Texas Vacation!

Okay, so I'm a little late on updating the blog, but I've been busy making a baby and taking naps!  I forgot to post Easter pictures (maybe because I only took like 3), so here's a little Easter recap... We did an Easter egg hunt at grandma/grandpa Jorgensen's house and at G/G Powell's house, but I didn't get pics at the Powell egg hunt because I was hunting for my own eggs ;-)

Every year, our Easter Bunny hides the kids' baskets. This year he/she decided to make an obstacle course to help them find the baskets.  There was one string attached to each of the boys' baskets and wound all through the house to their bedrooms. (Please excuse our lovely jammies and bedhead, this video was taken first thing in the morning!)

Now, on to Texas... Adam served his mission in the San Antonio area, and we've been wanting to make a trip out there since we got married. Finally we decided to just do it because it only gets harder to plan with more kids! We left on my birthday (4/19) and spent a week there. It was lots of fun, but by the end we had learned that a week is a little too long to have little kids sharing a hotel room with us and missing naps and driving all over!

I'll spare you the day to day details of what we did and just say we had a ton of fun and got to do lots of things. It was nice to just hang out as a family and not be working around other people's schedules and needs while we enjoyed our time together!

Leaving the SLC airport!

waiting... 

The boys LOVED the airplane and were much better behaved than I could have ever hoped!

The first day there we went to Sea World.

Watching the dolphins show off for food!

inside the 4D Sesame Street movie

Griffin and I got lucky and sat in seats that the water sprayers weren't working real well, so we only felt a tiny mist once or twice- Adam and Deegan got nice and wet :-)

Shamu waving to the crowd. It's super cool what they can train those whales to do! We ended up getting rained out after a couple hours there (right as we were getting ready to ride the rides), so we took the boys to the gift shop and let them pick a souvenir to make them feel better about leaving. They both got stuffed whales and still sleep with them every night!

The Alamo

Walking the River Walk

Waiting outside Lulu's Bakery for a Chicken Fried Steak lunch and a 3 1/2 Lb Cinnamon Roll!

We took the cinnamon roll back to the hotel for later and only took a tiny corner out of it before we were done!

Our hotel was right by Krispy Kreme, and Adam and the boys had never had their "Hot" donuts, so we went and watched them make them and had a late night snack. Deegan wore that hat almost everywhere we went!

The 6 flags over Texas at the capital building

Peace Officer's Memorial

Walking up to the University of Texas Stadium

Mini Golf at the Peter Pan golf course

We also did a little site seeing of Adam's old mission areas and I decided it would be okay to move there if the opportunity ever presented itself! Maybe it's my lack of things to do or see in Logan and places to shop, but there were SO many places to go and things to do, and the scenery was beautiful. I want so badly to have big giant plants in my front yard with leaves as big as my kids! Oh well, for now, Logan will do- I kinda like our neighborhood!

It's a...

We had our ultrasound today, and saw my sweet baby BOY :-) I LOVE getting to see him in 3D! It's amazing how quickly technology changes... With Deegan we didn't even have 3D, then with Griffin it was in Yellow/Orange and made him look a little creepy, but this one almost looks just like a real photo! I can't wait now to see him for real!!

Now, for the answer to the 2 questions EVERYONE wants to ask after finding out I'm having a boy (and a THIRD one at that):

1. "Do you have a name?" -Not yet.... we've used up all our other names on first and middles for the other 2 boys :-)

2. "Oh, it's a boy.... Are you doing okay?"- Absolutely! (why is it that everyone assumes you always want a girl? I get it after having 2 boys, but on your first baby even?)

When I had my ultrasound with Deegan, I knew he was a boy, (and we had hoped to have a boy first anyway!) and after confirming it, I said "Well, I'd much rather raise a family of all boys than all girls if we end up with only one gender!" (no offense to those of you with all girls, but there's no way I could handle the drama of more than 1 maybe 2 girls!) From that time forward, I've kind of felt like we may just be having a family of boys, and I love it! (When I was younger, we had some family friends that had 5 boys, and the mom was my idol- she was the coolest mom ever and I wanted to be just like her!) Yes, I love little girl things, I love to make flowers and baby doll clothes and dresses, but little girls grow out of that really quick, and really, when will I have time for all that!?! Even more so, I love that I can send my kids outside and they LOVE to just be there, running, getting dirty and enjoying their trucks! I do think every daddy should have a little princess, but we're not done having babies yet (unless the Lord has other plans!), so there's still a possibility and if not, we'll get some great daughter-in-laws one day. Either way, I'm excited to raise these cute little boys!

And since blog posts are so much better with pictures, here are a few of the crazy little boys that I love!

Shooting Bow and Arrows:

Deegan "Puss" in Boots!

"I'm pretending to be Grandpa Powell, mom!" (Grandpa Powell loves to read)

Bob the Builder Brothers

Griffin's new favorite toy- his Thomas backpack!

Weirdo: a person who is extraordinarily strange or eccentric

 

Recently I had a realization about my little family up here in Providence. After talking with a couple girls about their "weird" sister, I got in the car with my sister, Keli.  We were driving away and I just jokingly mentioned "I'm glad they have a "weird one" of the family too!"  Then I thought to myself for a minute... I had always assumed it was one of my brothers (sorry boys!) simply because I'M not weird, and my sister and I are best friends, so SHE can't be the weird one either.  My brothers and I aren't as close as my sister and I, so I don't know everything about them, which makes them the perfect candidate for being the weird one- but I had never actually thought "So and so is the weird one of us".  After trying to decide which one it was, it hit me... I'M THE WEIRD ONE! I said it just like that to my sister, as though it hit me like a ton of bricks!  Of course, we all have our quirks, and quite honestly I'm okay with being weird. Plus, maybe someone else sees our family "placement" (Drama Queen, Weird One, Comic Relief, Foody, Fitness Buff, Health Nut, the one everyone just likes,... etc.) differently (maybe I'm still the dumb blonde, or the one everybody likes??)

( I decided to find a family pic of the 4 of us, and when I found this one, it occurred to me that maybe my mom knew all along that I was the weird one too, so I got  had to wear a different color?! Whatever the case, I'm still the cutest! :-)

Anyway, now that I've realized that I'm the weird one, I thought I'd share some of my weirdness for all of you to see!  I'm sure you've all heard of Dave Ramsey, if not, he teaches people how to get out of debt. That's almost all I know about him because I've never actually read any of his stuff, but a lot of the blogs I've read are big fans of his, so I get a little here and there about him.  His famous saying is
This is the first weird thing I learned from Adam after we were married. If you ask my family, they might blame my weirdness on Adam, simply because I wasn't this weird before we were married. I think I'd have learned these things either way, so I only partly credit Adam for making me who I am :-)  When we got married, Adam and I joked that he brought the money to the marriage and I brought the means to spend it (He had a savings account and I had good credit)... And spend it I did! BUT, I quickly learned that credit cards and loans aren't very fun when you have to pay them back and can't afford to very easily.  So, we have made a LOT of changes since our first year of marriage and have gotten rid of all our credit cards, school loans and soon our car loan! We will be buying a new minivan soon, and plan to have it completely paid off in about a year or less. My ultimate goal is to have our house paid off too and have NO debt, but for now, I'll  be happy to only have a mortgage.

As part of the debt-free lifestyle we are trying to live, we are also learning to be more self sufficient.  This one came after moving to Providence.  I had never really lived where people kept farm animals in their backyards (at least not that I was aware of), so even moving to Utah the first time was WEIRD to me. Goats next to your house in a tiny little backyard? Chickens? What kind of weird people live in this state?!?! :-) 
 Well, as you may have seen on our old Blog, it wasn't long after we moved here that we had our neighbor's chickens walking our front porch and hanging out in our windows and deer living in the back yard. I have slowly grown comfortable with the idea of eating fresh chicken eggs (although I haven't tried them yet- I'm willing), growing a garden and even raising a few animals of our own.  We are planning on building a chicken coop soon (if not really soon, then at least by next spring), and may get a goat or 2 to help keep down the weeds on the back half of our lot.  Again, our ultimate goal is bigger, but we'll start with where we are. We'd like to move to a bigger house that sits on a few acres so that we can raise a couple cows, chickens, and whatever else we feel inclined to at that point.  We're slowly learning how to garden, although, not nearly as well as I would like.  We bought a half of a cow last fall, and we get a lot of comments about how weird or unnecessary it is, but we like it.

 I LOVE not having to stop in the meat department when I'm grocery shopping, and buy sub-par meat that I know is below my standards (we are also stocked up on Chicken).  I also love knowing that I have food. Lots of it.

The last weird thing (well, I know there are plenty more, but the last noteworthy one) is that I'm considering homeschooling my kids. I'm still on the fence, so don't try and tell me it's a bad idea and that I'm going to screw up my kids. After working in the public education system, and working toward an elementary education degree, I've almost seen enough to deter me. In my opinion, it's a little like working at a fast food place... it kind of turns you off when you see the WHOLE picture, rather than just the final product. I'm still deciding if I'll give the public school system the benefit of the doubt first or not, but the more I research homeschooling, the more inclined I am to just go with it!  We'll see, but for now, I'll just accept that I'm weird and go with it!

Five

This year has started out in a whirlwind, and doesn't seem to be slowing down! The first part of January we found THIS out!

 We will soon be 5! Of course we more or less knew it anyway since my body was apparently made to be pregnant when ever I say it's okay :-) We are super excited to add another little monster (or maybe princess, but not getting our hopes up!) to our day to day chaos! Deegan has been so excited as well, and prays every night saying "thankful that there's a baby in my mom's tummy". I managed to stay morning-sickness-free until 7 weeks and then it hit me hard! This time around it's mostly Afternoon/Evening sickness though, so poor Adam never gets to see me feeling good during the week while he's at work. He's been SUPER helpful with the kids and the house when he gets home from work and I really appreciate it.

Adam was finally able to take his Journey Man's test and is now DONE with schooling! I'm super excited and so proud of him for finishing up school and doing so well. He is constantly getting compliments from co-workers and his bosses on how well he does his work, and how hard he works. I couldn't ask for a better example of work ethic for my kids!  (I don't have any current pics of him working on my computer, so here's a picture of him relaxing after work :-)

I spent all of January making plans for a fundraiser boutique for the Kailing family in our ward. Brother Kailing was diagnosed with Carcinoma 2 years ago, and has been fighting hard for his life ever since. Last fall it was determined that the Carcinoma could not be stopped and he only had 6-12 months to live. While he has made great progress with the recent treatments, the prognosis is still essentially the same, and he's living week to week. He and his family are a very strong example of faith and love for the Gospel. While they have their down days, they are usually out celebrating the lives they have and serving those around them in need of love. The fundraiser was a much bigger success than I ever imagined and we were able to raise over $3000 for them!

On the 14th of February, Valentine's day, my boss from Call Assistants called and asked if I'd be willing to come back to work part time like I had been before (After "quitting" I told him I'd work from home part-time on an "as needed" basis, and the work load died off around the end of October, so I didn't work through Nov., Dec., and Jan.- good timing to not work and just focus on the crazy life!) I have to admit, I have secretly missed working with them and doing the work I did. It was fun, and it was nice to have something to change up the monotony of being home all day. So, I agreed, on the condition that I set my own hours, I only work a maximum of 3 hours/day and I work strictly from home. It feels good to be able to make those kinds of demands because you know they need you more than you need them! Of course, they accepted my terms and wanted to me start work immediately! I had a conference call that day, then told them I wasn't working the rest of the day. It was Valentine's Day! You can't call me on a holiday and just expect me to start working that day! That was okay with them, and I started the next day. So, now I am a part-time working mom again, but I enjoy it, and I don't miss out on much because 3 hours/day can be done while kids nap or play alone for a little bit!

March should be relatively uneventful (besides the masses of birthday parties for all of our siblings and their kids), but April will be good! We just booked flights and hotels for Adam, myself and the boys to go to Texas for a week for my birthday! Adam served his LDS mission in the San Antonio and Austin areas of Texas about 8 years ago, and we've wanted to go back ever since. We're super excited to finally have the time to do it!

Last but not least, here are a few random pictures of what we've been doing during the days.

December happenings

December was relatively uneventful until Christmas.  We did get a night of gingerbread house making and The Grinch in, and also got to go see lights and have dinner with our friends the Matthews up in Preston, ID one night (forgot to take the camera, but the display was awesome!)

 (RANDOM: Deeg decided one day to line up all of his cars on the back of the couch! I thought it was kind of funny, and he was pretty picky about who touched them and which ones you could move for the whole day.)

Christmas Eve was spent at mom & dad Jorgensen's house with all my siblings, their kids, my aunt Stacy and Grandma and Grandpa Jorgensen. We began the night by feeding the kids pizza and playing pin the nose on the snowman and a little Christmas cupcake walk. After they were all in their Christmas jammies, we looked up Santa on the Norad tracker to see where he was at, then we let them watch a little Christmas special movie on Netflix while the adults ate good food upstairs. After the movie was over, the kids all cuddled up in bed while Grandpa read them a bedtime story.  Once the kids were in bed, we migrated to the basement to enjoy a night full of exciting games. We had our gift exchange and I ended up with the coveted gift of one of Grandpa Jorgensen's handmade burl bowls (I'll write a separate post on Grandpa's work!)  After the gift trade, we played a super fun game called "Akward Family Moments". It was especially fun because my grandparents and aunt Stacy were there to add variety to the mix!  We played most of the night, then cleaned up and got things ready for Christmas morning.

I found this T-shirt for Brett and knew he had to have it! (he works for the sewage plant, so he is usually at the forefront of any "poop" jokes in the house!)

Christmas morning was utter chaos, but so fun! 10 kids and 10 adults all opening presents at the same time gets a little wild! Everyone was so happy, especially Griff... he has been on cloud 9 non-stop since Sunday morning, laughing at just about everything and carrying a huge grin! Christmas is so much more magical when you have little kids that get so excited!

 

Griffin trying out Cullen's new bike and squishing Afton.

After finishing up at the Jorgensen house we ventured a mile down the road to Mom and Dad Powell's house.  We had a nice breakfast, opened more presents and opened all the toys to play for a while.  The boys' "Big" Chistmas gift was too big to take to Jorgensen's after storing it at Powell's house, so we waited for that one until we went there.

I don't know a lot about Christmas day from about 11:00 on because I had some aweful stomach bug and decided to more or less sleep with no interruption from then until about 7 that night.  The sleep was just what I needed and I felt much better on Monday morning, and was able to get up and play with the boys and Adam. 

Today (Tuesday) is Deegan's birthday! We celebrated with a few more presents to open this morning before heading out to breakfast at Angie's.  The waitress was really sweet and got the staff to come sing to Deeg and brought out a HUGE cinnamon roll for us to share.  After Breakfast, we spent the morning searching every store imaginable for a cowboy hat and stick horse... to no avail! How can it be so hard to find those? (we found hats, but they were $40 or more, and for a 4 year old, that seems a bit steep!)  Adam brought balloons home for Deeg just before Grandma and Grandpa Powell came up for a lunch at McDonald's play place and spent a few hours at the house playing. We finished off the day with a nap (Deeg fell asleep on the way home from running a couple errands) and are now watching The Lion King (new birthday present) before bed. It's been a GREAT few days, but I'm anxious to get life back to normal!

We wrapped Deegan's presents in our new phone boxes... he was so excited to open the first present and think he was getting a phone (major let down when you realize the new phone box is holding just Batman underwear, but he liked them anyway.) !!!

Birthday Bath :-)

 Deegan got color tablets in his stocking for Christmas and he asked for an orange bath today!