Weston turns six!

So it is never quiet as fun to celebrate your birthday on a school day....at least that is what I thought.  Aubrey informed me that it is totally better.  Spencer and I visited our little birthday boy for lunch.  He got a Happy Meal and it was the envy of all the other first graders.  For only being the fourth day of school...Weston seemed pretty confident and comfortable with his friends.  I loved seeing him play with Spencer at recess and being so respectful of the teachers and staff.  My little guy is growing up.  I almost cried when I left he didn't seem to care much...but then stopped me and ran over and gave me a huge hug and kiss.  Love you Donny D!

Click on the photo and it will become bigger.

We celebrated some more that night at a family home evening with the Watkins'side.  We had WONDERFUL food and Weston had requested a "Sundae Cake" so it was chocolate, with chocolate fudge and whip cream and a cherry on top.  (heath bar for the rest of us.)  He got wii games, a hockey goal and an excessive amount of Beyblades.  In the picture above...we are playing a Beyblade battle...so much fun!  It is some weird chinese thingy or game...reminds me of Bakergons or pokemon or something.  He had a great day and Jake and I fell asleep laughing and remembering some of our favorite moments with this guy.  We love him so much!!!!

Happy 31st Birthday to myself

This blog entry is more for journal purposes...don't feel that you must read it. In the end, I turned 31 this last Sunday...thought I would write some of my feelings about getting old. :)

Getting older...to be honest is just not that big of a deal to me right now. I think some day...like in my 70's when things start aching more it may bother me, but for now it is cool. I am such a "picture" person. When I say that I mean I see myself, my future and my past visually. I really do imagine it and quite vividly at that. When I was young I would picture myself older. Mostly I thought of how my life would be when I was 16...and then didn't picture much past that. Well 16 came and went in all it's glory and I started to picture myself married, with kids, where I would live, what kind of mother I would be etc.

Honestly, most of those pictures have come to pass. I imagined myself always living in Idaho, so the location has changed. With that I don't have the family around that I always imagined spending time with. However, I did imagine living in my home with a wonderful man...that hasn't changed. Jake is all I could have imagined for myself. Some of the things that weren't "just as planned" in my spouse have either gotten better with time or ceased to be important. I have also found inlaws that are far above and beyond what I ever hoped to have. Who really likes their mother law? Well I do!

No one can really imagine children, but mine are wonderful and surpass dreams. Their smiles light up any room.

Then there is me. What did I imagine and visualize for myself...well, Happiness, Peace, Laughter, Being Cute :) In most ways I am happy with who I have become. I like myself and I am finding that isn't always easy for people to do...so I am lucky that way. In the last 2 years I have set a lot of goals about losing weight and other spiritual goals like scripture study and such... I can honestly say that I have learned a lot about myself and I feel that I have made a lot of progress. Setting and achieving goals has become something that I need and crave to stay sane.

This year I am going to try to make Temple attendance more of a priority and keep up the other goals. I also want to focus harder on my most important job...being a mother. I always find this something that needs improvement and that has probably been the hardest thing so far. I never really imagined all the work, pain, heartache and just plain frustration that has come with colic, loss, potty training, fights, discipline, sleep issues, the list goes on. For someone as "yellow" as myself, motherhood was and is a lot more work than I ever dreamed. I do love being a mom. I love these kids so much and find that each one brings so much to our family. I hope by next year I will feel a little better off in the "mom" department. I want to yell less, discipline more...(I don't follow through) and just encourage these precious Spirits to be and achieve all that is possible. I certainly was raised to believe in myself and that has made a huge impact on who I am today as well as my level of happiness.

So there are a few scattered thoughts about turning 31!

It does look old on the cake huh!? LOL My awesome friends Jen and Julie threw me a surprise party. I really was surprised and had a whole lot of fun! Thanks guys.

Surprise Party

Love of my life!!

The night before Jake took me and our friends to Pizza and a movie: Sherlock Holmes. We rarely see movies so it was a special treat.

Playing cards with Tracy and Mark. Fun friends!!! LOTS of personality (inside joke I guess)!!!!

Happy 1st Birthday!

Spencer Jacob....we love you so much.  I can barely even write this blog...because I am getting emotional today.  You have brought so much love and laughter and sweetness into our lives.  You really do light up any room and I love that about you.  Seeing these baby pictures of you brings back lots of memories.  Your colick was bad...and you were so sad.  I am sorry that your life started out hard.  We can tell that you only cry when you are really hurting and so you must have hurt...real bad.  I love your hair...crazy Spencer hair.   You have the best smile, eyes, personality and so much more.  I am so grateful to have you in our family.  More pictures to come of your special day... but for now...just know we love you!!! 

Facts about our boy Spencer:

Just under 25 lbs.  Two bottom teeth...working (we think) on the top 2.) 

Wears size 18month shirts and 12month bottoms. 

He has short chubby feet.  He has bright blue eyes and blonde hair.  Still gets up 1 to 2 times a night. 

Rarely sleeps through the night.  Favorite foods:  green beans, squash, pears, and stuff he can feed himself.  Still drinks bottle. 

Loves to give wet kisses and zurbits. 

Says:  "momma, uh-oh, dadda, ba ba,"

 He can blow kisses, make trills with lips and tounge, he does peek a boo, patty cake, waves, claps.  Spencer walks about 10 to 15 steps and can pull himself up anywhere.  He still prefers crawling and is by far my fastest crawler. 

He loves to make messes and is already learning to throw himself on the floor when he is upset. 

We call him:  Menner, Spenner, Benner, and Spence and Brother and Baby and even Spinner on occasion.  He is seldom called Spencer...weird I know. 

Weston turns 4!

Weston ended up being quite spoiled this birthday. First we had a party with the Watkins side of the family. We swam, had subway and just enjoyed each other over at Aunt Connie's house. The next day we decided to have a "few" friends over that have kids Weston's age. He thought it was sooooo awesome that there were so many people here. He likes a crowd as much as I do I guess. We feel really blessed to have such great friends here in Maricopa. He really was so cute and well behaved. We sure love this guy and all the laughs he has brought into our lives. He has his moments, but we wouldn't trade him for anybody else.

Happy Birthday Jake!

I am just so grateful that you are my husband and the father to our children. You are really funny...always trying to do what is best for our family...and ever patient with me and the kids. Your not perfect...(thank goodness, because perfect people tend to really annoy me), but you are perfect for me! I hope you had a good b-day. I know it wasn't much. However, thanks so much for doing our backyard, I am so excited. Thanks for always putting family first. I am publicly stating that you deserve some time for yourself. Go golfing or something. Jake you are the best! Here are some cute pics of you as a child and when we first got married. I love you!

"Amazing Jakes" Endorsement

So, last night I had the privilege of going to "Amazing Jakes" in Gilbert for the 2nd time. Last time was to celebrate Weston's B-day...and we had so much fun...we decided to celebrate all of the October B-days there with the Watkins' side. Anyway, it really is a great place to take the kiddo's. The food is much better than most buffet/pizza places and the rides are just so much fun. You also get unlimited video arcade games too. (So your husbands don't get bored, I reckon.)
So here are pictures:

Here is Aubrey getting her Barbie and dog that really poops! She is loving it this morning... thanks Mike and Mari.Here is Weston just being cool. Jake is going to be "Billy Mayes" (oxyclean/ orange glow guy from all the infomercials)....for Halloween. So Weston was saying "Billy Mayes here!" All night long. He really is funny.Here the kids are on the "hopper" which they rode at least 20 times. My sister in law Mari is finally pregnant! Yippee! You can't tell here, but she is due in the spring.
Jacob and I. We are riding the choo-choo train.
Weston on the Spinning Tea Cups.Here is Aubrey and Weston... with Aubrey's "Favorite Cousin" Maya. And last but not least. Our whole growing family.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Aubrey Jean is officially 5 years old. She couldn't wait for today to come. We planned a party about a month ago. We would go over which games to play...what to eat..who to invite. Aubrey was very particular on who was invited. (That part was actually annoying.) She wanted only girls and all about the same age and knew each other. I think we ended up with 4 great girls though. Aubrey had a princess theme. She took around an invitation that said " Hear ye..Hear ye... You invited to the Castle of Aubrey Watkins." There was more, but you get the point. Anyway, we made a scroll and she dressed up like a princess and hand delivered them. Fun! So today went well. The girls really had a great time. We read stories, painted nails, played games, made necklaces, decorated cupcakes and just had girl time. The worst part (I hate to admit) was having Weston around. He just didn't know where he fit in. At first he just annoyed the girls by burping and hitting them with balloons. By the end he was wearing a tiara and fitting in!

Her friends are great!
Decorating Cupcakes.
So a little bit about Aubrey: She is my sweetie. She really has always been so good. She was colicky as a baby, but more because she just wanted to be held all the time. When she was 1 years old, she wouldn't leave my side. She has always been slow to warm up to people, but loves those who she loves. Aubrey is as smart as a tack. She read all of her birthday cards today. It was so cute. She is excelling is school. In fact, she just recently received the "Respect Award" which was only given to 2 students per class. Aubrey loves to play with Weston. She sometimes can be whiney, but overall she usually acts older than she is. She is my helper and I love to talk to her before she goes to bed. I am usually told that I am her favorite, followed by dad. (only because I have soft skin...or it would be a tie.) Lately, however, she is missing her Grandma Sue and she is the 1 Favorite.

I love you Aubrey and am so glad you are in our family. Here are some cute pics of the last wonderful 5 years.

By the way...our old computor died and I don't have any digital pics of Aubrey much before she turned two. Sad, but here are some past b-days and more.

4th of July...summer before Weston was born. I love this pictures.

First time she had bangs. I don't know why I keep doing it...then growing them out again.

2 year old party. Finding Nemo theme. 3 years old. The Wonder Pets!4 years old. Care Bears! Here is the picture of her last week receiving her "Respect Award," at school.

Happy Birthday Boy!

Weston David we love you!

You have always been so cute! Here you are at a week old. You were a big baby. 9lbs 4 ounces. In the beginning we had no idea you had such a fun personality (you were colicky.) But around 6 months we started to see the Weston we know and adore today.

One week.

One month.

Here you are at 6 months.
One year old.
Two years old. And now 3 years old.