Sibling Love

I am blessed with three amazing and beautiful children. They are incredible and truly wonderful. Their innocence, ridiculous amount of logic, and perfect (I mean word for word perfect) memories amaze me on a daily basis. I couldn't be more blessed. 
There was a point recently where I debated holding off on trying for baby number four for a while because I was sick and feeling overwhelmed with just three. Tonight I witnessed childhood memories in the making, a childhood memories I don't have, and can only imagine, it was beautiful. I now want number four and the sooner the better.
I loved my childhood, it was great! Don't get me wrong here, my mom and I have an incredible relationship because of it and now that I'm grown up I have an awesome relationship with my sister. I wouldn't change a thing about it. Just sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to have a sister or brother around my age, one of those built in best friends/ or enemies depending on the day. 

I sat outside of Hailey and Ike's door listening to them giggling and telling stories. It melted my heart. And as much as I would LOVE for Scarlett and I to have the bond my mom and I have, I know I can't be to her what Hailey is to Ike or what Ike is to Hailey. They are best friends, for better or worse and I can't get enough of it. I am so excited to watch as our kids grow and they all form these bonds. I can only hope I can teach them the value of family and how wonderful it is to have a strong family. 

I have an aunt and uncle who did an amazing job at raising their 5 girls. Watching these 5 sisters together is what I hope to see in my kids in 10 years. They just love each other and all of them are so full of light and life. It is just such a special feeling being around them. They are just so much fun and again everything I imagine for my family down the road. 

All in all I have three amazing children and I LOVE them dearly! I can hardly wait to see what the future holds for us. What fun adventures we will have along our journey together.

Change

It's crazy to me how much I change with age and circumstances. When I was pregnant with Hailey 7 years ago (GASP! 7 YEARS AGO????) I would have never considered cloth diapers (ICK) and I wasn't willing to put in the effort to nurse her full time. I wish I could go back and ask myself WHY NOT? Truth be told because it wasn't a necessity. I was blessed with the ability to buy diapers and formula without it hurting my budget. As a college student I hadn't acquired anything of value yet.
However a few kids later, a mortgage, a couple car payments, etc. I started exclusively breastfeeding Scarlett as more of a necessity and grew into an amazing experience. An experience that I wish I hadn't squandered with Hailey and Ike. Granted also Hailey and Ike were both tongue tied and that causes issues and Ike just wouldn't, but I wish I'd put in the research to find out why we were having issues and fixing them. Scarlett luckily is not tongue tied and loved nursing from the beginning. We now have a bond that I can't explain and I hate that our precious time will end sooner than I'd like. It's truly a priceless experience and I can't believe I squandered it before, but I'm making sure to not miss a moment this time around. Best part it's free and super healthy for baby!
As far as my crazy new obsession, cloth diapers. You heard me right, CLOTH DIAPERS! I can't believe how under informed I was about these genius inventions. These aren't your grandma's cloth diapers, they are new easy and the cutest things ever. Really the only difference is you wash them instead of taking them to the trash...that's it. Simple huh? For those scared of getting poop on you, I can speak from experience disposables have been to blame for an uncountable number of poop on me incidents... I don't believe that there will be any more with cloth than there have been with disposables, YIPPEE! I ordered a bunch from Diaper Junction's 30 day test drive option. They offer a variety of different diapers to choose from, and the best part is you get to choose which ones you try, it's not prepackaged with ones you know you don't want. You pay for the ones you choose to try, based on the options provided, and then try them for 30 days. If you hate them you're only out the shipping and handling, NICE! And really I feel I'm not out anything since I'm using these diapers and would have had to use disposables anyways. For those of you who know me though, you know I lack patience, big time! Once I decided cloth was for us I couldn't wait to get my hand on one and was dying that I was going to have to wait a whole week for them to arrive. Luckily I found a place in Ogden Green The World that carries a small selection of diapers, so naturally I rushed over and bought one. It was fantastic! It is adorable, super absorbent, and did I mention adorable?

Really I'm just amazed at how much I've changed over the last 7 years. Man I just can't get over that it's been that long. I love all my kids so ridiculously much it's just crazy! I am so blessed to have such an amazing family!!!

Time To Be More Positive!

I'm horrible at this blogging regularly thing, but I'm trying to be better. Let me start by thanking my cousin Mollie Rose! Her post on being positive really inspired me. I have been feeling a little negative about the election and a few other bits and pieces. I'm lucky to have people in my life that are able to be so positive and help bring me around. The other blessing is my faith. I don't know what I would do without the Gospel and knowing that my family is eternal. On to my post...

I'm not sure why I'm continually amazed at how fast life goes, but I am. My kids are growing up in the blink of an eye and I can't seem to slow it down or come to terms with it. I'm sad to think that soon I won't have a baby cooing at me, but a toddler running around talking my ear off. I love every second and am extremely grateful for Jason who works long hours, so that I can enjoy every second of it. I worked when Hailey and Ike were this age and am realizing quickly how much I missed out on. 

Hailey and the school situation has gotten better. They did testing about 6 weeks into the school year....she passed off all the math and is beginning the year reading where they expect the 2nd graders to start off, WOO HOO! I love my little smarty pants. She has also already passed off her 1st and 2nd grade sight words. She wants her 3rd grade ones, but I want her to learn to spell them first and not just read them before she moves on. I couldn't be more pleased with her and her love for learning. She is so internally motivated and just thrives on success. Truly I couldn't ask for anything more from her, she is amazing.

Ike and preschool are also doing better. His teachers don't force him to try on his work, so this is a little bit stressful for me. At the beginning of the year I would get those letter tracing papers back with just scribbles on them and no attempt at the letters, can you say FRUSTRATING? Luckily this week I got one where he'd tried to trace the letters WOO HOO, however then there were scribbles all over the top...at least we are getting some progress. Today he went to the fire station and LOVED it! He hasn't taken off of that cool plastic fire hat or stopped talking about it. Does anyone know where to get another fire hat? I'm dreading the day this one breaks, it could be a major tragedy. He is such an awesome kid and is thriving on the structure of being back in school. The amount of knowledge he can gain when he is interested in a subject blows my mind...I hope he can find a way to be interested in school work and not just cars and trucks. I love this kid so much it's unreal!

Scarlett is growing like crazy. She'll be 7 months old on Wednesday...7 months? She is still just rolling all over. She is trying to crawl, but usually ends up going backward instead of forward and then just goes back to rolling. She started a new screamy thing when she's tired, she tries to squeal so high pitched that it just sounds like air......that's when you know it's nap time and she's not taking no for an answer. Her delightful demeanor and ridiculously fat cheeks make her one irresistible baby. I hate how fast she is growing, but I'm loving watching every second of it. 

Jason is fantastic! He is loving his job and hating the commute. I guess that's better than hating your job, since he spends less time commuting than working. Maybe one day he'll finally have a job he loves and a short commute. We are just loving life and watching our children grow. We are truly so blessed and couldn't asked for anything more in life. 

To Homeschool or Not to Homeschool???

I'm not sure where time goes anymore...I swear it sneaks away when I'm not looking. It's been a whirlwind of change over the past 8 months. We moved back to Utah in February, well the kids and I did. Jason joined us the beginning of April. Scarlett joined our family on April 14. Finally the end of May we moved to Tremonton and have been enjoying life and all it has to offer.
This week has been a trying one for me. Hailey started 1st grade (sigh)...I know it's not like she's graduating high school, but it still breaks my heart that they years slip away so quickly. She however continues to amaze me with her enthusiasm for learning be it learning to change poopy diapers, read new words, or solving a math problem.
I'm sure many of you know this about Hailey, but she's SMART, she's always excelled beyond her grade level and I am determined to keep her challenged. Luckily we were blessed in Denver with Mrs.Bury, the best kindergarten teacher ever, in my opinion. She constantly challenged her and as we passed off our kindergarten checklists she sent home 1st grade. She truly cared for each student and we were lucky to have her.
Since moving back to Utah I have developed a strong distaste for public education. Generally I'm all about getting a break in the day and sending the kiddo's off to school to learn something, but Utah public schools are letting me down big time. Her teacher in Ogden didn't take me seriously until she was there about 3 weeks and then the homework began getting harder, but originally it was too easy for her and she hated school. Now here in Tremonton I am absolutely stunned at what I have seen. It appears we are working on things that should have been done in preschool or kindergarten, letter & color of the day. I thought no way, and asked Hailey if they read at school, her reply was no. WHAT?!? this couldn't be true... Come to back to school night I ask her teacher if they have read any books, she turns red and says "I haven't had time yet"....UMMMM NO! The world stopped and I wondered what alternate universe I'd stepped into. Unfortunately this was reality, who would have thought? I went home and got to researching, got overwhelmed, and then researched some more.
I have never, ever, ever for one minute in my life thought I would want to homeschool my children. I LOVED my education. I have fond memories of my elementary years and was blessed with excellent teachers and a wonderful education, for Hailey this is not the case. You may think I'm being over dramatic, and well maybe I am, but come on letter & color of the day, are we three again? I am starting to wonder if no child left behind means that we teach to the least educated student, in which case we are all screwed! Anywho, in all my research I found a free online program, through the state that I feel really confident about, but (I'm sure you saw a but coming in all this) I don't know that Hailey will be on board since she loves school.  Jason will support any decision I make, but would prefer the public education with us supplementing at home. I have entertained the idea of supplementing, but then comes trying to teach a 6 year old after they've been at school all day...Not. Going. To. Happen. So I don't know what I will do. I'm still researching and hoping I can convince Jason and Hailey that this will be amazing. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it.

Onto updates on the other kids...Scarlett is 4.5 months already! I can't believe it! She rolls front to back and back to front AAAHHH she'll be moving in no time. She is a drool machine, she loves kisses, toys, blankets, or anything she can get in her mouth. She babbles ALL day long and eats like there is no tomorrow. The girl has a hearty appetite and LOVE the real food...aka rice cereal and green beans, blech! But she likes them and that's all that matters.

Ike is about to start preschool next week and if you hadn't guessed already I'm rethinking that too. However they have this life skills class that teaches a sport a month. This is important because for those of you who know Ike he trips just walking from one end of the house to the other. I would love if he could be more coordinated and I'm not sure I can teach that, so this life skills class would be a blessing. Other than that Ike is still the same old Cars loving kid you all know and love.

As for Jason and I, we feel so amazingly blessed I can't put it into words. On our 6th wedding anniversary we were sealed to each other and our children for time and all eternity in the Logan, Utah Temple. It's an experience I can't put into words. I'm not a cryer, but when my kids came in I was bawling. The Spirit was so strong it was unreal. I truly can't get enough of the Temple and this will be the first week out of the last 3 that I haven't made it. If I could I would go every day, no joke. I wish that more of my family were able to experience it with me...one day, I have to keep telling my self that so I don't freak out on all of them about what blessings they are missing out on. Take that as a hint that you should all go to church or at least research it and make an informed decision to not go.

Overall we are wonderful! The kids are cute and amazing, they bring such an amazing light to our home. I'm a firm believer that infants can still see beyond the veil and that Scarlett brings an amazing Spiritual presence to our home.