Jared & Jen

First 6 weeks & New Blog!

2011-06-01T11:14:00.000-06:00

Talmage turned 6 weeks old on Sunday! It's crazy how fast it has gone. He is a cute, good little baby. Everyone says, he looks like a boy. :) That's a good thing. I think some people must have questioned whether he would look like a boy since we have so many girls... I am enjoying Talmage more than I have any of my other babies because I know they only stay little for such a small amount of time. He has started smiling and I just love it. It always makes me happy when I can make him smile. I'm thankful for being blessed with baby Talmage.

We are going to be starting a new blog that is private. I feel I can share more of my personal feelings that way, so this will be the last time I post on this blog. If you would like to keep folllowing us just send me an e-mail at jennifer dot L dot pratt at gmail dot com. If you have any ideas for our new blog address we'd love them!

A Daddy and His Boy

2011-06-01T09:53:00.000-06:00

Everyone comments that Talmage looks just like Jared. I don't see it all the time, but the other day I was taking pictures of Talmage. The picture of Talmage on the BYU blanket looks so much like Jared to me. I guess Talmage will be a BYU fanatic too :) Talmage is even wearing a football shirt! Yay for Jared finally having a buddy to watch sports with :)

Talmage being loved

2011-05-30T16:00:00.002-06:00

The girls love holding Talmage. Rachel and Amaya probably love it the most. I never really talked about my mom coming up to help after Talmage was born, but she was a great help and I'm so thankful for her. It was really fun being able to spend a week with Grandma Smith at the house. Thanks again for coming up. We love you Grandma!

Exercising with 5 kids

2011-05-24T09:45:00.004-06:00

My family is doing our own version of the Biggest Loser in order to lose weight for my sisters upcoming wedding. I like working out anyway, but that gives me more of an incentive to exercise right now. Yesterday I exercised to a video. This is what the kids were doing while I was exercising: Madeline was working out with me. I was impressed that she was able to do the v-sit. She stuck with it for most of the time. Aliza laid on the couch and fell asleep. Rachel held Talmage and did a great job. Amaya laid on the boppy and watched us. It was fun and worked out surprisingly well.

Kingergarten Graduates!

2011-05-23T15:50:00.000-06:00

Last Monday Madeline finished her last assignments for Kindergarten! What an exciting day for both of us! Probaby more for me than her :) I told her when she finished all her school work we would have a celebration, which included a family dinner at McDonalds and a Cupcake Cake. She was so excited about the cupcake cake and talked about it all week leading up to finishing school. She kept coming up to me and telling me the colors she wanted her cake to be. (It actually was different than what she wanted, but she was still happy) On Tuesday we had our McDonalds dinner because it was half price night for happy meals. The girls chose toys over lots of food, much to Jared's dismay :) but the toys were cute and the girls were all so happy. That night I was suppose to go to a Relief Society Activity for our church at 7:00 but we got home from McDonalds and I didn't really have time to frost the cake. The girls REALLY wanted to have the cake that night though. I decided it was more important to quickly frost the cake, and I'm really glad I did. It was a horrible frosting job, but Madeline didn't notice and was just so happy. It made me happy.

Whew! I'm glad we're done with home schooling for now. Notice the plural in the heading- Graduates- I feel like I've graduated from teaching! Whoo!! :) It was a good experience. I'm glad we did it, but we do plan on having the girls go to public schools next year. It was very nice having Madeline home for one extra year. It was fun seeing her learn and grow. I think homeschooling has good things about it and I am nervous to send our kids to public school, but I also don't know if I would do a very good job being totally in charge of teaching my children with 5 kids.

Talmage and Family Photos

2011-04-27T19:49:00.003-06:00

While we were at the hospital a lady came in and took "complimentary" pictures. She said she could take pictures of whoever was in the room. It was just Talmage and I, but I told her that my family would be there soon, so she said she'd just come back later. She did a great job taking pictures. It was really fun. The lady said she had never had so many kids in a picture before. She also said it was one of her favorite photo shoots ever. I wonder if she says that to everyone :) Well anyway, the pictures turned out great. Unfortunately we don't really get any for free, but that's okay.

Baby Talmage is here!!

2011-04-19T09:08:00.002-06:00

We finally have a REAL BOY!!! :) Talmage was born on Sunday night at 7:09. He weighed 6 lbs 8 oz and was 20.5 inches long. He has a pretty good amount of strawberry blond hair. The girls all had fun holding him, but I think Rachel is in love. She wants to hold him every second she can. It's so sweet. We're excited to have 5 kids. Yikes! Jared is already dreaming up all the sports Talmage can be in :)

Rachel and her clothes

2011-04-13T22:31:00.001-06:00

Rachel knows what she wants :) She is very particular about the clothes she wears. She has 2 pairs of purple legging/pants that she will wear, and numerous skirts. She hates pants. Good thing it's starting to be nice outside. All winter long she managed to wear a skirt or dress, I just made her wear thick tights or her favorite pants with the outfit. I had to laugh one day when she came out dressed like this. Hello 80's. She hardly ever matches, but I've gotten to the point where I say, well, I guess it's okay as long as she's warm. She is full of spunk and so much fun to have around. I can't believe she is so particular with her clothes at 3... Yikes! :) Oh, and if you notice her shoes, those are a special thing in and of themselves :) I got them at a garage sale, Rachel was actually with me, last year for 50 cents. She has worn them almost every day since and many times without socks. They stink :) That's another reason it's good it's spring- flip flops and no socks :) I'm sure Rachel's sparkly white shoes will stay her favorite for as long as she fits into them.

Fruitloop Necklaces & General Conference

2011-04-13T22:23:00.002-06:00

During conference weekend I tried to have activities planned for the kids to do during General Conference to keep them quiet and occupied. It actually worked really well. I think fruit loop necklaces were one of their favorites. Madeline made a rainbow pattern, Rachel worked very hard on hers for at least 30 minutes, and Aliza (and Amaya)enjoyed eating the fruitloops. Aliza wasn't quite patient enough to make one :) I also had church coloring pages for them and a bingo game too. Conference was so nice this year. It was especially nice that the kids are getting older and weren't as much of a distraction. I'm excited to listen to the talks again. I'm glad we have living prophets to guide us.

Friend Collage

2011-04-13T22:13:00.001-06:00

Matching Friend Pictures

2011-04-13T22:02:00.003-06:00

One of my best friends, Tristan, and I made matching skirts and flower bows for our girls and then took pictures of them. The girls LOVE wearing skirts. I've tried to hold off as long as possible during the winter, so thank heavens it's starting to get nice :) It's amazing I actually got one of all of them looking! Trinity, Izzy, and Tilly are some of my girls best friends too, so we all love hanging out! We're definitely going to miss them when we move!

The Bun is Almost Done!

2011-04-13T21:43:00.002-06:00

Madeline took this picture of me a week and a half ago. Baby boy #1 should be here soon and we're all so excited!!

Happy Birthday Amaya!

2011-04-10T17:07:00.003-06:00

I always let the kids lick the bowl of batter for their birthday cake. Amaya was nice to share with everyone. Usually the other kids do not share :)

It's hard to believe that Amaya is already 2 years old!! She is getting so big. She is so much fun to have in our family. She is at a really fun stage right now. She repeats everything everyone says. In the morning the girls like to lay in bed with me and have me tell them stories from when I was a little girl. Amaya has started saying, "little girl" and waiting to hear a story. She also loves one of Madeline's school books called "Cows in the Kitchen". Frequently I will hear her saying different parts of the story, "ducks in the dishes, quack quack quack". It makes me smile.
She also likes to run around in circles in the kitchen saying, "clap your hands, clap your hands" while clapping her hands. I think that is one of my favorite things.
She is definitely the most cuddly out of our kids. She loves sitting on my lap. Jared says she can hold her own with her sisters though. She isn't usually bullied around too much, which I guess could be a good thing :)
We love our little Amaya. Soon she'll be a big sister!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

2011-03-17T22:07:00.000-06:00

I saw this fun idea for rainbow pancakes on the blogosphere the other day and thought it was the perfect dinner for us. My kids don't know that pancakes are suppose to be for breakfast :) One day I asked Madeline if she wanted pancakes for breakfast and she laughed and said, "Pancakes aren't for breakfast Mom". Haha I don't think I've ever served them pancakes at breakfast, so anyway. The pancakes were a huge hit (just use food coloring). I also made scrambled eggs for the "golden treasure". I was planning on making a green smoothie using spinach, but didn't get around to it.

I've always really liked St. Patricks Day, and I really like the rainbow theme. I think I started a new tradition :)

Trip to Utah

2011-03-17T22:00:00.000-06:00

At the end of February we took a family trip to Utah so my parents could take care of our kids while Jared and I went on a house-hunting trip. That's right, a house-hunting trip... we're moving to Michigan! It was really nice to be able to check out Michigan. It was definitely colder there, but we really like what we have seen of it. It will be sad to be so far away, but it's a fun new adventure for us.
I felt really bad about leaving the kids though because they were sick. Madeline started with a fever the day before we left and had croup that night. We still left the next day for Utah and I seperated the kids so Madeline had the front seat all to herself. I was hoping no one else would get sick, but everyone ended up getting it. Even my poor parents. Jared and I got sick too, but we were still able to get a lot done while we were gone.
On Saturday after we got back my parents got us tickets to go to the last BYU home game. Jared's mom watched our kids, which was very nice of her. It was really fun to watch- go Jimmer :) The stadium was never that full when I went to school there. It was really fun to hear the BYU fight song. Go cougars!!
Thanks again to all of our family who helped. We really appreciated it!

Bathtime Nap

2011-03-17T21:44:00.000-06:00

Amaya is so funny after she takes baths. She loves to lay down with her towel over her as a blanket. A couple times she has even fallen asleep. The day I took this picture I emptied out the water out of the bathtub and she stayed in there and laid down so I put the towel over her. She was perfectly happy. Not the most comfortable napping spot if you ask me :)

Rachel the Beautician?

2011-02-20T21:45:00.001-07:00

A couple weeks ago I was talking on the phone- not even a long phone call- and the girls got the kids scissors down. I went to check on the girls, but it was too late... Rachel had cut her hair! She cut it almost to her shoulder on her left side and cut the hair that was pulled up in her hair thing. Luckily it wasn't crazy short, so it was an easy fix. I wouldn't have cut her hair that short on my own, but I have to say she looks cute with her new little bob. It was also getting hard to comb because she got snarles easily. The rest of the day after I cut her hair she kept going to the mirror and saying, "I look cute! I like my short hair". It was so funny. All of the girls have been told tons of times to never cut hair, but I knew it would happen sometime. I wasn't really too sad about Rachel cutting her hair. Later that night, however, Amaya was running around and it looked like her hair had been cut too. I asked Rachel if she cut it and she finally admitted to cutting Amaya's hair too! Amaya's hair cut wasn't such a nice or easy one to fix. I actually didn't even touch it for a week because I was sad to cut it. I had just cut it and evened it all up, and now I had to cut it another inch or more because it looked like she had a mullet on one side. I eventually cut her hair and kind of fixed it, but not totally. If I would have cut it the same on both sides I wouldn't be able to pull it up. Instead it's messed up, but I just always pull it up into half piggy tails and you can't really tell. Well, Rachel is not allowed to cut with scissors for a LONG time. Good thing hair grows back!
(This is after her haircut by me. You can see where Rachel cut right above Amaya's ear)

Madeline's School

2011-02-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

It has been a good year for school. Homeschooling has definitely not been a "walk in the park", but it has been fun having Madeline home for an extra year. One of her school assignments was to draw a picture and write a sentence with an action word. Since it was already on our computer I thought I'd post it for memory sake. She's having a lot of fun learning to write and read and loves drawing.

Bonk...Ouch!

2011-02-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago Aliza and Rachel were running around the house and ran into each other. Rachel got a little bump, but Aliza got a huge goose egg. A couple days later the same thing happened, right in the same place! It happened probably 3 weeks ago and she still has a small bump. I'm glad there was no blood.

Indoor Picinic

2011-02-20T21:08:00.000-07:00

One weekend in mid-January Jared and I skyped with family and let the girls watch T.V. so they would stay occupied. To make it more fun I had them put out blankets and made sandwiches so they could have a little picinic. They were so happy. It made me happy.

Grandma at Jumping Jungle

2011-02-20T19:39:00.001-07:00

We're Still Here

2011-01-18T22:20:00.001-07:00

It's been a while! We had a nice Christmas break and are now getting back into the swing of things. We were able to go to Utah for about 10 days during the holidays. It was really fun to spend time with both sides of our family. Jared's sister Julie and her family were visiting from Texas, so his entire family was together. We stayed with Jared's brother Joe and his family for part of the vacation and Jen's parent's the rest. It was fun getting to spend some extra time after the kids went to bed with them. The kids sleeping schedule was very messed up, but it was really fun getting to hang out late with family. We only had minor sickness during the trip this year... :) Some of our favorite memories from the trip this Christmas:

Lunch with Jared's family at Wallaby's
Acting out the Christmas Nativity
Playing games with both families
Watching the Utah vs. Boise State game
Going to the Art Show with the Jen's family
Hanging out with Jen's family on New Years Eve
Sledding
BYU basketball game
The surprise baby shower
Relaxing with family

Thanks to both families for helping us have a great holiday season. To me that is what the holidays are all about... spending time with family.

* We think Amaya threw away our camera... we're a little lacking on the picture area of Christmas. Good think everyone else took pictures :)

Jen's Famous Brother Cameron, an Internet Sensation with Kodiak Cakes

2010-12-20T22:04:00.004-07:00

Who knew Cameron would be in so many commercials. We enjoy watching them. This one reminds us of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. What will be next, we are still on the edge of our seats.

The Girls Visit Santa at the Church Christmas Party

2010-12-12T21:04:00.002-07:00

Amaya is our first kid with no fear of Santa. Rachel didn't want to go to the whole activity because of Santa, but she finally came. Aliza said she didn't want to see Santa either. Madeline seemed not to have a problem.

Amaya Needs a Hug

2010-12-12T21:01:00.000-07:00

Amaya usual just needs a hug to stop crying.

Happy Thanksgiving 2010!!

2010-11-26T21:51:00.003-07:00

I don't have pictures yet, but I just wanted to blog about Thanksgiving really quick before I forget and it's Christmas :) Jared's parents were able to come up and visit. It was so nice to have them come up. The girls just loved playing with both Grandparents. We like having visitors.

Jared played turkey ball yesterday and got his hand stepped on with a cleat in the third play of the day, but don't worry, he still played the rest of the game and had fun. He was the only adult to brave the cold weather, the rest of the players were teenagers.

I had fun going to JoAnn's this morning with Jared's mom and meeting up with my friend Tristan. I bought a LOT of fabric, but it was such a good deal, and it was SO fun to buy boy fabric :) We were there for 6 hours!!! Those lines are crazy, and I'm not sure if I'll do it again next year, but it was fun.

I am so thankful for many things in my life. I have a good life. Here are some of the things I'm thankful for...

Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Heated home
Answers to prayers
New fluffy socks
Kids
Families can be together forever
Understanding and
Loving husband (especially when I'm pregnant and a little emotional :))

Food Allergies = twist on Traditional Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T21:20:00.004-07:00

This year was a new year for me for Thanksgiving. I've had many different health problems for quite a while, (like 7 years or more) and this summer I was thankfully finally able to figure out that I have food allergies. If I don't eat corn, wheat, some dairy, and peanuts and a few more things, I feel great.

So basically, I was pretty nervous for the holidays because food is such a big part of this time of year. I've been doing a lot of research online and have found that there are TONS of gluten free, and other allergen free blogs/websites with some really good recipes. I found a recipe for gluten free rolls, which I modified to also be corn free. I prayed that they would be good, and they were DELICIOUS!! I actually felt like I was eating real rolls. My father-in-law said he preferred my rolls over the regular homemade dinner rolls. That made me happy.

These recipes give me hope. I was able to eat rolls for Thanksgiving, I didn't venture out to stuffing, but I didn't really miss it, because I had my rolls :) I was a very happy girl.

So anyway. If you are in the same boat I am in, I want to post the recipes and websites so you can make them and have some delicious food again :)

gluten free, corn free dinner rolls To make them corn free, and potato free I just subbed in tapioca flour and they turned out just great. They did have a hard time rising, but they still tasted so so yummy. I doubled the recipe and froze the leftovers. Today I microwaved a couple and they still tasted great.

I made a yummy pumpkin cheesecake subbing gluten free/ corn free flour for the regular flour, and using a gluten free cookie for the crumb. I love the cheesecake and think it's way better than regular pumpkin pie, I'm sure the baby is loving it too, but probably my expanding belly will be showing quite a bit more very soon :)

My third favorite recipe, which I didn't make for thanksgiving, but crave it frequently is gf/cf waffles/pancakes. They are so yummy. Jared even liked them and was asking for more. (You do have to use a special baking powder mix, but it's just baking soda and cream of tartar.

Okay, one more. Homemade tortillas!! I really love these. It makes me feel not so left out when I'm making yummy grilled quesadillas for my family:) I do have to modify the recipe to make it corn free, but she tells you how to do it. If you have questions you can leave me a message and I'd love to help.

I am so thankful that we were able to finally figure out why I felt so horrible. Living without so many different foods is definitely not easy, but it is so worth it to be able to feel better. I am thankful for all the people who have put so much work into finding yummy food to eat even with food allergies. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!

It's A .....

2010-11-15T18:42:00.001-07:00

Can you believe it!?! It's true, we're going to be seeing blue! I had my ultrasound today and the baby looks healthy, which is great. He showed himself for a second and then curled back up into a little ball, but the doctor is sure. We're having a BOY!!! We are all very excited. (I had to post all three pictures because different girls looked good in each one :))

Happy Halloween

2010-11-05T21:46:00.000-06:00

I wanted the girls to be different things for Halloween this year, like the 3 little pigs and a big bad wolf, or characters from The Wizard of Oz, but in the end I decided they'd have more fun if they got to pick what they wanted to be. Rachel went as Alice in Wonderland. I couldn't capture how perfect she fit the character on the camera, but I felt like Alice was sitting on my couch. Aliza went as Belle, Madeline went as Cinderella getting married :), and Amaya went as a ladybug. I don't have a picture of that, but this picture of her in a duck costume was too cute. She put herself in this basket and probably would have slept there if I let her. She looked like a cute little puppy or kitten curled up in her bed.
We had a fun time going downtown to the stores for trick or treating, and then to our church trunk-or-treat. I went as a "mummy to be" and Jared went as Andre Kirilinko with his old crazy hair style.

October Preschool

2010-10-31T14:42:00.000-06:00

For the month of October, Rachel and Aliza got to go to play school at one of the local highschools. It was every morning from 8:00-10:30. The girls had a lot of fun, and actually did pretty good getting up so early. They usually wake up around 8:00. It was nice to have some time with just Madeline and Amaya, but the time each day really went quickly and I was surprised at how little I got accomplished.
Aliza's favorite thing about preschool was eating the snack. "When we last had the snack it had sprinkles and it was really yummy"
Rachel's favorite thing about play school was "playing at N.. High with Trinity, and we played mom, and it was really fun"

Hair braiding by Madeline

2010-10-31T14:28:00.000-06:00

Madeline is VERY into doing her own hair. She almost always does it by herself, and she actually does a pretty good job. Lately she has been telling me that she wants to learn how to braid hair. We were at D.I. and she found this pink horse. Perfect for hair braiding :) I gave her one lesson on how to do it and she picked up braiding immediately! This was only her second time ever braiding hair. I think we have a future beautician on our hands :)

Other things about Madeline... She turned five this year, so we were planning on her going to kindergarden, but as it was getting closer and closer, I really felt like it was not right for her to go to the elementary school (right behind I our house, I might add). I didn't really know what to do, because I really did not want to homeschool. Life is crazy as it is, but as things worked out, the right school for Madeline to go to this year is an Online Charter School (Connections Academey), which means homeschooling for me. Yikes.

It is a really neat program actually, and is publically funded, so all of the school supplies and lessons are sent to us. Every day I go to a website to know what lessons I'm suppose to teach that day. I have things I like and dislike about it. I know this was the right option for Madeline though. It has been a struggle for me to spend 3 hours a day teaching her, but it has also been fun to see her learn and to see the other girls learn as well. I do not know if I'll do this again next year, but it has been a good learning experience.

I think the most important thing is following the promptings we are given. Public School was not what Madeline was suppose to do this year. I know blessings come when we are obedient.

Computer Desk

2010-10-31T14:00:00.001-06:00

I've been meaning to post this desk for a while, but I have to admit, I haven't totally finished it. I was waiting to post until it was all done, but it's okay. I'll post it now, and just know for the future to not bring my projects inside until I'm completely done :)
I got the base of my plans from Ana White's blog, but modified this desk to my liking. The plans were actually the tryde coffee table for the base and the balin console table for the hutch. If you'll notice on her blog, I left out the drawers on the console table and just made the spaces on top able to fit containers I already had. I also measured ahead of time to make the legs on the hutch tall enough for our monitor, or one slightly larger, to fit underneath. I made two separate desks, so we can have them separate or together. I guess I made a lot of changes, which is probably why it took longer, but I increased the length of the legs, the length and width of the desk, and added cupboards to hide all of our junk :)
I really like how our computer desk turned out. It turned into a much bigger project than I expected, but I love the end result, so I'm happy I did it. Thanks so much to Ana White for being so generous with free plans, and for inspiring me :)

April 15, 2011

2010-10-24T15:49:00.003-06:00

In case you didn't understand the underlying meaning of the post with the shirts I made for the girls, I'm pregnant!! :) I'm just past 15 weeks, and thankfully feeling much better than I did in the first trimester. I'm due April 15, 2011. We are very excited. Let us know what you think it will be.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Jared is pretty much recovered, and didn't get stitches. A friend of mine told me to use the skin on the egg shell on his cut and it would work just like stitches. I did that and I think it worked pretty well! Also, I wasn't mad like the filmer thought I'd be, I think I'll even let Jared play again next week :)

Church Basketball Injury

2010-10-21T17:07:00.001-06:00

Crafty Freezer Shirts

2010-10-16T09:50:00.001-06:00

I've been wanting to try out this craft idea for a while. I used my friend Tristan's cricut to cut out the words and then ironed on the freezer paper then used fabric medium and toll paint to fill in the blank spots. It was such an easy project. They don't look homemade, and the girls have matching shirts which is my favorite.

Freedom at Church!

2010-09-27T20:48:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a milestone day for Amaya. She is officially old enough to go to Nursery!! Yipee! She did great. She didn't cry and seemed to have a good time. It was definitely nice for Jared and I to be able to actually listen to the 2nd and 3rd hours of church.

Yesterday was also another first for Amaya... she broke her first bone. It's actually the first bone any of our kids have broken. After church we were sitting on the trampoline and Amaya put a purse on her head and was walking around. Silly, I know, but just before Jared could get her she stepped off the edge of the trampline. She landed on her shoulder and broke her collar bone. Ouch! She actually is doing really well. She is one cute, tough 18 month old girl!

Aliza's Golden Birthday

2010-09-12T16:01:00.001-06:00

Aliza turned 4 on the 4th of July. She was trying to show us that she is 4, but it looks like 5 instead. She loves Belle, so I made her a Belle dress and a Belle cake. I was not in the mood for making an elaborate cake, so I was thankful my parents gave Aliza a small Belle doll. Perfect for the cake :) Aliza is such a sweet girl. We love her so much!

Sleeping Beauty Madeline

2010-09-12T15:55:00.000-06:00

I think this was on July 3rd. We must have worn the girls out that day. I came inside and found Madeline sleeping like this. She got the balloon for her birthday and loved it every minute. She took the balloon outside and of course it ended up flying away. It was a tragedy. I felt bad so I got her another one and told her not to take it outside. Well, not too long after that she took it outside. It blew away again. Too bad. Luckily, my Aunt Kim sent her a dollar for her birthday and with that money she got a third balloon. She kept this one for longer, but I think it eventually ended up outside too. Maybe she'll learn next year :)

Fireworks

2010-09-12T15:50:00.000-06:00

We did family fireworks this year on the 3rd of July. It was really fun. The girls all loved it, except for Aliza, and she sat on my lap most of the time covering her eyes. We didn't go anywhere to watch big fireworks, but were actually able to see a lot of good smaller firework shows right from our backyard. That's my idea of a good night. Rachel was the only child awake so it was fun having Daddy/Mommy time with Rachel. God Bless America!

Nintendo 64 is in the House

2010-09-12T15:41:00.000-06:00

Ever since we've been married Jared has wanted to get a Nintendo 64. He's seen a fair share at garage sales, but I never gave in. Until this summer. :) It was too good of a deal to pass up, ($8 for the system, controllers, and 5 games). The girls have had fun playing Mario Smash Brothers. Jared and I play Dr. Mario whenever I'm willing to play... about 2 times a month :)

Rachel Feeding Goats at the fair.

2010-08-29T14:02:00.002-06:00

We had a lot of fun at the fair this past week. Jared worked for a couple hours at a work booth at the fair, so we decided to go and meet him when he was done. The girls loved feeding the goats. Rachel giggled every time the goats licked her hand. It made me laugh. The girls primary president treated them to icees, which was perfect because it was HOT. The high for the day was 104. The high for the next day was 76! We had a great time.

Bonneville Hot Springs

2010-08-29T13:57:00.001-06:00

Jared took Friday off this week. On Thursday we went to State Fair in Boise and on Friday we decided to go camping. It was SO much fun! We got to our campground and then went on a little hike (less than 1/2 mile) to a river with hot springs running into it. It's called Bonneville Hot Springs, and it was one of my favorite camping trips ever! The water temperature was perfect, and the depth for our kids was great. Camping was good too. It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be, and we had a lot of fun eating canned food and telling stories around the campfire. Jared said that it was maybe the easiest fire he ever started because everything was so dry. Jared did almost all the work getting everything together, which always gives me more motivation to go camping :) I just love going into the mountains and getting a breath of fresh air.

Dust if You Must...

2010-08-18T22:50:00.004-06:00

Tonight I was organizing my file cabinet and came across this poem. I think it was given to me from my Grandma Spencer because it looks like her handwriting at the top. Thanks Grandma!

"I can't tell you how many countless hours that I have spent CLEANING! I use to spend at least 8 hours every weekend making sure things were just perfect- "in case someone came over"-. Then I realized one day that no one came over; they were all out living life and having fun!

Now, when people visit, I find no need to explain the "condition" of my home. They are more interested in hearing about the things I've been doing while I was away living life and having fun. If you haven't figured this out yet, please heed this advice.

Life is short. Enjoy it! Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better to paint a picture or write a letter, bake a cake or plant a seed, ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must, but there's not much time,
with rivers to swim and mountains to climb,
music to hear and books to read,
friends to cherish and life to lead.

Dust if you must, but the world's out there
with the sun in your eyes, and the wind in your hair,
a flutter of snow, a shower of rain.
This day will not come around again.

Dust if you must, but bear in mind,
old age will come and it's not kind.
And when you go- and go you must-
you, yourself will make more dust!

It's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived. "

I just love this! It is how I try to live my life. I wish I could have both worlds, but I'd rather be on the enjoying side of life. Of course there are times very often :) when we must clean, but is it a want or need?

Amaya at 16 months

2010-07-28T22:44:00.000-06:00

Amaya is at such a fun age right now. She's starting to talk and says, "gog" for dog, momma, dadda and also has her own language. I tell her to say Madeline and she makes a three syllable sound. Amaya has so much fun playing with the girls. We tried to keep her away from the trampoline at the start of the summer, but she figured out how to climb the ladder to get up. She gets very angry if she is not included. Amaya is a tease, maybe even the biggest of all the kids. I often think she will start screaming soon as I watch the kids tease her, but she just teases back, or is the one that started it in the first place. Amaya will sit on almost anyones lap for a long time, just relaxing. She LOVES animals. Jared is very happy he finally got an animal lover.
Amaya is so sweet and fun. We love her so much!

Little Miss Rachelina Ballerina

2010-07-28T22:27:00.001-06:00

Rachel just turned three and she is full of spunk and mischeif. I love her so much. She is curious about everything so I can't leave her alone for too long or she'll get into trouble :) She loves playing with her sisters and gets along really well with Amaya. Rachel can already do flips on our hanging trapeze thing on our swingset. Madeline told me that Rachel taught her how to do it. She is pretty cuddly and loves it when I read stories to her. Rachel's favorite color is purple, her favorite food is probably peanut butter and jelly and treats (she sneaks them the most) and her favorite princess changes from Cinderella to Snow White. She ALWAYS wants to sleep on the floor. If I put her in her bed she ends up on the floor by the morning.

Rachel adds so much joy to our lives. We are so glad she's part of our family.

Aliza Q, We love you

2010-07-28T22:15:00.000-06:00

Aliza is so fun and full of personality. Sometimes she is very calm and cuddly and others she is full of energy. I think she is the most athletic of the girls. She is a little bit of a tease, but is alot of fun. Aliza loves jumping on the trampoline and just learned how to pump on the swing. Her favorite color is yellow and her favorite princess is Belle. Aliza's favorite food right now is quesadillas with ketchup. She is very good at remembering peoples names. For her birthday Jared took Aliza to McDonalds and later told me that she wasn't playing on the toys at all, but just watching all the kids. That is very typical of her.

We love our little Aliza. She is a great part of our family.

Memories for Madeline

2010-07-28T21:46:00.000-06:00

I've been meaning to post about each of the girls on their birthday, but it's been a busy summer, so I'm trying to catch up now...

Madeline is such a sweet girl. She is usually very helpful with her sisters and helps me clean when the other girls won't. Madeline is a definite perfectionist. She gets very frustrated and angry when things aren't exactly perfect. She loves to wear dresses and told me that she wanted her birthday dress to not be a Sunday dress because she wanted to be able to wear it every day.
Madeline LOVES to color and draw. She will spend hours coloring if she has a coloring book she likes. She also loves being read to. I just started reading the Secret Garden with her. Her favorite color is pink and then all the colors, her favorite food is "Ramo" (Ramen) Noodles, her favorite princess is Sleeping Beauty.

I am so thankful for our sweet Madeline. She is a great little girl!

Rocking Chair Remake

2010-07-28T16:03:00.004-06:00

At the start of garage sale season I found a rocking chair for $5 It was definitely needing some TLC, but I saw potential in it and fell in love... I went ahead and took before/ after pictures and I'm so glad I did. Now I have a nice rocking chair and it only cost about $10

** When I took off the old fabric and padding there was SO much dust/dirt. It was disgusting! At least 1/2 cup!

Madeline's First Friend Party!

2010-07-01T21:59:00.004-06:00

Madeline got to have a friend party this year since she turned five. How exciting! Parties are a lot of work! My house was not nearly as clean as I wanted it, but the kids didn't know better and all seemed to have a lot of fun. Madeline wanted girls only, which worked out fine since she mostly just has girl friends. Madeline loves Sleeping Beauty and wanted a Sleeping Beauty cake. She told us that this was not Sleeping Beauty, but a barbie cake. She was happy though, so that's good.
We played pin the crown on the princess. I was not prepared when the kids got there though so I still needed to draw the princess. I was amazed that all the girls wanted to watch me draw. It made me happy that I was entertaining them :)
Then I read them the story of the Princess and the Pea and then had each of them sit on three pillows and then tell me which one had the "pea" (really a key lime) under it. After they were "real princesses" they got a princess headband.
Jared came home from work for the party, which I was SO thankful for. He ended up going outside with all the kids (12 or 13) and playing with them while the moms stayed inside and talked. How nice!
I felt like it was a great success. Thanks to my friend Tristan and Jared especially!

Bathing with clothes on

2010-06-16T22:23:00.000-06:00

Yesterday after giving all the girls a bath I put Amaya into her clothes and went to get other things. Aliza was still in the bath and a second later I checked on her. Sure enough Amaya decided to join Aliza. This is the 2nd or 3rd time she's done this. I don't remember my other kids doing this. She looked too cute not to take a picture. :)

Adriondack Bench

2010-06-15T18:29:00.002-06:00

I just finished making this bench from knock off wood, and I'm so happy with how it turned out. I definitely made some mistakes along the way, but I think it looks good. It's made of pine and I put a cedar deck finish on it- I have no idea if that's the right thing to do, but we already had it and I knew it would be good for outside. I spent right around $60, and did have a $10 off coupon :) I want to make one or two small adriondack benches for the kids now. How fun!
I'll put specific cuts and wood sizes to get on here soon.
This is the first official pattern I've followed completely from Ana White, and it was great. I'm so happy I've found a new hobby.

Aliza and Mommy

2010-06-13T20:26:00.000-06:00

Aliza and I had fun a couple Sunday's ago taking pictures. What a little cutie. I love Aliza. She is getting so big! She has been afraid of movies for a while, but today finally watched "A-ria" (Maria- Sound of Music) She's been listening to the music every night for the last 2 weeks. They all LOVE the Sound of Music. Aliza is our athletic girl. She loves jumping on the trampoline. One of my favorite things is when she comes up and gives me a quick hug or a kiss and then runs off to play. Aliza's "Belle" and always tells me she wants a bell dress up for her birthday. Yellow is her favorite color, and I think it's because it's color of Belle's dress. I love Aliza!

Yellowstone Pictures

2010-06-13T20:09:00.001-06:00

I'm finally putting up pictures of our Yellowstone trip. It was so much fun! I really liked seeing the two bald eagles in their nest. This home is the home I lived in (in Iona) when I was 6-12 years old. It was really fun going and visiting, it brought back great childhood memories.
Aliza really loved Uncle Calvin. She sat on his lap every chance she got. We didn't get a picture of the Idaho Falls Temple because it was snowing so hard when we were there, but we did get pictures at the Rexburg Temple. I'm glad that there are temples all over the world. It's such a neat stop to make along the way.
It was also really nice being able to visit Jared's Uncle and Aunts along the way. We stayed at Uncle Calvin and Aunt Ann's house. We were able to get to know them and that was fun.

My new obsession: Knock- off Wood

2010-06-03T21:56:00.002-06:00

A little while ago I found a website called knock-off wood.com. Little did I know that it would change my life forever. Really. Now I don't think I'll ever buy a piece of wood furniture. Soon after I found this blog it was Mother's Day. Jared asked me what I wanted and I said a saw. I don't expect anything on Mother's day so I was VERY happily surprised when he bought me a circular saw. I warned him that he was supporting my craziness :) He said he was okay with it as long as I read the instructions :)
So for my first project I, being the cheap person that I am, didn't want to buy wood in case the project was a disaster. A guy I know knew where I could get some free wood crates so I went with him and he helped me pick some good wood. I've always wanted a bench for our front sitting area so I decided that would be my first project. I got the ideas for this bench from Ana White's farmhouse bench, but I wanted to add a shelf so I could put baskets and enough room for shoes underneath.
At night I had such a hard time sleeping because my mind was constantly thinking about this project. The bench ended up pretty different from the actual bench, but I am SO happy for the base idea. I would not have done this without Ana's inspiration.
I finished the bench tonight after adding a min wax antique walnut finish to it. My one regret is that I didn't take before and after pictures. I SO wish I would have. This project cost me less than $10! I love using reclaimed wood.
I've already gone to the wood pile to get another crate and I can't wait to start my next project. I feel so rejuvenated building furniture. I feel so cool! I think Ana White is amazing! Here's a really neat story about her, read it! Maybe you'll ask your husband for a circular saw too :) Now I really am the one to wear the pants in our relationship. :) hahaha

The color of door number one is....

2010-06-03T21:54:00.004-06:00

Green!! I might add window boxes to add green in other places, but Jared doesn't want me to.... I guess you'll have to convince him :) I thought this was a cute picture with Jared and the girls. Amaya's stared giving me cheesy smiles and I love it! (we recently got "new" couches, also in the picture, they are SO much better than our old ones!!)

Cakes

2010-05-30T22:03:00.001-06:00

I've made a couple cakes recently. A girl at church got married a couple weekends ago so I made this wedding cake. The roses are made out of moldable chocolate- kind of cool! I think they might take longer than frosting flowers, but they're more user friendly.
The other cake was a real solvable sudoku cake. I left extra frosting so the girl could finish the puzzle.

Yellowstone Trip

2010-05-23T20:39:00.004-06:00

We wanted another break from our routine life, so we went to yellowstone. We drove to Craters of the Moon first and hiked a 0.7 mile hike in the wind, which was mostly fun. The rock is amazingly lava like. I'm glad we missed the eruption thousands of years ago. Madeline said her favorite part of the trip was pushing the button at the museum to start the movie.

Then we stayed at Uncle Calvin's in Rigby. His house is very peaceful. He has a huge aquarium in his house and cool bird feeders by his living room window. The girls loved playing with their toys.

Then off to Yellowstone on Friday morning. It was suppose to snow, but it wasn't too bad. There were hundreds of buffalo and lots of elk. We saw 2 bald eagles and some osprey. At Old Faithful, it started to snow and it was cold. Most of the girls were crying at this point, so we didn't stay long. We stopped a lot to observe the buffalo herds close to the roads. They were so close, it was like three dimensional television. There were about 2-1 adults-to-baby ratio of buffalo.

On Saturday, we visited some cousins I haven't seen in years. That was fun. Then off to Iona, where Jen visited some childhood houses and schools.

We also stopped at Rexburg to walk around the new temple. At Idaho Falls, we attempted to, but it was snowing so hard, we went back to the car.

Lastly, we visited Uncle George. They are doing great and it's good to catch up on family. We also visited by grandparents tombs in Pocatello and saw the home were my mom grew up.

Craters of the Moon

Sitting in the car watching Buffalo

Twilight Changing Unites States' Naming Trends

2010-05-09T19:27:00.003-06:00

Hypothesis: The Twilight Series would have a great effect on the naming trends within the United States. The social security online publishes the popularity of baby names. The higher the rank the higher the popularity, with number one meaning the most popular name. The book came out in 2005, so I copied the last ten years getting the trend both before and after the book.

Results: As you can see below, Bella was already on the rise before the book, going from 749th rank up to 208th in 2005. But in the last five years, it has continued to increase each year and has broken the top 100 for the first time in 2009 with the 58th most popular female name.

Isabella as well was already on the rise before the book, but since the book has been published, the name went from sixth to first. 2009 was the first time that Isabella was ranked number one in the United States, taking over Emma.

The Male characters in the book are not as influenced. Edward is decreasing in popularity since the book was published. Jacob was number one before and after the book, so it is hard to measure the effect.

Disclaimer: I have not read the book, but my wife has. Thank you.

Bella
Year Rank
2009 58
2008 122
2007 159
2006 181
2005 208
2004 260
2003 318
2002 428
2001 609
2000 749

Isabella
Year Rank
2009 1
2008 2
2007 2
2006 4
2005 6
2004 7
2003 11
2002 14
2001 28
2000 45

Edward
Year Rank
2009 137
2008 148
2007 145
2006 141
2005 134
2004 129
2003 130
2002 119
2001 113
2000 108

Jacob
Year Rank
2009 1
2008 1
2007 1
2006 1
2005 1
2004 1
2003 1
2002 1
2001 1
2000 1

source:
http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/babyname.cgi

Pretty Creamy Yellow House

2010-04-28T22:47:00.004-06:00

Here's our newly painted house! It's not actually totally finished, but I'm trying to decide what color to paint the front door. PLEASE help me decide! I could just keep it white, but I kind of want it to stand out, it could be yellow, like the house, or it could be some different color... I'm open to ideas! It's fun having a new house :)

M 4

2010-04-28T22:47:00.000-06:00

The other day we were playing outside with chalk. Madeline came out and had this written on her forhead "M 4". I'm glad she branded herself like this- Madeline, who's four- too cute!

please excuse the messy food face :)

House

2010-04-25T18:10:00.000-06:00

The other night while Jared was at scouts I put the girls to bed (kind of) and then went outside to work in the garden. It's right by their window, so I knew I'd be able to hear them if something was wrong. After a while of working in the garden I saw the cutest thing... they were all (even Amaya) looking out the window. I had to grab the camera to take a picture.
The house looked so pretty after I got the garden mostly weeded so I took a picture of the house and then realized it was a good thing I did because we're getting our house painted! It needed a piant job SO bad, and I'm so excited to see what it looks like when it's done. Picking colors for a house is a scary thing... I hope it looks good! The house should be all painted by Tuesday or Wednesday this week, then I'll post pictures. How exciting!

Late Easter Egg Hunt

2010-04-25T17:59:00.000-06:00

I got all the Easter eggs ready on Easter but it was too cold to actually do the Easter Egg Hunt, and then it got procrastinated until about 2 weeks later... that's okay it was still fun :) The girls loved it!

"The flowers came Up..."

2010-04-23T11:38:00.004-06:00

My favorite part was that the girls were both saying the "flowers came up" instead of "floods came up". The girls LOVE singing, especially Madeline.

Amaya the Climber

2010-04-23T11:24:00.002-06:00

Amaya loves climbing. I got this cute video of her the other day. We ended up moving the book holder so she won't climb up and hurt herself. :)

Fun Pictures

2010-04-23T09:32:00.002-06:00

One of the girls favorite things to do is play on the computer. I'm really excited about this new website helping kids read the scriptures.
Amaya likes to sit in the refrigerator, whenever I open it she comes running (well, walking fast :))
When we colored Easter eggs Aliza decided to eat the egg BEFORE it was peeled. She was even chewing the shell. Yuck! I couldn't get a good picture, but you can see she bit into it. :)

Strawberries

2010-04-23T08:37:00.000-06:00

The other day we had a full container of strawberries in our refridgerator. I knew Rachel had gotten into them, but I was busy doing something and wasn't really worried about it because I thought she would just eat a couple... and she was being quiet :) but then she got too quiet and I went into the kitchen to see this. Rachel sharing the strawberries with Amaya. It was too cute. They ate almost the full pound of strawberries! Good thing they weren't too expensive :)

Pictures from Seattle

2010-04-11T19:55:00.002-06:00

I had a great, relaxing time on our trip. It was a much needed break for both of us. My favorite parts of the trip were going to the waterfall and on the ferry ride. It was so nice to be able to hold hands with Jared for 3 straight days. I think I took holding hands for granted before I had kids... I'm so thankful Jared's mom could watch the kids and that they were healthy enough for us to actually go. It was a great trip with great memories.

Seattle, Washington Trip through the Eyes of a Tourist

2010-04-11T17:35:00.002-06:00

Jen and I went to Seattle Washington this weekend. Grandma Pratt came to watch the kids (thanks a ton Mom). We were happy that our plans worked out. We drove and stopped at the Columbia River Temple in the Tri-city area in Washington. We went and they said the only thing open was janitorial cleaning, so we washed windows for 1.5 hours. Then we spent one day as a tourist in Seattle. We planned on going to Vancouver to see the LDS Vancouver open house in British Columbia, but we couldn't find Jen's passport before we left, so we canceled that. We drove home on Friday. It was a nice break. Seattle was bigger than I expected and very pretty. Enjoy these videos from our trip.

Snoqualmie Falls

Orgosy 60 Minute Cruise

Space Needle at the Base

Space Needle at the Top

Pike's Market Place

Seattle Aquarium (Octopus eating anchovies)

Jen Stocking Deer (like the Vampire Edward)

Seattle Washington Temple (our hotel was really close to here.)

Mom's April Fool Joke at Dinner

2010-04-11T11:40:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday Amaya

2010-03-28T20:09:00.005-06:00

Amaya had fun eating her cake. I'd say she was the most aggressive of all the kids, but she wasn't that messy really. She was really angry when we took the cake from her though. What a cutie.
(Our neighbor Lupe came for the family party.)

Lucky

2010-03-28T19:49:00.001-06:00

I've always liked St. Patricks Day. This year I made taco salad for dinner, complete with green rice, guacamole, green juice, and corn for the gold. Aliza wore green all day and then for dinner decided she wanted to change.
I am a very LUCKY woman. Lucky to have a great husband. Lucky to be able to stay at home with my kids. Lucky to be able to have 4 beautiful girls. Lucky to have great parents and in-laws. Lucky to have a loving extended family. Lucky to have the gospel. Lucky to have friends. Lucky to live.

Fun Pictures

2010-03-22T20:48:00.010-06:00

Just some fun pictures from the last couple weeks. Amaya's hair is officially long enough to put into a tiny ponytail. She has the least hair out of all the girls. Madeline loves carrying around her little sisters. It's especially funny and cute when she carries around Rachel. I love our cute kids.

Amaya's ONE!!!

2010-03-22T20:48:00.007-06:00

Amaya is one year old today! This year has gone so fast. She is such a sweet little baby. I love Amaya so much. Her personality is really coming out lately.
A couple weeks ago she started taking a few steps and now she walks as much, if not more than she crawls. She has 4 teeth and is our pickiest eater out of all the kids- at least at this stage of life. She loves oranges and dislikes cheerios. What baby doesn't like cheerios? Whenever she doesn't like the food I've given her, or the when she's done with her food she drops it off of her plate. I don't remember any of our other kids doing it as much as she does.
Just this week Amaya has started loving baby dolls. I love that my girls just naturally love baby dolls. The older girls are having a lot of fun teaching Amaya new things... how to shake her head to say no, playing ring around the rosies, and how to say things like "mama" and "daddy". It's very cute. I love seeing them interact. So Amaya can officially say, "mama", "dad-da", and "ah-oh". She's learning so much! Another favorite of Amaya's is climbing on chairs. I think we have another climber on our hands :)
We love Amaya and are so thankful she is part of our family.

Fun at the Rec Center

2010-02-27T21:13:00.002-07:00

Last night we went on a great DATE. That's right, a date... no kids! We went to the rec. center and rock climbed, lifted some weights, swam laps, sat in the hot tub, and sauna. It was SO nice! I was tempted to go to a movie at the dollar theater because I had a cavity filled earlier, but decided otherwise, and boy am I happy I did! Jared and I both had a great time! I would swim every day if I could. When I went to BYU and BYU Hawaii I swam at least 3 times a week.

Going on dates is SO great for marriage! I already knew that, but last night was a great reminder.

Piano Lessons and Story Time

2010-02-25T21:29:00.000-07:00

The other night for Family Home Evening Jared taught Madeline and the other girls a basic piano lesson. We were given some recorders so every Monday night we bring those out and let them play them. Maybe we'll have some musical kids.

All of our girls really love having us read to them. We recently got a book of mormon story book for kids, which they absoutely LOVE. It's fun being able to tell them stories from the book of mormon in simpler words.

Valentine's Day (Wedding) Dress

2010-02-25T21:12:00.001-07:00

The girls have been begging me for a while to wear my wedding dress. They are OBSESSED with princess stuff right now. OBSESSED :) I thought Valentine's Day Sunday would be a good day to try it on. I'm happy to say that after almost 6 years, and 4 kids later, it fits great. It was really fun watching the girls be so excited about the dress. I had them carry the train while I hummed the wedding song. I think we might make it a yearly tradition :) Why have a wedding dress just stored in the closet?

Happy Late Valentines Day

2010-02-16T21:30:00.003-07:00

I bought this garland at the dollar store and before I put it up Amaya was just having too much fun playing with it. (This was taken a couple weeks ago)

Another Week at the Hospital

2010-02-16T21:19:00.002-07:00

This past week ended up being quite a bit different than expected... Jared and I planned on going to Little Rock Arkansas because Jared had a business trip and I was going to tag along. That didn't end up happening. Earlier in the week Rachel got kind of sick and by Sunday Aliza was pretty sick, so we decided to take her in to quick care before leaving just to make sure everything was okay. (My mom got here on Sunday afternoon to watch the girls for the week)

Much to my surprise Aliza didn't get to come home. Her oxygen levels weren't high enough so she got admitted into the hospital and was diagnosed with pneumonia. Yikes! We sadly canceled our flights for the next morning and hoped we might possibly go later. We didn't end up going on our trip at all, but it ended up being okay because the first day of Jared's training was canceled because of snow. I will be able to use the money for the ticket some other time, so it's nice to know we have a trip coming up sometime in the future.

Aliza didn't get to come out of the hospital until Thursday. She has RAD -Reactive Airway Disease (basically a different name for Asthma) I felt so bad for her. Jared stayed with her most of the time so my mom and I could spend time with each other and so I could take care of the other sick kids at the house. I took Amaya to the doctor on Wednesday and she had a double ear infection and was developing bronchitis. The other girls were sick with similar things. Wow!

Thankfully by the time Aliza came home everyone was pretty much better. Aliza was SO happy to be home. My mom and I actually took the girls to the Temple so we were gone when Jared and Aliza got home. Aliza said, "Hey, where is everybody?" We got home shortly after. The girls were all so happy to see each other. They just played and were happy.

I was pretty sad at the start of the week, but everything worked out well. Little Rock had bad weather, my mom was up here to help with the kids, we took Aliza in and caught the pneumonia early, we were able to feel love from our church members and family, Jared already had time off from work and was able to use his sick leave, my testimony of the love Heavenly Father has for me grew. Everything worked out. I'm very thankful for so many things in my life. I am thankful Aliza is okay and that we have the medicine to help her stay healthy.

I am so happy my mom was here to help. It would have been much more difficult without her. I took her to the airport on Saturday afternoon.

Later Saturday afternoon we ended up going back to the E.R. This time for Amaya. We had an electric heater up high on an end table and somehow she got on the couch and then onto the arm of the couch and pulled the heater onto her face. It left two long stripes down her face, and some burns on her hand. We took her to the E.R. and the Dr. said they were 2rd and 3nd degree burns. I gave Amaya medicine right after it happened, and thought it would be a rough night, but she did and has done really well with everything. She is such a little sweetheart. We hope that the burns will heal properly. They actually already look much better.

I am thankful she wasn't hurt worse. (The picture doesn't do her poor burns justice, also, she pulled off the sock keeping her bandage on and put it in her mouth) Let's pray that we'll stay out of the hospital for the next while...

Happy President's Day

2010-02-15T10:32:00.002-07:00

Picture Session

2010-01-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

I had fun taking pictures of the girls. I of course bribed them with candy afterwards... Madeline and Rachel did good when I took their pictures but Aliza wasn't really cooperating and Amaya was sleeping. It's fun having matching shirts for everyone. I'm sure they won't do it when they're older, but for now I like it.

Curlers

2010-01-14T16:09:00.000-07:00

We just started going to church at 9:00 a.m. Yikes! That's early to get 4 kids ready and out the door, but we've had 2 successful weeks so far... sucessful meaning we got there before it started :) The first week I put curlers in the girls hair. I was going to take a picture with it all done, and actually almost did on Sunday morning because they all looked so cute eating breakfast with their backs turned to me...but my camera's batteries were dead... bummer. So I'll remember the image forever in my head... 3 cute girls with curly hair in pretty red plaid Christmas dresses. So precious.
I love curler pictures and they all cooperated so nicely! Maybe we'll have curly hair all year:)

Grandpa and Grandma Spencer's house

2010-01-14T16:01:00.001-07:00

I forgot some pictures from Christmas... we went up to my grandparents house the Sunday after Christmas for a Chinese New Years party. It was alot of fun and good to see everyone. I was pretty excited on the way up to Heber because I spotted a bald eagle. It might be the first bald eagle I've ever spotted (usually Jared has to point them out to me). We pulled over and watched it for a second and then saw it fly off. We stopped again a little way down the road to watch it again. I love driving down Provo Canyon.

Christmas with the Pratts

2010-01-08T21:06:00.001-07:00

We went to the Pratt's on Christmas Day and had a fun time playing games and hanging out. On the 30th we celebrated New Years Eve because it's the day that worked for everyone. We went sledding in the afternoon with the Parkers and the Provo Pratts. It was the perfect day for sledding. We dropped Amaya off at my parents house and Rachel fell asleep in the car, so we just had Madeline and Aliza. They both loved it, especially Aliza. We had a lot of fun. Rachel woke up towards the end and slid town twice and that was good for her :) Rachel really doesn't like the cold. For the night before New Years Eve we went to Michael and Mary's house for the celebration. It was so fun playing games and eating yummy food. Lisa made really cute dolls for all the little girls and now I want to make some too! Thanks for the fun times!

Christmas with the Smiths

2010-01-07T21:04:00.001-07:00

We had a great Christmas with both families. On Christmas Eve we went to my sister Melissa's house and played bingo, ate yummy food, acted out the Nativity, exchanged presents, and just had fun. We spent half of Christmas day with the Smith's. My parents gave the girls dress-up clothes, which they LOVE. They wear them every day, all day if I let them. It was fun being able to be with family for Christmas. Thanks for all the great presents too.

Christmas Vacation- Day 1

2010-01-07T09:16:00.001-07:00

We went to Utah for Christmas break. My best friend from highschool, Alissa (Randall) Haines was visiting her in-laws so we were able to drop in and see her and her family. It was so fun being able to see Alissa again. It's been way too long. That night we decided to visit and stay at my Grandpa and Grandma Smith's house. The girls loved playing with all of their toys. My grandparents said some of the toys were toys my dad played with!
I'm so glad we were able to visit The Haines and my Grandparents. It was a great start to our trip.

Santa Came Early...

2010-01-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

Santa didn't want to take the Christmas presents to Utah so instead he came to our house two days early. The girls were really excited, and it was really nice having our own Christmas morning for the girls to enjoy. We opened presents in the morning, let the girls play with their new toys and then left for Utah.
The first present they each opened was a set of books. I was pretty excited because they didn't even care to open their other presents, they just wanted to read. When they did open their toy present the books went to the side and were forgotten for a while :) Madeline got a camera and used it for 2 hours straight in the car until the batteries died. Maybe she'll be a photographer one day. Aliza opened up a baby before Rachel opened up her baby and Rachel got really sad. She said, "I didn't get a baby either" with a big pouty face. I quickly showed her the present she hadn't opened and she was so happy as she was openining it and seeing baby pictures. Good thing Santa got her a baby too :)
We had a very nice Christmas. I'm thankful for the Savior Jesus Christ and that we can celebrate his birth. The Christmas season was a good opportunity for us to teach our children more about the Savior and His love for each of us.

Apples Anyone?

2010-01-03T18:39:00.004-07:00

A while back I bought a box of apples for 25 cents/lb. Great deal! The apples weren't a variety I like to eat fresh so I decided the other day to turn them into something useful. (They were starting to go bad) I made apple butter. The girls had a lot of fun helping me get the apples ready. I still had more apples left so I made this recipe for apple muffins They were delicious. I added 3 cups of apples and 1 tsp cinnamon to the batter. I was disappointed the next day because my parents dog ate the rest of the bread. Bummer.

Hair Cut

2009-12-13T20:29:00.002-07:00

I've been thinking about getting my hair cut for a very long time, so I finally did it about a month ago. It is definitely nice not getting my hair pulled all the time, and now I actually take time to do my hair :)

Church Christmas Party & Santa Claus

2009-12-13T19:58:00.003-07:00

Happy Holidays everyone!! Last night we had our church Christmas party and it was so much fun. We don't have a picture of Rachel with Santa because she was freaking out... very scared. It was so funny how interested she was in him from far away, but there was no way that she was going to sit on his lap. Aliza was resistant to sitting on Santa's lap until she saw that candy was involved, and then she cheered right up :) Madeline was a little shy, but she told Santa she wants a Princess Computer for Christmas. I think if she got anything princess she would be totally happy. Amaya was just happy and staring at Santa's beard. The holiday's are getting more and more fun as our kids are getting older.

Playing in the Snow

2009-12-13T19:44:00.002-07:00

It's been very cold here the last week. Probably the coldest it's been since we've lived here. Usually the snow melts the same day it falls, but we've had the same snow for almost a week. I kind of like it...I think I'd like it more if we had a garage. It's fun having snow. It helps me get in the Christmas Spirit.

cute pictures

2009-12-13T19:35:00.001-07:00

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-12-13T18:49:00.005-07:00

It's better late than never right? :) My parents and two of my sisters, Carly and Kaylie came up for Thanksgiving. It was really nice having family here. To be honest I wasn't really feeling like making a huge meal, so I'm glad my mom was here to help. Jared and my Dad played turkey bowl in the morning while we watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade and prepared the big dinner.
Jared stayed at home with the girls in the early morning of the day after Thanksgiving so I could go out shopping with my family. I remember going every year when I was growing up, so it was fun to continue the tradition.
I love my family very much. I'm so thankful to be blessed with a good parents who raised me with much love. I am grateful to have a loving husband and children. They fill my life with JOY. Happy Holidays!

Happy Halloween!!

2009-11-16T10:40:00.002-07:00

We had a fun Halloween this year. The day before we went to the downtown stores for an early trick-or-treating. The girls dressed up in different clothes than the actual halloween day because we have too many costumes... We went to our church Halloween Party and trunk-or-treat on Halloween. Madeline was a monkey, Aliza was a cat, Rachel a panda and Amaya a tiger. I was pretty excited about the tiger costume because I got it that day at Old Navy for $2!
At the end of the trunk-or-treating we got home and Aliza started acting REALLY sick, sick like she was when she had to go to the hospital in March for phenumonia. I was really scared because her breathing was so labored. We had a friend come over and help Jared give her a priesthood blessing, and she got much better thankfully. We almost had taken her to the E.R. That night Madeline also got sick with croup, later Rachel also got sick. Thankfully they've all gotten better now. Let's hope it stays that way!!

Linder Farms

2009-11-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

It's our yearly tradition to go to Linder Farms for hay rides and the petting zoo. Madeline was actually big enough this year to try to figure out the mini hay (corn) maze. Jared and I actually went twice, once on a date to the corn maze, and once with our kids. The kids had a lot of fun feeding the animals, and actually got to get in with the goats to feed them.

More silly and cute faces!

2009-11-05T11:00:00.001-07:00

silly faces

2009-11-05T10:58:00.000-07:00

Madeline was having fun making her silly faces one night. What a cutie!

McCall, Idaho in September

2009-11-05T10:33:00.001-07:00

In September we were able to take a little family vacation to McCall, Idaho. A guy from church has a cabin on a lake up there and he let us stay there. The weather was BEAUTIFUL!! I wasn't sure if we would be able to go swimming because it was September, but the water actually felt really good... a little on the chilly side, but I was hot enough to want to jump in.
The girls loved playing on the dock. Jared chased them around for a long time on the dock. At one point I jumped in the water and swam each of the girls from the dock to the shore. It was fun acting like I was saving them.
It was so nice to just relax as a family. I think it was both mine and Jared's favorite family vacation ever. It was the first time we didn't have a set schedule or anywhere we had to be in a really long time. We went to the store that night and bought pizzas and popsicles for dinner.
We had heard about a hot springs so we decided to go to that the next day. It was a really interesting place... I felt like I was going back into the early 1900's. It was very rustic, but SO nice and relaxing! I'm not sure if I've ever been to a hot springs before, but I definitely want to go again. The weather was perfect because there was a little breeze so when you got out you weren't freezing, but not dying hot either. The kids had a lot of fun. We were pretty much the only people there and it was so nice.
Thinking back on this trip makes me want to do it again. This trip goes down in history as one of the great ones!

4 Little Girls

2009-10-27T15:15:00.001-06:00

One day I put a Baby Einstein movie on for the girls and came out to see this. They were all staring intently at the screen. It was too cute. It was probably at the end of the day in the summer:)

I just love getting the girls dressed up on Sundays. I didn't get one of all the girls smiling, but you get the idea. I love having 4 girls.

Heber Valley Camp

2009-10-27T14:50:00.001-06:00

While we were in Utah in August we had our Pratt family reunion at Heber Valley Camp. It was SO much fun! We stayed there for 2 nights. I love going in the mountains! It's so pretty up there. There weren't very many people at Camp Heber so we were able to go on the zip line a couple times. Madeline, Aliza and Rachel even got to "fly". It was really fun having most of the family together. Julie was even able to come up last minute from Texas. After our time at camp was done we went to "The Pratt Ranch" in Duschene, Utah, and then to Starvation Resevour for a little swim. Elizabeth and I swam for a while in the cold water. It felt SO refreshing! During the week we were also able to go to BYU and walk around campus. Such good memories! Go Cougars!

Utah in August -Smith's

2009-10-27T14:38:00.001-06:00

In August we went down to Utah again for a couple family reunions. My grandparent's celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, my dad and sister had their 50th and 17th birthday, and we had a Pratt family reunion. I made cakes all weekend, which was crazy, but they turned out well. It was fun being able to be there for the momentous occasions.