Sick day

A picture like this of Katie definately means she is sick. When she takes a nap, it's for one hour, maximum. So after she ate about two bites of her breakfast and layed down on the floor and went to sleep, I knew she was sick. She had a very low grade fever and that's about it. I couldn't figure out why she was sleeping all day. She would wake up for about 10 minutes and try to play with her toys then lay down somewhere and fall asleep again. It made cleaning the house really easy, but I felt really bad just leaving her on the floor. I would hold her but she couldn't get comfortable and would climb off my lap and lay on the floor and sleep. I can't figure out what's wrong with her. Hopefully she will act more normal tomorrow. Katie doesn't just sit on our laps very often, she is always on the go. So it was nice when she did let me hold her while she slept. She slept almost all day so I might be up a lot tonight. I hope not. On another note, I found out today that one of my best friends from highschool, Jake Hoffman, died of cancer. He's the same age as me and has a family of 6 kids. It is so sad. He was only diagnosed with the cancer a few months ago. It sure makes me thankful for my family's good health and makes me want to appreciate every day I have with them. You never know when things can change and turn your life upside down. My heart goes out to his wife and family!

Jesus has a yo-yo

Since we have had a few nice days this week, I decided to take Kyson and Katie on a walk to pick the kids up from school. On Tuesday the sun was shining on us while we were walking. Kyson said to me "Mom, I think Jesus has a yo-yo that is hooked onto the sun." I asked him why. He said "Because wherever we walk, the sun is going with us and always shining on us." I love how little kids see things!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is always a fun day for me. Dale has always been so sweet to me. This year he sent me flowers on Friday. In the past, Dale has always gotten something for Kierra but nothing came for her. Even though she didn't say anything, I could tell that she was very dissappointed. On Saturday, some chocolate covered strawberries came for me but still nothing for Kierra. Later in the day a delivery came for Kierra and Katie. It was adorable little teddy bears, one for each of them. As you can tell by the picture, Kierra was very excited to finally get her valentine from her Daddy.

These are the pretty flowers. I love having flowers on my kitchen table.
Last night we went out to dinner with some friends from our ward. We went to the Mandarin in bountiful. Dale and I have never been there. We really liked it. It was so nice to sit at a big round table so we could all visit together. We really enjoy spending time with our friends. When Kierra, Katie and I were getting all this Valentine stuff, Kyson said "How come I don't get any presents?" I told him that Valentine's day was for girls. He said "Then when we have the holiday on Monday (President's Day) it's for boys!" I thought that was so cute. I did get all the boys caramel apples. I was going to take a picture of them but they ate them too fast. We had a great Valentine's Day and I'm thankful I have so many people to love!

Happy Birthday Jake!

Jake's 7th birthday was actually two days ago but we had his party tonight and I wanted to post pictures from that so I waited until today to give him his birthday tribute. We went to Golden Corral for dinner with my family on his birthday. It's my mom's birthday too and it's a tradition to go out to dinner for her birthday. Lucky Jake gets to share his birthday with Grandma.

We came home and opened presents. He got his first Lego sets and I had a great time putting one of them together with him. I wish I had the money to buy a new Lego set every week. They are a great things to keep kids entertained.

Tonight we went swimming, out to dinner at McDonalds then home for cake and ice cream. It was a fun day. Jake loves to go swimming! When I asked him if he wanted to have a birthday party with his friends, he said "I think I just want to go swimming." So that's what we did. He loves to wear his mask and spend as much time as he can under water.

I am so thankful for Jake's sweet little spirit. I've never known a child like him. He has an amazing memory. He memorizes commercials and can tell you what toy every fast food restaurant has. He's a great reader. He's Kyson's best buddy and they are pretty much inseperable. It's so cute how Kyson watches out for him. He is always telling him things like "Jake, you need to eat your breakfast so you're not late to school. Jake comes up with the funniest things. One day we were visiting my mom and she had some pants on that were blueish purple. He asked her what color they were. She said they are kind of blue and kind of purple. He said "That means they are indigo". Jake is at a time in his life where he is obsessed with the WII. He wants to play it all the time. Luckily, they are off track so he was able to play it all day on his birthday. He is a very giving child. He will share anything he has with his siblings. One day at school I was watching him get in line before school started. All the kids like to be as close to the front of the line as possible. We got there early that day so Jake was at the front. At least 3 girls asked him if they could stand in front of him. He just smiled, told them yes, then backed up. Jake has a very slow way about him. It takes him a long time to do most anything. We are use to it and know that we have to get him moving 10 minutes before anyone else. The thing I love about him is that he just slowly moves through life taking it all in. He's always reading signs and things around him, memorizing them as he goes. He never gets upset as we're trying to rush him to do something. He still takes his sweet time, but eventually gets it done. He has a great smile. I love his little dimple and blonde hair. He loves to give me hugs or cuddle up to me on the couch when I'm working on the computer. I'm glad that his sweet spirit was sent to our family!

Webkinz World

Webkinz are stuffed animals that you can play with on the internet. You have to register them, name them, build rooms for them and take care of them. There are lots of online games you play with them and you can play online with other kids that have webkinz.
We gave Kierra her first Webkinz stuffed animal for Christmas 2 years ago and it has really started a fad for our family. Kierra, Jaxon, Jake and Kyson all have a bunch of Webkinz and love to play with them on the computer. They also spend a lot of time playing together with them. They play outside on the tramp with them, build houses out of cardboard bricks and play all sorts of games together. I think it's a great thing that our kids have decided to collect.

There are 27 webkinz all together that live in our house. We took a picture of all of them on Jadon so that he didn't feel left out. He doesn't have any Webkinz. He says he's too old for them but sometimes I think he might like to play Webkinz with the kids. They all still want more Webkinz. Webkinz are my favorite kind of pet!

The Brady Bunch...a classic

When the kids went off track, I took them to the library to get some movies and books. Kierra picked out The Brady Bunch on DVD. She got the first 3 seasons. Needless to say, we have been watching a lot of Brady family fun. At first it was just Kierra and I watching it but somehow the boys have been reeled in by the wonderful acting and beautiful clothes the Brady's wore. It's funny that I loved that show so much when I was a kid. It's so corny and unrealistic. It really has been fun watching, and making fun of, The Brady Bunch with my kids. My favorite was when Katie was screaming the other day and Kierra said to her "Be quiet, Mr Byers is asleep!" What a wonderfully sugar sweet world the Brady's lived in!

"You HAVE to get along!"

Anyone that has been to my house knows that our family is rapidly outgrowing our table. Right now we barely fit around it and that's because Katie is still in her highchair. We have a bench that 3 kids have to sit on. Somehow a rule was established a while ago that whoever sets the table gets to pick where everyone sits. Jadon frequently volunteers to set the table so that he can put himself on a chair. Lately our 3 oldest children are driving each other crazy. They are doing anything they can think of to bug the other 2. Bill Cosby's stand up "Will you stop touching me" comes to mind daily. Last night Dale had an idea of a way to force them to get along. He decided that for the next week the 3 of them have to sit on the bench together. You should have seen their faces as he was telling them this. They knew what he was going to say before he even finished talking. They were all saying "NO,NO,NO that's not fair!" We told them that we will judge their behavior each night at dinner and if they don't behave themselves we will keep adding days on to their week. The first night was awesome. They all complained of being squished. They all put their elbows on the table to try and get in the other person's space. They kept reaching for things all the way across the table to purposely get in the other person's way. Needless to say, Kierra ended up in tears. I don't know why boys LOVE to tease their sisters. This should be an interesting week, month or year. I think I'll end up eating in my room!