Easter, Jarik's Birthday and Fun Visits

K so I started this entry like a week ago but we've had internet issues and it wouldn't let me publish it, so I'm trying again!!

So things have been going pretty well here. Easter was great. We really tried to help the kids understand the true reason for Easter and I think they found a new respect for it. I hate the Easter Bunny things, at least the way it is now days. I think the Easter Bunny bringing baskets and Easter morning is fine, but the whole sitting on his lap and trying to make him into another Santa is ridiculous. I love Santa and I don't think there is anything wrong with him. He is an old tradition and the giving aspect is great. Yeah, Christmas has been commercialized and gotten out of hand, but Santa is timeless. The Easter Bunny is just stupid. Easter is for the Resurrection of Christ, not to sit on some stupid Bunny's lap. Anyway, that's my tangent for the day :D I have some good pictures of the kids on Easter morning. Tracy is a good photographer!



















So it was a good Easter!! Also last week Jarik turned 6. I can't believe he's that old. I still remember all the stress of having him in the hospital and going up every day and sitting with him and willing him to get better. I remember laying in my hospital bed after they took him from me and just crying and praying that he'd be able to breathe on his own. And now he is 6 and doing so well! He is healthy and strong. He has attitude but I can deal with that! He is my little man and I am so glad I got at least one!! Here is a picture from his party with his friends:

We did a Transformers party and this picture is of them after they went on a scavenger hunt for the Allspark. I made the Allspark and I was pretty pleased with myself. I took a box and stuffed it with their little treat bags and then I covered it with foil and drew funky lines and shapes on it. I think it turned out cool:


Then after Jarik's birthday, well actually on his birthday, by best friend from Idaho came to visit. We didn't have nearly enough time together so I'm going up to Boise the weekend the kids get off track again. I miss Katie so bad! She is an awesome friend! Her daughter and Tiaree are a year apart. Her and Jarik are like 8 months apart. She's a cute girl and Tiaree loves her. She goes "she's my best friend from when I was a baby. I used to give her hugs and smash her", which she did. Katie lived in the apartment under us when we went to USU. Katie would help watch Tiaree while I was in class and I'd watch Kylie while she was in class. We used to go to Walmart and get french bread just to eat the whole loaf by ourselves!! Even after not living by each other for 6 years, it's like no time has passed. We pick right up where we left off. I can tell the girl anything! I just wish we lived closer, a 6 hour drive to visit can't be done too often so that bites!














Anyway, it's been a good couple of weeks. I'm looking so forward to Conference this weekend! I love conference. We have 2 tickets to the Sunday morning session and I might go and take Tiaree with me. I think that would be fun. Then next weekend we get to go to St. George. Then the weekend after is Tiaree's birthday, then we get to go to Boise the weekend after, then the first weekend in May Tiaree gets baptized! This next month is going to just fly by!! Have a good day y'all!!

Sigh.....

So I'm sitting here at 10:22 at night waiting and trying to be patient. I'm waiting for a forum that I'm a part of to go back up because there are certain threads that I'm dying to read! Now before I sound like I am too much of a loser, I have to say that I'm not alone in this obsession of mine (which I'll get to in a minute). When I last checked at about 5 this evening, there were 2,255 members on this forum. Now this forum has rules too: you have to be over 25 (or married) and you really should be a mom. This forum is called Twilight Moms and it is dedicated to all the moms out there who absolutely love the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I proudly fit into all those categories! I read these books for the first time at the end of January. I had all 3 books read in 4 days. The only reason it took 4 days was because I had to stop for 1/2 day to teach preschool! I re-read them all like 2 weeks later and I'm now into re-read number 3. These books are awesome. They are well-written and I can't say enough to praise SM and her brilliancy. Now some people might say I won't read those books because they are "sci-fi", but they aren't. The series is a love story. A powerful, all consuming love story, that just happens to have a vampire as the lead character. A sexy, dazzling, gorgeous vampire named Edward. There are also some werewolves thrown in starting in book 2! (Then we get a love triangle!)

So recently I was chatting with some of my new-found TM's and we were trying to decide why we are to infatuated with these books. We decided on a few universal things:
1) We are all romantics. We love romantic movies, stories, books etc., and Twilight is a romance of the highest degree.
2) We are "feelers". We feel, very acutely, what we read or see. This is why I can't watch most horror movies. I feel the terror they do. I get the sweaty palms, the rapid heartbeat. We watched Disturbia the other night (awesome movie) and that is how I felt. I was nervous and shaking.
3) It's funny because most of us are big Jane Austen fans. Now for some reason I had never read Jane Austen's work until my sister-in-law lent me Pride and Prejudice. (Thanks so much Ems!!) I devoured it. Such an awesome book. I just went out, or actually sent Tracy out, last night to Barnes and Noble to buy me Sense and Sensibility and he bought the complete works of Jane Austen. I am so stoked. Anyway, we decided that if you like Jane Austen you will like Twilight. Out of the, I don't know how many, responses on that thread, liking JA was in the overwhelming majority.
4) Most of us are married to wonderful men, and those who aren't are still hoping to find that kind of love. It's the true love thing. We have true love in our lives and we are so lucky. Reading these books has reminded us about the feelings we had when we fell oh so hard for our hubbies. I know it's made me more appreciative of Tracy, even if he doesn't realize it and most especially since he thinks I'm stark raving mad!!

(side note: it's 10:52. It's been 30 minutes and the forum is still undergoing maintenance. AAAGGGHHH! I might have to go to bed and get my fix in the morning, in between getting ready for preschool!)

So those are my justifications for why I just can't get enough of Edward and Bella and the whole Twilight scene. These books were intended for the YA audience but they have sure got a hold of the "older" generation! I think the teens like them so much because they haven't experienced "true love" yet and it's something they can look forward to. The books have done so well that they are making a movie of it. It will be out on December 12th. I'll be one of the first in line, along with my faithful TM buddies! :D hehe We have some awesome insights on the forum about the making of the movie and it's a blast to catch up on what's happening. I've never been a "stalker" of websites like I am with this now, and it's really great to know that I'm not loosing it, that there are at least 2,000 other moms as fanatic as me!

Amazing

My 7 year old just finished Harry Potter 3. She isn't even 8 yet! She loves these books, not that I blame her, I've read them all multiple times, but she is 7! She wants to dive right into book 4 but I'm a little hesitant. Like I said before, I believe that children should be able to understand everything they read and I'm afraid with book 4, which is so much longer than the other books, that she will get lost and frustrated and then not be as confident. So I'm not sure what to do. Her first grade teacher says she has some chapter books that she'd love Tiaree to read. They are harder, not 1st grade books, and she thinks she could handle them. I can't remember what they are called though. I still talk to her 1st grade teacher. I love her to death and she is still so interested in what Tiaree is doing. She is the one that inspired all this reading so I think I'll encourage Tiaree to take her advice and try something else before she tackles more HP. But I am proud and I am so happy that she has such a love for reading! On another note, Jarik read through his first real picture book by himself yesterday! I was so excited for him! He is catching on very quickly too. I hope he has the love of reading that Tiaree does, cause I am such a huge reader. I would love for all my kids to love reading like I do!!

Spring Fever

It's been a very nice day today. I got the flu last night and I felt so yucky. I was dizzy and had an upset stomach. But luckily I felt better today. We went outside for a while and played with the dog. He is so big! It's amazing. He is so gentle too. He just ran next to the kids and played with them without knocking them over and stuff. He is cute. We put the trampoline back up today too. It's going to be great to kick the kids outside and let them burn energy running and jumping. They are too wound up now, they need spring as much as I do! I love the sunshine and that I can go outside with just a jacket on. I loved standing in the sun today and feeling the warmth on my skin. It was kind of weak, but it was a start!

It's been a good week though. I've been getting a lot done and have been able to spend some time indulging in some "me stuff". I've been reading some books that I absolutely LOVE!! It's the Twilight series, and I'm sure you've heard of it. They are so well written and I've just loved reading them and getting to know them. They are the "chic-flick" of books! I've been reading reviews and opinions of so many people out there and it's been so much fun. I recommend them to any women, or men, out there who need a good love story! I guess I'm a little obsessed!

Keighlee is suddenly talking in sentences. It's crazy! She is such a talker, she talks more than my other kids did at her age. She talks more than any kids her age talk too. I can understand most of what she says. It's nice because I can ask her questions and know what she wants. It's quite a relief to not have to guess.


Jarik got an award in school yesterday. It's the Excellent Eagle award. I guess it's just something that the kids get if they are caught being good. He was so proud. I'm proud! He loves school and he loves learning and he is learning so quickly! He is so smart!

Tiaree is reading Harry Potter. She is 3/4 of the way through the 3rd book. And she understands everything that she reads. That is something that is so important. I think that's one reason to not push kids to read. I think that if they start to read too much too early, they just learn the phonics of it, and they can read all the words, they can read any word, but they have no clue what the story is about or how to comprehend it. Tiaree is reading well above grade level but I let her because she does understand everything she reads!

Bree is doing good in preschool. She knows how to spell her name now. She is getting better and better with her fine motor skills too. She is going to be writing in no time! I am so proud of how much she is progressing. She is talking better too. She used to be so hard to understand but now she can annunciate and speak so clearly.

My kids are all doing so well and I am a very proud mommy! Tracy is doing good too. Just working hard. We are both still working on getting in shape for the 5K, it's only about 5 weeks away now. Most days when I'm done running I don't know how I'm going to make it, but I keep pushing. Hopefully I'll get there! Have a wonderful night and don't forget about Daylight Savings tonight!