Frustrated!

I love love love my iphone but I HATE HATE HATE that I'm sending in my 2nd one because of "hardware" issues!!! Now, I'm once again without my cell phone!!! How am I supposed to lay in bed and search the internet now?

Snow time fun

After school today the kids were going outside and I thought, "why not", and put on all our snow gear and went outside.

Jackson totally loved it! He just sat in the sled and I pulled him around the circle.

Of course, all the mommies in the neighborhood also wanted to be around baby Jackson.

Poor little guy. He couldn't figure out, at first, how to keep his balance and kept falling over. He eventually figured it out.

Maddy sledding down the hill. It was almost impossible to get her to stop and smile for me. She was really into it.

Almost all the kids in the cirlce. We're missing 3 more. (Now you can see why I totally love our circle, lots of play mates!)

Caleb working on his snowboarding skills. I actually put in on but hit a rock at the bottom. I tried to fly off with style in front of everyone. Wonder if I was successful.

Jackson was ready to go in. He didn't cry once but his little hands and nose felt super cold. I took him in a gave him a nice long bath. He's such a good Alaska baby.

"Cute Jessy"

So here's the story behind the purse. This summer my wonderful mother-in-law surprised me and took me to a store and let me pick out a Vera Bradley purse for myself. I picked out the hipster. A couple of weeks ago my friend, Jodi, was checking it out and was like, Jess let me have that for a couple of days. So I let her and she came back within hours and had made a pattern of it.So today for quilt group we all brought in our own quilted material and made Jodi's patterns which she named the "cute Jessy."

I gave mine a ribbon closure. There's a big pocket in the front and then the zipper pocket.

I also made a couple of open pockets on the inside and one that can hold a pen. Yay! It was so much fun today! There was a ton of us there and we just chatted, sewed, and then had a big potluck. Thanks Jodi!

Sorry Mom...

Sorry Mom that I forgot to post the pictures of Maddy opening your gift. It came in this HUGE blue bag with a little note from you attached to the side. I wish I would of taken a better picture but this is her coming OUT of the bag. She crawled up in there to try and get her gift out.I tink you can tell by that face that she's super excited to have more Polly Pockets. The world doesn't get any better than that. And this is the "crew" minus Maddy and Jackson. This litte group is getting pretty tight. It reminds me of the neighborhood group growing up.

Count your blessings

I have so much to be thankful for lately. Last week I was feeling a little down and that day I picked Caleb up from school and the first thing he said was, "Mom, my snow pants were stolen today." That was enough for me. I had my phone on me so I sent off an email right there and told him teacher about it. She emailed back and said that she thought Caleb just wasn't looking hard enough. I went home and locked myself in my room for a "time out" and just cried. I picked up the phone to call Aaron but thought that I shouldn't bother him about stuff like this so I got on my knees and took it to my Father. I just started praying out loud for the help that I needed. As soon as I ended my prayer the phone started to ring, it was Mrs. Anderson. She said she had thought to call Caleb's cubby buddy and ask him if he accidentally took Caleb's pants and he had. She gave me the phone number to call the kid's mom and 30 minutes later we were happy at home with snow pants. I then had to go back into my room and say more prayers of Thanks because it just amazes me that Heavenly Father would answer such a simple prayer. My friend Jodi called and she could tell that something was wrong. She lovingly brought her husband over and he gave me a blessing to help me get through that day. Of course it wasn't all about snow pants but just the pressures of being apart from my husband for so long and raising 4 kids by myself and the trials that come with it. I'm so grateful for Jodi's guidance.

Then the other day someone, who doesn't want to be known, came to my house and fixed my roof. We had a huge wind storm (80 mph winds) and it ripped off part of our shingles on our roof. I had called the insurance company and talk to the adjuster but with so many houses damaged he still hadn't shown up after a week and the snow was coming- it had to get fixed fast. It was starting to become a huge stress to Aaron and I because 1) it's a $500 deductible that of course comes at the worst time (Christmas coming and paying for a airline ticket for Aaron to come home) and 2) when the snow melts it would cause more damage than what was there. So Monday night we're eating dinner and all of the sudden we hear all this racket on the roof. Santa? A huge duck? No it was this man fixing out roof and not just any roof but a roof with ice on it. I hurried and finished dinner, put Jackson down for bed, and stood outside to watch him. He finished and I asked him if I could pay him and he said," I didn't come here for money." I then asked him if I could at least pay for the supplies and he just smiled. I just started to cry and thank him. This past conference Elder. Jeffrey R. Holland gave a talk about Angels. He said that angels are sometimes people that surround you. That night that man was definitely my Angel.

I'm so unbelievable thankful. Yesterday I was working around the house and when I think of how many prayers have been answered lately I just break down and cry. I really can't believe that my Father loves me that much.

Pulling my hair out..

Jackson is going through this "phase" (I'm praying it a phase) where he's constantly crying!!! Now, he does have three teeth cutting but I want to scream at him, "USE YOUR WORDS!" Today he was even crying in between bites of oatmeal. I don't know if I wasn't shoveling it in there fast enough or what. I'll pick him up and he'll throw himself backwards so I put him down. Then he stands and my feet and wants up. I finally just had to walk away. I can't wait until this ends and he's a happy baby again.

" Dear Dad,
I'm having a good year at school i miss you a lot i wish you were so close to us I love you Your son Caleb and jackson

Notice the names above the kids: beast and mom

Mrs. Frost: Kali show me how you would set a table. Like if you were having a tea party- do you have tea parties?

Kali: I know how to set a table but I don't drink tea. (Huge smile) But I can have hot chocolate parties!

Mrs. Frost: Okay. (waits till she's done). Good. Now Kali, where do you see animals?

Kali: Umm..(thinks) in the movies.

Mrs. Frost: The movies? Can you think of anywhere else?

Kali: Well we watch a lot of movies with animals in it.

Mrs. Frost: How about the zoo?

Kali: Yeah the zoo but more in the movies.

The tender spirit

Caleb has one of the most tender spirits that I know. He's so caring and is always the one who's trying to fix any problem. I asked him the other day to make a Christmas list so that I can start shopping for deals. He came into the office with this list, which is actually is four present written on two pieces of paper but I love the ending of this one, and handed it to me. I was starting to look it over and he said," Mom if any of them are too much money for you and Dad I really don't need anything for Christmas. It's really okay." And then gave me a hug. He was so sincere about it. When he left the room I just cried. Not a lot of 7 year olds would think it's okay to get nothing at Christmas. What he doesnt' know, or maybe he's overheard me talking to Aaron is, that supporting two households on one income is hard. It still makes me tear up when I think about how serious and sincere he was.

Sorry everyone that I've been so lazy about my blog lately. Believe me..it's not I don't have anything to say. That's the problem, life is not dull here and there's always something going on.

Super Excited

I called my neighbor around...maybe a month ago and asked her if she wanted to come over and listen to what the missionaries taught about and she actually accepted. This past week she agreed to baptism and I'm so excited for her. Her and her daughter are going to be baptized, can you believe it?!!!! Her other daughter turns 8 in January. I'm just so excited for all the blessings that will come to her and her family on this new life because that's what it really is...a new life.

It has really humbled me. And I realized how much I take the gospel for granted. I'm watching them as they are learning and since I've been born in the church sometimes it's an eye opener to see that others don't know all that we know.

Maddy's 3rd Birthday

So I promised myself that I would keep up on the blog more often and here I can 10 days after Madeline's birthday and just now putting up pictures. This is Maddy opening up Grandma Nettie and Papa Mike's gift. She ripped off the front of the paper to see the Polly Pocket and started screaming.

Yahooo, let's eat! Side note: I made a huge mistake by putting the cake on the table and not watching it. Most of the top layer on the side facing Madeline is totally gone. She wanted to have her cake and eat it too.

Papa sent Maddy some money to buy anything she wanted. Well she wanted little Ariel (it's Disney's version of Polly Pocket). She was mad at me because I made her look up from playing to smile for me. Atleast she looked up.

I was an awesome day but we missed Aaron so much. Nothing's the same without him.

I just realized that Aaron will be home again for good (well done with school and then he gets deployed) but he'll be home when the counter on the side that counts how long we've been together reaches 1902.

Damn you Neil Diamond!!!!

What the heck is with the harsh language Jessy? That's so not like you. I have always dislike Neil Diamond, why? Because when I was like 3.5 ft tall I watched part of The Jazz Singer and since this summer I always thought that Neil Diamond was adulterous. "But mija, it was just a movie!" my mom would always say to me. So this summer when I went to go see her I agreed to sit down and watch the movie again, like 20 years later, and it's not so bad. Aaron Netflixed it when he was here last week and of course we, well he I fell asleep, watched it the night before he left. The next day when he was leaving, and those are always extrememly emotional days, he played the song for me and it has made me cry ever since. Here we are both crying to the airport because of this stupid song. I mean, who would of thought that in 1980 Neil Diamond would of wrote a song that plays how Aaron and I's life is right now being apart. This is our song for the present time. Anyways, here I go crying again and the only thing that usually makes me stop is if I raise my fist up high and yell, "Damn you Neil Diamond." See...I feel better now.

Hello Again lyrics

Hello

again hello

Just called to say: hello.

I couldn't sleep at all tonight

And I know it's late

But I couldn't wait.

Hello

my friend

hello

Just called to let you know

I think about you ev'ry night

When I'm here alone

And you're there at home.

Hello.

May be it's been crazy

And may be I'm to blame

But I put my heart above my head.

We've been through it all

And you loved me just the same

And when you're not there

I just need to hear.

Hello

my friend

hello

It's good to need you so

It's good to love you like I do

And to feel this way

When I hear you say:

Hello

my friend

hello.

Just called to let you know

I think about you ev'ry night

And I know it's late

But I couldn't wait

Hello.

Halloween...it's coming

Last night Caleb and Kali were playing over at the neighbor's house and they came home with homemade crafts and Caleb just came home as a mummy.

Lindsey and Ravyn then stayed over and watched movies with the kids while Anastasia and I quilted in the kitchen. It was so much fun! I can't wait for another quilting/ movie night.

Little climber

Yesterday we needed to get out of the house so I took the kids to the Community Center on base. The did a lot of rock climbing and I'm totally bummed that I wasn't able to get other pictures of Kali climbing. Here's Madeline on the little rock climbing wall and she thought she was all that because she could get about 6 inches off the ground. She would then fall backwards on the mat, stand up really fast and say "TA-DAH" with her arms spread out. What a nut.

I almost find it hard to believe that little Jackson is a year old. My last baby is already one. He just started drinking out of a sippy cup and it just makes him look even older. Plus he's drinking cow's milk.

Also notice that he's now wearing a tiny little medical bracelet. (I think the girl's are jealous). It just says that he had a severe allergy to peanuts. Poor baby. Can you imagine doing through life NEVER being able to eat a peanut butter cup?

More soda....NOW!

So I don't buy soda pop. So because I don't buy pop my kids don't drink it unless we get a hot dog from Costco or they get a sip is Aaron's around. Aaron was here on a visit last week and before we went to one of the military school functions we swung by McDonalds to let the kids play for a bit. Jackson just now getting his first taste of pop...and needless to say he loves it.

He loves it so much that he screamed forever until we gave him another drink. Look how mad he is! Aaron and I broke down and let him have as much as he wanted because 1) it was embarrassing after him screaming forever and 2) the other kids were up high on the play structure and there was no way to get them down to get out of there.

P.S- So while my child is screaming (at first) I was giggle with Aaron at how mad a 1 year old could get over soda pop. I just had to take a picture of it. I'm now wondering how I looked to other parents watching...especially the ones that are wound up super tight and don't let their kids...well act like kids.

Making a fall spider

The other day after Anastasia and I walked the kids home from school we thought it would be fun to make this huge fall spider. The kids had a blast!

This is my super cool new neighbor, Anastasia.

These are the photogenic kids out of the whole lot. The little boy is Dmitri who I drive home from school three days a week, Kali, and Anastasia's kids, Lindsey and Ravyn.

Ready....1...2...3!

Our final product