here are some of the pictures we took. You can see from the rainbow picture that it was pretty overcast and it spit a couple of time but not enough to keep us from swimming. It was nice.

Joe and Olivia

Can you see the double rainbow?

School is running out!

Well it is that time of year again- the countdown to the end of the school year. There are exactly three weeks of school left. I find myself like most parents not ready at all. I have no plans for what to do with my children and how to keep them from fighting with each other and being bored. I have been thinking about how to tack the daily household chores but have not settled on anything yet. I will have my kids sign up for the summer reading program with the library. That worked out nicely last year because Rebecca was drawn for one of the grand prizes at the end. That might help to motivate her to read again this summer. Last summer they had to keep up with school work and I will do that again this summer but it might be a little bit different. Also last year I bought a family pool pass to the community pool, but I did not get my monies worth out of it so I don't think I will do that again. I don't know but I will have to figure it out quick.

As for life outside of the kid's school it is pretty much the same. Joe still hasn't secured a job yet and even worse is things don't look promising anywhere. I think I am going to have to go back to work because he will not be able to make enough on his own. Anywhere he goes it will be starting at he bottom and working his way up from there. I think that really SUCKS because he has 7 years of call center experience with some of that time as a manager and then 3 years teaching experience and almost two years with EJ. I am really worried I don't know what we are going to do and time and money have run out.

Kiley is almost eight months and growing like a weed. She is finally smiling and laughing a little bit more. No signs of crawling yet. She still only has her two bottom teeth. She is starting to vry so I will have to end for now.

Happy Easter!

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter.