Life is Busy - A Good Busy

I can't believe I haven't blogged in so long. I have had good intentions to, but others things (usually more important things) have come up. But I do want to document our life. I know these years with little ones are so precious and I want to remember as much as I can. I have a moment of quite now (10pm at night) so this may be a long post to catch up on the life and happenings.

My Jackie is growing up. She just learned how to play Chess, thanks to Dad. She has a strong mind and is getting the hang of it. She is awesome at checkers, she can beat Mom, and is a fair competition for Dad. Her and Dallin play Uno alot together. It is great that they can play a game together now. They can be really good friends and play amazingly together, when they want to. They both have fantastic imaginations. It is funny though, Dallin usually directs the play and bosses Jackie around. She is a good sport and very good big sister. He loves it when she gives him piggy back rides. I am sure he weighs almost as much as her. In fact he could give her piggy back rides as well, if he were a bit taller. He has the strength, just not the height.

We have decided to use Sunday afternoon as one-on-one time with our kids. We used to do them one evening during the week. Either Jeff or I would take one of the kids for an hour. Our only rule was, they couldn't spend money. We did lots of parks, libraries, and just hanging out in their room with them for an hour. The child got to decide what we did and it was a lot of fun. We wanted to give the kids more than just on hour every three weeks, so we decided on Sunday afternoon to spend 1/2 hour with each one. We take turns playing with the other three while one parent goes with one child. Last week Jeff took Jackie and Dallin each individually on bike rides around the neighborhood and I played "family" with Brea at home. This week I played polly pockets with Jackie and Jeff made these awesome noodle marshmallow towers with Dallin and Brea. The best part for Dallin was demolishing it at the end.

I love my kids and am glad that we are trying to make an effort to spend time individually with them. It has been a lot of fun to see what are kids do individually and to give them praise and attention individually. The other night I was making cookies and needed a new bag of flour put into my empty 5 gallon bucket. Jeff was gone to mutual and I mentioned to Dallin that I didn't know if I could do it myself. Then the doorbell rang, a salesman that I talked to for longer than I wanted to. When I came back into the kitchen this is what I found. Plus a circle of white powder around the bottom.He had gotten the 25lb bag of flour from the garage, up half a flight of stairs, cut open the top, tipped it upside down into a bucket, and had a relatively small mess to show for it. I was amazed and told him so. He was smiling so big, and told me how strong he was. I am glad I have a strong boy to help me out. I just hope he can keep that good self esteem with him through the years, and realize how STONG he really is.

Dallin is in Kindergarten and tells me everyday that he had a "Great" day at school. It wasn't like that at the beginning of the year, so I like to hear those words. He told Jackie today at lunch that he loves school -YEA! Here he is READING to Dad. It is amazing to hear my kids read. Dallin has always enjoyed me reading books to him and he is picking it up so great. Reading is one of his favorite subjects at school, next to art. We have been reading the scriptures with the kids during breakfast in the morning (seems to work the best, food and scriptures at the same time). Jackie can read a verse by herself and Dallin can read quite a few words. It is amazing how much we can get out just a few verses in the morning and that the kids will remember later during the day something we talked about. Their faith is so strong right now, they amaze me.

Brea is my girly girl. She loves hair, makeup, dress up - all that fun girly stuff. She changes her close multiple times a day and usually has a necklace and high heels on. I have to hide my makeup from her, or the result is not too pretty. She thinks Alyssa's clothes are great fun to dress up in. Here is a picture of her in one of Alyssa's shirts. Sometimes she even puts on her pants, which turn into capris. It is amazing, but my three year old can fit into my 9month oldsclothes. You can see the high heels as well,I don't know how she walks around in those hard plastic shoes.

This little peach dress is a dress that I wore to my Aunts wedding reception when I was about five years old. I have had it in my cedar chest and decided to pull it out and get some more wear out of it. Brea thinks this dress is gorgeous. She is wearing it here just on a regular weekday, with a cute hat and sweater. She is all ready to go get Dallin and Jackie at school. It has been great having Brea home in the mornings while the older kids are at school. She is a good helper, and loves helping take care of her baby sister. She has a whole box of babies that she also takes very good care of. I thought she might be more cautious than my older two, but no. She is a climber just like them. Although when she gets up she usually can't get down and screams for help. She shares a room with Jackie and likes to have a big sister to sleep with and play with.

Alyssa is

now 9 months old.

She pulls herself up to everything! She can crawl pretty fast and gets into just about anything she wants. She has been going up the stairs for about three months now, much to

my dismay. Now she has learned to go down them, which amazes me, because I never taught

her how. She puts everything in her mouth, and does not like me fishing stuff out. She will clench those gums tight. She has two

teeth on the bottom and can eat just about anything. She loves bread and I have yet to see her refuse it, even if she is stuffed. She gets lots of love and attention from her older siblings.