Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Staying Positive

I started this post long ago and never finished it but  I wanted to post these pictures because I love them. It's also a good thing to remember the positive.


There are so many wonderful things going on in my life right now but I am having a hard time remembering that.
Lately it has seemed like the days are starting out bad and getting worse. I can't quite get the day started like I want and it just snow balls from there. I have been unable to look past the small, difficult things to see the beautiful and blessed life that I have. So I am writing this post to help me remember how good my life really is. Even on one of those days.

I have a fantastic husband. I am so blessed to have him

Rori is such a sweet girl and I love her fun personality. She makes me laugh every single day.



    Ridge is my snuggle but. If I am ever in a sad mood and just need a hug, he is the man for the job. I can't get enough of his snuggles.
                                                                         

Dyson is my biggest helper. If I need something done he can and will do it for me. I he so kind and loves to be my second set of hands. He is such a help with his younger siblings. I don't know what I'd do without his help.


Islay is a little ball of sunshine and gives the sweetest kisses. I love everything about her and she always brightens my day.

I am so thankful for all of my kids. I know I would miss them if they were gone, even their messes.
Posted by Amanda at 12:26 PM 2 comments

Playing Catch Up

I have a few minutes and I thought I would spend some time updating my blog. To say that lots has happened since my last post would be an understatement and I'm not sure I could do justice to all of our adventures. I have pictures scattered around my computer, phone, and camera and I'm not sure I could organize them into a timeline with out considerable time. So I'll do the best I can with the limited time that I have.

February: We started the month with Jason's birthday. We didn't do much but we did have a few friends over for cake and ice cream.
February was a big month for us in deciding where to go for residency. I spent the first half of the month stressing over the order for our list and the second half stressing over when we would end up. We submitted our list around the middle of the month (it's been so long I don't remember specifics) and then we had to wait until the middle of March to find out. We had our list all figured out but at the last minute made some changes and I was really nervous to see how that would affect where we would go.
I also started to pack and de-junk in preparation for our move. We weren't sure where we were moving to but we knew in just a few months we would no longer be living in NJ ( such a relief. I'm not a big fan of the Garden State)

March: March came and with it came nicer weather which was awesome. I am used to having snow and cold weather until the April and even May so to have no more snow in March was perfect.
March brought lots of activity in our house. Jason and I had our 9th Anniversary on the 14th and we went out for a nice dinner without kids (always nice.) We had a visitor, Nick, come stay with us until we left. It was nice to have some extra muscle to help load the truck (thanks Nick), I spent the whole month packing and we found out where we would be going.
Jason and I sat waiting patiently (ok, really I was waiting impatiently. I know I wasn't fooling anybody. haha) clicking "refresh" over and over again on his email until it came in. We opened the email and it said University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas TX!! We were kind of surprised since we thought we had a good chance of going to Arizona or California. We also changed TX to our #3 choice at the last minute. A life changing decision I am sure. We were so excited and happy to have a destination to plan for.
A couple days before we moved Jason's mom came to stay and help pack up. We were able to get all the  boxes packed and loaded into the truck the day before members of the ward came to help load all the big stuff.
It was not hard to say goodbye to NJ but it was really sad to say goodbye to all the friends we'd made while we were there. I had a wonderful goodbye/birthday dinner with friends from the ward where I had my first taste of Indian food. Yum.
But it was probably hardest to say goodbye to Jacqueline. We'd become fast friends and it was great to have her close. I miss being near her and was super excited to have her visit, more on that later.

April: So we packed up our truck and mini van and headed out. We drove to Pittsburgh PA where we stayed with a high school friend of mine. It happened to be conference weekend so we missed seeing her husband but it was fun to see her and catch up. We were so grateful to them for opening their home to us. The next day we made our way to Indiana where we me up with family. We enjoyed conference and a yummy dinner with extended family that we don't get to see very often. It was wonderful. The kids had a fun time playing with cousins and being out of the car. We all got showered and went to bed exhausted. The next day Jason and I took the truck full of stuff and headed to TX where we would stay with his aunt for a few days while we moved our stuff from truck to storage unit and then look for houses, and Jason's mom picked up his dad from the airport and took the kids back to UT in the mini van. It was a crazy trip and I was glad to have it over with when we finally flew to UT to be with the kids.




Posted by Amanda at 12:18 PM 0 comments

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Four Letter "S" Word


Anybody who knows me knows how much I loathe snow. I grew up in UT so you'd think I would be used to it. And I was used to it while I was growing up but that still didn't stop me from pining away for spring as soon as the first flakes fell.
When we moved to Grenada in the winter of '07 I was so excited to to miss out on winter and it turned out to be one of the best winters ever. We celebrated not a white christmas, but a white sand christmas. We made sand angels and even a sandmad. It was wonderful.
Then we moved to NJ! And we had an uncharacteristically snowy winter. Everybody told me winter would be mild in NJ and I was looking forward to it, but we ended up have a blizzard and 5 snow days from school. It was not mild!
Even with all the snow last year we never went out and played in it other than the day after Christmas blizzard. (the kids and Jason went out and shoveled snow, and I stayed in the house with my new baby)
This year has been wonderful. We have only had 2 snow storms. One was the weekend of Halloween, it was really bad, and then the one we had last week. I was actually hoping to go a whole year without snow :)
Anyway, since the kids love playing in the snow and I hadn't been out it in for several years I decided to Carpe Diem and get bundled up and go out in the snow! And here are the pictures to prove it.

Me, shoveling the walk with Miss Islay.

Rori wanted to help shovel too :)

Ridge was in heaven in the snow. Whose kid is he anyway?
Ice and daddy! One of my favorite pictures.
This is our landlord George playing with the kids. Rori wanted him to dump snow on her head!
She wanted me dump snow on her head too. Ironically, she loved it and wanted me to do it again and again. Silly girl.



Dyson with a snow face :) He had so much fun until his pants got so heavy with snow that they were falling off! I had a pair of snow pants for everyone except him. Instead he was wearing a pair of warm up pants under his jeans. It didn't help much but it was the best we could do on short notice :)
Ridge's snow face!
Islay had such a good time in the snow in spite of the fact that it was hard for her to maneuver through. Between the snow pants, coat, and gloves and that the snow went half way up her legs she struggled, but she was such a trooper.

I LOVE this picture of Islay. Her eyes are so beautiful. Love her!
Dyson, adjusting his gloves. Don't ya just love his "snow pants" ?
Islay spent a lot of time on her bum unless she was walking on the shoveled sidewalk. But she never cried. (Really, whose children are these?)
Oh yeah, they are his. Jason loves the snow, especially when he can go skiing. My kids must get their love of the snow from him.
We had a fun day in the snow. And there are pictures to prove that I was out there with them. Everybody was worn out and hungry by the time we were done. I'm really glad that I decided to go out and play with the kids. It was so much fun and now I'm good for several more years.
It would be OK with me if we didn't get anymore snow.
I'm just sayin.
Posted by Amanda at 9:23 AM 3 comments

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Merry Maids

Who needs Merry Maids when I have Rori? She is the best little helper. My last post mentioned how Rori followed me around all day doing the chores with me and she did it again today. She has been such a big helper. She helped me sweep the kitchen floor, pick up the bathroom, wash the bathroom sick, scrub the toilet (her favorite part) clean and vacuum the hall and stairs. We are now taking a well deserved break from chores to enjoy some fruit snacks and she wants to watch a movie. I, of course, still have much "mommy work" to do but her help in the bathroom and kitchen were wonderful. Now I just need to get Islay to help.
Miss Islay is such a cutie pie but she is not as helpful as Rori. During the bathroom cleaning she kept trying to play in the toilet (with the cleaner in it) and kept pulling stuff out of the garbage. Not cool. It came as a relief that it was nap time. Although Islay can be hard to keep out of trouble, she is absolutely wonderful. She has such a sweet personality and is super funny. She likes to mimic me but only sounds not words. She will copy all the sounds I make as long as they are nothing like a word. That child WILL NOT learn new words. haha. She can say, No, Mom, Dad, Nana, Papa, Boo and Wow. She loves, loves, loves to play Peek a Boo. She covers her own eyes with her hads (which mostly end up on her nose) and then pulls them off and says "Boooo!" She played the other day for 20 min straight. It was cute, but it did get old after a while. :)
I love having my girls home with me all day. They make my day so much more fun. Chores are WAY more fun with these two adorable people by my side.

Posted by Amanda at 2:47 PM 1 comments

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Pajama Day

Today was one of those days where I stay in my pajamas all day because I spent the day cleaning and really didn't want to clean in nice clothes. The sad part is that both Rori and Islay stayed in their pajamas too! What kind of mother am I? Oh, yeah, the awesome kind :) Rori loved staying in pjs and followed me around the house helping me with chores and telling me we were twins in our pajamas. Every couple hours she would twirl around and say "Look at my beautiful pajamas mom. They are SO pretty!"
If anybody had come to my house (and a UPS man did) I would have been quite the site. Hair in a ponytail from yesterday, grubby pajamas, no make up and soapy hands. But we had a wonderful day in our stay at home glory. Islay took a 5 hour nap (because she hasn't slept at all the last 2 nights) and so my day was spent working side by side with my darling 3 yr old.

Rori has been such a big helper lately. She loves to do what ever I am doing. Cooking, cleaning, folding laundry, even going to the bathroom :) If I am doing something or going to do something Rori runs in front of me to get there first so she doesn't miss a min of the action. I realized today that she has been doing this for a while but when there are other kids around it seems to cause chaos and I miss it. Since today it was just me and her I was able to enjoy and cherish her sweet help. She helped me put away laundry (the chore I HATE the most), do dishes, clean the bathroom and even helped make dinner.
I love to see her domestic side come out and I hope that I can do a good job in teaching her the art of creating a home. I struggle in this area more than most, I think, and I truly desire to help her so she won't.
There seems to be less pressure in raising boys when it comes to cooking and cleaning. I certainly don't want to raise men who are slobs and I hope they are a help to their wives in keeping the house clean. I also want them to help cook meals since Jason and I enjoy cooking together. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I do feel like women have a special touch in the home and it is their primary responsibility to make and keep it a comfortable place for people and the spirit. I take the charge of raising Little Miss to be a good wife, mother, and homemaker very seriously and today was a good day with a step in the right direction.
I love being the mother to this wonderful spirit. She is so full of life and energy, she keeps me on my toes. She is beautiful inside and out. She has a stubborn streak which I pray will be an asset to her as she grows. When I think about her she makes my heart glow with pride and love.

Today was a good day full of love, laughter and hard work. Done all in our PAJAMAS!








These pictures aren't from today, with us in our pjs but they are beautiful snapshots of my Little Miss. You can see a bit of her personality in them. I Love this girl!
Posted by Amanda at 8:13 PM 3 comments

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Oooh and Aaahh




I started this blog to keep my family updated on our lives while we were away on our "adventure" in Grenada. I soon met other people with blogs and we all started following and commenting on each others posts. It didn't take long for me to start posting, not for my family, but for the comments.
It's kinda weird but I got some validation from having my friends comment on posts that contained events and pictures of things that, more often than not, included them in it. Weird, I know.
After a while the comments started slowing down and so did my posting. Then I stopped all together. I didn't think it was a big deal and I figured nobody missed my ramblings but truth be told... I miss it.
So I'm back! And although I would LOVE some ooohhing and aaahhhing (hint, hint) I'm going to try posting more often for my benefit.

Life has a way of not stopping when you want it to and slowing down when you want it to pass quickly. I find myself in a perpetual state of motion that I cannot control. In the end I'm glad that it has passed at a constant speed or else I could find myself off track. I would like to stay 25 forever but that would mean I would never see the end of a 5 year goal to complete medical school. I don't want my kids to grow up but if Dyson had never aged I wouldn't have had my other 3 beautiful children. I am grateful for the passing of time and for my memories to remember the good things that have already passed.

Over the past few weeks Jason and I have been finalizing our ranking list for residency programs and it has not been easy. We find ourselves have the same conversations over and over again. Sometimes they end the same way they did 6 times before, other times the outcome is different. There has been much thought and prayer put into it. It's exhausting. This journey has been unlike anything else we have been through. I'm grateful for it, but grateful it's almost over.

Dyson has his own room now. For the first time EVER he is on his own. He is such a good kid and has earned it. Jason and I told Dyson for a long time that being the oldest meant that you had lots of responsibility but also lost of extra fun things too. One day he told me that he didn't see what was so great about being the oldest and I agreed with him. We had been telling him it was SO great to be big but we really didn't let him do anything special. He still had to share all his toys and his room, had to go to bed at the same time but had to do extra chores and take care of the younger kids. I could see that this was not fair. So Jason and I talked about it and decided to get a mattress for a full size bed that we had and give Big D his own space. He has to take care of it himself and he gets to stay up and extra hour as long as he spends it reading in his bed. (I wasn't ready to give up my peace and quiet at 7)
Sometimes it seems impossible that he is old enough to have his own room but he acts so much older than he really is that sometimes I feel like he should be old enough to babysit for me :)

Most of the thoughts today are random and so are the pictures but I have so many pictures from the last 7 months and I want to get them on the blog.
Posted by Amanda at 4:47 PM 8 comments
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