Happenings

There has been a lot of changes in our lives these last few months, I was released from Young Women I have have grown so much from these wonderful young ladies and my testimony in the gospel has grown. I have missed the girls but also know that it was time for me to be a mom. I lost my sweet grandpa Benson so glad to know that he is happy and well and that I will see him again We became a aunt and uncle again through adopotion a sweet little girl from China could not be happier for Jer and Jen on their new addition our whole family are so twittered patted by this sweet little girl all you want to do is kiss and love her. She has amazing eyes that you just melt when you see her. K'Lee and Addison are so cute with her they just want to hold her and play with her and keep finding things for me to give to Leah which right now just go into a box for when she is older. Tucker just tells me that we have to be soft with her and pets her when we are with them. What a blessing it has been to be a part of this wonderful experiance, we have been so excited for them and excited to be a part of this little girls life.

Time does fly.

I am back! It is amazing how time does fly and then you can't get into your account because you can't remember your password. We have been a busy family this year. Wow is all I can say. A lot of amazing things have happened and are to come I am sure. Our kids have grown and learned new and exciting things.

In a nutshell this is what we have done.

TJ and Amy are still animals at crossfit love it! TJ is biking and became a trainer for crossfit and does a great job! Amy is still in Young Women learning so much, I have ran two relays this past year and ran three half marathons

K'Lee is in 2nd grade a mad reader and loves math was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Great big helper and thinks now she is eight she can cook YIKES!!

Addison is into preschool, clogging and teasing everyone around her.

Tucker is just all boy, loves to fly off couches and play with his trucks.

Tips

Since I posted about TJ and I becoming debt free. I have had a lot of friends and family tell me to post tips and ideas on how we did this. So I am going to do that along with our family doing. But I would also like ideas on what you want to know. And if you have any questions please leave them for me here.And I will research and tell you what has worked for our family. This is a learning process but it is also lots of fun. Right now my tip for you all out there. Is a Budget! Every month sit down with your spouse and go through your bills and family expenses and make sure all your money has a category. Here is a example.
House Payment: $$$
Groceries: $$$
Electrical: $$$
Water:$$$
Car Payments: $$$
These are the first things that need to be paid: Make sure your Family is taken care of, Roof over head, Food to fill the bellies, I hope you get the drift.
Then start with the others'
Credit Cards ( if you have them )
Student Loans or any other loans out there you have.
The First budget is hard but you also need to be flexible if you need to change numbers so be it but always remember be flexible and the money needs to be spent in it's own spot and category. I hope this helps a little I am already working on some more tips and things I have learned through this process. I will post more along with my family and their adventures. If you have any suggestions or questions please leave them I would love to hear them.

Addison!!!

This sweet name has been said a lot in our house hold this past week. I don't know if she is going stir crazy because she wants to be outside or she wants her named yelled a lot. This week was Spring Break and she was so excited to have K'Lee home to play with every day of the WHOLE WEEK! How could you not be excited. On Tuesday we had pictures of the kids taken for Mother's day, It was a rough morning no one was willing to let me fix hair or help them get dressed. I had finally come to begging and bribing them, I know not the way to go but hey I got one to let me get their hair fix K'Lee was sitting there reading to me while I was curling her hair and she stopped and said "Mom who's hair is that?" I looked and saw a huge amount of hair on the bathroom floor. I went over bent down and scooped up the hair and looked right at Addison who had immedialy took off running up the stairs. I walked over to the stairs and glowered at her from the bottom of the stairs and proceeded to have this conversation with her.
me: "Addison who's hair is this?"
Addison: "mine" (huge develish grin on the face"
me: "Why did you cut your hair?" to this point trying not to scream from pure frustration.
Addison: " Cause I didn't want you to curl my hair for picture's I just want a ponytail mom."
me: " Addison I wasn't going to curl your hair in curls today I was just going to comb it out and flat iron it and put a bow in it."
Addison: " Ohh" This point she is pouting and has tears in her eyes
me: " Addison I need you to come down here and let me see where you cut your hair so I know if I can fix it for pictures."
Addison" Mom I promise it's not bad just a little bit the rest is from the barbie dolls hair. I want to be like Stacy and cut hair." She is saying this while coming down the stairs and in a very hurried voice.
When she came down the stairs my eyes are getting bigger and bigger and I keep looking down at my hands with all the hair thinking this is not barbie hair this is all Addison's hair. She had cut a huge chunk right in the front right by her face. Now I am panicked how am I going to fix this. I have tried cutting the girls hair and it just doesn't work I can not make a strait line there for it just keeps getting shorter and shorter. So I have just decided to keep the hair cutting to the professionals. I then proceed to inform her that I have to make curls with the curling Iron for the pictures. During this whole ordeal I am looking at the clock going I hope we make pictures. We did and they turned out awesome!! This week I have found crayon on the back of the caption seats in our van she didn't have paper, I have found craving in our kitchen table she was bored and last but not least she created a protrait on Tucker's body in markers and pen. My Addison going to be everyone of my gray hairs on my head. She can be the most lovable, helpful, sweetest little girl in the whole world and then she can flip and be so frustrating I love her, I am also glad she can keep me on my toes but this week has taken the cake for me.

Big post to come

I have a huge post coming up. I just need the pictures uploaded to the server so I can get to them and then watch there will be Heather's wedding which was amazing my little sisters are growing up (sniff, sniff) And then our awesome cruise that we went on. LOVED IT!!! Love the time with my cute hubby and time to talk and reconnect. And some wonderful warm sun.

Emotions

I don't know the reason or even why but I have so many emotions about all the changes in my life and the things that I have been blessed with in the last year and half. I think part of this is I am truly happy and I love the place that I am in at this time. I love that I can say this. I love that i am content and that I am enjoying everything that I can. I feel really blessed to have three awesome and healthy kiddo, and a very kind and understanding husband who is my best friend and I love that I like spending time with my husband and children. Yes there are times when I am ready to pull my hair out with them but I love going to the kids rooms and stare at them while they are asleep and think I have AMAZING LITTLE PEOPLE that I love unconditionally and learn from all the time. I love that I have heartfelt talks about our future and what is important to us with my husband and that I always have a shoulder to cry when I need it. Maybe I just felt I needed to release these emotions and that I can say Thank you to my family for choosing me to be a Wife and Mother and letting me to be a part of their lives.

DEBT FREE

TJ and I about two years ago, felt the desire to become debt free. I espeacially felt it with being pregant and thinking of how to pay for this baby and owning our own business so off we went in search of how to do this. TJ found Dave Ramsey bless this man he has made it his misson to help other become debt free and off we started.I want you guys to know I am not selling anything I just want you to know the process on how we did this. With lots of prayers, crying and sacrifice I am proud to say that we are completly and totally debt free we own everything from our house to our cars. I am grateful for my husband and his nerdyness for the budget and for the hard work he did to help make this happened. Many things that happened during this time has taught me many things and I am in awe at the way the lord has blessed our family with this accomplishment. I am in awe at how my children have picked up on this and have been just as excited to payoff a debt as we are and how they have been the best cheerleader parents could have. They have learned to work, save and pay tithing. It is also a great way to help in math I am just saying. I have debated to post this but I felt I needed to share and shout That WE ARE DEBT FREE!!!

New Things

TJ and I have been telling our children to try new things and that they might like them. K'Lee and Addison both freak out when we go and do something that they have never tried. There is a lot of crying and more crying. We have taken them ice skating a couple of times and starting with K'Lee the first time she cried the entire time we were there. As we contined she has gotten better and now likes to go Ice Skating this time we went she even went around holding just my hand and she thought that was pretty cool. Addison last year cried the entire time we skated this year she went around as long as someone was right behind her by the end of the night she was going around by herself. Tucker loved being in the stroller and being pushed this is where the first time comes in. At the end of the night and we were getting everybody ice skates off and shoes on Tucker was climbing onto the bench and slipped and fell off and cut his eye. So off to the emergency room for stitches for Tucker I think this might be the start of emergency room visits with him.

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Another new thing we did was take the girls skiing, now remember how on new thing the girls cry and cry some more and there is a lot of drama in our household. So I did not say anything to them about skiing until the night before. I also went with another lady in our ward who takes her girls a lot so I figured with them telling mine how fun it would be there would be less drama. K'Lee was nervous there was no crying Addison was excited the whole way up. I was very happy that there was no drama. After we got the equipment that is when Addison started crying she did not want anything to do with the helmet at all. K'Lee on the other hand put on her ski's and down the hill she went before the ski instructor. She loved it until we went down Little Beaver and then the crying came into effect she cried the whole way down the hill ( Lovely). By this point I was thinking they are never going to want to come again, very sad for me, I wanted them to enjoy it as much and TJ and I did and still do. After a little snack and drink K'Lee told me she wanted to go back out and stay on the Bunny Hill, Addison did not so my friend and her girls took K'Lee back out and I watched from the Lodge with Addison and I watch my seven year old get braver and braver and when I went back out to help her up the hill. She had a huge smile on her face and told me "Mommy I want to come back and do it again." Addison even told TJ that she wanted to try again. So see first things are great adventures.

Holiday Madness

The title says it all. It was madness this year I have never felt so not ready for the Holidays then I did this year. It was fun and we made many new memories to remember and will want to continue on. We visted Temple square with friends and stayed at a hotel and swam and just had fun. We had our many family Christmas party and enjoyed seeing family and visiting with them and catching up. Celebrated Christ Birth what could get better than that. I love listening to the story and the feelings that I have during this time of year yes it was madness but a great madness.

A Note

K'Lee came home from school the other day and came over to me and said "mom what does it mean if you get a note from school." I looked at her and replied " what kind of note", she smiled and goes from a boy" I said "what do you mean a boy from school" I thinking you are to young to get a note from a boy and awwww how cute is that. She was very fast to reply he was just being nice to me, I was well I am glad he is being nice what does the note say. I took a picture so you can see for yourself and that I can keep her first note from a boy. She is going to kill me when she grows up and sees this. But come on awwww how cute is that she got a not from a boy.

Veteran's Day

K'Lee's school put on a Veteran's day program for all the Veteran's in our county and for the families of the National Guard that just got deployed to Iraq. So I went and watched it made my heart swell with pride and love for all that these men and women have done or are doing for our country(yes there was tears in the eye because I am mushy about that kinda stuff). K'Lee was sooo excited that she got to sing for her Grandpa Boyd and for the rest of the Veteran's of the county she told me "mom I am proud to do this because they helped keep us safe." I am so glad that she gets that and understands that. I have pictures but the lighting was messed up so you can't tell who or what is happening. Sorry!!

Tucker

I haven't post a lot about this little man of mine, but all I can say is mass destructor, this little boy can completely destroy a room in a minute flat, and loves doing it when he is done he is very proud of his handy work. He will proudly come find one of us with a big grin and take us by the hand and lead us to his art work whether it's in the kitchen, bedroom,bathroom or living room it has been seen by Tucker. He also will help clean up the mess so I can't complain most times all I or TJ do is shake our head and start picking up. He has also learned to climb on things I have found him on the washer and dryer, kitchen counter, bathroom counter and the table if he can push things up to the item he wants to climb he does it, he has also used the drawers in the kitchen to climb up on. He is the most lovable kid loves to snuggle with us and gives great hugs and kisses. He loves hanging out with Grandpa Boyd or Grandpa B if he gets hurt and is around one of them prefers them over Mom. He loves his sisters when Addison comes home from preschool he will run up to her and give her the biggest hug. He will watch for the bus when K'Lee comes home and greets her with kisses and hugs. I love the time that I get to spend with just him he love telling me stories and snuggling and reading books with me. We sure love this little man of ours even with the messes and climbing heart attacks.

Halloween Fun

We had some fun activies for Halloween starting with gutting out the pumpkins Tucker loved the whole messy part, even the girls really got into it this year., school Halloween parties, and dance Halloween parties kicked off the week. Then trunk or treat which was fun. Where we were in our church parking lot the girls got to with a friend around the parking lot I was a couple of people behind them but I think it made them feel all big and cool.

Ouch, Ouch

So I have been in a slump with my running and my exercising and have been wondering how I could shake it up a bit. Well I found the way CROSS FIT is all I can say I was feeling pretty good about myself the last two days of the CROSS FIT will today was the day. I have be soooo sore and just to pick up the kids is pain in the arms. Today I loved that my kids kissed my legs better for me. I just needed to complain I know it will help with my running and the slump so CROSS FIT here I am.

Big Helper

I forgot to post my big helper Tucker loves to vacuum whenever I get the vacuum out he is running as fast as his little legs can carry him, and proceed to push anyone away from the vacuum and proceed to take over the vacuum. He screams at anyone who comes near the vacuum when he is not done yet. I love the help hope he contiues to want to vacuum when he gets older.

They are Engaged!!!

So on Addison Birthday, My sister Heather and her boyfriend Zach got engaged. The ring is awesome. They will be married on February 18th in Logan. Welcome to the Family so excited for them!!

Month of October in a Nutshell

So maybe I have been a blog slacker again. I have been trying to get projects done before the holidays. So I can enjoy the holidays without project looming over my head. We started the month out with a little cheer camp for the girls. Once again I have two excited little girls and once again I leave K'Lee crying and not wanting to do it. We do this every year and as soon as I leave she is fine and goes and is all happy go lucky. Addison wanted me to not even walk them into the building crazy kids. During this time K'Lee got the flu and missed Thursday practice and on Friday for the performance did not want to do because she didn't know the dance. I found one of the cheerleaders and she was so cute with K'Lee and took her to the side and helped her with the dance and showed her where she needed to go and K'Lee was fine. Addison on the other hand decided that she DID NOT WANT to DO IT!! During the first half is was getting a little attitude from her and I thought it was because she was cold due to the fact of a wonderful rainstorm just before half time and she was wet. I knew she was excited to get the pom pom's and had been showing me her cool dance moves. Guess not that excited I left her with a mom that was helping and as we were watching them come onto the field I kept saying "where is Addison, where is she ' In her poppa arms crying and telling him I told her I did not want to do, she is so mean. But all in all K'Lee did a great job with her dance learning it just the one day. And Addison did a great job the next morning performing for TJ and I




We have been going to the football games and have been having fun at them. The kids love going and cheering and most of all playing with their friends. Tucker thinks that it's a game now running toward the field and running under the rope and onto the field what a ham and after we grab him he does his nose scrunch and fake laugh, and off runing toward the rope again. He loves being outside.

Go Preston!!

Addison turned four on the 23rd we were going to the pumpkin walk and then dinner with some friends and family and the rain had other plans for us so we went to the bowling alley and then to dinner. This little girl loved being the center of attention loved the whole thing. She wanted pumpkin pie for her cake which I totally love due to the fact of not figuring out how to make the cake and decorating it that stuff cause me total stress. Happy Birthday our Addi Jo!!




On Saturday the girls were invited to a Halloween Party and man I have never seen drama over a halloween costume. K'Lee has been adamant about being spring the season for halloween I was ok what a good costume that would be and how cute of her to come up with on her own she is very much my child and I really got that on Saturday. You know when you have something in your mind of what you want something to look like well she had something in her mind and I was not getting after a half hour of tears and me say are you kidding me stop crying about this her grandma Cid came to the rescue and ran her to town and came back with what she wanted. And then it proceeded to take us another fifteen minutes to put the costume together and viola she was as happy as can be.
Thank you Grandma Cid.



Soccer has been good this year great weather until the last game can't complain K'Lee wanted a goal so bad her teeth hurt but she could not seem to get it into the goal it would roll right past the goal and off the pole. The last game she was very instant but no such luck. Maybe this spring for that smoothie and 5 buck grandma benson promises.

Happy Birthday K'Lee

K'Lee turned seven on the 12th with this brought on a moment of Oh My Gosh she is going to be eight in a year wow it was just yesterday that I held that sweet little girl in my arms as a baby. We had a spa day at her Grandma Cids house with facials and mani's and pedi's with her friends from school and dance. We had some snacks and pizza and glittery cupcakes to end the party. It was so much fun to watch them singing along to the music that was playing and helping each other pick out fingernail polish for the finger's and toes. What a bunch of fun girls. Happy Birthday my sweet K'Lee

School

First grade wow is all I can say. I was very excited for K'Lee but also very nervous, and sad. I have had K'Lee around for the last seven years, she has been my helper, my comfort, and been there whenever I needed a hug or kiss and a I love you mom when I need it the most. I am so proud of her and all that she has done. She loves her new teacher Mrs. Clark and she has made some new friends, she was devasted when we found out her sweet Sydney was not in her class, they have made it they are in soccer together and find each other at recess. I did miss her the first couple of days as did Addison and Tucker, she has come home with stories of all her adventures and they love them.


Preschool
I can't believe that my Addison Jo is old enough to go to preschool. She has been so excited to go to school like K'Lee. She was disappointed that she did not get to ride the school bus. She loves her teacher Mrs. Celeste and Mrs, Annette, she also knows about seven of the kids in the class. She decided that she now want's to be call Addi Jo so we have had some meltdowns when I call her Addison I hear really really loud I am ADDI JO. I have now 2 and half hours twice a week with one kid weird I know but I love the time I get to spend with Tucker. On the first day of preschool I went to pick her up and she was crying and holding her hand wrapped in a paper towel I thought ok what happened, Celeste came over and said that she just barely got stung by a bee with lots of crying and saying that bees were so mean I got her into the van and on our way, I had to run to the bank and sign some papers as I pulled in Addi Jo had calmed down and came into the bank the lady there could tell that she had been crying with the puffy eyes and red nose and said here this should make you feel better with that she received a sticker and a sucker, this made a happy Addi we got into the van and I asked what kind of sticker did she give at that moment she started crying and said Mom she gave me a dumb bee sticker, I hate bees and proceeded to throw the sticker onto the floor and cry. What a great first day.

Life Goals

Ok I have goal amazing I know. But the first was to run a half marathon, this year was the year that I made it happen. I ran a couple of races before that the first was the Freedom run in Hyrum on the 3rd of July, And then on the 24th I did a 5k with K'Lee and then proceeded to run the Park City half on the 21st of August. I figured I would need a reward for that and what better way to do that then to go shopping after right. I made my time in 2 hours and 11 minutes which was a way better time then I set for myself, not going to post that time. I was very excited to say that I did it and I don't hate running and I want to continue with the half marathons and other races and just work in better times for myself. The second goal I did not know I had was climbing Mount Borah which is the tallest peak in Idaho. Boyd ( TJ dad) wanted to do it and it became a family thing, TJ who did not do anything but get of the couch climbed, Jer(TJ brother) and Jen (Jer's wife) and I who have been running and training for half marathons, and Boyd who had been hiking and a little running. Cindy and my sister Jamie came and watched the kids bless them for that. We climbed and made it to the top. I will not be doing that again, I want to say this yes I am glad I did it, No it is not something I want to do again I am ok with small hikes and running but for me the Mount Borah thing and walking over a snow bridge and climbing uphill the whole way and having swollen knees at the end just not my cup of tea.
So I have learned two things about myself.
One I Love to run I love that my mind can shut off and I can just run and enjoy the peaceful feeling and I am a better mother for that. I love the fact that I can watch the sunrise and smell the sweet air of Cub River and enjoy it.
Two. When I put my mind toward something I can do it and I become intense on making it happen. I love the feeling of accomplishment when I finish it.
So goals in my life are good. And I love making those goals happen.