I have GOT to stop doing this...

Yes! Here I go again, with a huge post! I need to stop waiting so long in between posts, because then I have a million pictures and it takes me SOO long to do it...and then I procrastinate. Well, at least I can be proud of myself for one thing...it has been less than a month since my last post. Well, it has been a busy couple of weeks. Here ya go! Enjoy!

Here is a picture of Jamie, on Lauren's birthday, demonstrating some of the trouble he likes to get into! He thinks it is hillarious to turn the lights on and off. Can we call it the "terrible two's" even though he doesn't turn 2 for another month!?
Here is my little girl on the morning of her birthday, before her pictures. I just can't believe my little girl is 5 and will be starting Kindergarten this summer! Don't grow up too much faster baby girl!

Here are the Kiddie Kandids pictures, taken on her actual birthday:

I love going there and they always seem to do a good job for us. Lauren is such a poser and loved getting all the attention!

Cheese!

I loved the little froggy (notice their hands posed alike!)

Miss Lauren SuzAnne!

Later on that night, Lauren had her big friend party at Chuck E. Cheese. Everyone who was invited (minus one) came, so we had a brood of 13! Call me crazy! But it was fun! Here is my niece Isabella with Jamie:

Here are two of Lauren's buddies from her old daycare, Alexandra and Matt's cousin Chris' daughter Brooklyn:

I loved this shot! This is Lauren and one of our old neighbor's Lexee. Lexee's mom Mindee used to watch Lauren from age 18 months to 2 1/2 years. It is crazy to see them hanging out and all growed up!

Here is Jamie with Sammy (from Cheryl's daycare) and our old next door neighbor Stevie:

A bunch of the kids gathered around to meet and greet Chuck E.

Lauren had a blast! Matt kept telling me "whatever the stress, whatever the cost, it was worth it, Lauren is having so much fun". I certainly hope her first friend party is one that she will always remember!

The pizza was yummy! Alexandra and Matt's cousin Sherrell's daughter Olivia:

Jamie was not scared at all to meet Chuck!

My Sister-In-Law Alex is gonna kill me, but this shot made me laugh. It looks like Chuck is checking out her 8 month pregnant belly...but really my niece Isabella is behind her and he was trying to get her to come shake his hand!

Matt's cousin Nichole's son, Evan wanted Matt to take a picture of his cool stickers:

Even the adults had fun (I hope!)..here is Matt's sister Kristen, and Matt's cousin Sherell's husband Neil (I think he is imitating his daughter, Olivia's sketch):

Lauren had a birthday dance with Chuck:

Here is the party clan (from l to r) Alexandra, Olivia, Lauren, Brooklyn, (way in the back) Ellie, Sammy and Jaycee:

I don't think her grin could get any bigger! Presents, cake, friends, and games! What could be better?

Okay...a few days later, on Saturday, we met Matt's brother Greg and his wife Alex and my niece Bella for lunch and play at South Towne mall. Jamie wouldn't ride a horse, so we sat on a bench:

Lauren loved it, of course:

Bella and Alex had fun too!

We went to this playground inside the mall and let the kids run around a bit. Check out Lauren in mid-jump!

Jamie was not so thrilled when another kid jumped on the gator that he was on. I see this face a lot, but it is usually over something that Lauren has that he wants!

Bella was doing this really cute tickle thing:

Lauren is such a cheeser, and I love that little princess to pieces:

Jamie loved playing peek-a-boo through the Dinosaur bones:

We completed Lauren's birthday week by having the family come over for cake and ice-cream on Sunday, this was so the grandparents didn't have to hang out with Chuck! Here is Lauren's Strawberry Shortcake cake:

Here is Lauren with my clan...my mom, my sister Ashley and her boyfriend Victor, my sister Sarah, my dad..and a usual picture-hating Jamie:

Lauren and my darling niece Isabella: Cute cousins!

Jamie loves cake! Still weird to me that he feeds himself so well with utencils! My son is not a baby, he is a little boy now!

Okay, so these got out of order, here is Lauren blowing out her candles (and Jamie and me observing):

A side shot of the cake:

Lauren and me...

Lauren and her daddy....

Lauren and her grandparents, Leo and Tina:

Lauren and her Aunt Kristen and Uncle David:

Lauren and her Uncle Greg and Aunt Alex and cousin Bella:

A week later, my friend Teri, from High School had a baby shower. Matt was helping my sister Ashley move...so I had to take the kids. I don't think Jamie had ever seen a cat before and he loved my friend Kelly's three cats..poor kitties, they are probably still recovering!

Here are my BF's from back in high school.."the high school six of 96" I call us.

Julie, Allison, Kelly, Teri, Me and Heather:

Here is Teri and her cute mom, Carol:

Jamie, Me, Teri and Lauren. I am so excited for Teri to have her baby, which they are affectionately calling "Terk" right now...(her hubby's name is Mark)... But after seeing how crazy my monkeys were..I wonder if she thinks she can handle it: (ps...man I am short!)

Lauren trying to act cool in front of all of the big girls:

Saturday was also Matt's mom's birthday. A bunch of the family met at her grave to give her a little party, which I know she would have loved. Here are the flowers we gave, her favorite color was yellow:

Lauren was thrilled to see her friend Brooklyn (Matt's cousin's daughter):

We let a bunch of balloons go for her:

Here is Suzanne's sisters Janet and Cheryl and their mom Arlene (Grandma Great as the kids calls her):

Her grave was surrounded by a lot of beautiful flowers. I love how the West Jordan Cemetary allows headstones, it is very meaningful to us:

We miss you Shu-Shu! It is so crazy to think that Jamie is almost a physical representation of how long Suzie has been gone, since she died a month after he was born. She has been gone for 22 months now, now my baby isn't a baby anymore....butI can still hear Suzie's voice as if she was only here yesterday....

Here are a couple of shots of us just chillin' at home. I have been working split shifts since December, but as of April 1, I will go back to being nights. I will miss the time that I have been able to spend with the kids, but it will be great to start sleeping again. Here are some shots of our lazy afternoons.....here is our dog Pepper...turning 14 years old this year!

My best little buddy...Lars:

Look at these big brown eyes...how can you say no to them? Gee..when I go back to nights, I will just have to make the most of our time together....what a cute boy! I love him so!

I am already working on my next post, some have asked for some pics of the new house now that we live in it....so that is up next! I will TRY to not wait 3 weeks. Hopefully this post was worth the wait!

Bad Blogger

Okay! I AM a "Bad Blogger"! I know I promised to post more...and it has been over a month since my last post. I feel like I am so busy now, and barely have time to sit down. I guess that is a good thing. I am not one for routines...but I have found myself in one....let me break it down for you.
5:15 AM Get up, get ready
5:40 AM Leave for work
5:45 AM-9:00 AM WORK
9:05 AM Get home, feed kids breakfast, do 1 house chore, lay clothes out for next day
10:00-11:00 AM Work out downstairs, while kids ride bikes around me
11:00 AM-12:30 PM Take a shower, bathe and get the kids ready
12:30 PM-1:30 PM Cook lunch, eat lunch, clean up lunch
1:30PM-2:00 PM Clean up any mess the kids made while I was busy with lunch prep
2:00 PM...put Sponge Bob on for Lauren, put Jamie in crib for nap
2:00PM-4:00 PM Watch a bit of TV, NAP!
4:00PM-4:20 PM Freshen up, pack dinner for work
4:25 PM-Kiss Matt as he arrives from work, and I am in my car heading BACK to work
4:30PM-10:30 PM WORK AGAIN!
10:30 PM-11:00 PM Change into PJs, clean up any messes kids made while I was at work
11:00 PM-12:00 AM Watch a bit of TV with Matt
12:00 AM Go to sleep....

What a day, eh? Kind of exhausting! But worth it to our kids, we think! I am quite proud of myself for working out everyday....and now being so active and having the time to eat lunch, I have lost almost 7 pounds. I am not trying to diet, just to make healthy choices...and hope to lose weight that way. I think it helps to be on the GO..so much. I now hardley have any time to make jewelry, talk on the phone, watch TV, or get on the computer to BLOG. Sorry! From now on I won't make any empty promises.

Today was my day off...so I had time to try to fill you in on a few events over the past month:

My mom is gracious enough to babysit for us quite often, so that Matt and I can get SOME alone time. The weekend of her birthday, she took Lauren over-night. When we met up for her birthday dinner...we arrived to see Lauren's hair styled by my sister Sarah:
(Lauren is such a poser...where did she get THAT from??)
Sarah and Lauren...do they look alike?

Jamie was happy to see his sister. They are the cutest kids, EVER! (at least I think so!)

I happen to think that I have the greatest mom in the entire world....she is sweet, un-selfish, practical and hard working...I am lucky to have her as a mother and as a best friend:

Here is the entire clan (minus my brother and his wife...they live in New Mexico)...even my niece, Alysia came:

On January 17th, we were invited to my friend, Carissa's son's birthday party at the Kangaroo Zoo (yes, Christy I found it!). Here is the birthday boy; Mason:

Jamie was shy at first, but then he loved it! Afterall, it combines two of his favorite things: wrestling and falling!

Jamie and Mason

Jamie on a slide:

Lauren, of course, had a blast...who doesn't love jumpy-houses??

AND Jumpy-slides...CRASH!

AND Dinosaur noses....(don't you just love him when he smiles? I sure do!)

We also ventured out to the Utah Auto Expo (AKA Matt heaven)....Matt took a kajillion pictures, and would have taken more if my battery hadn't died. I had to include one shot of the car he thought was the coolest, the Mustang:

Personally, I was the most excited to see Nascar Driver Denny Hamblin's #11 Fed Ex Car. Oh yeah, we are huge Nascar fans!

Okay...jump ahead one month. I literally took NO pictures for a month. Maybe my camera needed a rest from the Auto Expo. ANYWAY...I broke it out again for Valentines Day. I had a great family oriented Valentines Day. First we took the kids to eat with us, lunch at Red Lobster. Here is cheeser Lauren:

As a Valentines treat, the kids were actually uncharacteristically well-behaved during lunch. Jamie, obviously enjoyed himself:

Matt has been spending a lot of time getting our old house ready to sell. I hadn't been there for a while to see his hard work. So, after our Valentines lunch, he took us there. I had to post all of the pictures because I am so amazed that he can do all of this work himself....

Here is a shot of the tile he is putting down in the dining room and kitchen, and some of his tools:

I had to take a picture of our empty kitchen. It was so weird going back:

Our closet, Matt installed the closet system. It made our closet so much more organized:

Our bedroom. He has ripped up the carpet all over the entire house:

The hallway:

The guest bathroom, oh and Jamie's head:

Lauren's purple bedroom, he painted this room right before Jamie was born:

Our backyard. It is strange...our old house, although only 10 minutes away, is at a much higher elevation, so there is always SOOO much more snow at the old house than at the new house. At this time there was NONE at the new house...and about 5 inches at the old house....hmmmm:

The fridge used to be here...now it houses the painting supplies:

The kids enjoy checking out the house too:

Matt framed the basement all by himself:

Matt's two old cars are occupying our garage. Here is his El Camino, and his Camaro:

Here is the old place....I miss the cute little shack:

Okay, these next shots got out of order somehow...so bear with me.

The lake behind our house recently became inhabited by two ducks. The kids and I could not be happier. Here is a shot of them in the lake:

You can see the lake is coming along nicely..another shot of the ducks:

Okay, back to Valentines day...here are the flowers that Matt got me...it was a very nice suprise...they were very beautiful. He also got Lauren a stuffed animal, and Jamie a toy car. What a sweet Daddy! This is how we ended our Valentines Day, grocery shopping. Good times!

Well...that about sums it up. Oh, I forgot to mention that I started managing a new team at work as of February 1. My team calls people in problem mortgage states and offers them lower payments and lower interest rates. I have had to learn a lot and it has been sorta stressful, but every day gets a little better. Nothing else too exciting. I will try to post more often, but no guarantee's folks!!! Lauren's birthday is next week...so I will do my darndest to share that as soon as I can. I still can't believe my little girl will be 5!!!