Helping Mom With the Coupons!

Cutting coupons is a weekly event in our household. . . sometimes even twice a week. It has actually been a great activity for the kids too. Ethan is happy as long as I am on the floor, Kate tries to sit in my lap and have me read books while I'm cutting, and McKenna has increased her cutting skills tremendously with her excitement to help!

McKenna cutting a Viva paper towels coupon.

Great job!

Kate loves to play clean-up!

And Ethan eats it all up! :)

Good Family Fun!

Halloween Princesses. . . oh, and jock!

While Halloween remains to be my least favortie major holiday. . . I have to admit, it is fun to see how cute my kids are all dressed up! We attended a Halloween party friday night at a friends, way fun! Then on saturday we went trunk-or-treating. . . or in our case stroller-or-treating. We put the stroller, with Ethan inside, in a parking spot next to our friends car and passed out candy from there. Anywho, Kate is the beautiful "Snow Wipe" and McKenna the dainty Princess Fairy.
And the E-Man went as a basketball jock. The plan was to get him a sweatband to wear, but I never made it out to the store to get one.

So, I feel I must explain WHY I don't like Halloween. I DO NOT LIKE TO BE SCARED. I do enjoy the cutesy part, dressing up my kids all fun. . . but there is always the dark side to Halloween. . . . I do not like how it makes me feel. So, there ya go. . . on to better holidays! :O)

Seven Year Anniversary

Seven years. . . wow! It's been great! We've had a lot of great times. It's funny, I know we have our troubles (usually caused by me), but I don't remember them. When I look back I see the positive. Must be a sign of a good life together. Thanks for making me happy babe!

Tyler and I were married October 12, 2002 in the Seattle, WA temple. Why the temple? Because in the temple we are given the opportunity to be married for time AND ALL ETERNITY. We are sealed together, and any children we bring into the world are sealed to us also. A forever family! Isn't it an amazing gift?!?!

Tyler and I met at BYU. He lived around the corner from me. Actually, he was my home teacher! :) We first met at a home teaching visit. . . he was so new off his mission, the constant smile, everything was wonderful. . . my roommates and I would laugh. After Christmas that school year I started my crush.

There is a saying - and I don't remember it word for word - coincidences are a gift from God. I truly believe that. It turns out our fondness of each other started to grow at the same time. Our first unofficial date we went skiing - neither of us had ever been before! That evening he put his arm around me, soon after he held my hand, then we kissed. And one day I decided I didn't want to live without him by my side. Tyler was such a sport for playing along! :) jk

Primary strengthens my testimony!

I wrote this blog entry last September and never got around to sending it. . . so here ya go!

So, I missed my 10 year reunion this weekend. . . . totally bummed. There were a few reasons we couldn't make it to the saturday night party, but there was a family option for a potluck on sunday aftnoon. I kept going back and forth about whether I felt it was appropriate to take my family on sunday. It was also McKenna's first primary program was this sunday (a primary program is where the children are the ones teaching us at church, they sing songs and give mini talks - for the case of McKenna it was a one-liner.)


I was resigning to the fact that I most likely would NOT be going to the reunion, when I decided to take a look at the phrase McKenna would be repeating for the primary program that sunday. . . .


"Keeping the Sabbath Day holy strengthens my family."


My resignation instantly turned into a peaceful understanding. Am I bummed that I missed the reunion, of course. But I know I made the right decision for me and my famiy.


As it turns out, McKenna got sick and we sent her to my parents during the program. I did get to watch her the day before at the practice, so cute!!!

A time to boast

The only point of this post is to brag about how incredibly cute my children are. Just warms my heart looking at their bright faces.

Wow. . . . my baby actually eats!

Eating was never a strong point for McKenna until the past year. Kate did so-so. I know I have only fed Ethan rice cereal, but he's got it down already! Today he ate his entire bowl without pushing any out of his mouth. May not seem like a big feat for some, but after McKenna just getting the food in the baby's mouth is something to cheer about! :)

Oh. . . . and thanks to Kate H. for the great baby seat, works great for feedings!

Don't You Wish YOU Could Wake Up To THIS Face?

I wish I could fully capture the greeting I get when I go in to see Ethan for the first time. Every morning he gives me the biggest grin, there is so much love in his face.

Wonderful Sunday

I gave a talk in church today. Always a wonderful experience. I seem to learn so much when studying the gospel that intensly. I feel closer to the spirit and more receptive to His promptimgs. I am grateful to be baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Wish I Had My Camera.....

So, we were picking up McKenna from pre-school today. I was holding baby brother (as he is known in our house), McKenna was showing me her paper, and Kate was running around us excited to have McKenna back! All of a sudden Ethan spits up - not unusual - but who happened to be right below us at the wrong time? Kate. Ethan had spit up this thick, massive goo that was now sitting on and running down the side of Kate's head. It seriously looked like bird doo-doo, it was so gross! Anyway, I just couldn't help myself and was laughing hysterically. The greatest part was that Kate was completely oblivious to the entire thing. Definately a moment I wish I could treasure with a picture, oh-well.

We The People Rally

On Saturday I attended a "WE THE PEOPLE" rally at the river. It was quite entertaining. I enjoyed the variety of signs, and had to ask my parents about a lot of them. You may think. . . wow, Jamie is really into politics. . . or. . . wow, Jamie is really becoming a 'right wing'. . . . sooooooo not the case. I have no clue what I'm doing. What in the world is a czar?!? All I know is I don't feel comfortable with what is happening in our country, and I don't want to leave it to my children to clean up. So, I have recently joined a 9/12 - We the People group, and am hoping to find my place there in bettering our country.

I was excited to see the MAJOR rally in DC going on the same day. 9/12 a day to remember.

"We the people will prevail" "We ARE the People"

(these were probably the most simple, but my favorites)

"Unite for our Freedom"
Most of the signs carried more ridicule, but I enjoyed the quiet strength behind these.

This was great, check out the boat!

Highlights for me:
2 veterans walked in the flag, then we all recited the pledge of allegiance
Having all of the veterans stand while we gave them a standing ovation
Thomas Paine impersonator, he was funny and inspiring
God Bless America musical number
The boat above
The cheer of the crowd
The camaraderie of the crowd, we were all there to protect our constitution
But my favorite of all. . . . 4 fighter jets flew overhead, that was a great moment for me

Ethan's First Tooth

So fun, he's getting teeth! He's such a great little guy, hardly any fussing. . . but now it does make sense why he has had a couple moments in the past week. I tried to take some pictures of the new tooth and here is what I came up with. . . .

His hand got in the way. . .

His tongue got in the way. . . .

And the girls wouldn't stop wiggling, so all the pictures are blurry. Oh-well. This is the best shot I got. If you look real close you can see the white coming up from the bottom.

What an amazing little guy. He is quite the squirmer lately. I put him in the saucer and he loves to jump around in there. I love him so much, such a wonderful little boy. Truly a blessing from Heavenly Father.

McKenna's First Day of School

McKenna started pre-school today! She only attends 4 hours a week, but it was free! For some reason I managed to get to this day without buying her a backpack. So we left the house an hour early to head to Fred Meyer. I was getting pretty annoyed with myself after being pointed to the Nike and Jansport backpacks, thinking I was going to have to buy her a nice one (they didn't have the school backpacks in seasonal anymore). I decided I would try to make a mad dash to Target instead. Luckily on my way towards the exit I ran into the "cheap" back-to-school backpacks and got her one for $9 instead of $25! Anyways, she had fun and told me she didn't have to use he extra pair of underwear hiding in her backpack! :) (the teacher asked that we put an extra pair in incase they had an accident at school) I am excited for her to be in a new environment for learning. Anytime I try to get her to write her name it results in her saying "I give up!" so I try not to push it too much at home.


McKenna is such a smart little girl. She is the hugest help around the house. She loves her baby brother so much, and I'm pretty sure that she is his favorite too!

First Day of School

I made Tyler turn around and take a picture on his way out the door last wednesday. His first day of school. He's a math teacher at Skyview highschool. This year, between that job and his online teaching, he will be teaching 5 different subjects. Algebra, Geometry, Algebra 2, pre-Cal, and AP Calculus. A full load! He loves it, and I love that he loves it. It's pretty amusing and entertaining having a math geek as a husband. His mind is constantly thinking and he will often come to me with some new "find". He'll figure out a new formula of how putting numbers together this special way will get you this outcome. I just nod and smile, tell him I think I get it, and love him even more that he's so excited about this new discovery.

Happy Birthdays!

Happy Birthday to my mom on 9/9 and sister on 9/11! Oh-yeah, and my grandma on 9/10. My parents and sister came over for dinner, cake and ice cream and presents. Always fun when we get together. Especially when Kristin comes around. The girls love her! Between my parents and I we got Kristin 6 new shoe racks. For those of you who don't know, she's got a shoe fedish. . . to the max! She has worked at Champs Sports for years and has accumulated quite the sneaker collection. Her and her roommate dedicated one of the rooms in their townhome to shoes, but alas. . . they are getting another roommate and have to move the shoes back into their rooms! So, she asked for shoe racks, and that's what she got! :) My mom got some workout shirts from Kristin, and my dad and I went in on Photoshop.

The girls had a blast. Always fun with Bampa is around. . . I don't know what it is but grandpa's have that nack to make the kids WILD! They all played hide-and-go-seek. McKenna is great at playing along with Kate. Kate will hide in the exact same spot where McKenna had just been, but McKenna will go around the room "looking" in every other nook and cranny before she finds Kate. . . what a good sport!

GO COUGS!

BYU 14, Oklahoma 13.

I've never been a huge sports fan (sorry Kristin!), and I'm still not. But I LOVE BYU football!!! We had a great time with friends tonight watching the game. I made our favorite football treat, Scotcheroos. . . thanks to my aunt Gail for that awesome recipe. The game was Tevo'd. . . the fastest football game I've ever watched, no commercials! Poor little Ethan. He was such a sport. We were getting a little rambuncious towards the end and made him cry a couple times with all the chearing.

Keep it up Cougars!

This is a picture of our family a couple years ago. We met at my aunt and uncle's for the BYU vs. Utah game. Looks like it's time to update!!!