Announcing.....

Celeste Oldham-Donations Please!!!

Dear Friends,

I'm excited today to post about my amazing sister in law, Celeste. She was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when she was just 19 years old. She married my brother in law, Matt, in July of 2000 as a healthy, vibrant young woman, but within a few months, she was very sick. Within a year of their marriage, she was completely dependent on others and has remained that way for the last 10 years. She has continued to amaze us all with her determination, faith, and above all, her cheerful attitude. She is convinced, as we all are, that she will walk again and that her miracle is just around the corner. She has tried many different treatments, all of which have been extremely expensive and she has seen improvements over the years, but not the big miracle we've all been hoping for. Her mother, who cares for her full time, recently found a treatment in Mexico that sounds like it might finally be the answer they've been looking for. A man in Salt Lake is said to have gone for treatments and now has complete control of his upper body, which he didn't have a year ago. We are hoping and praying that she will have the same results. These treatments, and her continuing care, are very expensive, and we are asking for any and all donations that could be made. Even a very small donation can make a huge difference and would be appreciated more than you could know. I love Celeste so much. Dan and I got married a week before she and Matt and I have always felt guilty that my life has gone on so easily while hers has been so difficult. They would love nothing more than to lead a normal life, have children, and for her to be able to walk. Please help me spread the word. There is a page set up on facebook with a video about her life and a link for donations. Go here to learn more. Or go here to donate immediately. Thank you so much!

about a silly boy

This super silly little boy, lights up my life! I realized there are so many funny things about Kellan that I've never posted, so I decided I'd better get them written down before I forget them all. First off, since the picture made me think of it, he is the first of my children to be independent. My 3 older boys have always been content to have me help them with everything and never had the attitude of "I want to do it myself" which can be both blessing and curse. It's minimized the trouble they get into, but it also gets old when you have a 5 year old that doesn't want to dress themselves, see my point? But, Kellan seems to want nothing more than to be like his big brothers. Whatever they do, he wants to do it just the same way. For example, he doesn't like to eat anything that doesn't come with a fork or spoon and is served in a bowl or on a plate. He is not a fan of me feeding him, because obviously he never sees me feed his big brothers. One of his favorite things to do, is play Xbox with his brothers. We have a special (broken) paddle that is his to play with and whenever his brothers play, he leads me to where his paddle is kept and he pretends to play with them, no matter how long they play. He seems to fall asleep in the funniest places lately. And at the oddest times. Below are just a few examples.
Yes, doesn't that look comfy? Laying on Mommy's big ol' pregnant tummy. Well, it might have been for him, but I was suffocating! And below, once again, super cozy. Sitting up on the couch. He is so funny.
Kellan loves loves loves water! And it doesn't seem to matter what form it comes in. Baths, showers, pools, sprinklers, sinks, you name it, he loves it. He has loved baths ever since he was a newborn and the obsession has just grown and grown. I took him and his brothers to the Lehi Legacy pool during spring break and I wish I'd gotten pictures of him. He thought it was the greatest thing ever.
If you've ever heard Kellan talk, you know how funny he sounds. Most of his "play talk" sounds like he's trying to blow his nose at the same time. I don't know why, but he apparently thinks that when you talk, it should come through your nose. It's so funny to listen to. Luckily, when he says real words like "mama", "daddy", "ball", "gank oo" (thank you), "cacker" (cracker), and "baba" he leaves the weird snot sounds out, so hopefully he won't be a weird-o when he's fully talking.

Some of my favorite things about Kellan right now:

When he throws a tantrum, it's usually silent. It's so awesome! We tell him no and he throws himself down on the ground, but he doesn't make a sound. I am crossing my fingers that he keeps this up all the way thru the terrible two's.

He often refuses to drink his bottle when he first wakes in the morning unless I am laying with him cuddling him. He is super affectionate. He loves to give us all hugs and kisses and when he first wakes up, he loves to cuddle. In fact, if he doesn't get his morning cuddles from me or Dad, he usually has a rough start to his day.

He loves my long hair. For whatever reason, he loves to take my hair and rub it all over his head. He's done it so much that I've started playing along. I tickle him with my hair, cover his face with it, or fling it around him and he loves it all.

He would play outside all day if he could. It doesn't matter what we do outside, he just loves to be "out". After all winter of being mostly inside, he is now ready to spend every minute in our backyard. Usually, he is playing in the dirt, until I catch him and make him get out.

He just learned to say "ball" and now wants to play with them all the time. I was walking through KMart yesterday and he saw one of those big cages with giant balls in it and he was so excited. He just kept pointing and saying over and over "BALL! BALL!".

He is a major "Daddy's Boy"! He would like nothing better than to be his Daddy's little shadow all the time. Every day when Dan leaves for work, Kellan tries to put shoes on so that he can go with him. It breaks Dan's heart every time.

Things I don't love so much about him right now: (trust me, it's a small list)

He has discovered the joys of putting things in the toilets-I hate this phase!!!

When he gets mad at me when I'm holding him, he uses his forehead as a weapon. He bangs it as hard as he can into my cheek and it kills! I think some people at the ball park thought I was abusive the other night cuz they saw me getting mad at him, but they didn't see that he'd pulled this little stunt right before.

He loves to walk through my pile of dirt when I'm sweeping. I'm almost done, I've got a nice little pile of stuff to toss in the garbage can, I turn my back to grab the dustpan and guess who I find walking back and forth through the mess? Yep, Mr. Trouble himself. The worst thing is, I can't really get mad at him, because he looks so happy and delighted about it.

I know I'll be adding to this post as more things occur to me, but for now, that is the "Wonderfulness" of my little man, Kellan. I love him so much!

Pinewood Derby Winner!

Dan worked with Mason so hard on his little derby car. It was pretty disastrous at first. It kept breaking and started falling apart. Then, Dan was adding the weights to it at work using their scale (which was incorrect) and it weighed 2 oz more than it was supposed to, and there was no way to remove the weights. He finally told me, "That's it, I'm done!". So, I said, "Ok, well maybe Kade (my brother who only has daughters) would like to help him with it, since he'll never get to do one himself." Dan looked at me like I was crazy and said, "No, I want to be the one who helps him." And that was that. They got a new kit and started all over again, this time, with much more knowledge and experience to go on. So, last night, we were having a hard time getting out the door. I had kids picked up late from the Day Care, Dan was supposed to get his hair cut, and we still didn't even have the wheels on the car. Needless to say, we were feeling stressed and we left for the race 15 minutes late. I had prepared Mason for the fact that he probably wouldn't win any of the races, because we had no experience at any of this, so he should just be happy and enjoy watching his car race. I just hoped that he might win one of the races they would do, but I didn't have my hopes up high for even that. They set his car up for his first race and imagine my surprise, and his, when he won it! It was so fun to see how excited he was about it, you could tell he was not expecting that. Then, he proceeded to win every race he was in but one, that he lost by a hair. But, when it came to the finals, he won the whole thing, which totally blew us away! Dan is still laughing about it. Mostly because we know it was total luck. We still don't know much about the pinewood derby, but we sure had fun!
I sure love that adorable little "Wolf". He makes my life super awesome!

Projects for Savanna

So, I have a list a mile long of projects that I want to get done before our little Savanna makes her appearance. One of those, was to re-cover my nasty old Boppy pillow. The poor thing was in bad shape when I bought it. I got it second-hand at Kid to Kid a few years ago, and as you can see, it has been through it! Well, that was alright for the boys, but girls can't have ugly things with holes in them, right? So, here is the before....

Don't you love all the holes with the batting coming out? Super classy, huh?

And here is the after...

Now wait a minute my friends, do you see something super cool about this? I sure do. In fact, I'm beaming with pride looking at the picture of it right now. It's a zipper. That's right, I sewed a zipper!!! I have avoided ever doing this on any project for years now, but I found this awesome blog, with instructions on how to do it, and in about 30 minutes (literally, from start to finish!) the whole thing was done. LOVE IT!

Time to change the blog title.....

because we won't be a family of all boys for long.

Family Pictures-2010

Family Pictures-Sneak Peak

If you'd like to take a sneak peak at our new family pictures, go here.

Dan's cousin is an amazing photographer, if any of you are looking.

Enjoy!

Melissa and Doug Giveaway!

For those of you who don't know, I LOVE Melissa and Doug. Firstly, because they make the best kid products and secondly, because it happens to be my Bro-in-law and his new wife's names. Double love.

Melissa and Doug (the ones who make the toys) are doing an awesome Giveaway and I had to share. The winner will receive the Melissa and Doug Puppet Theater and 3 puppets. Melissa and Doug items are so sturdy, and since I started the Day Care, I have become obsessed. Their toys are always the kids favorites. Amazingly, they also hold up to the sometimes 11 kids I have in my care without a problem. I love it!

Go here to check out the contest and enter for yourself.

Little Runner Boy

Mason's school held a 5k fundraiser last weekend, so I signed up and Mason told me he wanted to run it too. He went running with me a few weeks ago and I was amazed at how great he was, so we both signed up. Bless his little heart, it was definitely a struggle for him at times. The race was at 9am and he didn't eat breakfast before so he was complaining the whole time about how hungry and tired he was, but he ran most of the time and got 2nd place for his age group. I'm pretty sure he was the youngest one in the race.

At the end, I told him to start sprinting as fast as he could, and that I would try to keep up (which I couldn't do) and he finished very strong. Dan and I were both so proud of him! I'm crossing my fingers that I have a little runner in the family that I can run with someday. Hopefully this didn't kill any chances I had of that.

On a sidenote: I've lost about 5 pounds since I started trying to lose weight. I signed up to run in the BYU Cougar Run in a week and a half, so hopefully I won't make a fool of myself there. I'm far from fast, but at least I'm running again! I can fit in my pre-pregnancy pants again, thank goodness (my wardrobe was super sad). I still have about 8 pounds to go though. I just wish it would go faster!

For Paige....

Dearest Paige,

Roses are Red,

My fingers turned blue,

Running in the icy wind with you,

Was too good to be true.

Love,

p.s. I'm not as good at the poems as you, sorry.

Keep your comments to yourself....

I am posting about weight loss today. I will admit, the only reason that I am posting about this is to give myself some sort of motivation to actually exercise and diet. I feel like I need to know that people know I am trying to lose weight, in order to stay motivated to do it. Because heaven knows, if I slack off and don't do it, you might all come after me, right? (I'm kind of hoping you all said, "yes" there).

Baby # 4 is now weaned and I am ready to start losing some of my baby poundage. I have 10 pounds to be back to pre-baby weight, or about 13 to be where I would like to ideally be.

I bought myself a cute little shirt at Target yesterday, knowing that it wouldn't fit. It's hanging prominently in my closet in the hopes that it will give me extra motivation. It has helped so far today. Even though I'm hungry, I don't feel tempted to break my diet because I desperately want to fit into that cute little shirt! Not to mention the twenty or so others that are sitting in a box in my closet that I haven't worn in over a year and a half.

My diet is "Weight Watchers", which I haven't signed up for, of course, but I have all of my Mom's papers from when she joined a few years ago and I am tracking my points like crazy. I had only eaten fruits and vegetables today until a minute ago when I tallied up my points and realized that I was barely using any at all. I decided to have a little treat and had 13 Cheez-it crackers for a little snack. Working in the Day Care with all of the kids fun snacks is going to kill me off.

For exercise I plan to run, like always. I love running, but I'm also having a hard time being motivated to run knowing that I'm headed into fall/winter. My favorite time to run is early, around 6 or 6:30, but the days are getting shorter, so that's not ideal (not a fan of running in the dark all alone). Not to mention the fact that when I really get running, I want to run for at least 3 or 4 miles a day and I don't have that kind of time because kids start to show up for Day Care at 7:30. Add to that, the fact that I rarely get to bed before 11pm these days, because my house is always a disaster when I come back upstairs in the evenings, and you can see why I'm having a motivation problem, right? I'm going to try to start running in the evenings, we'll see how that goes.

Now, back to the title of my post. If you must leave a comment, please let it be something scary, like: "Get your butt in gear!", or "It's about time!", or "We're watching and you'd better be losing weight!". You MAY NOT leave me a comment that says anything to the effect of, "You don't need to diet, you don't need to exercise" blah blah blah and crap like that, ok? The last thing I need is to feel an extra lack of motivation!!! (did that make sense?) If you can't do it, then KEEP YOUR COMMENTS TO YOURSELF!

Catch-up-YUCK!

I hate it when I have to play catch -up on my blog. I'd rather just leave it blank, which is obvious from my recent lack of posts. Oh well, here it goes, but in a very very abbreviated version and in no particular order.Well, my cute little Kellan boy is growing like a weed! He is now 8 months and a huge food lover, which is awesome! He's a good baby most of the time, but lately he seems to be working on his two bottom teeth, which has been miserable for us both.
Dan's Mom and Dad got their mission call and they left last week for Boston, Massachusetts. It was a very rough few weeks for me. I love Dan's Mom and Dad so much, but I'm so excited for the people in Boston. They will be amazing missionaries.
Ethan turned 6 at the beginning of the summer and got to have a really fun water party in our backyard. I can't believe how big he is!
Dan demonstrated what a fun Dad he really is by having a sleepover with the boys on the tramp. They all LOVED it.

And, Ethan graduated Kindergarten. He was so darling in his end of year dance. He loved being in Mrs. Montgomery's class and I'm heartbroken to think of him being in 1st grade this year. Where does the time go?

Ok, I feel slightly less guilty now. We'll see how long that feeling lasts, eh?

Day Care Stories

Well, the Day Care has been a huge hit so far. I'm having way more fun than I even imagined I could. The kids are so fun and good and we have been doing some super fun things together. Here are just a few examples.

Here we are enjoying some "art time". Their paintings turned out so cute!

And here we are enjoying some "dramatic play" with our dress-up trunk. Aren't they adorable?

Day Care Items Needed

Hi Everyone! The Day Care will be ready to start in a few weeks and I have a few items that would be super awesome to get. I can make do without them, but it would be very helpful to have them. Here they are:

If anyone has any of these items they don't need or want to get rid of, I would gladly take them, or buy them if they're super cheap! It doesn't matter if they are in rough shape, I would be happy to sand and paint them if necessary!

Bookshelves, Entertainment Center, Toddler Beds/Mattresses, Play Kitchen Items (dishes/food), Children Sized Table/Chairs, Outside play equipment, Kitchen items (pans, pots, etc.), Rugs, Toys, Etc. Thanks!!!

Spread the word.....

I am starting a Day Care in my basement. If you happen to know anyone who needs a day care, or who might be interested in switching Day Care's, please send them my way! Here is a blog I set up to give some info while I am working on getting licensed. I should be ready to open it up in April.

Thanks!

p.s. Dan and his brother Matt designed me this cute logo, isn't it fun?

GOING UN-PRIVATE....

You weren't expecting that one, were you?

Well, you can add me back onto your automatic feeds, because I'm going to put the fun back into blogging!!!

Funny Aidan

On our way to Kaylen's Baptism on Feb. 6th, Mason and Ethan both had little coughs and were coughing in the car. Apparently Aidan felt a little bit left out, because he told us, "Mason and Ethan have the coughs, and I have the burps."

This little angel....

slept 8 1/2 hours last night! I am so in love with this little boy!!!

Thanks Gina for the picture!

Watch him grow...

The poor boy was super jaundice and had to be on the bili lights 23 hours a day for 2 weeks! Here he is, getting ready to go back in. Luckily, he liked them, because it was so warm.

This one "cracks" me up. (get it?) -I'm such a dork!

World's cutest baby, with the world's saddest face!

What a goofy face, but man, I love it!

Isn't he getting chubby?