A much better April

April was a much better month for us!! It's a tradition on my side to have cinnamon rolls on LDS general conference weekend. Well, Jared decided to make a monkey bread type thing instead

It turned out way yum!

We met up with a great friend at Thanksgiving Point animal farm

Domo gave us free tickets to a Utah Jazz basketball game! It was awesome getting a date night and doing something different!!!

We went to Lehi's FUN center with Jared's sis and her family!!

Breeann attends an amazing private preschool!!! LOVE it!!! Anyway~ they had spirit week. On Tues., it was crazy hair day

On Thurs., it was princess/super hero day... of course she choose a princess

I had to add this pic. because she's just adorable!!

The last weekend of April, Jared went camping with the scouts... the other leader took this pic of my handsome hubby

So... this month we have discovered a lot of snakes in our yard!! It's been crazy. 

The kids have actually, overall, enjoyed it. They're good about leaving the snake alone, but love trying to find them... as well as other bugs. Yay for nice weather, being outside... this momma could do without so many snakes and bugs, but that's okay. I don't mind a few, but yeah...

Anyway, that about sums up our April I think. Hopefully you all had just as an amazing month!!!

Oh March... I won't miss you

March ended up not being a very nice month to our family.  It started out fun and normal...

But then the weekend of the 19th, everything started following apart :o/

Breeann got sick. When all was said and done, she ended up with rhinovirus (respiratory virus/cold), the flu, and cold sores in her mouth.

Ayden got sick fairly shortly after Breeann did

Ayden ended up with respiratory virus (or maybe the flu... never got it officially tested), left ear infection, and pink eye in both eyes!

"Baby" got the flu, start of pneumonia, and pink eye. Jared and I both got crap but hard to explain what we got. Luckily our little family is all on the mends, and April is being much nicer so far :o)

Since sickness was so big here, we did a lot of this

Aunt Shannon came to the rescue and had fun with these two for a day while I took care of "baby" ... who was still sick at this point.

Unfortunately that sums up our March. We didn't celebrate Easter because well... hard to when you've got 3 sick kids, one of which was in the hospital, and parents weren't 100% either. Hope March was a lot nice to you guys!!! And April is too!!!

Feb 2016

Well, our February was definitely not as eventful as January was. Thank goodness! We're getting our new schedule/routine down and doing great!

I wish Ayden's school teacher could send us pics. too, but oh well. At least we get to see pics of beautiful Bree and what she's doing at preschool. 

As you can see, she LOVES school. In fact, it's not uncommon for me to have to carry her out because she doesn't want to go. Ayden LOVES, LOVES, LOVES school too. He ask almost every day if it's a school day. He's been doing great at the early intervention program we got him into as well. We've already seen improvement with his fine motor skills. Behaviors, we're still working on :o)

We have been playing, having lots of fun around here. As Jared says, we're partying out!

As you can see... Jared's a trooper, amazing, and such a fun dad!!!

So we have been trying to work on the kids doing more chores/helping around the house.

It's taken so incredibly much patience... and they don't do well at all. BUT it's a start, they actually love helping out, and it does help me a little.

Jared took a pic. of the typical breakfast he makes Ayden. Pancakes in various shapes

This one has a Christmas tree, ware-wolf puppy , dad gingerbread man, Ayden ginger bread man, a sun, the sky... and I can't remember lol As stated above, Jared's so great!!!

We've just been busy with typical work, church, household duties, raising these kids. 

Now, some of you may be wondering about "Baby". What I write about her is my attempt at answering the most common questions we get, that we can answer. Yes, we still have her. She's getting big and more of a personality. She does not seem to have any medical, or behavioral, problems at this point. She's by far so much easier then Ayden and Breeann were/are. The plan is still for her to go back to her bios... us adopting her is not being talked about by the team (meaning "Baby"'s lawyer, bios, their lawyers, caseworkers, etc). She has been a wonderful addition to the family, even if it is only temporary. Adjusting to 3 kids is a lot easier then I thought it would be. Maybe because "Baby"'s a easy baby? She typically will eat about 10 pm and go until 6 am without waking up. So I am getting sleep and doing okay. ... I think that about covers everything lol

So there's a Feb. in a nutshell ... hope this finds everyone doing as great as we are. Love you all!!!

Jan 2016 ... and big news

So far 2016 hasn't started out how I expected.

We had our normal playing... Ayden really getting into coloring

Braving the snow... Jared and Ayden made that little snowman in our neighbor's yard

Jared changed our kitchen light, and the kids loved playing on the ladder

Once again Jared! :o) He made the kids a hammock, bought himself a hammock and they have had a blast playing in them

So this is really where the craziness begins!!

On Jan. 11, Bree ended up getting admitted. This was only about a 24 hour stay and ended up being a respiratory bug. Side note: 6 months and no line infection!!!! *knock on wood* our record!!! 

On the 13th, we got a foster baby! Yes, you read that right. We are back in the game. More on that at the bottom of this post :o)

On the 15th I got knocked down with strep throat, got officially diagnosed with it on the 16th!

On the 26th, Ayden started early intervention, public school preschool!! He really can use the help with his behaviors. So far it's been great and he's already got 3 or 4 friends he talks non-stop about lol. i love it. He gets to ride the bus too! LOVE it and so does he. How is he old enough to do all this though?

So, with all the craziness of the month, both kids have been struggling. We've been trying to do quality time stuff with them... easier said then done, but we're trying. Jared decided Ayden needed to make dinner one night. Ayden did great! I was proud

Momma and Breeann snuggles... 

So ... about our foster baby.  On the 12th, as I was discharging Bree from the hospital, our foster care caseworker sends me a text asking if we were ready for placements (I had mentioned to her in like Oct. that we might be in Jan.) ... I told her unless it was urgent, I'd talk to Jared that night and get back to her. Her response was something to the effect of nothing too urgent yet, but they did have a drug exposed infant possibly coming into care that they really wanted us to consider. Jared and I talked that night, decided we would open our file, but wanted to know more before we accept the case she mentioned. When I texted her that Wed., the 13th, morning she said she'd have them call me if the baby came into care. No joke, 15 mins. later, I got a call with a little more info., asking what we thought. Called Jared, we decided to take it. This was about 10:30 am. When I called back, saying we'd accept, they said that court was at 4 p.m., they'd know more then and call us about 5. At 2 p.m., I get a call from another caseworker saying "baby" would be ready for us to pick up in the NICU at 5 p.m. Yeah, craziness! Not to mention, Jared had scouts that night, that he couldn't miss!! Thankfully for some incredible neighbors and friends, it all worked out and we had "baby" home by 8 p.m. Wedn. night. So yes, 36 hours from getting that original "are you ready" text, we had a baby.

Now let me please remind you all, I cannot talk about specifics of the case and I cannot post pics of "baby". If I don't post as many pics for a bit, you now know why. Please feel free to privately ask any questions, but be understanding if we tell you we cannot talk about it. We are excited to have "baby" (That will be the online name i decided :oP ) but definitely relearning the ropes.

Love to all and hope this finds you all doing as well as we are

December 2015

December, overall, was a lot more fun!! Only thing that was missing was Jared... for the first half. He had to go back to UT for work, while the kids and I stayed in Omaha, NE. My amazing, beautiful mom came and stayed a week with us in Omaha to help with the kids.

We had a lot of fun doing play-doh, coloring, museum, and a bunch of other stuff with her. I cannot tell you how much I appreciated her being there and how much she did.

A couple days after my mom left, Jared's mom, our sister in law, and nieces came to play with us a week, week and a half.

We had a lot of fun doing manicures, swimming, a few things at the hospital, and just playing around at the house. It was a blast having them. I am so incredibly grateful they came out. They did so much to help too. It was so much appreciated.

On Dec. 15, so 4 weeks after getting there/surgery, we got the clearance to go back to UT! We left Omaha on Dec. 17, got to UT on the 18th. Even Buddy was tired of the car

We had an awesome time putting together a ginger bread house that a sweet friend sent us.

I am total wimp for the snow, but my family sure enjoys it! This one is Ayden going sledding by himself

This is Jared and Bree sledding

Christmas Eve, Day we got a lot of snow. Jared was a hero and made a snowman with/for Ayden.

We spent time with Jared's side Christmas Eve and Day. This was Christmas Day, cousins playing in the snow. Ayden had just fallen of the sled he was riding with his cousin.

Dec. 28 was mine and Jared's 9th wedding anniversary. How he has stuck with me that long, I don't know, but sure glad he has. Anyway~ we got my sis. to baby-sit while we went to lunch, spent the afternoon just being together, and we also went out to dinner. She took this pic of my cute kids

We had a couple days of my niece coming to play with us. She dressed Tayla and me up.

Awesome, right? lol

As you can tell, we definitely had a much better, relaxing, more fun December. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday season!!!