Janae's Bridal Shower

We were so excited when Janae annouced her engagment to Steve, but when she mentioned October .... Mom crossed her fingers. She flys out the day before the wedding. In attempts to rearrange things are just not working out. So Mom, Dot, and I threw Janae's shower in an effort to let her know how excited we are for her.

So many friends came. It was great!!

We played the traditional game of asking Janae questions about Steve that he already answered. When she got it wrong--she had to put a sucker in her mouth. We atleast used dumdums.

We then played a non traditional game. We got this nice poster of Steve and played kiss the groom. And Janae won!! Is anyone surprised that she got the closest to his lips? Susan and Mom made sure they were far from...that's not quite the point ladies.

The reward was a makeout in a bag--with a bag of kisses, a scrumdiliumtious because they were all out of big hunks, and some chap stick.

Ciel Murry had borrowed this cute mouse hot pad from Janae's Grandma Burrup. While Ciel had it, Grandma Burrup had passed away before she could return it. Ciel did talk to some family members who encouraged her to keep it. So she made Janae one so that she can have a bit of her Grandma Burrup with her at this time. How sweet.

Here are many of her other gifts. Can't you tell how excited she is for most of them....

There was a few that she wasn't sure she wanted to open.

Aunt Susy was so excited for Janae. I love this second shot of them.

And of course what would a party be with out some food. And with Mom in charge of food there is always plenty. And check out that incredible cake Dot made and decorated. She has become quite talented.

Janae telling about how Steve said I love you. Not the greatest of videos, but a great story!!

Another Bridal shower tradition.

Update

First--don't miss my new post. It took me a while to get it published--so scroll down to see Our Last Minute Trip.

On other news front: I got another job. Todd missed getting into the program this year by only a few people. He was one of 4 on the backup list. So he quit his job to improve his grades. The goal is to get him to graduate. His grades have improved by a full grade point.
So I am trying to support our family. We've had strong warnings about putting our kids in daycare, so we are getting creative. I have a huge paper route. I deliver Hanford area, down George Washington Way and Jadwin, the condos behind Winco, and back up Wellsian Way, Lee, and Goethals. It takes about 3 hours. But it is the majority of our paycheck at this point.
I have been watching Garth. He has gotten a job. We are so excited for him. He is cleaning with Columbia Industries. I'm excited. It's a good job for him, and we are so proud of him. But it means that I don't have nearly as many hours. I also watch a two girls after school, usually. But lately, we haven't been able to cover our bills. My mom has chipped in and has been paying our health insurance or our car insurance. She has also put gas in my tank a time or two or bought shampoo. We just aren't making it without Todd's check.
So I got another job. I don't know if it will be enough to off set the lost hours with Garth yet. I will be watching a 14 year old who is severally handicapped and his sister who is high functioning. I'll be working 9 pm to no later than 1 am on Friday. On Saturday I start at 5 and go to .... we'll see. And then I'll work from when I finish my paper route to 12 on Sunday. It's nice because I won't have to put my kids in daycare. The other miracle--our ward was suppose to move to 11 come September. But the other ward is so big, we can't share the building anymore--so our ward is going to 12:30. So it won't be a big deal to work until 12.
I'm scared, but I feel very blessed. The Lord has worked many miracles for us. He really takes has taken very good care of us.

Tender Moments

Today I took the girls to the free movie. I've wanted to see how to train your dragon. When we got there, they were full. "Oh pickles." But they reshowed it at 3:00. So we waited. By the time the movie started, Kaylyn was ready for a nap. Usually she plays quietly in the front while we watch. I don't like the front row but it works for us. Well she was not having it this time. And right as the movie started I was able to settle her down, and she fell asleep. I can't usually rock my baby to sleep. But today, I got to cuddle with her for almost 2 hours. I so enjoyed holding my baby. She is so big these days.
As the movie ended, everyone cleared out quickly. And Karla used the front area as her stage. She danced to the end credits music. It was a moment I won't soon forget. Thank you Lord for that moment of retreive.

Words Kaylyn said today

So as I was writing the last post, I couldn't remember anything that Kaylyn has said. So I listened. Today she said

love you
bye aunt Dot
duck
Karla
outside
dog
boo(k)
peek-a-boo

She loves to imiate what you have said, and I'm sure this has helped her language skills. It took her a while, but she now blows raspberries too. Aunt Dot is starting to teach her to cluck her tongue. We love our baby girl.

Kaylyn Ruth--15 months

So Kaylyn is
almost 15 months, and it seems like she is growing up over night. She gave me my first kiss yesterday. I was surprised and pleased. Now it's time to teach her to close her mouth when she kisses. She is is talking more and more. She says Duck, Mom, Dad, Grandma consistantly. If you really listen to her you will hear more words in her gabble. It's a lot like it was with Kylee--that if I don't look for it, I miss it. I need to start making a list of what she is saying. When she wants something she will sign want, one handed. She doens't scream unless you don't notice. She knows you understand. It's fun to see the intellegence there. Kaylyn has also learned how to blow raspberries. It's funny when all of a sudden she starts doing it in the car. She loves peek-a-boo these days. And she starts it almost everytime I'm changing her diaper. She also wants to be involved. If Karla and Kylee are digging in the dirt--she wants to be too. She has learned to go up and down the slide by herself. I love it!!! She loves the slide and the swings. Grandma Mann helped me give her a swing for her birthday. Daddy's going to put it up when he is done with finals.
She is not afraid to speak up for herself. But she is also very loving. When Karla was crying she came up and gave her a hug. She then walked away and would not give Karla another hug which frusterated Karla. But c'est la vie. She's only 1.
She also knows what she wants. She's already picking out toys at the store and asking Grandma to get them for her. Also, we caught the diarahia going around. Kaylyn became temporarily lactose intolerant because of it. When I got tired of being thrown up on, she went off milk. She got to the point after a day and a half that she refused to drink fruit juice. So we moved to Soy and Almond. She wouldn't drink the soy. And after two and a half days, she wouldn't drink the Almond either. She cried and cried as we tired to put her to bed. Finally after 3 hours, Dad took her for a drive. Still no sleeping baby, so he gave her half hot chocolate and half chocolate milk--yeah out in 2 minutes. She is now back on milk and doing fine. But she sure knew what she wanted.
We are so glad she came to our family!! She is so cute. It's hard to believe I'm looking through 18 month clothes, some of which actually fit!

Last Minute Trip

So Dot and Jonathan wanted the house to themselves for their anniversary. And with the stress of adjusting to living together--I was talking with Cyntha about the fact that she was in Burley visiting her in-laws. I said one of these days we should come and hang out with her there. She said "Why not this weekend." Why not? I couldn't come up with a good reason, so we left the next night after Mom got off work. We ditched Todd to study. Bobbiejo took my paper route for me. And Mom, Garth, my kids, and I went. I provided the car, and mom provided the gas. It was a good working relationship. (I did feel bad that I couldn't cover more of the gas.) So these were our hosts.

At first, Fran gave me a bum shot, and I told her I was going to post it if she didn't give me a nice one....I thought of posting it anyway, but since she did give me a nice shot.... But if you know Fran and Red this is so just them. They were amazing hosts. And it was so relaxing to be with them. We laughed all weekend long!

So I took a lot of pictures. And so did Garth! So here is our vacation in pictures.

The kids and I went to this cool park while Mom and Cyntha ran to Walmart. We played hide and go seek. We played tag. And we enjoyed the toys. There is a huge puddle around this merry go round. Can you see how wet and dirty Karla got pushing the other kids through it? By the time I realize what she meant to do, she had done it. So I figured she might as well continue to push the other kids.

We played in the pool.
And we just enjoyed playing with cousins. We miss Jamie and Ben so much--but especially Jamie at this point.

We went to this new place in Burley. It was reasonably priced and we had a lot of fun. There were bouce toys and toy rooms. Kaylyn played with every toy in the infant toy room, but she would not touch the bounce toys with a ten foot pole. And She eventually tired out and Grandma, with her amazing talent, put her to sleep. I love this picture with Kylee rocking out on the guitar! (I also love this shot of Kaylyn on the spin toy too.)

They had this huge slide, but you had to be 5 to go by yourself. So Karla would go by herself. But everyone else had to have an adult with them. The kids loved this super fast slide. So Cyntha and I would go around and around to get all the kids up there (except Kaylyn). They finally figured out our kids did great by themselves and let Jamie and Kylee go by themselves. That made life so much nicer for us. We went super fast--and every single picture was blury like this because you'd go so fast.


Now, it wasn't all fun and games. We had a few kids get tired or get into trouble. But for the most part, we loved our time at this game place and in Burley.
Here is mom putting Kaylyn to sleep. I love sleeping baby shots.

Here we are playing. Us girls also played a couple of games ourselves. Dragonlords, phase 10, hot dice or farkle and we had a blast.

And this is my adorable sister. Grandma got the kids these noisy flashlights for on the ride out. Then she had to pick some up for the boys too. We were constantly finding them or picking them up or playing with them or something! Mom also got this cute onsie for Kaylyn. It says "This is my little black dress."

I can't tell you how much both Mom and I needed this trip. It was so good to spend some time with my sister. And I didn't even get more sleep!! I stayed up chating with my sister. I love you and can't wait till I get to see you again. PS I love my nephews too.