Amber this one is for you!

One of mine and Amber Pitt's favorite things to do is to get together and think of ideas. These ideas are anything from what and how to organize things, what goals we should have and how to reach them, & my favorite is when we think of ways on how to keep our houses clean and organized, but more times than not both our houses are a mess, sorry to drag you down with me Amber, but its true on both our parts.... I like to chalk it up as to one more thing we have in common, ha ha ha! Anyway our most recent idea was how to have our kids help and have a daily chore. Being our kids are only 4 and 2 years old we needed something fun and not to hard. So here is what I came up with....

Each side of the jar has their name and the other half of velcro. Inside are some chores with the other side of velco glued on the back of each one, and each day they get to pick one to do. These are just extra, everyday they have to help me clean their rooms and loft before bed. This was just a way to make having chores fun because they change every day. Also they can't get mad if they don't like the task because they picked it... better luck tomorrow.

Some of the chores that are in the jar are: to dust the stairs, empty the dishwasher ( the silverwear and the plastic bowls & plates), to clean up their books in the loft, help fold the laundry ( towels), put all the shoes in the shoe basket, put the pillows on the couch, wipe the bathroom counters down, wipe down their play kitchen set, and to clean up their coloring books and papers.

After each kid pulls out a job they put what it is on their side of the jar, that way they can remember to do it.

My Dad

With Fathers Day coming up I thought I would share with every one how much I love and miss my dad. I sometimes forget he is really gone, it fills just like he is on one of his many surf or fishing trips. This is a long blog but I just wanted to post some of my favorite pictures. Just want my dad to know how much I love him and how much I miss him.

I never really liked this picture, I don't like the way I look in it, but its amazing how you get over yourself when you want to cherish every picture you have of someone. I thought I would share my last conversation with my dad, it was on New Years day. He called to make sure I was making black eyed peas. Ofcourse I was because it is my favorite tradition. My great grandpa always made sure we ate black eyed peas on new years day, and when he past away my dad kept up the tradition, and when I moved away I always made sure to make them for my friends and family. Anyway my dad called to make sure I was keeping up the tradition and when I said I was he said good girl... it was a short and sweet conversation, one I'll never forget.

This is and has been my favorite picture of my kids and my dad. It was taken Easter 2006.

This picture cracks me up. This is my dad and River when he was only a couple days old. Check out both of their right eyes.

This was the last day I saw my dad. This picture was taken December 28th.

This picture was taken at our house in Utah. My parents came that year for thanksgiving. I know my dad looks happy but he did nothing but complain the whole trip about how cold it was.

I took this picture during the prayer right before they all paddled out. This is Jacob and my dad's best friend Devin. I love this picture it always makes me fill very peaceful. I have it framed in my home and I love how it reminds me that although I feel sometimes my dad is far away, he is really just a prayer away and that sometimes feels closer than ever.

This was the paddle out we had for my dad the day after his funeral. It was Christians idea and I'm so happy he planned it because it was one of the coolest things to watch. I did not paddle out myself, I was pregnat and there was no wetsuit for me. My dad would totaly understand, he knows what a baby I can be, not to mention I'm his only daughter who does not surf.
Jacob said it was one of the most spiritual events he was a part of.

American Girl

We went to the American Girl store for Camden's 3rd birthday. We all had so much fun, it was just the girls for an afternoon lunch. Grandma Marilyn bought Shelby her very first American Girl doll. Shelby picked out Molly. Shelby & Molly have become great friends. They play dress up togther and read books together. Ofcourse Molly needs her glasses on to read. I love playing dolls with Shelby. She went up to her dad the other day and said: " daddy, I know what to get mommy for her birthday. I can pick out her very own American Girl so she can have her own to play with." Okay I admitt, sometimes I play with Molly more, but it so much fun to play dolls!!!

Shelby picking out her new doll.

Layne, Camden, & Shelby

The girls playing dolls after lunch.

Baby June Bug

Baby June is already one month old... time flies when your having fun. This month has been fun, not nearly as hard as I was expecting. A few nights were really hard, being up from 3am to 5:30 with a crying baby, not that fun. Even harder is trying to be a good, patient, mom to the other two the next day. Thank goodness those nights are far and few. Lately she has been good, I feed her at 11:00pm and she has been sleeping till 3:30, she goes back to sleep around 4am and Jacob will get up with her around 7:30. The best part is he takes June Bug down stairs and then feeds Shelby and River while I sleep till about 9:00. Shelby and River have been great with her, they love having her around, and they both let me know any time she cries..."mom, baby's crying...mom baby's crying...mom baby's crying..." as if I can't hear her. I love having a new baby, any of my friends who read this, I say go for three kids, so far not that hard!

Being Sick... not so bad

This past week River was sick. He was running a pretty high fever that just would not go away. I was not messing around, being that one of my kids always seems to be sick I knew what to do to break that fever! Dr. Jillonnie's at home remedy... one dose of motrin, followed by one dose of tylenol, warm bath, and a popsicle to help cool your kid from the inside out. Also giving your kid the popsicle in the bath means no sticky mess to clean up!!! Shelby just went along for the ride... way to be a supportive big sister.

Lets Go Angels!!!

We took the kids to the Angel game on monday, Memorial Day. Shelby let us know as soon as we got there that these are not the same angels from church. We had a great time, River kept yelling, " hit the ball!!!" The game was super long, 12 innings, but finally we won. Baby June did great she just hung out in the sling the whole time. We had so much fun together as a family. Just a recap on ages: Shelby 4 1/2, River 2years 8 months, Baby June 3 weeks.

June Lily

Baby June is finally here!!! I was induced on May 7th. I went into the hospital at 6am and by the time we got started it was about 8 - 8:30. My contractions were fine at first but when I was about 4cm they started to hurt. I got my epidural soon after, and not a moment to soon because my contractions were really hurting, I have no pain tollerance at all!!! Everything was going great when all of a sudden I was feeling my contractions again and by this time they hurt soooo bad!!! I asked, screamed, to get more drugs because the pain and pressure was so bad, thats when I was informed the baby was ready for me to push out and getting more drugs was not going to happen. Again I am the biggest whimp ever so you could only imagine what words came out of my mouth because I was in so much pain and pushing only hurt worse. I heard that when you were ready to push that it was actually supposed to feel better, thats not true it only hurts worse. At one point I remember yelling "just pull her out, reach in and get her out of me, I don't want to do this anymore!!!!" I know your supposed to push when you get a contraction but I really did not want to do it anymore so I tried to just pretend I was not having any contractions, I was really just trying to focous on one painful thing at a time, to contract and push at the same time killed, but I could not fool anyone because I forgot that I was hooked up to that machine that shows when you are contracting, so I got yelled at by my nurse and mom to "JUST PUSH!!!!" Finally at 3:37pm she was out... She was 8lb 4oz and 20inches long. She is so cute and I'm so glad she is here.