My Kids are the Best!

Jaeda:


I wake up to her snuggling with me every morning (she usually wakes up before me, so she comes into my room, climbs onto my bed and holds me). She recently started jumping at me - throwing her arms around my neck with a big smile saying, "I wuv you!!" She busts out with the most awesome dance moves at the most random times. She has a scary voice that she uses to sing sometimes. She speaks a little spanish out of the blue (thanks Dora). She says please, thank you, excuse me, and bless you at appropriate times.... she is just AWESOME...and she makes me so happy.


Cael:

Everytime I say hi to him he replies with a big smile and sometimes a loud gasp (his laugh). It is so exciting to watch as he develops new skills. Last week he went from all fours to sitting position all by himself for the first time.....shortly after he started army crawling...and yesterday he crawled!! He goes down for naps easily, which I am so grateful for, and he cries when I leave the room (which could be a bad thing someday - but I take it as "I love and miss my mommy"). I can't wait to see what new stuff he picks up next!



While being a young mommy has been quite stressful at times, I wouldn't trade it for anything! Jaeda and Cael make me so happy - I don't know what I would do without them!

The Holidays in a Nutshell (a really big nutshell)

This year's Christmas celebrations were both exciting and exhausting for us. There was a lot of travelling back and forth, and there was a lot of fussiness going on between our two children who did not make their bedtimes AT ALL during the holidays. Anywho -

As it turns out, both Ryan's family and my family have their big Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve. So far, we have just tried doing both parties in one night, but I'm thinking that next year we are going to start alternating.

Ryan's family get's together at Grandma and Grandpa Birch's house where we all enjoy a tasty ham dinner with homemade honey mustard sauce (my favorite!!), caesar salad, rolls, and whatever other tasty treats others decide to bring (we made Magic Jell-O Parfait). My favorite part of the night was watching Jaeda tackle Jacob - and if Jacob stood up, Jaeda was yell, "No! Lie down!!" ....Then she would tackle him again.

Towards the end of the night, we opened presents and got some pretty sweet stuff. I have a terrible memory, so it's very possible that I left something out:

Laura made is a way sweet alphabet book - Jaeda loves it! Grandma and Grandpa got us a book by Neil A. Maxwell that I am looking forward to reading. They also got us a set of DVD resources referring to the Doctine and Covenants and church history - I'm very excited to look into it. Julie and Aaron made us a delicious plate of goodies - not pictured.....because we ate them (hmm....it's not letting me upload the picture....).

After presents, we left to make it to my family's house. We got there just in time for Christmas carols. Now, usually the tradition is to stay up til midnight, then open presents. Unfortunately, there are too many grandkids with bed times and too few rooms at Grandma and Grandpa's house. My parents were kind enough to push the time to ..... 8:30 or 9 so we could all get home sooner.

April and Andy got us a cute little fondue kit. I am so looking forward to using it! They also got Jaeda a princess puzzle and got us 2 tickets to a hockey game plus babysitting. I wanna say they got something for Cael too....but I just can't remember (I'm bad....I know). Diana got me a pair of socks and got Jaeda a Minnie Mouse doll, Minnie Mouse bini, and a matching Minnie and Mickey toy with their own cars. Cael got some toy blocks and balls from both great grandmas. Both the kids got some fun books....aaaaand.... someone (I think mom and dad) got Jaeda a Dora and Boots bath toy. Mom and Dad also got us a gift card for HuHot (for which I am super excited for). Many lollipops were given and I don't remember who they were from, haha.

After presents, we had the almond/rice pudding!!! We had rice pudding with strawberry (usually raspberry...but this year was different) topping. The tradition is to stick one peeled almond into the rice pudding, and whoever finds the almond in their pudding gets a prize and one year of good luck! I SOOOO wanted it this year, but Chase found it. He won a cool fondue kit (so it's good I didn't win....cuz I already got one of those for christmas!). After rice pudding, everyone busted out the desserts they brought - of course, we were all too full after eating rice pudding, so the desserts pretty much went untouched, haha. ....We went home.

We woke up the next day and were too excited to wait for Jaeda to wake up - so we woke her up. She was really tired - as soon as it lets me post pictures again, I'll get the pictures up. We opened presents and Jaeda had a blast! We got her a puzzle that she plays with daily, slippers that she hates, a few dresses, some pajama sets, some white board markers, and an easel!!! She opened it and thought it was a TV, haha. But we showed her how it worked and she loves it! I love watching her draw. We got Cael some toys to chew on - I don't even know what t hey're called, haha. Ryan got me a sexy pair of black boots, some bath towels, and Avater in blu ray with the extended version and lots of special features. I got Ryan pajama pants, a Zags sweatshirt and an old Navy sweater - I also got him The Dark Knight in blu ray and a PS3 game.... Dragonage Origins or something like that.

We then made breakfast - French toast, sausage, and eggs with orange juice.

We watched a movie, then headed over to my families to say marry christmas - then went to the Birch's and opened presents there. Jaeda got a cool microphone toy that broke before she finished opening it....then it broke again after she opened it by dropping it and stepping on it!! She still uses it daily, though - so it was an awesome gift! She also got a cool sleeping bag. She was zipped up in it and then exclaimed "I'm stuck!" She loved it. She also got a rubiks cube from uncle Nathan. Cael got a toy train (that Jaeda likes to take over ...because she loves trains).... and we got a lamp to take camping with us. Matt and Rachel got us another book by Neil A. Maxwell that I'm looking forward to reading...along with a gift card to ...... I forget what its called.... the shooting range by SCC... which is way cool because we found out that on Friday's rentals are free and if we share a lane we only have to pay for one of us. We're excited about it. We had treats and played Who What Where (a super fun game).

This is so long ..... I'm just trying to finish it up

On New Year's Eve we went to Birch's house where we played games (mostly just Redneck Game of Life....or whatever it's called). At midnight we drank (sparkling cider) and kissed (tee hee.... I should specify that we just kissed our significant others, haha) then packed up the kids and left!

OKAY!! Sorry this is to much to read - I hope everyone had happy holidays and I wish you all a happy new year!

Shopping - Oy!

So, I had my christmas shopping done about a month ago... but I went to the store with my sisters just to "hang out" and ended up spending way too much money :-( It went a lot like.. "Oh Ryan will love that..... oh that is a great stocking stuffer...OOOH - nailpolish, Jaeda is gonna go crazy!" Yah - so, I'm grounding myself from shopping until the holidays are over. I did find one cute dress for Jaeda - we didn't have anything white or black or cream colored or purple she could wear for Matt and Rachel's wedding, and after a few hours of looking I FINALLY found a dress that wasn't pink or christmas-y!! I'm so excited, I can't remember the last time I bought Jaeda a pretty dress... ... and after picking out the dress, I (of course) HAD to buy a matching bow. I almost bought shoes, but Ryan texted me telling me not to (smart man). I don't usually like shopping so much - I think my sisters just have a bad influence on me :-b

More random news - Ryan took the kids for 4-ish hours, and I got so much cleaning done! Our hallway was filled with hand-me-down boy clothes from my sister-in-law who dropped them off and I had no where to put them. Yesterday, I rearranged the kids room and made everything fit! Also, I put together all of the stuff my kids don't use anymore and it is all waiting to go to good will. I also scrubbed our dining table chairs (because Jaeda had coated each one with jelly, peanut butter, etc...)! My next task is to arrange to borrow a truck so we can haul our old couch (which has been sitting outside on our balcony for the last 2 months) to the dump, and return my grandma's recliner. I can't wait til the apartment is all back in order - even if it only lasts until Jaeda wakes up the next morning :-)

Oh, and good news - I found my camera!!!! So here are the most recent pictures of my kids :-) (I have to post these pictures, just in case our hard drive decides to lose all of our pictures again - now the only past pictures I have of Jaeda are ones I've posted on previous blogs or on facebook)

I just LOVE my little family :-)

What the heck?

I feel pretty safe saying this on here - because I'm pretty sure Ryan doesn't know where my blog is (not that I haven't told him about it - blogging just isn't his thing). Ryan's birthday is this coming Monday and I bought him an 11x17 inch picture of the Helsinki, Finland Temple. Little did I know that it is IMPOSSIBLE to find a nice 11x17 inch frame! I found one that is a cheap black metal poster frame with no glass. I can't bring myself to buy it because it is super ugly and doesn't go with the picture. The only thing I can think of to do is to go to the Great Frame Up and buy a custom made from - I've never been there before, but it can't be cheap, right? Now I sort of wish I looked into this a little more beforehand - and purchased a picture that's frame could be purchased at Fred Meyer!! Also, I should have taken care of this more than just a few days from his birthday, haha- OH WELL

Can You Believe It?

Wow! I am actually blogging within a year of my last blog :-b

I can't sleep, and it is at times like this where I can come up with the most random things to talk about!

Grandma:

My Grandma Maria has come to visit! I love i when she visits - I just think she is so exciting and interesting! Just the first day she got here she was telling us about all the things she remembered about Pearl Harbor. I had no idea that she lived in Hawaii when it happened (and near Pearl Harbor is what she said). I wanna say she was about 9 years old - she was just playing with the other kids in the neighborhood before church when, all of a sudden, they saw these puffs of clouds in the sky. Next thing she new, these vans/trucks came and these guys started grabbing all of the kids and shoving them into these vehicles. She said they took them to the schools they went to. After a few days, one of the kids realized that their parents weren't with them - then all of them started freaking out because they thought they were in prison or something! Finally, after 3 days - her family picked her up. She said that they made everyone carry gas masks around, and the kids had to get their food rations because the parents were too busy working. What an experience! I can't imagine living there at that time. I just love the stories she has to tell us about her past!

Sacrament Meeting:

Jaeda and I went to church without dad and Cael this last Sunday. I don't think I ever want to do it again! It is clear to me now that Jaeda has entered the terrible two's stage of life. She was throwing hymn books, trying to run away, slapping me in the face, yelling "OW MOMMY!" repeatedly - even though I wasn't touching her, and yelling out "NO, I'm NOT being naughty!" My ward probably thinks I beat her now - so embarassing! It probably doesn't help that she didn't get her nap before church - 9am meetings will be way better come January.

Cael:

He isn't crawling just yet, but he's scooting backwards. Today, he got stuck underneath the TV stand, underneath his vibrating chair, in-between the vibrating chair and the exersaucer, and underneath the Christmas tree! He was able to roll around all over the place before, but now - it's just more exciting! I love looking at him and saying "Are you stuck?" Then he gives this HUGE cheeky smile - ah, being a mother is so awesome (even if you have the occasional evil 2 year old). I would take pictures, but I left our camera at the in-laws house on Thanksgiving :-(

Girls Night:

I need a girls night - the only problem is, Ryan would never take the kids somewhere to leave me the apartment to host a girls night, I am too shy to invite all the people I'd want to and would probably just end up inviting Diana (haha), and I can never think of anything to do if I invited someone over - feel free to leave suggestions :-) I get breaks every few weeks - but I mostly just end up walking around the mall, target, or walmart window shopping. It gets old....

My kids...

So, yah - I think it's obvious how bad I am at sticking with a blog. Oh well!

Quick Update:

I have a new kid - Cael Alexander Birch, born June 17th.

Don't let the picture fool you - he doesn't have that much hair ... anymore, haha.

Jaeda has come a long way. I can't believe how well she talks, how many songs she can sing, how active she is, and so on and so forth. She is AMAZING! Yesterday, she recited the first article of faith without any help from me or Ryan....and she's 2!! I must be doing something right with that kid....

School has been pretty stressful this quarter. Well, Biology has been stressful, anyway. I can't complain too much about online PE and intercultural communications. Biology, on the other hand, has been my number one worry! I think I'm going to end up with a C, when I'm competing against those with a 3.8 gpa. Oy!! Hopefully I will do better next quarter with Chemistry.

There is definitely more that has gone on in my family, but these are the basics, haha. I wonder when my next blog will be.....

I have a blog?

So, Aunt Larene totally reminded me last night that I have a blog....OOPS!

The update:

I'm pregnant and due ANY DAY NOW. We're going to name him Cael Alexander Birch...unless... the ultrasound was extremely fuzzy and we end up having a girl!

I quit my job at Albertson's! So now I'm a stay at home mommy who goes to school full-time.

Jaeda has grown up so much! Her favorite movie's are Hairspray, The Lion King, Cars, and Over the Hedge. Mostly she likes Hairspray - she loves trying to imitate the dance movies (I love that part, too). We also started potty training her, and it's actually going really well. Not perfect, but I wasn't expecting perfection from an 18-month old.

Ryan is pretty much the same. He did get a new bike and his been riding it a lot. Consequently, he is getting into pretty good shape.

Hmm....yah, that's everything in a nut shell - not let's see if I can get another post within the next year!