Saturday, July 4, 2009

Happy Independence Day!

I finished my garage!
A month ago I asked Shane if he would help me paint and organize the garage. He went right to work and started painting and hanging shelves. Wow... it was no small undertaking. He must really love me! Thanks so much for helping me, Shane! (Also thanks to our kindly neighbors and friends, Rob & Shawn!) My goal was to finish organizing it by July 4th.. and I finished it last night. Jada kept saying "THANK YOU MOM!" She had a blast riding her bike in circles in there.. ha ha.


Shane and Rob flying their new planes at the park today. Yes.. another plane!

Watching Daddy fly.
We can never get all of us smiling in the same picture.. ha ha


Amazing.. Chloe is only 4 months old and already sitting up and balancing on this log! Okay.. maybe with the help of photo shop! (I edited Shane's hands out)


Family hike... Chloe sure loves her daddy.

Strike a pose.

This is for you Utah folk. We never have to go anywhere for Independence Day because all of our neighbors are pyros! The big fireworks are not illegal for home use here.. and it's cool but at the same time really crazy! Shane and I grew up with the neighbors doing those cheesy fireworks that spin and light up. This is a short clip taken on my front porch. And this clip doesn't even do it justice. The sky is lit up with fireworks everywhere. It's insane.



Thursday, July 2, 2009

Random Pics!



Since I've been such a slacker, I thought I'd put up a few of my favorite pics from the last few months.

Jada and Chloe meeting for the first time.

At the hospital

Chloe's Blessing Dress

Mother's Day

Another Fav Bath Baby Pic



I took these pictures of Jada almost 9 months ago! Where has the time gone?

She's definitely got some natural curl!

The Bell of the Ball. Gotta love the posing. (This was at Elise's Wedding)

Giving me a break. Such a good daddy.

This picture cracks me up.

Sweetest Sisters.

The sweetest Hawaiian princess ever.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Chloe giggling


Chloe and Jada have started to develop a special bond. Chloe really lights up when Jada plays with her. I snuck up on them playing today because the giggling was so cute. I can never get Chloe to giggle this much! I guess I'm just not that funny! But Chloe thinks Jada is hilarious for some reason.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Miss Donna

This is a shout out for my wonderful neighbor, Miss Donna. We've known her for the past 6 1/2 years, she lives right across the street from us. She has been just like a Grandma to Jada and Chloe. After I had Chloe, Miss Donna filled in with preschool for me. Jada and Cami and Jasea went to her day school in the mornings where they learned science, art, pledge of allegience, cooking... so many fun things! Now that school is over, she's looking for work for the summer and already has so many fun activities and projects planned. She does babysitting and will also be doing some really fun summer classes for kids. She is extremely experienced and so loving! We love her dearly. Here's her information:

Experienced teacher offering Babysitting full time, part time, and hourly!

I have 15 years teaching experience Pre-K –thru 2nd grade in a private Christian school as well as a preschool in my home. I also have grandma experience! We always have lots of fun activities including exploration, movement, science, one on one, art and recess. I will have no more than 5 children at a time in my home & current references are available upon request. Please call Donna at 615-302-4021.

Rates

In my home

  • Full time - (7:30 AM – 4:30PM) Monday through Friday. $165.00 a week per child. Includes breakfast, lunch, & two snacks
  • Part Time - (7:30 AM – 4:30PM) $40.00 per full day or $25.00 for half day. Includes breakfast, lunch, & two snacks full day; a meal & a snack half day.
  • Hourly - $7.00 per hour

In your home

  • Hourly (including evening & weekends) – $10.00 per hour for up to 3 children (same family). I offer an introductory hourly rate of $8.00.
  • Weekend getaway - Friday evening (after 5 PM) thru Sunday at noon for 200.00.
Special Summer Classes $60.00 per week
Contact: Miss Donna 302-4021

Ages: 3 years old to 5 years old 6 years old to 8 years old
9:30-11:30 M-F 1:30-3:00 M-F

July 6th-10th-Cooking with kids

July 13th-17th-Down by the sea (water works included)

July 20th-24th-Bullfrogs and Butterflies

July 27th-31st-Let's scrapbook together

Here are some pictures of our class

Fun is a renewable resource!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Yea... yea....

I know. I haven't updated my blog in forever. I have so many cute pictures of the girls to put up.. I've just been lacking in sleep, motivation, energy.. ya know.. it's the new mom thang. Oh well. But despite things just not really getting done and piling up, life is good and we're looking forward to summer! Chloe is amazing. So full of smiles and starting to giggle. I can't believe she's already 3 months old already. She's a sweet heart and Jada just loves her to death. She is the best big sister. We are very surprised that she hasn't seemed the least bit jealous of Chloe. She's so proud of her and proud to be her big sister. It's so sweet. Jada is very expressive, and never shy to voice her feelings, which I think is very helpful because I think sometimes kids act out to get attention. Jada will just say that she needs some attention. And it's great.

When Chloe was newborn I was laying on my bed breastfeeding and I turned on the TV. It happened to be on discovery heath.. one of those "taking home baby" kinds of shows. And I was planning to turn the channel, but Jada said, "wait.. let's watch this." And I said.. "uh... are you sure?" So we watched this little family as they brought home their new baby and how it affected their lives. She noticed Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa.. all doing so much work just to take care of the baby. And in her cute 4 year old voice she said, "Babies take a lot of care." And I said, "Yes, it's a lot of work to take care of a baby." She's so helpful, always asking to help not just in taking care of the baby, but asking to help prepare food and clean.. she is so amazing. I feel so lucky to have two amazingly sweet little girls.

Well, hopefully I'll have some more time to keep this updated this summer. I can't believe that the school year is almost over this week! Jada, Cami, Jasea and I have all been having such a fun year. We've been doing some "informal" preschool things and activities which really has been a blast. I've loved every minute of it! And they all love each other dearly, just like sister.. actually that's usually what they call each other. It's so cute seeing them grow and bond and learn to interact with each other. They've also learned so much... it scares me a little because I just want them to stay little! But they have this love and thirst for learning that makes it so much fun to put together activities for them to do.

I also recently started another blog. Shane has been had major back pain off and on for years. And this last year has been particularly bad. He's been going to a chiropractor about 4 times a week since October and does about 1 hour worth of exercises each day to try to get it better. It's helping, but he's still in a lot of pain every day. His chiropractor says that his muscles are really inflammed for some reason. So he's going on this "anti-inflammatory" diet that Dr. Asa (who is a doctor here in Nashville) developed. It's really interesting. A lot of it is just common sense nutrition, just eating very healthy, and avoiding toxins including pesticides, preservatives.. etc. and sticking to more whole foods. There are some foods that he needs to avoid during the "detox" phase which include cow dairy, grains, beans, and soy. But after he can add them back in.. but still eating whole and natural foods.

So, I decided to create a blog to document this.. for the fun of it.. and also to help us to remember some of the dishes we create. We are all pretty much doing this diet, it's really quite doable. Jada even loves all of the meals that we are eating. So, we're hoping that this will be a step forward in being healthier as a family and also hopefully will help get Shane on track nutritionally to help get his back better.

If you'd like to see what we are eating.. here's the link to the health blog!
http://jessieshealthblog.blogspot.com/

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Why Mormons Build Temples


Our church recently came out with this short video on YouTube. So I thought I'd share it with you all. If any of you reading are not Mormon and curious to know more about temples, I'll do my best to answer your questions.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Chloe bath pics


So I needed some pictures for the girls bathroom... and thought why not just take pictures of the girls. I need to do some of Jada now... maybe some bath robe pics or something. Anyway, I'll give an update soon as I find some time when I don't have to type one handed!