What the kids have been up to lately

Maylee's favorite thing is to unravel the toilet paper and play in the toilet water, for a while keeping the toilet lid closed was enough to keep her out, now she can open the lid and splash around on her own (it's pretty disgusting) With the weather being so perfect lately the kids are spending a lot more time outdoors. I pretty much just keep the back door open for them to run in and out and they head straight for our little play slide. We can't keep Maylee in the house if the door is opened Maylee's hair is finally getting long enough on top to be able to wear just a clip instead of a headband We still try and go to the Museum once a week. Dutch has a blast and Maylee is finally starting to enjoy herself there a little bit more Playing together Dutch found his Dad's hat and loves to wear it And the most recent toy, a power wheel Jeep. David got it from his sisters house, it doesn't work but that doesn't stop the kids from loving it. David put it in our living room yesterday and it kept them entertained for hours. Dutch keep shouting from it, "See ya later', "See ya soon', "Bye-Bye', "Love ya', "Hi', "Mom see car', "Mom sit', "Dad sit", over and over again. He is so excited about it, he cried when he had to go to bed and he couldn't bring it with him. And after playing in it so much and waving bye to us, Maylee is finally waving Bye-bye over and over again, it's adorable

Short Lived

We got rid of Chloe today. It just wasn't working out for our family. So I wanted to get rid of her while she was still a cute little puppy and we could find her a good home where she could be loved. The problem was just the fact that she is a puppy. I have realized that I don't enjoy puppy stage as much as I thought I would. She was just so rambunctious. She liked to use the kids as a chew toy and was constantly knocking them over or biting them and they were always in tears. The kids are just too little to be able to have such a rambunctious puppy. And not to mention the whole potty training thing. She was actually getting a lot better, however even though she was going potty in the backyard Dutch was constantly stepping in it and tracking it in the house. And I just could not handle that. I like things clean and everything was just feeling dirty. So having Chloe for a little while was definitely a good thing because it showed me what I like. I like having a dog, I like that Dutch loves the dog and enjoys playing with a dog, however the next dog we get, I want it to be a few years old, out of puppy stage, one that I know is potty trained and good with little kids. I think she went to a pretty good home too. A grandma and her granddaughter came to pick her up. She is going to be the little girls dog, the little girl is about 10 so the prefect age for a rambunctious puppy. I keep thinking about her, I hope that she is being loved and taken care of but it is so nice to be able to set Maylee on the living room floor and walk out of the room without having to worry about Chloe attacking.

I finally did it

Before After I finally cut my hair off and I love it, I am so glad that I finally got the courage to do it. I know it seems like I posted a ton of photos, but I posted more than normal for Jadie since you don't get to see me in person for a while. I have been playing with the idea of cutting my hair for about six months now, David has heard me talking about it constantly, going back and fourth. Well about a week and a half ago I decided I wanted to do it. So Friday I called the girl who cuts my hair and she was able to get me in yesterday, so there was no turning back. And she was just excited as me to cut it all off. I walked in, told her what I want, so she grab it in a ponytail and cut it off. It was so crazy. I have never had long hair before to cut off so it was so much fun to have such a big change. Anyways I am so glad that I did it. I told David that I had to go and pick up a surprise. I didn't want him to know I was cutting it because I wanted to see his true reaction, instead of him just saying he liked it because he knew I was coming home with it short. Well he was definitely surprised and he loves it. He is so glad that I fianlly cut it off. So here is the new me.

Park

I have started taking the kids to the park a couple of times of the week to get out of the house and to be outside to play. Dutch and the little girl Abby that I baby sit just love it. I always take lunch with us because the kids think that it is just wonderful to eat lunch at the park and have a picnic. The first day that I took them to the park Dutch was going down the slide but he would only go down if I held his hand. Finally I was getting tired of having to hold his hand so I made him go all by himself and now he loves it. He goes down the biggest slide over and over again all by himself. It is just wonderful. So a week ago Saturday David and I took the kids to the park for a picnic because I wanted David to be able to watch Dutch go down the slide by himself. We had a great time at the park as a family. They have three slides right in a row so we would all get on a slide (Maylee on either mine and Davids lap) and race down. Dutch thought that was the coolest thing ever. And of course because David was there and always thinks of things that I don't think of he put Maylee on Dutch's lap and let them go down the slide together. They both thought that was a blast. Don't worry though it was the super slow slide and I was right there with them. Dutch and I racing...

Nevada

David has been accepted into medical school in Henderson Nevada. We couldn't be more excited. He had his interview there on Tuesday and Thursday night he got an email telling him that he has been accepted. It is amazing at what a huge burden has been lifted off of our shoulders. I didn't realize how much it was weighing me down waiting for him to get into school until he was accepted and now I just feel so much relief. It is the best feeling to know that we are going to be able to start the next phase of our life. As of right now Nevada is the only school that we have heard back from and are accepted into, so as of right now we will be moving to Nevada this July and then David will be starting school on August 3rd. It's actually very exciting that we are going to Nevada because it will only be a 5 hour car ride away. Which means we will actually be able to see family more often than once or twice a year. Regardless of where we would be moving I am just thrilled to be accepted. I'm so proud of David for getting into Medical School, he has worked really hard for this and has wanted it for so long, it's so fun to see that he is going to be able to fulfill his dream and become a doctor.

Bad Knee

On Monday I went out to my parents house to visit and hang out because David was out of town. I first drove over to my brothers house because my parents were across the street working on one of my Dad's remodels. When I pulled up my Mom just happened to be outside talking on the phone. Dutch got really excited when he saw her and kept saying, "Mimi, Mimi". So I got Dutch out of the car and he ran over to my mom and then she came over to talk to me while I got Maylee and Chloe out of the car. I got Maylee out of her car seat and I was trying to get Chloe out but she kept backing away, so I finally pulled the car seat out and then reached in to grab Chloe. When I reached in to grab Chloe my left knee cap popped out of place and according to my mom, I let out a blood curdling scream. I threw Chloe out of the car and turned and sat down on the back sit and I was still screaming and I was screaming "my knee". Once I was able to sit down my mom saw my knee and she went kind of hysterical and started screaming on the top of her lungs "Alex get out here". Then the next thing I knew, my brother Seth was sitting in front of me with one hand on my knee. He was able to help me straighten my leg and pop my knee back into place. It felt like it took about an hour but it probably only lasted about 2 or 3 minutes. What happened is when I pivoted to get the dog out of the ca, my knee cap slid over onto the side of my leg, it use to happen to me when I was in high school but I was always able to pop it back into place by myself, it hurt but I could do it. But yesterday when it happened my leg was completely bent so it was just stuck there I couldn't push it back over, until Seth helped me to straighten my leg. It was so horrible. And you know how about a thousand things are running through your head in situations like that, my only thought was "what is this going to do to my exercising". I was pretty devastated and I little in shock. It took me a while to calm down. As soon as we got my knee cap back in place everyone but me took off to find Chloe. Apparently between mine and my moms screaming it scared her to death and she took off. Luckily Seth and Dad were able to find her. Once I was finally able to calm down and walk into the house, I laid on Seth and Tara's couch with some frozen peas on my knee for awhile. It still hurts pretty badly and I have no idea what we are going to do for it. David and I are on a such waiting game with insurance. When I was in High School and this happened the doctor I saw suggested that I have surgery however my dad wasn't big on that idea, so we took the physical therapy route. While I was doing physical therapy they told me that I need to really strengthen my leg muscles to hold my knee cap in place. Well my legs are the strongest they have ever been and I have been working out more than I ever have before and my knee cap still popped out of place, so I am starting to think that surgery might be my only option now. I'm just really hoping that if I rest it for about a week, that it will feel better and I can start working out again. I will just wear my knee brace and hope for the best but I just can't go longer than that with out getting my daily fix of exercising. But regardless I know I need to take care of my knee first that way I won't mess it up for the rest of my life, that would really suck. Dutch was pretty concerned throughout the whole thing. He never cried but my mom said he just stood there staring at me and wringing his hands. Then he just wanted to sit on my lap afterwards and make sure that I was ok. He was very sweet after we got my knee back in place. I really hope that it will start to feel better soon. Right now I am absolutely paranoid that it is going to pop out again, so I am very protective, I won't let my kids or David near my knee and I keep a brace on at all times. When I don't have a brace on my knee cap feels really wobbly. Although I know that I should probably just sit down and let it heal, but if you know me sitting down and doing nothing isn't something that really appeals to me. So this is might feel like a long week for me. But I know that it'll all work out some how.

There are things that just melt my heart... like watching my husband play with our kids... And then there are things that just make me laugh... like my husband hanging my baby on our wall...

Resolutions

This year David and I sat down together on Jan. 1st and made New Year Resolutions for our family. We made family goals and personal goals. And for our personal goals we each wrote down one goal that we are going to work on and without showing it to each other we sealed it in an envelope to read on Dec. 31st 2009. We didn't share one goal that way before we read it at the end of this year we can guess what it was and see if we have improved ourselves enough for it to be recognized. I'm really excited about this. Our personal goals are like this:

David:

1. will exercise 3 times a week

2. will not eat at fast food or convience stores unless he is with me (now he said he can eat at them with me because it is next to never that we eat at fast food places together)

Me:

1. read scriptures every day

2. play outside with the kids for at least one hour every day

Dutch:

1. Potty train

2. stop yelling "NO"

3. learn to swim with floatees

Maylee:

1. Walk

2. learn to sleep through the night

Chloe:

1. learn to catch a ball and frisbee and to return it

2. potty train

Family Goals:

1. Have family home evening every week

2. Arrive to church 5 minutes early every Sunday

Now let me share how they are going so far. Church started at 8:30 for us last year, we hardly ever made it on time. So this year since it starts at 10:30, two hours later we figured we should be able to not only arrive on time but at least 5 minutes early to get the kids settled and ready for Sacrament. So Sunday morning Maylee, David and I are all up at about 6:30 (that's just when Maylee wakes up every day). So I'm thinking great we are definitely going to be able to make it to church. So I start getting ready at about 7, so by about 8:30 or so Maylee and I are pretty much completely ready for church. By ten everyone is pretty much ready. As we are gathering up all of our church bags, snacks, and toys, David walks into Dutch's bedroom for something and then walks back out to the kitchen. When he steps on the tile his shoe slips a little and he looks down to see what made him slip. Well he step in dog poop. But he didn't step in it in the kitchen. Oh no that would have been to easy, instead he stepped in it in Dutch's bedroom and then walked down the hallway to the kitchen when he finallly realized he had tracked dog poop down the hall. GrOsS! That happened about 2 minutes before we were suppose to walk out the door. So we didn't make it to church 5 minutes early or even right on time, instead we were about 10 minutes late. Oh well, I guess we will try again next week. But the story gets better. So we get home from church take Chloe out of her kennel and right outside to go potty. About 15-20 minutes after we get home from church David walks into the kitchen and his foot slips. Yep you guessed it, he step in dog poop again, in Dutch's bedroom and tracked it down the hall. So by the time I was done cleaning up poop all down my hall for the second time in about 3 hours I was ready to either get rid of the dog or David or both.

After that experience we have set some new rules in our house concerning the dog. She is only allow in the kitchen and living room when she is in the house. That way I will still be able to have a dog free zone in my house. Training her to stay in those areas isn't as bad as I thought it would be but she still doesn't have it down but we will get there one day. As for the potty training, I realized that when she first comes out of her kennel for the day she has to be taken outside about every 15 minutes for about the first two hours to prevent any accidents. She hasn't pooped in the house since the last time on Sunday. So we are getting somewhere. Let me just say that having a dog isn't all it's cracked up to be. Because even though she hasn't pooped in the house since then, Dutch has still managed to step in it three times this week in the backyard. So gross! I hate cleaning up dog poo.

Chloe

Over the past two weeks David and I have been dog sitting our friends dog. She is such a great dog and it has been so much fun for Dutch to have a dog, he just loves her. And lately I have been going back and fourth on wanting a dog. Well having Spaz has really been a great eye opener for me. Despite her being an excellent dog, I've decided that at this time in my life I don't want the responsibility of picking up poop and cleaning up hair. So it has actually been the best thing for me, watching this dog, that way I wouldn't have to get a dog of my own to figure this out. But still I have really enjoy having the dog around. I love throwing ball with her and just the added companion. Well on Tuesday my friend Stacy and I went visiting teaching and I was telling her that as good as a dog as Spaz is, I really just don't think that I want one right now. Well fast forward about 5 hours. David comes home from work and tells me that we are getting a puppy, "WHAT?" A guy that David works with has a friend who is trying to get rid of some puppies that he has for free. Apparently something happened to the mother and he needed to get rid of the puppies quick. So I tell David that we really don't need a dog and the added expense. David says lets just go look and her and then make the decision. So we get to the house of where the puppy is and basically the David has already told the guy yes, so he just brings the puppy to our car and says I hope she works out for you. So we took the dog. She is a chocolate lab mixed with a border collie. Anyways the next morning after having listened to her cry all night long and cleaning up after her messes in the house, I told David he needs to get rid of her before I get attached because I just don't want her. So then David goes to work and Dutch wakes up and he is in love with this puppy. They are so adorable together. So I start rethinking things. Then yesterday David watched the kids for me while I took a much needed nap after the New Year party. When I wake up from the nap David informs me that we are not getting rid of Chloe, he says her and Dutch were just destined to be together. Which by that point I was totally fine with because I was starting to feel the same way. So the newest member of our family is Chloe. And she is just darling. I am already attached and we have only had her since Tuesday. She is six weeks old and cute as can be. I really think that she is going to blend into our family really well. So needless to say I guess that having Spaz really showed me the things about a dog that I will be the least excited for and at the same time has shown me that I can really love having a dog around.