Jacob's 31st. Birthday

Jacob turned 31 last week, so happy late birthday babe! We had a fun, simple, celebration with just us and the kids. Shelby, River, and I made him a chocolate cake with lots of rainbow sprinkles on it, his favorite. We had dinner, then we all went to see Madacascar 2 at the movies, then we came home and had cake! We had a fun night. Jacob, thanks for being such a great husband and father, the kids and I always have fun with you. We love you!

Getting into the Christmas spirit

This is one of those post that is more for me than anyone reading, but hopefully it helps bring back the spirit of Christmas to anyone who made need it. (I'm not too sure if that made sense but hopefully you understood what I meant.) So today I was in the car and I was listening to Christmas music, I know what you're thinking: too soon, right? Anyway the song " O Holy Night" started to play and I really listened to the words and re-fell in love with this song. My reason for this blog is to tell everyone, including myself, that this year is the year to get into the Christmas spirit. I don't mean Santa Clause and presents, although that is a huge part and a part I love. I mean the "true" part of Christmas, the spirit of giving and kindness, the story of Christ being born, that is the meaning and the most important part of the holiday season. I know so many people who are having a hard time right now. This past year has been hard both with finances and emotionally for so many of us. Still there is a lot to be thankful for and a good time to be had this season. Back to my start of this blog... the song, O Holy Night. "O holy night! The stars are brightly shining, It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining. Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth... Fall on your knees! Oh hear the angel voices! O night divine, the night when Christ was born... The King of Kings lay thus lowly manger; In all our trials born to be our friends. He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger... Truly He taught us to love one another, His law is love and His gospel is peace... With all our hearts we praise His holy name." Read these words and take them to heart please. I know with out a doubt that Christ was born, and He knows are needs, even the needs we don't realize we may need! During this hard time remember each other, be kind, be a friend, even to strangers, and follow what Christ taught, and love one another. This time in so many of our lives might be the hardest but it, in a very humbling way, might soften our hearts and clear our minds to what is important in this life, and this hard time might turn into the very best time. I look forward to this holiday season and the ups and the downs that will come with it.

Shelby's Birthday Party

Shelby turned 5, I can't believe she is five already. Time goes by way too fast, but at the same time its hard to remember what it was like without her. Shelby has a fun personality, she is such a great friend to everyone. Her teacher tells me how sweet she is to all the kids in her class. She is really smart and loves kindergarten. Shelby is a great little girl and she loves to please me, her dad, and her teachers... of course there is another side. At times I have the most stubborn, sassy, attitude like a 15 year old, full of drama, screaming crying little girl. I know most people don't find this side of kids all that fun or cute, me, on the other hand, I like this side of her. Not only does this "lovely" side of my daughter keep me on my toes, but it makes for fun stories and, as you can tell, I love to get these moments on camera as much as possible. Also I know that I have a daughter who will not back down from what she wants or doesn't want, her strong personality I know will only help her in life. Shelby you are a little girl who can light up a whole room, you make me so happy and I love every side of you, Happy Birthday Missy Moo, who is made out of chocolate milk!

We had a "small" party for her. She really wanted to invite her friends from school, I thought why not? After talking to her teacher I was not surprised to find out that Shelby is truely friends with her whole class. I thought about it and what the heck, whats 20 kids? Of course we also invited her friends we see and play with that don't go to her school too. (I'm sorry to all my friends from Orange County I had to stop somewhere, and at least nobody had to drive a hour for a birthday party!) I forgot to do a final head count, but I know I had somewhere between 30 & 35 kids!

We started decorating cupcakes! This is Bella and River, they are in the same preschool class, and both of them talk about each other nonstop.

After cupcakes, all the kids had their own piece of "wraping paper" to paint and take home. I had paint, glue, glitter, the works for them to create with. Check out River's feet they are covered with glue, paint, and glitter!



Any one surprised? This crying moment did not last long but I love to get her "true" side on camera as much as possible.

After the party was over a few friends stayed and played while I cleaned up. Jacob pushes the kids, "to infinity and beyond!!!", I can hardly watch sometimes he swings them way to high, but, knock on wood, nobody has been hurt and the kids love it.

After dinner we took baths and got all the paint off and then it was present time! There was so many gifts I was shocked, good thing she had her best friend, Alexis, there to help.

Did Christmas come early?

June Lily is 6 months!

My little baby is far from "little"! Today she went for her six month check up. She weighed 17.2 pounds and was 26 1/4 inches long. That puts her is the 75% for both. Her head... wow! 90%, she is going to be very smart! The doctor said usually "big" heads run in the family, I then remember River's head was in the 90% for a while and the doctor messured my head and turns out my head is about 90% for female adults, too funny!



June loves to sit and pet, or pull, on Lucy. She is soooo sweet to June, she just sits by her and is so calm around her. Addison, our other dog, a whole other storie. Don't be suprised when you see a post, " Free dog to a good home!"

June likes to drink out of a sippy cup and "bitter biscuits" are the best thing in the whole world. She smiles so much, and screams at you if you don't open the package fast enough, when she sees her " cookie". My big girl is also starting to crawl!

Halloween ( better late than never)

Halloween was tons of fun this year. We did are usual tradition: chili dinner at my sister Michelle's house, got the kids dressed up and tried to get a group photo, then we were off to "trick or treat." This picture of Shelby was taken at the end of the night, anyone suprised?

This is are new baby sitter for June!

Tummy time with River

June loves to play on the floor. She rolls every where and is trying so hard to crawl. She loves when River lays on the floor and plays with her.

Can't sleep, and I had no new pictures to post, so I wrote what is on my mind...

I went to go to bed tonight and I'm not sure what triggered my sudden flood of tears that came so fast to my eyes, who knows it was probably something stupid like watching last weeks " Brothers and Sisters." I have a weird relation to that show, probably because we lost are dad too, although we have not found any other siblings that my dad kept secret, and we were not left behide a huge company and I'm sure a ton of money like the "Walkers." Yea, I know what your thinking why I'm I even relating my real life to a fake show, it's just such a good show, very intertaining. I bet if my life were to have been taped this past year it would have been a hit. We have had every thing tragety, drama, happiness... you name it, it has happened this year. I'm not posting this for a " poor Jillonnie" respons, I just went to go to sleep and started to cry. My mind just kept going and I would have been up all night, so I thought that if I were to share my feelings my mind would become more peaceful and I will be able to go to sleep. So I was thinking that pretty soon my dad will have been gone for a whole year. I just look back to how eventful this past year has been, so full that I think some of my emotions have not had a chance to come out, or maybe this how every one deals when someone so close dies, emotions just come and go in waves. Any way, alot of wonderful things have happend too. One of the best days in my life will be having baby June. I love that baby so much, and it was a great experience being pregnate when my dad died. The extra emotions involved is not something I would ever want during that time, but I know with out a single doubt that June got to know her grandpa, I had dreams about it and she gives off this amazing spirit, she was able to conect with me here on earth and her grandpa at the same time. This year has also brought me and my sisters closer too. We can always relate to each other when that " I miss dad" moment happens, and each of my sisters have been there for me at any given moment. Also this year Michelle had Finley, he is so cute and brought another great, happy memory to this year. More good than bad has deffinitly happened this year its just the "bad" things have been so major that it sometimes takes effort to find all the "good", but when I take the time my list of "good" is so long and keeps on going. Any way for any one who reads this, sorry its so long but it was really just to help me, I really miss my dad right now, but I must say this did help. Who knew blogging was like having your own therapist?

Halloween sneak preview

I took pictures of the kids the other day in their halloween costumes.... and here they are! Shelby is a witch, River is a gohst, and June is a pumpkin.

Shelby's school fall carnival

On Thursday Shelby's school had a fall carnival. It was a lot of fun, they had lots of booths set up with different games. Shelby and River both did the rock climbing, I was pretty surprised how well they both did. River got to the top of the slide and then started crying, he wouldn't slide down or climb down, so dad came to his rescue! The very last pictures on this post show my daughters true side, if you can't tell she really did not want to leave the carnival!

Happy Birthday River!!!!

River just turned 3 this past week. We had a little party for him on Saturday, it was mostly family and just a few friends. For is birthday we got him a skate board, he loves it! It is a little scary to watch him lay on it at the top of the drive way and fly down as fast as he can. The scary part, but the most fun part for him, is when he hits the curb and gets air! He wears a helmet but I'm just waiting for the day he needs stitches in his chin!!!

From left to right: Baby June, Irelynne, River, Shelby, Morgan, Maddy, and Sean.


The next day we went to the Angle game for more birthday celebration. It was so much fun, Angles won, and after the kids got to run the bases!!!

September is national sewing month!!

So I am on one of my sewing binges lately, and I really want to get better at sewing clothes. This dress was made from a bunch of left over material I had. It actually turned out really cute.


These skirts were the easiest things ever! I got the idea and the pattern from another blog. From start to finish it took me about 20 minutes for each one. Shelby was super excitted to match June too!

Baby June is already four months!

Baby June is four months old already, can you believe how fast time is going by? She is my biggest baby, she weighed 15pounds and was 25 inches long, that puts her in the 75% for both! She is laughing out loud and smiles all the time. She also is totally teething and chews on everything.